This study aims to provide additional research into how Swedish EFL textbooks support incidental vocabulary learning through reading texts, specifically for textbooks aimed at upper secondary school, expecting a greater emphasis on recycling mid- and low-frequency words. The study has investigated the lexical character of two textbooks, Echo English 5 and Echo English 7, as well as how they recycle lemmas and how well they recycle lemmas from the mid- and low-frequency bands. Incidental vocabulary learning is the process in which words are learned as a secondary objective when the focus of the learning task lies elsewhere. An important component of incidental learning is the frequency at which unknown words are encountered, with 10 encounters being a good benchmark for learning. As these textbooks are aimed at upper secondary school, it can be expected that most of the areas where learning can still be achieved lie within the mid- and low-frequency bands, that being everything below the 3000 most common word families. The study is corpus-inspired, and an online vocabulary profiler was used to compare the texts present in the textbooks to the BNC-COCA corpus to examine the lexical profile of the texts at large. The same was then done with a lemma tagged version of each text, and the level of recycling, as well as its character, was analysed. Similar to what previous research in this field has shown, no evidence has been found that the textbooks properly support incidental learning in the relevant frequency bands, even though the texts included are of an appropriate lexical difficulty level for students of upper secondary school.

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English has spread across the globe and it is spoken with varying pronunciations, lexical items, spellings, and grammatical structures across diverse regions and cultures. This has resulted in questioning what should represent the language for a new learner. The aim is to gain insight into how culture is presented in the ELT textbook series Champ and to examine English teachers' opinions on cultural representation in language teaching in Sweden. The Champ textbooks series for grade four underwent an analysis using Byram's criteria for cultural content (Byram, 1989). Data was collected by interviewing teachers and doing a content analysis of the Champ textbook. The findings show that the Champ does fulfil the necessary cultural requirements in the curriculum but does lack local cultural representation. The data demonstrated that teachers lack knowledge and understanding of cultural representation in language teaching. The result also revealed that teachers use the same material differently as some use the textbook more frequently than others, and due to financial situations, there are differences in using the extra material connected to the textbook.

Iteration, the repetition of computational steps, is a core concept in programming. Students usually learn about iteration in an entry-level Computer Science class. Virginia Tech's Computational Thinking (CT) course is designed to teach non-CS majors computing skills and new ways of thinking. The course covers iteration on Day 8 of the class. We conducted a pretest before, and three post-tests after, Day 8 of the Computational Thinking class in Spring 2018 on 137 students. The pre-test was intended to measure knowledge of iteration before the material was covered. We found from the post-tests that students' knowledge of iteration did not satisfy the course objectives in Spring 2018, because the knowledge gain shown between pre-test and post-tests was not significant. We developed interactive visualizations and exercises for Fall 2018 and Spring 2019. For three semesters we conducted tests and compared the data from Fall 2018 and Spring 2019 (the treatment) against Spring 2018 (the control). We found that Spring 2019 students had greater knowledge gains than Spring 2018 students. Also, we conducted surveys in Fall 2018 and Spring 2019 from students to learn more about their recall, helpfulness, and reuse of the interactive visualizations. Finally, we analyzed data from the interactive exercises and page use to investigate students' usage behavior. / Master of Science / Iteration is a process of repeating a set of instructions or structures. An iterative process repeats until a condition is met or a specified number of repetitions is completed. Students usually learn about iteration in an entry-level Computer Science class. Virginia Tech’s Computational Thinking (CT) course is designed to teach non-CS majors computing skills and new ways of thinking. The course covers iteration on Day 8 of the class. We conducted a pretest before, and three post-tests after, Day 8 of the Computational Thinking class in Spring 2018 on 137 students. The pre-test was intended to measure knowledge of iteration before the material was covered. We found from the post-tests that students’ knowledge of iteration did not satisfy the course objectives in Spring 2018. In particular, the knowledge gain shown between pre-test and post-tests was not significant. We developed interactive visualizations and exercises that were used during Fall 2018 and Spring 2019. We conducted tests and compared the data from Fall 2018 and Spring 2019 (the treatment) against Spring 2018 (the control). To see if there was a statistically significant difference between the absolute score means of three groups, we used independent sample t-tests. Also we used paired sample t-tests to see if there was a greater knowledge gain after using our invention. By analyzing the results of the t-tests, we found that Spring 2019 students had greater knowledge gains than Spring 2018 students. Also, we conducted student surveys in Fall 2018 and Spring 2019 to learn more about their opinions on recall, helpfulness, and reuse of the interactive visualizations. We analyzed data from the interactive exercises and page use to investigate students’ usage behavior.

As more students interact with online learning platforms and eTextbooks, they generate massive amounts of data. For example, the OpenDSA eTextbook system collects clickstream data as users interact with prose, visualizations, and interactive auto-graded exercises. Ideally, instructors and system developers can harness this information to create better instructional experiences. But in its raw event-level form, it is difficult for developers or instructors to understand student behaviors, or to make testable hypotheses about relationships between behavior and performance. In this study, we describe our efforts to break raw event-level data first into sessions (a continuous series of work by a student) and then to meaningfully abstract the events into higher-level descriptions of that session. The goal of this abstraction is to help instructors and researchers gain insights into the students' learning behaviors. For example, we can distinguish when students read material and then attempt the associated exercise, versus going straight to the exercise and then hunting for the answers in the associated material. We first bundle events into related activities, such as the events associated with stepping through a given visualization, or with working a given exercise. Each such group of events defines a state. A state is a basic unit that characterizes the interaction log data, and there are multiple state types including reading prose, interacting with visual contents, and solving exercises. We harnessed the abstracted data to analyze studying behavior and compared it with course performance based on GPA. We analyzed data from the Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 sections of a senior-level Formal Languages course, and also from the Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 sections of a data structures course. / Master of Science / OpenDSA is an online learning platform used in multiple academic institutions including Virginia Tech's Computer Science courses. They use OpenDSA as the main instructional method and students in these courses generate massive amounts of clickstream data while interacting with the OpenDSA content. The system collects various events logs such as when students opened/closed a certain page, how long they stayed on the page, and how many times they clicked an interface element for visualizations and exercises. However, in its raw event-level form, it is difficult for instructors or developers to understand student behaviors, or to make testable hypotheses about relationships between behavior and performance. We describe our efforts to break raw event-level clickstreams into a session (continuous series of work by a student) and then to abstract the events into meaningful higher-level descriptions of students' behavior. We grouped raw events into related activities, such as the events associated with stepping through a given visualization, or working with a given exercise. We defined such a group of activities as a state, which is a basic unit that can characterize the interaction log data such as reading, slideshows, and exercises state. We harnessed the abstracted data to analyze students' studying behavior and compared it with their course performance based on their GPA. We analyzed data from two offerings of two CS courses at Virginia Tech to gain insights into students' learning behaviors.

The problem involved in this study was to carry on an experiment of two methods of teaching eighth-grade geography and to compare the two. Briefly stated, the problem of this thesis was to determine the value of the use of free materials as compared with library supplements.

O Programa Nacional do Livro Didático (PNLD) foi criado com o intuito de fornecer livros didáticos para o ensino fundamental e médio das escolas públicas no Brasil. Para que esses livros sejam adotados nas escolas, eles são avaliados por universidades com base em critérios estabelecidos em editais que não apenas especificam as características legais e materiais dos livros didáticos, mas também seu conteúdo. Como houve apenas três edições do programa para a avaliação de livros didáticos de Inglês para os anos finais do ensino fundamental e os editais dessas edições são consideravelmente diferentes, essa dissertação de mestrado tem como objetivo discutir e analisar as mudanças nos editais das edições de 2011, 2014 e 2017 para problematizar como o discurso oficial constrói progressivamente as características do livro didático de Inglês ideal para o programa. Para isso, nos fundamentamos no conceito de intertextualidade e discutimos o aspecto político do nosso objeto de estudo e seu embasamento no saber. As discussões e a análise nos ajudaram a concluir que, embora os editais construam progressivamente um discurso sobre um livro didático de inglês que seja inclusivo e respeitoso para com os professores, adotando uma perspectiva de língua que seja coerente com esse posicionamento, o programa age de maneira inversa, provocando exclusões e estabelecendo novas partilhas do sensível (RANCIÈRE, 2009). / The National Textbook Program (PNLD) was created to provide textbooks for public elementary, middle and high schools in Brazil. In order for the textbooks to be adopted in schools, they are evaluated by universities relying on criteria established in public calls, which not only specify the legal and material characteristics of textbooks, but also their content. Since there have been only three editions so far of the program for the evaluation of English as a Foreign Language textbooks for middle schools, and the public calls of these editions are considerably different, this M.A. dissertation aims at discussing and analyzing the changes in the public calls for the editions of 2011, 2014 and 2017 to problematize how the official discourse progressively constructs the characteristics of the ideal English textbook in the program. In order to do so, we focused on the concept of intertextuality and discussed the political aspect of our object of study and its knowledge basis. The discussions and analysis made it possible for us to conclude that although the public calls progressively construct a discourse about an English textbook that is inclusive and respectful to teachers, adopting a concept of language that is coherent with this approach, the program works in the opposite way, leading to exclusion and establishing new distributions of the sensible (RANCIÈRE, 2009).

Este trabalho apresenta uma investigação sobre o Programa Nacional do Livro Didático (PNLD) e sua aplicação em sala de aula por meio do livro didático (LD) de Língua Inglesa em comunidades do ensino fundamental II da rede pública do estado de São Paulo. Os registros dessa investigação se dão por meio de narrativas de professores atuantes no referido contexto. Esta é uma pesquisa qualitativainterpretativa etnográfica, cujas perguntas elaboradas abordam a possibilidade do livro didático do PNLD conseguir fazer uma ponte entre ele próprio, o professor e o aluno no processo de ensino e aprendizado da Língua Inglesa. Ademais, a pesquisa analisa qual é o papel que tanto professor quanto livro didático exercem neste processo, além de interpretar qual a visão dos professores em relação ao livro didático do PNLD que eles supostamente utilizam em suas práticas. Nas narrativas e entrevistas realizadas com professores atuantes em tal contexto, os entrevistados se mostraram apegados a antigas pedagogias e preocupados em seguir abordagens e metodologias conteudistas. Ao mesmo tempo, parece estar em curso uma transformação no processo de ensinar, o que constitui um paradoxo em pleno mundo globalizado e de novas pedagogias. Esta transformação se dá com a abertura de horizontes e o enfraquecimento de verdades pessoais (ALCOFF, 2006; VATTIMO, 2007) diante das verdades do Outro, a fim de aprimorar o processo de ensino e aprendizado de Língua Inglesa para uso social, utilizando-se do LD como um suporte na sala de aula. / The aim of this study is to investigate the National Textbook Program (PNLD) and its application in classrooms through English textbooks in communities of elementary public schools in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. The reports included here are analyzed through narratives of teachers who work in such context. This study is a qualitative-interpretative research, which questions are directed to the participants and it asks if the PNLD textbook builds a bridge between itself, students and teachers in the process of teaching and learning English. Besides that, this study analyzes what role do textbooks and teachers play in this process, such as, what perspectives do teachers have about the PNLD textbook, which they supposedly use in their practice. In the interviews with these teachers it is noteworthy that they seem to be attached to old pedagogies and concerned about following content-driven approaches and methodologies. At the same time, it seems to be a transformation in the teaching process, which constitutes a paradoxical response in globalization\'s time and new pedagogies. This transformation happens when teachers open their horizons and weaken their personal truths (ALCOFF, 2006; VATTIMO, 2007) as they relate to the truths of the Other in order to improve the process of teaching and learning English for social uses, resorting to the textbook as a medium in the classroom.

O Programa Nacional do Livro Didático (PNLD) foi criado com o intuito de fornecer livros didáticos para o ensino fundamental e médio das escolas públicas no Brasil. Para que esses livros sejam adotados nas escolas, eles são avaliados por universidades com base em critérios estabelecidos em editais que não apenas especificam as características legais e materiais dos livros didáticos, mas também seu conteúdo. Como houve apenas três edições do programa para a avaliação de livros didáticos de Inglês para os anos finais do ensino fundamental e os editais dessas edições são consideravelmente diferentes, essa dissertação de mestrado tem como objetivo discutir e analisar as mudanças nos editais das edições de 2011, 2014 e 2017 para problematizar como o discurso oficial constrói progressivamente as características do livro didático de Inglês ideal para o programa. Para isso, nos fundamentamos no conceito de intertextualidade e discutimos o aspecto político do nosso objeto de estudo e seu embasamento no saber. As discussões e a análise nos ajudaram a concluir que, embora os editais construam progressivamente um discurso sobre um livro didático de inglês que seja inclusivo e respeitoso para com os professores, adotando uma perspectiva de língua que seja coerente com esse posicionamento, o programa age de maneira inversa, provocando exclusões e estabelecendo novas partilhas do sensível (RANCIÈRE, 2009). / The National Textbook Program (PNLD) was created to provide textbooks for public elementary, middle and high schools in Brazil. In order for the textbooks to be adopted in schools, they are evaluated by universities relying on criteria established in public calls, which not only specify the legal and material characteristics of textbooks, but also their content. Since there have been only three editions so far of the program for the evaluation of English as a Foreign Language textbooks for middle schools, and the public calls of these editions are considerably different, this M.A. dissertation aims at discussing and analyzing the changes in the public calls for the editions of 2011, 2014 and 2017 to problematize how the official discourse progressively constructs the characteristics of the ideal English textbook in the program. In order to do so, we focused on the concept of intertextuality and discussed the political aspect of our object of study and its knowledge basis. The discussions and analysis made it possible for us to conclude that although the public calls progressively construct a discourse about an English textbook that is inclusive and respectful to teachers, adopting a concept of language that is coherent with this approach, the program works in the opposite way, leading to exclusion and establishing new distributions of the sensible (RANCIÈRE, 2009).