Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / It has been noted by Lin (2013) that studies on multilingual talk, as illustrated by code switching in the classroom, have been repetitive and descriptive, and have for a while not been underpinned by substantially new or different questions (Lin, 2013:15). First, many of the studies in the literature have, for instance, concluded that there is a functional allocation of languages (FAL) in multilingual classroom teacher talk (e.g. Baker, 2012; Martin, 1996; Probyn, 2006, 2014; Jegede, 2012; Modupeola, 2013; Salami, 2008), such that language „a‟ is used for presentational knowledge, and language „b‟ is used for explanatory knowledge, and these claims have not been subjected to sustained scrutiny. Secondly, codeswitching and translanguaging increasingly have been the dominant and exclusive frameworks used, and this has limited the kinds of insights that can be obtained or the kinds of questions that can be posed. Thirdly, where the effects of multilingual teacher talk on students‟ understanding or knowledge are at all captured in studies, such effects have either been based on researcher intuition or have not been the object of sustained empirical demonstration. Fourthly, many studies have assumed merely that it is the configuration of languages that produces claimed effects of multilingual teacher talk, and attention has hardly been paid to repetition of content or to knowledge structure. Fifthly, it is not often the case that studies or findings are presented in a nuanced form that takes into account the possible effect of different subject types, school types or levels of study. Sixthly, and overall, many studies making claims on the effect of teacher‟s code-switching or trans-languaging on students‟ knowledge do not theoretically engage with knowledge, beyond the distinction between presentational and explanatory forms of knowledge, thus illustrating what Maton (2013) regards as “knowledge-blindness” (that is, the paradox of limited engagement with knowledge structures in pedagogical research making knowledge claims). As a result, little is known about how specific units of knowledge are encoded according to categories in a theory of knowledge, how knowledge encodings interface with languages, and how composite knowledge structures-language profiles can be visualised. This study draws on Legitimation Code Theory Semantic and Terminology Theory in order to investigate the interface of language and knowledge in multilingual teacher-talk in science and business studies classrooms in Yola, North-Eastern Nigeria. This focus should make it possible to answer questions such as the following which, though important, have not often been posed on account of the limited engagement in the research on classroom multilingualism with theories of knowledge: a) to what extent is it appropriate to claim that there is a functional allocation of language in multilingual teacher-talk (in which language „a‟ is used for so-called presentational knowledge, and language „b‟ for explanatory knowledge)?; b) what kinds of encodings of knowledge occur in a set of science and business studies lessons?; c) given documented visual patterns of knowledge dynamics emerging from recent research in the sociology of knowledge (e.g. semantic waves, semantic flatlines both high and low, downward shift and upward shift), (Maton: 2013, 2014a, 2014b), what knowledge profiles are observable and how does language use in multilingual teacher-talk map onto these patterns?; d) how are any observed differences in the composite knowledge-language profiles to be explained?; and e) what effects do various language-knowledge profiles have on students‟ understanding of the lesson and on their demonstration of their knowledge? Data for the study was derived from transcripts of audio-recorded multilingual teacher-talk in two subjects (integrated science and business studies) as taught in grades seven and nine in four secondary schools (two private and two public schools) in Yola, North-East Nigeria. Findings show, among others, that it is not always the case that the official classroom language (English) is used for introductory discourses, and the non-official classroom languages are used for explanatory discourses. Findings further reveal that it is not primarily the functional allocation of languages that explains perceptions or empirical claims of enhanced student understanding. We also observed that the number of content iterations, combined with knowledge structures, is an important factor that enhances or explains the performance of students. While this research has paid a lot of attention to teacher talk in the classrooms in two sites in Yola, North-East, Nigeria, where the use of Hausa and Fulfulde languages by the students is mainly in the spoken form, it would be interesting for future research to replicate this type of study in an environment where the non-official language of the classroom is perhaps used more frequently in reading and writing.

I den här studien presenteras en läromedelsanalys utifrån konkreta och abstrakta språkdrag. Studiens syfte är att undersöka språkets svårighetsnivå i två läromedel, utifrån att besvara hur uppgifter i olika delar av läromedlen förhåller sig till abstrakta och konkreta språkdrag samt hur språkdragen utvecklas från början till slutet. För att besvara forskningsfrågorna används uppgifter från materialen Klara Svenskan och Språkskrinet med ett urval av 20 uppgifter i början, mitten och slutet av böckerna. Lexikogrammatikens abstrakta-konkreta dimension används som metod för att urskilja språkdragen konkret och abstrakt i uppgifterna vid analysen och studien utgår ifrån Legitimation Code Theory som belyser svårighetsnivån utifrån gravitation och densitet som indikerar på abstrakta och konkreta språkdrag. I resultatet presenteras förekomsten av abstrakta och konkreta språkdrag utifrån andel per 100 ord för varje del av läromedlen samt utvecklingen av språkets svårighetsnivå från början, mitten och sluten av läromedlen. Början av läromedlen indikerar på hög andel konkreta språkdrag därefter minskar andelen konkreta språkdrag i mitten och slutet av läromedlen. I samband med konkretionens minskning visar resultatet att abstraktionen ökar, vilket kopplas till att språkutveckling förflyttas från det konkreta språket mot det abstrakta språket. I diskussionen beskrivs behovet av ytterligare forskning inom läromedel och abstrakta och konkreta språkdrag, för att stödja lärare i att uppmärksamma de svårigheter elever kan ha med att förstå uppgiftsbeskrivningar i läromedel.

Föreliggande studie undersöker tre mellanstadielärares språkbruk både i kommunikativa metoder och planering av lektionsinnehåll. Studien utgår från två frågeställningar som behandlar hur lärarna använder och resonerar om sitt språkbruk i förhållande till kommunikativa metoder. Data samlades in genom observationer och intervjuer. I studien används legitimation code theorys semantiska vågor som teoretisk utgångspunkt och analysmetod. Lärarnas språkbruk analyseras därmed utifrån semantisk densitet och semantisk gravitation. Studiens resultat skildrar de tre deltagande lärarnas syn på vilka kommunikativa aspekter som främjar elevers lärande såsom kooperativa metoder eller relationell kommunikation. Vidare framgår även att eleverna har stor inverkan på lektionsplaneringen och de kommunikativa metoderna som lärarna tillämpar. Studien åskådliggör hur lärare motiverar elever till lärande genom att använda kommunikativa metoder som är anpassade efter deras elevgrupper. Slutligen belyser studien ytterligare utvecklingsmöjligheter och hur den kommunikativa kompetensen i skolan kan studeras ur andra perspektiv.

Föreliggande studie undersöker sex elevers självskattade förståelse av tre mellanstadielärares språkbruk i tre olika ämnen. Studien utgår från tre frågeställningar som behandlar lärarnas språkbruk, elevernas självskattade förståelse samt elevernas tankar om förståelse och inlärning. Datainsamlingsmetoder är ljudinspelningar, deltagande observationer samt enkäter. Legitimation code theorys semantiska vågor är studiens teoretiska utgångspunkt och analysmetod. Semantisk densitet och semantisk gravitation används därför för att analysera lärarnas språkbruk i kombination med elevernas självskattade förståelse. Studiens resultat åskådliggör att eleverna i stor utsträckning har svårt att förstå ämnesspecifika begrepp som förklaras med hög informationstäthet. Eleverna angav även att muntliga och skriftligaförklaringar bidrog till att skapa större förståelse av ett ämnesinnehåll. Eleverna ansåg även att uppgifter som utfördes i kooperativa och praktiska arbetssätt påverkade deras förståelse positivt. Avslutningsvis presenteras vidare utvecklingsmöjligheter med studien.

The project has been implemented as teacher driven action research, where subject-specific reading was studied in classroom practitioners and analyzed by using Legitimation Code Theory (LCT). The purpose was, partly to research which linguistic domains the teachers used in the part detailed reading in Reading to Learn (R2L) and how the discursive movement looked, and partly if progression could be seen during a school year and in that case, how it affected the educators’ teaching.    Participating in the study were four teachers working in a Swedish gymnasium: a chemistry teacher and a teacher of social studies, who were working in academic preparatory programs and a teacher in Swedish as a second language and a teacher in history in one of the introductory programs. The leader of the project and author of this study is also a teacher and colleague to the participants. Totally, twelve observations of detailed reading were implemented: three observations each teacher during one academic year.    The most prominent characteristic of the project was how the teachers, by becoming aware of the linguistic domains, changed their way of using detailed reading and by using the discursive movement, they were able to make semantic waves. The experience of the teachers was that through the action research they received new tools to develop their subject-specific reading and therefore the students’ language and knowledge increased which contributed to a higher object achievement. Notable was that all students seemed to benefit from detailed reading, even the high performing and/or the students with Swedish as their native language.    The result of this study may be relevant to studies on how to augment classroom practices to better implement the subject-specific reading which may lead to change for both teachers and students, regardless of students’ language and knowledge level, stage, or subject.