This study investigates which English variety teachers in Sweden learned, which they use now and whether this has changed over time. The study included the two major varieties of English, namely British English and American English.  The hypothesis for this paper is that British English will have played an important part in the teachers’ schooling but American English will have had a strong influence in their day-to-day lives and will likely have hanged how they use English. Data was collected in the form of questionnaires filled in by 294 teachers who teach English at primary, secondary and upper secondary schools in Sweden.  The results support the thesis of the paper that teachers mainly learned British English at school while American English becomes more common for teachers under the age of 40. However, the majority of participants were found to use a variety which has features of both British and American English - it is referred to as Mid-Atlantic English in this paper.

English is today a vast world language, and the foremost important business and cross-border language in the world. The two predominant English varieties in the Swedish educational system are British English and American English. A third variety, Mid-Atlantic English, is however on the up-rise, and many researchers expect this to be the future educational standard variety due to escalating globalization. British English is the variety which traditionally has been taught in the Swedish school, but the last couple of decades American English have been gaining ground because of popular media. Today both varieties are referred to in the Swedish National Curriculum, and teachers as well as students face a multifaceted choice. The aim of this paper is to investigate attitudes among upper-secondary level teachers and students; on what grounds they have chosen their personal variety and to what extent they are aware of what English variety they use. What we have seen is that resolute attitudes can be perceived towards the two Englishes. Furthermore, our investigation shows that students mix British and American English, and even though British English still is held in academic esteem, American English characteristics predominate in the mix. British English is recurrently described as “snobbish” and in a more positive fashion as “high-class”, whereas American English is perceived either as “youthful and cool” or “dim and uneducated”. Even students who prefer and think they use British English, to a large extent use American orthography and spelling.

In this master’s thesis we focus on the basic properties of computer curves and their practical applicability. We explain how the curve can be understood in general, what are polynomial curves and their composing possibilities. Then we focus on the description of Bezier curves, especially the Bezier cubic. We discuss in more detail some of fundamental algorithms that are used for modelling these curves on computers and then we will show their practical interpretation. Then we explain non uniform rational B-spline curves and De Boor algorithm. In the end we discuss topic rasterization of segment, thick line, circle and ellipse. The aim of master’s thesis is the creation of the set of interactive applets, simulating some of the methods and algorithm we discussed in theoretical part. This applets will help facilitate understanding and will make the teaching more effective.

In this master’s thesis we focus on the basic properties of computer curves and their practical applicability. We explain how the curve can be understood in general, what are polynomial curves and their composing possibilities. Then we focus on the description of Bezier curves, especially the Bezier cubic. We discuss in more detail some of fundamental algorithms that are used for modelling these curves on computers and then we will show their practical interpretation. Then we explain non uniform rational B-spline curves and De Boor algorithm. In the end we discuss topic rasterization of segment, thick line, circle and ellipse. The aim of master’s thesis is the creation of the set of interactive applets, simulating some of the methods and algorithm we discussed in theoretical part. This applets will help facilitate understanding and will make the teaching more effective.