Modern technology has provided foreign language teachers with several methods of connecting their classes and students to native speakers of target languages. Much of the existing research about these online conversations is focused on changes in students' proficiency or cultural sensitivity. Although valuable, the research is lacking in understanding students' experience online including positive and negative feelings, challenges, and students' overall opinion of the exchanges' usefulness. This study was conducted in an effort to better understand students' experience communicating online with native speakers. A third semester Spanish class at Brigham Young University consisting of 18 students was selected as a sample. These students were required to speak online with native Spanish speakers for at least 20 minutes in Spanish each week. Students completed weekly surveys, a final survey, and three students were selected for a semi-structured interview. This study was conducted using a mixed-methods approach, involving both quantitative and qualitative data. The data revealed common struggles that students faced during online exchanges, methods students used for coping with these difficulties, areas of perceived growth as a result of the exchanges, and social factors that had significant impact on students' experience. The study concludes with recommendations of what foreign language educators can do to support their own classes in similar online exchanges. Areas of further investigation regarding online exchanges with native speakers are also recommended.

Thesis (M.Ed. (Language Education)) -- University of Limpopo, 2022 / The main purpose of this study was to determine challenges that are faced by Grade 8 learners when reading short stories with understanding using EFAL. The study made use of a research approach which is qualitative in nature to explore the reading challenges. It also used an interpretive paradigm. Schema Reading Theory was employed as the guide to which the study followed. This theory advocates that learners read a text having prior knowledge, which assists them to interpret it better. This chosen theory is relevant to the study as the study seeks to understand why learners cannot read. Therefore the theory assisted in determining whether learners have the necessary prior knowledge of the text they read in the classroom. The main findings of the study has indicated that learners have challenges to reading. There are recommendations addressed to learners, parents, teachers and department of education. In conclusion, teachers assured to initiate reading programmes such as focused, independent and guided reading, with the hope to curb challenges towards reading.

Swedish school today is a mixture of children who come from different countries and speak different languages. Due to conflicts and war raging in various parts of the world, the refugee stream of people seeking asylum in Sweden has put much pressure on the schools around the country. Studies show that immigrant children fall behind in the education and that students whose first language is not Swedish do not reach the knowledge requirements and goals for English to the same degree of success as other groups of students. The aim for this thesis was to investigate what teachers in a K-3 English classrooms in Sweden do to support immigrant students, and what can be found in previous research to explain such poor performance. The aim was also to explore what methods teachers report using and how these methods are connected to Lgr11 and previous research. The use of Swedish instead of the target language when teaching English seems to be dominating in the schools. Since research found shows that children tend to use their first language when learning additional languages, the use of Swedish becomes demanding and confusing for the immigrant students: they end up having to learn a new language in a new language.

Lärare reflekterar ofta kring vilket språk av svenska och engelska som ska användas mest i engelskundervisningen. Syftet med detta examensarbete är att undersöka lärares val av språk i engelskundervisningen samt vad de ser för konsekvenser med att använda svenska respektive engelska under engelsklektionerna. Syftet är också att undersöka hur elever tänker kring språkvalet som lärare gör när de har engelska. I denna studie genomfördes tre semistrukturerade intervjuer med lärare, verksamma eller har varit verksamma i engelska i årskurs 4–6, samt en enkät, utdelad som en survey till elever i årskurs 6 (12 år) och besvarades av 20 elever. Slutsatsen av denna studie visar att lärare vill använda den mängden engelska som är möjligt, men att svenskan behöver användas som ett hjälpmedel, främst till svaga elever i engelska. Konsekvenser med att använda engelskan visar enligt resultatet att svaga elever får svårigheter att förstå vad som ska göras under engelsklektioner. Konsekvenser med att använda svenskan blir enligt lärare att eleverna tappar en del engelska och att de inte får öva på sina språkliga strategier. Majoriteten av eleverna i studien har bekräftat att de är nöjda med lärares språkval på engelsklektionerna. Många elever föredrar också att både svenskan och engelskan används. / Teachers often reflect on which language of Swedish and English should be used mostly in English teaching. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate teachers' choice of language in English teaching and what they see as consequences of using Swedish and English respectively during English lessons. The purpose is also to investigate how students think about the language choice that teachers make when they have English. In this study, three semi-structured interviews were conducted with teachers working or have been working in English in grades 4–6, as well as a questionnaire, distributed as a survey to students in grade 6 (12 years old) and answered by 20 students. The conclusion of this study shows that teachers want to use as much English as possible, but that Swedish needs to be used as an aid, mainly for weak students in English. Consequences of using English shows according to the results that weak students have difficulties in understanding what to do during English lessons. According to teachers, negative consequences of using Swedish are that the students lose some English and that they do not get to practice their linguistic strategies. The majority of the students in the study have confirmed that they are satisfied with the teachers' choice of language in the English lessons. Many students also prefer that both Swedish and English are used.

I det här examensarbetet har en studie om elevers perspektiv på spanskundervisning och övningar för språkinlärning på högstadiet genomförts. Studien inkluderar 18 elevers svar på en enkät följt av fem fördjupande intervjuer. Resultaten indikerar att eleverna utsätts för en hög grad av läsövningar och grammatikövningar medan de identifierar att de lär sig bäst genom glosor och att lyssna. Input av spanska utanför klassrummet är låg och användningen av målspråket som arbetsspråk i klassrummet är inte alltid så hög som den skulle kunna vara. Slutsatsen är att den kontinuerliga användningen av visst material, eller läromedel, kan vara en bidragande del av de internationellt låga resultaten för svenska elever i spanska. Framtida forskning kan vara att fokusera på lärarens perspektiv på övningar och används i klassrummet. / In this study, an investigation about students’ perspective on Spanish teaching and exercises in compulsory school has been carried out. The study includes 18 students’ responses to a survey followed by five in-depth interviews. The results indicate that students are exposed to a high level of reading and grammar practice while they identify that they learn best thorough vocabulary and listening. Input of Spanish outside the classroom is low and the use of the target language as a working language in the classroom is not always as high as it could be. The conclusion is that the continuous use of certain teaching material can be a contributing factor to the internationally low results for Swedish students in Spanish. Future research may be to focus on the teacher´s perspective on exercises and their use in the classroom.

A monolingual target language (TL) teaching norm has been promoted in second language learning over recent decades. Despite this, international studies indicate substantial variation in how and why teachers use the TL. This study investigates the extent of TL use during English lessons in Swedish classrooms in primary school, and how the choice of language correlates with teachers’ beliefs regarding second language learning (SLL) and the inclusion of the first language (L1). This study discusses the teachers’ didactic considerations and implementations of languages during their English lessons, and the teachers’ view on how the students are affected by the use of the TL in the classroom. Semi-structured interviews are carried out with three certified primary school English teachers. The interview data from this study show that the teachers’ main perception of TL use is that it should be used as much as possible. However, they all occasionally include the use of L1 in order to aid comprehension and prevent students’ anxiety. All three teachers emphasized the importance of a safe learning environment, especially when learning a new language. Even though the teachers agreed that the knowledge criterias for the subject of English in primary school do not place high demands on the students’ abilities in English, they as teachers place higher demands. The reason being that Swedish students’ level of English is higher than ever before and in turn teachers’ expectations are higher.

Motivations, Attitudes and Modern Languages. A study of students’ motivational processes and attitudes while learning foreign languages. This doctoral thesis investigates students’ motivational processes and attitudes while studying and learning foreign languages (FLs). Students were asked about their choice of FL, and what had motivated them during their many years of studies. The study analyzes open-ended questionnaires and interviews with 43 students enrolled in the last year of foreign language studies in two schools, limiting its focus to the three most commonly studied FLs – French, German and Spanish. The theoretical framework of the thesis draws on sociocognitive theory (Bandura 1997; Linnenbrink & Pintrich 2002). Several informants refer to motivation in terms that could be related to intrinsic motivation. They have chosen to continue studying their particular target language due to an emotional state which could be related to enjoyment, pleasure and curiosity (Deci & Ryan 1985). Another salient feature is the frequent reference to mastery goals. Many of the informants express a motivation directed towards mastery and growth, or a main goal to be fluent or communicatively competent in their target language. Several informants also underline the motivational importance of experiencing competence, success and development. They become motivated by experiencing self-efficacy (Bandura 1997). This self-efficacy is rooted in experience of success, but also in being encouraged by significant others or role models, i.e. family members and friends. Despite a frequent awareness of the weakening general interest for FL, most students have a supportive network. Likewise, family and friends play a crucial role for many informants while choosing their target language initially. This key factor interacts with other important factors, such as the experiences of visiting countries or settings where the target language is used. In this context, target language attitudes tend to be important when choosing language and pursuing studies.

The present study investigates the translation of dialectal elements in literary texts from the German and Swedish linguistical and cultural areas. Translation theory generally advises against the translation of dialectal elements in standard language texts thereby implicitly questioning their creative and communicative function. The aim of the study is to investigate to what extent the dialectal elements in the source text are translated by corresponding dialectal elements in the target text thereby promoting a "cultural transfer" or whether a translation method based on translation theory is used. The linguistic material from the novels Die Räuberbande by the German author Leonhard Frank, Tjärdalen by the Swedish author Sara Lidman and Kapten Nemos bibliotek by the Swedish author Per Olov Enquist is microanalyzed. In doing so, the phonetical-phonological, morphological and syntactical dialectal features in the three source texts are treated methodically and are exemplarily and systematically presented together with their translation variants in the target language. The study focuses mainly on the translations of dialectal lexicology, which is investigated according to its contrastive function regarding the translations of standard language, thereby examining its adequacy. By including all the dialectal lexemes appearing in the works and their translations empirical dates have been compiled as a result of the translation methods. The study´s analyses demonstrate that dialectal elements are mainly translated into standard language, that a large part of dialectisms is paraphrased and that a small part is rendered by spoken language without regional limits. A tendency towards increasing use of dialectal elements through the times can be detected as well as a propensity to adapt the translation to the stylistical preferences in the receiving country. Thus, "cultural transfer" is not promoted.

The master's thesis is a theoretical and empirical study about the interpreter's notes in consecutive interpreting. The study mainly deals with the note-taking language and the effect of the interpreter's experience on the choice of note-taking language. In literature, many authors have already thoroughly studied note-taking. In the second half of the 20th century, three traditional interpreting schools emerged. Several authors created their own note-taking systems. Since then, there hasn't been a consensus among experts on the choice of the note-taking language. Some recommend using the source language, some prefer the target language and many experts are in favor of using both. Main approaches to note-taking and reasons why to use either the source language or the target language are listed in the theoretical part. The theoretical part also covers empirical research on the choice of note-taking language. Compared to the high amount of theoretical publications on note-taking, only few empirical studies were carried out, studying the choice of note-taking language. Despite its small scale, the thesis thus seeks to follow in the footsteps of previous empirical researchers and verify, by the means of an experiment, claimings of theoreticians. The experiment studying the effect of the interpreter's...

Swedish learners of French often do not speak French in the FLE class (French as a foreign language). They experience large difficulties which are on the one hand specific to the French language e.g. chaining and deletion of Schwa, liaison, accentuation and on the other hand the excessive use of the mother tongue in FLE class. The aim of this essay is to understand why French learners communicate little in the target language. The essay consists of three parts. In the first part, through previous studies, we present the importance of the use of the target language in class. Theorists (Lundahl (2012), Tornberg (2015), Dysthe (1996,2003), Lindberg (1996) et Stoltz (2011), as well as the study plan, agree that it is very useful to expose students to the target language as often as possible in order to enrich their vocabulary and increase their knowledge in the taught foreign language. The second part consists in the responses and comments from the questionnaires submitted to the learners and the two teachers. In these questionnaires, most students admit not only that they like to speak French in class, but they would also like the teacher to use the target language. However, to overcome their difficulties to communicate they would like to have more oral production activities. The third part is based on our observations in class. We find out that the most spoken language in the classroom is the mother tongue, which is an obstacle. We also noticed that certain activities, such as watching a film followed by work in a small group and simple dialogues with themes very common in everyday life, prepared in advance and playing them in front of the class, encouraged students to express themselves in French without worrying too much about their faults.