English holds a significant status as a lingua franca in Sweden, offering regular contact opportunities for learners through media consumption and entertainment, starting at a young age. Exposure to English outside the walls of the formal language classroom has been extensively studied especially in conjunction with students’ motivation, vocabulary acquisition, and oral proficiency (cf. Sundqvist & Sylven, 2016). This study examines the impact of self-reported time spent on extramural English (EE) exposure on the complexity, accuracy, and fluency of written proficiency among lower-secondary students in Sweden. The research focuses on the quantitative measures of complexity and accuracy in argumentative essays (N=20) as well as quantitative measures of fluency in argumentative essays (N=53) taken from a sample of the corpus of Swedish learners of English (SLEC). The findings show that there are positive correlations between EE and complexity, as indicated by lexical diversity and lexical sophistication. Additionally, the normalized error ratio suggests that EE is associated with fewer errors in students' writing. Fluency, measured by written words per minute, aligns with students' self-reported EE contacts, with high-frequency EE users producing longer essays. While group-level findings indicate a positive influence of EE on written proficiency, individual-level analysis reveals a non-linear and complex relationship between contact with EE and written proficiency components. The study emphasizes the importance of integrating students' EE experiences into the formal language classroom to maximize the benefits of extramural English.

The use of Multimedia materials has been widely accepted as an useful and effective tool in the field of second language acquisition (SLA). Many studies and researchers have examined multimedia material’s effectiveness from a number of aspects, including four skills of language learning: listening, speaking, reading (including vocabulary comprehension) and writing. However, the effectiveness of multimedia material from the aspect of L2 grammar comprehension hasn’t been well explored. This study examines the effectiveness of multimedia material in teaching second language grammar comprehension among beginning and intermediate-level Chinese learners. In particular, it investigates the relative efficacy of three different modes used in teaching an important Chinese grammar, directional complements: text alone, text with a still picture and text with video clips. The study’s focal issue is to determine which mode or modes — text alone, text with still picture or text with dynamic video clip — is most effective in aiding grammar acquisition in both short-term and long-term. The study employed an immediate post-test and a delayed post-test. The participants were 53 college students, beginning level Chinese language learners who had studied Chinese for a half year, and were naturally assigned to one of the three parallel groups. The three groups differed as to the use of the different mode used to present the teaching material: text-only, text-picture, and text-video. Analysis of the collected data yielded three main findings. First, learners who received text-video material outperformed those who received text-picture; and learners who received text-picture material outperformed those who received text-only. Secondly, learners who received text-video had significantly better long-term comprehension than the other two groups. Finally, the performance advantage of text-video treatment was particularly significant with more complex target forms. The results demonstrate that multimedia material can help L2 learners’ grammar comprehension. Text-picture and text-video were more effective than text-only, and text-video material was more effective than text-picture.

This study examines the effects of experience in German on the categorical perception of German rounded vowels, namely /uː/, /ʊ/, /oː/, /ɔ/, /yː/, /ʏ/, /øː/, and /œ/, by native speakers of American English (AE). Of special interest is whether more experience in German leads to more accurate perception of German front rounded vowels, namely /yː/, /ʏ/, /øː/, and /œ/, which do not have correlates in American English and are well known to cause perceptual problems for native AE speakers (Strange, Bohn, Trent, & Nishi, 2004). Subjects in this study were students at Brigham Young University that were divided into 4 experimental groups: students at the end of first-semester German with no residency in a German-speaking country (101 group); students at the end of third-semester German with no residency (201 group); students in third-year or higher German courses with less than 4 months of residency (300+ group); students in third-year or higher courses with 16 or more months of residency (300+Resi group). A control group of native German speakers also participated. Subjects completed a forced-choice identification task in which they selected the German word they thought they heard. The results of the task indicate that experience in German did affect native AE-speaking subjects' overall identification accuracy of German rounded vowels. In particular, a statistically significant difference was found between the 101 and 300+Resi groups for all German rounded vowels except /uː/ and /ʊ//, suggesting that experience significantly affected AE subjects' perception of all of these vowels except /uː/ and /ʊ/.

Mindre företag och organisationer har uttryckt ovilja att använda molntjänster på grund av otydliga säkerhetsvillkor. Skälet är att de Service Level Agreements (SLA) som reglerar ansvaret för säkerheten i Molnet, bland annat vad gäller datalagring och skydd av personuppgifter, upplevs vara otydliga. Syftet med denna studie var därför att undersöka vad användare av molntjänster anser om de säkerhetsramverk och säkerhetsmått som används i SLA-kontrakt för molntjänster. Genom semistrukturerade intervjuer av fyra personer och analys av intervjuerna visade resultatet att användarna ansåg att de säkerhetsramverk som användes i SLA-kontrakt för molnbaserade tjänster var för otydliga genom att vara alltför generella och inte tillräckligt relevanta för den egna verksamheten. Användarna ansåg att de säkerhetsmått som tillämpades i SLA-kontrakten skulle kunna vara tydligare genom att vara mer detaljerade och relevanta för den egna verksamheten. Slutsatsen blev därför att etablerade säkerhetsramverk som NIST, ISO och COBIT inte tillmötesgick användarnas behov av specifika och relevanta säkerhetsramverk och säkerhetsmått i SLA. En lösning skulle därför vara att använda mjukvara för att automatiskt generera SLA-kontrakt utifrån tydligare samt mer specifika och relevanta säkerhetsmått. En sådan lösning skulle öka användarnas upplevelse av säkerhet genom SLA och öka deras användning av molntjänster.

Studies have shown that accuracy of L2 writing is improved when teachers employ direct corrective feedback (CF). Less is known about the benefits of adding some form of metalinguistic explanation to the focused direct CF. In this study, thirty-six grade nine students from two different schools in Sweden completed two sets of written tasks, one week apart. All of the students’ work was corrected using focused direct CF, with only one linguistic feature (the accurate use of the present simple and the present continuous) being the primary focus. Some of the students also received an oral metalinguistic explanation in the form of a class lecture, while others received a written, personalised metalinguistic explanation. Eleven students were subsequently interviewed.The study showed that all of the students appreciated the CF that they received and the vast majority thought that it had helped them, even if their results did not reflect this. The students who received focused direct corrective feedback with an oral explanation in the form of a class lecture showed the most consistent improvement overall.

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This study investigates the prevalence and proportion of explicit grammar practice activities in relation to a present, practice, and produce structure to find out if it is possible to derive an approach to grammar teaching that is used in the English language learning material Magic! 9. Current SLA research suggests that explicit grammar teaching facilitates L2 acquisition if grammatical activities focus on meaning over decontextualized form-focused drills. Additionally, researchers have not reached a conclusive answer on whether the inductive or deductive presentation of grammar is the most effective. By linking teaching approaches to the presentation, practice, and produce structure and the connected grammar activities, this study found that Magic! 9 favors explicit presentation of grammatical elements by name, while inductively presenting the grammatical rules of the elements in preceding non-grammar focused activities. Additionally, the explicit grammatical activities in Magic! 9 are primarily focused on form, and meaning is the secondary focus. Although not conclusive, the findings suggest that there are two possible answers as to which approach is used to teach grammar. The primary focus on form and drilling nature of the activities suggests that the audio-lingual approach is the most prevalent. On the other hand, the mixing of several approaches suggests that the post-communicative approach is the most prevalent.

Small companies and organizations have expressed doubts about using cloud services due to unclear Service Level Agreement (SLA) contracts. These contracts are usually based on security frameworks and measures adapted for data security in general, but not for complex cloud data specifically. The purpose of this study was therefore to compare end users’ opinions of the security measures and security frameworks that were being used for their SLA contracts for cloud services. The study was carried out through semi-structured interviews, thematization, and comparison with earlier research on SLA and cloud security. The result showed that security frameworks on which SLA contracts were based were being used in a too general way by cloud service providers. This made the contracts unclear and not entirely relevant to their own operations. Therefore, the users wanted implementations of security measures that were easier to interpret, well-established and recognized, and relevant to their own operations. The users wanted the security measures to be more detailed by having the cloud service providers divide them into more categories relevant to their particular activities. The users also wanted SLA contracts adapted to their individual needs for cloud security specifically. One conclusion was that frameworks such as ISO, NIST, and COBIT were being used in a too general way for generating cloud service SLAs. Another conclusion was that cloud service security measures should be more specific to users’ own operations and easier to interpret in relation to established frameworks. Cloud service providers could use NIST, ISO, and COBIT to generate more specific measures. One solution would be to automatically generate more specific SLA contracts by auto-selecting established frameworks and well-defined security measures.

Introduction: Additive manufacturing (AT) also known as 3D printing has become a more widespread technology in various industries. The manufacturing method has increased the efficiency of manufacturing industries in producing products with technically challenging properties. Through continuous research and development, AT could compensate for traditional working methods and strive to reduce material and time loss as well as manufacturing costs. Purpose: The project aims to investigate how additive manufacturing can be used to create molds with accuracy and precision. It will also be explored how these molds will result in injection molding with high precision and accuracy. To obtain relevant data, a suitable material must be selected for injection molding. To realize this, it is necessary to define which parameters are required and how a mold should be constructed. The goal of the project has resulted in the formulation of two research questions: Q1: How can Additive Manufacturing (AT) be applied to make molds? Q2: Which parameters can be identified to optimize the quality of the mold and thereby achieve good precision and accuracy of the injection molded product? Method: Within the work, both qualitative and quantitative research has been conducted. The information gathered is based on scientific articles, relevant literature, and the execution of a case study in collaboration with Mälardalen industrial Technology Center (MITC). An abduction approach was used where data from both the literature and the case study were found continuously. During the process, the writers were allowed to develop a deeper understanding of the area which enabled the generation of new data from the literature and articles. By using these two data types in an iterative process to verify information, it increases validity and reliability. Conclusion: Within the case study, it was observed that SLA 3D printing was not completely accurate and produced unexpected results. The distinction between the geometry of CAD design and 3D printing can be accurately evaluated based on the positioning of the component in the 3D printer. Both the precision and accuracy of the geometry and design that is 3D printed by SLA can vary due to several factors such as shrinkage, deformation, and volume. To improve the precision and accuracy of injection molding results for components, it is crucial to adapt the mold to manage injection molding. In addition to the recommended material, the mold design needs features such as cooling systems and ventilation channels, which can be optimized using CAD tools. The mold cavity is designed with rounded corners, even wall thicknesses, no protruding details, and specifically adapted release angles. / Introduktion: Additiv tillverkning (AT) även känd som 3D-printning har blivit en alltmer utbredd teknologi inom olika industrier. Framställningsmetoden har ökat effektiviteten för tillverkningsindustrier när det gäller att producera produkter med tekniskt utmanande egenskaper. Genom kontinuerlig forskning och utveckling har AT potentialen att ersätta traditionella arbetssätt och sträva efter att reducera material-och tidsförlust samt kostnader på tillverkning.  Syftet: Projektet syftar till att undersöka hur additiv tillverkning kan användas för att skapa gjutformar med hög noggrannhet och precision. Det ska även utforskas hur dessa gjutformar kommer att resultera i formsprutningar med hög precision och noggrannhet. För att erhålla relevant data ska ett lämpligt material väljas för formsprutning. För att förverkliga detta är det nödvändigt att definiera vilka parametrar som erfordras och hur en gjutform bör konstrueras. Målet med projektet har resulterat i formulering av två forskningsfrågor: F1: På vilket sätt kan Additiv Tillverkning (AT) tillämpas för att tillverka gjutformar? F2: Vilka parametrar kan identifieras för att optimera gjutformens kvalitet och därmed uppnå god precision och noggrannhet på formsprutad produkt? Metod: Inom arbetet har både kvalitativ och kvantitativ forskning utförts. Informationen som har samlats in är baseras på vetenskapliga artiklar, relevant litteratur samt utförande av en fallstudie i samarbete med Mälardalen Industrial Technology Center (MITC). En abduktionsansats användes, där data från både litteratur och fallstudien löpande integrerades. Under processens gång utvecklade skribenterna en djupare förståelse av området som, vilket möjliggjorde generering av nya data från litteratur och artiklar. Genom att använda dessa två data typer i en iterativ process för att verifiera information, ökas studiens validitet och reliabilitet.  Slutsats: I fallstudien framkom det att SLA 3D-printning inte var helt noggrann och ger oväntade resultat. Skillnaden mellan CAD-konstruktion och 3D-printning kan vara effektiv att beräkna beroende på positioneringen av komponenten i 3D-skrivaren. Både precisionen och noggrannheten kan variera på grund av flera faktorer som bland annat krympning, deformation och volym.  För att förbättra precisionen och noggrannheten i resultatet av formsprutningar av komponenter är det viktigt att anpassa gjutformen för att hantera formsprutningar. Utöver rekommenderat material bör formen bland annat konstrueras med kylsystem och avluftningskanaler, vilka kan optimeras med CAD-verktyg. Gjutformens kavitet bör även konstrueras med avrundade hörn, jämna väggtjocklekar, inga utskjutna detaljer och specifikt anpassade släppvinkel.

The present study investigates the effect of genre on lexical and syntactic complexity. The corpus used for this study is made up of argumentative and narrative texts from the TRAWL (Tracking Written Learner Language) online corpus. The study analyses texts written by 22 Norwegian EFL learners, 10 in year 8 and 12 in year 9. One narrative text and one argumentative text from each student is analysed using an automated method to calculate complexity based on one measure of lexical complexity, the Guiraud Index and two measures of syntactic complexity, mean length of sentence and mean length of t-unit. A qualitative analysis, comparing outlying results to the Swedish National curriculum, also gave insight into different levels of complexity. Previous studies suggest that narrative texts have more lexical complexity while argumentative texts are more syntactically complex. The results of this study support this hypothesis though not all correlations were found to be statistically significant.