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This dissertation is a study of the reception of the Jesuit-trained Italian author, Giovanni Botero (1544–1617) in early-seventeenth century England. It examines how Botero was translated for an English audience, and reconstructs the debates to which Botero was relevant and helped stimulate in late Elizabethan and Jacobean England. Part I examines the publication history of Botero’s books in England and finds that the translators and printers edited Botero significantly. Its primary focus is thus on who was translating Botero and for what purposes, and who was printing and selling the resulting books. It establishes that the most prominent of Botero’s books in England were the Della grandezza della città (1588), Della ragion di stato (1589), Relazioni Universali (1591–1595). Chapters I–III accordingly consider these works in turn. Chapter IV then briefly turns to consider Botero’s other works, including I prencipi (1600). Part II then turns to look at Botero’s readers. Four further chapters consider Botero’s reception in relation to four broad themes: geography and travel (Chapter I); climate and situation (Chapter II); colonies and commerce (Chapter III); and responses to Machiavelli (Chapter IV). Each of these chapters examine Botero’s contributions to these themes, other contemporary authors whom he was read alongside, and how and why people were reading him to speak to these debates. Ultimately, the backdrop to this story is English colonialism in the Americas and Ireland and a growing interest in understanding the political significance of trade. The dissertation therefore contributes to our understanding of the history of early modern political thought, translation and reception, and English-Italian intellectual exchange in the early modern period. Ultimately, the thesis tells two stories – one about the importance of this Italian author in seventeenth-century England, the other about the intellectual origins of certain key themes in British political thought of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

<p>This dissertation is the first architectural history devoted to Beverley Minster, a large and ambitious Gothic church located in the East Riding of Yorkshire. Beverley is one of the most important medieval buildings in England, but it has been almost entirely ignored in the literature. The church is composed of three parts: choir and transepts (c. 1225-1260), nave (c. 1308-c. 1370), and west façade (c. 1380-1420). </p><p>The thesis begins with a description of the destroyed buildings that occupied the site during the Saxon and Romanesque periods. The remainder of the dissertation focuses on the work completed at the Minster during the fourteenth century, in the so-called Decorated style. First, the nave is analyzed and its construction is assigned to six campaigns between the years c. 1308-c. 1370. Much discussion is devoted to the "historicism" of the nave's conservative design, which is a subtly modernized version of the east end that preceded it. Contemporary documents also permit discussion of the financial contributions of the laity, canons, and municipal leaders who paid for the nave to be built. </p><p>Finally, a detailed analysis is offered for the furnishings made at Beverley between 1292 and c. 1340: the reredos (high altar screen), sedilia (seating for priests), and the destroyed shrine which once contained the relics of St. John of Beverley. Like the nave, they are all neglected masterpieces of the Decorated style.</p> / Dissertation

English is an international and global language that students, regardless of mother tongue, encounter in their everyday lives. In Sweden, students are introduced to English teaching in year 1, 2 or 3, and in some cases, year 4. English teaching can sometimes be problematic when the language of instruction often consists of Swedish, which for second language students becomes a challenge to acquire new skills in a week language. The study aims to examine, with a qualitative study, how pedagogues plan and implements English teaching in first grade with students whose mother tongue are other than Swedish. Further, the aim was to examine how pedagogues say they relate to the fact that second language pupils participating in English lessons and if they think it affects their English teaching. The conclusions is that the pedagogues has probably not been problematized the phenomenon examined and say they do not adapt their teaching. In the interviews reveals information about the teaching method which, in my opinion, indicates that, unconsciously, adapting their teaching when they have second language students. Furthermore, the study points out the importance of English as language of instruction when there is a more equal situation for all students regardless of language. Second langue students do not need to go through the Swedish language to be taught in English.

This thesis examines the work of antiquary and scholar Joseph Ritson (1752-1803) in publishing significant and influential collections of early English and Scottish literature, including the first collection of medieval romance, by going beyond the biographical approaches to Ritson's work typical of nineteenth- and twentieth-century accounts, incorporating an analysis of Ritson's contributions to specific fields into a study of the context which made his work possible. It makes use of the 'Register of Manuscripts Sent to the Reading Room of the British Museum' to shed new light on Ritson's use of the manuscript collections of the British Museum. The thesis argues that Ritson's early polemic attacks on Thomas Warton, Thomas Percy, and the editors of Shakespeare allowed Ritson to establish his own claims to expertise and authority, built upon the research he had already undertaken in the British Museum and other public and private collections. Through his publications, Ritson experimented with different strategies for organizing, systematizing, interpreting and presenting his research, constructing very different collections for different kinds of texts, and different kinds of readers. A comparison of Ritson's three major collections of songs - A Select Collection of English Songs (1783), Ancient Songs (1790), and Scotish Songs (1794) - demonstrates some of the consequences of his decisions, particularly the distinction made between English and Scottish material. Although Ritson's Robin Hood (1795) is the most frequently reprinted of his collections, and one of the best studied, approaching this work within the immediate context of Ritson's research and other publications, rather than its later reception, offers some explanation for its more idiosyncratic features. Finally, Ritson's Ancient Engleish Metrical Romance's (1802) provides a striking example of Ritson's participation in collaborative networks and the difficulty of finding an audience and a market for editions of early English literature at the beginning of the nineteenth century.

Previous research on family literacy in North America has generally been conducted in English, even if the program targets English for speakers of other languages. However, the differences in English proficiency among parent participants may vary enormously in ways that are not easily predictable. In addition to the differences in parent participants’ English proficiency and their concept and experience of instruction, parents from diverse cultural backgrounds also have differences in parental beliefs, parental roles in supporting educational achievement and communicating with the school. All these differences make the provision of family literacy programs which target minority families as one group a challenging endeavor, both in program design and implementation. This study investigated the potential learning outcomes when a family literacy program with language supports were provided to Chinese immigrant families. An eight-week (two hours per week) literacy program was implemented in three Chinese community centers in Ontario, Canada. The overall objectives of the study were to provide a Chinese family literacy program in the Chinese community using Chinese as the language of instruction, and to evaluate the impact of this culturally related family literacy program in terms of children’s gains in both English and Chinese. This study has shown that a family literacy intervention, adapted for use with Chinese preschoolers and their parents, can have a significant and positive impact on children’s literacy development in both English and Chinese. This study found that children’s expressive vocabulary (both in English and in Chinese) improved as a result of the intervention. Children’s knowledge of the alphabet and their ability to produce letter-sounds improved significantly more if their parents participated in the intervention. Further, it was shown that specific home literacy environments in Chinese and in English are related to children’s literacy development in both languages. In Chinese, the number of Chinese reading materials in the home had the greatest impact on children’s Chinese receptive and expressive vocabularies. In English, the age at which the child was first read to in English had the greatest impact on children’s English expressive vocabularies, their letter-sound production knowledge, and their early reading ability. The study has shown that the provision of culturally and linguistically appropriate family literacy support goes a long way in helping diverse families to foster optimal literacy experiences for their young children at home.

Previous research on family literacy in North America has generally been conducted in English, even if the program targets English for speakers of other languages. However, the differences in English proficiency among parent participants may vary enormously in ways that are not easily predictable. In addition to the differences in parent participants’ English proficiency and their concept and experience of instruction, parents from diverse cultural backgrounds also have differences in parental beliefs, parental roles in supporting educational achievement and communicating with the school. All these differences make the provision of family literacy programs which target minority families as one group a challenging endeavor, both in program design and implementation. This study investigated the potential learning outcomes when a family literacy program with language supports were provided to Chinese immigrant families. An eight-week (two hours per week) literacy program was implemented in three Chinese community centers in Ontario, Canada. The overall objectives of the study were to provide a Chinese family literacy program in the Chinese community using Chinese as the language of instruction, and to evaluate the impact of this culturally related family literacy program in terms of children’s gains in both English and Chinese. This study has shown that a family literacy intervention, adapted for use with Chinese preschoolers and their parents, can have a significant and positive impact on children’s literacy development in both English and Chinese. This study found that children’s expressive vocabulary (both in English and in Chinese) improved as a result of the intervention. Children’s knowledge of the alphabet and their ability to produce letter-sounds improved significantly more if their parents participated in the intervention. Further, it was shown that specific home literacy environments in Chinese and in English are related to children’s literacy development in both languages. In Chinese, the number of Chinese reading materials in the home had the greatest impact on children’s Chinese receptive and expressive vocabularies. In English, the age at which the child was first read to in English had the greatest impact on children’s English expressive vocabularies, their letter-sound production knowledge, and their early reading ability. The study has shown that the provision of culturally and linguistically appropriate family literacy support goes a long way in helping diverse families to foster optimal literacy experiences for their young children at home.

In Korea, English education in kindergartens has dramatically increased in the last 15 years. As a result, almost all Korean kindergarten students are learning English today. The present study aims to understand Korean parents’, kindergarten teachers’, and kindergarten students’ perceptions of early English-language education (EEE). This study is particularly significant because thus far little research has investigated the perceptions of EEE held by the young learners themselves. Ninety-five participants - 30 kindergarten teachers, 33 parents, and 32 five- and six-year old kindergarten students - were recruited from five kindergartens in four cities in Chung-Nam province, Korea. The parents’ and teachers’ perceptions of EEE were examined through questionnaires, whereas the students’ perceptions of learning English were investigated through multiple data collection methods: a questionnaire, an interview session, and a drawing activity. Questionnaire data gathered from the parents and teachers were quantitatively analyzed, and the data gathered from the kindergarten students were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The findings revealed that the parent and student groups shared more positive attitudes towards EEE than the teacher group. In addition, many more parents and students believed that English education is necessary at the kindergarten level than the teachers did. Concerning kindergarten students’ perceptions, the three data collection methods in this study showed that many kindergarten children consistently held positive attitudes towards learning English. The students were not only interested in learning English, but they also showed high self-confidence in learning English. / Graduate

Abstract Titel: The Introduction of English at the Junior level of the Swedish 9-Year Comprehensive Compulsory School: A study of perceived knowledge in relation to motivation conducted among 3rdgrade students. Författare: Andersson, Rolf Engelska C, 2011 Antal sidor: 26 Abstract: This paper focuses on perceived knowledge of students at the junior level of the comprehensive compulsory 9-year school, as this has an impact on their motivation to study the language. The national curriculum of 2011 assumes that English is introduced at an early stage, during the junior level. The purpose of this paper is to examine how students who start English in the first grade, according to the recommendations of the curriculum, relate to the subject. The paper contains a bibliography section, where I present language research concerning foreign language introduction, language acquisition and motivation, followed by a presentation of a historical view on second language learning in Sweden, and then an investigation conducted by a questionnaire. The purpose of the investigation is to measure the students’ perceived knowledge of English, as this affects their motivation. The investigation is limited to two third grade classes in a junior level school in a rural, scarcely populated municipality in the south-west of Sweden. All in all 40 students took part in the study. The aim of the paper is to answer the following question: How do the pupils regard their own achievements in English? The students have a general ability to evaluate their personal achievements and knowledge subjectively. They seem quite confident about their listening and speaking skills. The most difficult language segment, writing, where the language skills and requirements are most clearly defined, is the language area where the students feel that their ability is weaker. All students, with one exception, agree that language studies are important for them. What the study also shows is the variety of languages that students wish to study, i.e. Chinese and Japanese together with Spanish, Greek and sign languages show how the 9-year-old students are aware of the world around them. The reason why this investigation has been conducted is to investigate the students’ perceived knowledge as this has an impact on their motivation to study the language. Nyckelord : Early English introduction, English at the junior level, perceived knowledge, motivation.

In March of 2005 I was a cast member in Mad Cow Theatre's production of the Morality drama Everyman. This classic tale on the condition of human dying is regarding as one of the greatest dramas of the Medieval period and is one of the first plays in the English language to be put into print. This thesis is an actor's journey into the history of Medieval theatre, the challenges of producing Everyman for a contemporary audience, and the techniques of acting implemented in the creation of allegorical characters. Medieval drama, like Everyman, is still relevant in today's world because it addresses universal themes of friendship, material wealth, and reverence towards death. It is the story of the human being, the power of beliefs, and the fear of death. This thesis reflects a group of artists' desire to give an audience the gift of insight into their common selves.