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The purpose of this thesis is to determine whether the setting of the verb movement parameter in L2 is dependent on agreement acquisition. The Optionality hypothesis (Eubank, 1994) is tested by examining the L2 grammar of Chinese learners of English. To test this hypothesis, the sentence matching procedure originally described in Freedman and Forster (1985) is used. It is found that no current theory truly accounts for the results that are obtained.

Previous research in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) has shown that some of the systematic errors of second language (L2) learners can be attributed to the influence of the native language (L1). In fact, many hypotheses in generative SLA have focused on the role of L1 transfer ranging the spectrum from No Transfer to Full Transfer. The goal of this dissertation was to investigate L1 transfer by focusing on L1-L2 differences in terms of linguistic features; specifically, how differences in the featural and morpholexical organization of L1 and L2 pronominal paradigms affect SLA. In this work I operationalize L1 transfer in terms of the Feature Reassembly Hypothesis (FRH; Lardiere, 2009). The hypothesis pioneers conceptualization of L1 transfer as an initial attempt by L2 learners to establish a direct mapping between L1 and L2 forms. The FRH is particularly suitable to the study of L2 development because it predicts that when a one-to-one initial mapping is unsuccessful, L2 learners will gradually reorganize the L1 grammatical system until they attain (possibly complete) convergence. Empirical testing of the hypothesis is critical since determining when and why transfer occurs opens numerous possibilities to predict transfer errors and to develop pedagogical approaches to tackle negative transfer. In the current study I focus on the L2 acquisition of four 3rd person singular French object pronouns in the interlanguage of native speakers of English. Difficulties in the acquisition of Romance object pronouns have been amply documented in L2 research. However, most of the previous studies of the topic have focused on L2 acquisition of clitic pronouns and their syntactic properties. The present study takes a novel approach investigating the acquisition of strong as well as clitic pronouns. In my dissertation I test different kinds of knowledge including learners' comprehension of different kinds of pronouns. Going beyond production data, my experimental tasks include a grammaticality judgment task with correction, a picture selection task, and a self-paced reading task. The experimental tasks were administered to a group of native speakers (n=43) and L2 learners of French (n=87). The overall picture that emerges from the current study allows unveiling the initial mapping and subsequent reassembly of the semantic and morphosyntactic features implicated in the acquisition process of the four forms under investigation.

This project deals with the sociocultural and pragmatic aspects of second language acquisition. Most current research in this field examines the ability of second language learners to produce socioculturally appropriate utterances in simulated speech settings. Researchers are interested in whether students can interact adequately within the confines of both their linguistic competence and the foreign culture's interactional norms. Analyses of learners' speech routines are quite valuable to our understanding of their ability to enact conversational routines. However, they do not indicate to use what the learners understand; that is, they do not tease apart what learners understand to be true about the language from what they can do under the pressure of performance. The purpose of this dissertation is to determine whether learners of Russian perceive the sociocultural weight of the two personal pronouns for 'you,' ty (informal/intimate) and Vy (formal/polite). In this project, the term understand is used in two ways, each of which is tested empirically. First, understanding implies knowledge about the pragmatic impact of the pronouns. Do learners correctly indicate which pronoun is appropriate in context? Second, understanding is listening ability. Do learners utilize their pragmatic knowledge when they listen to native speech? Or do proficiency factors, individual learner characteristics, syntactic saliency (overt pronoun vs. pro-drop), and overall attentional limitations affect their listening ability? Students at Middlebury College and at the University of Iowa participated in two experimental tasks evaluating their pragmatic knowledge and listening ability with the ty / Vy feature: (a) a metapragmatic judgment task and (b) a listening task using video clips from famous Russian films. Results indicate that pragmatic knowledge is not significantly different across proficiency levels, nor is perception of the pronouns in a listening task; that is, beginning learners and advanced learners demonstrate similar ability with the understanding of the feature. Furthermore, female learners outperformed male learners on the listening task, although performance on the pragmatic knowledge task did not vary by gender. These results add to the body of knowledge in second language acquisition and, more specifically, to our knowledge of how pragmatic features of a language are acquired.

<p>Vad är Second Life? En värld på Internet som fungerar likt ett socialt nätverk men till skillnad från andra virtuella världar är det inte ett spel. Det är en förlängning av verkligheten. Man vinner ingenting i Second Life, förutom nya bekantskaper och fascinerande upplevelser i en vacker tredimensionell miljö. Den uppdaterade versionen av Internet har suddat ut gränserna mellan användare och producent. Second Life är ett resultat av samspelet mellan virtuell värld och verklighet. Den virtuella världens genombrott på webben är här.</p>

Vad är Second Life? En värld på Internet som fungerar likt ett socialt nätverk men till skillnad från andra virtuella världar är det inte ett spel. Det är en förlängning av verkligheten. Man vinner ingenting i Second Life, förutom nya bekantskaper och fascinerande upplevelser i en vacker tredimensionell miljö. Den uppdaterade versionen av Internet har suddat ut gränserna mellan användare och producent. Second Life är ett resultat av samspelet mellan virtuell värld och verklighet. Den virtuella världens genombrott på webben är här.

Learning words have shown to be a very crucial part of learning a second language and the one most important factor to make pupils with Swedish as a second language succeed in school. To make sure that all pupils get the right conditions to learn from all subjects and their entire content a wide vocabulary is necessary. Even so it is found that there are shortcomings regarding this kind of teaching in Swedish schools. Through interviews and observations of two teachers that teach pupils with Swedish as a second language, and also with a short reading test for the pupils, the possible strategies that these teachers use for learning words have been studied. The result shows that the teachers are using several strategies and that they are actively working with transmitting these to the pupils, but there are some areas that need developing.

The purpose of this study is to highlight the second home sector in Sweden and Denmark, in a comparative study of regulations for the second home market, and residence requirement. Two attractive second home island destinations is being compared in Ven, Landskrona and Gudhjem, Bornholm. The study addresses issues such as the local effects of a regulation of the second home market get at a local level, and the effects generated by deregulation, as well as local people's opinions about second home regulation in a popular second home area in southern Sweden.  This has been examined using a mix between qualitative method and quantitative methods, and the study is based on six semi-structured interviews from informants from Ven, Bornholm, and Gudhjem which has been analyzed throughout a thematic analysis. In addition to the interviews, diagrams from the Central Bureau of Statistics of Sweden and Statistics Denmark, and various real estate websites, and a field observation from Ven and Gudhjem will be presented. The result shows that show that the discussion on residence requirement has been going on for a long time in Sweden and Ven, but the local organizations found more disadvantages than advantages and are now looking in to other solutions, while other locals believes that there are more advantages with a residence requirement. In Denmark it’s revealed that there is recently started discussion between municipal decision-makers and local organizations about the regulations, and if it should be abolished or not. It turns out that the directions of the local effects being positive or negative depends a lot on the resort's contemporary expertise in local organizations, the population basis and to what extent the resort attracts people to stay there permanently for a living. The results also implies that some regulations in Denmark will not be deregulated, while it is still an active political discussion in Denmark.

This Report explores the importance of including extensive reading (ER) program in English as a second language (ESL) or English as a foreign language (EFL) context. To find benefits and implications of L2 extensive reading, the Report reviews comprehensive literature on L2 extensive reading. Research has found that extensive reading enables L2 learners to achieve both cognitive and affective gains. Based on these findings, the report provides some pedagogical implications for an L2 program in ESL/EFL contexts. The suggestions include practical tips such as materials, useful ER activities, and a discussion of teacher roles in an extensive reading program. / text

The purpose of my dissertation was to explore whether a virtual world could be a suitable platform for second language assessment. It specifically looked at the validity evidence of a virtual-world group oral test compared to that of a face-to-face group oral test by means of test-retest reliability, concurrent validity, face validity, and discourse features in the two testing modes. A total of 64 ESL students who were enrolled in a large language institution in the southwestern part of the United States participated in the study. Thirty students served as a control group and took two sets of face-to-face and virtual-world tests. Thirty-four students served as an experimental group and took two sets of face-to-face and virtual-world tests after receiving familiarity training in the virtual-world setting. Data were drawn from the students’ group oral test scores, a survey asking for their perceptions on the two testing modes, interviews, and speech samples from their group oral tests. The findings showed that students produced similar scores when tested again in the virtual world, confirming the test-retest validity. The results also revealed that the students’ group oral test scores in the virtual world were comparable to their face-to-face group oral scores, providing concurrent validity of the virtual-world testing mode. It is noteworthy that students produced comparable scores in the virtual world only after they experienced the virtual world. Students’ perceptions on the virtual-world testing mode were promising in terms of anxiety, ease of the testing mode, and ease of turn-taking. Qualitative analyses of interviews showed that virtual worlds have some benefits, including interesting, relaxing testing conditions as well as a feeling of co-presence in the virtual world. Conversation analysis of the students’ interactions revealed four interactional features unique to the two testing modes: 1) different strategies to start the conversation in each testing mode, 2) more scaffolding in face-to-face, 3) more successful instances of showing agreement and disagreement in face-to-face mode, and 4) different turn-taking patterns in each testing mode. / text