This study examines the effects on reading flow of decoding training and decoding training in combination with morphological awareness instruction. The study included a small group of students with reading and writing difficulties in grade three. Based on reading comprehension tests, two intervention groups were identified with three students in each class and two corresponding control groups. The students received intensive training for six weeks. The students were also interviewed to find out their attitude to reading at school and at home. Three different pre- and posttests have been carried out to measure any change in student reading flow. The results show that there are benefits in terms of reading flow resulting from the short intensive training for this group of students. The interventionstudents gained insight into the importance of reading as well as a more positive attitude towards their own reading ability after the intervention.

No description available.

This paper examines how teachers and librarians are helping children and young people withdyslexia/reading and writing difficulties. The examination has taken place in a small municipalityin Skaraborg County. Seven teachers in the municipal schools and the chief librarian inthe municipal library have been interviewed as well as an advising county librarian.In the municipal schools the pupils have access to literature in easy language and computerswith programs training reading, writing and spelling. In some schools there are textbooks ontape too. In the municipal library and in the county library disabled readers can loan literatureon tape and literature in easy language.The conclusion of the examination is that children and young people with dyslexia/readingand writing difficulties need all sorts of aids in reading and writing. More cooperation betweenteachers and librarians would benefit these pupils.

The aim of this Master’s Thesis is to examine the importance of literacy and reading in a country like Jamaica. What role do public libraries and bookmobiles play in promoting literacy, and how does this work correspond with the UNESCO public library manifesto?To answer this, interviews were conducted with nine Jamaican librarians, and study visits were made to libraries and bookmobiles. In addition, development plans, policy and other relevant documents were analyzed. The themes that emerged from the interviews and the different development plans were compared. These themes and the observations from the study visits were analyzed from the perspective of Amartya Sen’s theories on development as freedom, in which greater freedom for people is seen both as the main goal of development and the most important means of development. The conclusions to be drawn from this are that both librarians and government consider literacy and information to be essential to development and economic growth in Jamaica. It is clear that libraries and bookmobiles have contributed to a more literate society and play an active part in the country’s educational system. However, the informal nature of this contribution makes it difficult to estimate its actual extent. The activities of the public library service in Jamaica correspond very well with the UNESCO public library manifesto, even though it is not clearly stated in any policy documents that the manifesto is important and should be followed. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The purpose of this masters´ thesis is to examine the attitudes of public librarians towards easy-to-read literature and see whether a connection between these attitudes and accessibility can be made. The study has been performed with a qualitative approach and consists of four depth interviews with emphasis on how librarians relate to and experience easy-to-read literature and its´ users. As complement to the depth interviews, two micro interviews were made. The study can be seen as a follow up to a survey I made 2005, commissioned by The centre for Easy- to-Read. As analytical tools the cultural sociological theories of Pierre Bourdieu, with his concepts field, cultural capital and habitus, have been used. The results show that easy-to-read literature often seems to be disregarded at public libraries, and that the cause for this seems to have several facets. The following three main interrelated themes and factors are discernable from the empirical material: lack of knowledge (both in relation to the literature and the users), snobbery and feelings of shame. Lack of knowledge is related to a lack of education in the area of special media in large. An attitude of snobbishness is discerned in the area of special media in general and easy-to-read literature takes a position far down in the rather hierarchical institution of public libraries. Low wages as well as low status are said to be common to the area. In the analysis this is linked to the general low position of the easy-to-read literature in the literature field as a whole. In accordance with this there is as well little symbolic capital and power to gain, whether you be a librarian, producer, author or publisher. The general associations connected to easy-to-read literature as being dull and uninteresting can probably be seen as a consequence of low expectations from all operators involved. The last factor; feelings of shame, seem to be prominent in connection with this kind of literature. The informants avoid showing users the easy-to-read literature, considering it shameful to assume that the user has a reading disability. Taken together, these factors make the accessibility of the easy-to-read literature at the public libraries unsatisfying. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The purpose of this Master’s thesis is to examine the accessibility and barriers of public libraries to intellectual and mentally disabled children and young people. This we will do by examining whether the library staff acts according to policies of the libraries. Our method has been qualitative interviews with library staff and we have also observed the environment, media and marketing of these libraries. As a theoretical starting point of the analysis we use Michael Buckland’s different aspects of access to information. He discusses six types of barriers that must be overcome if access is to be achieved and we use five of these barriers in our study. We have attempted to answer the following questions: •What does the library range of media look like to the disabled children and young people?•Which services do the libraries offer to the disabled children and young people?•How is the physical environment designed for the disabled persons at the libraries?•How does the library inform about their services to the disabled people and market them to these groups?The results of this study show that in all libraries, the staff displayed a positive attitude towards the disabled children. We noticed that all libraries appeared to have quite a good media collection and good services for those children. After the interviews and the observations we found that the library’s environment and marketing need to be improved. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The aim of this study is to gain an understanding of how dyslexic adults experience the library, their meeting with a librarian and how they feel they are being helped with finding literature. To answer the purpose of the study I have conducted six semi-structured interviews with dyslexic adults.. Two theoretical models were used as an analytical tool in this study. One was Michael Buckland's aspects of access to information. The other is four aspects that explains the significance of personal encounter at the library. The findings in this study show that the kind of reception dyslexic library users have met in the past, becomes important for how they perceive the library today. There are also difficulties that the dyslexic library users encounter in the library. One example of this is that the library catalogue requires correct spelling. As a result many users avoid using the library catalogue and find other ways to access the literature they are looking for. A further conclusion in this study is the importance of a personal assistance from a librarian. A librarian can often help to overcome the barriers that make it difficult for dyslexic library users to find literature. / Program: Bibliotekarie

Studiens syftar till att undersöka hur sex SFI-lärare upptäcker och fortsätter undervisningen där det finns misstanke om läs- och skrivsvårigheter. Studiens syfte är att undersöka vilka förmågor och praktik som finns för att urskilja läs- och skrivsvårigheter hos andraspråksinlärare samt hur eventuellt stöd är utformat till dessa elever. Undersökningen har genomförts med kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer vilket lämpar sig väl vid undersökning av människors personliga erfarenheter och åsikter. Resultatet som har framkommit i studien visar på lärarnas avsaknad av formell kompetens vid identifiering av läs- och skrivsvårigheter och slutsatsen utifrån denna studie visar på behov av utbildning för att på ett säkert sätt identifiera läs- och skrivsvårigheter hos andraspråksinlärare.

This quantitative study examines whether the English screening tool ”Adult Reading History Questionnaire” works in a Swedish context or not. The essay is based on a formation of a new screening tool called ARHQ-vux. The intention was to find out whether a person might be dyslectic or not. ARHQ-vux is based on components such as heredity factors and how the informants experienced school as a child. The screening tool was tested in a sample of 71 adult students at five different adult educational institutions in the north of Sweden. To measure the validity a correlation was made between ARHQ-vux and the already standardized Swedish screening tool DUVAN. This study shows that the tool ARHQ-vux successfully can be used as a reliable screening tool to identify adults who might be at risk of dyslexia.

Huvudsyftena med den här studien är att undersöka hur IKT (informations- och kommunikationsteknik) används i svenskundervisningen av lärare i förskoleklassen till årskurs 3, samt en granskning av vad lärarna ser för möjligheter och hinder vid användning av IKT. För att uppnå detta syfte har jag valt att undersöka sju F-3 lärare. Frågeställningarna som har tagits fram för att svara på studiens syfte är: (1) hur används IKT i svenskundervisningen, (2) vilka möjligheter och hinder finns med IKT i undervisningen och (3) vilka attityder har lärarna till användningen av IKT som pedagogiskt redskap i svenskundervisningen? Kvalitativa intervjuer har genomförts med de sju lärarna i F-3-klasser. Det sociokulturella- och konstruktivistiska perspektivet har legat till grund för studiens analys. Resultatet visar att det finns samband mellan lärarnas användande av IKT och deras kompetens. Lärarna använder IKT på liknande sätt men i olika mängd. I svenskundervisningen använde lärarna IKT för att eleverna lättare ska kunna skriva och bearbeta längre texter. Lärarna använde även IKT för att visa bilder och filmer. De lärare som var mitt uppe i att lära eleverna att skriva bokstäver använde sig även av IKT för att lägga upp en bild på whiteboarden för att sedan skriva "på" bilder för att lättare visa eleverna vilka bokstäver som ska ner i "källaren" och vilka som ska upp på "vinden".