Märchen im DaF-Unterricht : Die didaktische Umsetzung von Märchen in der Praxis

Die vorliegende Magisterarbeit ist die direkte Fortsetzung der Studie Die didaktische Umsetzung von Märchen – eine Literaturstudie. Hierbei handelt es sich in beiden Fällen an im Rahmen des Ämneslärarprogrammes an Högskolan Dalarna verfasste Examensarbeiten. Diese hier präsentierte Studie untersucht inwieweit die innerhalb der Forschung gepriesenen Märchentexte tatsächlich von Lehrkräften an den schwedischen Schulen und im Bereich des DaFUnterrichtes didaktisch umgesetzt werden. Mit Hilfe einer Unterrichtseinheit mit dem Thema „Märchen“ auf dem Gymnasium sowie einer unter Lehrkräften durchgeführten Umfrage betreffend deren Verwendung von Märchen im DaF-Unterricht konnte konstatiert werden, dass die im Literaturkanon stiefmütterlich behandelten Märchen mit Hilfe der meisten der befragten Pädagogen einen Weg in die Klassenzimmer gefunden haben. Die am Unterricht teilgenommenen Lernenden konnten gleichzeitig bestätigen, dass eine solche didaktische Umsetzung nicht nur Freude bereiten, sondern ebenfalls die Lernbereitschaft steigern und damit auch das Wissen erweitern kann.

The use of the pronouns we, us, and our in political speeches : A comparative study of the inaugural addresses of Bush and Obama

Pronouns carry considerable importance in language. The speaker’s identity and connection to the audience emerges through the consistent use of certain pronouns (De Fina, 1995). This research is about the use of we, us, and our in political discourse. Specifically, their use will be examined in the inaugural addresses of George W. Bush in 2005 and Barack Obama in 2009. The aim of this research is to examine the frequencies and the co-occurrences of these pronouns and then compare their use in these two speeches. More specifically, how do the pronouns examined affect the message and enhance hearer credibility. This is done by applying (a) a quantitative corpus linguistics analysis and (b) qualitative analysis of the context of use. The results show that there is a difference in frequency of pronoun use; however, the usage of pronouns is rather similar in the two speeches

L’image comme outil didactique dans l’enseignement du français dans des collèges et des lycées en Suède

Le travail actuel a été rédigé dans le but d’éclaircir en quoi consiste le rôle de l’image comme outil didactique aux cours de français aux collèges et aux lycées suédois. Nous avons abordé notre thème sous des perspectives différentes : d’un côté, nous avons analysé les images dans deux livres, puisque les manuels font souvent partie de chaque leçon de français ; de l’autre côté, nous avons fait un questionnaire que nous avons distribué aux professeurs à travers les médias sociaux et par email. Nous avons également étudié les données récoltées aux cours des entretiens avec trois professeurs de français au lycée suédois, pour savoir comment les professeurs intègrent des images dans la pratique. Selon les résultats de notre étude, il nous a été possible d’affirmer que l’image est un outil qui n’est pas omniprésent, mais qui est parfois utilisé afin de rendre les leçons plus variées. La photographie est le type d’image le plus répandu dans la pratique des professeurs et dans les manuels ; le format numérique est le plus fréquent en tenant en compte de la révolution technologique et de l’habitude des jeunes à travailler avec les ordinateurs. Cependant, l’image n’est pas un outil indépendant. Elle est très souvent complétée par d’autres outils didactiques et sert principalement à accompagner la lecture, à développer l’expression orale et le vocabulaire et aussi à illustrer des phénomènes culturels. En conclusion, il ressort de notre mémoire, qu’il est important que le professeur accompagne le travail avec des images avec des instructions et des commentaires, afin de rendre l’apprentissage plus efficace.

Inkluderande exkludering? : En studie om arbetet i förberedelseklass

Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka hur lärare beskriver och uppfattar sitt arbete i två olika förberedelseklasser, en med en hög andel flerspråkiga elever och en med få flerspråkiga elever. I studien jämförs och analyseras lärarnas beskrivningar av arbetssätt, förberedelseklassens organisation och elevernas skolframgång. För att uppnå syftet har en kvalitativ studie genomförts där fyra lärare har intervjuats. Resultaten som framkom visar att arbetssätten i de båda förberedelseklasserna är snarlika. Samtliga lärare betonar vikten av att utforma arbetet utifrån varje individ och utgå ifrån elevens tidigare kunskaper. I resultatet visade sig den stora skillnaden mellan skolorna vara tillgången på modersmålslärarna och studiehandledarna. Vidare är föreberedelseklasserna organiserade på olika sätt och gruppuppdelningarna ser även olika ut. Resultatet uppvisar att utslussningen från förberedelseklasserna i båda fallen sker efter ungefär ett och ett halvt år. Informanterna berättar om vikten av kartläggning och samarbete med ämnes- och klasslärare. När det gäller elevernas skolframgång visar det sig i denna undersökning att samtliga lärare menar att det är ytterst individuellt hur eleverna klarar sig efter sin tid i förberedelseklassen. Informanterna pekar på att det är olika faktorerar som påverkar elevernas skolframgångar. Vidare pekar resultatet på att i början av sin tid i förberedelseklassen interagerar eleverna främst med varandra, men att eleverna tids nog integreras och blir slutligen en del av den ordinarie klassen. Slutligen visar resultatet att faddersystem är att föredra, men att det oftast är andraspråkselever som blir faddrar till de nyanlända.

Språkets betydelse i naturvetenskaplig undervisning : En systematisk litteraturstudie om arbetsmetoder och betydelsen av att arbeta med det naturvetenskapliga språket

Denna litteraturstudie undersöker hur lärare, enligt tidigare forskning, skulle kunna arbeta med naturvetenskapligt språk samt vilken betydelse ett arbetssätt som lyfter språket kan ha för elevers lärande av naturvetenskap. Detta är en systematisk litteraturstudie där relevant forskning har sökts via databaser och en tidsskrift för att noggrant dokumenteras. NorDiNa är den tidskrift som har bidragit med mest material till denna systematiska litteraturstudie, men även databasen ERIC och Högskolan Dalarnas databas Summon har genomsöks och bidragit med forskningsrapporter. Resultatet visar att det finns flera metoder som kan användas för att stödja elevers lärande av naturvetenskapliga begrepp. Läraren har en viktig roll i den naturvtenskapliga utbildningen och behöver vara ansvarstagande och förberedd inför de utmaningar som kan dyka upp, detta för att kunna bemöta och hjälpa elever på bästa sätt. Eleverna behöver stöttning i mötet med det naturvtenskapliga språket och hjälp för att lära sig och förstå det. Språket har visats i studien vara en viktig komponent för att förstå naturvetenskapen både i och utanför skolan. Sammanfattningsvis så behöver lärare arbeta med det naturvetenskapliga språket utifrån varierande arbetsmetoder som väcker intresse för elevernas fortsatta utveckling inom det naturvetenskapliga språket och ämnet.

English as a Second Language and Children’s literature : An empirical study on Swedish elementary school teachers’ methods and attitudes towards the use of children’s literature in the English classroom

Previous research has shown multiple benefits and challenges with the incorporation of children’s literature in the English as a Second language (ESL) classroom. In addition, the use of children’s literature in the lower elementary English classroom is recommended by the Swedish National Agency for Education. Consequently, the current study explores how teachers in Swedish elementary school teach ESL through children’s literature. This empirical study involves English teachers from seven schools in a small municipality in Sweden. The data has been collected through an Internet survey. The study also connects the results to previous international research, comparing Swedish and international research. The results suggest that even though there are many benefits of using children’s literature in the ESL classroom, the respondents seldom use these authentic texts, due to limited time and a narrow supply of literature, among other factors. However, despite these challenges, all of the teachers claim to use children’s literature by reading aloud in the classroom. Based on the results, further research exploring pupils’ thoughts in contrast to teachers would be beneficial. In addition, the majority of the participants expressed that they wanted more information on how to use children’s literature. Therefore, additional research relating to beneficial methods of teaching English through children’s literature, especially in Sweden, is recommended.

Teachers’ Views on ICT as a Tool in English Teaching for Students with Dyslexia : An interview study with English teachers in grades 7-9

Information and communications technology (ICT) is a broad concept, which is often discussed in relation to the development of education. More specially, ICT can be seen as a tool to help teachers individualize students’ education. Students who have literacy difficulties, such as dyslexia, are in constant need of new techniques to help them learn and new tools to make their educational development easier. The aim of this thesis is to show what views teachers have regarding using ICT in English teaching at a sample of schools in the south of Sweden. A secondary part of the aim is to see what ICT tools, or other non ICT related methods, these teachers use to improve literacy skills for students with dyslexia.This empirical study is based on interviews with six participants. Previous research within the area is presented and different aspects of ICT within the National Agency for Education in Sweden, and the English syllabus, are also discussed. The results of this thesis show that ICT is seen as a helpful tool to make education easier for both students and teachers. Tools such as ViTal, Spell Right and Legimus are being used and the participants of the study also use iPads and Chromebooks in their teaching. According to the interviews, ICT can tribute to a fun way of learning and a more individualized education. Other non ICT related methods are also used to help students with dyslexia and these are often in terms of pictures in connection to words. These findings are based on a limited number of participants in a small area of south of Sweden. Therefore, further research is needed to see if the findings can be verified with more participants, in different parts of the country.

Teaching Mathematics in English to Swedish Speaking Students : The Use of Second Language Teaching Practices in the Teaching of Mathematics in English to Swedish Speaking Students in Lower Secondary School

Over 20,000 Swedish lower high school students are currently learning mathematics in English but little research has been conducted in this area. This study looks into the question of how much second language learner training teachers teaching mathematics in English to Swedish speaking students have acquired and how many of those teachers are using effective teaching practices for second language learners. The study confirms earlier findings that report few teachers receive training in second language learning but indicates that some of the teaching practices shown to be effective with second language learners are being used in some Swedish schools

Learning Grammar : A study of upper secondary level students’ attitudes and beliefs concerning the learning of grammar

The communicative approach to language learning is widely taught in Western education, and yet its predecessor, the grammar-translation method, is still commonly employed in other parts of the world. In Sweden, the increasing popularity of the communicative approach is often justified by the high level of students’ communicative skills (Öhman, 2013). At the same time, students’ written texts and speech contain many grammatical errors (Öhman, 2013). Consequently, being aware of their tendency to produce grammatical errors, some students express beliefs regarding both the explicit and implicit learning of grammar (Sawir, 2005; Boroujeni, 2012). The objective of this thesis is to gain more knowledge regarding students’ beliefs concerning the learning of English grammar at the upper secondary level, in Sweden. With this purpose a survey was conducted in two schools in Sweden, where 49 upper-secondary English students participated. Qualitative and quantitative methods were applied to process the collected data. Despite some difference in the participants’ ages, there were many similarities in their attitudes towards the teaching and learning of grammar. The results show that the participants in both schools believe that only by applying both, explicit and implicit methods, can they obtain a high level of language proficiency. The results of this study can help teachers in planning different activities that enhance the students’ knowledge of grammar.

"Det är så enkelt, bara hands on, sen är de där" : Digitala hjälpmedel och litteracitet på sfi

Denna studie har till syfte att beskriva tre lärares erfarenheter av digitala hjälpmedel inom sfi-undervisningen med fokus riktat på iPad. Studien är kvalitativ och ger svar på frågor kring lärarnas erfarenhet av litteracitetsutveckling, motivation och det individuella arbetet i klassrummet. Metoden omfattas av intervjuer som bygger på tre frågeställningar. Hur upplever lärarna litteracitetsutveckling och motivation hos de studerande vid användning av iPad och ett annat digitalt hjälpmedel? Hur ser lärarna på de enskilda studenternas behov vid användning av iPad och ett annat digitalt hjälpmedel? Vilken utveckling ser lärarna med iPad i framtida perspektiv? . Resultatet har analyserats och diskuterats i relation till tidigare forskning kring litteracitet, digitala hjälpmedel i undervisningen samt en rapport om iPad i skolan. I den första frågeställningen är lärarna överens om att litteracitetsutvecklingen med iPad relateras till vilken nivå de studerande uppnått. Ju lägre skriftspråksutvecklingsnivå ju lämpligare är språkinlärning med iPad som digitalt hjälpmedel. Detta på grund av dess enkla användarvänlighet. Lärarna anser också att enkelheten och den snabba responsen som de studerande får har en motiverande effekt. De som uppnår en högre skriftspråksutvecklingsnivå i svenska och som behöver mer utvecklande skrivövningar använder i föreliggande undersökning dator. I andra frågan diskuteras den individuella aspekten kring användning av iPad. De tre lärarna i studien anser att iPaden är ett bra verktyg och de har positiva erfarenheter om de studerandes individuella arbete och kan på ett enkelt sätt tillgodose individuella önskemål och behov hos de studerande. I den tredje frågan diskuteras iPad i ett framtida perspektiv. De tre lärarna ser iPaden som ett bra verktyg i en vidare utveckling av sfi. De menar att Skolverkets krav tillgodoses på ett lämpligt sätt med detta digitala hjälpmedel.

Enhancing Intercultural Communication in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language : An Action Research Study

Enhancing Intercultural Communication in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language – An Action Research Study Over the past few decades, the rapid development of information communication technology, internationalization and globalization worldwide have required a shift in the focus of Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) towards competence in intercultural communication in which the role of culture in the acquisition of CFL and in the pragmatic use of the language is emphasized and promoted. However, most of the current research in this academic area remains only on a theoretical level. Practical examples, particularly with regard to distance learning/teaching of the Chinese language, are very limited. This motivated the implementation of an action research study which aimed at exploring the possibilities and limitations of integrating Chinese culture and applying intercultural communication theory into a contemporary distance CFL course for beginners. By observing and comparing the performance of subjects in the control and experimental groups, this action research study focuses on exploring three basic areas. Firstly, it discloses the cultural elements which underlie effective daily communication. Secondly, it investigates how students acquire cultural knowledge and develop their ability to competently communicate in the target course. And thirdly, it evaluates how the modified course syllabus could enhance students’ intercultural communicative competence. The findings of the research aim to serve as both a resource and reference for educators and researchers who are interested in carrying out reforms and research in this academic domain.

Ne videt, ne znat – det direkta objektets kasus vid två negerade ryska verb

This essay examines the case of the direct object in Russian sentences with the negated verbs не видеть and не знать. For each verb, 50 contexts were downloaded from the newspaper corpus of the Russian National Corpus and analysed with respect to the semantic properties of the direct object and the negated verb. The theories and concepts used for the analysis have been outlined in Padutjeva, 2006. The analysis of не видеть suggests that the main difference between the genitive and the ac-cusative case is to be found in the notion of non-existence or absence implicated by the verb’s semantics. In utterances with не видеть as a predicate, this notion is always present and is expressed by the genitive case. The speaker may also choose to ignore it by using the accusa-tive and thus emphasize some other aspect of the described situation. The examined properties of reference, definiteness and denotative status of the direct object seem to play a secondary role for how case is used. Their influence is to delimit the meaning of the objective genitive to either non-existence or absence. No similar conclusions could be drawn from the examination of не знать. The reason for this is that the concept of private sphere, used by Padutjeva to explain the use of objective geni-tive with this verb, could not be properly established during the analysis. Just as the notion of absence is crucial for the understanding of the objective genitive when it occurs with не видеть, the concept private sphere seems to be the key to understand it when it occurs with не знать.

Using Swedish in the EFL-classroom : An Interview Study on Swedish Upper Secondary Students’ Attitudes towards Teachers’ L1 use in the EFL-classroom

There is very little focus in previous research on first language (L1) use by teachers in the upper secondary English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom from the students’ perspective. In this context and from a Swedish perspective, this thesis examines what attitudes students in the Swedish upper secondary school have towards their teachers’ use of L1 (Swedish) in the EFL-classroom. The method used was qualitative semi-structured interviews, where nine students in total were interviewed. The collected data was then coded, thematized and categorized. The results show that the students mainly believed Swedish should be used when teaching vocabulary, when teaching grammar and for classroom management. They did not believe the L1 should be used by them in questions and answers and in general talk in the classroom. They also endorsed an overall judicious use of Swedish by their teachers and that their use of this language should be adjusted to the specific teaching group. Finally, it can be concluded that further research is needed on how the L1 can be used judiciously in particular situations and on what attitudes students of varying proficiency and age, as well as students who do not have Swedish as their L1 have towards teachers’ L1 use in the EFL-classroom.