Given the explicit focus of compulsory schooling in Sweden on providing pupils with opportunities to develop their communicative abilities, all available resources should be utilised to their fullest potential - one of these resources being the way a teacher talks to and with their pupils, i.e., their teacher talk. Previous research in the field has had its focus on non-Swedish classroom contexts and has primarily considered the impacts of teacher talk on learners in secondary school or above. This study therefore set out to contribute to the field by observing Swedish EFL lessons for grades 4-6 and interviewing the teachers of these lessons. The observations show that different teacher-talk categories were employed at varied frequencies, some noticeably more widely represented than others. Additionally, valuable insight was gained from the interviews into teachers’ reflections on their didactic choices made regarding teacher talk. Some of the teachers’ choices correlated with those found in previous research, such as the rationale for direct translations from L2 to L1. On the other hand, it emerged that teachers perceived that some teacher-talk categories were utilised more in the higher grades, in contrast with the results noted in the observations of this study. This could suggest that teachers were not utilising all available resources effectively and possibly could benefit from further support and/or training in how to use their teacher talk consciously. To comprehensively evaluate which, to what extent, and why different teacher-talk categories are represented, further research should focus on a prolonged engagement in longitudinal studies of Swedish EFL classrooms representing a greater variety and number of schools as well as participating teachers.

In order to enhance the effective use of peer review, I have developed materials to assist teachers in compliance with the standards for Masters' projects enacted by the Department of Linguistics and English Language. Published literature shows that as peer review grows in popularity in both L1 and L2 English writing classes, many researchers and teachers are trying to increase its effectiveness. In some cases it is very effective, while in others it is marginally effective. This has led researchers to ask why. The difference between helpful and less helpful peer review seems to be in the preparation. In studies where students were specifically and extensively prepared to do peer review, the benefits to the students, the class, and the effect on the revision process were significant. This indicates that peer review can be an effective tool when students are adequately prepared for the task. After synthesizing research, I determined that there are eight basic, useable concepts that need to be accomplished when preparing students for peer review; they are: 1. Knowing each other 2. Knowing what to look for 3. Knowing why to give advice 4. Know how to give advice 5. Knowing how to use advice 6. Practicing peer review 7. Following up weekly 8. Reviewing at midsemester I developed a curriculum component addressing these eight concepts that augments theory with application, such as materials and lesson plans, and implemented and tested them at the English Language Center at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. Based on feedback from the teachers involved in the pilot study, I determined that preparing students for peer review has a positive effect on the students, their writing, and on the class as a whole Furthermore, the most important outcome of the pilot studies was the fact that students prefer reader response peer review activities rather than criterion critique.

The purpose of this Electronic Film Review (EFR) Project was to take the feature film October Sky and apply the EFR approach to an ESL setting. By the use of a special EFRaid player, high-intermediate to low-advanced ESL/EFL students access vocabulary and cultural material in short segmented clips in order to improve their listening and overall comprehension of the film. This material was developed and tested by the materials developer of this project.

One of the major questions in second language (L2) phonological learning is whether perception precedes (and therefore guides) production. This question is important for knowing what types of training most benefit L2 learners. While most theories assume that perception always precedes production (e.g., Best, 1995; Flege, 1995), several recent studies have found that production may precede perception (e.g., Baker & Trofimovich, 2006; Beach, Brunham, & Kitamura, 2001; Goto, 1971; Sheldon & Strange, 1982; Underbakke, 1993), demonstrating that this complex relationship may differ depending on how and when the L2 is learned. The current study seeks to further explore this relationship by examining how perception and production influence each other on the suprasegmental (i.e., primary word stress) level. While many studies have examined whether perceptual training can influence production accuracy of suprasegmentals, little to no research has examined whether the opposite is true. Thus the goal of this study was to examine whether ESL learners who were trained in suprasegmental pronunciation accuracy improved in listening and speaking more than similar students who were trained in perception accuracy. Comparisons of pre- and post-tests suggest that focusing on accurate production improves not only production accuracy, but also listening comprehension more than does training in listening comprehension. These results enlighten our understanding of how perception and production influence each other, and may underscore the importance of providing bottom-up pronunciation skills for improving L2 phonological learning.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether language aptitude and the use of language strategies predict pronunciation gains in second language (L2) acquisition. A second goal was to determine whether these factors differed depending on whether learning occurred in an English as a second language (ESL) or English as a foreign language (EFL) learning context. Eighty-six ESL students in the United States and one hundred EFL students in China were asked to take the Pimsleur language aptitude test. The top 15 or 16 and lowest 15 or 16 scorers on this test from each group were asked to complete a test of pronunciation proficiency and a pronunciation strategies inventory at the beginning and end of a 10-week speaking class in which they were enrolled. The pre and post pronunciation tests were rated and pronunciation proficiency gains in global foreign accent, fluency, comprehensibility and accuracy were compared to both Pimsleur test scores and use of pronunciation strategies before and after training. Results indicated that general language aptitude did not predict pronunciation gains regardless of type of setting (ESL or EFL), but that auditory aptitude may be linked to pronunciation proficiency. Analyses revealed that specific pronunciation strategies were strong predictors of pronunciation gain for comprehensibility and accuracy gains. The findings for this study suggest that pronunciation strategies seem to play a bigger role in pronunciation improvement than language aptitude and are effective in both ESL and EFL settings.

The purpose of this degree project was to investigate teachers’ conscious and unconscious interpretations of interculturality. We interviewed five teachers from different schools in order to analyse how intercultural their teaching of culture in EFL is. We investigated how their schools encourage cultural diversity, whether intercultural aspects are incorporated in their EFL-teaching and how they interpret the term interculturality. The Swedish national curriculum (Skolverket 2011a), Byram’s (1997) five savoirs and Sercu’s (2006) IC-teacher profile provided us with the theoretical background for the analysis. Our findings suggest that there are teachers who do not incorporate intercultural aspects into their EFL-teaching, as well as teachers who include some aspects. Among our five teachers there is an uncertainty concerning interculturality and how it should be a part of their teaching. Our conclusion is that since it is no longer optional in Swedish schools to incorporate interculturality into EFL-teaching, it is necessary to raise an awareness of the term among principals, teachers and teacher students.

The purpose of this degree project is to find out what opportunities discourse analysis offers in teaching EFL reading. It aims at determining what areas of discourse analysis are relevant to teaching EFL reading at Swedish upper-secondary school as well as identifying what language teachers and learners can borrow from the linguistic study of text and discourse and make use of in the language classroom as well as outside it. The degree project is based on secondary research on discourse analysis within the selected works in applied linguistics, language teaching, and social sciences. The sources are reviewed critically and the results are presented. The degree project emphasises the role of discourse analysis in the shift from English being a purely proficiency-oriented subject to being a democracy-oriented subject.

The aim of this dissertation is to investigate the underlying factors involved in introducing authentic literature to the EFL classroom. The purpose has been to establish which factors should be considered in order to facilitate both the discrepancies between more literate pupils and less literate pupils, and the differing experiences and backgrounds of the class as a whole. The research focuses on the introduction of literature within whole group reading sessions, and considers factors such as equal reading levels versus below reading levels, protagonist gender, book titles and the amount of English read outside of the classroom.The dissertation discusses the reliability of readability programs, vocabulary required in order to comprehend second language literature, pupils’ ever increasing contact with English outside of school and pupils’ reactions to texts deemed either equal or below their own literacy level. In a classroom investigation, pupils were presented with texts taken from books judged to be either equal to or below their suggested age group, and asked to comment on their reading experiences. Results showed that texts from both sectors were received favourably, and that factors such as genre, protagonist gender and the book’s title were more decisive factors to a book’s popularity. Indeed, pupils noticed little or no difference in books written for a younger audience. Furthermore, an interview with an English teacher at a compulsory school confirmed that a book’s suggested age range had little or no importance when choosing texts for the classroom, and suggests that vocabulary focus in class can combat any discrepancy in pupil literacy levels.

Studiens syfte var att ta reda på hur drama upplevs i engelskundervisningen i grundskolans årkurser 1 till 3. Studien gjordes kvalitativt där data samlades in via intervjuer och webbaserade enkäter. Tyngdpunkten i studien var att ta reda på hur lärare uppfattar och tolkar drama i relation till EFL-undervisning. Tre forskningsfrågor ställdes för att säkerhetsställa att studien undersökte det den var ämnad att undersöka: Hur anger lärare att de tillämpar dramatiseringar i engelskundervisningen? Hur beskriver lärare att elevers språkutveckling påverkas av att dramatiseringar tillämpas i engelskundervisningen och vilken typ av drama anger lärare är mest effektiv i engelskundervisningen? Hur beskriver lärare att dramatiseringar påverkar elevers motivation till att lära sig engelska som främmande språk? Totalt deltog 23 lärare i enkätinsamlingen varav tre lärare intervjuades för att nå en djupare förståelse för fenomenet drama. Resultatet visade att lärare delade upp begreppet drama i fyra huvudkategorier: Teater, lek, improvisation och kroppsspråk. Undervisningen skedde med hjälp av dessa fyra kategorier genom bland annat rollspel, charader, handdockor och temainriktade lekar, exempelvis ”i affären”. Resultatet visade också att det lärare upplevde som det essentiella med drama i EFL-undervisning var att drama kunde bidra till högre motivation och språkutveckling hos elever. Drama var nära kopplat till fantasi,  kreativitet och god gruppdynamik, enligt lärarna. Studien utgick från en fenomenologiskmetodansats ur ett sociokulturellt perspektiv inspirerat av Lev Semënovic Vygotskij.

Drama activities in the classroom are highly encouraged in the teaching world. However, they are rarely implemented, from our experience, despite being a crucial aspect of students’ education as mentioned in the National Swedish curriculum. Therefore, we felt a need to direct our research on this topic. Based on eight different studies, this paper explores the possible effects and underlying learning theories of different drama activities in EFL/ESL education on primary students’ English literacy skills and motivation. The studies were found collaboratively using electronic search engines to gather primary sources, including academic papers and studies. They were divided equally between us and summarized individually. The different activities were categorized into “Performance-based” and “Text-based”. Results indicated positive impacts on different literacy skills, such as reading comprehension, fluency, vocabulary, grammar, and also motivation. Activities such as Reader’s Theater, scriptwriting, improvisation, role playing, and hot-seating were proven to be beneficial regarding students’ motivation and literacy development. Although this was not emphasized in our research, in order to successfully implement drama activities in the classroom teachers ought to be knowledgeable in the subject. This paper acknowledges other potential challenges, such as stress for certain students and concerns about noise and chaos. Vast majority of students enjoyed the drama activities, however, those who did not enjoy drama still showed improvement. Different learning theories such as socio-cultural learning, the zone of proximal development and the theory of multiple intelligences were highlighted as being connected to learning through drama activities.