English spelling is without a doubt a complicated matter, and learners around the world have trouble getting the letters right. My aim in this paper is to investigate what words are particularly difficult to spell for Swedish students in the ninth grade, what they think about spelling and English as a subject in general, and how important they consider correct spelling to be. In order to find this out, I distributed a questionnaire in two classes at secondary school. According to my study, a large number of the students find it important to spell correctly, and they also believe that their teacher would agree. A high percentage of the participants are positive towards studying English. Their most common way of getting in contact with English on a regular basis is via TV and movies. 97% of the students wrote that TV was their biggest source of contact with English. The results show no differences in spelling skills between the sexes and neither did the origin of the parents have any effect. The respondents find both Swedish and English spelling easy, but a number of frequently misspelled words have been identified.

Office hour interactions at universities are one type of communicative activity in which international instructors and their Turkish EFL students are involved as a form of academic or institutional discourse (Drew & Heritage, 1992). In such real world communication, both parties employ several linguistic strategies and attend to various interactional goals to address the academic concerns at hand (Chiang, 2011; Chiang & Mi, 2008; Limberg, 2007; 2010; Reindhart, 2010; Skyrme, 2010). Embracing a discourse analytic approach, this study investigated the primary functions and topics of office hour interactions; discourse organization of office hour interactions with regard to the features of participants’ contributions (e.g. turn-taking and turn length, verbosity or dominance, etc.); suggestion-response episodes; and successful and problematic aspects in office hour interactions. The study utilized the theoretical framework of relational work. Thirty-eight office hour interactions constituted the primary data source. The participants included 3 international instructors and their 34 Turkish EFL students. Post-interaction questionnaires and classroom observations served as secondary data sources in the study. The data analysis demonstrated that office hour interactions have various purposes and topics mostly related to the course content offered by the instructors, their expertise, and their experiences. Additionally, both parties co-constructed the discourse segments of equal and unequal contribution in which they achieved interactional and transactional goals using distinctive linguistic and discourse strategies. The co-constructed suggestion-response episodes included both instructor-initiated suggestions and students’ self-suggestory acts. The use of modals and semi-modals, imperatives, and interrogatives played a key role in instructor-initiated suggestions, whereas the students mostly relied on interrogatives. However, each party made their choices relying on the interactional goals they wished to accomplish through the use of suggestion forms. Finally, both the international instructors and their Turkish EFL students attended to different types of relational work that contributed to the successful and problematic aspects of office hour interactions, and that were mostly connected to suggestions.

To master English is a clear advantage in Swedish society and throughout compulsory school, the English subject is mandatory in each grade. Language learning is a lengthy and demanding task that requires effort and determination. Consequently, it is crucial to sustain motivation among the learners, which requires motivational and conscious teaching. There are a number of strategies that through research have indicated motivational capacity. In this empirical study, teachers’ and pupils’ perception of the motivational influence of different strategies were examined. The method was quantitative and surveys were used to collect data from the teachers (N=10) and the pupils (N=142). The results show that the teachers regard their own behavior and a stimulating, varied teaching as most important, whilst the pupils prioritize clear and understandable instructions and are concerned with a pleasant classroom climate, where humour is present and where it is safe to make mistakes. In addition, the results indicate that teachers, as well as pupils, are not particularly interested of a transmission of responsibility from the teachers to the pupils. / <p>Engelska</p>

The shift toward bilingualism and multilingualism in historically monolingual societies resulting from globalization has positioned second/foreign language (L2) learning research as a significant field. Extensive research in L2 motivation over decades has demonstrated motivation to be a significant determiner of L2 learning achievement and has yielded many sound L2 motivation theories and frameworks. The latest L2 motivation framework is the L2 Motivational Self System (L2MSS) offered by Dörnyei (2005, 2009). Numerous studies have been conducted to validate this theory in different English as a foreign language (EFL) contexts (e.g., in China, Iran and Japan: (Taguchi, Magid & Papi, 2009); in Hungary: (Csizér & Kormos, 2009); in Saudi Arabia: (Al-Shehri, 2009); and in Turkey: (Thompson & Erdil-Moody, 2014). Studies have found the theory sufficiently elaborate to explain the multifaceted L2 motivation in its dynamic nature. This study utilized the theoretical framework of L2MSS to examine L2 learners’ motivation. Due to the importance of motivation in L2 learning and achievement, research focusing on EFL instructors’ use of motivation-enhancing strategies has gained significance. To fill a longstanding gap in L2 research for a unified and systematic motivational strategies framework for teachers, Dörnyei (2001) offered the Motivational Teaching Practice in the L2 Classrooms Model (MTP) – which offers various strategies that L2 teachers can use to enhance student motivation. The current study used this MTP theoretical framework to investigate L2 teachers’ motivational teaching practice. However, how the L2MSS could be integrated into the motivational teaching practice has not been adequately studied and requires further examination. Moreover, most language teacher education programs lack motivational teaching practice training for pre-service L2 teachers. Consequently, the present study aims to fill the gap in L2 research by examining a) how to promote EFL instructors’ motivational teaching practice through a training program on motivation-enhancing strategies within the L2MSS framework; b) how L2 teachers’ consistent and systematic use of motivation-enhancing strategies within this framework impact students’ motivated learning behaviors. Another way this study contributes to L2 research is by offering both quantitative and qualitative empirical data in an understudied EFL context, Turkey, concerning the relationship between motivational teaching practice and learner motivation. The study employed a mixed-methods experimental design. The researcher collected data from February 2015 to June 2015, coordinating and delivering the teacher workshops, and analyzing and interpreting the data. The data involve various sources: self-report questionnaires from L2 teachers and students, classroom observations of teachers’ motivational teaching practice and students’ motivated learning behaviors, semi-structured interviews with teachers and students, teachers’ strategy logs and reflective journals. Quantitative and qualitative data analysis procedures were employed to analyze the data. The self-report questionnaire data were analyzed via exploratory factor analyses, Cronbach’s alpha, descriptive statistics, independent and paired samples t-tests; the classroom observation data were analyzed using repeated measures ANOVA; strategy logs were analyzed using descriptive statistics; and the qualitative data via classroom observations, reflective journals and interviews were analyzed via content analysis. The researcher coded, categorized, themed, and analyzed the data separately. This study intends to a) contribute to the L2 motivation research, b) offer pedagogical recommendations for motivational teaching practice to promote learner motivation within the L2MSS framework, c) contribute to the pre-service L2 teacher training to promote motivational teaching practice. The results showed that instructors’ and students’ perceptions of instructors’ use of motivational strategies demonstrated both differences and similarities, indicating that both groups have varying perceptions in regards to instructors’ motivational teaching practice. An overall analysis of the MTP across 25 different EAP classes showed an average use of motivational strategies excluding any of the recently suggested strategies that enhance the L2 self guides (the ideal L2 self and the ought-to L2 self) of learners grounded in the L2MSS theory. The classroom observation and L2 motivation data that were collected in both experimental and control groups before and after the treatment showed that instructors who received motivational teaching workshop started using more varieties of strategies more often and in a more consistent way compared to the control group instructors who did not receive any treatment. Similarly, experimental group students in the classes where instructors used more consistent and varied motivational strategies demonstrated more motivated classroom behaviors compared to the control group students. Experimental group instructors’ reflective journals and strategy logs also indicated an increased awareness of MTP and more conscious effort in trying to vary their motivational strategy use and develop their own consistent MTP. The interviews with the experimental group instructors showed that instructors were more confident in their MTP, more conscious in their choice of motivation-enhancing strategies and lesson and material design that address learners’ ideal L2 selves. They all expressed that participating in the study including but not limited to taking the MTP workshop, implementing those strategies in their classes, continuous feedback and discussion sessions with the other experimental group instructors and the researcher, writing the reflecting journals and the strategy logs were altogether helped them to a great deal creating a “transformational experience like a wake-up call” in their teaching. Interviews with the students revealed that experimental group students were happier in their EAP class this semester compared to their previous pre-requisite EAP class because they were kept more motivated, engaged and active throughout the semester. They found their instructors as the most motivating factor on their motivation and achievement this semester.

This comparative study aims to discover and demonstrate the potential relationship between foreign language speaking anxiety and course level among 183 students from three consecutive courses of English as a foreign language, i.e. English 5, 6, and 7, at three upper secondary schools in the South of Sweden. Accordingly, a survey was distributed in order to account for demographic information about the students, such as course level, age, and sex, to determine the students’ oral proficiency levels, and to assess the students’ anxiety levels in relation to 33 anxiety-provoking classroom situations. The results showed that Swedish upper secondary students are not particularly anxious regardless of course level, save that the students in English 5 would feel less comfortable around native speakers of English, although not to an extent which would indicate anxiety, and that the students in English 7 would, in contrast to the other course levels, experience high levels of anxiety when volunteering answers and being called on in class. However, the most notable differences were found between the genders and between the students with high and low oral proficiency levels. Female students generally showed higher levels of anxiety than male students did. Yet, in most cases, the difference did not suggest that one of the genders was anxious while the other one was not. In terms of oral proficiency levels, the students with low oral proficiency showed higher levels of anxiety, often to the extent that they would be anxious while the ones with high proficiency would not. Thus, the levels of anxiety seem to depend on gender and oral proficiency more than the students’ course levels.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / In this thesis I explore the complexity of FL (Foreign Language) reading through qualitatively and quantitatively analysing the forms, ways, and mechanisms applied by adult readers at tertiary university education level to construct meaning in an ESP/EAP (English for Specific and Academic Purposes) multilingual educational context at the Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM), in Mozambique

De plus en plus de chercheurs s'accordent à dire que la prosodie a un rôle crucial dans la communication, la compréhensibilité du discours et la détection d'un accent étranger. L'apprentissage et l'enseignement de l'anglais langue étrangère bénéficieraient ainsi à mettre au premier plan les traits suprasegmentaux, ou prosodiques (accent, rythme et intonation), plutôt que les traits segmentaux (consonnes et voyelles) comme le font beaucoup d'enseignants, d'autant que les erreurs prosodiques ont souvent un effet plus néfaste que les erreurs segmentales. Cette thèse de doctorat part de l'hypothèse que les francophones apprenant l'anglais pourraient davantage améliorer leurs capacités à l'oral (production et perception) si on leur enseignait avant tout les caractéristiques prosodiques de la langue cible, plutôt que de mettre en avant les segments. Notre étude expérimentale compare ainsi l'impact d'une approche « prosodique » avec l'impact d'une approche « segmentale » sur des apprenants français non-débutants. Bien que les deux méthodes d'enseignement aient permis aux participants de s'améliorer en production et perception L2, en comparaison avec un groupe de contrôle n'ayant pas reçu de cours, aucune des deux méthodes ne leur a permis d'améliorer leurs capacités à l'oral davantage que l'autre, ce qui montre l'importance tout aussi forte d'inclure les aspects segmentaux que suprasegmentaux dans l'enseignement de l'anglais langue étrangère. / Researchers increasingly highlight the crucial role of prosody in communication, speech comprehensibility, and the detection of a foreign accent. Thus, the learning and teaching of English as a foreign language would benefit from prioritising the suprasegmental, or prosodic, features (i.e., stress, rhythm, and intonation), rather than the segmental features (i.e., consonants and vowels) as many teachers tend to do, all the more so as prosodic errors often have a more detrimental effect than segmental errors. The present doctoral thesis starts from the hypothesis that French-speaking learners of English could improve their oral skills (production and perception) more if they were primarily taught the prosodic characteristics of the target language, rather than putting the segments in the foreground. Our experimental study compares the impact of a “prosody-based” teaching approach with that of a “segment-based” approach on non-beginner French learners of English. Although the two teaching methods enabled the participants to improve their L2 production and perception skills, compared with a non-treated control group, neither of the two methods enabled them to improve their oral skills more than the other, suggesting that it is important to include segmental and suprasegmental aspects alike in the teaching of English as a foreign language.

To master English is a clear advantage in Swedish society and throughout compulsory school, the English subject is mandatory in each grade. Language learning is a lengthy and demanding task that requires effort and determination. Consequently, it is crucial to sustain motivation among the learners, which requires motivational and conscious teaching. There are a number of strategies that through research have indicated motivational capacity. In this empirical study, teachers’ and pupils’ perception of the motivational influence of different strategies were examined. The method was quantitative and surveys were used to collect data from the teachers (N=10) and the pupils (N=142). The results show that the teachers regard their own behavior and a stimulating, varied teaching as most important, whilst the pupils prioritize clear and understandable instructions and are concerned with a pleasant classroom climate, where humour is present and where it is safe to make mistakes. In addition, the results indicate that teachers, as well as pupils, are not particularly interested of a transmission of responsibility from the teachers to the pupils. / <p>Engelska</p>

The aim of the present inquiry was to identify significant factors which had impact on the lives of Miriam Darvas and the protagonist Liesel Meminger, linked to the circumstances of the Holocaust in their respective narratives Farewell to Prague and The Book Thief. Through the investigation of the living conditions impacting the individuals, Maslow’s Theory of Motivation is applied in order to find the factors hindering the possibility for Miriam and Liesel to develop in their personal selves. Simultaneously, an educational aim followed the study in order to clarify the pedagogical possibilities of using the narratives in an EFL classroom.    The findings of the present inquiry indicate great similarities in the change of circumstances between Miriam and Liesel due to the war, which consequently impacted the individuals in their basis of developing their personal self. The results disclosed several instances in which the surroundings of Darvas and Meminger hindered their ability to develop and deprived them of the necessities needed, according to Maslow’s theory. However, they also disclosed indications of finding inner strength by self-improvement through education. Therefore, the findings from the present study supports an area of pedagogical possibilities using the narratives in the EFL classroom, such as enhancing the knowledge and understanding for the living conditions during the Holocaust, providing alternative reading suggestions to the commonly used Holocaust literature, as well as allowing collaborations between several subjects in high school.

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