Many of us have grown up hearing or using words meant as insults or negative adjectives that were in fact names for social groups. Most of them have gone unquestioned in the mainstream consciousness, but the term Gay in the generally negative meaning has in the past years been given attention as offensive and homophobic, with debates emerging in response over whether or not this is true, particularly on the internet. It is the articles and forum threads from these debates that make out the empirical material for a qualitative study as I ask what these people?s thoughts are about this term and how it is perceived.After a qualitative coding and analysis of these texts, and interpretation of the results based on Erving Goffman?s theory of Phantom acceptance and stigma terms, Judith Butler?s theory of performativity, Ferdinand de Sassure?s theory of signifier and signified and how it connects to the community and Baudrillards theory of simulacra, this is the principal conclusion that I have drawn:For some of the people in this debate, the term Gay and its use is about homophobia and heterosexism, though mostly it?s not overt but a subconscious part of the continued dehumanization and stigmatization of homo- and bisexual people. This is a position I callThe socially focused skepticism.

The purpose of this study is to investigate and describe the role of course books for teaching English to children at intermediate level of primary school in Sweden. The essay is based on a descriptive, qualitative method and interviews have been conducted with seven teachers in different schools, teaching English in year 4, 5 and 6.The result of the study shows that course books have considerably influence on the teaching of English in the schools who took part in this investigation. The participating teachers use a course book as main teaching material and almost everybody follows the traditional routine working with Textbook and complementary tasks in Workbook every week. They base their lessons on course books and use alternative teaching material mainly for fun activities, speaking practice and individualization. Even though all teachers rank speaking and listening as most important for new learners, it is reading which has the largest impact on their teaching.

In the beginning of the 19th century, Swedish was the only official language of Finland, and thus the dominating language in administration and higher education. However, during the latter part of the century, efforts were made to develop Finnish into a language which could be used in every part of society. In 1881, the medical society Suomalainen Lääkäriseura Duodecim was founded with the development of a medical terminology in Finnish as one of its main purposes. In 1885, a medical paper, Duodecim, and a medical dictionary were published. The aim of this study is to illuminate the vocabulary of the dictionary.

The main focus of this study is to describe how, and for what reasons teachers use literature and fiction as a pedagogic tool. A qualitative study was made by interviewing four teachers about their language teaching. Working with fiction as a teaching-aid in school can in many ways be favorable to both teachers and pupils. In terms of children?s language development, research shows that using fiction as an educational tool can stimulate pupils? well-being as well as their linguistic improvement.

[?If we zigzag in the middle, it?s OK?] The purpose of the following study is to examine the relationship between tourism and religion in a Balinese context. We look specifically at changes in religious practice, culture and mentality, as well as how religious philosophy is used as a tool for limiting the negative impact of tourism. The methods used are semi-structured interviews and participant observations. Central themes in the following essay are globalization in the form of tourism, westernization, subsystem theory and capitalism, which also make up the theoretical framework.

The companies? managements acknowledge personal relations and trust, through good communication and predefined responsibilities and goals, as key factors to succeed in strategic alliance. These factors did not always exist according to the employees? involved. This research, in contrast, suggests that these factors are subordinate to the correlation between the company?s vision and the alliance objectives, hence level of priority, which indicates that management has hidden motives for entering the strategic alliance.

In this study I compare the use of reporting verbs in direct speech in Swedish and Polish literary prose. The aim is to examine how differences in usage are reflected in translations to and from Swedish and to what extent the translator adapts the text to the target language and its literary conventions.I have compared the material on two levels: source text versus source text in Polish and Swedish respectively, to see what kind of speech verbs are most commonly used, and source text versus target text, to study the strategies the translators have used and to what extent reporting verbs are altered or not.I have also studied quotation verb + adverbial phrase or prepositional phrase, to investigate if they are more frequent in the two target texts or adapted to the literary concentions of the target language. .

This paper aims to examine how, and if, music is being used integrated in other subjects thanmusic in school. The study is based on qualitative interviews and I haveinterviewed fourteachers, regardless of whether they use music a lot or not.The questions the study is basedon are if there might be a connection between theteachers' own feelings for music andwhether they use music inschool or not, how music is being used and does the use of musicgive any effects?The result of this study shows that there can be a connection between the teachers ownsfeelings for music and the fact if they use music when they teach or not. One of the teachersI?ve interviewed had bad music experiences and didnot use music in her teaching.

AbstractTitle: Swedish social media services (A study about Swedish social media services birth andhow they benefit from the Swedish climate)Number of pages: 38Author: Robin SchwabeggerTutor: Else NygrenCourse: Media and Communication Science CPeriod: Fall 2009University: Division of Informatics and Media, Uppsala University.Purpose/Aim: To see if the Swedish advantage or interest in developing new social mediaservices and networks has anything to do with our society. With society I mean our culture,attitudes and history. Do people, especially young people, have a more positive attitudetowards the Internet and has the fact that we, as a country, were among the first to use theInternet anything to do with it.Material/Method: Data collected from books, newspapers and articles from several sites onthe internet. I?ll use the information I?ve gathered to try to find an answer to my givenproblems for the paper.

Title: How do you get a pupil from Year 7-9 in secondary school to communicate in German?  Five high school teachers views on how to develop pupils oral communicative skill within the German language The aim of this essay is to explore Swedish secondary school teachers, from Year 7-9 in the German language, opinions regarding which work models and verbal strategies that are used and taught in order to foster the pupils oral communicative skill in the classroom. To achieve this aim, semi-structured interviews with five teachers are used.The results show that the teachers find that they encourage the pupils to speak German through creating possibilities for them to practise their oral language skills. The teachers also emphasize that they believe that alternating assignments in groups or pairs, where the students get the chance to be creative, activates the pupils to speak German the most. They also express an awareness for the fact that open or information questions encourage the pupils to use their creativity and speak more German.

Sverige är ett exportland med lång tradition av handel med omvärlden. För att kunna utnyttja våra absoluta och komparativa fördelar gäller det att vi har god kunskap om vad som påverkar vår handel. Dagens konsumenter har ett stort antal produkter att välja mellan. Handla har aldrig varit lättare och med hjälp av internet är det möjligt att handla varor från andra sidan jordklotet med minimal ansträngning. Vi ställer oss frågan, har vår språkkunskap och kultur en inverkan på den internationella handeln? Denna fråga ska försöka besvaras med hjälp av ett bland de vanligaste verktygen vid skattning av bilateral handel, den så kallade gravitationsmodellen.

Pupils learn in different ways, varied teaching is needed to encourage all pupils. Aesthetic can be a good tool in this work and dance is one of the aesthetic subjects that can be used in the education. Dance gives the pupils an awareness of their bodies and what they can express through it. The essay discusses diffrent angel of incidence of dance in school and its positive effects and examines what kinds of dance there are in the schools of Vänersborg?s municipal.

The purpose with this inquiry was to investigate why women do not advance to higher positions of leadership in a bank. I have interviewed five female employees in the company. The theoretical starting points I have used in this study are such as organization theory and leadership. There are four conceptions that obstructs women to develop for higher positions of leadership. There are conceptions that men ought to have better social network with other men than women.

In this diploma work we present the results from a study of how adult immigrants utilise the services provided by the public library in Biskopsgården, Gothenburg. A survey encompassing 51 library visitors of foreign origin and an interview with two librarians at the library were performed.The results from the survey show that the majority of the informants were male students inages from 26 to 45 years and that they had been living in Sweden for a maximum of five years. 73% of the informants used the library to borrow literature in Swedish, 53% to read newspapers and periodicals in their native language, 43% to borrow literature in their native language and 43% to read newspapers and periodicals in Swedish.These results were compared with two other related studies with which partial correspondencewas found. In addition, related topics such as multicultural librarianship and the psychological aspects of immigration are discussed..

Aim: The aim of this study is to describe which messages and by which rhetorical means were communicated in political TV-advertisement in Finland and Sweden. The study also aims to analyze how the rhetorical choices were influenced by the political and social context in these countries.Material: Two TV-commercials from the latest parliamentary elections in each country were chosen. The leading left-wing and right-wing parties were chosen from each country.Theoretical perspective: This study is based on theories on political parties? vote maximization and the development of the modern electoral campaign.Methodology: The method used in this study is rhetorical analysis.Results: All commercials had similar themes and were characterized by a low level of conflict. This is related to the common Nordic context in the two countries.