| 1. |
- Agebjörn, Anders, 1984-, et al.
(författare)
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Betydelsen av tvärspråkligt inflytande och språkbegåvning för tredjespråksinlärning av grammatisk morfologi
- 2022
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Två faktorer som antas påverka andraspråksinlärning är tvärspråkligt inflytande och språkbegåvning. Relationen mellan dessa har dock sällan undersökts, och det är oklart huruvida betydelsen av tvärspråkligt inflytande respektive språkbegåvningen beror på graden av strukturell likhet mellan målspråk och tidigare inlärda språk (Bokander 2021; Tolentino & Tokowicz 2014; Skehan 1998). Vi undersöker detta samband genom att studera utvecklingen av bestämdhetsmarkörer hos ryskspråkiga inlärare av svenska som tidigare studerat engelska. Till skillnad från ryskan uttrycker svenska och engelska bestämdhet med grammatisk morfologi. Medan engelska och svenska är strukturellt lika varandra när det gäller obestämdhet (a cat; en katt) skiljer de sig åt när det gäller bestämdhet (the cat; katt-en). Detta gör det möjligt att undersöka hur tvärspråkligt inflytande och språkbegåvning påverkar tredjespråksinlärning av strukturellt lika respektive olika strukturer. Bestämda och obestämda nominalfraser eliciterades från ryskspråkiga studenter (n=18) vid tre tillfällen under deras första år av svenskstudier. Vid kursstart testades även deras användning engelska artiklar samt språkbegåvning. Referensdata samlades in från förstaspråkstalare av svenska (n=26) och engelska (n=17). Bestämda och obestämda morfem analyserades separat. Regressionsanalyser visade att utvecklingen av svenskans obestämda artikel påverkades av inlärarnas användning av deras användning av engelskans obestämda artikel, som är strukturellt lik den svenska, medan utvecklingen av svenskans bestämda suffix påverkades av språkbegåvning. Dessa indikerar att tredjespråksinlärning kan underlättas av kunskaper i ett andraspråk, åtminstone när språken är strukturellt lika varandra, medan språkbegåvning spelar en viktigare roll vid inlärning av strukturer utan en direkt motsvarighet i tidigare inlärda språk.
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| 2. |
- Agebjörn, Anders, 1984-, et al.
(författare)
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Cross-linguistic influence and language-learning aptitude in L3 acquisition of functional morphology
- 2021
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Cross-linguistic influence and language-learning aptitude in L3 acquisition of functional morphologyTwo factors suggested to influence second-language acquisition are cross-linguistic influence (CLI) and language-learning aptitude. However, the relationship between the two has rarely been investigated, and it is unclear to what extent the relative importance of CLI and aptitude depends on the degree of similarity between source and target language (cf. Bokander 2021; Skehan 1998; Tolentino & Tokowicz 2014). The present study addresses this issue by examining the longitudinal development of definiteness marking in Russian-speaking learners of Swedish who had previously acquired English. Unlike Russian, English and Swedish obligatorily express definiteness using dedicated functional morphology. While the English indefinite article (a park) is structurally similar to its Swedish counterpart (en park ‘a park’), the English definite article (the park) is structurally dissimilar to its Swedish counterpart, a nominal suffix (park-en ‘the park’). This enables us to investigate the role of cross-linguistic influence and aptitude in third-language acquisition of functional morphology.Definite and indefinite noun phrases were orally elicited from native speakers of Russian (n=18) during two terms of a beginner-Swedish course. At data point 1, their use of English articles and their aptitude were also tested (Meara 2005). Further, data were collected from native speakers of Swedish (n=26) and English (n=17). The participants’ use of indefinite and definite morphemes was analysed separately. Two linear mixed-effects models revealed that the learners’ developing use of the Swedish indefinite article was associated with their command of the English indefinite article, which is structurally similar. By contrast, their developing use of the Swedish definite nominal suffix, which is structurally dissimilar to its English counterpart, was moderated primarily by aptitude. This suggests that learners may capitalise on previously acquired linguistic knowledge primarily when source and target languages are similar, while language-learning aptitude appears to play a more important role in the acquisition of qualitatively new morphology.ReferencesBokander, Lars (2021). Language aptitude and crosslinguistic influence in initial L2 learning. Journal of the European Second Language Association 4(1), s. 35–44. Meara, Paul (2005). LLAMA Language Aptitude Tests: the manual. Swansea: Lognostics. Tolentino, Leida C. & Natasha Tokowicz (2014). Cross-language similarity modulates effectiveness of second language grammar instruction. Language Learning 64(2), s. 279–309. Skehan, Peter (1998). A cognitive approach to language learning. Oxford University Press.
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| 3. |
- Agebjörn, Anders, 1984-, et al.
(författare)
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L3 acquisition of functional morphology : the role of cross-linguistic influence and language-learning aptitude
- 2022
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- L3 acquisition of functional morphology: the role of cross-linguistic influence and language-learning aptitudeTwo factors suggested to influence second-language acquisition are cross-linguistic influence (CLI) and language-learning aptitude. However, the relationship between these two factors has rarely been investigated, and it is unclear to what extent the relative importance of CLI and aptitude depends on the degree of similarity between the target language and previously acquired languages (cf. Bokander 2021; Skehan 1998; Tolentino & Tokowicz 2014). The present study addresses this issue by examining the longitudinal development of definiteness marking in native Russian-speaking learners of Swedish as a third language (L3), who had previously acquired English as a second language (L2). Unlike Russian, English and Swedish obligatorily express definiteness using dedicated functional morphology. While the English indefinite article (a park) is structurally similar to its Swedish counterpart (en park ‘a park’), the English definite article (the park) is structurally dissimilar to its Swedish counterpart, which is a nominal suffix (park-en ‘the park’). In this study, we exploit these structural similarities and differences across languages in order to investigate the role of both CLI and language-learning aptitude in L3 acquisition of functional morphology.Using a communicative, oral task, we elicited definite and indefinite noun phrases from native speakers of Russian (n = 18) at three occasions during the first two terms of a beginner-Swedish course. At data point 1, we tested their use of English articles, using the same task, as well as their language-learning aptitude, using Meara’s (2005) LLAMA Language Aptitude Tests. In addition, reference data were collected from native speakers of Swedish (n = 26) and English (n = 17). The participants’ use of indefinite and definite morphemes was analysed separately, and two linear mixed-effects models were built to investigate to what extent the learners’ language-learning aptitude and command of English articles could predict their developing use of the Swedish indefinite article and definite suffix respectively. The results revealed that the learners’ use of both morphemes improved over time. Their use of the indefinite article was associated with their command of the English indefinite article, which is structurally similar to the Swedish one. In contrast, their use of the definite nominal suffix, which is structurally dissimilar to its English counterpart, was associated with aptitude. This suggests that L3 learners may capitalise on previously-acquired linguistic knowledge primarily when source and target languages are similar, while language-learning aptitude appears to play a more important role in the acquisition of qualitatively new morphology, that is morphology without a structurally similar counterpart in any previously learned language. ReferencesBokander, Lars (2021). Language aptitude and crosslinguistic influence in initial L2 learning. Journal of the European Second Language Association 4(1), s. 35–44. Meara, Paul (2005). LLAMA Language Aptitude Tests: the manual. Swansea: Lognostics. Tolentino, Leida C. & Natasha Tokowicz (2014). Cross-language similarity modulates effectiveness of second language grammar instruction. Language Learning 64(2), s. 279–309.
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| 4. |
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| 5. |
- Ambrazaitis, Gilbert, 1979-, et al.
(författare)
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Do dialect-specific prosodic properties shape the path to contrastive focus? - Production and comprehension data from 3-5 year-old children acquiring Stockholm or Scania Swedish
- 2023
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Cuing information structure (IS) is a fundamental function of prosody in many languages. For instance, in English or Dutch, a contrastive focus on the color adjective in a phrase like ‘the green boat’ is marked by a pitch accent on GREEN and, crucially, a lack of post-focal accent on BOAT: ‘the GREEN boat’. Listeners infer from this prosodic structure that ‘boat’ represents already activated (given) information and that the color that is specially mentioned represents one out of a set of alternatives.According to research findings, children achieve proficiency in the production of prosodic IS encoding within the age range of 4 to 8 years, displaying considerable variability. This variability is suggested to result from structural prosodic differences between languages. For instance, Stockholm Swedish speaking children mark (non-contrastive) focus using the Swedish prominence cuing H(igh) tone in an adult-like manner already at 4-5 years, while Dutch speaking children handle Dutch intonational pitch accents only after the age of 7-8 years. One hypothesis is that this relates to the presence of lexical pitch accents in Swedish, which could make Swedish speaking children more sensitive to prosodic contrasts; in addition, the combination of lexical accent + prominence H results in a complex contour which is particularly salient. However, studies investigating this have usually had a strict focus on speech production.The few previous studies that have conducted parallel production and comprehension experiments have typically used offline methods to assess comprehension. More recent studies using online methods such as eye tracking have usually not included children younger than 6 years of age and have not been complemented by production data. In this study we combine production and comprehension experiments, using eye tracking, to study contrastive focus prosody in 3- to 5-year-old children speaking either Scanian or Stockholm Swedish. In Scanian, instead of adding the prominence H-tone for focus, phrase-level prominence is encoded through phonetic adjustments of the (lexical) HL accent patterns. By comparing these two Swedish varieties we can thus control for phonological features (incl. lexical tone), as well as grammar and lexicon, when exploring effects of prosodic-typological differences.In our production experiment we elicit adjective-noun phrases in three different focus conditions (broad, contrast on adjective, contrast on noun), using an interactive video/card game. Production data are analyzed acoustically and auditorily.As for comprehension, our visual-word eye-tracking experiment makes use of the same pictures of colored objects to investigate whether and how children rely on prosody for reference resolution (e.g., Where is the yellow boat? And where is the GREEN boat?). The time course of eye movements will be analyzed using growth curves. Both production and eye-tracking data will be analyzed as a function of dialect, age and standardized measures of language production and comprehension (The New Reynell Developmental Language Scales), as well as compared to data from adult controls. Data are currently being collected. A preliminary analysis of eye-tracking data from 24 Scanian children (ages 3-5 years collapsed) and a subset of adults from both dialects suggests similar comprehension of focus prosody as in adults (as a mismatched focus prosody in the adjective successfully elicits looks at the foil item in all groups), although processing appears to be slower, and anticipatory strategies differ slightly from those of adults (as the color of the first-mentioned adjective in a trial elicits looks at the color-matched distractor in adults, but not in children). An analysis contrasting comprehension data for both dialects, as well as a preliminary analysis of production data will be presented at the conference.
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| 6. |
- Ambrazaitis, Gilbert, 1979-, et al.
(författare)
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Språkutveckling och prosodisk typologi: Produktion och perception av den dialektspecifika fokusmarkeringen hos 3- till 5-åriga barn från Stockholm och Skåne
- 2023
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Att lägga satsbetoningen på ordet som bör fokuseras utifrån en given informationsstruktur är något som barn enligt tidigare internationell forskning verkar bemästra relativt sent i utvecklingen av sitt förstaspråk. Förmågan att uppfatta och tolka satsbetoning verkar barn enligt vissa studier utveckla ännu senare, men få tidigare studier har genomfört parallella produktions- och perceptionstest, och få perceptionsstudier har i detta sammanhang använt sig av online metoder (så som ögonrörelsemätning) med barn yngre än sex år. En del tidigare studier har påvisat typologiska skillnader; till exempel verkar svenska barn kunna producera en vuxenlik fokusbetoning tidigare än nederländska barn.Med vår studie ämnar vi bidra till en bättre förståelse av hur barn utvecklar sin förmåga att producera och uppfatta kontrastiva fokusbetoningar (t. ex. en röd BIL, en RÖD bil), hur produktionen och perceptionen hänger ihop, och vilken roll prosodisk språktypologi kan spela i sammanhanget. Vi undersöker dessa förmågor hos (totalt ca 120) förskolebarn med stockholmsvenska respektive skånska som förstaspråk – två dialekter som representerar motpoler i en prosodisk typologi när det gäller hur satsbetoning kodas intonationsfonologiskt. I vår produktionsstudie eliciterar vi adjektiv-substantiv fraser med varierad kontrastiv fokus, och i perceptionsstudien mäter vi barnens bearbetning av prosodin i liknande fraser med hjälp av ögonrörelsemätning. Datainsamling pågår i skrivande stund, och prelimära resultat kommer att presenteras på workshopen.
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
- Andersson, Annika, 1966-, et al.
(författare)
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Ditt förstaspråks grammatik påverkar hur din hjärna bearbetar dina andraspråk
- 2015
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Ingår i: Grammatikdagen 2015, Lund.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Neurokognitiva studier av hjärnans bearbetning av första- och andraspråksgrammatik relaterar skillnader till inlärningsålder och andraspråksfärdighet. Dessa studier undersöker typiskt inte hur skillnader och likheter i språkens strukturer påverkar bearbetningen. Vi utforskade hur andraspråkstalare med goda språkfärdigheter i Svenska bearbetade svenskans verbplacering beroende på om deras första språk hade samma verbplacering som svenskan (tyska) eller inte (engelska). Denna studie visar att hjärnans bearbetning av ett andra språk inte kan begränsas till en diskussion om ålder vid inlärande eller språkfärdighet.
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| 9. |
- Andersson, Annika, 1966-, et al.
(författare)
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Language background affects online word order processing in a second language but not offline
- 2019
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Ingår i: Bilingualism. - : Cambridge University Press. - 1366-7289 .- 1469-1841. ; 22:4, s. 802-825
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study examines possible crosslinguistic influence on basic word order processing in a second language (L2). Targeting Swedish V2 word order we investigate adult German learners (+V2 in the L1) and English learners (-V2 in the L1) of Swedish who are matched for proficiency. We report results from two offline behavioural tasks (written production, metalinguistic judgments), and online processing as measured by event-related potentials (ERPs). All groups showed sensitivity to word order violations behaviourally and neurocognitively. Behaviourally, the learners differed from the native speakers only on judgements. Crucially, they did not differ from each other. Neurocognitively, all groups showed a similar increased centro-parietal P600 ERP-effect, but German learners (+V2) displayed more nativelike anterior ERP-effects than English learners (-V2). The results suggest crosslinguistic influence in that the presence of a similar word order in the L1 can facilitate online processing in an L2-- even if no offline behavioural effects are discerned.
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| 10. |
- Andersson, Annika, 1966-, et al.
(författare)
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Language background affects word order processing in a second language online but not offline
- 2014
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Ingår i: Culture, Brain, Learning : Wallenberg Network Initiative. - Lund : Lund University. ; , s. 15-15
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Different languages organize information differently, for example in different word orders. A large body of work shows that learning to use word order in a new, second language (L2) is difficult. An example is the production of verb-second (V2) word order, which requires the finite verb in main clauses to appear in second position even when the sentence does not start with a subject. V2 difficulties are ubiquitous and only partially modulated by patterns in thefirst language (L1; e.g., Ganuza, 2008 for an overview). Despite the body of work on L2 production, we know surprisingly little about how word order is processed behaviorally and neurocognitively, and how production relates to comprehension. This study therefore examined how advanced German (n=14) and English (n=14) adult learners, matched for proficiency and age of acquisition, process word order in Swedish compared to native speakers (n=20) depending on L1 background (i.e., ±similar word order in the L1; German [+V2] vs. English [-V2]), sentence-initial adverb frequency (frequent idag ‘today’ vs. infrequent hemma ‘at home’ (1)), and length of the sentence-initial constituent (short vs. long prefield; (2)).(1) Idag/Hemma läste hon tidningen. vs. *Idag/Hemma hon läste tidningen. Today/At home read she paper.def vs. *Today/At home she read paper.def(2) Idag/Hemma hos Maria läste hon tidningen. vs. *Idag/Hemma hos Maria hon läste tidningen. Today/At home at Maria’s read she paper.def vs. *Today/At home at Maria’s she read paper.def.We probed the production of word order in a sentence completion task and examined responses to word order (violations) in a timed acceptability judgment task during which participants were presented with sentences word by word while event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. At the end of the sentence participants judged the sentence acceptability.Overall, the results indicated that the two learner groups behaved similarly on behavioral measures of comprehension and production, but crucially differed in online processing. All groups, including learners, showed sensitivity to V2-violations in the ERPs. Swedish native speakers were also sensitive to length of prefield showing the typical biphasic ERP response only to violations with long prefields allowing build up of expectations. Importantly, the learners, who did not differ behaviorally, showed different responses. The German learners [+V2] showed similar ERP patterns to native Swedish speakers, whereas the English learners [-V2] showed more variation in their ERP responses. We discuss these findings in terms of theories of crosslinguistic influence and theories of native-like syntacticprocessing.
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| 11. |
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| 12. |
- Andersson, Annika, 1966-, et al.
(författare)
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Native word order processing is not uniform : An ERP study of verb-second word order
- 2015
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Ingår i: Cognitive Neuroscience Society, 22nd Annual Meeting, March 28-31, 2015 Hyatt Regency Hotel, San Francisco, California. - San Fransisco : Cognitive Neuroscience Society. ; , s. 218-218
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Most Germanic languages share verb-second (V2) word order: the finite verb occurs in second position in a main clause regardless of whether it starts with a subject (e.g., she; SVO), or an adverbial (e.g., today; AdvVSO). Swedish allows for certain exceptions to V2 resulting in clauses with V3 word order (AdvSVO) (Bohnacker, 2006). Despite the general acknowledgment that V3 occurs, little is known about the factors that license it and about how these structures are processed. This study therefore investigated V2-/V3-processing in 20 adult native Swedish speakers, manipulating initial semantic adverbial type (idag Œtoday¹, hemma Œat home¹, and kanske Œmaybe¹), and subject type (lexical noun, Œthe boy¹, vs. pronoun, Œhe¹) in a sentence completion task and in acceptability judgments made after event-related potentials were recorded. The results showed effects of adverbial- and subject-type across tasks and measures. Behavioral results showed positive effects of pronominal subjects; moreover, idag-sentences were the most accurate, and kanske-sentences the least accurate. Neurocognitively, there was a main effect of V2 reflected in a medial negativity in the N400 time window, a left anterior positivity, and a late posterior negativity. Importantly, the negativities were strongest in amplitude with kanske, while the left anterior positivity was only elicited with hemma and idag. The results thus suggest that V2-violations in Swedish are more acceptable with some adverbials (here kanske Œmaybe¹), and that such sentences are also processed differently from sentences starting with other adverbials. Native word order processing is thus not uniform.
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| 13. |
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| 14. |
- Andrén, Mats, et al.
(författare)
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Att lära sig språk
- 2013
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Ingår i: Språket, människan och världen. - Lund : Studentlitteratur AB. - 9789144083391
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Bokkapitel (populärvet., debatt m.m.)
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| 15. |
- Andrén, Mats, et al.
(författare)
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Att lära sig språk
- 2013
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Ingår i: Språket, människan och världen : människans språk 1-2 - människans språk 1-2. - Lund : Studentlitteratur AB. - 9789144083391 ; , s. 73-89
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Bokkapitel (populärvet., debatt m.m.)
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| 16. |
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| 17. |
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| 18. |
- Batmanian, Natalie, et al.
(författare)
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Inclusion of auxiliaries: Competence and performance differences in early learners
- 2008
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Ingår i: EUROSLA Yearbook. - : John Benjamins Publishing Company. - 1568-1491 .- 1569-9749. ; 8:1, s. 215-234
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Researchers argue that variable use of inflectional morphology demonstrates a lack of underlying syntactic representation in second language learners. Others disagree and argue for a full syntactic representation: stating that variable use of morphology during early the stages of learning is due to the difficulty of mapping an underlying representation onto surface form. Twelve beginning L2 learners, whose L1 was Japanese or Korean (East Asians), and nine L2 learners, whose L1 was various Indo-European languages (Non Asians) participated in an elicited imitation experiment, and additional twelve East Asians participated in a grammaticality judgment experiment. The targets included mono-clausal declarative sentences and wh-questions with the auxiliaries be, can, and do. In imitation, the prevalent error was auxiliary omission. Learners fronted whwords successfully. They also inverted auxiliaries successfully when they included them. Along with imitation, the results of grammaticality judgment support the argument that beginning L2 learners have difficulty producing the surface forms of the auxiliaries and tense morphology, not with forming the correct syntactic representation for questions.
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| 19. |
- Granfeldt, Jonas, et al.
(författare)
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Editorial
- 2019
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Ingår i: Apples - Journal of Applied Language Studies. - 1457-9863. ; 13:1, s. 1-5
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 20. |
- Granfeldt, Jonas, et al.
(författare)
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Hur långt kommer eleverna i sin muntliga språkfärdighet? En studie av franska, spanska och tyska i slutet av grundskolan
- 2024
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Ingår i: Lingua. - 0023-6330. ; 2024:2, s. 21-25
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Artikeln sammanfattar resultat från en undersökning av muntlig språkfärdighet i franska, spanska och tyska på våren i årskurs 9. Studien är en del av det så kallad TAL-projektet, som med stöd av VR genomfördes mellan 2016 och 2019 med fokus på moderna språk. Totalt 122 elever vid 15 skolor genomförde två muntliga uppgifter, en produktiv och en interaktiv, som bedömdes med hjälp av skalor från GERS (Gemensam europeisk referensram för språk). Bedömningarna genomfördes av forskarna i projektet och av externa bedömare (totalt sju bedömare per elevprestation). Resultaten visar att färre än hälften av prestationerna bedömdes som nivå A2.1, vilket ungefärligen motsvarar miniminivån för betygssteget E i Språkvalet, åk 9. Inga stora skillnader upptäcktes mellan de två uppgiftstyperna. Däremot bedömdes nivån i tyska signifikant oftare som A2.1 eller högre jämfört med franska och spanska. I artikeln diskuteras resultaten kort i relation såväl till yttre villkor för undervisningen och för studien som till pedagogiska aspekter av undervisningen i moderna språk.
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| 21. |
- Granfeldt, Jonas, et al.
(författare)
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Muntlig språkfärdighet i främmande språk - en studie av samspelet mellan lärande, undervisning och bedömning
- 2019
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Ingår i: Vetenskapsrådet (2019). Resultatdialog 2019. - : Vetenskapsrådet. - 9789188943224 ; , s. 29-33
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- De tre stora moderna språken i svensk skola –spanska, tyska och franska –erbjuds på en majoritet av grundskolorna, men det finns regionala skillnader både vad gäller skolornas utbud och elevernas språkval. Attityderna till moderna språk är positiva bland de rektorer, lärare och elever som deltagit i vårt projekt. När det gäller elevernas motivation att lära, vilja att tala eller oro för att tala språket i klassrummet såg vi inga tydliga skillnader i de tre språken. Att fritt kunna tala och samtala på språken är en kommunikativ färdighet som eleverna behöver få mer tillfälle att utveckla.
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| 22. |
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| 23. |
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| 24. |
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| 25. |
- Granfeldt, Jonas, et al.
(författare)
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Second foreign languages in the Swedish school context - The views of school leaders
- 2017
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Politicians and stakeholders widely support the “mother tongue plus two” language policy (European Commission) according to which all European citizens should be able to communicate in at least two foreign languages (FLs). However, despite high political and societal ambitions, recent reports suggest that FLs other than English are suffering in Europe and Sweden is no exception to this trend. One third of all Swedish pupils starting to study a second FL (French, German or Spanish) in lower secondary school abandon the subject within three years (Tholin & Lindqvist, 2009). In fact, second FLs are the only subjects lacking a mandatory status in the Swedish compulsory school. Moreover, according to the Eurobarometer (2012) there is a lack of motivation for language learning. Sweden is the only country among the surveyed countries where a majority says that lack of motivation is a reason that dissuades them from learning another language, but we know very little about how views and attitudes towards FLs are shaped in the school context. The overall aim of the TAL-project (Teaching, Assessment and Learning) is to gain a better understanding of learning conditions and outcomes in FLs other than English in the Swedish school context. The project is interdisciplinary and draws on research in education, language teaching, language assessment and language learning. The project runs from 2016 through 2018 and involves data collection in several phases. In a first phase we have surveyed 425 Swedish compulsory schools starting with a head teachers' questionnaire. This questionnaire aims to survey relevant educational frame factors and provide a picture of how foreign languages are organised and perceived in a representative selection of Swedish schools. In this presentation, we will discuss responses to the questions concerning head teachers' view of foreign languages in school, e.g. the perceived status of the subject, the attitudes towards a mandatory second foreign language and challenges for the future. Seemingly little research has focused on head teachers' view of modern languages and its impact on teaching and student outcomes, but educational research shows that sayings, doings and relatings within an educational setting will contribute in the shaping of a praxis (Kemmis, 2009). The results of the survey will be discussed in relation to the headmasters' own educational background and to educational and regional aspects of the different schools.ReferencesEurobarometer. (2012). Europeans and their languages: Eurobarometer 386 report. Kemmis, S. (2009). Action research as a practice-based practice. Educational Action Research, 17(3), 463-474.Tholin, J., & Lindqvist, A. (2009). Språkval svenska/engelska på grundskolan: en genomlysning. Högskolan i Borås, Institutionen för pedagogik.
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