| 1. |
- Agebjörn, Anders, 1984-
(författare)
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Learning of definiteness in Belarusian students of Swedish as a foreign language
- 2021
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Through a series of studies, this thesis investigates the learning of definiteness in Russian-speaking students of Swedish. A communicative oral-production task elicited modified and non-modified noun phrases in indefinite and definite contexts. Study I describes the development of the morphosyntactic structure through which Swedish encodes definiteness, the association between this structure and its meaning, and the relationship between those two tasks over time. Using an English version of the elicitation task and a test of metalinguistic knowledge, Study II examines the relationship between the learners’ explicit knowledge of article semantics and their actual use of English articles. Adding a test of language-learning aptitude, Study III then explores both the influence of second-language English and that of aptitude on the development of Swedish. Finally, Study IV discusses the role of complexity and input frequency. The main findings include that, at the onset of Swedish study, the learners had minimal knowledge of the morphosyntactic structure but were generally sensitive to the meaning of definiteness. However, knowledge of form developed over time while knowledge of meaning did not, and the two learning tasks did not appear to be directly related to each other. In addition, the learners were seldom aware that choosing between indefinite and definite articles requires the speaker to take the hearer’s perspective, but this lack of metalinguistic understanding did not seem to affect their use of articles. Further, previous knowledge of English appeared to facilitate the development of a Swedish morpheme that is structurally similar to its English counterpart, while aptitude was associated with the development of a morpheme whose English counterpart is structurally different. Finally, the learners used high-frequency morphemes more consistently than low-frequency ones, and morphemes were more likely to be supplied in frequent constructions than in infrequent ones. These findings are discussed in relation to a modular, cognitive framework for language learning and use.
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| 2. |
- Bergman, Magnus, 1985-
(författare)
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Att höra det förflutna till : Adlig minneskultur och kollektiv identitet efter ståndssamhällets upplösning, 1869-1976
- 2021
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Den här avhandlingen utgår från följande problemställning. Hur kunde adeln, en grupp i sådan hög grad påverkad av det äldre samhällets värld avprivilegier, börd och ståndsuppdelning, fortsätta att existera även under ochefter 1800- och 1900-talets moderna genombrott? Detta nya, framväxandesamhälles vägledande principer utgjordes ju snarare av sådant som jämlikhet, personlig förtjänst och tanken om medborgarskap, i mångt och mycket motsatsen till de ideal som tidigare varit förhärskande. I avhandlingenanläggs ett kulturhistoriskt perspektiv för att studera detta historiska problem, med utgångspunkten att det förflutna var av avgörande betydelse för att denadliga identiteten kunde upprätthållas efter ståndssamhällets upplösning. Dess syfte är att undersöka hur den svenska adelns kollektiva identitetupprätthölls och förändrades under perioden från det första adelsmötet, år 1869, till Riddarhusets 350-årsjubileeum, år 1976, genom att analysera denadliga minneskulturen. Källmaterialet som analyseras är huvudsakligenhämtat från adelns kollektiva verksamhet, i form av protokoll från periodensadelsmöten och medlemstidningen Arte et Marte. Avhandlingens teoretiska utgångspunkter är hämtade från memory studies-fältet. Avhandlingen består av tre delar, som studerar varsin aspektav den adliga minneskulturen: den performativa, den kommunikativa,respektive minneskulturens fixpunkter. Genom att analysera en rad olikafenomen relaterade till adeln, under mer än 100 år: statyer, historieböcker, jubileumsfester, privilegier, namnskyddslagar, herrgården och utdöendet avadliga ätter, undersöks gruppens minneskultur och den föränderliga adliga kollektiva identiteten
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| 3. |
- Möller, Per
(författare)
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Kulturstad/Stadskultur : idéer om kulturens värden i Malmös stadsomvandling 1990–2012
- 2021
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation critically explores ideas about values of culture within the context of Malmö’s urban renewal (1990–2012). The story of Malmö’s development is typical of narratives about contemporary urban regeneration processes: Malmö is depicted as a crisis-ridden former industrial town which, through private and public efforts, is transformed into a dynamic urban centre within a knowledge-based, creative economy. This dissertation’s analytical framework focuses on how municipal texts and policy documents are imbricated in ideological meaning-production, particularly regarding the role of culture within the context of urban development. The analysis therefore approaches the field of cultural policy, where two complementary understandings of this field are utilized: the traditional, nominal sense, in which cultural affairs are explicitly addressed on the (local) state level; and a broadened sense, as an arena where implicit cultural policy-making happens via debates about the social and developmental value of culture. This holistic framework is developed through an analysis of rich empirical material (including texts and policy documents originating from both the explicit and implicit conceptualizations of cultural policy) emphasizing its role in the ideological meaning-production around Malmö’s redevelopment.The dissertation demonstrates that the ideas about values of culture within this context have not only been myriad, but have also been largely ambiguous. While some ideas took shape via consensus between different agents and political fields, other ideas were more contradictory, and instead expressed conflicting notions about what culture is, why it is valuable, and in which ways it might function as a resource in the city’s regeneration. This can be seen particularly in the shifting ways culture is characterized as valuable for both increased social welfare and for increased economic growth, which in the analysis is highlighted as part of wider-reaching patterns of ideological consensus as well as conflict within the urban regeneration process.
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| 4. |
- Wilinger, Henriikka, 1974-
(författare)
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Att bli en på svenska läsande människa? : Flerspråkiga högutbildade vuxnas skönlitterära läspraktiker
- 2021
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation explores how and why adult migrants with academic backgrounds read literature. Two connected studies investigate second language learners' fiction reading practices in an advanced Swedish course at two universities, as well as in free time, several years after such a course. The method is qualitative, and the data consists of syllabuses, observations of an oral exam, as well as interviews with teachers, students, and multilingual individuals living in Sweden permanently. Due to the interdisciplinary nature of the thesis, the data is analyzed with a broad variety of theoretical tools, based on three cornerstones: literary education, second language learning and sociolinguistics.The study shows that the individuals possess a great deal of resources in terms of cultural capital (Bourdieu, 1977) and literature reading. This is especially true for Eastern European students, who carry a lot of literary performance competence (Torell, 2002), including knowledge of literary canon. Overall, the multilingual academics have been socialized into fiction reading from a young age. Part I, concerning the educational context, shows that reading in Swedish, however, has been insufficient prior to the course. Therefore, the course seems to play an important role in increasing the habit of reading in Swedish, not to mention increasing linguistic self-esteem.Reading is often legititnized by sociocultural reasons, mainly as a source of cultural knowledge (Felsk.i, 2008), but there is alsoa desire to experience the Swedish culture from the inside. The students suggest that literature can be experienced as a fonn of integration, since it makes you a part of the Swedish population that reads. However, this has more to do with social and cultural practices than being assimilated to become a "Swede". The migrants read in Swedish, or want to read in Swedish, because they already are "readers". The results indicate that the main contribution of fiction reading in advanced Swedish courses is to introduce the option of becoming a person who (also) reads in Swedish. According to me, becoming a "Swedish reader", a person that reads in Swedish that is, means being yourself, with maintained cultural capital and literary identity, even in the new cultural and linguistic context.ln addition, language learning is considered important, when reading literature in a foreign language. The students tend to stress explicit language skills such as vocabulary learning, whereas the teachers emphasize metalinguistic skills and abstract second language use. The results imply that the multilinguals find it easier to use CALP, cognitive and academic language proficiency (Cummins, 1981) than BICS, basic interpersonal communication skills. This supports the idea that CUP, common underlaying proficiency (Cummins, 2000), as well as critical literacy (Janks, 2013), can be transferred from one language to another. Thus, most of the highly educated students use abstract and metacognitive skills in literature discussions at an advanced level. This leads to the conclusion that advanced skills in literature reading, language learning strategies, and metacognition are not a result of this course but originate from previous contexts. Moreover, interviews show that the highly educated readers do not only combine analytical and emotional reading, but often read with a focus on language matters, without disturbing the creative reading (Persson, 2007).Part Il shows that the multilingual readers' literary practices in their free time are as dynamic and diverse as adult multilingualism itself (Cenoz, 2017). Some of the migrants have grown up with two languages, some speak three or four languages, and one speaks - and reads in -five languages. The infonnants carry cultural capital but also a literary identity that they bring into the new linguistic and cultural context They do not read in Swedish exclusively; as a matter of fact, they often alternate between different reading languages in their repertoire. Sometimes Swedish is not included among their reading languages, due to the number of other possible reading languages. In some cases, the identity positioning as a reader does not correspond with their present reading habits. Still, the cultural capital from former contexts is supplemented by knowledge and experience of Swedish literature. I claim that this could be called having a literary multilingual identity. An essential result of the study is that most of the migrants consider reading in Swedish an opportunity for wider options of social and cultural practices. These practices are not imposed by society (Pavlenko & Blackledge, 2004) but negotiable. Suggested further research topics are related to different perspectives on underused resources of multilingual adults, especially those who carry a high cultural capital. This applies to the literature education field as well as to sociolinguistics, and includes topics such as integration, identity, and language use.
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| 5. |
- Yarova, Aliona
(författare)
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Narrating Humanity : Children's Literature and Global Citizenship Education
- 2021
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this thesis is to explore how children’s magic realist fiction contributes to critical Global Citizenship Education (GCE). This study argues that children’s magic realist literature can facilitate young readers’ knowledge and understanding of human rights issues and promote environmental awareness in a non-didactic manner by representing global issues from non-human perspectives. The thesis comprises four articles.The first study explores the non-human perspective of an animalhuman ‘cyborg’ protagonist in Peter Dickinson’s novel Eva (1988). The study shows how the non-human perspective allows the reader to go beyond anthropocentric boundaries in order to explore the issue of treating the other.The second study investigates an animal perspective on the Roma genocide along with the mistreatment of animals in the Second World War in Sonya Hartnett’s The Midnight Zoo (2010). The animal perspective shows human intolerance of other humans (the Roma) intertwined with human actions towards animals and encourages the reader in a non-didactic way to adopt an eco-philosophical standpoint.The third study is concerned with the representation of the Holocaust from the point of view of a supernatural narrator, Death, in Marcus Zusak’s The Book Thief (2005). Death’s inverted magic realist narrative facilitates the young reader’s understanding of human rights issues and represents the history of the genocide in a non-didactic manner.The fourth study examines the relationships between humans and the natural environment shown from the non-human perspective of a tree. Taking the lens of holistic ecology, this study explores the representation of human – nature relationships in Patrick Ness’s A Monster Calls (2011) and how the novel guides the child-reader towards an awareness of environmental issues.
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