Considering the vital role teachers play in language teaching, the frequency of, and motivation behind L1 usage in L2 teaching is a very interesting and current area of research. Despite this, there does not seem to be a lot of research done in this area in the context of the Swedish EFL classroom for young learners. The aim of the current study was therefore to contribute to this area of research first, by investigating teachers’ use of Swedish when talking during their English teaching and their rationale for using Swedish instead of English, and second, by determining if there is a difference in the teachers’ use of Swedish depending on the learning objective of the lesson. This was done by using a mixed-method approach, where four English teachers in Sweden, all teaching grades 4-6, were observed in two lessons each, followed by semi-structured interviews. The results showed that Instructions, Asking questions, Praise and Translation were the most used L1 functions, while Evaluation, Classroom equipment and Humor were not employed by any of the teachers. Furthermore, the study demonstrated that the factors for L1 usage were the students’ age, support for the students’ understanding, efficiency and making the students feel comfortable in the learning environment, corresponding with previous research to a great extent. Additionally, it was also found that there was indeed a difference depending on the learning objective. Based on the findings in the study, it is suggested that teachers should be encouraged to assume a mindful approach to their L1 usage.

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

The usage-based approach to first language acquisition has become highly influential in research on first language acquisition. In recent research, it has also been adapted to account for language contact phenomena in multilingual first language acquisition, i.e. in situations in which children acquire two or more languages simultaneously. In this paper, we give a brief overview over these developments, summarize some first major results of this research program, and discuss remaining open questions and challenges. In particular, we review a number of studies that have used the traceback method, previously established in research on monolingual acquisition, to identify recurrent patterns in the early language of multilingual children, especially in their code-mixing, i.e. the use of more than one language in one utterance. We argue that the usage-based approach can help to shed light on some of the open questions in research in multilingual acquisition, especially as it is highly compatible with other prominent concepts in current research on multilingualism, and that it provides us with the methodological toolkit that is needed to investigate language contact phenomena in a data-driven way.

Recent years have seen increased interest in code-mixing from a usage-based perspective. In usage-based approaches to monolingual language acquisition, a number of methods have been developed that allow for detecting patterns from usage data. In this paper, we evaluate two of those methods with regard to their performance when applied to code-mixing data: the traceback method, as well as the chunk-based learner model. Both methods make it possible to automatically detect patterns in speech data. In doing so, however, they place different theoretical emphases: while traceback focuses on frame-and-slot patterns, chunk-based learner focuses on chunking processes. Both methods are applied to the code-mixing of a German–English bilingual child between the ages of 2;3 and 3;11. Advantages and disadvantages of both methods will be discussed, and the results will be interpreted against the background of usage-based approaches.

Crises are spontaneous and highly variable events that lead to life threatening and urgent situations. As such, crisis and emergency notification systems need to be both flexible and highly optimized to quickly communicate to users. Implementing the fastest methods, however, is only half of the battle. The use of geospatial location is missing from alert systems utilized at university campuses across the United States. Our research included the design and implementation of a mobile application addition to our campus notification system. This addition is complete with optimizations including an increase in the speed of delivery, message differentiation to enhance message relevance to the user, and usability studies to enhance user trust and understanding. Another advantage is that our application performs all location data computations on the user device with no external storage to protect user location privacy. However, ensuring the adoption of a mobile application that requests location data permissions and relating privacy measures to users is not a trivial matter. We conducted a campus-wide survey and interviews to understand mobile device usage patterns and obtain opinions of a representative portion of the campus population. These findings guided the development of this mobile application and can provide valuable insights which may be helpful for future application releases. Our addition of a mobile application with geospatial location awareness will send users relevant alerts at speeds faster than those of the current campus notification system while still guarding user location privacy, increasing message relevance, and enhancing the probability of adoption and use. / Master of Science

The main focus of this thesis is applied research targeting industrial applications of Usage Control (UCON) and policy-based governance. Nonetheless, we also tackle an associated core problem to address the diverse requirements of the targeted application domains. The core research problem is three-fold. (1) UCON enacts usage control in a fixed life cycle of three temporal phases: pre, ongoing and post. However, emerging security paradigms require custom and finer-grained lifecycles with phases and transitions tailored for the application domain. For example, data hub applications entail data-oriented usage control throughout the different stages of the data lifecycle (e.g., collection, retention, processing and destruction). Therefore, policy systems must enable custom lifecycles to accommodate a wide variety of applications. (2) Although UCON allows attribute values to change and updates usage decisions accordingly, it does not specify a mechanism to govern attribute values. This becomes necessary in decentralised environments where attributes are collected from external parties that are not necessarily trusted. For this reason, policy systems must incorporate a mechanism to govern attributes, prepare them for policy evaluation and ensure their trustworthiness. (3) Due to its widespread adoption, UCON has been extended and adapted for diverse purposes, leading to a proliferation of frameworks. While these variations added significant contributions in their respective fields, they lack comprehensiveness and generality. Therefore, a unified solution is needed to encompass the existing variations of UCON as well as future applications. By addressing these core problems, we aim to leverage policy-based governance in the following four industrial applications: (1) Industrial/International Data Spaces (IDS), (2) data hubs, (3) smart vehicles, and (4) credential transformation.To address these challenges and fulfil our applied research goals, we present six contributions in this thesis. (1) We propose UCON+: an extensible model that extends beyond traditional access and usage control providing a comprehensive framework for policy-based governance. UCON+ builds on the same foundations of UCON, making it an attribute-based model that incorporates continuous monitoring and policy re-evaluation. However, it only defines general structures and common functions, and outlines extensible behaviour to be implemented by concrete extensions. Specifically, UCON+ allows concrete extensions to govern attribute values and updates, and to specify custom lifecycles tailored for their respective requirements. (2) We introduce a general-purpose policy engine that implements the UCON+ model. The engine conserves an Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC) baseline using a standard policy language. The policy engine also introduces another type of policies used to govern attribute values, and to define and drive custom lifecycles. Thus, different extensions of UCON+ can be realised within the same policy engine using policies, eliminating the need for reimplementation. The policy engine leverages a modular architecture with an optimised implementation. (3) We demonstrate the use of the policy engine in a cloud service that provides an IDS for contract-based data exchange. We specifically used the policy engine and designed a custom lifecycle to govern and drive the contract negotiation between the data provider and data consumer using policies. We also used the policy engine to govern data usage based on the negotiated data sharing agreement. (4) We also showcase the policy engine in a data hub setting, where we leveraged it to track and govern data objects throughout their lifecycles. We designed a lifecycle that captures the different stages of the data lifecycle based on the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). We show how data usage is controlled at each stage of the lifecycle using policies. (5) We present a dynamic identity management and usage control framework for smart vehicles using the policy engine. We specifically introduce a policy-based Security Token Service (STS) that issues contextualised capabilities that specify what subjects are allowed to do within the vehicle. The STS also manages the capabilities throughout their lifecycles and revokes them if the corresponding policies are violated, while also taking safety measures into consideration. (6) Finally, we describe an application of the policy engine for policy-based credential transformation. Specifically, we introduce a policy-based credential bridge that exchanges, aggregates or maps credentials between different domains or regulatory frameworks. The bridge uses policies that specify how to transform or issue credentials according to the requirements of each domain.

Following a usage-based approach to language acquisition, lexically specific patterns are considered to be important building blocks for language productivity and feature heavily both in child-directed speech and in the early speech of children (Arnon, Inbal & Morten H. Christiansen. 2017. The role of multiword building blocks in explaining L1-L2 differences. Topics in Cognitive Science 9(3). 621–636; Tomasello, Michael. 2003. Constructing a language: A usagebased theory of language acquisition. Cambridge: Harvard University Press). In order to account for patterns, the traceback method has been widely applied in research on first language acquisition to test the hypothesis that children’s utterances can be accounted for on the basis of a limited inventory of chunks and partially schematic units (Lieven, Elena, Dorothé Salomo & Michael Tomasello. 2009. Two-year-old children’s production of multiword utterances: A usage-based analysis. Cognitive Linguistics 20(3). 481–508). In the current study, we applied the method to code-mixed utterances (n = 1,506) of three German-English bilingual children between 2 and 4 years of age to investigate individual differences in each child’s own inventory of patterns in relation to their input settings. It was shown that units such as I see X as in I see a Kelle ‘I see a trowel’ could be traced back to the child’s own previous productions. More importantly, we see that each child’s inventory of constructions draws heavily on multiword chunks that are strongly dependent on the children’s language input situations.

Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka om Toisto-inspirerade undervisning hade effekt på elevers muntliga talförmågor i ämnet engelska, i årskurs 1. Detta var även en av frågeställningarna i detta arbete. Ytterligare en frågeställning handlade om elevernas egen uppfattning av undervisning i engelska och om de upplevde att undervisningen hade påverkan på deras språkutveckling. Det handlade om eleverna själva ansåg sig lära någonting och om elevernas talrädsla minskade med hjälp av metoden. Studien använde sig av både kvantitativa och kvalitativa metoder. Den kvantitativa delen av studien genomfördes med hjälp av upplevelseenkäter, samt för- och eftertest, medan fokusgruppsintervjuer användes under den kvalitativa delen av studien. Resultatet visade att den grupp som genomförde engelskundervisning med en Toisto-inspirerad metod höjde sina resultat i jämförelse med gruppen som hade genomgått ordinarie undervisning i engelska. Resultatet visade även att eleverna upplevde mindre talrädsla efter de Toisto-inspirerade passen, dock visade de fortfarande en känsla av oro.

Yes / The need for the development of clean but still profitable processes and the study of low environmental impact and economically convenient management policies for them are two challenges for the years to come. This paper tries to give a first answer to the second of these needs, limited to the area of discontinuous productions. It deals with the development of a robust methodology for the profitable and clean management of (fed-)batch units under uncertainty, which can be referred to as a robust sustainability-oriented model-based optimization & control strategy. This procedure is specifically designed to ensure elevated process performances along with low-cost utilities usage reduction in real-time, simultaneously allowing for the effect of any external perturbation. In this way, conventional offline methods for process sustainable optimization can be easily overcome since the most suitable management policy, aimed at process sustainability, can be dynamically determined and applied in any operating condition. This leads to a significant step forward with respect to the nowadays options in terms of sustainable process management, that drives towards a cleaner and more energy-efficient future. The proposed theoretical framework is validated and tested on a case study based on the well-known fed-batch version of the Williams-Otto process to demonstrate its tangible benefits. The results achieved in this case study are promising and show that the framework is very effective in case of typical process operation while it is partially effective in case of unusual/unlikely critical process disturbances. Future works will go towards the removal of this weakness and further improvement in the algorithm robustness.