The aim of the study is to examine how songs are included in Swedish EFL coursebooks aimed at the courses English 5 and English 6, what functions they serve and what this communicates about the pedagogical value of songs for EFL teaching and learning. This study also aims to examine what differences there are in the inclusion and usage of songs targeting the different courses. The material was gathered through a content analysis of six coursebooks, three aimed at English 5 (Viewpoints 1, Solid Gold 1, and Blueprint A Version 3.0) and three intended for use in English 6 (Viewpoints 2, Solid Gold 2, and Blueprint B Version 2.0). The books were analysed by applying the concepts of explicit and implicit communications of pedagogical value through the lens of Krippendorff’s approach to textual analysis (Krippendorff, 2019, p. 29). The results show that most differences in the inclusion and usage of songs in the coursebooks targeting the different courses relate to how songs are included, but also that there are significant differences in how the songs are used. Furthermore, the results also show that the inclusion and usage of songs in the examined coursebooks convey conflicting messages about their pedagogical value. The usage of songs shows that there is a reliance on the intrinsic pedagogical value of songs for EFL teaching and learning. Nonetheless, songs are used sparingly in relation to other text types in the coursebooks.

In this study, three aspects of technology integration in English Language Teaching within the context of private universities in Ankara, Turkey were investigated. Firstly, preservice and in-service teachers&amp / #8217 / computer usage frequencies/types, computer competence levels, perceived barriers to technology integration and attitudes toward computers were explored. Then, factors (age, gender, work experience, institutional factors being preservice or in-service) that might potentially affect the findings of the first research question were examined. Finally, the educational value preservice and in-service teachers assigned to technology usage in their language teaching practices and their ideas on effective technology integration were scrutinized. In order to reach aforementioned goals, both qualitative and quantitative data were collected with the help of a questionnaire and semi-structured face-to-face interviews. The institutions sampled in this study were all private universities, the infrastructure of which varied drastically. A total of 182 questionnaires collected from the teachers (in-service N=120, preservice N=62), as well as eight in-service and four preservice teachers were interviewed. The findings indicated that teachers used computers at their schools at limited frequency. It was also found that they indicated high levels of instructional computer usage outside the school and technology competence. It was also seen that age, gender and the institutions the teachers worked at affected their technology usage and competence levels. As for the educational value assigned to technology usage in their language teaching, the teachers indicated that technology would help make their lessons more student centered. However, the teachers mainly mentioned using technology as teacher tools rather student tools which help foster higher order thinking skills and learner autonomy. Keeping the usage statistics in mind, it was concluded that the schools, even though all of them were private, lacked computer infrastructure to the point that the teachers had difficulty even to use computers for their personal purposes. It was also concluded that the schools in Turkey were still at the stage of fighting with first-order barriers, even at private institutions, indicating that a vision towards technology integration lacks. As for the educational value assigned to computer usage in ELT, it was concluded that institutional barriers were more of a concern for the teachers as they did not have a chance to delve into actual instructional usage and the ICT courses at college were not preparing the teachers for effective technology integration due to lack of proper training activities.