Utveckling av det svenska språket hos nyanlända barn i förskolan är en empirisk studie om pedagogernas arbetssätt, metoder och strategier för att främja nyanlända barns språkutveckling samt betydelsen av modersmålet för språkutvecklingen. Sex kvalitativa intervjuer genomfördes med sex pedagoger verksamma vid fem förskolor i mångkulturella områden i en medelstor stad i Sverige. De teoretiska utgångspunkterna som ligger till grund för studien är Vygotskijs sociokulturella teori, Piagets teori av den kognitiva utvecklingen, samt Bruners teori om språkutveckling. I resultaten har framkommit att utvecklig av det svenska språket hos nyanlända barn upplevs som en utmaning men samtidigt som en spännande uppgift för pedagogerna. Det har visat sig att trygghet, barns samspel, pedagogers närvaro och stöd, tecken- och kroppsspråk, olika stödmateral samt modersmålet är avgörande för barns språkutveckling. / Development of the Swedish language of newly-arrived children in preschools is an empirical study about preschool-teachers’ work procedures, their methods and strategies for supporting newly-arrived children’s language development and about the importance of the children’s mother tongue for their language development. Six qualitative interviews were conducted with preschool teachers working in five different preschools in multicultural areas in a medium-sized town in Sweden. The theories that form the basis for the study are Vygotskij’s sociocultural theory, Piaget’s theory of the cognitive development, and Bruner’s theory of language development. The result of the study shows that preschool teachers have experienced the process of the Swedish language development of newly-arrived children as a challenging as well as an exciting task. It has been also revealed that feeling of safety, interaction among children, presence and support of preschool teachers, sign and body language, various support material and mother tongue are crucial for children´s language development.

Bilinguals have the sole option of conversing in one language in spite of knowing two languages. The question of how bilinguals alternate between their two languages, activating and deactivating one language, is not well understood. In the current study, we investigated the development of this process by researching bilingual children's abilities to selectively integrate lexical tone based on its relevance in the language being used. In particular, the current study sought to determine the effects of global conversation-level cues versus local (within-word phonotactic) cues on children's tone integration in newly learned words. Words were taught to children via a conversational narrative, and word recognition was investigated using the intermodal preferential-looking paradigm. Children were tested on recognition of words with stimuli that were either matched or mismatched in tone in both English and Mandarin conversations. Results demonstrated that 3- to 4-year-olds did not adapt their interpretation of lexical tone changes to the language being spoken. In contrast, 4- to 5-year-olds were able to do so when supported by informative within-word cues. Results suggest that preschool children are capable of selectively activating a single language given word-internal cues to language.

This dissertation probes children's metalinguistic awareness of syntactic ambiguity (as in the sentence The man is poking the monkey with a banana, where the PP with a banana can be understood in two ways, associated with either the monkey or the poking). Several studies suggest that children do not spontaneously detect syntactic ambiguity until the second grade (e.g., Wankoff, 1983; Cairns et al., 2004). However, syntactic ambiguity detection contributes to reading comprehension skills in second and third graders (e.g., Cairns et al., 2004; Yuill, 2009). This research suggests the hypothesis that syntactic ambiguity awareness should contribute to reading development. Specifically, the theoretical model known as the Simple View of Reading posits that the main components of reading are decoding and linguistic comprehension. Syntactic ambiguity detection could contribute to linguistic comprehension because it helps a listener to overcome comprehension difficulties caused by misinterpreting an ambiguous sentence. Thus, it is important to better understand the early development of syntactic ambiguity awareness. If its connection to reading begins younger than second grade, it might be incorporated into early reading curricula and intervention strategies, which are more effective when applied earlier. This dissertation includes three manuscripts that are or will be submitted for publication. The first manuscript reports on a study that laid the foundation for the following two by testing whether 3- to 5-year-olds access both interpretations of a syntactic ambiguity using a truth value judgment task. The results showed that children do entertain both interpretations, indicating that comprehension should not be an impediment to syntactic ambiguity detection. This study is currently in revisions at First Language (Zimmer, 2016a). The second manuscript reports on a study that tested whether 4- to 7-year-olds can detect ambiguous sentences using a task that differs from those used in previous studies. My study used a picture selection task that tested for conscious awareness by having children teach a puppet why multiple pictures could match one sentence. I developed a scoring system for children's explanations that allowed for more gradient measures of early ambiguity awareness than previous research. The results showed that a small proportion of 4- to 7-year-olds are aware of syntactic ambiguity, and many others are beginning to show indications of such awareness (e.g., they select both pictures but their explanations are not yet adult-like). This manuscript is submitted to The Journal of Psycholinguistic Research (Zimmer, 2016b).The third manuscript reports on a study that tested whether 6- to 7-year-olds can learn syntactic ambiguity detection and whether the learning correlates with improvement at reading readiness measures. Participants were divided into two groups: an ambiguity group that did four weeks of games to teach syntactic ambiguity detection, and a control group that did four weeks of math games. I found that children in the ambiguity group improved more at ambiguity detection and at reading readiness tests than those in the control group. This showed that syntactic ambiguity detection is a learnable skill for children as young as 6 and suggests that its connection to reading is in place that young as well. Thus, this skill could be a valuable addition to early reading curricula and intervention strategies. This manuscript will be submitted to Applied Psycholinguistics (Zimmer, 2016c).

The problem addressed in this study is that English Language Learners (ELLs) in a California school district are not meeting the targeted yearly grade level expectations or making the same progress as non-ELL students. Meeting this goal will help close the achievement gap between ELLs and their native-English speaking peers. The purpose of the qualitative study was to explore the local problem and identify how teachers provided academic instruction to support ELLs with academic instruction and investigate perceived causes of the inadequate progress in learning English and the academic content. The research was guided by Vygotsky's theory of development and the social/cognitive interactions with Ladson-Billings' approach to cultural relevance. These theories support how teachers and students maintain an active cognitive and social learning approach. The qualitative study investigated teachers' instructional practices for ELLs through classroom observations and interviews. Purposeful sampling identified 12 potential participants who met the criteria of providing ELL instruction. Four ELL teachers participated through observations and interviews. The data analysis examined, identified, and interpreted themes. Data saturation was reached as no new themes emerged. The following 4 themes resulted: (a) classroom environment, (b) curriculum content, (c) academic language, and (d) differentiation. A 3-Day PD was designed to guide future ELL pedagogy and strategic activity to promote social change by providing educators opportunities to practice research based ELL instructional approaches to teaching. The end goal is for improved academic and social achievements for ELL students.

Syftet med denna kunskapsöversikt är att ta reda på vilken betydelse språket har inom de samhällsorienterade ämnena. Detta gör vi genom att ta reda på vad forskningen hittills visat om språkutvecklande arbetssätt inom SO-ämnena och vad det bidrar med för elevers språk- och kunskapsutveckling. Vi valde att fördjupa oss kring detta på grund av att det ställs höga krav på elevers språkliga förmåga i ämnena geografi, samhällskunskap, religion och historia. Kunskapsöversikten kommer även beröra vilka språkliga tillvägagångssätt som kan användas i undervisningen. Vi har genom olika databaser funnit forskning i form av vetenskapliga artiklar, rapporter och refereegranskade bokkapitel. Den forskning som vi tagit del av har visat att språkutvecklande arbetssätt i alla de samhällsorienterade ämnena är viktig och givande både för elevers språkutveckling och kunskapsutveckling inom de samhällsorienterade ämnena. Vi har kommit fram till att det ställs krav på att lärare har kunskap kring språkutvecklande arbetssätt i SO-undervisningen.

This paper is an overview of current research on teaching mathematics. The question to answer through studying research on the matter is how are language development strategies used in mathematical learning? The subsequent questions that we posed were why is it important with language development to learn math, how do students learn the language in mathematics, how does the use of language affect the possibility to learn mathematic and finally how are multilingual students’ possibilities to learn mathematics affected? The method used is reading and discussing  various sources of research in the field, using a few key words and refining the search as sources are used to find new keywords.  Through the research we have been able to answer the posed questions. Our main question is impossible to answer in one sentence, but what can be said is that there are language development strategies that play a role in mathematics learning and that they may vary from school to school, or even teacher to teacher. It is clear, however, that language development and using the language in education is crucial for learning new concepts and to communicate ideas, solutions and understanding in mathematics. In order for this development to take place it is necessary to actively use and practise using the language during mathematics learning. The teacher plays an important role to communicate this precise language and to encourage its students to practise to use it in order to communicate effectively.

Sverige är idag ett mångkulturellt samhälle, där många är flerspråkiga. Skolan blir därför en central plats där många språk möts samt en plats där de ska lära sig ett annat språk. Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur elevernas språkutveckling fungerar men även hur lärare och pedagoger arbetar för att utveckla elevernas språkutveckling samt vilka verktyg de använder sig utav. Jag har skickat ut en enkät till sju olika pedagoger som jobbar på en skola där majoriteten av alla barn som går på skolan är flerspråkiga. Studien är både kvantitativ genom enkätfrågor. Studien är framställd i Mellansverige på en skola som ligger i en låginkomsttagande stadsdel. På skolan är tvåspråkigheten stor och cirka 70 procent av eleverna som går på skolan är tvåspråkiga, vilka antingen är födda i Sverige eller har kommit till Sverige när de var små. Resultatet visar att mycket är beroende på elevens bakgrund samt att lärarna försöker utveckla språket genom olika hjälpmedel såsom till exempel bildstöd, datorer och dokumentkameror.

MA (Linguistics) / Department of Communication and Applied Language Studies / This study explores the impact of social media on the development and promotion of indigenous African languages at a rural university. The study adopts a qualitative approach in order to attain holistic results. Data collected from social media platforms, namely; Facebook and WhatsApp from the students‟ chat groups were analysed within the scope of some linguistic devices such as grammar rules and orthography. The study captures the students‟ conversations as they appear in Facebook and WhatsApp for the purpose of analysis (discourse analysis). The findings of the study could benefit the South African society, especially the university communities. Through this study, the importance of using standardised indigenous African languages on social media platforms shall be realised. The study could create awareness to the Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB) and its related structures about the importance of using standard indigenous African languages on social media. / NRF

Abstract The language that is used in the schoolbooks in the subject history seems to be problematic for many students. Its abstract nature and the preparation of events require that history teachers need to make didactic choices that allow students to acquire the subject language. Whit students’ lack of everyday language makes it difficult for students, but also for teachers, as language development should be thought in all subjects in school. Thus, students’ lack of vocabulary generates, not just in the subject of history, that students have difficulties with reading comprehension. Processing the content before, meanwhile and after is something that has a positive effect on students’ language development, but it needs to be connected to their prior knowledge and the context. Furthermore, it is important that students understand the language in which the teaching takes place but also that they are cognitively challenged, which makes demands on the teacher´s didactic choices when it comes to the character of the languages that is used in the teaching. The purpose of this study is, therefore, to study how history teachers, that teach students in the age of nine to twelve, provide language development in the language of history. To gain an insight into, and understand the teachers, semi-structured interviews were used. The theoretical choice for the study was the socio-cultural perspective and as a tool for the analyses of a teaching model named by Cummis were used. The results of the study showed that the two youngest female teachers were the teachers who, through their conscious didactic choices, gave the student the opportunity to develop their language of history. The other teachers also did some didactic choices that gave some development in the language of history to the students, but they were not as conscious about their choices as the youngest teachers. The conclusion that could be drawn was that the younger teachers are probably more aware of what science says about the didactic choices, therefor their teaching methods provide more language development for the students. They may also have the advantage of being examined in conjunction with, or following, the new curriculum, which raises awareness of the demands of language in the subject of history but also the fact that language development should take place in all subjects in school

Flera skolor i Sverige har en majoritet av flerspråkiga elever därav är elever med svenska som förstaspråk en minoritet. Det är angeläget för lärarna att arbeta grundligt med ordförståelsen för att eleverna ska klara av sina uppgifter i svenskämnet. Syftet med studien är att undersöka vilka pedagogiska verktyg svensklärare beskriver att de använder för att nå ut till alla elever. Det sociokulturella perspektivet har varit studiens utgångspunkt. Genom semistrukturerade intervjuer besvaras följande frågeställningar: •Vilka strategier beskriver svensklärare att de har för att nå ut till flerspråkiga elever som inte har ett klassrumsspråk? •Hur beskriver svensklärare att de arbetar med högläsning utifrån ett språkutvecklande perspektiv?Lärarna arbetar språkutvecklande genom olika strategier i klassrummet, bland annat transspråkande, högläsning, inläsningstjänster, visuella stödmaterial och studiehandledare m.m.  Resultatet av intervjuerna belyser att lärarna använder olika verktyg i undervisningen för elevernas språkutveckling. Gemensamt för lärarna är att de skapar stödmaterial på elevernas förstaspråk, som inte är svenska, för att eleverna skall kunna utföra uppgifter i undervisningen. Exempelvis finns läroböckerna på olika språk. Istället för att se flerspråkighet som ett hinder, används det som ett verktyg för språkinlärning. Under högläsningstillfällen får eleverna möjlighet till att utveckla sitt ordförråd. Lärarna i studien är eniga om att förförståelsen är en viktig del av högläsningen. / Several schools in Sweden have a majority of multilingual students, of which students with Swedish as their first language are a minority. It is important for teachers to work thoroughly with the understanding of the word in order for the students to complete their tasks in the Swedish subject. The purpose of the study is to investigate what pedagogical tools Swedish teachers describe that they use to reach all students. The sociocultural perspective has been the basis for the study. Trough semi-structured interviews, the following questions are answered: •What strategies do Swedish teachers describe their way to reach out to multilingual students who do not have a classroom language? •How do Swedish teachers describe working with reading from a language development perspective? The teachers develop the pupil’s language through translanguaging, reading aloud, reading services, visual support materials and study supervisors etc. The results of the interviews highlight that teachers use different tools in teaching for students' language development. Common to the teachers is that they create support material in the students' first language, which is not Swedish, so that the students can perform tasks in the teaching. For example, the textbooks are available in different languages. Instead of seeing multilingualism as an obstacle, it is used as a tool for language learning. During reading sessions, students have the opportunity to develop their vocabulary.The teachers in the study agree that preunderstanding is an important part of the reading.