Geographically, Sweden is significantly closer to England as opposed to America, two English speaking countries with two rather different varieties of the language. With regard to Britain’s history of colonization it could be assumed that British English (RP-variety) would be most frequently used globally. However, America’s power position in politics, economics, international businesses, and movie industries have contributed to making the American English (GA-variety) the more predominantly used variety of the two (Barber, 2000, p. 236). In the different varieties, the vowels /əu/ /ou/ /ju:/ /u:/ /ɑ:/ /æ/ /ɒ/ /ɑ/ /aɪ/ /i:/ and the consonants /ə/ /r/ /t/ /d/ show the most prominent difference in pronounciation (Navrátilová, 2013). Furthermore, Axelsson (2002, p.144) (in Alftberg, 2009, p. 4) claims that with regard to the previously mentioned factors, Swedish students come in contact with several different varieties of English on a daily basis, thus a one-accent-only approach seems outdated for learning purposes. In addition to this, the syllabus for teaching English in Sweden, LGY11 (SNAE, 2011) lays focus, not explicitly on pronunciation, but on intonation and fluency, two factors which are certainly affected by one’s pronunciation and prosody. The document also emphasizes the importance of incorporating different varieties of English from different English speaking cultures and countries into the lessons (SNAE, 2011).This raised the question of whether or not Swedish upper secondary school students tend to follow the global Americanization of pronunciation, if they still adhere to using RP due to its geographical proximity and former prestige, or if they mix different varieties. Therefore, a study was conducted on Swedish students’ pronunciation tendencies and attitudes towards different pronunciations. 58% of the students claimed to use GA and said that TV/YouTube is where they hear English the most. Only 17% claimed they used RP. However, the recordings of the students indicated that the majority used a mixture of the two, and only one student was completely consistent in their variety. Keywords: English pronunciation, Sweden, General American, Received Pronunciation, Teaching, Upper secondary school

National and international studies, such as PISA and TIMSS, which are part of the national evaluation system, are carried out continuosly. Skolverket, in collaboration with researchers, are responsible for the implementation, evaluation, and analysis of the studies. National results show an increasing percentage of pupils who do not reach the goals in mathematics. The last completed international studies PISA 2009 and TIMSS 2007 show an impaired trend of knowledge, in international comparison. Moreover, studies also show that the differences between schools and also within the same school in Sweden have increased. In summary, the analysis of the studies shows that the Swedish students' math skills have been declining over time. The purpose of this report is to examine possible causes, essential factors that are affecting and future actions in order to achieve better results. Completed national and international studies and analysis show a range of factors that are affecting Swedish students´ declining mathematic skills. However, this report clarifies the big complexity that is revealed when results are being analyzed. This is due to a multitude of factors of influence of underlying causes. Nevertheless, results and analysis show that teachers’ skills are a strong factor which affects and influences the progression and accumulation of knowledge. / Nationella samt internationella studier såsom PISA och TIMSS genomförs med kontinuitet. Dessa är en del av det nationella systemet för utvärdering vad gäller kunskapstrend. Skolverket, i samarbete med forskare, ansvarar för genomförande, utvärdering samt analys. Nationella mätningar visar en procentuell ökning av elever som ej når målen i matematik. De senaste genomförda internationella studierna PISA 2009 samt TIMSS 2007 visar på en nedåtgående kunskapstrend i internationell jämförelse. Dessutom visar analys på minskad likvärdighet både mellan skolor i Sverige, men även inom en och samma skola. Påvisbart, vid analys av genomförda studier, är svenska elevers sjunkande matematikkunskaper. Syftet med denna rapport är att undersöka möjliga orsaker, essentiella påverkansfaktorer samt framtida insatser för resultatförbättring. Genomförda nationella och internationella studier samt analyser visar på en rad påverkansfaktorer. Dock visar denna rapport på den omfattande komplexitet som analyser av resultat bidrar till, då en mångfald av influerande bakomliggande orsaker till resultaten kan skönjas. Resultat och analyser antyder att lärarkompetens är en stark påverkansfaktor, vad gäller kunskapsackumulation och kunskapsprogression.

Thesis (doctoral)--Åbo akademi, 2006. / Extra t.p. with thesis statement inserted. Includes bibliographical references (p. 259-300).

The IMRD structure with its constituents Introduction, Method, Results and Discussion is acknowledged as the norm for writing abstracts by most. Researchers need to adhere to the norm in order for their abstracts to function as effective advertisements for their research articles, and students need to comply with the norm should they want their abstracts to serve as connectors to the academic world. The aim of this thesis is to examine to what extent abstracts written in English by Swedish students adhere to the IMRD norm. A total of 40 bachelor’s thesis abstracts in English linguistics and physics were analyzed in terms of macro structure, the inclusion, exclusion and order of the constituent parts, and micro structure, the linguistic realization of the constituents. The results show that the English linguistics and physics abstracts fail to meet the requirements of the IMRD norm on several points. This suggests that the students are either unaware of the important function fulfilled by abstracts or need more guidance and practice. The conclusions are necessarily tentative since further research is required to provide a comprehensive picture, but still, the results suggest that Swedish students’ abstract writing needs to be given higher priority.

This study researches the possibility of video games being a helpful tool when it comes to English vocabulary knowledge, by comparing the English vocabulary knowledge of those that play video games to those that do not play video games. The study also focuses on comparing the English vocabulary knowledge of those that play video games frequently to those that play video games seldomly and discuss why this might make a difference. 37 students were asked to fill in a questionnaire with questions focusing on if they play video games or not, how often they play and what sort of games they played. The second part of the study was a vocabulary test containing 51 words one might encounter whilst playing video games, in this vocabulary test the students were asked to give an English synonym and a Swedish translation of these words. The results of the study revealed that there were differences between the groups, as those that did play video games scored higher on the vocabulary test compared to those that did not play video games. There was also a difference in terms of performance on the vocabulary test depending on how often the students played video games. / Denna studie undersöker videospels möjlighet till att vara ett hjälpmedel när det gäller kunskaper i engelskt ordförråd genom att jämföra ordförrådskunskaperna hos de som spelar videospel med de som inte spelar videospel. Studien fokuserar också på att jämföra de engelska ordförrådskunskaperna hos dem som ofta spelar videospel med de som sällan spelar videospel och diskuterar varför detta kan göra en skillnad. 37 elever ombads att fylla i ett frågeformulär med frågor med fokus på om de spelar videospel eller inte, hur ofta de spelar och vilken typ av spel de spelade. Den andra delen av studien var ett ordförrådstest innehållande 51 ord som kan stötas på i videospel, i detta ordförrådstest ombads eleverna att ge en engelsk synonym och en svensk översättning av dessa ord. Resultaten av studien visade att det fanns skillnader mellan grupperna, eftersom de som spelade videospel fick högre poäng på ordförrådstestet jämfört med de som inte spelade videospel. Det fanns också skillnader prestationsmässigt i ordförrådstestet beroende på hur ofta eleverna spelade videospel.