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..

The purpose of this master?s thesis is to examine how pupils with Swedish as a second language and school librarians perceive the concept of pleasure of reading and the feeling of being a part of society. Our research is based on qualitative interviews with eight students in grades 6-9 and from two different schools. We have also interviewed two school librarians in these two libraries. As a method of analysis, we used phenomenography because it is the informants' perceptions of the phenomenon of pleasure of reading that we investigate.

The present project is a first step towards a new Swedish assessment tool to examine phonological ability in preschool-aged children. The work consisted of developing a word list with words that was considered to reveal a child?s phonological ability and to try out the word list on pre-school children. The reason was to make sure that the words existed in the vocabulary of the children in the chosen ages. A word list consisting of 109 words, which convey relevant phonological information, was created.

The purpose of this study was to examine if there were anychanges in quality in the voices of speech and language pathology studentsafter four years of study at the University of Gothenburg. Recordings oftwenty student voices from the first and eight semesters were evaluatedperceptually by six speech-language pathologists. The parameters judgedwere: vocal fry, glottal attacks, strain, breathiness and resonant voice, usinga scale from 0 to 10. Acoustical measures were made of F0 mean andmedian to detect possible differences between the two recordings. Theresults show a significant decrease in vocal fry, glottal attacks and strain aswell as an increase in resonant voice and a significant decrease in F0 meanand median.

This study aims to increase the understanding of how some teachers and special education teachers work and relate to pupils with difficulties, and in which way they use guiding documents in their daily work. Over the last four decades the curricula in Sweden have aimed at creating a school for everybody though, without any significant success. Today, many students leave the comprehensive school without grades in the subjects Swedish, Maths, and English. Since the obligatory school was introduced, pupils that have been considered un-normal have been sorted out to other groups and classes, where teachers with special competence have been working.The designation ?a school for everybody? is described in perspective from four different definitions.

I samhället idag framkommer det allt fler barn som har någon form av språkstörning. Kunskapen bör därför hållas uppdaterad bland logopeder och talpedagoger med flera och att det även finns tillgång till stöd och hjälp för dessa barn. Kommunens översikt över behovet av hjälp är också viktigt för att barnen ska få de bästa möjliga förutsättningarna. Kommunen bör sedan göra det som krävs för att hjälpen för barn med språkstörning ska finnas tillgänglig i kommunen.I denna studie är vårt syfte att se vad det finns för hjälp för barn med språkstörning i olika kommuner och om hjälpen skiljer sig åt beroende på om kommunen är större eller mindre. Den frågeställning vi valt till denna undersökning är: Skiljer sig hjälpen åt för barn med språkstörningar i större respektive mindre kommuner och i så fall varför?Denna studie är kvalitativ och består av en strukturerad intervju.

The essay deals with questions concerning the reasons, difficulties and subjects for rejoicing which various people experience when visiting "voluntarily" old, lonely people in the congregation of Trollhättan. What knowledge is developed and which values are formed? How is aging and solitude experienced? The visits are co-ordinated by two lay workers employed by the Swedish Church. The study is built on oral interviews in April and May 2003 from a questionaire using open questions. The research group consists of six women between 65-80 of age with 1-30 years´ experience.Inner reasons, contact with other people in similar situations, positive responses to visits, and meetings in the visiting service group seem to be the principal driving forces.

The aim of this study was to investigate how school personnel work with preventive and health promoting efforts to motivate young people to achieve interest in physical activity and nutrition awareness. Further the aim was to describe the possibilities and difficulties that school personnel experience in their work.  The research questions were: How do school personnel describe their health promoting work at school? In a health promotion perspective, what efforts do school personnel think is important when it comes to nutrition and physical activity? What possibilities do school personnel experience with health promoting efforts? What difficulties do school personnel experience with health promoting efforts?The study has a qualitative approach in which seven individual interviews were conducted with personnel at a secondary school. The respondents worked with different aspects which broadened the perspective.

The EU-funded project European Cultural Heritage Online (ECHO) aims to integrateresources from various domains within the field of cultural heritage, and make them availableon the Internet. To accomplish this integration it is necessary to describe the various resourcesin a way that will achieve cross-domain interoperability. This description of digital resourcesis commonly referred to as metadata. The most well known and used metadata standard is theDublin Core Metadata Element Set, a general standard developed for the purpose ofdescribing all types of digital resources. Since the mid-1990's a large number of specializedstandards have emerged in different communities, for example IMDI, designed for detaileddescription of language resources.This thesis aims to examine the possibility of combining a general and a specialized metadatastandard to achieve cross-domain interoperability and at the same time provide a sufficientlydetailed description of language resources for researchers within the field of linguistics.

Sarah Kane?s first play Blasted (1995) has often been read in a normative and biographical way by critics, authors and previous researchers. This essay makes a supplementary close reading of Blasted from gender and genealogical perspectives and utilizes theoretical works by Judith Butler, Luce Irigaray and Michel Foucault. My study makes clear that the characters different positions in language and talk create and maintain a power imbalance between them. Efforts to change and develop one?s individual position in language and talk are being made throughout the play since it is the only way to bring about a change in the social power structure.

More recently, the number of elderly immigrants has increased. This means that Sweden is faced with new challenges. The purpose of this study was to illustrate how the elder immigrants general situation in Helsingborg looks like, as well as how social workers work to integrate this target group. Furthermore, I wished to have an answer on whether social workers feel that there is a continuing need to be concentrated on the integration of elder immigrants. To get answers to my questions, I have interviewed five social workers in Helsingborg who are working on issues that concern elder and integration.

Swedish as a second language and special education are two topics that have a lot in common. I have chosen to in my study look at something that is covered by the two subjects: Swedish as a second language education that is taking place in a group segregated from the class. I have interviewed students in preschool, grade one and grade two to learn details of their experience of the segregation. Finding out that it is mostly bad planning and trouble getting the schedule together that?s affecting the pupils in a negative way.

SammanfattningAtt kunna identifiera och förstå olika varieteter av målspråket är en grundläggande förutsättning för att andraspråksinlärare av svenska ska kunna bli fullständig deltagare i dagens flerspråkiga svenska samhälle. Den här studien har till syfte att explorativt undersöka vuxna andraspråksinlärares tillägnande av kunskaper i språklig variation vad gäller modersmålssvenska och andraspråkssvenska, samt deras sociolingvistiska medvetenhet. Detta testas och analyseras genom olika moment i ett lyssnarexperiment, dvs. hur L2-lyssnare bedömer olika talare, hur de förklarar sin bedömning och hur de uppfattar sig själva jämfört med olika talare. En bakgrundsenkät används för att samla in information om språklig erfarenhet och koppla den till L2-lyssnarnas bedömningar.

This essay investigates and compares the readability in two different schoolbooks: Eko Historia (the primary school grade 4-6) and Epos Historia (the upper secondary school). The questions of the survey are:- Which differences in linguistic and layout can be found between books meant for the primary school and books meant for the upper secondary school?- Are the texts easy to read according to the former research in readability?In order to answer the questions structural dimensions as lexicon, syntax, bounds between sentences and narrative voices have been studied. Also the texts disposition and typography have been examined.The results demonstrate that the book designed for the primary school has a verbal structure with an explicit vocabulary, lots of verbs and short sentences. A clear narrative voice gives an impression of spoken language.

The purpose of this paper was to investigate the foremost teachers thinking of computers in teaching, how they work practically with computers as a tool, and if it is reflected in the students' school performance. To carry out this study, I used qualitative interviews as a method and I have interviewed four teachers where two works at the high school and two in upper secondary school. Both schools use computers in teaching as a supplementary tool for teaching materials. All teachers have similar ideas regarding what purpose one should use the computer and in which way, but the important thing is that the teachers and students receive an introductory course in how to use computers. Educators agree that this approach is and can promote students' language and knowledge regardless of the subject.My informants have come up with own methods that they use in the digital classroom including Skype, YouTube, Facebook and flippedclassroom where one can learn from other educators working.