Syftet med denna studie har varit att undersöka hur väl informerade och förberedda svenska gymnasieelever blir när det gäller internationella studier, jobb eller praktik. Resultatet visar att 85 procent av de elever som svarat på enkäten inte anser att de får tillräcklig information när det gäller utlandsstudier, jobb eller praktik. Detta kan sättas i perspektiv till att 79 procent av eleverna själva är intresserade av internationell erfarenhet. Alltså finns det ett behov av information som inte är tillfredsställt. / The purpose of this study is to investigate how well informed and prepared Swedish students are for international studies, work or internship. The result shows that 85 percent of the responding students do not think that they receive sufficient information regarding studies, work or internship abroad. In comparison to the 79 percent of the students who are interested in international experience, the unsatisfied need for information is clear.

The research describes the experience of a southern white teacher who lived and worked in a remote community in Canada's Far North.<p> The impact of physical relocation and culture shock are discussed, as well as problems encountered when conflicting views of education and life goals meet in a cross-cultural setting. The thesis explores some of the difficulties facing mainstream teachers of Indigenous students when issues of past colonialism and present injustices come into play.<p> Inuit community literacies (visual, kinesic and oral traditions) are explored and contrasted with traditional definitions of literacy, which center on the paramount importance of the printed word. Power issues are discussed, including the role played by literacy education in maintaining control in the hands of the dominant culture.<p> The research is qualitative and phenomenological in nature. The teaching experience is viewed through a critical lens, and attempts to better understand the writer's southern white middle-class background as it relates to differing worldviews. The author recounts the process of re-examining assumptions of her own culture, and describes her personal and professional journey of coming to grips with its impact on her teaching.<p>

The traditional literature teaching methods for Chinese English majors are formalism and biographical criticism. These criticisms use an objective approach focused on details about the author, historical context and literary mechanics to analyze literature. These methods neglect the fact that literature comprehension involves readers’ active participation. Cultural criticism, as a critical approach, considers influences that readers bring to their engagement with a given literary text. This approach is supposed to fit the classroom settings for cross-cultural literature teaching and learning. This study was conducted to examine the effect of utilizing cultural criticism to teach British literature among Chinese undergraduate English majors. The effect of employing cultural criticism was reflected in two aspects: students’ cultural understandings of literary texts and their literature comprehension. In this study, students’ awareness of cultural influences in literary texts from cultural perspectives was evaluated as their cultural understandings; literature comprehension was assessed from students’ understanding in context, themes, and textual meaning of literary texts. In this study a pedagogy of cultural criticism was developed and implemented in the teaching of a British literature course. Students received instruction through cultural criticism lens for two hours per week over a period of 14 weeks. The instruments included two essay tests concerning the cultural analysis of literary works, and three literature comprehension tests. A quasi-experimental design and a repeated measure mixed-design were used to compare the performance for students in two experimental groups (cultural criticism approach) and one control group (formalist and biographical approach). Various statistical models were applied to data analysis. The experimental results showed that the cultural criticism approach resulted in better cultural understandings of literary texts and better literature comprehension than the traditional formalist and biographical approach. Another finding is the different performance in cultural understandings of literary texts between the two experimental groups, as the instructor had different proficiency levels in using the cultural criticism approach. This study has provided evidence that cultural criticism could be a valuable approach to help Chinese undergraduate English majors bridge cultural gaps in their understandings of literature and facilitate literature comprehension.

Modern technology has provided foreign language teachers with several methods of connecting their classes and students to native speakers of target languages. Much of the existing research about these online conversations is focused on changes in students' proficiency or cultural sensitivity. Although valuable, the research is lacking in understanding students' experience online including positive and negative feelings, challenges, and students' overall opinion of the exchanges' usefulness. This study was conducted in an effort to better understand students' experience communicating online with native speakers. A third semester Spanish class at Brigham Young University consisting of 18 students was selected as a sample. These students were required to speak online with native Spanish speakers for at least 20 minutes in Spanish each week. Students completed weekly surveys, a final survey, and three students were selected for a semi-structured interview. This study was conducted using a mixed-methods approach, involving both quantitative and qualitative data. The data revealed common struggles that students faced during online exchanges, methods students used for coping with these difficulties, areas of perceived growth as a result of the exchanges, and social factors that had significant impact on students' experience. The study concludes with recommendations of what foreign language educators can do to support their own classes in similar online exchanges. Areas of further investigation regarding online exchanges with native speakers are also recommended.

No description available.

With the advent of Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART), people with the human immune deficiency virus (HIV) infection are increasingly enjoying longer and relatively healthy lives, particularly in developed countries. However, black Africans and African-Caribbean people in the United Kingdom and other developed countries are not yet enjoying the full benefits of HAART, essentially as a result of delayed diagnosis. Delayed diagnosis, in addition to affecting the health of infected individuals, also creates a community reservoir for the spread of the infection; thereby hampering prevention and control strategies by international and NHS guidelines. The delayed diagnosis may be grounded in individual, societal and health service factors that guide help-seeking behaviours of black African and African-Caribbean populations. This study set out to investigate the help-seeking behaviours to diagnose HIV and AIDS among UK based black African and African-Caribbean people, and to investigate the dynamics in those behaviours by place of origin (Africa vs. Caribbean) and by gender. A qualitative methodological approach involving semi-structured interviews was used to explore help-seeking behaviours to diagnose HIV and AIDS among black Africans and African-Caribbean populations in the UK and compared by gender. Thirty (30) purposively selected individuals from patients attending two sexual health clinics in the city of London were interviewed. These included 16 black Africans and 14 African-Caribbean people, and 16 men and 14 women. The symbolic interactionist perspective, and the concepts of broken narratives/silences, biographical disruption and biographical abruption guided the study and interpretation of findings. One main theme ‘Africanness’ and two sub-themes (“African way” and “African thing”) emerged from the findings. The “African way” embodies the risk factors involved in contracting or transmitting HIV and the “African thing” represents the HIV status itself. This is a cultural construction of HIV and AIDS within the acceptable context of participants which helped them to talk about HIV and AIDS without addressing it by the biomedical idiom. The notion of ‘Africanness’ provided a ‘marker’ for African identity. The “African thing” represented a new landscape for naming HIV without necessarily calling it by name and provided a comfortable platform for participants to seek help. The “African way” described the risk behaviours by participants that resulted in the “African thing”. Three sociological concepts; ‘broken narratives or silences, biographical disruption and biographical abruption were key issues in HIV and AIDS diagnosis at a late stage and have formed the basis for the development of a model of help-seeking for diagnosis by participants. Apparently, the main determinants of help-seeking for diagnosis of HIV and AIDS are dependent on cultural factors. Stigma is reinforced by the national health care system practices as well as health professionals themselves. This potentially increases the reluctance among black African and African-Caribbean populations to voluntarily test for HIV. An HIV diagnosis is seemingly a challenging experience because of the impending uncertainties associated with it. Seeking help for diagnosis may even be more difficult because of the anticipated and unpleasant experiences along the path to diagnosis. This may guide the individual to consider other alternatives outside the biomedical pathway, potentially; the biomedical path becomes the least likely choice, especially with black African and African-Caribbean populations. An insufficient cultural understanding is likely to result in inadequate recognition of alternative medical practices, insufficient attention to alternatives to biomedical health systems and potential distortion of the meaning of health messages linking them to practice.

This study explores storybook illustrations in learning word meanings among English learners in a university intensive language program. The impact of children’s literature on the comprehension and vocabulary development of second language children is well-documented. However, the use of the literature with adults still needs to be researched. Therefore, a mixed-method study was designed (1) to investigate whether readers who read an authentic illustrated story differed from those who read the same story without illustrations; and (2) to learn more about the readers’ process of learning words from storybook illustrations. Results suggest that illustrations play an important role in both comprehending the text and learning individual words, however issues related to the accessibility of the text and readers’ ability to use context should also be taken into consideration. The findings support prior research that the benefits of learning from context take time to become robust. The study suggests that illustrated storybooks provide a rich context for adults to infer word meanings and recommends children’s literature as an alternative source of reading in programs serving adult English learners.

Empathy and cultural understanding of groups that are marginalized due to religious, ethnic or sexual background is essential for peace in schools, neighborhoods, and society at large. Literacy classrooms can be a safe environment in which students can develop their own understandings and empathies. Although worthwhile, much of the research lacks details of student reactions to the people and cultures read about in historical narratives, as well as a focus on pedagogical practices that could give students a deep understanding of the culture. This study analyzed the empathetic responses of 13 sixth grade students to themes presented in a Mexican American narrative text, The Circuit. The purpose of this study was to understand the nature of student empathy and how empathetic responses reflect a rich historical and visual context. Key data sources of this interpretive study included large group discussions, small group discussions, written journal responses, and interviews. The results of this study indicated that students' empathetic responses are varied and complex and seem to reflect familiarity with topics in the text and personal background. Minimizing the cognitive demand of cultural content seemed to be a key pedagogical factor in helping students reach deeper levels of empathy. Suggestions are given for educators looking to teach empathy through cultural texts. Possible areas of research are recommended.

Thesis (M.A.)--Miami University, Dept. of History, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 76-85).

No description available.