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.

The aim of this study was to get a survey and a deeper understanding of students? choice of language at upper secondary school, as well as their attitude and motivation to the German language. The rapports of diminished interests in studying languages at upper secondary school raised our interest in how to go against this and motivate students to actually choose to study a language. The study parted from a student perspective with focus on learning, attitude and motivation. A quantitative study with 168 pupils from 11 secondary schools in Halmstad as well as short interviews with their teachers have been used and analysed.Our study showed that students are not particular interested in German.

The purpose of this study is, based on theories of gender and hegemonic masculinity, to studyhow masculinity and femininity is constructed and reproduced in one of the most popularSwedish podcast: Filip & Fredriks podcast. The main theory in this study is that gender issocially created and sustained by humans through language and interaction with others.The study's research questions is: How are gender roles/gender portrayed in Filip & Fredrik'spodcast? What characteristics are attributed to men and women in Filip & Fredrik's podcast?How does Filip & Fredrik's podcast represents conditions and power relations between menand women?Through an linguistic textual analysis, which is an application of discourse analysis, I seek toget beneath the surface meanings of texts and examine more implicit social meanings andideologies regarding gender. It includes an analysis of metaphors, word choices and syntax.The analysis shows underlying values and ideologies that indicates gender structures in abroader societal context. Choice of words and metaphores in Filip & Fredriks's podcastexpresses symbolism where men and male-typical attributes are highly valued, whilst womanand female-typical attributes is being devalued and representative of the opposite.Masculinities and femininities are also constructed and represented in various ways throughsentence constructions that guides the listeners in certain directions.

It is important that the language in textbooks for foreign language learners reflects the language that the learners would encounter in real life. For this reason, the presence of the thousand most common nouns in two Swedish textbooks in Spanish for upper secondary school is observed in this study. Furthermore, this study aims to examine how these nouns occur in order to determine if their pattern of occurence favours the learning and consolidation of words. The main materials that have been used are A Frequency Dictionary of Spanish by Davies (2006) and the word search program available in the digital versions of the textbooks. The results show that the presence of the thousand most common Spanish nouns does reflect the frequency information presented in the frequency dictionary but not all thousand nouns are included.

Med en kvalitativ ansats baserad på en semistrukturerad critical incidents-intervju och Interperative phenomenological analysis undersöktes en frågeställning om transexuellas egna upplevelser av hur deras välmående och psykiska hälsa påverkas av att de genomför utredning som syftar till en könskorrigering. Informanterna, 5 stycken totalt, varav 4 var Male-to-female och 1 Female-to-male, rapporterar både positiv och negativ påverkan från utredningstiden. Studien sammanställer de sammanhang som informanterna rapporterar har haft störst inverkan på deras välmående och psykiska hälsa, till exempel väntan, real life-test och bemötande. Ur intervjuerna framträder ett komplicerat förhållande mellan utredare och behandlare kontra den som utreds, där den professionelles agerande kan få stor betydelse för hur den utredde uppfattar att utredningen påverkar deras psykiska hälsa och välmående..

This is a qualitative analysis that, based on systemic functional linguistics, or SFL, and genre theory, has aimed to study the genre pedagogical implications on written language as they occur in narrative stories and expositions whilst the model is introduced. Systemic functional linguistics is a linguistic theory that views the organisation of language as functional options for meaning; language is a set of resources to channel meaning through realisation. Genre theory elucidates the pragmatic and educational uses of SFL in the categorizing of language in configurations of meanings as they are set and understood in different cultures.  The purpose of the survey is to do so with focus on successful and less successful writers by attempting to answer two primal issues:How is development of written language in reference to the introduction of the genre pedagogical model visible in the studied texts?How does genre pedagogical teaching influence successful and less successful writers as visible in their writing with a certain purpose?To answer these issues the survey is based on narratives and expositions written by high school students who have been divided into two groups according to the purpose of the survey. One text in each genre has been written by the students before and after lessons based on the genre pedagogical learning wheel explaining the relevant genres.

Many dogs in Sweden are put up for adoption at the Swedish buy- and sales site?Blocket?. This because in Sweden, rescue shelters mostly takes in dogs that have been confiscated by the police. The aim of this study was to investigate what kind of dogs that are put up for adoption and why owners put their dog up for adoption and also compare the results with those from other countries. 800 dog advertisements from ?Blocket? were collected in the study between January 31st and April 10th 2012.

Abstract.The question in this analysis is which gender moai, the big statues on Rapa Nui, represent. My hypothesis is that they have developed from visual symbols to metaphores in mythologies from an polynesian context. That these statues were symbols for human origin and creation of ancestors ideological power, and gods in consideration male gender. In the long isolation, in both time and space, the mytologies in Rapa Nui was changed, and the pictures got a new meaning. These changes depended on clearing of wood and big trees and the following difficult situation in farming.

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, fMRI, can be used for analyzing brain activity in subjects performing language tasks. The purpose of this study was to develop aphasia-friendly information adjusted to aphasic subjects participating in fMRI studies. The objectives were to investigate if adjusted information was important for the ability to perform language tasks and if the information could be used for different types of aphasia.Sixteen aphasic subjects participated in the study, six of these underwent fMRI. The participants varied in grade and type of aphasia. They had Swedish as their native language and were aged between 26 and 89, mean 57.

The study´s purpose is to investigate the underlying norms of how the concepts of language development and learning, used in the preschool curriculum. Knowledge of the concepts underlying norms can help to make visible what approach preschool teacher is expected to have to children's language, in relation to development and learning. The results of the study may in turn provide a picture of societal norms on children in preschool and a deeper understanding of the importance of preschool to review and analyze the content of the curriculum, then it is not a foregone conclusion.Theoretical basis is curriculum theory, which involves studying curricula in order to create a knowledge of a society and its cultural, social and economic demands. Norman Faircloughs critical discourse analysis is used as a method, in order to achieve the study´s intention and answer the questions at issues in the study. The critical discourse analysis considers that the discourse is creating the social world through language.The results of the study show that there is a language in the curriculum as normatively may influence preschool teacher.

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.

To create fair conditions between majority and minority in Sweden is a challeging project. Male immigrants usually do not get same opportunities for a success identity structure and integration into Swedish society as women and children. The aim of this thesis is therefore to critically examine and analyse the processes regarding identity structure and integration for male immigrants with a specific focus on Helsingborg. The object of this study is Mansgrupp, a project which helps men to build up a secure ground for identity structure and which further helps them to integrate into the society. To be able to reach the results I have made a literature study as well as a minor field study in Helsingborg, where I conducted interviews with men from the above mentioned project.

BACKGROUND Until 1988, it was forbidden to neuter male dogs in Sweden without a veterinary medical cause, so there is clearly no long tradition of this procedure in healthy dogs. According to the website of The Swedish Kennel Club (SKK), February 11, 2011, there has been an increase of castrated male dogs in Sweden. They see this increase as worrying, especially in cases of the less common breeds, where it is most important to maintain the gene pool. The SKK expresses concern that castration is used as a tool to influence the personality of dogs, instead of training and education of the dog. They write that castration should be preceded by a discussion initiated by the veterinarian, where the pros and cons of castration are weighed against each other.

In the last decades the Swedish labor market has been characterized by a stereotype perception on women?s role and position on the market. The perception speaks of the characteristics of female leadership as being less qualified causing the gaps between the two genders to transform into a gender segregated society. The historically slow progress has limited the career opportunities for women to reach top management. However the increasing discussions during the 21st century on how to reduce the gender differences in the labor market has made it more acceptable with women on higher positions.