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This paper investigates what role grammar plays, what grammatical content is included, and whether focus on form or meaning dominates in six EFL (English as a Foreign Language) textbooks for English 5. Through the methodology content analysis, the grammatical content is calculated, categorized, and analyzed with coding frames in three parts: form-focused instruction and grammar tasks and meaning-focused instruction and grammar tasks, context, and grammatical categories. The results show that form-focused instruction and grammar tasks dominate over meaning-focused instruction and grammar tasks in all textbooks. The proportions of form-focused grammar task range from 74% to 100%. When it comes to context, in all textbooks but one, grammar tasks are both placed in separate grammar sections and integrated in the texts. Furthermore, there is a considerable degree of variation between the textbooks in terms of the proportions of grammatical categories. In form-focused grammar tasks, the highest frequencies were seen in verbs, the mixed category, nouns, pronouns, and adjectives and adverbs. In meaning-focused grammar tasks, verbs, the mixed category, and adjectives and adverbs have the highest frequencies. Even though the textbooks treat grammar rather similarly, the grammatical content and the proportions of tasks differ.

Background: Exposure tasks—where an individual confronts a feared stimulus or situation—are known to be a key element of the treatment for youth anxiety. However, optimal therapist behaviors during these exposure tasks and the specifics of how therapist should conduct exposure tasks have not been determined. The current study examined the relationship between therapist behaviors that (a) increased, (b) decreased or (c) maintained the youth’s anxiety during exposures and treatment outcomes. Methods: Participants were youth (N = 107) ages 7 to 17 who received cognitive behavioral therapy for anxiety. Youth and their primary caregiver(s) completed a diagnostic interview and self- and parent-report measures pre- and post-treatment. Exposure session videos were rated by observers trained to reliability on a coding system evaluating therapist behaviors. Hierarchical regression analyses examined the role of therapist behaviors in predicting treatment outcomes. Logistic regression assessed the ability of therapist behaviors to predict treatment responder status (i.e., being a treatment responder versus a non-responder). Exploratory analyses examined the relationship between the individual therapist behaviors (within the three overall categories of behaviors) and treatment outcomes. Results: Youth showed significant improvement over the course of treatment. The three categories of therapist behaviors used during exposure tasks (increase, decrease and maintain the youth’s anxiety) were not associated with treatment outcomes. Discussion: Findings indicate that so long as exposure tasks are conducted, the therapist behaviors during the exposures may not be as important for predicting outcomes. Clinical implications, study limitations, and future directions are discussed. / Psychology

Textbooks still dominate teaching materials in English classes in Sweden. This paper analyzes speaking tasks in two sets (textbook and workbook) of textbooks for year nine in Swedish schools, Happy, Workbook No. 3, and What’s Up? Textbook 9 and Workbook 9. The first analysis presents a content analysis, providing a general overview of speaking tasks found in both textbooks. Here, I will quantitatively account for the qualitative items types of speaking (monologue or dialogue), text types (narration, giving information, description, instruction, discussion/argumentation), cognitive operations (open/productive, open/reproductive, closed productive or closed/reproductive speech patterns), and classroom organization (single or pair work, pair or group work, or class work) in a matrix. This shows what kinds of tasks dominate the books and are required most of the students. The second is a close analysis of four speaking tasks against a framework of seven principles: scaffolding (actually demonstrating a solution), task dependency (tasks build upon each other), recycling (introducing language items in different contexts), active learning, integration (the task shows the relationship between meaning, form, and function of language items), from reproduction to creation (the order of tasks goes from reproductive to productive), and reflection (the task offers opportunity for reflection over one’s own learning). Two tasks will meet most, and two will meet only few of these principles.The content analysis reveals a vast majority of dialogues (100 out of 124 tasks, or 80.65%). This might not be surprising, keeping the communicative approach of the syllabus in mind. But it is surprising that discussion/argumentation is the text type most frequently asked for (46 out of 124 tasks, or 31.7%), not narration or giving information. They occupy a firm second and third place with 30 (24.19%) respectively 27 (21.77%) tasks out of 124. 21 (16.94%) tasks in total ask for description. Even more surprisingly, not one task demands that students give instructions. Giving instructions may not require as much two-way communication, but it still presents an important skill.This is an analysis, not an evaluation. An analysis aims at objectively accounting for what is presented and in what proportions without making some form of judgment on what is found. This would be the objective of an evaluation. This paper aims at analyzing speaking tasks and task design in English textbooks, not to pass or fail them against the needs of students or the demands of the Swedish syllabus for English.

I have during my master been looking into finding a “greater presence” in a text based theatre rehearsal and workshop context. I have tried to look at things how they appear in front of me. A dilemma is, that when I afterwards try and look at presence, it has already gone. Therefore I used different tasks that can be recreated in order to try and catch presence again. When exploring presence in a rehearsal and workshop context, I found a few clues how to find “presence” and doing tasks in order to find a “greater presence”. These are all helpful for us actors in order to make the rehearsal and workshop space more creative. Could also be helpful in teaching acting. I did this research because in teaching acting, I believe that presence is a major component and it is important to find ways to teach it. This essay will give some clues to how one can do this.. / <p>This is work in progress. When doing artistic research, things are in constant motion. This is a glimpse of a work , captured here annd now, tomorrow it will have moved furter. This will be continued.</p>

This exploratory case study examined the digital practices and literacies of Generation Z language learners and explored how these practices could be better addressed in the language classroom through "Real-World" tasks. The study was conducted within the theoretical framework of the Sociocultural Approach to Language Learning and the pedagogical framework of the Real-World Task-Based Language Teaching approach, with an emphasis on the eLANG citizen project. The data was analyzed through qualitative thematic analysis of both a corpus of learner final reports and two questionnaires, resulting in a detailed portrait of the learners' digital practices. The findings indicate that implementing real-world, task-based language learning projects that utilize Generation Z's pre-existing digital competencies can lead to improved language and digital literacy skills. Students reported enhancements in their oral expression, use of slang, and interaction with native speakers, as well as improvements in their understanding of hashtags, video planning and editing, and trend tracking. The students had multiple real-world, authentic interactions through the digital citizenship project, which enabled them to become enhanced digital citizens in FLS by formulating their identities, observing established communities and language users, participating in these communities directly, and learning in informal, gameful ways. It is proposed that utilizing the digital practices of Generation Z learners for language learning not only enhances the authenticity and relevance of the activities but also helps to achieve pedagogical objectives. This prepares learners for their future in a technology-saturated world and becoming effective members of society and is the next relevant step in sociocultural language pedagogy.

With over 765,000 English-as-a-second-language (ESL) students studying in the United States, a greater understanding of the academic requirements and demands these students face while studying in the US is needed. Some of the biggest challenges they face include the amount of reading required and the various tasks employed with academic reading. University reading tasks require more than an understanding of the text. These tasks place a strong emphasis on text comprehension, summary, synthesis, and critical analysis. This is problematic as students, especially ESL learners, lack experience with academic tasks, and many additionally struggle with low metacognitive awareness, limited or low reading fluency, limited vocabulary, and difficulty understanding text organization. This article will present a research-informed website, A Teacher's Guide to Academic Reading, designed for teachers preparing ESL learners for the demands and difficulties of university reading. A Teacher's Guide to Academic Reading specifically informs teachers of academic reading demands and provides resources to help their learners develop fluent reading skills, critical reading skills, and general academic skills.

The tasks with which students engage in their mathematics courses determine, for a large part, what students learn. Therefore, it is essential that teachers are able to design tasks that are worthwhile for developing mathematical understanding. Since practicing teachers seldom incorporate worthwhile mathematical tasks in their lessons, we would expect that they did not become proficient at designing worthwhile tasks while in their teacher education programs. This thesis describes a study that investigated what preservice secondary teachers attend to as they attempt to design worthwhile mathematical tasks. Three participants were selected from a course at a large private university where preservice teachers are taught and practice the skill of task design. This "Task Design" course was observed, and the three participants were interviewed to determine what they attend to while designing tasks. There were seven main characteristics that the main participants in the study attended to the most often and thought were the most important: sound and significant mathematics, reasoning, appropriateness, clarity, communication, engagement, and openness. How the participants attended to these characteristics is described. Some implications for teacher education, such as requiring preservice teachers to explain how their tasks embody certain characteristics, are given based on the results.

Teacher telling is underrepresented in the mathematics education reform literature and deserves additional scrutiny. This case study examined a skilled teacher's telling practices during a university mathematics content course for pre-service elementary teachers. I identified telling practices through discourse analysis, attending to the presence of mathematics and the contribution of new structure or ideas from the teacher. The teacher utilized seven unique types of mathematical telling while supporting collaborative group work on tasks. The study identified subtle telling, implicit telling, and explicit telling. The results suggest that mathematical telling is an integral part of the teacher's role in inquiry-based instruction and should not be overlooked. Researchers can use the telling types to identify and describe telling practices more transparently. Practitioners can more consciously incorporate and discriminate between telling practices.

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