The aim of this study is to investigate the opinions teachers teaching English in grades 4-6 have on Extramural English in school, the advantages and disadvantages Extramural English brings, and how they teach to support the acquisition of English for students. The study is based on the following questions: Which teaching methods supports students' language acquisition of English according to teachers in grades 4-6? Which connections do teachers see between students' Extramural English and their attitude to, and knowledge of, English? Do teachers let students' Extramural English interests take place in the classroom, and in which ways? Results from interviews with five teachers from four different schools, and questionnaire responses from 122 teachers, has been used to create the basis for the study. Results show that participating teachers find students attitude to English, as a language as well as subject in school, to be mainly positive. From the teacher’s perspective the students positive attitude reflects on student’s production of English. Many of the teachers express that they include elements of Extramural English when they teach. The study may be of interest from a didactic perspective as it provides insight to how teachers view, and use, Extramural English while teaching. / Syftet med den här studien är att undersöka hur lärare som undervisar i engelska i årskurs 4-6 ser på fritidsengelska i skolan, eventuella fördelar och nackdelar som fritidsengelska innebär, men också hur man undervisar för att främja förvärvandet av engelska hos eleverna. Studien utgår från följande frågeställningar: Vilka undervisningsmetoder främjar elevers språkförvärvande av engelska enligt lärare i årskurs 4-6? Vad ser lärare för kopplingar mellan elevers fritidsengelska och deras inställning till, och kunskaper i, engelska? Låter lärare elevernas fritidsengelska ta plats i klassrummet, och i så fall hur? Resultat från intervjuer med fem lärare från fyra grundskolor, samt enkätsvar från 122 lärare, har använts för att skapa underlag till studien. Av resultaten framgår det att medverkande lärare anser att elevers inställning till engelska, både som språk och som skolämne, är huvudsakligen positiv. Ur lärarnas perspektiv reflekteras elevernas positiva inställning i deras produktion av engelska. Majoriteten av lärarna uttrycker även att de inkluderar fritidsengelska element i sin undervisning. Studien kan vara av intresse ur ett didaktiskt perspektiv då den ger en inblick i hur lärare idag ser på, och använder sig av, fritidsengelska i sin undervisning.

This essay focuses on studying senior high school students’ usage of and attitudes towards American and British English. It also investigates what influences for the students’ use of English and attitudes towards the two varieties can be found in school and outside of school, and how that affects the students’ own variety of English. The study has been carried out using a questionnaire as method and the results have been analyzed through theoretical perspectives. The results show that American English is the favored variety of the two, both in usage, attitudes and influences outside of school. However, a majority of the students states that they use a mixed variety consisting of both American English and British English. The results show that this is also the most commonly variety actually used by the students. A mixed variety is what a large part of the students express is being taught in school as well. This shows that the teaching of English in Swedish schools today follow the directions in the policy documents set up by the National Agency of Education stating that communicative skills are desirable. A mixed variety is accepted and there are no restrictions concerning variety used.

Dieser Artikel stellt sich die Frage wie eine Informations- und Arbeitsumgebung einer (Fern)Universität gestaltet sein muss, um den veränderten technischen und personalen Lebensumwelten Fernstudierender gerecht zu werden. Im Mittelpunkt steht die Entwicklung eines Community-Konzeptes als zentrales Element der Lehre im Fernstudium. Dazu wird zunächst die Notwendigkeit einer solchen Community-Umgebung als Unterstützung für zukünftiges virtuelles Studieren Lernen und Lehren in der Fernlehre belegt, mit dem Ziel, ein geeignetes Community-Konzept zu entwickeln. Nach einer kurzen Einführung wird die aktuelle Situation der FernUniversität dargestellt. Es folgt die Bestandsaufnahme der Bedürfnisse der Studierenden mit entsprechenden Schlussfolgerungen für ein Anforderungsprofil. Darauf aufbauend soll das Konzept der zukünftigen Umgebung vorgestellt. Dieses Konzept kann nicht in der Kürze dieses Artikels dargestellt werden, daher soll eine exemplarische skizzenhafte Darstellung der fertigen Umgebung einen Eindruck über die tatsächliche Nutzung der Umgebung vermitteln. Wichtiges Hilfsmittel zum Entwurf sind neben bestehenden Forschungsergebnissen die Ergebnisse einer eigenen Erhebung unter Fernstudierenden sowie Erfahrungen aus verschiedenen Lehrveranstaltungen. Diese Studie ist gerade erst abgeschlossen und noch nicht im Detail ausgewertet, es lassen sich allerdings bereits Trends feststellen, die bereits im Artikel eingearbeitet sind. Die Ergebnisse der Studie (Virutelle Communities im Fernstudium) sind zum Konferenzvortrag fertig ausgewertet.

The aim of this paper was to look at a group of Swedish upper secondary school students’ extramural English activities in comparison to their final grades and their grades on the National Test in English level 5. The aim was also to see what role motivation could potentially play. The method was of a mixed nature with both questionnaires and interviews. The results show tendencies, in accordance with previous research, that there is a correlation between the students’ grades and their extramural English activities. The results also show that attitudes towards English are in correlation with both extramural English and the students’ grades. / Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka en grupp svenska gymnasieelevers kontakt med engelska utanför skolan i relation till deras slutbetyg och deras betyg från nationella proven från engelska nivå 5. Syftet var också att undersöka elevernas attityder till och motivation för det engelska språket. Både en kvantitativ metod i form av ett frågeformulär och en kvalitativ metod i form av intervjuer användes. Resultaten visar, i linje med tidigare forskning, att det finns ett samband mellan studenternas betyg och kontakt med engelska utanför skolan. Resultaten visar också att attityder till det engelska språket har ett samband både med studenternas kontakt med engelska utanför skolan och deras betyg.

e-Learning has the potential to radically change the way we teach and learn in higher education, but there is ongoing debate as to what constitutes effective e-learning environments. This study explores the interrelated areas of e-learning technology and pedagogy within the context of a postgraduate special education and educational psychology programme. The study is framed in a scholarship of teaching and learning approach and covers three successive phases of overlapping activities of teaching, learning and research. The first phase of the research focuses on the design of a community of practice approach to e-learning. The aim is to enable students to develop their identity as members of the professional community by bridging the gap between university-based learning and its real-world application. In the second phase of the research, alternative technology is used to investigate a better alignment of e-learning technology and pedagogy. The findings here show that a community of practice pedagogy is better aligned with a social constructionist e-learning technology. In the third phase of the research an e-learning alignment guide is developed to analyse the changes in e-learning in relation to the interrelated areas of technology, pedagogy and context. The guide is applied to the e-learning case studies in Phases 1 and 2 of this study. The profiles of alignment from these case studies illustrate the complexities and tensions in e-learning and the potential of linking advanced technologies with effective teaching practices to change the way we teach and learn. The key finding of this study is that careful alignment of technology, pedagogy and context is needed to actualise the potential of e-learning in higher education. The e-learning alignment guide developed in this study enables analysis of e-learning environments to provide alignment profiles. Aligning innovative technologies with appropriate pedagogies in different contexts is essential for e-learning to meet the needs of learners in the digital age. The enormous and rapid development of new educational technologies has seriously challenged traditional forms of pedagogy. This study shows that both a scholarship of teaching and learning approach and the use of the e-learning alignment guide can make a positive contribution to designing effective e-learning environments.

This literature review explores the global trend towards implementing English as a medium of instruction in the form of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) and English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) in countries where English is not an official language. Additionally, the essay analyses stakeholders’ perspectives on English language instruction and Extramural English (EE).This is done in a European and Swedish context to explore CLIL, EMI and EE possible effects on proficiency on English and mother tongue from a language hierarchy, second language motivational and egalitarian perspective. The results of the review indicate that further research regarding CLIL, EMI and EE is essential to improve CLIL and EMI education in a European and Swedish context.

A presente dissertação tem o objetivo de contribuir e somar às pesquisas na área de ensino de História. Para tanto, propõe-se a apresentar atividades extramuros da escola e refletir sobre elas, sobretudo no que diz respeito a estudos do meio atrelados à disciplina e realizados em circunstâncias escolares na cidade de São Paulo, além de contextualizar suas diferentes intencionalidades, metodologias e relações com parâmetros e orientações curriculares vigentes. Em um segundo momento, a pesquisa propõe um olhar qualitativo sobre tais atividades por meio de experiências de trabalhos de campo em escolas da rede pública e particular de educação básica, com o intuito de visualizar reverberações de práticas passadas no presente e de situá-las e debatêlas em relação a perspectivas maiores concernentes ao ensino, como currículo, protagonismo docente, metodologia de ensino, o processo de mercantilização da educação e sua resistência / This study aims to contribute and add to researches in the field of History Teaching. For this purpose, it proposes to present and reflect about activities that are conducted outside the classroom, especially environmental studies linked to the discipline, performed in school circumstances in São Paulo, and to contextualize their different intentionalities, methodologies and relationships with current curriculum guidelines and parameters. In a second step, the research invites taking a qualitative look at those activities by the way of experiences in the field that took place in public and private basic education schools. The aim is to understand how past practices influenced current practices, and debate them in larger perspectives of education, such as curriculum, protagonism in teaching, teaching methodology, the practice of mercantilism in education and its resistance

This study investigates Swedish students’ texts from two time periods: 1999 and 2009, in search of cohesive evidence indicating a change of quality influenced by the development of the Internet. The method used in this study is the application of a computational tool that provides measures of language and discourse called Coh-Metrix, which provides measures along several cohesion variables, including word concreteness, deep cohesion, verb cohesion and lexical diversity. The results showed that the student texts from 2009 had higher lexical diversity, suggesting a larger vocabulary, which is closely connected to text quality. The results also showed a higher use of deep cohesion in the texts from 2009, which suggest that the writers know how to use connectives. In contrast, the student texts from 1999 showed a higher use of verb cohesion, suggesting the texts being written in a more narrative style, which is often connected to younger students. By using Coh-Metrix to study evidence of cohesion, this study could contribute with relevant findings about how students’ written English has changed over a period of time.

This study examined the extramural activities, that is, what a language learner does with the target language outside of class time, in Japanese of adult beginner level foreign language learners of Japanese studying at Stockholm University, Sweden, and how these activities relate to Japanese language proficiency. The study looked at both extramural activities and foreign language proficiency from a holistic and quantitative perspective. The participants' extramural activities were measured through self-reported data in a questionnaire, and several measures; a cloze test, earlier grades, and self-evaluations; were triangulated and used to provide an adequate measure of general Japanese language proficiency.    The results indicate that extramural activities which provide a foreign language learner with enough time for thorough processing of input and support through the usage of several cooperating modalities seem to have a positive effect on general foreign language acquisition.

Elevernas tillgång till olika digitala medier har under de senaste 10 åren ökat. Flera elever möter idag det engelska språket utanför skolan i form av olika aktiviteter. Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur lärare förhåller sig till den engelska som eleverna har med sig in i klassrummet.  Begreppet extramural engelska innefattar all den engelska som eleverna kommer i kontakt med på fritiden. Studien har en fenomenografisk inspirerad ansats och materialinsamlingen har gjorts genom semistrukturerade intervjuer. Fyra lärare på tre olika skolor har medverkat i studien. Resultatet visar att lärarna försöker att inkludera elevernas extramurala engelska i undervisningen, Lärarna ser dock både möjligheter och hinder med att använda elevernas extramurala engelska i engelskundervisningen. Samtliga lärare ser elevernas extramurala engelska som något positivt och tycker det är bra att eleverna lär sig engelska utanför skolan. / Students’ access to digital media has for the last ten years increased. Several students have been exposed to the English language out of school in the form of various activities. The aim of the study is to examine how teachers relate to the English that the students bring into the classroom. Extramural English includes all English that students encounter in their spare time. The study has a phenomenographic inspired approach and semi-structured interviews have been used to collect data. Four teachers from three different schools have participated in the study. The conclusion of the study shows that teachers try to include students extramural English in the classroom, however the teachers see both possibilities and obstacles with using students extramural English in the classroom. All teachers see the students extramural English as something positive and think that it is good that the students learn English out of school.