The aim of this study is to investigate teachers' ways of working with participation in English inprimary school and to contribute knowledge about which strategies teachers use to encouragestudents to participate. In order to explore the participants’ descriptions, a qualitative approachis used on semi-structured interviews with eight English teachers who teach in different primaryschools. National and international research was used in the background section in order toprovide a context to the present study. The results have been analysed with the help of atheoretical framework combining a sociocultural perspective, a differentiation perspective, andlanguage learning theories. From language learning theories, I use the following three concepts:“Condition-Oriented Ideas”, “Condition-Oriented Ideas” and “Top- Down Language-FocusedReasons”.The results of this study show that relations between teachers and students, students’motivation, materials that are customized to each student, and to have democratic in Englishlessons are very important to make students participate in the English lesson and communicatein English. There are some strategies to help teachers build a good relationship with students, toencourage them, and to make materials that are customized to each student. The results showthat teachers have to listen to students very carefully, and have to spend time with them to showthem that they care about them. Furthermore, teachers have to make activities that increasestudents’ motivation, and teachers have to know the level of each student because that makesteachers able to customize materials adapted to each student’s knowledge level. Each student isspecial in knowledge, experiences, and feelings.The conclusion of this study is that teachers have to find strategies to build good relationswith students. Teachers also have to find strategies to encourage students and to customizeteaching materials for the English lessons. The benefits of student participation are several,including a positive atmosphere in the English classes. In addition, the students achieve betterresults in English language

Lexical inferencing is considered a listening strategy that is commonly employed by advanced EFL (English as a Foreign Language) listeners and a factor that contributes to successful listening comprehension. However, investigations of the factors that influence inferencing success in listening as well as how much each factor contributes to success are scant, as more studies have been conducted exploring lexical inferencing in reading. In addition, even though idiomatic expressions such as smell a rat, jump the gun, and go cold turkey are ubiquitous in the English language, especially in oral communication, and they are considered crucial in both first language (L1) and second language (L2) acquisition, little is known about the effectiveness of inferencing strategies where idiomatic expressions are concerned.Three goals motivated the current study. The first goal was to investigate whether inferencing is an effective strategy in the case where the target item is an idiomatic expression. The second goal was to investigate how four person-level factors, familiarity, listening proficiency, listening vocabulary size and working memory, two sentence-level factors, lexical density and sentence length, and two lexical-level factors, L1–L2 congruency and semantic transparency, influence the inferencing success of English idiomatic expressions in listening. The third goal, related to the second goal, was to determine which of the two lexical component factors, L1–L2 congruency and semantic transparency, is more important to inferencing success. A mixed methods design, the explanatory sequential design (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2018), was employed in this study. Quantitative data were collected from 89 EFL Japanese university students using a Listening Vocabulary Levels Test, a Listening Span Test, and an Idiom Inferencing Elicitation Task. The collected data were examined using mixed-effects logistic regression. Twelve participants were invited to participate in follow-up interviews based on their response patterns on the Idiom Inferencing Elicitation Task. The quantitative results indicated that familiarity, listening comprehension skills, working memory, and L1–L2 congruency were significant factors influencing inferencing success and the qualitative results supported these findings. In addition, the qualitative analyses suggested that depth of vocabulary is another potentially important factor. Furthermore, listening comprehension moderated the L1–L2 congruency effect. The finding that semantic transparency is not an influential factor in successful inferencing of unfamiliar idiomatic expressions provides evidence that the semantic transparency of known idiomatic expressions formed after learners acquire the meaning of the expression is a different construct from the perceived semantic transparency of unfamiliar idiomatic expressions. In addition, even though the sentence-level factors were not statistically significant in successful idiom inferencing in this study, further studies are required in order to see if this result holds true when the characteristics of the listening tasks differ from those of the task used in this study. It is hoped that the findings provide insights into how to help Japanese university EFL learners improve their listening skills, especially in tasks that include unfamiliar idiomatic expressions. / Teaching & Learning

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Bilinguals have been posited to have, compared to monolinguals, enhanced cognitive control, consequently exhibiting greater cognitive reserve, which is thought to subsequently delay the onset of clinical expression of dementia. Based on recent evidence suggesting that the more languages one manages the greater cognitive reserve, and that trilinguals undergo greater exercise in language control than bilinguals, this thesis investigated the effects of trilingualism and ageing on cognitive control, in young adults to older adults. As the thesis investigated the novel field of trilingualism and cognitive control, task complexity, the age of second and third language acquisition, language use, and physical and cognitive activity were also, importantly, assessed, as these are possible influencing factors in test performance. The participants completed several cognitive tasks; namely the Simon task, the Inhibition of return task, the Stroop task (inhibition) and the N-back task (working memory). The novel discovery of a trilingual (and bilingual) disadvantage was observed, which could explain some previous inconsistent findings in the bilingualism literature, where trilingualism may influence bilinguals’ test performance, as trilinguals and multilinguals are often mixed in with the bilingual group. Furthermore, the results suggest that second language acquisition and language use does not consistently predict performance in trilinguals (and bilinguals), nor does cognitive activity, although physical activity may modulate language group differences. Importantly, the results from this novel investigation of the effects of trilingualism and ageing on cognitive control suggest that trilingualism (and bilingualism) can, in some cases, be detrimental to cognitive control.

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This essay aims to investigate Swedish upper secondary school students’ extramural reading (ER) habits as well as if and how these habits affect students’ attitudes toward and motivation for reading in the L2 English classroom. The research questions addressed are: “What are Swedish upper secondary school students’ extramural reading habits?” and “Do students’ extramural reading habits affect their a) attitudes toward, and b) motivation for reading in the L2 English classroom? If yes, in what way?” As engagement in extramural English is suggested to both motivate and demotivate students to read in school, this essay can provide insights into how students’ extramural reading habits affect the reading they do in school. A questionnaire is used to collect data from 99 Swedish upper secondary school students from all three English courses. The questionnaire consists of closed-ended and open-ended questions about the students’ extramural reading habits, attitudes toward and motivation for reading in the L2 English classroom. Quantitative content analysis is used to analyse the data. The findings of this essay reveal that the reading habits of the participating students are varied. While some students read extramurally in English frequently and in a large quantity, others never read extramurally in English. The most commonly read text types are web texts and subtitles. Furthermore, the results show that some aspects of students’ attitudes toward reading in the L2 classroom are significantly affected by the students’ ER and that 77% of the students agree to some extent that their extramural reading provides them with more motivation to read in school. To conclude, pedagogical implications in relation to the findings of this essay are discussed.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(人間・環境学) / 甲第24703号 / 人博第1076号 / 新制||人||252(附属図書館) / 2022||人博||1076(吉田南総合図書館) / 京都大学大学院人間・環境学研究科共生人間学専攻 / (主査)准教授 PETERSON Mark, 准教授 中森 誉之, 教授 勝又 直也, 教授 FIELD Malcolm Henry / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Human and Environmental Studies / Kyoto University / DFAM

This paper investigates the informal environment that pupils ages 3-12 are a part of while they are not in school and how extramural tools aid their vocabulary learning. According to Sundqvist and Wikström (2016) children today are growing up in a world of digital development and advancement and at the same time being a part of it. This study will discuss if pupils are in the mindset of learning when using digital tools within an informal environment or not. Previous research within this field provide key information regarding pupils who were gaming in their free time using the English language daily playing games, interacting and producing the language was key for vocabulary development (Russell, 2016). This paper will investigate different aspects that may have an effect on the students’ vocabulary learning within the classroom. Furthermore, this paper will review and discuss how this way of learning may be transmitted over to the formal environment in the classroom.

Studiens syfte är att analysera hur texter skrivna av studenter i svenska som andraspråk på B-nivå förändras kvantitativt och kvalitativt över tid under sina studier vid Korta vägen, en uppdragsutbildningpå universitet och studieförbund beställd av Arbetsförmedlingen. Nio deltagare producerade en text i början av utbildningen och en i slutet av utbildningen och dessa texter analyserades med avseende på totalt antal ord, medellängd på meningarna (ord/mening = MLM), kvotbisatser vs huvudsatser samt andel felaktiga och svårbedömda satser. Resultatet visar att förändringen av antalet ord bedöms som signifikant på gruppnivå med en effektstorlek på mediumnivå (>0,5) (Cohen’s d = 0,511) mellan den första och andra texten. Vad gäller förändringen av medellängd på meningar över tid bedöms denna som signifikant på lägsta nivå (<0,2) (Cohen’s d =0,367). Den största förändringen som visar sig i studien är dock andelen bisatser vs huvudsatser där effektstorlek bedöms som stor (>0,8) och högst signifikant (Cohen’s d = 1,677). De kvalitativa lingvistiska fel som studenterna gjort har klassificerats i nio kategorier: 1. felaktig interpunktion, 2. problem med svensk ordföljd, 3. adverb uppfattas felaktigt som bisatsinledare, 4. bisats står ensam, 5. bisatsinledaren behärskas inte så studenten gör två huvudsatser, 6. behövlig satsdel saknas, 7. fasta uttryck behärskas inte grammatiskt, 8. inskjutning av ord som inte följer svensk syntax, 9. betydelsen av satsen är svårtolkad. I diskussionen anknyts till Bulté och Housens (2012) modell över språklig komplexitet samt processbarhetsteorin (Pienemann & Håkansson, 1999). Slutsatsen är att både längd och bisatser är en viktig del av progressionen i studenters andraspråkstexter men att kvalitativa felanalyser fortfarande krävs för att bedöma förändringens kvalitet.