<p>The present study examines the effects of immersion education on the English of two groups of advanced Swedish learners at upper secondary school. In immersion education, or CLIL, subject content is taught through a second language as a means of enhancing target language competence. In this study, language proficiency was measured in terms of the ratio of low frequency vocabulary (LFV) and the ratio of motivated tense shift (MTSh) in the learners’ free written production in English. An additional aim was to see whether the results were related to the students’ motivation as reported in a questionnaire.</p><p>This longitudinal study was based on three sets of narratives, written by 86 students, half of them enrolled at the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IB) where English is the medium of instruction, and the other half at national programmes (NP), where English is studied as a foreign language. At the outset, the IB and NP groups had similar results on a general diagnostic test, which was the basis for the formation of three subgroups: I, II and III, with above average, average and below average scores respectively. Mean LFV and MTSh ratios as well as different kinds of motivation were compared, both overall and in the subgroups.</p><p>The IB students overall, and those in subgroup III in particular, showed the best results. As to the overall results, the IB students used significantly higher mean ratios of LFV and MTSh than the NP students in the final set of compositions. There were also a number of motivational factors that were stronger in the IB students.</p><p>As to the subgroups, the most interesting results were found in subgroups I and III. While the IB students in subgroup I had high mean ratios already in the first composition, and retained them over time, their use of MTSh tended to grow subtler. The NP students had lower mean results initially, and while their mean MTSh ratio increased and ended up on a level similar to that of the IB students, their mean LFV ratio remained low.</p><p>In subgroup III the results of the IB and NP students diverged over time. While the IB students progressed as reflected in their mean LFV and MTSh ratios, the NP students tended to regress. The difference in mean LFV ratios was statistically significant. The IB students were also better motivated than their NP peers. In all, this study suggests that immersion education has positive target language effects, especially on less proficient but motivated students.</p>

The present study examines the effects of immersion education on the English of two groups of advanced Swedish learners at upper secondary school. In immersion education, or CLIL, subject content is taught through a second language as a means of enhancing target language competence. In this study, language proficiency was measured in terms of the ratio of low frequency vocabulary (LFV) and the ratio of motivated tense shift (MTSh) in the learners’ free written production in English. An additional aim was to see whether the results were related to the students’ motivation as reported in a questionnaire. This longitudinal study was based on three sets of narratives, written by 86 students, half of them enrolled at the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IB) where English is the medium of instruction, and the other half at national programmes (NP), where English is studied as a foreign language. At the outset, the IB and NP groups had similar results on a general diagnostic test, which was the basis for the formation of three subgroups: I, II and III, with above average, average and below average scores respectively. Mean LFV and MTSh ratios as well as different kinds of motivation were compared, both overall and in the subgroups. The IB students overall, and those in subgroup III in particular, showed the best results. As to the overall results, the IB students used significantly higher mean ratios of LFV and MTSh than the NP students in the final set of compositions. There were also a number of motivational factors that were stronger in the IB students. As to the subgroups, the most interesting results were found in subgroups I and III. While the IB students in subgroup I had high mean ratios already in the first composition, and retained them over time, their use of MTSh tended to grow subtler. The NP students had lower mean results initially, and while their mean MTSh ratio increased and ended up on a level similar to that of the IB students, their mean LFV ratio remained low. In subgroup III the results of the IB and NP students diverged over time. While the IB students progressed as reflected in their mean LFV and MTSh ratios, the NP students tended to regress. The difference in mean LFV ratios was statistically significant. The IB students were also better motivated than their NP peers. In all, this study suggests that immersion education has positive target language effects, especially on less proficient but motivated students.

Sammanfattning Den här uppsatsen undersöker verbanvändningen i skriftlig produktion hos en grupp avancerade svenska som andraspråkselever. Studien granskar såväl kvantitativa som kvalitativa aspekter i elevernas verbordförråd. Uppsatsens syfte är att kartlägga L2-elevernas verbvokabulär med avseende på frekvens, variation, fördelning över semantiska fält samt semantisk och konstruktionsmässig korrekthet. L2-gruppens resultat kontrasteras mot en kontrollgrupp bestående av L1-elever. Undersökningsmaterialet består av 20 argumenterande uppsatser skrivna av komvuxelever med svenska som andraspråk samt 20 argumenterande uppsatser skrivna av komvuxelever med svenska som förstaspråk. Samtliga verb har extraherats, räknats och, i de fall det varit tillämpbart, satts in i ett av de 13 semantiska fält som undersökts i uppsatsen. De olika typer av inkorrekt verbanvändning som påträffats i materialet har kategoriserats utifrån feltyp. De typer av fel som varit av intresse i denna studie är konstruktionsfel i prefixverb, reflexivverb, partikelverb samt fel i verb + substantiv- kollokationer. Förutom konstruktionsfel undersöker uppsatsen även primärt semantiska fel, dvs. fel som i första hand har att göra med verbets semantiska betydelse. Undersökningsresultatet visar att verbfrekvensen hos L2-talarna är lägre i jämförelse med L1-gruppen. Orsaken därtill är att L1-uppsatserna i snitt är längre än L2-uppsatserna och därmed innehåller många fler verb. Det verkar inte föreligga någon anmärkningsvärd skillnad i verbvariationen om man ser till verben i sin helhet. Vissa semantiska fält är dock mer utbyggda och mer varierade i L1-gruppen.         Verbfrekvenstabellerna visar att andelen partikelverb är hälften så stor i L2-gruppen jämfört med L1-gruppen. Listan över de 20 vanligaste verben visar att andraspråkseleverna, vid en jämförelse med L1-eleverna, underanvänder verben få och ska och överanvänder säga, vilja och finnas. Eftersom inga fler indikationer på överanvändning av kärnverb ges i materialet måste just detta interimspråkdrag ses som en mycket begränsad företeelse hos de avancerade L2-eleverna.         De allra vanligaste feltyperna hos såväl L1- som L2-talare är av primärt semantisk karaktär. Bland dessa fel är, i L2-gruppen, fel kopplade till det semantiska fältets betydelsesidoordning vanligast. Det innebär att studien pekar mot att det som ställer till mest problem för andraspråkseleverna, när det gäller verblexikonet, är sådant som har att göra med semantisk precisering och nyansering, dvs. att välja rätt synonym. / Abstract This essay deals with lexical competence in written language production among advanced learners of Swedish as a second language. The study focuses on the use of verbs with regard to both quantitative and qualitative aspects. The aim of this essay is to examine the L2-learners verb vocabulary, paying attention to frequency, variation, distribution in semantic fields as well as semantic and constructional correctness. The results of the investigations are compared to the results of a control group consisting of L1-speakers.         The material in the present investigation consists of 40 argumentative essays written by 20 adult students with Swedish as their second language and 20 adult students with Swedish as their first language. All students were enrolled in an adult education program, attending the courses Swedish as a second language B and Swedish B at senior high school level.         All verbs have been extracted, counted and, where applicable, inserted into the 13 semantic fields which are examined in this study. Errors in connection with the use of verb have been categorized according to two major error types, i.e. constructional errors (errors connected to prefixed verbs, reflexive verbs, particle verbs, and errors in verb + noun combinations) and primarily semantic errors.         The investigation demonstrates that the verb frequency is lower in the L2-group compared to the L1-group. The higher verb frequency in the L1-group is probably due to the, on average, longer essays in that particular group.            The verb frequency tables show that use of particle verbs is twice as high in the L1-essays compared to the L2-essays. The tables of the 20 most common verbs demonstrate that L2-students, compared to the L1-students, tend to underuse certain verbs and overuse others. Three verbs that are particularly overused by the L2-students, are säga, vilja and finnas, while the verbs få and ska underused to a great extent by the same group. The tree overused verbs are nuclear verbs in their specific semantic fields (VERBAL COMMUNICATION, WISH and EXISTENCE). Apart from the overuse of these nuclear verbs the investigation material does not give further indications of overuse of nuclear verbs. This shows that overuse of nuclear verbs as an interlanguage feature is not particularly prominent in the advanced L2-learners.              There does not seem to be any notable difference in verb variation when looking at the verbs in their entirety. However, certain semantic fields are more extended and more varied in the L1-group.         In the essays written by the L1-students there are very few occurrences of constructional errors. The most frequent error type, in both student groups, is of a semantic nature. The L2-material shows that the most common semantic error is related to the horizontal structure (and not the vertical structure) of the semantic fields. This means that L2-students find it hard to differ between synonyms in the same semantic field at the same hierarchical level. The current study thus indicates that, as far as the verb vocabulary goes, the L2-students main difficulty is semantic specification, i.e. choosing the right synonym. Among the combinatory errors, the errors connected to verb + noun combinations have the highest frequency.