In the field of L2 (second language) writing, a great number of studies have been done to explore learners’ writing processes and writing strategies since the last three decades. However, the relationship between learners’ strategy use and writing performance is still not clear-cut, and researchers still debate about whether L1 (first language) writing processes and strategies are similar to or different from L2 writing processes and strategies. To explore these controversial issues, this study has examined the L1 and L2 academic writing processes of 35 Chinese ESL (English-as-a-second-language) learners by using concurrent think-aloud protocols and retrospective interviews. In line with previous strategy studies, the findings of present study also revealed that learners selected, used, and evaluated a wide range of writing strategies (i.e., approach, rhetorical, communication, cognitive, metacognitive, affective, and social strategies) in both L1 and L2 tasks. Moreover, the results of qualitative and quantitative analyses indicated that the overall pattern of strategy use by learners was similar between L1 and L2. Specifically, learners tended to transfer their approach, rhetorical, communication, and cognitive strategies across languages. As for the correlations between writing strategies and writing scores, statistical tests did not detect any significant relationships between learners’ strategy use and their writing performance in either the L1 writing task or the L2 writing task. One main implication suggested by the present study is that learners should not only be encouraged to reflect on their L2 writing performance and strategy use, but also be provided with the opportunities to reconsider and reflect on how they usually approach and process L1 writing tasks. / Graduate

Although there have been a large number of studies on the use of L1 and L2, there seem to be few on L1 use in Chinese university EFL classrooms, especially investigating the language use of those who teach English to students at different proficiency levels or teach different types of English courses. This thesis aims to analyze four Chinese EFL teachers’ actual use of L1 and L2, to understand their attitudes and beliefs regarding this issue, and their own perceptions of and reasons for their language use, and to explore possible influencing factors. The reading-and-writing lessons and the listening-and-speaking lessons of these four teachers, who were teaching non-English major students at four different levels, were observed and recorded. All the observed lessons were subjected to quantitative analysis with the aim of providing a clear picture of the distribution of their L1 and L2 use. Some episodes selected from these lessons were subjected to further detailed analysis, in order to provide an account of the circumstances, functions, and grammatical patterns of their language use, as well as their language use across different frames of classroom discourse. The teachers were interviewed subsequently about their general beliefs on the use of L1 in L2 teaching and learning. Separately, in a stimulated recall interview, they were invited to provide comments specifically on their language use in the selected episodes that were replayed to them. The quantitative findings show that the amount of the teachers’ L1 use was not necessarily closely related to their students’ English proficiency levels, although the teacher of the students at the lowest level used the highest amount of Chinese in her lessons. However, a noteworthy finding was that all four teachers used more Chinese in the reading-and-writing lessons than in the listening-and-speaking lessons, although with substantial individual variation. The qualitative analysis of classroom data indicates that these teachers switched often at unit boundaries, but rarely at clause boundaries. They also switched frequently within units, especially within noun phrases, and the ‘Chinese determiner + English noun’ pattern is the main one they had in common. Furthermore, the teachers used Chinese as the matrix language in their mixed utterances in most cases, and these mixed utterances nearly always fitted Myers-Scotton’s Morpheme Order principle and System Morpheme principle. The teachers were also found to use Chinese in a variety of circumstances, such as talking about lesson plans or examinations, dealing with exercises, analyzing text, teaching vocabulary, checking the students’ comprehension or retention, giving the students advice on learning, telling anecdotes and assigning homework. The functions for which they used Chinese could be divided into four main categories: facilitating developing lesson content; supporting students and carrying out classroom management; delivering information related to teaching agenda or examinations; and facilitating communication beyond language learning and teaching. The most frequent function common to all four teachers was translation. Furthermore, the study used four different ‘frames’ to analyze classroom discourse, and found that the teachers used the L1 with varying frequency across these frames. Moreover, although all four teachers believed that using the L1 was beneficial to L2 learning, their attitudes towards the medium of instruction were different. While two advocated using the L1, the other two expressed a preference for speaking English-only and perceived their L1 use as a compromise or an expedient. The teachers reported many reasons for their L1 use. The factors that affected their language use consisted of both immediate classroom factors, such as functions of utterances, students’ language use, students’ perceived mood, students’ background knowledge, the difficulty of lesson content, time limitations, teachers’ awareness of their own L1 use, and teachers’ state of mind at a particular moment in a lesson, and relatively static factors, such as the university policy, students’ L2 abilities, teaching objectives, teachers’ beliefs regarding L1 use, and teachers’ L2 abilities. Through its detailed analysis of the teachers’ language use, as well as their relevant beliefs and decision-making, this thesis hopes to make a contribution to L2 teachers’ professional development and L2 teaching, especially in helping to establish a pedagogically principled approach to L1 and L2 use.

I den här studien undersöks förståelse av och attityder till ordvitsar i reklamerna Lidl  ”Lidl är Lidl. Allt annat är olidligt.” och Delicato ”Tallriksmodellen”. Syftet med undersökningen är att ta reda på likheter och skillnader för L1- och L2-talare av svenska i deras attityder och förståelse av ordvitsar i en reklam. Samt vilka bakomliggande faktorer som spelar in. Metoden som användes i den här kvalitativaundersökningen tog sin form i en enkätundersökning samt en multimodal analys av två reklamer.  Studiens resultat visar att det är avgörande hur lång vistelsetid i Sverige, startålder och studietid en L2-inlärare har och hur det påverkar förståelsen av ordvitsar i reklam. En slutsats är att det visade sig vara ganska lika resultat i förståelse av och attityder till ordvitsar i reklam mellan L1- och L2-talare av svenska vilket spräckte en förutfattad mening om att ordvitsarna skulle vara mer uppskattade för L1-talarna än L2-talarna.

The new world of academic discourse is complex and necessitates that L1 and L2 graduate students learn a multiplicity of texts, master intertextuality, and actively participate in emerging literacies or genres of their disciplines (Molle & Prior, 2008; Swales, 2004; Warren, 2013). Challenges arise about how doctoral students produce, interpret, and learn texts and genres, and how they act and react around text production in particular multicultural institutional contexts (Hyland, 2000; Prior, 2004). Little is known about how students, particularly those in higher education, establish intertextual connections among different modes of texts (e.g., written, oral, visual) for actively engaging in literacy (Belcher & Hirvela, 2008; Seloni, 2012). The purpose of this study is to examine how L1 and L2 doctoral students use intertextual practices to create meaning and develop their academic literacies during the literacy events of Global Conversations and Literacy Research (GCLR) web seminars. Drawing upon microethnographic discourse analysis, more particularly the constructs of intertextuality (Bloome, & Carter, 2013), I investigate the following questions a) How are the L1 and L2 students engaged in intertextual practices in the literacy events of GCLR web seminars? b) How does the use of intertextuality contribute to L1 and L2 students’ academic literacies? The participants are two L1 and two L2 doctoral students, who are also multilinguals, had different first languages (i.e., Korean, English, Chinese), and actively engaged in the GCLR web seminars. Data drew upon interviews, chat transcriptions, video recordings of the web seminars, and visuals. Data collection and analyses began in September 2014, and continued through November 2015. Microethnographic discourse analysis showed how participants constructed intertextual connections during the literacy events of the GCLR web seminars. The findings show how L1 and L2 doctoral students used intertextuality to socialize into academic discourse, mediate discoursal identities, and develop cultural models. The study has implications for L1 and L2 pedagogy, multilingual’s learning, and research: Future research should investigate academic literacies with intertextual connections to oral, written, and online discourses. Educators and graduate students are encouraged to exploit the full potential of intertextuality through metacognition in emerging academic literacies and mediated discoursal identities.

>Magister Scientiae - MSc / This study describes the synthesis and characterisation of Cu(II) and V(IV) complexes of tri- and quadridentate ligands L1 and L2 formed by condensation of ethylenediamine with acetylacetonate in 1:1 and 1:2 molar ratio, respectively. Encapsulation of these metal complexes in the nanocage of zoilite-Y generates new heterogeneous catalysts. These catalysts were synthesized employing the flexible ligand method encapsulation technique.The structures of these encapsulated complexes were established on the basis of various physico-chemical and spectroscopic studies. The results indicated that the complexes did not hinder or modify the framework or structure of the zeolite, confirming successful immobilization of Schiff-bases through the voids of zeolite Y.These encapsulated complexes were screened as heterogeneous catalysts for various oxidation reactions such as such as phenol, benzene, styrene and cyclohexene using a green oxidant (H2O2).For comparison, the corresponding neat complexes were screened as potential homogeneous catalysts for these oxidation reactions. The results proved that the corresponding homogeneous systems described here represent an efficient and inexpensive method for oxidation of phenol, benzene, styrene and cyclohexene, having advantages over heterogeneous catalysis are its high activity and selectivity and short reaction times. Its major problem is its industrial application regarding principally the separation of the catalyst from the products.The size of the substrate has a significant effect on the conversion by encapsulated complexes such as in styrene oxidation. Therefore, it was established that steric effects of the substrates play a critical role in the poor reactive nature of the encapsulated complexes.In general, the percentage conversion decreased upon encapsulation of complexes in zeolite Y. All catalysts studied proved to be potential catalysts for the various oxidation reactions.It has been shown in this study that encapsulation can effectively improve product selectivity but requires a longer reaction time in most cases for maximum activity.Furthermore,oxovanadium complexes were more reactive than copper-based catalysts in all oxidation reactions tested in this study.A reaction mechanism study revealed that the activity of the encapsulated and neat complexes occurs through either formation of peroxovanadium (V) or hydroperoxidecopper(II) intermediate species.The studies in this thesis, therefore, conclude that the Cu(II) and V(IV) complexes encapsulated in Y-zeolite are active heterogeneous catalysts for the selective oxidation of various substrates. Encapsulation of the metal complexes in the super cages (-cages) of the zeolite matrix has the advantages of solid heterogeneous catalysts of easy separation and handling, ruggedness, thermostability, reusability (regeneration of the deactivated catalysts) as well as share many advantageous features of homogeneous catalysts.

This study investigated cognitive factors that might influence Chinese EFL learners’ argumentative essay writing in English. The factors that were explored included English (L2) language proficiency, Chinese (L1) writing ability, genre knowledge, use of writing strategies, and working memory capacity in L1 and L2. Data were collected from 136 university students who received a battery of tests in two sessions. The tests consisted of timed essay writing tasks in L1 and L2, post-writing questionnaires for genre knowledge and use of strategies in the writing process, a timed grammaticality judgment task for L2 grammar knowledge, a receptive vocabulary test and a controlled-production vocabulary test for L2 vocabulary knowledge, and working memory span tasks in L1 and L2. Quantitative analyses using correlations, paired-samples t-test, analysis of variance and multiple regression revealed that L2 language proficiency is the most important predictor of L2 writing, followed by genre knowledge and L2 writing strategies. L1 writing ability and working memory capacity have slight impact as explanatory variables for L2 writing performance in the timed essay writing task.

This study investigates the types, frequencies and functions of hedges and boosters employed in L1 and L2 argumentative paragraphs written by Turkish learners of English with pre-intermediate level of proficiency. It aims to uncover whether or not Turkish learners of English writing in L1 and L2 display any transfer in their employment of hedges and boosters. The extent to which the academic writing teaching materials result in any measurable change in the employment of hedges and boosters is also pursued. To this end, the data that is comprised of 104 (52 Turkish and 52 English) argumentative paragraphs written as a response to a TOEFL essay prompt are collected. The analysis of the data is done manually and each paragraph is coded and formatted in CLAN CHILDES. Later, PASW is used to run the descriptive statistics and calculate the frequency and percentages of hedges and boosters. The results show that the types, frequencies, and meanings of hedges and boosters are culture and language-specific and they are topic and genre dependent. Research v findings also reveal that the participants in this study often express appropriate degree of certainty and pragmatic vagueness while writing in L1 and L2. However, there are some cases in which the evidence of rhetorical transfer are observed with respect to functions of certain hedges. The findings further indicate that there is a parallelism between the teaching materials used in academic writing classes and the types, frequencies and functions of hedges and boosters produced in L2 paragraphs.

This study sets out to examine the teacher perspective of the use of Swedish and English during English teaching in year 4. Whether the first language, in this case Swedish, should be included is a much debated questions, and, there is no unanimous answer. On the one hand, scholars promote the sole use of the target language in the classroom and argue that such an approach would result in the students communicating more in English. On the other hand, the first language, in this context Swedish, is seen as a resource which can aid language learning. In addition, there appear to be a gap between this discussion and practice on ground. Therefore, this study aims to examine a few teachers’ beliefs and motivation for their language use. The study is conducted through lesson observations and qualitative interviews with four Swedish primary school teachers who teach English. Results show that two of the four teachers believe that the ‘English Only’ approach is most advantageous. Whereas the other two believe that the learners need translations to support their understanding. Swedish is used in every classroom to a varying degree; however, all the teachers motivate its use with the same reasoning: the students’ low proficiency in English makes it too difficult to use the target language only. Furthermore, the teachers find the need to include the first language in order to reach and support all learners. However, one can question this approach as it does not include the learners whom have other first languages than Swedish, and who are forced to learn English via Swedish. The results imply that teachers may need further education on how to work with Swedish and multilingualism in a conscious and pedagogical way.

This empirical degree project explores the use of Swedish in foreign language learning such as English and the subsequent consequences. For this study, we explored the positions of researchers regarding the topic and investigated how, when and why three teachers in Sweden used the Swedish language during English teaching. The study provides an overview of theories and literature regarding the use of first language during foreign language teaching. Some findings suggest that the first language should not be excluded in second language acquisition but incorporated with limited use. However, it could be problematic to incorporate the Swedish language for the students with different origins. In that scenario, the students would be forced to acquire a foreign language through their second or third language. The study also connects these findings and research to the theoretical background of the socio-cultural views in the classrooms and the zone of proximal development. The method used for this study was a qualitative data collection in the form of semi-structured interviews with three primary teachers. The results show that these teachers reported using the Swedish language with variations thus the common reason for usage of Swedish during English learning would be for instructing purposes. Moreover, research suggests that maximising the target language during foreign language learning would expose the students to utilize the target language and that if the teacher would overuse Swedish during foreign language teaching the students would not sense the need to practise the language. The study also investigates when and how the teachers believe their students are exposed to the English language. The participants agreed upon that the exposure of the English language occurs on daily basis for the students moreover, participants would also agree that most of the exposure would be extramural. Our major conclusion is that incorporating the Swedish language in English learning should be considered with care. Some research suggests that the first language may provide enough scaffolding for the students however, the teachers may find several variations of providing the scaffolding for the students without the incorporation of the Swedish language.

Excerpt: Yanan Song and Stephen Andrews address the topic of teachers’ use of the first language (L1) in the classroom by describing a case study of four tertiary-level teachers in China who share an L1 with their students.