The focus of this study is use of discourse markers (DM). Data consists of taped interactions of informants. From this data, four particular DM are analyzed with regard to distribution in turn taking. The concepts of cohesion and coherence in text or discourse, together with informants´ communicative and discourse strategies, in a group of bilingual speakers (BS) and a control group of monolingual speakers (MS), are also analyzed. The findings confirm that BS, compared to the MS, make more frequent use of y with a pragmatic meaning when introducing various types of questions that constitute requests for elucidation directed to an interlocutor and thereby continue the interaction. In general, however, the MS use the DM y more frequently than the BS, demonstrating a more elaborate sense of stylistics in the coordination of their turn as narrations and descriptions. With regard to pero, the BS prefer to use this DM with a pragmatic meaning, in the continuation of an intervention or at the end of a turn, in order to question that which has been stated. The MS use pero primarily with a semantic meaning, to express counter-arguments inside a turn. It is exclusively the BS who use the DM así que with pragmatic meaning of consequence, in interactional exchanges, when they wish to introduce questions and assertions, where así que begins their reaction to the utterance of the interlocutor. Such questions may be regarded as a discourse strategy that permits possibilities for avoiding taking responsibility for how an utterance is interpreted. In addition, both the BS and the MS use así que at the end of turns, providing the discourse with meta-pragmatic meaning whereby it allows possibilities for interpreting this as finalizing. Through their use of es que, the BS gradually explain and justify statements made in utterances during their turns while the MS, through use in their discourse of this DM, allows them to introduce explications, justifications or excuses in the event of possible disagreement. In addition, the MS use justification introduced through this DM as a strategy to take a turn or to attempt to take over the turn, where es que conveys discourse-pragmatic meaning and introduces a tone of verbal courtesy. / Den digitala versionen: ny rev. utg. 2005.

This thesis is concerned with adult L1 attrition in the case of highly-educated long-term Polish immigrants in Sweden. The study sheds light on two classical issues pertaining to L1 attrition, namely what happens to a fully developed mature language system in an immigrant context, and why it happens. Specifically we aim to answer the following questions: (1) Are Polish speakers in Sweden different from comparable individuals in Poland with respect to (i) judgement and use of a number of Polish linguistic features (se keywords below), and (ii) hesitation phenomena, i.e. ability to be quick and easy and linguistic insecurity? (2) Is the variation in linguistic results dependent on how often and in what context the Polish language is used and/or which attitudes the individuals have towards it as well as how long they have been living in Sweden? One of the main contributions of the study regards methodology. The data is analysed in three steps: an initial focus on group comparisons shifts to the analysis of individual results in relation to the variation observed in the comparison group, and finally to a holistic view of the attrition effects or their absence. It is suggested that in studies on adult L1 attrition, where the effects are expected to be relatively cosmetic, the range of the linguistic behaviour in the comparison group as a reference point as well as a holistic perspective on individual results gives a more truthful picture of the attrition process. In addition the study shows that attrition effects are present in some individuals (60 %) to a different degree. The most common effect overall is linguistic insecurity followed by the overuse of 1st person pronouns as explicit subjects and to a lesser degree by the overuse of 3rd person pronouns. Surprisingly there is a scanty effect on the other hesitation phenomenon, i.e. the ability to be quick and easy. No or limited effects are observed in other structural areas which basically supports previous findings on L1 adult attrition. Finally, the presence versus absence of the attrition effect can not be straightforwardly related either to language use, attitudes or length of residence, with one exception being linguistic insecurity.

The focus of the current work is the articulation of a model of speech sound perception, which is informed by neurological processing, and which accounts for psycholinguistic behavior related to the perception of linguistic units such as features, allophones and phonemes. The Bi-Level Input Processing (BLIP) model, as the name suggests, proposes two levels of speech processing: the neural mapping level and the phonological level. The model posits that perception of speech sounds corresponds to the processing of a limited number of acoustic components by neural maps tuned to these components, where each neural map corresponds to a contrastive speech category along the relevant acoustic dimension in the listener's native language. These maps are in turn associated with abstract features at the phonological level, and the combination of multiple maps can represent a segment (or phoneme), mora or syllable. To evaluate the processing of multiple acoustic cues for categorization of speech contrasts by listeners, it may be relevant to distinguish between different types of processing. Three types of processing are identified and described in this work: additive, connective and competitive. The way speech categories are processed by the neurology in one's L1 may impact the perception and acquisition of non-native speech contrasts later in life. Accordingly, five predictions about the perception of non-native contrasts by mature listeners are derived from the proposals of the BLIP model. These predictions are exemplified and supported by means of four perceptual behavioral experiments. Experiments I and II evaluate the use of spectral information (changes in F1 and F2) and vowel duration for identification of an English vowel contrast ('beat' vs. 'bit') by native North American English, Japanese and Canadian French speakers. Experiments III and IV evaluate the use of vowel duration and periodicity for identification of an English voicing contrast ('bit' vs. 'bid') by the same speakers. Results of these experiments demonstrate that the BLIP model correctly predicts sources of difficulty for L2 learners in perceiving non-native sounds, and that, in many cases, L2 learners are able to capitalize on their sensitivity to acoustic cues used in L1 to perceive novel (L2) contrasts, even if those contrasts are neutralized at the phonological level in L1. Hence, the BLIP model has implications not only for the study of L1 development and cross-linguistic comparisons, but also for a better understanding of L2 perception. Implications of this novel approach to L2 research for language education are briefly discussed.

Det saknas logopediskt bedömningsmaterial normerat för flerspråkiga barn, och kunskapen om dessa barns typiska tal- och språkutveckling är begränsad hos logopeder i Sverige. Detta leder till över- och underdiagnostisering av språkstörning. Denna studie syftar till att undersöka svensk-engelsktalande barns narrativer (berättelser). Dessa analyseras kvantitativt och kvalitativt, både makrostrukturellt (story grammar) och mikrostrukturellt (lingvistiska mått). Även narrativ förståelse undersöks och jämförs med produktion. Studiens deltagare är 16 simultant flerspråkiga svensk-engelsktalande barn i åldern 6-7 år, som går i förskoleklass eller i första klass. Narrativerna eliciteras med hjälp av två bildsekvenser ur ett bedömningsmaterial framtaget av en forskningsgrupp inom COST Action IS0804. Bedömningsmaterialet innehåller även förståelsefrågor till bildsekvenserna, och bakgrundsfrågor för vårdnadshavare att fylla i. Resultaten visar inga skillnader i makrostruktur mellan svenska och engelska, vilket tyder på att narrativ förmåga inte nödvändigtvis är språkbunden. Jämförelser mellan förståelse och produktion av utvalda story grammar-komponenter visar dock en tydlig skillnad. Förståelsen för en karaktärs mål (story grammar-komponenten goal), vad karaktären vill uppnå, är etablerad hos de flesta deltagarna trots att produktionen av goal är begränsad. Till skillnad från makrostrukturen, skiljer sig mikrostrukturen åt i narrativerna. De engelska narrativerna är både längre och mer komplexa än de svenska. Skillnaderna mellan barn i förskoleklass och i första klass är dessutom stor, både makro- och mikrostrukturellt. Detta tyder på att mycket händer i barns språkliga och narrativa utveckling i tidig skolålder. Tvärspråkligt inflytande förefaller vara en naturlig del av den typiska språkutvecklingen hos simultant flerspråkiga barn. / There are no standardised tests for assessing bilingual children’s speech and language development, and the knowledge about these children’s typical language development is limited amongst speech and language therapists in Sweden. Studies have shown that this can lead to misdiagnosis of language impairment in these children. The aim of this study is to investigate the narratives of Swedish-English speaking children. Analysis is made, both quantitatively and qualitatively, regarding the macrostructure (story grammar) and the microstructure (linguistic measurements) of the narratives. Narrative comprehension is also examined, and compared with the produced narratives. The participants are 16 simultaneously bilingual Swedish-English speaking children, aged 6-7 years and either attending preschool class or first grade in the Swedish education system. The narratives are elicited using two different sets of pictures from an assessment material designed by a research group within COST Action IS0804. The assessment material also contains comprehension questions and a form for carers to fill in, regarding the children’s linguistic backgrounds. The results in this study show no macrostructural differences between the Swedish and the English narratives, which indicates that narrative ability is not necessarily language dependent. There is a clear difference between the comprehension and production of selected story grammar components. Despite the limited production of characters’ goals in the narratives, the participants appear to have established the comprehension of this story grammar component. The microstructural analysis of the narratives shows that the English narratives are both longer and more complex than the Swedish ones. There are differences between participants attending Swedish preschool class and participants attending Swedish first grade, with regards to both macrostructure and microstructure. The differences indicate that language and narrative ability is increasing between the ages of 6 and 7. Crosslinguistic influence appears to be a natural part of typical language development in simultaneously bilingual children.

Linguistic fossilization is a prevalent phenomenon in adult ESLA and presents a perpetual pedagogical challenge to teachers. Despite controversy about the theoretical concept, research is increasingly showing that persistent erroneousness cannot be attributed to single causal factors. This single case study examines controversial aspects surrounding the concept and formulates criteria for identifying fossilization. The study investigates the conversational output of an independent adult learner over a period of nine months and presents a holistic exploration of causal influences. The findings substantiate that fossilization arises from changing combinations of factors, and that such combinations are unique to the situation of each adult learner. The key to the successful treatment of fossilized errors may lie in identifying their roots, which can be achieved by analyzing output and through discussion with learners in order to gain insight into their experience of the learning process. Results also suggest that a critical perspective on the theoretical construct is needed in order to investigate the phenomenon in adult second language acquisition. / Linguistics and Modern Languages / M.A. (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL))

This study investigated common English language errors made by Oshiwambo, Afrikaans and Silozi First Language speakers. The study examined errors in a corpus of 360 essays written by 180 participants. Errors were identified and classified into various categories. The four most common errors committed by the participants were tenses, prepositions, articles and spelling. The study is important to educators and study material developers who should become aware of the kind of errors that their target learners make, so that they are in a better position to put appropriate intervention strategies into place. For learners, error analysis is important as it shows the areas of difficulty in their writing. The limitations and some pedagogical implications for future study are included at the end of this research paper. / English Studies / M. A. (TESOL)

This study investigates whether it is possible and necessary to acquire a second and third language simultaneously in our present multicultural, multilingual South Africa with its eleven official languages. The qualitative, descriptive empirical research was executed for the duration of the first school term within a multiracial grade four class at Richmond Primary School in KwaZulu Natal. Afrikaans and Zulu were taught in separate periods, simultaneously, for the exact number oflessons per week, with the exact same content, method and teacher. The success ofthe research, rested on maintaining absolute reality within the normal daily routine of the school day, in order to see if it is possible to acquire two languages simultaneously. The very positive outcomes of this research cannot be generalized, but rather indicate possible tendencies that it is indeed possible to acquire two languages simultaneously. / Psychology of Education / M. Ed. (with specialisation in Guidance and Counselling)

Jag vill med den här essän synliggöra problematiken som kan uppstå med barn som har annat modersmål än svenska, i den svenska förskolan. Hur kan vi inom förskolan på bästa möjliga sätt ta emot dessa barn, hjälpa dem med andraspråksinlärningen samt samspela med andra barn? Jag undersöker hur och vad vi pedagoger kan använda oss av för verktyg, och vad som är viktigt att tänka på, när vi använder oss av dem. Språket har en stor betydelse för att bli inkluderad i barngruppen på förskolan, för att få nya kompisar och delta i leken. Leken är en central och stor roll i barns vardag på förskolan, då det under dagarna leks mycket där. Den gynnar många olika delar i barnets utveckling, men jag har fokuserat på vad den kan göra för språkutvecklingen. Dilemmat jag utgår ifrån när jag har forskat kring detta handlar om en pojke som kom till min förskola utan några som helst förkunskaper i svenska. Varken han eller hans familj kunde ett enda ord på svenska. Jag upplevde att vi pedagoger inte lyckades möta och hjälpa honom på ett bra sätt, för att ge honom de utvecklingsmöjligheterna, som vi är ålagda att ge.   I min undersökning har jag använt mig av litteratur som berör dessa delar och utgått från några delfrågor: vilken är språkets betydelse för att barn ska kunna samspela? Vad har det för betydelse för att bli inkluderad? Vilken är lekens betydelse för inkludering i barngruppen? Hur leken kan gynna barnets språkutveckling?   Jag har då upptäckt att lek och språk har en stark anknytning till varandra. Språket gynnar leken, och för att delta i leken krävs oftast språket. Vi pedagoger har en viktig roll i att hjälpa barnen utan majoritetsspråket in i gruppen och leken. Det är lätt att dessa barn hamnar utanför och inte vågar ta för sig, när de märker att ingen förstår vad de säger.   Jag har utgått från ett sociokulturellt perspektiv, vilket innebär att jag ser att ett lärande sker hela tiden, där kulturen och miljön har en stor påverkan. Vi lär oss hela tiden, men frågan är bara vad vi lär oss? / With this essence, I want to highlight the problems that may arise with children whose native language is different from Swedish, in Swedish preschool. How can we receive these children in the best possible way, help them with second language learning and interact with other children? I investigate how and with what ways we educators can use, what's important to consider when we work with these children. The language is of great importance for being included in the children's group at preschool, to make new friends and to participate in play. The child’s play is a central and important role in children's everyday life at preschool, as during the day there is a lot of play there. It benefits many different parts of the child's development, but I have focused on what child’s play can do for language development. In this essay, I have based my research on a specific case about a boy that arrived to my preschool. He had no knowledge about the Swedish language, neither did his family. In this scenario, I experienced that we, preschool teachers, lacked the methods and tools to help and guide him that would increase his potential growth as an individual.   In my examination, I have used literature that process these subject and based it on these questions: what is the importance of language for children to interact? What does it mean to be included? What is the importance of the play for inclusion in the child group? How the child´s play can benefit the child's language development?    I have then discovered that play and language have a strong connection with each other. The language favors the child´s play, and to participate in the play usually the language is required. We educators have an important role in helping the children without the majority language into the group and the play. It is easy that these children end up like outsiders, dare to participate when they notice that nobody understands what they say.   I have based my work from a sociocultural perspective, which means that I observe learning all the time and that culture and environment have a big impact. We learn all the time, but the question remains, what are we learning?

Repetitions in child-directed speech (CDS) have been shown to vary over time, and are suggested to affect first language acquisition. Correlations between verbal contents of repetitions in CDS and children’s language development have been suggested. The verbal contents of repetitions in Swedish CDS have not yet been investigated. The aim of this study was to examine the verbal contents of repetitions in Swedish CDS during the child’s first 2 years and possible changes in proportions of repetitions during the same time span. Verbal contents of repetitions in parents’ speech in 10 parent-child dyads as the children were 3, 6, 9, 12 and 24 months old were investigated focusing on word classes, sentence types and whole-constituent change. The results were compared to the children’s productive vocabularies at the age of 30 months. Possible occurrences of item-based constructions and frequent frames in the repetitions were also examined. The overall results revealed patterns concerning change in verbal contents in repetitions over time and correlations between verbal contents in repetitions and child language development. Two proposals were made: parents adjust the complexity of their speech to linguistic developmental stages of their children, and linguistic variation in the input increases as the child grows older. / Repetitioner i barnriktat tal (BRT) har visat sig variera över tid, och har föreslagits påverka förstaspåksinlärning. Även ett samband mellan det verbala innehållet i repetitioner i BRT och barns språkutveckling har föreslagits. Det verbala innehållet i repetitioner i svenskt BRT har inte undersökts tidigare. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka det verbala innehållet i repetitioner i svenskt BRT under barnets två första år och möjliga förändringar gällande andelen repetitioner under samma tidsperiod. Det verbala innehållet i repetitioner i föräldrars tal hos tio förälder-barn-dyader då barnen var 3, 6, 9, 12 och 24 månader gamla undersöktes med fokus på ordklasser, satstyper och förändringar gällande konstituenter. Resultaten jämfördes med barnens produktiva ordförråd vid 30 månaders ålder. Även den möjliga förekomsten av typbaserade konstruktioner (item-based constructions) och frekventa ramar (frequent frames) undersöktes. De övergripande resultaten uppvisade mönster gällande förändringar inom det verbala innehållet i repetitioner över tid samt ett samband mellan det verbala innehållet i repetitioner och barns språkutveckling. Två antaganden gjordes: föräldrar justerar komplexiteten i sitt tal efter språkliga utvecklingsfaser hos sina barn, och den språkliga variationen i inputen ökar med barnets ålder. / MINT: Modelling infant language acquisition from parent-child interaction (MAW 2011.007)

This thesis explores the role of age in second language (L2) acquisition and first language (L1) attrition. The focus is on Voice Onset Time (VOT) in the production and categorical perception of word-initial L1 and L2 stops in highly advanced L1 Spanish learners of L2 Swedish. Using as the point of departure a maturational constraints perspective and the Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH), Study I examines the impact of age of onset (AO) of L2 acquisition on the production of L2 Swedish voiceless stops. The results show that there are AO effects even in the speech of highly advanced L2 learners and that the incidence of nativelike L2 learners is considerably lower than earlier assumed. However, conclusions like these are only possible when speaking rate is accounted for, thereby highlighting the importance of speaking rate effects on VOT as a measure of nativelikeness. Like Study I, Study II reveals age effects on the same L2 learners’ categorical perceptions of L2 Swedish stops. Moreover, after combining the results with the data from Study I, the incidence of nativelike behavior drops remarkably with no late L2 learner performing within the range of native-speaker production and perception. The results suggest that L2 acquisition of phonetic/phonological aspects is especially sensitive to AO effects. It is concluded that theories on maturational constraints, including the CPH, cannot be refuted on the basis of the present data. Study III concerns the same participants’ production and perception of L1 Spanish stops. Age of reduced contact (ARC) is identified as an important predictor for L1 attrition and retention of voiceless stop production, although not of stop perception. This discrepancy is related to different activation thresholds as proposed by the Activation Threshold Hypothesis (ATH). It is further suggested that early bilinguals are more dependent on high-frequency L1 use than late bilinguals when compensating for age effects, but only in production. / <p>At the time of doctoral defence the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 1: Accepted. Paper 2: In press. Paper 3: Manuscript.</p> / Age of onset and ultimate attainment in second language acquisition, The Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation, grant no. 1999-0383:01 / First language attrition in advanced second language speakers, Swedish Research Council, grant no. 421-2004-1975