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This study aimed to investigate L2 Swedish teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards WE accents. The results suggest that Swedish language teachers have a positive attitude towards diverse English accents despite showing favoritism towards privileged varieties such as AmE and BrE. Nonetheless, there seems to be a disconnect between three factors amongst teachers: knowledge, willingness, and practical application. For students to thrive in the world after their school careers (and during for that matter), the teachers may want to consider modeling the kind of tolerance, openness, and curiosity that they would like to see by acknowledging that English is a global language and pluricentric in nature. This is something that needs to be beyond simply raising awareness. Therefore, this study suggests that teachers, especially at the upper secondary level, be open and aware of WE in the sense that they accept and understand diverse English accents despite rooted favoritism for IC English accents. The most significant finding of the current study is that it shows that diverse English accents are not only comprehensible to L2 learners (to varying degrees) they are also highly acceptable. To this end, it would be advisable that educators and those who design listening comprehension tests alike consider including more diverse English accents in instruction material so that students receive more exposure and become more familiar with outer and expanding circles English language speakers. Additionally, it would be interesting to incorporate these diverse speakers in high-stakes arenas such as national tests. For future research, it might be worthwhile to consider using larger and more diverse samples as far as age, gender, and geographic location are concerned to avoid bias. In this way, the findings here can be validated since teachers likewise students may have different attitudes in other parts of Sweden, and the speakers do not represent their entire speech communities. Lastly, scripted tasks were used in this study, and therefore using everyday conversational utterances might be of interest to mirror more realistic experiences that English language learners may encounter. / <p>Slutgiltigt godkännandedatum: 2022-01-31</p>

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Like many other social issues concerning gender, language also comes with gendered stereotypes and limitations which results in difference and inequality in speech, based on gender. According to folk-linguistic beliefs and a variety of linguists, women are believed to speak in a specific way in which using swear words is not considered ideal. In this context, folk-linguistic beliefs are general speculations concerning language which is grounded on personal opinions and misconceptions. One common misconception remains that women swear less as foul language is considered as an emotion of anger, associated with masculinity rather than femininity. This research was carried out quantitatively and qualitatively using discourse analysis. Male and female characters from the series True Bloodon HBO were examined by analyzing the difference in frequency of swear words uttered by both genders. This study aims to determine if men swear more than women in the series and whether the theory of dominance can provide an explanation for the linguistic behavior of the male and female characters of the series. The quantitative data collected from the series was later discussed alongside some of the theories, in particular, the theory of dominance. The results suggest that the female character Tara in the series swears the most and the results fall in disagreement with folk-linguistic beliefs and Lakoffs (1973) claims stating that women use fewer expletives than men. Also, the linguistic behavior of the characters in the series does not confirm the theory of dominance no specific linguistic attributes concerning gender are spotted as there is no evidence of men appearing different in terms of power, dominance, or defiance in terms of language in the series.

I denna kandidatuppsats undersöker jag företeelser i svenska moderna (2000-talet och framåt) pop/rock- låttexter. Jag försöker ta reda på vad som kännetecknar de bästa texterna kontra ”mindre bra” sådana. Detta gör jag genom korpusanalys med avseende på allmän statistik, läsbarhet, ordklass- och ordfrekvenser. Jag tittar särskilt på de tolv svenska pop/rockalbum som vunnit Grammis för ’Årets textförfattare’ samt artisten Håkan Hellströms hela låtkatalog eftersom han vunnit priset flest gånger. Som referenser har jag tolv framgångsrika album av artister som aldrig vunnit nämnt pris, samt artisten Per Gessles (som är oerhört framgångsrik utan att ha vunnit priset) hela låtkatalog under nämnd tid. Jag förväntade mig att finna lingvistiska aspekter som skiljer vinnande - och Hellströms texter från referenskorpusarna. Optimalt hade varit att finna en slags formel för bra/ vinnande text. Vad jag fann var att det finns lingvistiska element som är fördelaktiga vid författande av låttexter, aspekter som ofta, men inte alltid, är gemensamma för bra/vinnande texter. Däremot fann jag ingen optimal formel för hur en text bör skrivas.

A common assumption about youth languages is that they are an expression of youth culture, and even if youth culture as a concept is difficult to define, it is often regarded that youths actively distance themselves from both childhood and adulthood. Language can thereby be discerned as a tool to accomplish this. But if youth languages is a tool for youths to distance themselves from adults, is it not then contraproductive for adults to write handbooks and dictionaries to help the understanding of these youth languages? It is in that paradoxal thought this study finds its’ premise. The handbooks and dictionaries can be viewed in two different ways. They can, on one hand, act for an increased understanding of youth languages, and on the other hand they can help adults learn how to actually speak them. The purpose of this study is to try and clarify in what context youths experience others use and understanding of youth languages as acceptable or problematic. Do youths experience that different groups of individuals have different rights to use or understand youth language? Do youths experience the use of youth languages in different contexts as more or less acceptable? The results show that the further away from youth, and the higher up in the social hierarchy the individuals are, the less acceptable it is for them, according to the youths, to use youth languages. Although the understanding of youth languages is generally accepted, except for children. These results are also reflected in the contexts youths accept and don’t accept the use of youth languages. Youth languages does, according to the youths, not belong in environments characterized by professionalism or politics, nor does it belong in media directed towards children.

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