Syftet med den här studien var att synliggöra textböckers svårighetsnivå och progression. För att kunna genomföra detta ställdes två forskningsfrågor: (i) Vilken svårighetsnivå motsvarar de granskade textböckerna? Och (ii) I vilken utsträckning ökar läromedlens komplexitet mellan låg- och mellanstadiet? I den här studien analyserades sex olika textböcker från tre olika förlag, textböcker från samma serie avsedda för årskurs 3 och 4 användes. I studien analyserades även bedömningsstöd från Skolverket för samma årskurser, bedömningsstödet fick därigenom utgöra kontrollgrupp. I studien användes en metodkombination, som nyttjade både en kvalitativ och en kvantitativ metod. Resultatet visar att det finns stora skillnader mellan textböckernas svårighetsnivå, att det finns en svårighetsökning mellan årskurs 3 och 4 men att den är diffus och svår att analysera, samt att det saknas en tydlig koppling mellan textböckernas svårighetsgrad och den som bedömningsstödet anser vara godtagbar för årskurserna. Nyckelord: Läromedel, progression, lågstadiet, lexical coverage

Vocabulary is considered the building block of language. Without it, communication breaks down. This degree project investigates the vocabulary types, progression, lexical coverage andacademic words in EFL upper secondary textbooks in Sweden. This was done by a corpus-based approach using corpus tools such as Range and AntWord Profiler. The entire corpus contained six textbooks from two different series: Solid Gold and Viewpoints. These textbooks are utilised in English 5, 6, and 7 upper secondary courses. The analysis focused on Nation's word types and Coxhead’s Academic World List, including progression and coverage. The results revealed that high-frequency vocabulary is maintained throughout the series, while mid-frequency vocabulary considerably increases as the textbook levels progress. Results also show that around 3,000 word families are needed for 95% lexical coverage and 6,000 word families for 98% lexical coverage. Each textbook increases around 1,000 word families per level, but is less proportional in relation to the word count. The highest increase of word families is 32% and the lowest of 17%. Furthermore, the study found that the AWL covers 7% of the vocabulary, and 80% of the AWL items are used. Pedagogical recommendations from this study include establishing a vocabulary input threshold per level to ensure consistent progression. Additionally, academic written genres such as Introduction-Method-Results-Discussion (IMRaD) structures can be included in the textbooks in addition to the existing literary genres to help prepare Swedish L2 learners to cope with university academic texts.

Popular music is ever-present and widely available in students’ lives and the value of it as a factor in the language learning process has been a part of the pedagogical literature for many years. One of the often-discussed benefits is the potential for vocabulary learning through songs; however, few researchers have examined whether songs are a suitable source of input for vocabulary learning for English language learners. To address this need, this corpus-driven study investigated the vocabulary demands of popular English songs. A comprehensive corpus of popular English song lyrics was created for this study. Songs for the corpus were selected according to their impact and influence on culture. A song’s impact on culture was determined by its ranking from experts in the music industries in the United States and the United Kingdom and by its popularity based on radio airplay, sales data, and streaming data in the United States and sales and streaming data in the United Kingdom. The corpus contained 2,175 songs and 678,309 tokens. The total listening time was 135 hours and 22 minutes. The lyrics in the corpus were analyzed to determine the vocabulary size necessary to reach 95% and 98% coverage of the words in songs. The songs in the corpus were divided into two varieties of English—American and British, six decades—1950s to 2000s, and four genres—Urban Roots, Formative Rock, Progressive Rock, and Mainstream Listening. An analysis was first completed over the whole corpus and then over the songs from each variety of English, decade, and genre. This study also examined the potential to incidentally learn vocabulary from listening to songs and whether songs are more similar to spoken or written discourse. The results showed that knowledge of the most frequent 2,000 word families, proper nouns, and marginal words provided 96.05% coverage, and knowledge of the most frequent 5,000 word families, proper nouns, and marginal words provided 98% coverage of songs. Both American and British songs reached 95% coverage at the 2,000 word frequency level. However, the British songs reached 98% coverage at the 5,000 word frequency level, while the American songs reached 98% coverage at the 6,000 word frequency level. A vocabulary of the most frequent 2,000 word families, proper nouns, and marginal words was sufficient to reach 95% coverage in all six decades. However, the vocabulary size needed to reach 98% coverage in the six decades ranged from the most frequent 4,000 to 8,000 word families plus proper nouns and marginal words. A vocabulary of the most frequent 2,000 word families, proper nouns, and marginal words was adequate to reach 95% coverage in all four genre categories. However, the vocabulary size necessary to reach 98% coverage in the different genres ranged from the most frequent 5,000 to 6,000 word families plus proper nouns and marginal words. The results indicated that there would be a relatively low number of meetings of the same low-frequency word families if learners listened to a small or large number of popular songs. However, there would be a relatively high number of encounters of the same mid-frequency and high-frequency word families if learners listened to a large number of popular songs. This result suggests that there is a greater potential for incidental vocabulary learning of mid-frequency and high-frequency vocabulary through songs. Lastly, in terms of vocabulary, songs are more similar to unscripted spoken discourse than written discourse. Overall, the findings indicate that songs have the potential to be an appropriate source of input for English language learners and might be beneficial for incidental vocabulary learning, especially when listening to a large number of songs. This study provides insights into the kinds of vocabulary used in popular songs and suggests implications for teaching and learning with songs. / Language Arts

Many researchers (e.g., Nation, 2001, 2015; Schmitt, 2000) have recognized the importance of vocabulary learning in second language (L2) or additional language (AL) acquisition. The strong effects of lexical and background knowledge on L2reading comprehension have similarly been found in various studies (e.g., Hu & Nation, 2000; Rokni & Hajilari, 2013). In the case of Japanese language, the opportunities for acquiring the lexical and background knowledge associated with Japanese history and culture, especially traditional culture, are scant, because only a small number of Japanese pedagogical materials deal minimally with these topics. Meanwhile, many learners are motivated to study Japanese because of their interest in Japanese history and culture, according to a survey conducted by the Japan Foundation in 2012. This project aimed to increase the opportunities for learning Japanese history and traditional culture through the development of new pedagogical materials based on kabuki, and then the empirical evaluation of the developed pedagogical materials. Nine Chinese-as-a-first-language Japanese learners at the upper-intermediate level participated in the nine-week online course, including the pre- and post-course tests in the first and last weeks. Employing a multi-method research approach, the study examined the changes in learners’ lexical and background knowledge related to Japanese history and culture, their reading comprehension, and their interest in kabuki. Four kinds of multiple-choice tests were administered to collect the quantitative data. In addition, the qualitative data were gathered through the pre- and post-course questionnaires and post-course individual interviews. Overall, the findings indicated that almost all participants increased their background knowledge of kabuki, as well as their vocabulary related to kabuki and general theatrical performances. The results in other areas, such as historical vocabulary, vocabulary depth, reading comprehension, and historical background knowledge were mixed. Further, concerning the depth of vocabulary knowledge, it was found that the learning of vocabulary depth was more difficult than learning of vocabulary breadth. Likewise, the knowledge of use, such as collocations and register constraints, was found to be more difficult to learn than other aspects of vocabulary depth. The participants’ reports in the post-course questionnaire and individual interviews showed that most participants seemed to have increased their interest in kabuki. Overall, the first-of-their-kind developed pedagogical materials contributed to the development of lexical and background knowledge, specifically knowledge associated with Japanese traditional culture and history. This study may provide a model for an evidence-based approach to the development of pedagogical materials that practitioners can adopt or adapt. / Graduate