This thesis deals with the Czech game called Abaku, which was created as a variation of Scrabble using numerals instead of letters. The aim of this thesis is to find out what numerical and structural skills the pupils of elementary school, who are participating in the final of Abaku League, have, and what is their relation to mathematics. The used methods are the analysis of the games played on the qualifying rounds of Abaku League, a questionnaire for the finalists of the league and an interview with several of them. Author has 165,640 records of played games for analysis, 1,157 of that were analyzed. The questionnaire was completed by 38 players and seven of them participated in the interview. The questionnaire consists of questions about the popularity of mathematics, the frequency and duration of playing Abaku, and ten tasks to identify the numerical and structural skills of the players. Above all, the research showed that the surveyed Abaku players are well-versed in the area, know how to work with powers, and show curiosity for other mathematical disciplines. The theoretical part of thesis consists of a research of available literature concerning Abaku, introduction of the game including rules and development stages of the player, comparison of Abaku with games of similar type and...

Language learning strategies have been given a large role in the Swedish curriculum for modern languages and the usage of strategies is one of the requirements for getting a passing grade in the subject. However, language learning strategies is a term that is hard to grasp when seeing it without a context. Even in a context it can be hard to explain what is really meant. This study tries to explain what language learning strategies are in relation to the Swedish school system and aims to find out if these strategies are to be found and how they are used in two Swedish-German textbooks.The study shows that there are no explicit examples where a certain type of languagelearning strategy is to be found. Nevertheless, there are multiple instances where both books offer assignments that can lead to the usage of said strategies.

No description available.

In a multilingual world, it is common for the English classroom in upper secondary schools in Sweden to be filled with more than second language learners. These multilingual students have the potential to bring their language learning strategies (LLS) to the classroom, as well as their language repertoire, which every student could benefit from. The aim of this degree project is therefore to gain a deeper understanding of the language repertoires and language learning strategies of participating students at upper secondary schools in Sweden. To explore this, a qualitative approach was employed to discover participants’ language repertoires and the LLS participants report to use. Interviews were used to collect data about language use, repertoire and reported strategy use. In addition to the interviews, Oxford’s (1990) Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) was utilized to find out which strategies participants claimed to use in a broader sense. The results show that participant’s multilingualism is not taken advantage of in school, but it blossoms outside of English class where it is used to retain connections to friends and family. The results also show that participants use cognitive, social and compensation strategies the most, by translating, practicing, and asking others for help.

Language learning strategies have become an important element of second language acquisition research over the course of the last few decades. Much research on these strategies has been dedicated to speaking, reading, and other language skill sets. However, one essential skill needed for communication is pronunciation. No matter how proficient other areas of linguistic ability may be, it can be difficult to interact effectively with native speakers if one's pronunciation is poor. Yet research dedicated to pronunciation and language learning strategies is in surprisingly short supply. Of those studies that have researched pronunciation strategies, some have been dedicated to discovering new pronunciation strategies (Derwing & Rossiter, 2002; Osburne, 2003; and Vitanova & Miller, 2002), while others (Peterson, 2000) categorized pronunciation strategies using a well known strategy inventory. However, there is one study that has gone in a different direction concerning pronunciation strategies. Rather than categorize pronunciation strategies using a strategy taxonomy like Oxford (1990), Eckstein (2007) categorized pronunciation strategies using Kolb's (1984) Experiential Learning Cycle model and found significant effects between pronunciation accuracy and use of pronunciation strategies mapped using Eckstein's (2007) Pronunciation Acquisition Construct (PAC).The present study tested the PAC by teaching pronunciation strategies to L2 Japanese learners. The aim of the current study was to examine the effect of pronunciation strategy usage categorized using the PAC upon pronunciation gains and to examine learner differences based upon pronunciation gains and strategy usage. In doing so, significant gains were found in contextualized pronunciation. Additionally, subjects who more frequently used the strategy "think of benefits to be gained by improving pronunciation", a motivation strategy, were found to show higher levels of pronunciation gain in a non-contextualized pronunciation environment.

Det svenska skolsystemet genomgår en digitaliseringsprocess. I och med digitaliseringen har ett starkt intresse av att utforska olika typer av lärodata via olika läroplattformar utvecklats. För att analysera sådan data kan man ta hjälp av Learning Analytics (LA). LA är när man samlar, analyserar och rapporterar lärodata från diverse lärandeaktiviteter. För att analysera datan mer effektivt kan man ta hjälp av visualisering. Denna studie presenterar ett visualiseringsverktyg riktat till lärare. Det har utvecklats för att stödja lärare i deras förståelse av hur valda självreglerat lärande (SRL)strategier har utvärderats av studenter. Att kunna applicera SRL-strategier är av stor vikt eftersom studenter som lär sig att applicera dessa kommer att ha fördelar båda vid framtida studier och framtida arbete. Syftet med denna studie var att se hur lärodata kan visualiseras för att förstå studenters användning av lärostrategier och hur bra visualiseringsverktyget var ur ett användbarhetsperspektiv. Användbarheten av verktyget testades genom ett experiment där ett antal frågor ställdes. Svaren gick att finna i visualiseringen. Deltagarna i studien fick sedan svara på ett System Usabilityformulär. Resultaten visar att det utvecklade verktyget är användbart och att olika användare använder sig av, om möjligt, olika metoder för att komma fram till ett svar. Denna uppsats presenterar riktlinjer att ha i beaktande när ett visualiseringsverktyg som ska stödja lärare i att förstå studenters användning av SRL-strategier ska designas. / The Swedish school system is going through a digitalization process. With digitalization, a strong interest in exploring learner data available through various digital platforms has emerged. In order to analyse the data, one can take help of learning analytics (LA) which relates to collect, report and analyse data from learners or learning activities. To be able to analyse it in a more efficient way, one can take help from visualization. This study presents a visualisation tool aimed at teachers. It has in particular been developed to support teachers in their understanding of how chosen self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies were evaluated by students. SRL strategies are important to be able to apply since students who can learn to apply SRL strategies have an advantage during both future studies and work compared to those who cannot. The aim with this study was to see how learner data can be visualized in order to understand students' use of learning strategies and how good the developed visualization tool is from a usability perspective. The perceived usability of this tool was tested by means of interviews where a series of questions was asked where the answers could be found in the visualization tool. The participants also answered a System Usability Questionnaire. The results showed that the tool developed is usable and that different users of the tool tend to, if possible, use different methods to reach the answer. This thesis presents design guidelines to have in consideration when designing a visualization tool in order to aid teachers in analysing students' use of SRL strategies.

No description available.

This study is based on an investigation of the effect of contextual and non-contextual vocabulary strategies carried out among three different sections of middle school students in the researcher's own beginning level Spanish classroom. Although all students participated in the same textbook related classroom activities, students in Group 1 received explicit instruction on contextual (wrote novel sentences, used a bilingual dictionary and morphological analysis) and non-contextually based vocabulary strategies (cognitive and semantic processing); students in Group 2 used bilingual dictionaries, analyzed base words and affixes, and created novel sentences with the words; students in Group 3 did not receive explicit instruction on vocabulary strategies, but were encouraged to use whatever methods they chose. The vocabulary used included words obtained from student textbooks, and Spanish word families. Primary data sources included quiz and test scores, an open-ended questionnaire, and a vocabulary learning dialogue journal. Data analysis consisted of (a) statistical assessment of quiz and test data, and (b) qualitative assessment of an open-ended questionnaire that evaluated student test-taking strategies, and assessment of student self-report data gathered from the dialogue journals. Results of testing instruments indicated that students in the contextually based strategy group had improved in their test taking scores in a more notable manner than the other two groups, and that students in the full-strategy group had achieved notable gains on the vocabulary quizzes. Qualitative analysis of the questionnaire showed the main strategy used by all participants on the vocabulary tests to be Spanish base word analysis. Assessment of the journals indicated a preference for rote and rehearsal strategies over cognitive and semantic processing among students in Group 1. The study suggests a combination of contextually based strategies entailing a focus on L2 base words and affixes may improve student vocabulary test taking scores. / Spanish

Thesis (M.Ed. (Curriculum Studies)) -- University of Limpopo, 2022 / This study focuses on alternative strategies to improve the performance of learners with special needs at Khulunolwazi Primary School, Mpumalanga. In South Africa, learners with learning barriers are taught in mainstream schools together with learners who do not have learning barriers. Some mainstream schools are full/service schools. Full-service schools are expected to accommodate learners with learning barriers in their mainstream classrooms. However, the majority of teachers experience challenges on how to address the learning needs of learners with learning barriers. This is coupled with a lack of resources and inflexible curricula for learners with learning barriers. The research was conducted by interviewing sampled participants teaching learners with learning barriers in the Senior Phase. Data was collected from those participants and through analysis of documents such as results and Support Needs and Assessment (SNA) 1 and 2 from the School-Based Support Team file. The research findings were that teachers lack sufficient training and continued support to identify and address challenges or learning barriers, especially to learners with learning barriers in the Senior Phase. Furthermore, the research revealed that there was minimal support from support structures like DoE, parents and other stakeholders in education. Recommendations for future research were discussed in support of learners with learning barriers in the mainstream setting

In the technological world that characterizes the 21st century society, new specialized developments are applied immediately to the different social environments and, especially, in education. Language teaching is no stranger to this unstoppable progress, thanks to the widespread implementation of the internet and of the web 2.0 in particular. New technologies help and can sometimes replace the more traditional systems used in foreign language teaching by favoring autonomous learning at any time and in any place. In this doctoral thesis, I review the literature on foreign language learning motivation, styles, and strategies applied to autonomous online platforms. This is done to present and describe the theoretical underpinnings of the COMALAT virtual learning platform, which was designed and created at the University of Alicante as a European Project in cooperation with the University of Siegen in Germany and the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece. Then, I report on a quantitative study that explores the attitudes, learning styles and strategies of 80 A2-B1 level EFL university students that make use of COMALAT. Besides determining the profile of the participants, the study aims to demonstrate the effects of previous training in online language learning strategies. As main conclusions, the following stand out: (a) the students’ use of this platform increases their level of foreign language learning as they can adapt it at their own pace and dedication; (b) the virtual learning environment provides a greater learning effectiveness by combining materials which consider the different learning styles; and (c) the application of the appropriate online learning strategies can help students to solve the different learning problems they may encounter while doing a self-directed online language course.