Issues related to multilingualism and its importance to each individual and the whole society are the subject of today’s school debate. The mere fact that the aspects of multilingualism are discussed actively not only in a school environment but even in the mass media and other communities proves that multilingualism is an important and complex phenomenon in our lives. The subject that I have chosen to study into is about the importance of multilingualism for minority individuals and the conditions for their multilingualism. The aim of this research is to investigate the importance of multilingualism for identity formation among several Russian-speaking young people who were born and raised in Estonia, as well as to try to understand the factors that were relevant to these young people's multilingualism and their view on it. Six young people aged 16-19 were considered in this study. The research method is based on a life history approach. The data has been collected through interviews and correspondence. Symbolic interactionism and social constructivism have provided the theoretical framework of the study and serve as tools for the analysis and interpretation of collected data. Based on the results of my research, it can be concluded that multilingualism are of great importance for identity formation among the individuals investigated. All young people have a positive attitude towards their multilingualism and see it as an asset. They try to maintain and further develop its multilingualism with the help of their school, family and friends as well as on their own. The results of the study also show that all of the young people interviewed have developed the reflexive identity thanks to their multilingualism. Multilingualism provides the young people with an opportunity to become proficient in several cultures, thereby enriching their lives and identity. Due to their multilingualism, reflexive identity and meta-knowledge about themselves, all the young people interviewed had an opportunity to get access to different contact surfaces, and be involved in several different contexts, which can be an asset in times of globalization.

Sweden has a growing proportion of children living in a multilingual environment. It is thus highly important that caretakers as well as professionals who meet these children have knowledge of multilingualism and its impact on language development. Also, an increase of referrals of multilingual children with suspected language impairment to speech and language pathology clinics is seen. The objective of this study was to investigate the linguistic ability in both Swedish and Arabic in a four year old child with suspected language impairment. A further aim was to implement an intensive intervention and evaluate the efficacy of it. Language testing in both languages showed that the boy’s greatest need was in the lexical domain. Thus, the intervention focused on strengthening the vocabulary within a limited number of categories. The study was performed with a single-subject design with multiple baseline assessments before intervention and efficacy measurement after the intervention. These were made with the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-III and the Boston Naming Test and both in Arabic and Swedish. The intervention was made in Swedish. After the intervention a significant increase in both passive and active Swedish vocabulary was seen. No transfer effect to the non-trained language was noted. / I det svenska samhället lever en växande andel barn i en flerspråkig miljö. Det är därför av stor vikt att så väl vårdnadshavare som alla professioner som möter dessa barn har kunskap om flerspråkighet och dess påverkan på barnets språkutveckling. Det har skett en ökning av remissinflödet av flerspråkiga barn med misstänkt språkstörning till logopedmottagningarna. Syftet med föreliggande studie var att undersöka den språkliga förmågan avseende såväl arabiska som svenska hos ett flerspråkigt fyraårigt barn med misstänkt språkstörning samt genomföra och värdera effekten av en intensiv intervention på svenska. En språklig testning visade att pojkens största svårigheter var i den lexikala domänen varför interventionen inriktades på att stärka ordförrådet. Studien utfördes enligt single-subject design med multipla baslinjemätningar före intervention och effektmätning efter interventionen. Baslinjemätningar och effektmätning skedde med Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-III och Boston Naming Test och genomfördes på barnets både språk. Efter interventionen visade sig att såväl passivt som aktivt svenskt ordförråd har ökat signifikant. Det aktiva ordförrådet utvecklades i högre utsträckning än det passiva. Ingen signifikant skillnad mellan resultat före och efter intervention avseende arabiskan noterades. Ingen överföringseffekt till det icke tränade språket kunde således noteras.

In this ethnographic inquiry, I examine how a selected group of Chinese immigrant children in Montreal, Quebec negotiate literacy practices in three languages, Chinese, English and French. I collected data between 1998--2002 through participant observations in different socio-cultural-linguistic contexts that include a Chinese Heritage Language school and the students' home domains. Data sources also include interviews, classroom discourses, field-notes and the students' written texts in the three languages. I draw on Vygotskian socio-cultural theory as an overarching framework to conceptualize my understanding of Chinese immigrant children's triliterate actions. I use Wertsch's concept of "mediational means", Bakhtin's notions of "utterance, voice, dialogicality" and Ivanic's theory of "writing and identity" to present portraits that illustrate the complex relationships among the children's contexts, agency, cultural positionings and uses of literacy as mediational means. I examine the children's perceptions of their multiple school experiences, their school and language affiliations and identity. Lightfoot's concept of "portraiture" is a useful methodology to illustrate how multilingual children present and negotiate their life worlds in the three languages and spaces---from home to school and from heritage language school to formal public school. The reflective understandings that emerge from this inquiry are integrated within the contexts of the historical role of Confucianism and the characteristics of the written Chinese language. The results of my inquiry suggest that multilingual children's literate actions are interwoven with issues of agency, access, choice, identity, power and status in different contexts. Results further indicate that maintenance of a heritage language in its written form is possible when children receive appropriate parental support and guidance and have access to literacy materials. The development of multili

The aim of this dissertation is to describe the language choice among Saamis in Övre Soppero, and to relate their language choice to social and cultural factors in order to establish whetheror not there exist systematic connections. The population studied (55 informants) consists of trilingual Saamis living in the village of Övre Soppero in the far north of Sweden. The informants all speak Saami, Swedish and Finnish. The study is based on interviews and observations, i.e. partly on information provided by the informants themselves concerning language choice in different discourse situations, and partly on my own observations of their language behaviour in different contexts. Language choice has been related both to domains and discourse situations and to the social backgrounds and attitudes of the informants. A description is given of the linguistic uncertainty in different discourse situations. A discourse situation comprises the following elements: interlocutors, the role relationship between them, and the scene and/or activity. The term "domain" is an abstraction of concrete discourse situations. By linguistic uncertainty, I mean the individual's use of more than one language in one and the same discourse situation. Discourse situations are divided into the following domains: family, circle of friends, casual acquaintances, religion, free time, social participation, consumer activity and public matters. All three languages occur in all domains. In the majority of domains, there is great variation in language choice depending on the discourse situation at hand. The degree of linguistic uncertainty also varies. Discourse situations have also been divided into groups according to the degree of linguistic uncertainty, and according to whether the situation is personal or transactional. Linguistic uncertainty is low, for example, when the interlocutors' roles are unambiguous and clearly established, whereas it is high when, for example, the interlocutors' roles are ambiguous and varied. Language choice has also been related to the age, profession, education and geographic mobility of the informants. The thing that most separates the different categories of informants from each other is the fact that the youngest group and those with unspecified professional category more often speak Swedish than the other groups. The former groups have a comparatively higher level of education and are socially and geographically mobile. The group that most often uses Saami is the professional category "reindeer herders". For this group, the Saami language is primarily a means of communication, whereas the youngest informants use the Saami language as an ethnic marker. The factors that seem to have the greatest influence on language choice are, for example, whether the discourse situation is public or private, and whether the relationship between the interlocutors is intimate or not, and whether it is intra- or inter-ethnic. Of crucial importance are also the sender's age, profession, social and geographical mobility, and the sender's degree of ethnic consciousness. / digitalisering@umu

Playing has been part of people's lives since the beginning of time. However, play does not take place in silence (isolated from speech and sound). The games people play allow them to interact and to learn through experiences. Speech often forms an integral part of playing games. Video games also allow players to interact with a virtual world and learn through those experiences. Speech input has previously been explored as a way of interacting with a game, as talking is a natural way of communicating. By talking to a game, the experiences created during gameplay become more valuable, which in turn facilitates effective learning. In order to enable a game to “hear", some issues need to be considered. A game, that will serve as a platform for speech input, has to be developed. If the game will contain learning elements, expert knowledge regarding the learning content needs to be obtained. The game needs to communicate with a speech recognition system, which will recognise players' speech inputs. To understand the role of speech recognition in a game, players need to be tested while playing the game. The players' experiences and opinions can then be fed back into the development of speech recognition in educational games. This process was followed with six Financial Management students on the NWU Vaal Triangle campus. The students played FinMan, a game which teaches the fundamental concepts of the “Time value of money" principle. They played the game with the keyboard and mouse, as well as via speech commands. The students shared their experiences through a focus group discussion and by completing a questionnaire. Quantitative data was collected to back the students' experiences. The results show that, although the recognition accuracies and response times are important issues, speech recognition can play an essential part in educational games. By freeing learners to focus on the game content, speech recognition can make games more accessible and engaging, and consequently lead to more effective learning experiences. / MSc (Computer Science), North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2014

The presence of Allophone students in French-language secondary schools in Ottawa is gradually increasing. While the politique d’aménagement linguistique (PAL) insists on the use of French within the school, one may begin to wonder which language Allophone students are speaking. French? English? Their native language(s)? This qualitative case study of four multilingual Allophone students explores their language repertoire use in relation to their desired linguistic representation, their linguistic proficiency in French, English, and their native language(s), and their perceptions of language prestige. The results indicate that students spoke a significant amount of English, some French (particularly with their teacher or Francophone classmates), and minimal amounts of their native language. Recommendations are suggested to increase the effectiveness of PAL within a Francophone minority context and to ensure that the policy’s objects are attained.

The purpose of my study is to examine how four teachers in a pre school believe they relates to and reasons about bilingualism. To be able to realize thisstudy, i proposed three issue following: How do the teachers in kindergarten relate to bilingualism? How do teachers in preschool reason around the work of bilingual children? What do teachers think about the educational environment in relation to language development?

The purpose of our study is to interpret and understand the experiences that parents to multilingual children have towards multilingualism in pre-school. We are also interested in finding out what these parents think about their children’s development in multilingualism both in pre-school and at home.   Our study is based on qualitative interviews. We interviewed nine families that have multilingual children in pre-school.  The data we collected from our interviews has been analyzed using socio-cultural and inter-cultural theories along with previous research.   The result of our study showed that parents to multilingual children have both positive and negative opinions about the multilingual concept. Most of our informants had positive opinions about multilingualism in general. At the same time they all had concerns about what multilingualism can do for the linguistic development of their children. Because of the negative opinion our parents have towards multilingualism in pre-school, everyone but one parent said that they would decline the possibility for their child to participate in mother tongue or first language activities in pre-school. We reach a conclusion that one important thing that needs to improve in order for these parent not to worry about their children’s linguistic development is the collaboration between pre-school and the parents.

Background: Alzheimer disease (AD) is a progressive, late-life neurodegenerative disorder. Given the aging population, AD is a significant health concern. According to the Alzheimer Society of Canada (Smetanin et al., 2009), in 25 years 2.8% of the Canadian population will have AD or a related dementia. Presently, there is no cure for AD; therefore, efforts to either delay AD onset or prevent AD altogether are a primary focus. The ability to proficiently speak many languages has been associated with certain cognitive advantages. Based on these findings, multilinguals are hypothesized to be more resistant to cognitive decline than monolinguals. More research is warranted in order to further this theory and to contribute to strategies to prevent or delay AD. Objectives: The first study objective was to evaluate whether multilingualism was associated with the development of AD. The second study objective was to assess whether multilingualism was associated with later dementia onset. Methods: Analyses were based on data from the Nun Study, a longitudinal study of aging in 678 participants 75+ years living in the United States. In order to address the first study objective, the association between multilingualism and AD was assessed in 157 participants using logistic regression models adjusted for age, education, apolipoprotein E-E4 (ApoE-E4) status, immigrant status, and occupation. Additional subgroup analyses also included covariates associated with career length and linguistic ability (grammatical complexity and idea density). AD was diagnosed based on criteria for both clinical dementia and AD neuropathology. Dementia was diagnosed using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition criterion (American Psychiatric Association, 1994) (based on the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer’s Disease battery of tests (Morris, Heyman, Mohs, & Hughes, 1989) and performance on activities of daily living), while AD neuropathology was based on the National Institute on Aging and Reagan Institute criterion (The National Institute on Aging - Reagan Institute (NIA-RI) Working Group on Diagnostic Criteria for the Neuropathological Assessment of Alzheimer's Disease, 1997). In order to address the second study objective, dementia likelihood was assessed in 325 participants using discrete-time survival analyses adjusted for age, ApoE-E4 status, education, and linguistic ability. Results: When adjusted for age, education, ApoE-E4 status, occupation, and immigrant status, participants speaking two or more languages had similar AD risks compared to monolinguals (OR = 1.05; 95% CI = 0.45-2.50). However, when grammatical complexity was held constant across participants, speaking two or more languages was associated with a four-fold decrease in AD risk compared to speaking one language (OR = 0.25; 95% CI = 0.04-1.23), although this did not reach statistical significance. When the association between multilingualism and time of dementia onset was assessed, the dementia hazard function estimates for all participants were constant and persisted throughout the follow-up period of the study. When ApoE-E4 status and baseline age were held constant, participants speaking four or more languages were significantly less likely to develop dementia than monolingual participants (OR = 0.14; 95% CI = 0.01-0.66). An interaction between multilingualism and the other two covariates (ApoE-E4 status and baseline age) was observed: the oldest participants with an ApoE-E4 allele who spoke four or more languages had smaller dementia risks than younger participants without an ApoE-E4 allele who spoke one, two, or three languages. Participants speaking two or three languages were no less likely than monolinguals to develop dementia across the study duration. When idea density was held constant across participants, multilingualism was associated with a nonsignificant decreased risk of dementia for individuals speaking three (OR = 0.62; 95% CI = 0.16-2.41) or four or more languages (OR = 0.53; 95% CI = 0.06-4.91) while participants speaking two languages were no more at risk for dementia than monolinguals (OR = 1.08; 95% CI = 0.43-2.69). Discussion: Initially, multilingualism did not appear to confer protection against AD. After holding grammatical complexity constant across all participants, however, multilingualism was found to be associated with AD risk. Therefore, linguistic ability confounded the initial relationship measured by this study. When the association between multilingualism and time of dementia onset was evaluated, participants were no more likely to develop dementia in one time period than another, and monolingual participants were no more likely to develop dementia in earlier time periods than multilinguals. While a trend of decreasing dementia risk with ascending number of languages spoken was not observed, speaking four or more languages was consistently associated with decreased dementia risk compared to speaking one language. The presence of an ApoE-E4 allele and low linguistic ability had a strong and consistent significant association with increased AD and dementia risk. Therefore, the influence of these variables on the association of multilingualism with AD and dementia is worthy of further exploration. Overall, this study provided some support for a protective effect of multilingualism on AD and dementia. Some of the present investigation’s results differ, however, from those of previous studies. This is not surprising, considering the present study utilized different methodologies than other studies in this research area. For instance, our study employed a definition of multilingualism based on self-report data – participants were classified as multilingual based on the number of languages they reported proficiency with. Therefore, our definition of multilingualism was less strict than definitions used in previous studies. However, our study employed much stricter outcome criteria than those used in previous studies, as our study is the first in this area to confirm AD cases with AD neuropathology evaluations. Our study is also the first io utilize prospective data and to include participants who remained dementia-free in addition to participants developing AD and dementia. In addition, this is the only study in this research area to evaluate the relationship of multilingualism with AD and dementia in the context of important covariates such as ApoE-E4 status and linguistic ability. Therefore, while some of our results contrast with other findings in this area, this is understandable given our novel methodologies. A broad range of study methods must be used in the future if we are to generate the depth of evidence needed for a full understanding of the relationship of multilingualism with AD and dementia. A better understanding of this relationship may also provide insight into both cognitive and brain reserve mechanisms, which could help more individuals maintain cognitive function into late life.

The empirical question which is the focus of present research is: How may the lexicons from different languages interact in the course of one syntactical derivation, resulting in code switching phenomena? We develop the following hypothesis concerning code switching: The units of intrasentential code switching are either heads or functional maximal projections. To get support for this hypothesis, intrasentential code switching instances from Russian-English-Turkish and Dutch- Turkish spoken data are analyzed within the minimalist framework. In the data analysed, it has been observed that the data gathered support this hypothesis and that the Minimalist Program has an explanatory force for bilingual language processing.