Adverbial connectors join together sentences and units in a text to signal logical relations. Appropriately used, they can help the reader to make sense of the text. The usage of adverbial connectors can create problems for foreign language learners, and is often shown as under- , over- and misuse of connectors. In this study, a quantitative analysis of connector usage of advanced EFL learners’ and native speakers’ student writing is presented. For the current corpus-based study, three sub-corpora of the SUSEC (Stockholm University Student English Corpus) were chosen. The sample includes 164 linguistic essays from students at Stockholm University and 82 linguistic essays from students at King’s College in London. The analysis, where the learners’ connector usage is compared to that of native speakers, is based on 69 connectors. The results show that both the learners and the native speakers rely on a rather small set of these connectors in their writing. As a group, the advanced Swedish EFL learners underuse connectors in their written production. Additionally, the learners significantly overuse 12 and underuse 6 connectors. Similarities between the learners and the native speakers were found in the positioning of the connectors. Both groups prefer the most frequently used connectors in the medial position of a sentence, and prefer mostly the same set of connectors in the different positions of a sentence, although some differences in the positioning were also found. The findings create a basis for future research where a qualitative analysis of the connector usage could be carried out in order to increase knowledge of the interlanguage of the learners. The findings could also be used for pedagogical purposes.

The English language has become an international language and is globally used as a lingua franca. Therefore, there has been a shift in English-language education toward teaching English as an interna-tional language (EIL). Teaching from the EIL paradigm means that English is seen as an international language used in communication by people from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. As the approach to English-language education changes from the traditional native-speaker, target country context, so does the role of culture within English-language teaching. The aim of this thesis is to in-vestigate and analyse cultural representations in two Swedish EFL textbooks used in upper-secondary school to see how they correspond with the EIL paradigm. This is done by focusing on the geograph-ical origin of the cultural content as well as looking at what kinds of culture are represented in the textbooks. A content analysis of the textbooks is conducted, using Kachru’s Concentric Circles of English as the model for the analysis of the geographical origin. Horibe’s model of the three different kinds of culture in EIL is the model used for coding the second part of the analysis. The results of the analysis show that culture of target countries and "Culture as social custom" dominate the cultural content of the textbook. Thus, although there are some indications that the EIL paradigm has influ-enced the textbooks, the traditional approach to culture in language teaching still prevails in the ana-lysed textbooks. Because of the relatively small sample included in the thesis, further studies need to be conducted in order to make conclusions regarding the Swedish context as a whole.

English is an important language since the world is becoming more interconnected and it is central to motivate Swedish pupils to study language. The Swedish Agency for Education states that motivation and learning increase when pupils access a living language and that teacher therefore should use authentic material. Yet, teachers of the English subject still rely a lot on textbooks. The aim of this study is to highlight the use of literature in the EFL classroom for grades 4-6, and to investigate teachers’ attitudes to the use of literature and also examine how they use literature and what they want to achieve by that use. To answer those questions an empirical study was conducted through interviews and a questionnaire. The main findings of this study are that teachers have a positive attitude towards using literature with their pupils and wants to use it more than they currently do. The main reason teachers use literature is to increase the pupils’ vocabulary and help them learn grammatical patterns as well as increasing their motivation. The most commonly used method is reading aloud. However, there are some hindrances for using literature such as the poor availability of English literature in schools. / <p>Engelska</p>

This is a qualitative study about how literature is used in the subject of English as a foreign language (EFL) or English as a second language (ESL) in the upper secondary school classroom. The study specifically focuses on what goals and activities are ascribed to the use of literature in the English language classroom. Literature has been used in the Swedish language classroom for decades but there is still an uncertainty as to how literature can and could be used. The aim for this thesis was to achieve an understanding of teacher’s choices when it came to goals and activities linked to the EFL/ESL classroom. This is a literature review where primary sources have been analyzed using critical literacy and cultural theory to specify the different authors stand-point about the use of literature. Background information also provides a basis for the analysis where authors dedicated to the use of literature in the language classroom discuss and describe general concepts and ideas of how literature is used and could or should be used. The study showed that depending on the teacher’s goals with literature different methods and activities are linked to the lessons. Critical literacy and cultural theoryhelped develop an understanding of the thoughts and ideas underpinning the concepts of the primary sources, whether it was about altering students’ behavior or fostering democratic and empathetic citizens. The results showed that literature is used in a variety of ways, but at times the student-oriented goals and activities are unclear. This calls for further research on the area of using literature in the EFL/ESL classroom.

Movies are an occurring feature in EFL classrooms in Sweden, as well as exercises seeking to practice listening comprehension, although, there are few studies which combine the two together. The aim for this literature review was to analyse the use of film for listening comprehension development in EFL classrooms. The results show that movies can help students reach higher levels of listening because students felt more motivated and they became more active. The results also show further that teachers can help students reach higher levels of listening comprehension by using various features such as pauses, activities before, during and after the movie etc. The results also show that listening comprehension is a somewhat “take n for granted skill” which needs to be researched more about, specifically the importance of listening comprehension in the context of the other skills.

Web 2.0 technologies are increasing in popularity, offering huge possibilities, but also bringing new challenges to language learning classes. In the context of ESL and EFL teaching and learning Web 2.0 technologies, specifically blogs and wikis can be used for teaching collaborative process writing. This study investigates previous research on the use of blogs and wikis as tools for collaborative process writing in the context of ESL/EFL classrooms and identifies the advantages and disadvantages of using blogs and wikis for this purpose as well as tries to investigate how their use in ESL/EFL can be organized. The findings show that there are a number of advantages that speak for using blogs and wikis in ESL/EFL teaching and learning. However, there are also disadvantages that can interfere the successful use of blogs and wikis for collaborative process writing. As to possible ways of using blogs and wikis within ESL/EFL context, effective examples of group and pair work were identified.

Technology advances at a fast rate and pupils encounter a larger amount of English outside school than they do in the EFL classroom. In addition, an update to the Swedish curriculum (LGR 11), that concerns digitalization takes effect in July this year (2018). That is why this thesis aims to explore Swedish EFL teachers’ use of pupils’ extramural (out-of-school) English experience of new media in the EFL classroom. New media is a means of mass communication, a product or service that provides entertainment or information through a computer or the Internet. New media is generally created by the users and for this thesis, relevant new media are social media, social networks sites, online streaming, fan sites and gaming. The results of this study show that about two-thirds of the 27 teachers surveyed in this study have used new media in their English teaching sometime in the last two years. Most of the teachers use it because they are interested in new media, to catch the attention of the pupils or because they find the content of new media useful for their teaching. One-third of the teachers did not use new media and reported that they did not have sufficient knowledge on how to use new media in their English teaching. The results also show that even though new media is used by many of these teachers, the use of it is basic and few reflections are made during the use of new media. Further research about why teachers lack knowledge and how the use of new media can be extended would arguably give a better understanding of teachers’ use of pupils’ extramural English experience of new media. / <p>Engelska</p>

I dagens mångkulturella skola möter vi flertalet barn med ett annat modersmål än svenska. Eleverna har kommit till landet av många olika anledningar och har alla olika erfarenheter med sig. Forskning har börjat uppmärksamma hur man framgångsrikt kan arbeta med språkinlärning hos flerspråkiga elever utifrån deras förutsättningar och kunskaper. Ett dilemma många lärare stöter på är dock undervisningen av engelska då två språk lärs in samtidigt, vilket i sin tur kan skapa sammanblandningar mellan språken. Detta examensarbete undersöker och redogör för lärares attityder och inställning till flerspråkiga elevers inlärning i ämnet engelska men också hur flerspråkiga elever uppfattar sin engelskundervisning. Datainsamlingen har genomförts genom enskilda intervjuer med sju elever från tre olika klasser samt ett frågeformulär som delats via internet för att nå ett stort antal undervisande lärare i engelska. Resultatet analyserades och jämfördes med två teorier, tidigare forskning samt med stöd i läroplanen. Resultatet visar att lärare generellt saknar kunskaper och resurser för att kunna erbjuda flerspråkiga elever den bästa undervisningsformen. Flertalet av eleverna upplever dock att engelska är spännande och roligt samt uppskattar att lära sig två språk samtidigt. Det framkommer även att många lärare har uppfattningen att flerspråkiga elever har svårigheter vid inlärningen av två språk. Vidare forskning i ämnet vore att undersöka fenomenet i ett större perspektiv, att jämföra flerspråkiga klassrum i Sverige med andra länder för att synliggöra var svenska klassrum befinner sig i den internationella utvecklingen. / <p>Engelska</p>

Today the majority of children and teenagers in many countries spend a great deal of time doing extramural English activities, where playing games is included. It is therefore important to study how extramural English activities affect students’ proficiency. This thesis aims to investigate how games as an extramural activity, and extramural English activities in general could benefit upper secondary EFL and ESL students’ English language proficiency. The method used was that of a systematic literature review where six studies from varying places and with participants of varying ages and levels of education were analyzed and compared. The results show that five of the articles found a positive correlation between time spent on extramural English activities and English grades and/or vocabulary, while on study showed that there was no correlation between time spent on extramural English activities and development of academic vocabulary in students who had already reached a high level of proficiency. More research is needed in the field, particularly studies establishing causation rather than just correlation, longitudinal studies, as well as studies investigating whether gender is an important factor affecting the potential benefits of extramural English activities.

Gamification is a topic that most people assume has something to do with playing video games in the classroom. The aim of this thesis is to discuss how Swedish EFL teachers work with feedback in upper secondary school, what they know about gamification and how gamification and feedback might be related. Four teachers participated in the semi-structured interviews. The results showed that teachers work with formative assessment to a great extent during the year and more with summative feedback at the end. Firstly, the feedback that the teachers gave pupils was both in written and oral production and the feedback itself could also be written and spoken. Secondly, the study showed that gamification and feedback might be related because they can both increase motivation and language development. Finally, the teachers did not know much about gamification, but the study showed that the idea of gamification was being used by teachers. The most commonly used gamified tools used by these teachers were online programs, feedback and rewards.