We want in this paper, by using participant observation and qualitative interviews, come closer to an understanding of what meaning a language café might have for the people who go there. Many of the visitors are people who recently moved to Sweden and are in the middle of a process of learning Swedish. We want to get a further insight into how they feel about their situation and what the social encounters on the language café might mean to them. The purpose is to examine how this can have significance for the identity development of the visitors. The result shows that the language café is an important place for the visitors because it is the only place they can go to in order to practice speaking Swedish, which is important for them to find their place in Sweden. The language café also fulfils an important function of a place where the visitors can receive an understanding of the Swedish society and reflect about it, but also a place for self-reflection to see the opportunities in the situations they find themselves in. Consistently for the language café is the importance of the social function it fulfils, as many of the visitors has experienced loneliness and isolation of society here in Sweden. At the language café they can connect with new people and spend time with others who are in the same situation as they are in. These social meetings with other people, we believe is the basis for the identity to be created and developed, and this is done through language. / Vi vill i denna uppsats med hjälp av deltagande observation och kvalitativa intervjuer närma oss en förståelse för vad ett språkcafé kan ha för betydelser för de som går dit. Många av besökarna är personer som nyligen flyttat till Sverige och som är mitt uppe i processen att lära sig svenska. Vi vill få en vidare insikt i hur de upplever sin situation i Sverige och vad språkcaféet med de sociala möten som finns där fyller för funktion för dem. Syftet är att undersöka vad det i sin tur kan ha för betydelse för besökarnas identitetsutveckling. Resultatet visar att språkcaféet är en viktig plats för besökarna just för att det är den enda plats de kan gå till för att träna på att tala svenska, vilket är viktigt för dem för att finna sin plats i Sverige. Språkcaféet fyller även en funktion som en plats där besökarna kan få en förståelse för det svenska samhället och reflektera kring detta, men även få reflektera kring sig själva och se möjligheter i de situationer de befinner sig i. Genomgående för vad språkcaféet har för betydelse är den sociala funktion den fyller, då många av besökarna upplevt ensamhet och isolering från samhället här i Sverige. På språkcaféet kan de få en gemenskap med nya människor och umgås med personer i samma situation som de själva är i. Dessa sociala möten med andra människor tror vi ligger som grund för att identiteten ska kunna skapas och utvecklas, och att detta sker via språket.

The purpose of this thesis was to investigate whether publiclibraries language cafés can support or enable the empowerment of the participants. Empowerment means that the individuals ability to take control of their own lives is strengthened and that the individual becomes more independent. Empowerment also means that the individual takes part in a community. An important part of this is the language. I have developed two research questions: What forms of empowerment can be seen in the respondents' statements? What role do language cafés play for people from other countries, in terms of empowerment? The thesis empirical material consists of interviews whit five people involved in different languages cafes in public libraries in the city of Malmö. The theory used to analyze the material is the concept of empowerment. Based on this concept, I have selected a few keywords to structure the empirical material, identity and self-confidence, social context and vertical and horizontal empowerment. It was found that language cafés fill an important function for the participants' empowerment regarding language, social context, self-confidence and the opportunity to be part of a community. / Program: Bibliotekarie

This thesis focuses on the participants of the public library activity language café, where immigrants and refugees with the help of native Swedes practice the Swedish language. The aim of the thesis is more specifically to examine the function of this activity for its participant’s processes of learning and integration. To investigate this, four questions were asked: which experiences do the participants have of language cafés? How can the language cafés contribute to the process of language development for the participants? Which part does the language cafés play for its participants from a perspective of learning? Which function do the language cafés play for its participants’ processes of integration? These questions were processed through qualitative interviews with participants at language cafés in two public libraries. Concepts from the models the four spaces by Jochumsen et al. (2012), and The indicators of integration framework by Ager and Strang (2008) were then used to analyse the empirical material from perspectives of language, learning and integration. The concepts chosen were: meeting space, learning space, empowerment, language & cultural knowledge, social bridges, social bonds and social links. The result of this investigation shows that the language cafés play the role of a platform for the participants’ language development, retrievement of societal information, and crosscultural meetings. Although the participants integration processes did benefit from the social environment offered by the language cafés, the impact of this activity from a perspective of two-way-integration would have been more efficient if more native Swedes would have taken part.

Studien undersöker volontärer och deras egna upplevelse av sitt språkcafé som drivs i Röda Korsets regi i en kyrkas lokal i en svensk mellanstor stad, där volontärer och deltagare träffas en kväll i veckan för att träna svenska. Mitt angreppssätt för studien är kvalitativt och mitt empiriska material baseras på mina fältanteckningar från sju deltagande observationer som jag gjort under november och december månad 2018 samt fyra enskilda intervjuer jag utfört med volontärer på språkcafét under samma tid. Studiens resultat visar språkcaféts betydelse för volontärerna och ger en bild av hur miljön inverkar på språkcafét samt hur lärandet sker.

This bachelor thesis aims to examine how library staff experience the impact language cafes has on user integration and personal development, as well to study how language cafes can enable meetings between different individuals. Three different issues were to be answered which were a) how language cafes work on libraries, viewed as a social meeting place, b) how do language work with perceived user integration and c) with perceived personal development? Seven different semi structured interviews were conducted and thus six libraries were studied as two of the interviews were conducted on the same library. The library staff all worked in Skåne län and with language cafes. To analyse the results a theory about low-intensive and high-intensive meeting places was used in combination with four different themes: integration, personal development, disagreement and social contact. The theory that was used were created by Ragnar Audunson and is about how a meeting can be with someone who shares their interests or values, thus making it a high-intensive meeting, or someone who doesn’t share the same interests or values, thus making it a low-intensive meeting. The results of this thesis showed that a language cafe does result in both giving a place and reason for people to meet. There were signs of people developing as people, mainly getting more confidence and in the end seeking internship and thus not needing the language cafe anymore. Another conclusion is that the language cafes can be viewed as a high-intensive meeting place, but also a low-intensive, depending on how people look at and interpret it.

This bachelor thesis examines at how libraries can function as meeting places in areas with inhabitants from sevral different countries. It is done in the form of a case study, with interviews and observations, of a minilibrary in a part of Växjö. The results are analysed with the help of Ragnar Audunsons theory about high and low intensity meeting places. According to the theory a high intensity meeting place is where a person meets people who share their intrests, whereas a low intensity meeting place is where the person are exposed to diffrent views. This study finds that the minilibrary in question funtions as both a high and a low intensity meeting place, depending on the context. When the children and youth living in the area use it as a place to meet after school, the library functions as a high intensity meeting place, and when the library hosts language cafés it becomes a low intensity meeting place.

The aim of this study was to find out which functions of a language café in Karlskrona have for its participants and how it can help them with their integration process. At the language café immigrants and natives meet to talk and socialize together, with the idea that the immigrants should practice the language. The study is based on interviews with the immigrants, and with yhe person in charge og the café, to find answer for the purpose of this study and essay. Two questions have been asked: What functions does the language café fulfill for the participants and why do they participate? And, in what way can the language café contribuate to the participants' integration? Diaz's (1996;1997) integration theory was used as a model to analyze which integration dimensions the language café helps the participants with. The main result of the study shows that 1) the participants primarily participate to practice the language but also meet Swedes and other immigrants, and 2) that it mainly benefits their communicative and social integration.

The purpose of this thesis was to investigate thephenomenon language café, an activity that is held in public libraries into which anyone is welcome who wants to practice their skills in Swedish, and see how this can be put in relation to integration. To reach the purpose we developed two research-questions; What does the language café fulfill for its participants? and How can the language café contribute to the promotion of integration? The study is based on semi-structured interviews with seven participants from language cafés. The theory used to analyze the results from the interviews is the Swedish sociologist José Alberto Diaz theory about the integration process which can be divided into seven dimensions. The findings of the thesis were that the language café can fill the function as a place to Speak Swedish, for Community-information, a place to meet and a place for trust and self-confidence. This can promote the integration process by being a place where people in need of language training can practice their skills in Swedish. It is also working as a meeting place, where one can integrate with other people and other cultures. / Program: Bibliotekarie

När förändringens vindar blåser och världen blir alltmer global, förändras även befolkningen i länderna världen över. Immigration blir en alltmer vanlig företeelse och Sverige är inget undantag. Vilka utmaningar står dessa immigranter inför i det nya landet gällande språk och inkludering? I denna studie har vi undersökt precis det genom observationer och intervjuer med vuxna asylsökande och volontärer i en biståndsorganisation i Västsverige. Denna organisation bedriver språkcafé där asylsökande och andra invandrare har chans att lära sig svenska genom samtal och umgänge med svenska volontärer samt andra invandrare. Essensen av vår empiri var att de asylsökande lärde sig genom socialt umgänge med svenskar och att en av de viktigaste förutsättningarna för lärande är en plats där sådant socialt utbyte kan ske. Det finns flera olika faktorer som påverkar inkludering, det har framkommit genom denna studie att språket är en av de viktigaste. För att kunna leva och verka i samhället krävs det att man kan kommunicera med människor, såväl i vardagen, som i skolan och på arbetsplatsen. / When the winds of change are blowing, and the world becomes a more global arena, the population in countries all over the world are changing. Immigration is becoming a common phenomenon all over the world and Sweden is not an exception. What are the challenges that these immigrants faces in their new country with regard to language and being a part of the community? In this study we have examined this through observations and interviews with adult asylum seekers and volunteers in a aid organisation located in the west of Sweden. This organisation operates a language café where asylum seekers and other immigrants are given a chance to learn Swedish through conversation and interaction with Swedish volunteers and other immigrants. The essence of our empiricism was that the asylum seekers learned through social interaction with swedes, and one of the most important conditions for learning is a place where such a kind of social exchange may happen. There are many different factors that affects how well immigrants will be included in society, this study have come to the conclusion that language is one of the most important. To be able to live and be a part of society it demands that you can communicate with other humans in everyday life, in school and at your worksite.