Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional & Community Planning / Alpa Nawre / Anne Beamish / Sound has always been an integral part of the outdoor environment. However, since the onset of the Industrial Revolution, and given the continual emergence of new technological sounds, society’s aural awareness and sensitivity has continued to decrease (Schafer, 1977). While the visual often dominates the perception of the outdoor environment – especially within the design field – all five senses are vital to a holistic experience. A greater emphasis on sound in landscape architecture is critical as landscape architects move toward a more holistic approach to designing the outdoor environment. The primary learning objective of this thesis was to evaluate the effectiveness of soundwalks and listening exercises for landscape architecture students, as a way to increase their aural awareness and sensitivity. The first part of this study established the current status and need for an acoustic education in landscape architecture by examining university course offerings and surveying professionals and faculty members in the field. The remainder of the study involved a listening experiment conducted with landscape architecture students from Kansas State University. Participants were assessed on their ability to listen to and analyze sounds before and after participating in soundwalks, listening exercises, and lessons in interdisciplinary sound terminology. This study provides a clearer understanding of the role of sound in landscape architecture and, more broadly, the environment. The surveys revealed that respondents more often consider sound as noise to be mitigated rather than as inspiration for design. Respondents also indicated that sound is an important consideration in design and that an acoustic component can be valuable in landscape architecture education. Those who participated in the listening experiment also indicated that an acoustic education, including soundwalks and listening exercises, can be effective in increasing aural awareness and sensitivity. While this study did not explore all approaches to an acoustic education, it provides a suitable point of departure for future related research.

This essay is an investigation of varieties of English used, learned, and taught, in a Swedish school. The age of the students is 15-16 and they attend grade 9. The hypothesis of this essay is that American English is the variety most students prefer and use, and that British English is the variety mainly preferred by teachers and the school system. This do not collaborate with the ‘learner-centered learning’ pedagogical view (Modiano 2009:172). The data is mainly collected in three areas. 1: a teacher survey, to determine the teachers ́ views and opinions of the varieties of English. 2: a student survey, to examine whether the students prefer one variety to the other, and if they are even aware of what variety they are speaking, and 3: the data gathered from transcribing this year’s English National Test to determine what types of English that are represented in the test. The result of this essay confirms the hypothesis that AmE is the variety both preferred and used by younger students in Sweden today, and that these students do find that they are allowed to use any variety they wish while learning in school. BrE is still the variety preferred by teachers and the school system, however AmE is catching up. Furthermore, the students do have a high level of participation in their own acquisition of English.

Le commentaire d’enregistrement à l’écrit mobilise de nombreuses compétences liées à la perception et à la rédaction. Ce travail, conçu avec la volonté d’un rapprochement interdisciplinaire, tente de montrer l’influence de la révision autonome de l’écrit ainsi que celle des œuvres écoutées sur des textes d’élèves de troisième. Les bases théoriques sont celles de la psychologie de l’audition et de la linguistique. L’effet dominant de la maîtrise de la langue s’estompe à la faveur d’une description systématique et globale du vocabulaire recueilli. Cette thèse rassemble des outils d’analyse de contenu originaux élaborés en fonction du corpus. Les apports sont donc essentiellement d’ordre méthodologique. Les indicateurs retenus permettent d’évaluer les écarts de densité informative selon l’œuvre écoutée et selon le rang d’écriture du commentaire. La synthèse des résultats montre les possibilités de détermination d’une typologie des écrits et révèle certains aspects stylistiques et formels des œuvres supports par l’observation raisonnée des zones d’intensification lexicale. / Writing a commentary after a listening exercise mobilizes several skills linked to perception and drafting. This thesis, aiming at an interdisciplinary approach, attempts to describe the influence of autonomous revision and of the piece of music heard on commentaries written by pupils in the fourth form. Its theoretical foundations are found in audition psychology and linguistics. The primary role attributed to language skills gives way to a systematic and holistic description of the compiled vocabulary. For this thesis, original content analysis tools have been designed, based on the corpus. Its contribution is thus essentially methodological. The selected indicators enable us to assess the disparities in informative density according to the piece heard and the drafting register of the commentary. Based on a synthesis of the results obtained, it is thus possible to establish a typology of written commentaries and bring to light some stylistic and formal aspects of the selected pieces of music through a reasoned analysis of lexical intensification areas.