High-proficient Swedish users of L2 French and Spanish were compared with native speakers of French, Spanish and Swedish with regard to how the syntactic peripheries in natural colloquial speech are structured. Two different though interrelated aspects were included: thus a cross-linguistic analysis comparing the three native speaker groups is combined with an analysis addressing the question of the upper limits of L2 acquisition. All left peripheral (LP) and right peripheral (RP) constituents of a corpus of 110,759 words were classified in a taxonomy relying both on syntactic and functional-pragmatic criteria. The cross-linguistic analysis showed that French and Spanish L1 speakers produced significantly longer LP sequences than the Swedish L1 speakers, who, in turn, put conspicuously more weight on the RP. Significant differences between the three languages were also found with regard to several LP and RP constituent categories. The L2 acquisition-oriented analysis showed that with few exceptions the high-proficient L2 users behaved like L1 users. Although a few interlanguage-related phenomena could be observed, no instances of any clear transfer from the speaker’s L1 appeared in either L2 speaker group.
This paper presents an overview of second foreign language (SFL) education in Sweden, especially at lower secondary level. It offers a survey of the historical development of the study of other languages than English as well as a reflection over the current state of the subject. Currently, there is a shortage of research on the circumstances and conditions of the learning, teaching and assessment of the Swedish school subject Modern languages, as well as on young people's proficiency in other languages than English in Sweden. In order to contribute to a knowledge base for further research, the current paper reviews work considering the Swedish context concerning: a) frame factors, policy issues and organization of SFL studies b) attitudes towards plurilingualism and SFL motivation, c) teacher education and recruitment policies, and d) levels of attainment at the end of compulsory school. Throughout the paper, the European context is also taken into account. The paper ends with a discussion of the general status of the subject Modern languages in Swedish school and society, the fact that this subject is not mandatory , and the consistently high dropout rate that characterizes the current situation.
El primer estudio europeo sobre competencias lingüísticas (European Survey on Language Competences) mostró cifras alarmantes sobre el bajo nivel de español LE/L2 de los alumnos suecos en contraste con su alto dominio del inglés. El proyecto de investigación TAL (Teaching, Assessment, Learning) (2015-2018) surgió para investigar estos resultados en el contexto de la enseñanza de segundas lenguas. El presente estudio muestra las experiencias y opiniones de los docentes de español LE/L2 desde la óptica de su perfil laboral y formativo en el contexto escolar sueco. 114 docentes de español LE/L2 participaron en la encuesta del proyecto. Los resultados constatan la escasez de profesionales cualificados y una actitud indiferente hacia el aprendizaje de la lengua, en comparación con el inglés, por parte de los estudiantes y de la sociedad circundante. Algunas de las necesidades identificadas para mejorar la situación laboral de los profesionales del español en Suecia son: reducir el número de estudiantes por clase, eliminar la precariedad laboral, junto con la situación de pluriempleo, y crear una oferta formativa específica sobre la enseñanza del español. Los resultados obtenidos se comparan con el estudio global sobre los profesionales del español de Muñoz-Basols, Rodríguez-Lifante y Cruz-Moya (2017).
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