<p>he focus of this research is to establish whether there is a difference in the way the genders perceive the visualization of mathematics, with specific reference to set theory. The influence of the computing experience of students on their perceptions was also investigated. Interfaces were created for the teaching of set theory for learners in the first class of secondary school. Since the mother tongue of most the pupils is Dari the interface was made available in both Dari and English. The interfaces were used to gather the data for the researc</p>

Syftet med min uppsats är att redogöra för och diskutera hur en lärare arbetar med läslust och språkutveckling, samt hur hennes elever upplever denna undervisning. Läslust handlar om mycket mer än att bara tycka om att läsa böcker, såväl i skolan som på fritiden. Elever med läslust kan ta upp en bok att läsa som avkoppling, lika gärna som de kan se på tv. För att undersöka mitt syfte har jag studerat en klass i en Stockholmsförort. Jag har intervjuat en lärare, samt fyra av hennes elever, för att ta reda på hur läraren arbetar med att skapa och upprätthålla läslusten hos eleverna, och hur eleverna uppfattar lärarens undervisning kring läslust. Jag har även gjort en enkätundersökning med alla elever i klassen, för att ta reda på hur de upplever läslust, och vad de tycker om lärarens arbetssätt för att skapa läslust. Resultaten av min undersökning visar att det är skillnad mellan flickors och pojkars läsning. Oftast är det flickor som läser mest, vilket kan bero på flera faktorer. En anledning är att flickor har fler läsande förebilder och att många pojkar uppfattar läsning som omanligt, och de väljer därför bort det. Jag har även upptäckt att läraren inte medvetet arbetar med läslust, och att hennes elever inte upplever att läraren uppmuntrar dem till läsning. Det är väldigt viktigt att elever har goda läsande förebilder som kan motivera och skapa nyfikenhet till läsning. Även att tidigt börja med läsning i skolan, samt att läraren har god bokkännedom och kan föra givande boksamtal efter att ha avslutat en bok, är viktigt. Det är betydande att läraren kan övertyga läsovana elever till att läsning är ett nöje, och att läraren hittar rätt bok till rätt elev. / My study’s aims are to describe and discuss how a teacher work with reading-inclination and language acquisition, and how her pupils perceive this teaching. Pupils that have reading-inclination can take a book and read it at home, as well as they can turn on the TV. To achieve my aim I have studied a multilingual class in a suburb to Stockholm. I have interviewed one teacher and four of her pupils. I have also done a questionnaire-investigation with all the pupils in her class. I want to know if the teacher is aware of how she is working with the pupils to make them have reading-inclination while they are reading books. I would also like to know what the pupils think of reading-inclination and if they like to read. The results of my study show that there is a large difference between the girls’ and the boys’ reading. The girls like to read more than the boys. One reason can be that girls have more reading models and that boys think reading is something feminine. I have also discovered that the teacher is not deliberately working with reading-inclination and her pupils don’t feel like she is encouraging them to read. It’s very important with good role models that can justify and make the pupils curious about reading. It’s important for the pupils to start reading early in school, and for the teacher to have a good book-knowledge and lead profitable book-conversation after finishing a book. It’s also important for the teacher to convince pupils that are unaccustomed book-readers that reading is a pleasure, and to find the right book too the right pupil.

The aim of this study has been to describe the reasoning of five immigrant parents with Swedish partners who raise their child to become bilingual. Having interviewed the informants, three central themes became apparent: bilingualism, identity and the environment. All five families reason that they raise their child with the mother tongue of the mother and the mother tongue of the father and that it is natural. Discussions about identity and culture are made in specific reference to the surrounding monolingual environment, which is often perceived as an obstacle to bilingualism. / Syftet med den här uppsatsen har varit att beskriva fem individers resonemang kring tvåspråkig barnuppfostran. Efter att ha intervjuat informanterna blev det tydligt att uppsatsen hade tre centrala teman: tvåspråkighet, identitet och miljön. Alla fem familjer anser att deras barn blir uppfostrad med moderns och faderns modersmål och att det är naturligt. Diskussioner om identitet och kultur är direkt knutna till den omgivande enspråkiga miljön, som ofta upplevs som ett hinder för tvåspråkighet.

This case study investigates the acquisition of Russian in a language contact situation. It examines a simultaneous Swedish-Russian bilingual child born and raised in Sweden. Qualitative analysis is provided from age 1;4 to 8;5 focusing especially on the earliest stages (before the end of the critical period at 4;5). The aim was to investigate (a) whether the child reaches the same milestones as monolingual children, (b) whether there is evidence that two separate linguistic systems have been developed, (c) whether the child’s grammatical competence in both languages might be qualitatively different from that of monolingual children and (d) whether there is interaction between the languages. The hypothesis tested is that ample input is needed to construct and develop two linguistic systems on a native-speaker level. The main result is that the two linguistic systems do not develop independently from each other; rather, 2L1s develop in permanent interaction where the weaker language – Russian – happens to be influenced by the stronger one – Swedish. The bilingual environment per se might lead to decreased structural complexity in the weaker language. Language dominance is viewed as a major determiner of cross-linguistic effects. This could lead to the development of a new individual variety of Russian (outside Russia).   The results confirm the hypothesis that, even though there was exposure to both languages from birth onwards, the amount of input in the weaker and grammatically more complex language (Russian) received before the cri­tical period was not enough to completely develop full native command of it. The lack of input has an impact on the acquisition of morphology: some morphological categories may have been set randomly or not at all. The structures observed are more ty­pical of L2 than L1 ac­quisition. Morphology may be considered a vulnerable domain since complex mor­phological rules in Russian cannot develop with­out ample input.

The aim was to find out teachers in Swedish as a second language in primary schools view on how they work with a language development teaching in a multicultural environment. I did a semi-structured interview where I both made questions before the interview and also used individualized follow-up questions during my interview. I did that because I really wanted to get answers to the subject and the aim of the essay. Two teachers in Swedish as a second language have been interviewed.   The result shows that a holistic approach to language development is important, where great emphasis lies on understanding. Teachers say that communication and interaction are key factors and that it is important with good linguistically appropriate and understandable texts where the words/concepts are learned and used in the right context. / Syftet med studien är att ta reda på uppfattningarna bland lärare i svenska som andraspråk om hur de i grundskolan och mångkulturella miljöer bedriver en språkutvecklande undervisning. En semistrukturerad intervju har genomförts med gjorda frågor både innan intervjun samt individualiserade följdfrågor under själva intervjun. Detta genomfördes för att verkligen få svar på frågeställningarna och syftet. Intervjuerna har gjorts med två lärare i svenska som andraspråk.   Resultatet visar att en helhetssyn på språkutveckling är betydelsefullt, där stor vikt läggs på förståelsen. Lärarna belyser att kommunikation och samspel är centrala faktorer för denna utveckling samt bra språkligt anpassade och lättförståeliga texter där ord/begrepp lärs in och används i sitt rätta sammanhang/kontext.

This paper aims at finding out if code-switching is an asset or a problem in a multilingual classroom. The main goal of the study was to find out what impact code-switching into mother tongue has on L2 development and what learning/teaching situations induce the act of code-switching. Through classroom observation, interviews and a questionnaire data were collected and the main questions of the study answered.Previous research and the results from the present study show that code-switching is a natural phenomenon in L2 development and that code-switching has a positive impact on L2 development as it fulfils a significant number of functions in the classroom, including vocabulary and concept development, need for clarification and emphasis, provides a learning strategy for L2 acquisition, and generally helps students maintain and develop their L2. / Denna rapport syftar till att ta reda på om kodväxling är en tillgång eller ett problem i ett flerspråkigt klassrum. Syftet med studien var att ta reda på vilken effekt kodväxling till annat språk har på andraspråksutveckling och vilka lärande-/undervisningssituationer som framkallar kodväxling. Genom klassrumobservationer, intervjuer och ett frågeformulär samlades data in.Tidigare forskning och resultaten från denna studie visar att kodväxling är ett naturligt fenomen i andraspråksutveckling och att den har en positiv inverkan på språkutvecklingen, eftersom den fyller ett stort antal funktioner i klassrummet, inklusive ökning av ordförrådet och begreppsförståelsen, fungerar som hjälp när det som läraren säger behöver betonas eller förtydligas, lärandestrategi för andraspråksinlärning, och hjälper slutligen elever att underhålla och utveckla sitt andraspråk.

<p>he focus of this research is to establish whether there is a difference in the way the genders perceive the visualization of mathematics, with specific reference to set theory. The influence of the computing experience of students on their perceptions was also investigated. Interfaces were created for the teaching of set theory for learners in the first class of secondary school. Since the mother tongue of most the pupils is Dari the interface was made available in both Dari and English. The interfaces were used to gather the data for the researc</p>

La plupart des travaux portant sur l’usage du français en milieu de travail tendent à adopter une perspective métrologique qui vise à cerner les déterminants de l’utilisation du français en milieu de travail. Dans ce mémoire, nous cherchons à changer d’optique en envisageant non pas d’expliquer les déterminants de l’usage principal du français en milieu de travail, mais à connaitre les principaux contextes auxquels les personnes se réfèrent pour déclarer le français comme langue principale de travail. Nous faisons en effet l’hypothèse que le fait de déclarer le français comme langue principale de travail est le résultat d’une synthèse de pratiques linguistiques contextuelles distinctes. Pour répondre à cet objectif de recherche, nous mobilisons les données d’une enquête de l’Office québécois de la langue française réalisée en 2007. Au sein de l’ensemble des contextes de travail pris en compte dans cette enquête, nous avons choisi cinq contextes : la réunion de travail, la lecture de documents produits par l’entreprise, le fait de communiquer avec l’extérieur, le fait de communiquer avec le ou les supérieurs immédiats et l’utilisation des technologies de l’information. Ainsi, nous nous sommes limités d’abord à l’étude d’un certain nombre de contextes qui touchent presqu’à l’ensemble des travailleurs particulièrement ceux qui ont à communiquer avec des supérieurs, à lire des documents produits par leur entreprise, à participer régulièrement à des réunions de travail, puis nous abordons des contextes plus spécifiques et qui touchent à un nombre plus faible de travailleurs tels : ceux qui ont à utiliser des logiciels et enfin à communiquer avec l’extérieur. Notre analyse révèle que, au-delà des caractéristiques individuelles et du contexte général du milieu de travail, ces usages contextuels des langues en milieu de travail prédisent mieux la déclaration de la langue de travail des travailleurs. Quand il s’agit de déclarer la langue principale de travail, les travailleurs semblent principalement faire référence à la langue qu’ils utilisent dans les réunions de travail, dans la langue de lecture des documents produits par l’entreprise, dans les communications avec les supérieurs immédiats ainsi qu’aux versions linguistiques des logiciels utilisés et des communications avec des clients et fournisseurs de l’extérieur du Québec. / Most researches on the use of French in the workplace tend to adopt a methodological perspective that aims to identify the determinant factors of the use of French in the workplace. In this paper, we intend to change this perspective by attempting instead, to apprehend the main contexts in which people relate to declare French as their language of work. We make the assumption that declaring French as the main language of work result of both contextual and distinct linguistic practices. To meet this research objective, we draw data from a survey conducted in 2007 by the Office of the French Language in Quebec. Based on this survey, we have selected five contexts to which people relate to when using the French language in the workplace: workshop, reading of documents produced by the company, communication with the outside world, communication with immediate supervisors, and the use of technology of information. Thus, we have limited ourselves to the study of workers that have to communicate with supervisors, read documents produced by their company, participate regularly in meeting, use software, and finally communicate with other people from the outside. Our analysis reveals that, beyond individual characteristics and the general context of the workplace, these contextual uses of language in the workplace predict the best statement of the language of workers. When it comes to declare the main language of work, workers seem mainly to refer to the language they use in meetings, in the language of reading documents produced by the company in communications with immediate superiors and to use language versions of software and communications with customers and suppliers outside of Quebec.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the impact of Same-Language Subtitles (SLS) on the subject-specific comprehension and the academic literacy levels of EAL students on the Vaal Triangle Campus of North-West University (NWU). Essentially, the study aimed to determine whether exposing students studying through English as an Additional Language (EAL) to subtitled lectures (live or recorded lectures) would help improve their comprehension of the academic content as well as their receptive academic literacy skills, compared to students who were not exposed to subtitled lectures. This study stems from the identification of an academic performance-related issue on the Vaal Triangle Campus of NWU. Indeed, campus statistics show that the throughput rate of EAL students remains low, and that these students‟ academic literacy levels are inadequate. In other words, EAL students on this campus are underachieving and seem to have difficulties in mastering academic English. Based on various studies that showed SLS to be a valuable tool in terms of learning and academic literacy, this study proposed to introduce SLS (both live via respeaking and offline) in the university classroom as a learning aid, thus optimising the time students spend in lectures. Very little information was available in South Africa on the impact of SLS on the subject-specific comprehension of EAL students in a tertiary academic context. Furthermore, it had been anticipated that a certain number of technical constraints were likely to be encountered during the empirical investigation. These two factors made it difficult to predict what other factors could influence the outcome of the study. As a result, the study was based on the principle of Action Research, a research method characterised by the fact that the research is carried out in as many cycles as may be necessary in order to achieve the optimal conditions for a specific intervention. Three cycles were necessary to reach the optimal design of the present study so that a confident conclusion could be made regarding the impact of SLS on comprehension and academic literacy. For each cycle, the intervention was carried out over an academic semester. In the first cycle, a test group composed of EAL first-year Economics students was exposed to live SLS via respeaking during class, while a control group (also composed of EAL first-year Economics students) attended the same class at a different time, without SLS. In the second cycle, the live SLS via respeaking were replaced with offline SLS. The intervention was taken out of the regular classes and was carried out in the context of practical revision classes scheduled specifically for the purpose of the intervention. The test group viewed subtitled videos of lectures, while the control group viewed videos without subtitles. After each viewing, all participants were required to complete a short comprehension test. This cycle was also conducted in first-year Economics. The basic design of the third cycle was similar to that of the second cycle, but for the fact that the intervention took place in the context of a Psychology module, which, unlike the Economics module, was taught without the lecturer making use of slides. After these three research cycles were completed, it could be concluded that offline SLS indeed have a positive impact on the subject-specific comprehension and the receptive academic literacy skills of EAL students in a tertiary academic context. This conclusion was supported by the following findings: 1. The first research cycle pointed towards a slight, but statistically insignificant benefit in terms of both comprehension and academic literacy. However, at this stage of the empirical investigation, the technical constraints made it difficult to draw a precise conclusion in that respect. 2. In the second research cycle, the SLS seem to have had a significant impact on the receptive academic literacy skills of the test group, compared to the control group. However, no such impact could be noted in terms of subject-specific comprehension. This was attributed to the presence of a confounding variable, namely slides used during the lectures. This once more made it impossible to draw a confident conclusion regarding the impact of SLS on comprehension. 3. The third research cycle made a more confident conclusion regarding the impact of SLS on subject-specific comprehension possible. Indeed, the results of the statistical analyses show that the test group performed significantly better in their semester test (covering the work done in all the recorded lectures) than the control group, which was not exposed to any videos at all. On the basis of these findings, it was concluded that SLS in their offline form have a positive impact on the subject-specific comprehension and the receptive academic literacy skills of EAL students in a tertiary academic context, specifically if the students are given sufficient time to get used to the mode. This study seems to indicate that the benefits of SLS for comprehension can be recorded provided that students are exposed to the intervention over a longer period of time. However, there may be further scope for refinement as far as this study is concerned. It is therefore important that the topic be investigated further. / MA, Language Practice, North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2012

This thesis looks at conditions for selections of fictional texts in the Swedish subject in the upper secondary school. Three different empirical materials have contributed to the understanding of what conditions there are for the texts to enter the classroom. The first material consists of national policy documents from 1970 to 2005. Here there is a tendency that the student goes from being an object for knowledge to becoming a subject that creates his/her own knowledge. With this development the contents and the given aims with the subject become more abstract, which leads to the framework of the curriculum becoming wider and more difficult to interpret. Simultaneously the focus is moved from mediation of given knowledge, to the development of an identity for the individual. The second material consists of debate and method articles from Svenskläraren, a magazine for members, published by an organisation of Swedish teachers. The study comprise articles from the same period of time as the national curricula. In the articles there are three tendencies reflecting the changes in the discourse of the Swedish subject. The first tendency shows how the overall ideological debate on the subject disappears during this period. The second tendency shows how discussions about the conceptions of the subject is replaced by more and more concrete examples of methods. The third tendency depicts that the concrete text selections have moved from being partly predetermined during the seventies to become debated during the eighties, to finally during the nineties end up in a situation where some texts has a sufficient cultural capital not to need justifications, whereas others need it. The third material consists of interviews with, and observations of, four active teachers, in order to find what conditions there are for text selections in their rhetoric and practice. The results show a clear impression of informal institutional factors and of the school culture. However, this seems to decrease with experience. There are big differences in how the teachers speak about text selections and text use and what the result becomes in practice. Here professionalism in form of knowledge in subject didactics could have a vast impact.