This study focuses on an analysis of three text books in English, Prime Time, Second Time, and Third Time, written for Swedish pupils between grade seven and nine. The main focus of the study is to investigate to what extent the books may be considered to follow the steering principles of the Swedish education system. The theoretical backbone of the essay is centred on the construction and maintenance of stereotypes, and is written from a social constructivist point of view. In this context, I also reason around power relations and norms in the Western society ? arguments which I, in the main analysis, apply to the books in question.

High school students of today frequently come into contact with the English language throughradio and television. Many students even manage to read instruction manuals and understandhow technical devices work, such as, for example, computer games. However, most teachersunderestimate their students? ability and persist in using Swedish to explain how the Englishlanguage works. I have analysed how high school students manage when they take an Englishgrammar test in English.

The purpose with this essay is to compare two classes in an international school during their mathematic lesson. The international school offers education to their pupils in two languages; in Swedish and in English. Through this study I want to find out how teachers are working with language and communication during school hours. I will compare the work of two teachers and two classes to find out the differences and similarities between their work methods concerning language and communication during mathematic lessons.The main questions for the essay:How do the teachers work with language and communication in this school during the mathematic lessons?What similarities and differences are there between the two teachers in matter of methods of working with language and communication during the mathematic lessons?The research is based on interviews with the teachers and also on observations in the classroom during mathematic lessons.

The purpose of this study is to examine how teachers and pupils experience the use of fictional literature as a tool for language development in the teaching of English as a foreign language. Through surveys and interviews and with Vygotsky?s theory on development in a social environment as a theoretical base, I examine which methods are used to promote language development and also which functions pupils and teachers consider fictional literature to have in the teaching of English. Results show that teachers consider fiction to be among the top methods to get pupils to learn English. Teachers and pupils both favour the use of fun and stimulating reading activities as well as group activities where learning is social to go along with the reading of fiction.

This Master?s thesis examines different retrieval strategies used in cross-language information retrieval (CLIR). The aim was to investigate if there were any differences between baseline queries and translated queries in retrieval effectiveness; how the retrieval effectiveness was affected by query structuring and if the results differed between different languages. The languages used in this study were Swedish, English and Finnish. 30 topics from the TrecUta collection were translated into Swedish and Finnish.

This is a qualitative study aiming to find out how and why teachers work with art, music and movement in the English subject in the early years. In this study we have conducted a background study of previous research and as a starting point and as a point for reference we have relied on education policy documents like The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages and the Swedish curriculum for the English school subject. Our research has consisted of interviews with six teachers and ten observation occasions in a total of three different primary schools. Our result show that there seems to be a consensus in both theory and praxis when it comes to integrating art, music and movement in learning and teaching of English in the early school years. The use of methods including art, music and movement in early language learning seems to promote the language development for all students but especially for young learners that require extra support for their language development.

Please see attached files for summaries in English and Swedish..

The purpose of this study was to identify reading strategies used by high school students when reading textbooks and school-related material. Any differences in reading strategies between Biology and English were also of importance. A study sample of 62 students from three different high schools in Sweden participated in the study and were asked to fill out a survey questionnaire. Eight students from this sample were also interviewed. The findings of this study show that students use a number of different reading strategies of which metacognitive and sociocultural factors play a crucial part.

This qualitative study aims to investigate some secondary school teacers' attitudes to and experiences of motivation in their second language classrooms. Through qualitative interviews with five teachers some different perspectives on motivation and its function in second language acquisition have come to light. First, motivation is seen as something important and some teachers tend to distinguish between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Those who do so tend to value intrinsic motivation more highly. Secondly, teachers believe they can affect students' levels of motivation.

Because of the globalization of society, English as a foreign language (EFL) has become easier to access through internet and outside school English activities, so called ?extramural English activities? (EEA). Previous research indicates a positive relation between pupils? EFL vocabulary development and EEA (Sundqvist, 2009). This development may influence teachers? lesson planning, because of pupils? wide span of interests and the resulting different levels of EFL vocabulary.

In today?s society there is a discussion regarding students? level of knowledge and personalisation. The classrooms consist of heterogenic groups of students with different learning needs and levels of knowledge. The purpose of the present study is to find out how the students who participated perceive the teaching of English as an additional language with regards to personalisation, and how they believe differentiation can help develop and deepen their learning. This study has been conducted using a qualitative method with interviews as the core, complemented by observations. The results have been analysed and interpreted hermeneutically. The results show that those students who have a positive attitude to English education, irrespective of their grade, are those who see the benefit of knowing English outside the classroom, and thereby create a connection between reality and studying English.

The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the retrieval effectiveness on the European Unions official website EUROPA, depending on which language is used to formulate the search question. Our main concern were if you get access to the same information depending on which language is used to search information The European Union has so far eleven official languages, and with the forthcoming expansion with negotiations with thirteen new countries to affiliate to the union by May 1:st 2004, the official languages will be even more. We have made a comparison between Swedish and English, using 29 different topics from which we formulated 2x29 queries. The topics used were found at the Swedish Governments FAQ about the European Union, EUsvar. We wanted the topics to be as authentic as possible to avoid bias.

This study intends to discuss what might motivate Swedish upper secondary students to read literature in English. The study was performed through interviews with both teachers and students, as well as questionnaire studies with both students and teachers. The students give different interpretations of what the definition of motivation is, ranging from definitions of extrinsic motivation to signs of their definitions leaning toward intrinsic motivation. The conclusion is that although the English language itself is not a barrier for students? reading motivation, the majority of them are not motivated to read.

Facebook is today a phenomenon that has connected the whole world. With millions of users this has become an attractive place for soccer clubs to connect with their fans. But in what ways are they using Facebook as a tool to connect with their fans?This essay aims to answer the question if it?s a difference in the way English and Swedish teams communicate with their fans on Facebook. The study was conducted with the use of telephone- and mail interviews.

The purpose of this study is to show how some Swedish teachers in the grades four to six assess the subject of English and what impact the national tests have on teachers? way of looking at assessments and grades and how teachers are supposed to work with assessment and grading according to the curriculum and the education act. The method of this study has been interviews with principals, teachers and pupils to get as many perspectives of the subject as possible. It has contributed to an interesting content and the end result will be as fundamental as it can be. The findings of this study show that teachers teaching English in Sweden have a great responsibility because of the lack of subject priority and communication between themselves, the government and other authorities in the world of education.