It is important that the language in textbooks for foreign language learners reflects the language that the learners would encounter in real life. For this reason, the presence of the thousand most common nouns in two Swedish textbooks in Spanish for upper secondary school is observed in this study. Furthermore, this study aims to examine how these nouns occur in order to determine if their pattern of occurence favours the learning and consolidation of words. The main materials that have been used are A Frequency Dictionary of Spanish by Davies (2006) and the word search program available in the digital versions of the textbooks. The results show that the presence of the thousand most common Spanish nouns does reflect the frequency information presented in the frequency dictionary but not all thousand nouns are included. It has been concluded that the frequency information that Davies (2006) presents should only be one of many variables to bear in mind when it comes to what words to include in the textbooks since the frequency dictionary is based on a corpus that does not always reflect the type of language a beginner student in Spanish would need. The studied nouns are to a large extent repeated implicitly in the two textbooks. In order for the students to obtain more profound knowledge of words the textbooks would probably need to offer more possibilities for explicit repetition.

Sammandrag Föreliggande uppsats ämnar undersöka hur fyra svensklärare i grundskolans senare år uppfattar och beskriver att de arbetar med undervisning i läsförståelse, samt bedömning av läsförståelse i grundskolans årskurser 7-9. Datamaterial samlades in via halvstrukturerade intervjuer med fyra lärare, samtliga aktiva i grundskolans årskurs 7-9. Resultatet visar på varierande kunskaper om läsförståelsestrategier samt på olika sätt att bedriva undervisning i läsförståelsestrategier och läsförståelse. Samtliga lärare lägger dock stor vikt vid skönlitteratur, elevens egen läsning samt textsamtal mellan elever och mellan elever och lärare, som grund för att utveckla läsförståelsen. Lärarnas syn på vikten av feedback gällande elevernas läsförståelse varierar. Bedömning av läsförståelse sker till största delen summativt, även om undersökningen även till viss del visar på inslag av formativ bedömning.

For over forty years, researchers, activists, and policymakers have questioned how, if at all, pornography affects its viewers. Previous research has focused on how pornography relates to many factors including sexual risks, sexual permissiveness, violence, rape myth acceptance, and sexual behaviors. Much of this research, though, has been unable to identify the direction of the relationship between viewing sexually explicit material and various sexual attitudes and behaviors, and rarely studies a sample that is representative of the U.S. adult population. Instead, much of the research on pornography has relied on college student samples or other convenience samples. My study addresses these gaps by exploring a wide range of sexual behaviors and attitudes through surveying a sample of respondents who participate in online survey research panels. By accessing online survey panels, researchers are able to specify the demographics they would like their particular sample to reflect. For this study, a sample has been selected to reflect the U.S. population on age, race, and gender. To better assess the directionality of the relationship between exposure to sexually explicit material and respondents’ sexual behaviors and attitudes, I have included several closed-ended items that may help to better identify the temporal order of these variables. Additionally, I have used open-ended questions to provide a more in-depth account of respondents’ perceptions of pornography and how it relates to their sexual behaviors and relationships. Findings suggest that not only are there correlations between viewing pornography and the sexual acts participants engage in and find arousing, but that the material individuals are exposed to may be shaping their behaviors and attitudes. I discuss the quantitative findings in relation to respondents’ qualitative remarks within the context of sexual scripts theory.

The prevalence of male-centric pornography has been attributed to accepted (heteronormative) notions of gender specific sexual arousal, with men being characterized as visually stimulated and women naturally more aurally and emotionally receptive (cf. Christensen 1990, Faust 1980, Soble 2002). It has been argued that “if women reject the freedom to enjoy pornography and even male cheesecake, it must be because – no matter what permissions society gives us – women do not want it” (Abramson and Pinkerton 1995: 184). As women are not imagined as the intended recipients of these materials, this study was interested in how women connect their use of sexually explicit materials to their sexual biographies in the on-going process of (re)presenting their sexual identities. I wanted to not only explore what women conceptualize as sexually explicit materials and how they make sense of what they are seeing, but how and why these materials are used, the meanings attributed to these materials and the pleasures derived from them. To this end, 26 women between the ages of 25-35 were interviewed, either individually or as part of a focus group. A theoretical analytic, which bridged interactionist accounts of meaning-making and Foucauldian accounts of discourse, discipline and docile bodies, was articulated to account for how pornographic spectatorship is created, maintained and regulated. Regulation and resistance were situated within broader understandings of sexual scripts and governmentality, focusing on the construction (meaning-making) and deconstruction (resistance) of understandings of mainstream/malestream pornography. This research resulted in two interesting outcomes: (a) the redefinition of ‘gaze’ to account for active female spectatorship, as described by the women who participated in this study; and (b) discussion surrounding the ‘ethical use’ of pornographic materials, conceptualized via a governmentality lens. For the women who participated in this study, engaging with sexually explicit materials was not a passive experience. The narratives elicited demonstrate that these women did not merely absorb pornographic representations unquestioningly; they interrogated them, both subconsciously and consciously, brought new meanings to them and understood them through a decidedly female gaze – their own. These findings suggest a disruption to the assumption of female sexual passivity reverberated throughout patriarchal society.

This study investigates if and how grammar instructions and exercises in Spanish textbooks have evolved during the last thirty years. More specifically it focuses on how the grammar is presented (explicit instruction) and on the nature of the exercises (input, production and interaction). The method for investigating these things is firstly an analysis of the explicit instruction, and secondly a quantitative study of the exercises. The number of textbooks analyzed in this study is four and only the chapters that focus on teaching the preterite are included in the analysis. The result shows a tendency towards direct explicit instruction and controlled production practice. However, it also shows some signs that newer perspectives are gaining importance in the textbooks analyzed.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2007. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on October 23, 2007) Includes bibliographical references.

Denna studie åsyftar att undersöka om produktutvecklande B2B företag använder sig av sina kunders tysta kunskap i sin innovationsprocess. Studien ämnar även att undersöka vilka redskap eller stimuli som de berörda företagen företrädesvis använder sig av i kunskapsdelningsprocessen. Den undersökningsmetod som valts är en flerfallsstudie av kvalitativ art och den har bedrivits genom semistrukturerade intervjuer. Data analyserades genom en abduktiv analysmetod. Fem produktproducerande företag har deltagit i studien. Resultatet visar att de redskap och stimuli som används mest frekvent av de undersökta företagen i avsikt att nå sina kunders kunskap är förtroende, "face to face" möten, prototyper och bilder. Detta indikerar att företagen använder sig av sina kunders tysta kunskap i innovationsprocessen. Kännedom om den tysta kunskapen är dock generellt svag.

abstract: The nature of science (NOS) is included in the National Science Education Standards and is described as a critical component in the development of scientifically literate students. Despite the significance of NOS in science education reform, research shows that many students continue to possess naïve views of NOS. Explicit and reflective discussion as an instructional approach is relatively new in the field of research in NOS. When compared to other approaches, explicit instruction has been identified as more effective in promoting informed views of NOS, but gaps in student understanding still exist. The purpose of this study was to deepen the understanding of student learning of NOS through the investigation of two variations of explicit instruction. The subjects of the study were two seventh grade classes taught by the same classroom teacher. One class received explicit instruction of NOS within a plate tectonics unit and the second class received explicit instruction of NOS within a plate tectonics unit plus supporting activities focused on specific aspects of NOS. The instruction time for both classes was equalized and took place over a three week time period. The intention of this study was to see if the additional NOS activities helped students build a deeper understanding of NOS, or if a deep understanding could be formed solely through explicit and reflective discussion within content instruction. The results of the study showed that both classes progressed in their understanding of NOS. When the results of the two groups were compared, the group with the additional activities showed statistically significant gains on two of the four aspects of NOS assessed. These results suggest that the activities may have been valuable in promoting informed views, but more research is needed in this area. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Curriculum and Instruction 2011

Despite the enormous complexity inherent to language, almost all humans acquire and use their native language with apparent effortlessness, simply from being immersed in a normal social environment. It has been hypothesized that conscious processes play only a limited role in language, which may explain how language can be acquired and processed with so little effort. Using event-related potentials, this dissertation addresses this hypothesis by investigating the contributions of implicit and explicit neural mechanisms to different aspects of language. In the first study, the neural mechanisms mediating semantic and syntactic processing of word pairs were examined, using the attentional blink (AB) to manipulate awareness of target words. In the semantic condition, correctly reported target words elicited an N400 effect, while missed target words did not elicit an N400. These results provide evidence that awareness plays a critical role in semantic processing. In the second study, the neural mechanisms that support syntactic processing of full sentences were investigated, using a cross-modal AB to manipulate awareness of syntactic violations. Syntactic violations that were not consciously detected nonetheless elicited a left anterior negativity, indicating that syntactic processing is subserved by implicit neural mechanisms. In the third study, the neural mechanisms underlying semantic acquisition were examined, using a task in which the meanings of novel pseudowords were learned through context. Novel pseudowords elicited a robust N400 effect after remarkably little exposure but only during an explicit task and only when word meanings could be explicitly recognized, indicating that vocabulary acquisition is primarily mediated by explicit neural mechanisms. In the fourth study, the neural mechanisms that support the acquisition of second language (L2) syntax were investigated, using a language-learning task in which participants were trained either implicitly or explicitly. Regardless of training condition, learners who successfully learned the novel L2 syntactic rules showed P600 effects, suggesting that explicit mechanisms play a crucial role in acquiring L2 syntax. Taken together, results from these studies suggest that awareness plays a critical yet constrained role in language processing, yielding new insight into how language is spoken and understood so effortlessly. This dissertation includes previously published and co-authored material. / 10000-01-01

The prevalence of male-centric pornography has been attributed to accepted (heteronormative) notions of gender specific sexual arousal, with men being characterized as visually stimulated and women naturally more aurally and emotionally receptive (cf. Christensen 1990, Faust 1980, Soble 2002). It has been argued that “if women reject the freedom to enjoy pornography and even male cheesecake, it must be because – no matter what permissions society gives us – women do not want it” (Abramson and Pinkerton 1995: 184). As women are not imagined as the intended recipients of these materials, this study was interested in how women connect their use of sexually explicit materials to their sexual biographies in the on-going process of (re)presenting their sexual identities. I wanted to not only explore what women conceptualize as sexually explicit materials and how they make sense of what they are seeing, but how and why these materials are used, the meanings attributed to these materials and the pleasures derived from them. To this end, 26 women between the ages of 25-35 were interviewed, either individually or as part of a focus group. A theoretical analytic, which bridged interactionist accounts of meaning-making and Foucauldian accounts of discourse, discipline and docile bodies, was articulated to account for how pornographic spectatorship is created, maintained and regulated. Regulation and resistance were situated within broader understandings of sexual scripts and governmentality, focusing on the construction (meaning-making) and deconstruction (resistance) of understandings of mainstream/malestream pornography. This research resulted in two interesting outcomes: (a) the redefinition of ‘gaze’ to account for active female spectatorship, as described by the women who participated in this study; and (b) discussion surrounding the ‘ethical use’ of pornographic materials, conceptualized via a governmentality lens. For the women who participated in this study, engaging with sexually explicit materials was not a passive experience. The narratives elicited demonstrate that these women did not merely absorb pornographic representations unquestioningly; they interrogated them, both subconsciously and consciously, brought new meanings to them and understood them through a decidedly female gaze – their own. These findings suggest a disruption to the assumption of female sexual passivity reverberated throughout patriarchal society.