Föreliggande studie är en systematisk litteraturstudie. Problemområdet som ligger till grund för studien beskrivs med att dagens engelskundervisning till stor del innefattar innehåll som inte är bundet till någon kontext elever kan relatera till. Om lärare inte anpassar undervisningen efter elevers erfarenheter och intresse, eller inte reflekterar över syftet med innehållet i undervisningen kan en problematik uppstå. Problematiken kan innebära att elever kan få svårigheter att relatera till undervisningen. Detta kan leda till brist på intresse och förståelsen för språket kan minska. Syftet med studien var att kartlägga kontextens betydelse i ämnet engelska främst i årskurs 4-6, men även närliggande årskurser. Majoriteten av den forskning som studien omfattar talar för ett positivt utfall av att arbeta med ett kontextbundet innehåll i engelskundervisning, främst om fördelar med att arbeta kontextbundet vid inlärning av nya ord. När det kommer till undervisning i engelska i sin helhet, talar forskningen om vikten av att utgå från elevers intresse och erfarenheter. Det är värt att forska ytterligare kring området, då forskning saknas kring hur elever kan känna sig trygga i användningen av språket som resultat av en kontextbunden undervisning.

Vårt examensarbete handlar om vad användare har för attityder till en Visual Novel med ordinlärning som huvudsyfte. För att undersöka detta så framställde vi en Visual Novel med ett ordinlärningsmoment från svenska till engelska, där spelaren instrueras att skriva in understrukna ord. Därefter utförde vi en kvalitativ studie på deltagare i åldrarna 18 år och uppåt där de fick testa vår Visual Novel, och sedan intervjuades. Resultaten från vår undersökning tyder på att det finns ett intresse för Visual Novels med ordinlärning som huvudsyfte. Deltagarna tyckte att att kopplingen mellan det visuella och glosorna i vår Visual Novel inte var en viktig del i hur väl de lyckades med att klara glosorna, och att storyn kan anpassas för att användarna ska få bättre förutsättningar att komma ihåg glosorna.

Andraspråksinlärning förutsätter att elever lär sig nya ord och därmed förutsätter ett välfungerande minne och undervisningsmetoder som utnyttjar hur minnet lagrar och återkallar ord. I svenska grundskoloranvänds ofta den traditionella metoden, där elever får bekanta sig med nya ord och fraser (det vill säga glosor) genom att ta del av olika läromedelsbaserade texter och inspelningar i samband med en gloslista som ska instuderas till ett kommande glosförhör. I vår undersökninghar vi jämfört ordinlärning bland mellanstadieelever som har tagit del av den traditionella metoden kontraelever som har deltagit ien pedagogisk dramaaktivitet: Readers Theatre(lästeater). Vår undersökning var begränsad och dess validitet och reliabilitet kan ifrågasättas ur flera aspekter, men våra studieresultat stödjer premissen att elever som deltar i lästeater kan lära sig och minnas nya engelskglosor lika bra och även bättre än elever som lär sig dem genom traditionella undervisningsmetoder. Vår undersökningsresultatantyder att den traditionella metoden är bättre för att behärska stavning och översättning av några utvalda glosor, åtminstone kortsiktigt, medan lästeatermetoden gereleverna en bättre och mer minnesvärd uppfattning om glosornas betydelser och användning i kontext. Våra studieresultat pekar på att inga av metoderna ärfullständiga, då elevernas minne för orden och fraserna som de exponerades försämrades efter en vecka. Att kombinera metoderna skulle möjligtvis ha lett till mer avsiktlig repetition av orden och ännu bättre ordminne / Second language learning requires that pupilslearn new words and thus requires a well-functioning memory and teaching methods that utilize how the memory stores and recalls words. In Swedish gradeschools, the traditional method used to acquaint pupils with new words and phrases (i.e.vocabulary) isthrough various textbook-based texts and recordings in connection with a vocabularylist that is to be studied for an upcoming vocabulary text. In our study, we compared word learning among pupilswho were taught by the traditional methodversus pupils who participated in an educational drama activity: Readers Theatre. Our study was limited, and its validity and reliability can be questioned from several aspects, but our results support the premise that pupilswho participate in Readers Theatrecan learn and remember new English vocabularyjust as well and even better than pupilswho learn them through traditional teaching methods. Our survey results suggest that the traditional method is better for mastering spelling and translation of selected vocabulary,at least in the short-term, while Readers Theatregivespupilsa better and more memorable understandingof the meaning and use of the vocabularyin context. Our results indicate that neitherof the methods isinfallible, as pupils’memory for the words and phrases they were exposed to deteriorated after a week. Combining the methods might have led to more deliberate repetition of the vocabularyand even better vocabularymemory

This two-part study investigates the word frequency of a total of 1296 vocabularies presented in the textbooks Digilär Tyska 3 and Lieber Deutsch 3 2.0, which correspond to the language proficiency level A2. The aim of the study was to investigate to what extent the designated vocabulary in the two textbooks represents the most frequent words in the German language. To determine this, the study was divided into two parts: In the first part, a quantitative study was conducted to answer the following research question: To what extent does the vocabulary in two German textbooks used in Swedish upper secondary schools represent the most frequent words in the German language? The chapter vocabularies were compared to the corpus-based frequency dictionary A Frequency Dictionary of German which lists the 4034 most frequent words in the German language. This study showed that both textbooks provided a high coverage of high frequency words with a percentage of 78% and 73%. Additionally, the vocabularies belonging to the vocabulary excerises in Digilär Tyska 3 were investigated and the result showed that 62% of these words had a low frequency and were not included in the frequency dictionary. Due to this low frequency coverage in the vocabulary exercises a need for a second part of the study was identified to investigate whether this vocabulary, despite its low frequency would still be important for the students to learn. Therefore, a second study with the following two research questions was conducted: Which themes do the low frequent words belong to? To what extent would each word separately in a low frequent composition come across as high frequent?The analyses in the second part of this study showed that the most dominating themes among the low frequency words were describing words, animals, hobbies and other. Consequently, it was argued that these themes could be relevant to address the students’ varying interests. Furthermore, the frequency analysis of the low frequency compositions showed that 13.8 % of the low frequency words could be seen as high frequent when the frequency of each word within a composition was taken into account. Based on these results, it was argued that students learning German with the help of these textbooks would encounter many high frequency words. However, it was stressed that frequency alone cannot be the only deciding factor when identifying the adequate vocabulary for language learners. Motivational aspects such as incorporating vocabulary belonging to themes that students have an interest in would be another important factor that needs to be taken into account when choosing vocabulary. Furthermore, it was argued that teachers should incorporate strategies for German word composition to increase their students’ vocabulary range.

Out of the debate in Swedish media about homework, the idea for this study was born. The idea was to investigate the popular belief of many foreign language teachers which suggest that homework glossing is a necessity in the English classroom for pupils vocabulary acquisition, while other assumes this method doesn’t lead to knowledge that last. Therefore, the purpose for this study was to examine how learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) manage to learn new words when they received glossing as homework and when they studied the words in a context during class. Furthermore, out of the argument that homework stress pupils and lowers their interest and motivation for the subject, a secondary purpose was to find out pupils’ opinions about learning new words through glossing as English homework. The study was focused on two teaching methods for vocabulary acquisition: the traditional teaching method designed to teach vocabulary by giving glossing as homework, and teaching new words during class with a focus on teaching the new words in context. Through the survey of these two different methods for vocabulary learning and an empirical study with two primary school classes in which these two methods were put on test, contrary to the expectation that learning words through homework glossing wouldn’t lead to vocabulary knowledge that last, the results of the empirical study showed that the group which received glossing as homework, did better on both test than the group which studied the word in context. Similarly, the data results showed the average pupil had a positive attitude to vocabulary homework as for the most part they felt it benefited them to study this method because of the effects of learning.