The purpose of this study was to investigate into the praxis based sociocultural tools that are utilized to enhance language development in early childhood education. Four pre-school teachers were involved in this study. Two were recruited from an independent pre-school "Maria Montessori", practicing the pedagogical philosophy developed by Maria Montessori. Two were from a public pre-school herein named "Kvasten", which has no official philosophy but where the teachers (like in many Swedish pre-schools) work in a general alignment with the principles of Reggio Emilia pedagogics. The theoretical fundament of the study lies in the general theories of language development and education of Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotskij, and the comparative element mainly concerns the variations in pedagogical praxis between the two pre-schools, and the way the teachers reason about language development.

This Master's thesis examines some aspects of children's books for 9-12 year olds, and the children's books market, from a gender perspective. The main objective is to make a gender analysis of attitudes among children and other agents in the book market towards children's books of different qualities. Children's reflections on gender roles in the books and the importance of gender aspects for publishers in the field, are investigated. A combination of methods are used, including literary analyses, surveys of publication lists of the BTJ group Bibliotekstjänst interviews with children and questionnaires sent to children as well as to Swedish publishers of children's books. The analysis of children's books clearly shows that images of gender roles vary in different kinds of books which supports theories of gendered literature.

Although English is commonly used in Swedish advertising, little is known about its effects. The purpose of this paper was to investigate how a Swedish or English language choice in product advertisements affects the effectiveness of the ad. Further, a local/global dimension of the advertisement was created to investigate how the results differ for local and global brands. Subsequently, an experiment was conducted where the effect of language choice on several well-established measures of ad effectiveness such as awareness, comprehension of the ad message, credibility, attitude and buying intentions was analyzed. In line with previous research, English in product advertisements is not completely comprehended since English is not the local language in Sweden.

The purpose of this study is to examine how four teachers in preschool describe their view of conflicts between children from gender perspective. The theories associated with the study conclude that sex can be considered as being either biologically or socially engineered. The study consists of empirical material by the means of qualitative research based on interviews. The results of the study show different views on whether children's gender plays a role in a conflict. Furthermore, I have chosen to find out whether gender plays a role in conflict management as well as in the children's play at preschool, this to come to as qualitative conclusions as possible..

Media brings attention to the concept of preschools being in large need of more male teachers. In order to implement an increase of male teachers, various methods have been employed, most of which are based on the concepts of gender and equality. In question however, are the views of present teachers on the need for male teachers, and their expectations of those men! Or in other terms: What particular type of men are requested? And how does this correspond with the gender patterns induced by male teachers in their daily practical work? The purpose of this survey is to analyze expectations of male teachers and their role in the preschool context, through a gender perspective. I want to shed light on this purpose based on two questions: What ?kind? of men are requested by the present teachers? and Which gender patterns will the men induce to their daily work chores, and to their interaction with the children? The survey was conducted by means of interviews, polls, and observations, and the results were obtained from two preschools of which one in particular has extended focus on gender issues.

The aim of the study is to investigate how clinicians in psychiatric care for adults consider borderline personality disorder to be manifested in men and women, respectively. Could there be a tendency to over-diagnose women and under-diagnose men? In addition, the purpose of the study is to bring clarity to the reasons for gender differences within borderline personality as perceived by the clinicians. The study is based on an inductive approach, in which interviews have been conducted with twelve clinicians working with borderline personality disorders to gain a deeper understanding of how the clinicians consider the manifestations of gender differences.The clinicians described tendencies for women to deliberate self-harm, have mood swings and problems in relations. Men with borderline personality disorders are described as having a higher degree of e.g.

The aim of this paper is to make an investigation of how authoritative conceptual framework about immigrants as a group is being constituted in the discourse regarding Swedish language for immigrants. I will also examine what connections there are to the overarching integration discourse. While doing this I try to establish the contrasting relationship between the ?Swedishness? and ?the Other?. My theoretical framework consists of discussions regarding groups and the relation to homogeneity or heterogeneity in various ways and how We tend to construct the discourse in relation to the Other.

The aim of the thesis was to better understand how second language learners becomes lingual participants in a Swedish preschool. Using the following research questions: In what situations are SLLs lingual participants at the preschool? What does their emerging language look like? Are the participation any different considering children's time in the new L2 context? What kind of support does SLLs receive at the preschool?Two focal children at the same preschool was studied with ethnography of communication as method. The focal children chosen were one girl (Mandarin L1, 4.0 yrs) who arrived to Sweden and started the preschool two months ago at the time of the study, the other a boy (Serbian L1, 3.9 yrs) who started preschool and learning the L2 one year and two months before the study. Situations where the focal children interacted with other children or adults were analyzed. Results showed that the focal children in interaction with each other understands some of the others intentions before being able to speak about them in the L2.

Based on the on the assumption that the two recent Swedish poetry collections mil by Anna Hallberg and mallamerik, mallamer, malameri, mallame, amerik, mallameka, merikka, by Lars Mikael Raattamaa, are constructed with theoretical questions about identity, national identity, language hierarchy and power in mind, this study aims to investigate the ways in which these issues come to expression. Simplified, the term language-poetry, or språkmaterialism, can be used to describe a language-philosophical poetry that aims to eliminate the hierarcic structures between writer and reader in a text and invite the reader to become the co-worker of it. The study shows that by different ways of eliminating the centre of the text, the text is made democratical. But one question that this study asks is how can a nation's conventional and standardised written  language ? the language of the centre ? be used to write itself out of this centre into the margin? Stepping from a theoretical background of postcolonial theories on identity and national identity, including reflections as those given by Benedict Anderson, Madan Sarup, Timothy Brennan, Stefan Helgesson and Mia Cuoto, the analysis points out how this poetry laborates with the terms bugging, repetition, national language identity, and space as poetic material, in order to work in line with ? and contrary to - conceptions of a unified and shared language.

At the centre of this study lies the question if normative gender thinking affects the way poetry gets reviewed and how the reviews are written, this in relation to both the gender of the reviewer and the poet. The study crosses three academic fields; gender studies, poetry and journalism, and is based on the cultural studies theory of media affecting and even creating the world around it.The study is based on two types of analysis. One quantitative analysis based on the thematic criticism theory about detail studies that shows bigger patterns, this analysis focuses on how the poet and his/hers work are being treated in the reviews in areas such as how much space they´re given in the newspapers, how they are named by the reviewer and the tendency to quote the reviewed work.  And one qualitative analysis based on the new criticism method of close reading, that focuses on the reviewers way of writing and how that may be connected with theories of gender differences, this both connected to the gender of the reviewers and the poets.The material chosen for this study are all the reviews that were published in the same newspapers and that reviewed two specific poetry works by two specific poets chosen with great sensibility to age and career so that their difference in gender would be the most significant difference between them. The works were chosen based on year of publishing, they were supposed to be published as newly as possible and as close to each other in time as possible.

The purpose of this essay was to determine whether signs as alternative and augmentative communication is one possible resource for children?s language development. Based on my research questions How educators perceive the importance of SAAC as possible resources to enhance children's communication?, For which children is SAAC used? and How does educators perceive child?s best in communicative interactions? have I interviewed six educators in two different kinds of municipalities with different kind of positions.In my background I lift the importance of communication for the human being, what happens to the children who doesn?t get stimulated to their language and child?s best. My literature has shown that children need to have an incentive to acquire a language and that SAAC is mainly created for children with special needs.

Through this thesis I aimed to further investigate how we can adapt our western and modern views of masculinity and femininity in an ancient population, here on the Pitted Ware population from Ajvide on Gotland. A questionnaire survey was used to compile the modern view of masculinity and femininity. This modern view was then compared with patterns which had become visible through statistical processing of the burial gifts found on Ajvide. The thesis is mainly focused around the concept of gender, but age and status have also been discussed. Through several performed correspondence analysis, it became clear that the current view of male and female differed from the one that became visible in the archaeological record.

The purpose of the essay is to examine how issues concerning gender equality are perceived and to show what areas are defined as problematic in different discourses. It also raises the question of who is defined as responsible for dealing with issues concerning gender equality in these different contexts. Theories used are the gender system and intersectionality. The study builds on a mapping of a company that is active nationally and internationally, with emphasis on the problems that can arise when these two social contexts meet, with a special focus on cathegories such as gender and ?Swedishness?.

AbstractThis essay deals with young people?s written language. It is often said that the student?s ability to write is worse today compared to earlier generations. The written language is an important condition for knowledge, therefore it is of great importance that all students, after finished secondary- and upper secondary school, have acquired an adequate language which is suitable in the public room.The fact that young people?s language is worse than earlier generations is a constantly recurrent assertion and often debated in school.

The purpose with this thesis is to study how two chosen kindergartens work with language stimulation. The two kindergartens are working under different conditions in respect of the Swedish language. The children in the one kindergarten are bilingual whilst the children in the other are monolingual. The study is aiming to see whether these different conditions have any implication for the pedagogues? way of working.In order to achieve the result, the method of interviews has been used.