The aim of this study was to examine bilingual childrenslexical organization and to investigate weather bilingual children hadundergone the syntagmatic-paradigmatic shift in grade four. Thirtychildren from multi-ethnic areas were tested with Kent-Rosanoff wordassociation test in both Swedish and Arabic. The results showed thatmore than 40% of the children had undergone the shift in bothlanguages, 20 % had undergone the shift in only one of theirlanguages and almost 40% had not made the shift in any language. Acomparison with results from monolingual Swedish children in gradethree in a previous thesis, showed that the bilingual children in thisstudy did not reach the corresponding level of lexical organization.The study points to the necessity of including tests regarding lexicalorganization when assessing both mono- and bilingual children withsuspected language impairment. The study also underscores theimportance of supporting mother tongue development in bilingualchildren by for instance adequate mother tongue education.

Mitt syfte med denna uppsats är att belysa effekterna av tvåspråkighet hos vuxna. Mina frågeställningar är om tvåspråkigheten ökat den lingvistiska medvetenheten och om informanterna ofta växlar mellan språken. Jag har även frågat om intervjupersonerna känner sig bikulturella lika mycket som de är tvåspråkiga samt om de upplevt positiva eller negativa attityder till tvåspråkighet. Som metod har jag valt att genomföra intervjuer med informanterna. Jag har intervjuat sex personer.Resultatet visar att tvåspråkigheten medför ett språkintresse och en ökad språklig medvetenhet.

One of the largest work areas for speech and language pathologists is intervention for children with speech and language disorders. The purpose of the present study was to describe and analyze the clinical management of language impairment in children by studying and comparing medical records and literature from the years 2000 and 2009. The present study is a sequel to two previously published papers by Christina Samuelsson (1997; 1999), in which medical records and literature from the 1920-, 60- and 70?s were studied and a paper by Helén Sämfors (2001), in which the years 1985 and 1995 were studied. The medical records used in the present study came from a medical ward for speech and language pathology at a university hospital in Sweden. The results showed that significantly more children were referred to the clinic for speech and language problems in 2009 than in 2000, and more children were treated for their impairments.

The overall aim of the study was to take part of teachers' experiences and work force mother-tongue education and literacy development in the Sámi School. The study was conducted through interviews with twelve teachers who teach at two Sámi schools. The focus has been on looking how to work with native speakers teaching at the Sámi School, what factors promote / hinder students' development of their first or second language, and the importance of collaboration between the schools` various professions work with multilingual students reading and writing skills. Through interviews of various categories of teachers, I have tried to visibility problems of the education of minority language children and their reading and writing skills. I discuss the teaching, the importance and the lack / availability of communication and consensus between different categories of teachers.

Detta examensarbete belyser fenomenet kodväxling som kommunikativ strategi hos en grupp gymnasieelever med svenska som modersmål och svenska som andraspråk, vid samtal på engelska. Med en sociokulturell syn på kunskap och lärande och med språkanvändning som förargument, antogs en samtalsanalytisk inriktning med avsikt att studera form och funktioner för kodväxling. För att belysa det som sker i ett samtal mellan dessa elever och konkret ge exempel på olika former och funktioner för kodväxling genomfördes både en ljud-och videoinspelning med eleverna i två omgångar följt av en transkribering av det inspelade materialet. Det centrala materialet i studien har därför sin grund i transkriberingen och bygger ur metodologisk synpunkt på samtalsanalytiska aspekter som på kommunikativa strategier. Studien visar att deltagarna använde kodväxling för en mängd olika funktioner där målet var att få fram sitt budskap.

Följande uppsats studerar föräldraaktiv inskolning som forskningsobjekt, en relativt nyutvecklad modell för inskolning som fått fotfäste bland flera av landets kommuner och förskolor. Modellen innebär kortfattat att barnet i gemenskap med sin förälder deltar i samtliga rutiner på förskolan under tre heldagar. Förälderns uppgift är att introducera den nya verksamheten för sitt barn, pedagogen antar därmed en mer passiv roll i inskolningen. Den fjärde dagen sker den första separationen mellan barn och förälder som innebär ett kort och tydligt avsked, därefter anses inskolningen avslutad.Forskning angående modellen är bristfällig, i media hörs dock både positiva och negativa röster. Pedagoger som praktiserat föräldraaktiv inskolning talar gott om modellen och visar på flera fördelar medan kritik mot modellen riktas utifrån ett anknytningsteoretiskt perspektiv.

The purpose of this master?s thesis is to investigate how librarians approach to the multicultural collection development and which methods they use in providing library materials in minority languages. The questions to be answered are: which methods the libraries use when purchasing library materials in minority languages, how the respondents experience that the minority user groups needs are met in the library and how the multicultural competence of the staff is used in the libraries. For this purpose the qualitative interviews with 6 librarians in Gothenburg are conducted, mainly from the libraries in the immigrant-dense parts of the city, while the study being concentrated on 6 language groups of library users. The study?s theoretical framework is based on theories of multiculturalism, culture, identity and bilingualism.

The purpose of this study was to broaden knowledge about how native language support works in three pre-schools departments in a multicultural area. The questions were how native support works in the current pre-schools departments, which language development methods and forms used by educators to work with native language support, and if they experience any difficulties. I used interviews as a research method, with three child-care and one preschool teacher.The results showed that all departments on both of the pre-schools have native language support with a permanent bilingual staff, outside the ordinary activity. The mother tongue is also spoken in the everyday activities in two of the departments. The third department is only spoken native language with their children if they do not understand what they say in Swedish, or if they are sad.The concrete material is lifted up as a good and important tool in all three language groups, because verbal language is not always enough for all children to understand.

This thesis focuses on Chinese?Swedish code-switching of bilingual children in Sweden. The purpose is to, through a case study, study what Chinese?Swedish code-switching looks like in daily conversations between bilingual children and their parents. Three main questions are formulated from the purpose of the thesis, foucusing on the types and frequencies of code-switching, the grammar of code-switching, and the motivation of code-switching.The linguistic material comes from voice recordings of naturally occurring conversations between three children and their parents, which are transcribed afterwards.

The Swedish School Board reported in 2007 that students with a foreign background to a larger extent than Swedish students leave school without grades in one or more subjects in the ninth grade. The report also reveals that during the year 2007/2008 17 percent of elementary school pupils had the right to home language instruction. Students with an other mother tongue than Swedish are considered a separate group that doesn?t perform as well in school.My study investigates how eleven Arabic-speaking ninth-graders at age 15-16 perceive the importance of their mother tongue for learning and identity development. To this purpose I have conducted semi-structured interviews ? one comprising six students in group and five individual ? in a school in one of the suburbs of Stockholms.

Mitt syfte med detta examensarbete är att få en djupare förståelse om pedagogers tankar, erfarenheter och kunskap till att stödja tvåspråkiga barns språkutveckling. Genom intervjuer har jag kunnat ta del av hur pedagogerna enligt dem själva, anser hur de går tillväga för att stimulera språkutvecklingen i förskolan. Vilka möjligheter ges till barnen i förskolan för att främja det svenska språket hos tvåspråkiga barn. Resultatet visar att pedagogerna anser att barnens vistelse på förskolan är en språkstimulerande miljö där barnen dagligen tränar det svenska språket. Trygga barn har lättare att ta till sig ett nytt språk, därför ska pedagogerna arbeta väldigt nära barnen. Pedagogerna arbetar aktivt med språkutveckling på många olika sätt.

With the growing amount of citizens with another mother tongue than Swedish, the need for assessment instruments in other languages than Swedish within the Swedish health care increases. To enable this, the knowledge of multilingualism and adequate assessments are required. The aim is to develop a modern Arabic version of a screening material that is comparable to what is used in the Swedish clinic in the assessment of people diagnosed with aphasia. In the present study, Short Aphasia Examination (Kortfattad Afasiprövning), which is one of the few screening material is available in Swedish and among the ten most frequently used assessment materials (Blom Johansson, Carlsson & Sonnander, 2011). Translation and adaptation was made to the Standard Arabic (KAPARABISKA) and Arabic dialect of Hadari (KAPHADARI).

Introduction: In this investigation I have illustrated, teacher treatment in a mono-cultural pre-school class and in a multicultural pre-school.Purpose: The purpose of the study was to illustrate how educators go about it when they face bilingual children to see how they work in a comparative perspective. The purpose was answered, based on four questions relating to how teachers relate to the meeting with bilingual children, the approach teachers use, which operation mode the use, if the take advantage of children's traditions, and if there is any different in the teachers? treatment of bilingual children in the mono-cultural pre-school class and in the multicultural pre-school.Theories: The theory is linked to the concepts like operation mode, inter-cultural approaches and communications.Methodology: The used methods are qualitative interviews with four pre-school, teachers where an interview guide with formulated questions and observations were used. The purpose of the working methods was to highlight teacher treatment of bilingual children to discover different approaches to meet the bilingual children.Conclusion: The study has shown that the multicultural pre-school working inter-culturally, they are taking advantage of children's home language that is lifted in the nursery and the children's background, while in the mono-cultural pre-school class, they meet bilingual children foremost to develop the Swedish language and they also show interest to the children's traditions. Teachers? treatment leads to a growing confidence in the children and knowledge for the cultural background..

The purpose of this study has been to examine reading habits and the use of the library by pre­school teachers in a mainly multicultural community, and also explore to what extent activities in the local library are aimed at preschoolers.The study used a sociocultural approach based on Vygotsky?s theories of learning and development and Söderbergh?s theory of early childhood language development, and was carried out during the summer 2009. The methodology used was both quantitative and qualitative, with a combination of questionnaires and interviews. Questionnaires were sent out to each section of the municipal pre­schools within the catchments area of the local public library in a multicultural suburb of Uppsala. Three short interviews were carried out with staff at the local and main library branches, as well as library staff at the County Council.The results show that, although preschool teachers find reading important in their work, many teachers read spontaneously and/or sporadically.

In today?s´ multicultural society increasing numbers of school librarians are faced with a relatively new target group of pupils. This group is linguistically less homogenous than previously and this requires modern adaptations of pedagogic methods.Information literacy and reading promotion are two important topics that school librarians work with. Information literacy is essential for problem based tuition and to increase it requires a well developed language. This study is focusing of the school librarians work with reading promotions.