Wood construction has increased in the recent years for apartment buildings consisting of four to five floors. Compared to other building materials, wood has great environmental benefits. For a building in a larger scale constructed in wood, cross-laminated timber, also known as CLT is an option. The technology for CLT originated in Sweden during the 1990s and since then the development has increased. CLT has excellent stiffness and strength properties. The design of a floor in CLT is important for how the building and the environment are perceived indoors. The wooden floor is about five times lighter than concrete, which means that measures are required to meet the sound requirements set by Boverkets building regulations in Sweden. This will affect the span. The aim of the project is to present a knowledge overview of CLT and for floor in CLT up to 9 meters in span, to compete with concrete floor in steel and prefabricated concrete frames. The study includes a quantitative methodology using three different data collection methods. These are literature study, document analysis and calculations. The literature study and the document analysis are based on scientific-and research articles, together with manuals. The calculations are carried out in Stora Enso's calculation program Calculatis by Stora Enso. The program follows Eurocode's design principles. The result of the study shows that a CLT-board with laminated beams gives greater span than just a CLT-board does. The calculation means that the plate must meet the deflection requirement L / 300. Research shows that construction with CLT is increasing and there is great potential to obtain a cost-effective reduction of the carbon footprint and at the same time improve the utilization of natural resources by replacing non-renewable building materials such as concrete and steel with CLT. In order to achieve the sound requirements that are established, the CLT floor must be dimensioned thicker and measures such as additional insulation. By looking at the results, the conclusion is drawn that CLT-floor may grow further to compete with concrete floor in the future. Currently the material is considered useful and environmental for smaller constructions for such as smaller houses, due to the sound insulation problem. For larger constructions with the similar problem can timber-concrete composite be an alternative. CLT-floor reinforced with glulam beams may be considered as a choice for larger and bigger constructions because the span widths increase, and the construction can withstand maximum deflection. The study is limited to mainly considering CLT but also a small amount of concrete and glulam. Vibrations and environmental risks such as moisture, sunlight and fire, are not considered. The calculations the work uses are based on Eurocode 5, dimensioning of wooden structures. Other types of design principles have been excluded.

The study examined three Japanese junior high-school English teachers’ initial years of full-time employment. It investigated the type of pedagogical puzzles these teachers experienced, how their practice developed over 18 months, and my role as a Teacher of Teachers (TOT). Drawing on linguistic ethnography, this study took an ethnographic approach to understanding the teachers’ social context and used techniques from discourse analysis to consider how they interpreted their puzzles and constructed their practice. These techniques were also used to analyze my working relationship with the teachers. The purpose of this endeavor was to contribute to the understanding of novice teacher development in an ‘expanding circle’ country. Over the course of the study, I observed the teachers’ classes and interviewed them once or twice a month. Using the coding of interview transcripts and class fieldnotes, I identified Critical Incidents that represented the teachers’ pedagogical puzzles and typical practice, as well as my role as a TOT. Using Cultural Historical Activity Theory(CHAT), I analyzed how elements of the social context brought about the teachers’ pedagogical puzzles and affected their capacity to address them. Coding of the interviews and a microanalysis of the interactions showed my role as a TOT. Overall, the CIs gave an emic portrait of each teacher’s experience and my efforts to support them. The pedagogical puzzles the teachers faced were a result of their personal histories and school conditions. These puzzles did not change, which indicates that teachers will face complex issues that cannot be resolved. Understanding them, however, can promote teacher development. Applying CHAT, I could identify the conditions that helped determine the types of pedagogy in which teachers engaged. I tried to fulfill my role as a TOT by conducting a form of reflective practice (RP). An examination of the RP I conducted with the teachers challenged the notion that it involves the sequential steps of identifying issues, attempting to resolve them, and reflecting on one’s efforts. This dissertation concludes with a discussion about the contributions it has made toward the field of English teacher development: using CHAT to understand the English teaching experiences, the development of an understanding of RP as it can be carried out in the field, an understanding of novice teachers in expanding circle countries, and the value of linguistic ethnography for researching novice teachers.