<p>Being a skilled reader makes it easier to learn a new language. It is important to teach students how the knowledge and use of reading strategies can facilitate learning. This study was made in a Swedish fourth grade class with eighteen participant pupils. They were asked to translate two texts from English into Swedish: one was a poem with nonsense words, and the other a prose text. The texts were taken from <em>Through the Looking Glass</em> by Lewis Carroll and <em>The Garbage King</em> by Elizabeth Laird. After this an interview was made with all of the pupils in pairs, where they were asked about their reading strategies normally and in this situation. The results found were that the reading strategies used were: <em>likeness with their native language</em>, <em>previous vocabulary knowledge of the L2</em>, <em>syntactic knowledge</em>,<em> </em>and<em> guessing the meaning through the context</em>. The result confirms previous research in that the pupils who liked reading and did so in their spare time, did better when it came to making syntactically correct translations.</p>

Being a skilled reader makes it easier to learn a new language. It is important to teach students how the knowledge and use of reading strategies can facilitate learning. This study was made in a Swedish fourth grade class with eighteen participant pupils. They were asked to translate two texts from English into Swedish: one was a poem with nonsense words, and the other a prose text. The texts were taken from Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll and The Garbage King by Elizabeth Laird. After this an interview was made with all of the pupils in pairs, where they were asked about their reading strategies normally and in this situation. The results found were that the reading strategies used were: likeness with their native language, previous vocabulary knowledge of the L2, syntactic knowledge, and guessing the meaning through the context. The result confirms previous research in that the pupils who liked reading and did so in their spare time, did better when it came to making syntactically correct translations.

Today we live in a global world, where English has become easily accessible through the internet. Pupils encounter English in an out-of-school context and playing digital games is a common activity. This literature study aims to examine if there are effects on pupils ’ vocabulary and oral proficiency due to playing digital games. Through compiling prior research, findings suggest that motivation, interaction and repetition over time are positive factors for enhancing vocabulary and oral proficiency. Research also illuminates that there are gender differences among young L2 learners. Frequent gamers are mostly boys and there is also a difference in game preferences. Normally girls tend to outshine boys within most subjects, however, in English the difference is less distinct and boys are somewhat stronger in English proficiency. Research about young L2 learners is scarce and there is definitely a need for further research about the effect of digital gaming on vocabulary and oral proficiency as well as regarding gender differences.