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- Sundqvist, Pia, 1965-, et al.
(författare)
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Computer-assisted L2 English language-related activities among Swedish 10-year-olds
- 2012
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Ingår i: <em>CALL: Using, learning, knowing</em>. - Dublin : Research-publishing.net. - 9781908416032 ; , s. 280-285, s. 280-285
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper presents findings from a study investigating young Swedish learners’ extramural (out-of-school) contact with English. In contemporary Sweden, the influx of English is great and research has shown that extramural contact with English correlates positively with students’ proficiency in English (Olsson, 2011; Sundqvist, 2009; Sylvén, 2004). While Sylvén (2004) investigates type and amount of involvement in extramural English activities among upper secondary students and Sundqvist (2009) as well as Olsson (2011) among 9th graders, little on the same topic is known about younger learners. However, in a nationwide survey, more than half of Swedish 5th-graders indicate that they have learned English as much or more outside of school as in school (Skolverket, 2004), but empirical studies on the topic remain scarce. Based on data collected from young learners (N = 112; grade 4; age 10), this paper presents results regarding their type and amount of extramural language activities in English as well as in Swedish and other languages. Previous research has shown that digital gaming may contribute to L2 English learning, in particular with regard to vocabulary (Cobb & Horst, 2011; Miller & Hegelheimer, 2006; Ranalli, 2008; Sundqvist & Sylvén, 2012; Turgut & Irgin, 2009). Therefore, the first focus of our presentation is on these young learners’ L2 English language-related use of computers, for instance in playing digital games. A comparison is made between digital gaming habits in English and Swedish. The second focus is on analyses of playing digital games from the perspectives of gender and the learners’ first languages. The final focus is on learner motivation and self-assessed L2 English proficiency.
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- Sundqvist, Pia, 1965-, et al.
(författare)
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Det heterogena engelskklassrummets ämnesdidaktiska utmaningar : En jämförelse mellan elever med stor respektive liten mängd extramural engelska
- 2011
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Ingår i: NOFA 2011, Karlstad.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- I svensk skola är engelska ett kärnämne, vilket automatiskt ger det en speciell tyngd. Engelska är också generellt sett ett populärt ämne som anses viktigt (Oscarson & Apelgren, 2005; Skolverket, 2004). Detta är inte underligt eftersom inflödet och användningen av det engelska språket är utbrett i dagens svenska samhälle. Alltsedan IT-revolutionen har dessutom engelskan fått ökat utrymme eftersom engelska är det ledande språket på Internet och dessutom fungerar som ett globalt lingua franca (Crystal, 2006). Inom språkvetenskap har det länge funnits en distinktion mellan främmandespråksinlärning och andraspråksinlärning, där det förstnämnda motsvarar att man lär sig målspråket framförallt genom undervisning i ett land där målspråket inte talas och det sistnämnda att man bor och lever i ett land där målspråket talas och lär sig språket på så sätt (Lightbown & Spada, 2006). I en nutida svensk kontext hävdar vissa att engelska mer liknar ett andraspråk än ett främmande språk, framförallt därför att elever i ökande grad lär sig engelska även utanför skolan, så kallad extramural engelska (jfr Viberg 2000; Sundqvist 2009). Situationen har medfört att elever stiger in i engelskklassrummet med helt olika bakgrund beträffande extramural engelska, vilket bland annat avspeglas i den kunskapsnivå de har. Den kunskapsmässiga polariseringen inom ett klassrums väggar kan vara mycket stor och innebär en didaktisk utmaning för engelskläraren. I detta paper diskuterar vi det heterogena engelskklassrummets ämnesdidaktiska utmaningar, bland annat utifrån resultat från en gemensam pilotstudie om extramural engelska bland elever på mellanstadiet samt våra respektive doktorsavhandlingar genomförda i årskurs 9 samt på gymnasiet. Vi kommer bland annat att jämföra elever med stor respektive liten mängd extramural engelska och diskutera vilken typ av engelska de ägnar sig åt utanför skolan samt vilka konsekvenser deras extramurala vanor får för prestationerna i klassrummet och för läraren.ReferenserCrystal, D. (2006). Language and the Internet (2 ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Lightbown, P. M., & Spada, N. (2006). How languages are learned (3 ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Oscarson, M., & Apelgren, B. M. (2005). Nationella utvärderingen av grundskolan 2003 (NU-03). Engelska. Ämnesrapport till rapport 251. Stockholm: Skolverket.Skolverket. (2004). Nationella utvärderingen av grundskolan 2003: huvudrapport - svenska/svenska som andra språk, engelska, matematik och undersökningen i årskurs 5. Stockholm: Skolverket.
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| 4. |
- Sylvén, Liss Kerstin, 1956
(författare)
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Teaching in English or English Teaching? : On the effects of content and language integrated learning on Swedish learners' incidental vocabulary acquisition
- 2010
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Bok (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is an increasingly popular teaching method, where regular subjects, such as history and math, are taught in a foreign language in order to enhance target language exposure and acquisition. In 1999, approximately 20 percent of the upper secondary schools in Sweden were implementing some kind of CLIL. Yet, research into the effects of CLIL in Sweden is scarce. The present work investigates incidental vocabulary acquisition among CLIL students, compared with a control group of “traditional” students, having Swedish as the main medium of instruction, English being a separate subject. A total of 363 students were involved (99 CLIL, 264 control) in a longitudinal study, spanning two full school years and comprising three test rounds. The first test round was conducted at the beginning of the first year of upper secondary school and the third at the end of the second year. A test battery of four different types of vocabulary test was used on each test occasion. Questionnaires concerning personal background were also filled out by students and teachers. The results show that the CLIL students outperform their control group peers in the areas tested. However, they were outperforming them already from the outset of the investigation, i.e. before the CLIL students had been exposed to CLIL. In addition, both groups improve significantly over the test period, but the CLIL students do so to a greater extent. In the analysis of the results, other factors – above all, extra-curricular reading of English texts – were shown to have an impact on students’ lexical development. Furthermore, parents’ level of education was higher among top-scoring students in both CLIL and control groups. Attitude and motivation were also important factors with regard to the acquisition of a rich vocabulary. In a comparison between high and low scorers in the CLIL and the control groups, the high scorers in both groups had more features in common than did the high and low CLIL students. The greatest development of test results was seen in the CLIL group with the least amount of English input. The superior lexical development of the CLIL students is clear, yet it is difficult to attribute the good results only to the CLIL method. A fact contributing to the difficulties in drawing conclusions regarding the CLIL method in Sweden is that there are no national guidelines for schools implementing CLIL to follow regarding, for instance, target language competence among CLIL teachers. Apart from the main objective of the study, an error analysis was carried out on the fairly large number of incorrect answers obtained on the various tests in order to see if CLIL students behave differently from traditional students in the way they approach unknown English words. Although differences were small, there was a greater tendency among CLIL students to use a semantic approach when trying to understand a new word, whereas traditional students tended to go more by formal likeness. The results of the study are also discussed in connection with other aspects of the CLIL method, including negative effects on and possible domain losses in Swedish, as well as detrimental effects on subject-content proficiency.
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- Sylvén, Liss Kerstin, 1956
(författare)
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Academic language proficiency development among Swedish high school students
- 2012
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Ingår i: GURT2012, Georgetown University Roundtable on Linguistics and Literature 2012, Washington, D.C., USA.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- In a longitudinal study spanning 3 years, a group of researchers are following students (N = 400) enrolled in content and language integrated learning (CLIL) classes (Marsh, 2001), where most subjects are taught through the medium of English and students enrolled in regular classes with English as a separate subject at senior high school level in Sweden. The main aim of the study, which started in the fall term of 2011, is to track students’ progression in academic language (Coxhead, 1998) proficiency in Swedish, which is the L1 of most participating students and the majority language in Sweden, as well as in English which is the first foreign language taught in Swedish schools. The paper aims to describe the design and layout of the study in its entirety. However, great emphasis will also be put on describing certain features on the individual as well as the national level that may have a bearing on students’ language proficiency. Among them are student motivation (Dörnyei, 2005), which is one of the specific aspects looked further into in the study, and the omnipresence of English in Swedish society (Sundqvist, 2009). Factors such as these are deemed important to include in any study of language acquisition in general and the acquisition of English in particular taking into consideration the fact that English is a world language used and encountered by so many more than those for whom it is an L1. In this paper the first preliminary findings from the first round of data collection will also be presented on an overall level as well as broken down into a) CLIL and non-CLIL, and b) gender. Given the fact that it is a longitudinal study in its infancy, the paper will discuss ways in which academic language skills best are tapped as well as problems encountered in the process. Input on the appropriateness of the methods chosen and suggestions on possible fine tuning of our instruments are welcome.
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| 7. |
- Sylvén, Liss Kerstin, 1956, et al.
(författare)
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Authentic texts in a CLIL context - a can of worms or a silver bullet?
- 2008
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Ingår i: AILA 15th World Congress, August 24-29 2008, Essen.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- ABSTRACT This paper focuses on the use of authentic texts in the CLIL classroom. Many scholars underline the importance of subject content being of interest to students in order to motivate them to learn what teachers aim at teaching (see, e.g., Lightbown & Spada 2006, Nation 2001, Pintrich and Schunk 2000). A decisive factor for students to choose the CLIL method rather than a traditional one seems to be the amount of extracurricular exposure they have to the mediating language in question (Sylvén 2007). Thus, many CLIL students are familiar with encountering authentic language in a number of various ways, primarily via the Internet, computer games, and TV. Sylvén (forthcoming) argues that it is therefore of utmost importance that CLIL lives up to expectations in that authentic and relevant material is being used also in the school context. Recent researh in various countries shows that there is an apparent lack of suitable teaching material in most subjects where CLIL is being used (Lorenzo 2007, Gierlinger 2007 a, b, Sylvén 2004). We will point out that a situation where the particular linguistic characteristic of authentic texts (Biber 1999) is not fully utilised may lead to subject specific knowledge deficits. However, the definition of authentic material is controversial. There is a multitude of definitions available, and aspects such as authentic use, authentic purpose and authentic context are important. Therefore, we will attempt to arrive at a mutually acceptable definition of the concept. More importantly perhaps, from our various national contexts we will illustrate how authentic material is being used. Gierlinger (2007 c) shows that the use of authentic material in lower secondary education might benefit from a more open attitude towards the role of the mother tongue in early CLIL. Sylvén (forthcoming) states that, given sufficient time and money allowance, teachers in upper secondary school would be willing to use much more such material than what is presently the case. Furthermore, attention will be given to what areas might profit most from CLIL teaching and which ones are considered as “difficult” by CLIL teachers. Finally, we will briefly touch on the importance of local CLIL factors (Gierlinger 2007 a, Lorenzo 2007) such as, e.g., amount of target language input, school curricula, and role of the target language, and how these factors play a pivotal role in the implementation of CLIL in various aspects, not least the use of teaching material. References Biber, Douglas. et al. 1999. Longman grammar of spoken and written English. Longman. Gierlinger, Erwin M. 2007 a. The three pillars of modular CLIL. In D. Marsh and D. Wolff (ed), Diverse Contexts - Converging Goals 211-226. Gierlinger, Erwin M. 2007 b. Modular CLIL in lower secondary education: some insights from a research project in Austria. In: C. Dalton-Puffer and U. Smit (eds). Empirical perspectives on CLIL classroom discourse. Peter Lang. 79-118. Gierlinger, Erwin M. 2007 c. Methodisch-didaktische Leitlinine für englisch als Arbeitssprache auf der Sekundarstufe 1. In: E. Gierlinger, V. Hainschink and H. Spann (eds). Content and Langauge Integrated Learning (CLIL) auf der Sekundarstufe I. Schriften der Pädagogischen Akademie des Bundes in Oberösterreich. Vol. 44. Trauner: Linz. 39-62. Lightbown, Patsy M. and Nina Spada. 2006. How Languages are Learned. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Lorenzo, Francisco. 2007. An analytical framework of language integration in L2 content-based courses: the European dimension. Language and Education. 21:6. 502-514. Pintrich, Paul R. and Dale H. Schunk. 2002. Motivation in Education. Theory, Research, and Applications. Upper Saddle River: Merrill Prentice Hall. Sylvén, Liss Kerstin. 2004. Teaching in English or English teaching? On the effects of content and language integrated learning on Swedish learners' incidental vocabulary acquisition. Göteborg: Göteborg University. Sylvén, Liss Kerstin. 2007. Swedish CLIL students' extracurricular contact with English and its relation to classroom activities. In D. Marsh and D. Wolff (ed), Diverse Contexts - Converging Goals. CLIL in Europe 237-252. Sylvén, Liss Kerstin. Forthcoming. Are the Simpson's welcome in the CLIL classroom? VIEWZ.
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