ABSTRACT This study mainly sets to explore how English second language students grade 12 learners at Randfontein Secondary School develop critical literacy awareness (CLA) by reading ‘bumper’ stickers found in mini-bus taxis commonly known as taxis. Data used in this project was mainly collected through interviews with research participants namely; students, taxi drivers, bumper sticker manufacturers and taxi commuters. The teacher/researcher required students to collect literary texts from their environment for use in their critical literacy class. This research project mainly employs Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis model as an analytical model, which holds that CDA should include the socio-cultural contexts in which texts are produced and read. Data was analysed by all the students in class, especially the six students who were selected for the focus group. The researcher (myself) analysed the students’ reading of texts so as to establish the extent to which they were developing critical literacy awareness. The research found that my students resisted bumper stickers as a discourse that differed from their own ideological positions. Data in this study reveals that the students approached the bumper stickers from a position of estrangement because they were reading from an urban social context that differs from the taxi drivers’ rural social context. This study showed that getting students to be researcher themselves can be a very fruitful and developmental learning experience.

This degree project essay aims to create ways for promoting critical literacy by teaching persuasive, manipulative, authentic texts in the subject of English at upper-secondary level in Sweden. In the essay, the syllabus of the English subject is critiqued for not explicitly stating what it means to take a critical approach towards sources and media; it is claimed that the meaning of critical examination only is implied in the syllabus for English 7. Therefore, the psychological perspective on reading seems to be dominant in the syllabus. However, this essay proposes, from a sociological perspective on reading, that critical reading and analysis of persuasive, manipulative, authentic texts could function as an explicit content in all English courses at upper-secondary level in Swedish upper-secondary school. Moreover, the essay suggests that critical reading in a Swedish educational context is particularly important because of the population’s common trust in media. The essay builds on Norman Fairclough’s view that critical dimensions of education are necessary in a democratic society in order to promote active citizenship. As a means to increase critical aspects of language teaching into the subject of English as a second or foreign language, this essay presents the three models approach. The three models approach combines traditions of informal logic (the Toulmin model and fallacy analysis) with critical discourse analysis and is created specifically for analysis of persuasive and manipulative, authentic texts in the EFL and ESL classroom. Ultimately, the three models approach promotes critical literacy and critical language awareness (CLA) in the sense of understanding language as an instrument of power. However, building on Rod Ellis’ taskbased language teaching and concept of consciousness-raising, as well as Richard Schmidt’s noticing hypothesis, the three models approach, paying close attention to arguments and word choice, also forwards incidental language learning through tasks that demand conscious noticing of language features and structures. Additionally, the essay critiques Ellis’ principles of instructed language teaching for leaving out critical aspects of language learning and teaching. The essay upholds that both language awareness (in the grammatical sense) and critical language awareness (in the sense of understanding language as power) are important in second language courses, something that is also emphasized in the three models approach.

This dissertation explores learner beliefs about pronunciation and their interaction with identity negotiations in a study-abroad context. Current research on studying abroad has experienced a wave of interest in learner-centered questions, gradually moving away from the narrow focus on students’ linguistic development. In particular, the effects of study abroad on learner identities have attracted attention, revealing the impact of the dispositions of individuals, as well as of interlocutors, on the language learning process. The realm of speaking, especially with regard to pronunciation research, however, has hardly benefited from this interest in the individual perspectives of sojourners. Existing studies merely measure the extent to which learners appropriate native-like accents, resulting in partly inconsistent findings with limited insight into individual learning processes and factors. I thus adopt a different focus by qualitatively investigating the interplay between sojourners’ beliefs about pronunciation and their identity constructions and negotiations. My research is based on five case studies of Canadian learners of German. Each research subject has attended a German university for one or two semesters. In applying narrative inquiry as a research tool for both the within- and cross-case analyses, I investigate participants’ accounts in interviews and e-journals, as conducted at different stages throughout the first sojourn term. Poststructuralist-constructivist conceptualizations of learner identities and beliefs guide the data analysis and interpretation. The results of the holistic and categorical content analyses give insight into the intricate relationship between beliefs about pronunciation and learners’ identity work. In their narratives, learners appear to actively use pronunciation as a tool to construct identity facets in correspondence to specific communities of practice, giving meaning to their investment in the sojourn experience. This process of mediating between different identity constructions appears to be highly complex and partially conflict-laden. The participants’ beliefs and reported learning behaviours are interconnected with their definitions of learning goals, which draw on native-speaker ideals to different extents and with varying results. These orientations are in turn related to the subjects’ degrees of critical language awareness, the latter a factor that appears to play a vital role in shaping the ability of learners to take advantage of learning opportunities. In assessing participants’ learning objectives and their readiness to reflect upon their beliefs and orientations, my study also sheds light on the influence of different learning factor constellations on intercultural learning. The results indicate that unidirectional cause-and-effect relationships cannot be drawn between learners’ beliefs about pronunciation and their abilities to approach their roles as intercultural speakers in sojourn environments. My study rather underlines the importance of illuminating individual learning experiences in their idiosyncrasies and complexities, which may lead to a stronger consideration of learners’ subjective stances in both research and teaching practice. The findings of my study suggest that the primary way that language pedagogy can thus foster the ability to engage in intercultural encounters is by helping learners to become aware of their subjective stances, their self-constructions, and the influence of those on the learning process. Therefore, developing the ability and willingness to critically reflect is crucial, especially with regard to pronunciation. In illuminating the intricate nature of learner beliefs and their influence on the learning process, my study demonstrates the importance of qualitative, emic research into the acquisition of L2 pronunciation.

This dissertation explores learner beliefs about pronunciation and their interaction with identity negotiations in a study-abroad context. Current research on studying abroad has experienced a wave of interest in learner-centered questions, gradually moving away from the narrow focus on students’ linguistic development. In particular, the effects of study abroad on learner identities have attracted attention, revealing the impact of the dispositions of individuals, as well as of interlocutors, on the language learning process. The realm of speaking, especially with regard to pronunciation research, however, has hardly benefited from this interest in the individual perspectives of sojourners. Existing studies merely measure the extent to which learners appropriate native-like accents, resulting in partly inconsistent findings with limited insight into individual learning processes and factors. I thus adopt a different focus by qualitatively investigating the interplay between sojourners’ beliefs about pronunciation and their identity constructions and negotiations. My research is based on five case studies of Canadian learners of German. Each research subject has attended a German university for one or two semesters. In applying narrative inquiry as a research tool for both the within- and cross-case analyses, I investigate participants’ accounts in interviews and e-journals, as conducted at different stages throughout the first sojourn term. Poststructuralist-constructivist conceptualizations of learner identities and beliefs guide the data analysis and interpretation. The results of the holistic and categorical content analyses give insight into the intricate relationship between beliefs about pronunciation and learners’ identity work. In their narratives, learners appear to actively use pronunciation as a tool to construct identity facets in correspondence to specific communities of practice, giving meaning to their investment in the sojourn experience. This process of mediating between different identity constructions appears to be highly complex and partially conflict-laden. The participants’ beliefs and reported learning behaviours are interconnected with their definitions of learning goals, which draw on native-speaker ideals to different extents and with varying results. These orientations are in turn related to the subjects’ degrees of critical language awareness, the latter a factor that appears to play a vital role in shaping the ability of learners to take advantage of learning opportunities. In assessing participants’ learning objectives and their readiness to reflect upon their beliefs and orientations, my study also sheds light on the influence of different learning factor constellations on intercultural learning. The results indicate that unidirectional cause-and-effect relationships cannot be drawn between learners’ beliefs about pronunciation and their abilities to approach their roles as intercultural speakers in sojourn environments. My study rather underlines the importance of illuminating individual learning experiences in their idiosyncrasies and complexities, which may lead to a stronger consideration of learners’ subjective stances in both research and teaching practice. The findings of my study suggest that the primary way that language pedagogy can thus foster the ability to engage in intercultural encounters is by helping learners to become aware of their subjective stances, their self-constructions, and the influence of those on the learning process. Therefore, developing the ability and willingness to critically reflect is crucial, especially with regard to pronunciation. In illuminating the intricate nature of learner beliefs and their influence on the learning process, my study demonstrates the importance of qualitative, emic research into the acquisition of L2 pronunciation.

In 2011, the new upper secondary school curriculum Lgy 11 set out to distinguish thecharacteristics of the two subjects Swedish and Swedish as a second language. This thesis analyzes the consequences, or rather the underlying premises for such a characterization with the contradictory ideologies of the multicultural society as a point of departure. Using theories of cultural and linguistic hegemony, the thesis applies an ideological critique to the comparative text analysis of the two curriculums. The aim is to reveal the underlying assumptions of the two student bases as representatives of the majority society and the minorities. The results show that the characterizations of the two subjects are dominantly made along the line of the multicultural experience versus linguistic and cultural heritage. Swedish as a second language students are seen to be expected to use their own person as a learning tool to relativize cultural and linguistic values from the point of view of the majority society, while Swedish students are expected to follow a pattern of learning fixed values within a western diachronic framework, leaving their experience of being part of a majority society in a multicultural contemporary context unexplored. Discussing the results, the hegemonic aspect of the revealed assumptions is pinned down and the meanings of the seemingly varying ontological traditions within the two curriculums are brought up as a way forward for further research within the second language education discourse.

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