Research has shown that cultural differences and the lack of experiences in the lives of young children can affect the rate of vocabulary development. In particular, children from different ability, socioeconomic status, and culturally and linguistically diverse groups are considered at risk for later academic achievement because their home experiences and word usage may be incongruent with that of the mainstream school cultural environment. Therefore, it has been suggested that to decrease the gap between children in need of vocabulary development and their typically achieving peers, instruction in vocabulary should systematically provide information about words and their uses. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine the effect of a systematic vocabulary instructional technique in children with clinically depressed vocabulary skills. An additional goal was to examine the role of book type in the retention of novel vocabulary words among young African American children. Using an Adapted Alternating Treatments Design, five children were read two storybooks in the context of robust vocabulary training. Storybooks were used as a source for contextualizing novel vocabulary words. One book depicted an African American theme and images and the other depicted a Caucasian theme and images. Robust vocabulary instruction consisted of frequent and varied opportunities for word usage in meaningful contexts that stressed the relations between target words and previously acquired vocabulary. Childrens productive definitions were used to assess developing word knowledge at 4 periodic probes. Definitions were scored using a 4-stage continuum ranging from no knowledge to full concept knowledge. Results showed significant gains in word learning for novel words two weeks following conclusion of the study. The difference in scores between the instructional and control word sets resulted in a large effect size attributable to robust vocabulary instruction. African American children appeared to learn words at a deeper level from a storybook that displayed sociocultural images and experiences different from their own.

I denna kvalitativa intervjustudie har fyra lärare beskrivit sina upplevelser av att arbeta med vokabulär i engelska. Frågorna har handlat om hur lärare beskriver sin undervisning kring vokabulär i engelska årskurserna 4–6, samt vilka utmaningar som kan uppstå. De semi-strukturerade intervjuerna har sedan transkriberats och analyserats utifrån den kognitiva teorin, med hjälp av en tematisk analys. Resultatet visar att undervisningen vanligtvis är läromedelscentrerad, där vokabulärinlärningen kan frodas eller utmanas beroende på material och val av arbetssätt. Lärarna använde sig även av glosförhör som metod, även om några av lärarna själva ifrågasatt metoden på grund av hur den sedan vanligtvis inte följs upp i undervisningen

Vocabulary learning strategies and word knowledge are two central factors in learning a foreign language. Researchers have acknowledged the vital role of vocabulary in second language acquisition. This particular study is trying to fill a void by looking at high-school aged learners, by looking at beginning learners of German and by looking at the expression of word knowledge and strategy use qualitatively. The research methodology for this study is qualitative and exploratory in nature. The participants of this study are 29 high-school students, who participated in a vocabulary review game and filled out exit slips following the game. Of these students, 13 participated in a follow-up interview in which the prompts from the review game were discussed and analyzed. The study revealed beginning learners of German use a variety of learning strategies. Students preferred semantic context over linguistic and social context. They were also able to describe vocabulary items in the target language German, without major breakdowns in communication. Students tried to avoid the use of the German articles and confused grammatical terminology at times. Overall, students knew high frequency vocabulary and how to use it.

This is an in-depth study of word knowledge where the researcher attempts to investigate the need to systematically teach vocabulary in the language classroom. It is motivated by findings within second language (L2) vocabulary testing research that state that the current communicative language learning environment is insufficient for L2 learners to acquire adequate vocabulary knowledge and L2 learners need help with vocabulary learning (Laufer, 2005). This semester-long study explores the need to provide explicit vocabulary instruction from within a meaningful environment. It also investigates the relevance of focus on forms and focus on form practices in helping second language (L2) learners increase the size and depth of word knowledge. The study involved 129 undergraduates from a writing program, and used a pretest and posttest design to measure gains in L2 learners vocabulary knowledge. .The results indicate that the vocabulary gains for both implicit (control) and explicit (treatment) instructional context were not very different though the subjects in the implicit instructional group learned slightly more words compared to the explicit instructional group. However, this has more to do with individual instructor effectiveness and learner proficiency. In terms of word use, L2 learners subjected to explicit focus on forms and focus on form tasks increased their word use while the first language (L1) learners and L2 learners from the control groups did not increase their academic words. Therefore, it is possible to suggest that L2 learners can be taught to increase the depth of their vocabulary knowledge through explicit instructional practices. In terms of L1 and L2 learners, the initial findings revealed that the L2 learners did not benefit from explicit instruction. However, additional analysis revealed that subjects with sufficient vocabulary knowledge at the 2000 word level can increase their word size much more rapidly than the proficient L2 learners in the control group. An additional test on L1 and L2 learners' word collocation skills indicated that while explicit instruction did not help increase L2 learners vocabulary size, it was able to help L2 learners increase their word collocation skills and also make word associations that are closer to L1 learners' associations.

The study undertaken sets out to explore if there is any difference in English comprehension when viewing TV-programs with or without subtitles, in the classroom. The research which has been executed prior to ours shows that lots of people spend more time watching television than they do reading books in their native language. Still, there is more research in reading than in the field of television and comprehension. Furthermore, there are very few studies in the area of subtitling. Media use in today’s society is unavoidable and we believe that future teachers should use television as an educational tool and incorporate multimedia in lesson plans in an effective way. It is our belief that the visual and oral input of television with subtitles can aid students in their ability to memorize and comprehend the content.The research was carried out in the south of Sweden with a class of ninth graders. Firstly, we tested their vocabulary skills through a word knowledge test. Secondly, we proceeded to divide the class into two groups. These groups later saw the same episode of an American TV series. One group saw the show with subtitles, and the other one without. After the show they answered questionnaires on the content of the program and later on six students were selected to be interviewed. These target students were questioned on their thoughts and attitudes towards subtitles, as well as tested on their ability to analyze the content of the show. Although no definite answers can be given from this degree paper, we came to some conclusions. The students’ attitudes towards subtitles differed. Four out of six students were negative towards the usage of subtitles in an educational setting, because they felt more challenged to comprehend the plot without them. The two remaining were positive to subtitles and would use them at all times as support to aid them in their English comprehension.

The order of acquisition of various aspects of word knowledge is underexplored. Thus, this study examined learner performance with a number of aspects of word knowledge in an attempt to see whether they form an implicational scale in terms of an accuracy order. A total of 283 English as a Second Language students were tested on their knowledge of five aspects of word knowledge. Implicational scaling analysis was utilized to determine whether the components were scalable. The findings formed a scalable accuracy order. The accuracy order of the aspects of word knowledge examined in this study from easier to more difficult include: knowledge of the written form based on the spoken form, knowledge of the spoken form based on the written form, knowledge of the written form based on the meaning, knowledge of the spoken form based on the meaning, knowledge of spelling based on the spoken form. These findings suggest a number of implications for vocabulary acquisition as well as vocabulary teaching and learning.

The aim of this literature review is to investigate what previous research indicates about how students’ reading development is influenced when reading ordinary books or e-books, but also how their attitudes towards reading are influenced. I will also use Henk Linskens’s (2018) work Henke och Bokstäverna som Hoppar to exemplify my perspective on the results from the research. The result of all the research gathered indicates that there are no significant differences in reading development among students using e-books or traditional books. It appears to be slightly better to use traditional books to promote reading comprehension, while e-books seem to promote students’ word knowledge slightly better. In order to achieve a good result in both cases, a more knowledgeable adult is needed to support the student, which follows Vygotsky's socio-cultural perspective. When it comes to students’ attitudes towards reading, e-books create positive attitudes towards reading in general, which could be due to their many opportunities for individualization. However, there are big differences between boys and girls in the matter, where boys benefit from using e-books while reading and girls benefit from using traditional books. / Syftet med den här litteraturstudien är att undersöka vad tidigare forskning säger om hur elevers läsutveckling påverkas när de läser vanliga böcker eller e-böcker, men även hur deras attityder till läsande påverkas. Jag kommer även i slutet av arbetet använda mig av Henk Linskens (2018) verk Henke och bokstäverna som hoppar för att exemplifiera utifrån mitt perspektiv på det som den funna forskningen påpekar. Resultatet av all den insamlade forskningen tyder på att det inte är några markanta skillnader i fråga om läsutvecklingen hos elever som använder e-böcker eller vanliga böcker. Det verkar vara lite bättre att använda vanliga böcker för att främja läsförståelse, samtidigt som e-böckerna verkar främja elevernas ordkunskaper lite bättre. För att nå ett bra resultat i de båda fallen behövs det en mer kunnig vuxen som stöttar eleven vidare, vilket följer Vygotskijs sociokulturella perspektiv. I fråga om elevernas attityder till läsande skapar e-böcker positiva attityder till läsande över lag, vilket skulle kunna bero på deras många möjligheter för att individualiseras. Dock finns det stora skillnader mellan pojkar och flickor, där pojkar tjänar på att använda e-böcker vid läsning medan flickor tjänar på att använda vanliga böcker.

<p>Bakgrund: Vi har valt att titta på stavning utifrån två perspektiv. Det historiska perspektivet visar hur stavningen förändrats genom åren. Det är viktigt eftersom det än idag har betydelse för hur vi stavar. Nyare forskning visar olika forskares syn på stavning. En stor del i nyare forskning är skolverkets studie 2003 där de bland annat undersökt undervisningen i svenska och elevers kunskaper. Forskare visar att det finns yttre faktorer som påverkar vår stavning. Dialekter och datorn är två faktorer som påverkar stavningen både positivt och negativt. Stavning och skriftspråk har stor betydelse för varandra så vi har valt att plocka ut de delar som stämmer bäst överens med vår studie.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>Syfte: Syftet med vår studie var att undersöka elevers stavningsproblem ur ett lärarperspektiv i årskurs fyra till nio. Utifrån syftet skapades följande två frågeställningar:</p><p> </p><p>Finns det skillnader i stavningsundervisningen på de olika stadierna?</p><p>Finns det skillnader i stavningsproblematiken mellan de olika stadierna?</p><p> </p><p>Metod: Vi använder oss i vår uppsats av en kvantitativ metod som delvis består av kvalitativa frågor. Vi använder oss av en enkät undersökning som riktar sig till pedagoger i årskurs fyra till nio. Pedagogerna som svarat på enkäten arbetar i en Västsvensk kommun. Det är totalt 12 skolor, varav 9 F–sex-skolor och 3 sju–nio-skolor. 29 pedagoger medverkade i vår studie. Enkäten består av 17 frågor, varav 14 kvantitativa och 3 kvalitativa frågor. Resultatet har behandlats i tre omgångar. Vi delade upp varje stadie för sig innan vi gjorde en jämförande analys. Vi kategoriserade respondenternas svar och sedan försökt hitta likheter och skillnader i dessa.</p><p> </p><p>Resultat: Resultatet behandlar stavning utifrån tre aspekter: Ordkunskap, inlärning och undervisning. Resultatet har delats upp i tre delar: årskurs 4–6, årskurs 7–9 och jämförande analys. Läsning, dialekter och kommunikationsverktyg har stor betydelse för elevers stavning. Läsning har positiv inverkan på stavning eftersom elever exponeras för ord. Oavsett elevers ålder kan man se att läsning spelar stor roll. Talspråk och skriftspråk har ibland en otydlig gräns. Elever stavar orden som de uttalas istället för att använda sig av skriftspråkets normer. Dialekter berikar vårt språk men kan samtidigt ses som en svårighet i stavningssammanhang. En stor del av vår vardag innebär kommunikation av olika slag. Barn och ungdomar kommunicerar bland annat genom sms och datorer. Vid denna typ av kommunikation använder de sig av ett förkortat språk. Dessa språk har stora influenser av talspråket men även av engelskan. Det har visat sig att elever använder sig av dessa språk även i skolan. Det påverkar deras stavning eftersom de hellre använder sig av dessa ord.</p>

The English language has established itself as the academic lingua franca of the world. For example, Swedish universities are mainly using English textbooks in their teaching. For students in tertiary education in Sweden, it is thus necessary to have an academic English vocabulary. This study examines the academic word knowledge of 148 students in different disciplines at a Swedish university. The method used was a vocabulary test. The test design was based on the Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT) and the words were chosen from the Academic Word List (AWL) due to their frequency in academic written texts. There was a rapid decline of the participants' word knowledge the less common the words were according to the AWL. The results indicate that Swedish students’ academic word knowledge in English is generally unsatisfactory, which could make the reading of academic texts troublesome for them.

The aim of this study is to clarify and concretize how teachers in grades 4-6 work with reading comprehension and how they motivate students to read. This study also aims to review teaching material that teachers use when working with reading comprehension. This study contains a qualitative group interview with teachers within the Swedish subject grading 4-6, as well as an analysis of the study material. The Material consists of the fictional book Brorsan är kung and the teacher´s guide. In the analysis, the content is reviewed and connected to motivation, the possibility to develop reading comprehension and the degree of difficulty of the book. The result of the interview shows that the choice of book from an interest standpoint is essential when motivating the students to read. Furthermore, it also shows that the interview teachers work in different ways when it comes to reading and that they utilize different strategies in order to increase the students reading comprehension. This study is closely connected to the pragmatic perspective when it comes to reading books that are close to the students' reality and interests. Also, the study is in line with the sociocultural perspective which indicates that learning comes from interaction with the environment.