The aim of this essay is to investigate which of the goals in the syllabus, and with that what knowledge of Swedish, four students taking the SFI (Swedish for Immigrants) level 3 course believed themselves to have attained and to compare their self-assessments with their results on the National Test of Swedish for adult immigrants.The method used for the investigation is the individual interview. In addition to taking the National Test, the participants in the investigation were asked to mark the goals they believe themselves to have attained.The results show that the informants who best demonstrated awareness of their own knowledge are able to talk freely about their knowledge and difficulties, and when they mark the goals they believe they have attained, these correspond, on the whole, to how they responded in the interviews.One of the informants finds it more difficult than the others to assess her knowledge. A comparison between her experiences and the National Test results revealed several inconsistencies. For example, she claims that she can communicate in Swedish, but still she didn?t pass the test..

Since the brain is an important prerequisite for human language there is a great interest to gain more knowledge about healthy brain activity during language mediated communication. This study examines variations in high level language ability relating to demographic factors like gender and age and relates language ability to neural activity.Eighteen individuals in ages between 22 and 64 were included and divided into groups in relation to gender and age. The material used to assess language ability was derived from Testbatteri för Bedömning av Subtila Språkstörningar (Laakso, Brunnegård, Hartelius & Ahlsén, 2000), Swedish Lexical Decision Test (Almkvist, Adveen, Henning & Tallberg, 2007) and a reading test (Högskoleprovet). The results were correlated with measured brain activity using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and language paradigms. ANOVA was applied to discover possible demographic variances in language ability as well as in brain activity.The results showed no significant differences in language ability.

Sweden has a growing proportion of children living in a multilingual environment. It is thus highly important that caretakers as well as professionals who meet these children have knowledge of multilingualism and its impact on language development. Also, an increase of referrals of multilingual children with suspected language impairment to speech and language pathology clinics is seen.The objective of this study was to investigate the linguistic ability in both Swedish and Arabic in a four year old child with suspected language impairment. A further aim was to implement an intensive intervention and evaluate the efficacy of it. Language testing in both languages showed that the boy?s greatest need was in the lexical domain.

A speech-based material that early can assess a child's hearing is needed to provide an indication of a hearing impaired child's language development. Being able to identify and discriminate between different sounds is a requirement for interpreting speech. Hearing assessments that examine speech perception can therefore, unlike, for example, pure tone audiometry, examine a hearing impaired child's perceptual language skills and provide a basis for intervention.The purpose of this work is to evaluate a new auditory material on 3-year-old children. The auditory material is based on the Ling-6-sounds and the main question was which of the sounds in the test were adequate for test of discrimination. Furthermore, it was investigated how the test works with children aged 3:0?3:11 years and how age and gender affect the result.Twenty-four children aged 3:0?3:11 years were tested using a computer based test.

The purpose of this study is to illustrate how some teachers in multicultural school environments reflecton and experience the educational work with national tests in the third grade for students who do not have Swedish as their native language. The research questions I have chosen to work with are:How do teachers experience working with national tests in groups of students where there are children with Swedish as a second language?How do the teachers reflect on the students linguistic preconditions relating to the national tests in these groups of students?What strategies in their teaching on national tests do the teachers use when it comes to students with Swedish as a second language?In this study I have chosen to use a qualitative interview method. Since the purpose of the study is to understand how teachers reflect on students with Swedish as a second language the obvious choice was to interview teachers who work in a multicultural school. In my thesis I have chosen to use sociocultural theory, Cummins four quadrant model and context for theoretical approach.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of bilateral repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) on language ability in eight participants with aphasia. All participants underwent two periods of treatment and five periods of evaluation. During one treatment period high frequency stimulation was given to the left hemisphere and low frequency stimulation to the right and in one other period placebo stimulation was given. Boston Naming Test and Token Test were used to assess the effects of treatment on naming ability and language comprehension. Results showed that no significant effects were found on group level.

The new technology brings new opportunities for the language. The language, which is used when chatting or messaging, is full of linguistic devices, which facilitates writing and saves time and space. The purpose of my investigation is to find out if the chat- and- messaging- language is affecting the students' way of writing in school.To find out about this I have examined 79 essays written by students in grade 9 during the national test 2006. I have also to found out if the occurrence of these features differed between boys and girls. In addition, I have let the same students who have written the essays answer questions regarding their chatting- and messaging- habits.The conclusions I have attained through my investigation shows that 58 % of the students are using features which are typical in chat and messaging language.

On the third of August 2002, in the middle of the ongoing Swedish election campaign, Lars Leijonborg beeing the leader of Folkpartiet (the Peoples Party) presented the partys new intergration programme for foreign nationals. One of the proposals was to instigate a Language test for all immigrants seeking to obtain Swedish citizenship. This thesis addresses the medial debate that followed the proposal in the daily press. Using discourse analysis and postcolonial theory this thesis looks into the fact that there were not unity in the wake that followed the Language test proposal resulting in one medial and one popular discourse. The newspapers investigated were largely negative in their tone, whereas on the opinion pages, the view of the people seemed much more positively inclined.

AbstractIn my work on language development in preschool the purpose was to examine how and to what extent the pre-school supports children with special needs in their language development. Trough qualitative interviews with four preschool teachers, I wanted to see how they work with language development in preschool. In the study, Main questions asked in the inquiry :How do teachers and support children?s language development?What techniques, resources and tools available to facilitate language development? The conclusion that I made from my inquiry is that the primary language stimulation methods teachers use to encourage children?s language development are rhymes telling, books reading and song singing based on active selection of pieces that match the children?s maturity level.And how they are using different language stimulation techniques Karlstad model, TAKK (Signs of augmentative and alternative communication) and TRAS (Early registration of language development) to promote children?s language development. Keyword: Language development, language stimulation, treatment, communication, methods..

The purpose of this study is to investigate what five primary teachers in five different schools with many second language students have for an idea about inclusion, language development, practices and environment of the multilingual classrooms. In my study I discusses teachers 'views on the multilingual classroom, inclusion, development of language in a language developing classroom environment and the importance of language skills has for multilingual pupils' language development and learning of the Swedish language. The method used was unstructured interviews using a digital recording device. The results showed that for these five teachers, meeting second language learners was in there everyday teaching, while it is a challenge to motivate and support them on their level. The teachers work diligently to find a balance and a working classroom environment for the multilingual classroom where all students, regardless of conditions, background, experience, knowledge and language could be offered an equal opportunity to education. .

The purpose of the present study was to translate Western AphasiaBattery ? Revised (WAB-R) to Swedish and test the translation on a group of nonlanguage-impaired individuals. The purpose was also to establish equivalencebetween WAB-R and its Swedish translation and to examine a possible correlationbetween test results and the background factors sex, age, educational length andfirst language. 67 subjects participated in the study. The results showed that femalesex, long education (?12 yrs) and being a native speaker of Swedish had significantpositive association to a higher test result.

This study investigated relationships between high level language functions and phonological working memory in adults by correlating results oftests in a test battery used for investigating subtle language disorders and digit span task results. Results of two digit span tasks were analyzed in relation to demographic factors. 103 subjects without neurological disease, 20 ? 79 years old, participated. Significant correlations were found between the digit span tasks and most of the tests.

Learning words have shown to be a very crucial part of learning a second language and the one most important factor to make pupils with Swedish as a second language succeed in school. To make sure that all pupils get the right conditions to learn from all subjects and their entire content a wide vocabulary is necessary. Even so it is found that there are shortcomings regarding this kind of teaching in Swedish schools.Through interviews and observations of two teachers that teach pupils with Swedish as a second language, and also with a short reading test for the pupils, the possible strategies that these teachers use for learning words have been studied. The result shows that the teachers are using several strategies and that they are actively working with transmitting these to the pupils, but there are some areas that need developing..

The main purpose of this study was to examine how preschool teachers are working to promote each child's language development and whether they can ensure that they do that. Therefore I wanted to find out what a good language development implies for each teacher, how they work to promote each child's language development in daily practice, how they measure the actual language development and also what conditions the teachers have, to engage in a language development way to work. For the study, I chose a qualitative method, with structured interviews and all together I interviewed six preschool teachers, within the same organization in a suburb close to Stockholm.  The results showed that there is an ambiguity, among the preschool teachers, in what a good language development means, but it can be stated that they do have a language development way to work even if it needs to be developed. Further on, it has emerged that the teachers have the tools to measure children's language development, although they do not have the conditions yet to use the method to the fullest. About the preschool teachers own conditions in order to operate in a language development way to work, I concluded that they have a strong foundation to build on, but they still have much work ahead of them.

The Division of Language and Communication at Chalmers uses a web-based language tool, named EngOnline, to teach English grammar. The language tool suffers from some shortcomings. These include stability problems and an outdated interface but, above all, there is no documentation. Because of the lack of documentation and EngOnline?s need of maintenance, the Division of Language and Communication has decided to replace the language tool with a new and well documented one.The new language tool was developed using an agile work process; detailed documentation was replaced with more efficient communication.