This chapter discusses teaching based upon pupils’ previous knowledge. As the world becomes more and more globalised, it is harder and harder for a teacher to form a picture of the pupils’ knowledge when planning instruction. However, without this information about pupils, it is impossible to know if the created learning situations are conducive to learning or if the pupils had already acquired knowledge about the learning object before the learning situation. In this study pupils’ previous knowledge is investigated in relation to how English as a Second Language is learnt when pupils have different mother tongues. In a phenomenographic study we found that pupils with three different mother tongues, when placed in the same learning situation, made errors which could be traced back to the structure of their mother tongue. This observation led to a learning study, in which variation theory was the theoretical point of departure, and in which three different research lessons with three different groups of pupils were carried out. The learning object was dependent possessives, and the pupils’ mother tongue was Swedish. As there is no differentiation between independent and dependent possessives in Swedish, the pupils could not discern the difference between these two forms. As Swedish has a differentiation between t- and n-gender, the puils wrongly assumed that the difference between my and mine was not connected to dependent and independent possessives but to gender. The results of our study show how teachers who are familiar with the pupils’ previous knowledge (mother tongue) can become aware of what mistakes they might make as ESL learners; this knowledge has a profound effect on instruction. In this way, teachers can also predict and plan what information is needed to develop learning situations which provide maximum opportunity to learn. They also understand what kinds of critical aspects are necessary to enable pupils to discern. As a result, teachers are more effective, which is reflected in better pupil results in the classroom.

The present article describes how Swedish pupils in class 4 (nine to eleven years old) learn English as a second language. The study replicates a learning study carried out within the framework of a more ex-tensive project known as “The Pedagogy of Learning”. The present study is aiming to find out if the re-sults from one original learning study can be generalised to other teachers and pupils. The pupils partici-pating in the presented study learn how to use “to have”. The original Learning Study Cycle (LSC) con-sisted of three lessons per cycle, each lesson carried out in different groups of pupils. The teachers fo-cused on the critical aspects, i.e. the features which must be distinguished in order to understand a phe-nomenon. This process entailed investigating the contrasts between the specified learning outcome(s), i.e. the ability or knowledge targeted. The lessons were planned from a variation theory perspective. The LSC demonstrated that the use of contrast – applied in only one of the three lessons – between “to be” and “to have” had a positive effect on pupils’ generative learning, i.e. continued learning outside the classroom. In order to establish if the results of the present study are coincidental or repeatable the LSC was repli-cated. The first replicated study was conducted by a group of teachers with a good knowledge of variation theory. These teachers had previously applied the theory in mathematics lessons. A second replication was initiated by a group of teachers with no knowledge of variation theory. The results demonstrated that contrast is important for generative learning provided that teachers are able to focus on critical aspects and thereby elucidate contrast. In the group familiar with variation theory the results were similar to those of the original study, i.e. generative learning was promoted, while contrast had little effect on the pupils generative learning in the group of teachers who had no knowledge of variation theory. The study demonstrates that generative learning is dependent on teachers’ knowledge of how the critical aspects of the target knowledge should be presented to pupils. Such knowledge enables teachers to apply contrast as a means of developing pupils’ ability to distinguish qualitative differences. In this way, pupils continue to develop their knowledge beyond the classroom.

With growing numbers of Chinese students entering Western universities, cultural understanding is of increasing importance, not least in higher education. Without a good understanding of the academic conventions of Western universities, Chinese students, and undergraduates in particular, are at a disadvantage in the multi-cultural classroom. Lack of knowledge of structural influences on higher education, including teacher-student relations, reference management practices, and assessment procedures, are likely to lead to failure and disappointment. This paper, which is based on writing workshops conducted at Beijing University and in Sweden (Kristianstad University and Linnaeus University) in 2014, focuses primarily on writing practices and conventions because written texts are the main means of assessment in higher education. Addressing four key problems encountered by Chinese undergraduate writers in Western universities, namely lack of familiarity with the structure of academic papers, lack of focus on relevant issues, copying and pasting without giving proper reference, and inadequate understanding and mastery of the conventions of academic English, this paper argues for greater awareness of cultural differences between the Chinese and Western systems of education. Not until this has been achieved can Chinese students realize their full potential at Western universities.

Jane Mattisson Ekstam´s paper discusses Washington Irving’s short story “Tom Walker and the Devil”. It argues that the story can be taught at both university- and high-school level but in different ways and suggests different approaches. Irving’s story can enable students and pupils to develop their critical reading and writing skills while at the same time learning to appreciate the value and importance of “good” literature. “Tom Walker and the Devil” is one of Irving’s finest stories in terms of theme, style and language. It also has the advantage that there is no shortage of critical sources - printed as well as electronic- on its themes, context and style. Some of these sources are identified in my paper.

Det har förflutit exakt hundra år sedan första världskriget bröt ut och världen bevittnade en av de mest omvälvande händelserna i modern historia. Det var under denna tid som stridsvagnen uppfanns, stridsgas användes för första gången och kulsprutan blev vanlig. Många är de som på olika sätt har satt ord och bild på första världskriget för att öka medvetenheten om krigets följder och framförallt individernas erfarenheter. Peter Englunds omfattande studie av kriget, ”Stridens Skönhet och Sorg.

Iris Murdoch’s novels explore human truths that are timeless. She defended her ideas of literature as representing something true of human nature in an era "marked by a crisis of representation" (Rowe: 2). The postmodern rejection of truth, and Murdoch’s resistance to the theory-centred approach to textual analysis that emerged in the 1960s and reached its peak in the 1980s and 1990s, caused her to lose favour among scholars. It is time to revisit Iris Murdoch, a writer with a profound understanding of the importance of meaning in a literary text. What is this meaning? How is it represented in the novel? It is with these two questions that this article is concerned as it explores how Murdoch viewed her artistic mission and how it is embodied in the younger and older identities of the first-person narrator, Bradley Pearson, in The Black Prince (1973).

This article discusses the relationship between modern detective fiction and the representation of World War One. While detective fiction is one of the most popular literary genres today, and World War One and its aftermath has become an important setting for American, British and South African crime writers, modern detective fiction set in that period has attracted relatively little critical attention. I argue that modern detective novels that revisit the War and emphasise the importance of the restoration of order constitute a new sub-genre — the Neo-Golden Age detective novel. The War provides a particularly fertile context for examining human motivation and suffering,and for looking at ways of dealing with crime in war and peace. It also demonstrates the importance of order and stability. A concern with violence and morality is here to stay, as is widespread interest in the War, particularly in Britain where the majority of the detective stories on the War are produced.

My paper focuses on two forms of teachers’ written feedback: direct,  i.e.  correction   of  errors,  including   grammar,   punctuation   and spelling;  and indirect,  which  identifies  but does  not correct  problems  – either real or potential.  I argue that the two forms, when they are com- bined,  have  an important  role to play in guiding  students  to an under- standing  of what  constitutes  a "good"  written  text  in English.  Such  an understanding  is an important  element  in the overall  goal of academic writing, which is not only to produce a text that satisfies the requirements of  the  examiner  but  also  to  create  and  promote  a  distinct  and  stable scholarly identity – an aspect of writing that is often neglected in studies of writing. Unlike much research on the subject, my article focuses on an individual student, a Chinese postgraduate of English at Kristianstad University.

Throughout the educational system, and higher education is certainly no exception, the focus has all too often been on the final product and the grade awarded rather than what the student learns as part of the writing process. As a consequence, students’ ability to write tends to stagnate once the basic skills have been mastered. Based on the view that the goal of higher education must be life-long learning, this article proposes a method of teaching writing in English that enables students to produce a variety of texts, from short essays, to doctoral theses, using a concise and correct style (Giltrow, Burgoyne, Gooding & Swaatsky, 2005). The method, known as process writing, focuses attention on the different elements of a text, their mutual relations, and the language and style in which these should be expressed. Process writing can be usefully combined with peer reviewing. Both methods are interactive: the teacher stimulates students "in performing and reflecting on learning activities, which lead them towards independent thinking and writing" (Riljaarsdam, Couzijn & van den Berg, 1996, pp. ix-xviii) by dividing the writing task into identifiable stages (process writing) and critiquing other students’ writing (peer reviewing). Process writing and peer reviewing take account of all capacities. More importantly, they facilitate students’ ability to analyse their own and others’ work.

The short story The Canterville Ghost is being interpreted from the perspectives of the characers, the setting, the narrator, the thame, the style and the structure etc by the author Dr.Jane Mattisson here in this paper.

Their conflicting roles as officers and upholders of the faith made army chaplains particularly vulnerable. They are one of the most difficult but also most revealing groups to analyse within the army of World War One. By focusing on Anne Perry’s quintet on World War One, this article demonstrates that fiction has a special ability to illustrate the complexity and vulnerability of the army chaplain’s position as it reveals a multi-faceted and deeply felt reality which is both more personal and intense than that provided by documentary accounts insisting on factuality.

 Detective fiction depends on the examination of clues and the drawing of logical conclusions, a process that involves the detective and the reader in a game in which the reader strives to solve the crime before the detective does. The language of detective novels can be neither arbitrary nor contradictory because the evidence must be comprehensible through a process of ratiocination, i.e. the belief that the mind can, given sufficient time, understand everything. My paper examines two novels by Jacqueline Winspear: the first, Maisie Dobbs (2005), and the eleventh and most recent addition to the Maisie Dobbs series, A Dangerous Place (2015). The paper demonstrates how Dobbs’s skills as a private investigator are honed by experience: the murder case investigated in A Dangerous Place is particularly complex not only because of the physical situation in which Dobbs finds herself but also because of the unusually complex nature of the evidence.

This article discusses Downton Abbey, the most popular series in the history of British television. The series is a means of bringing history to the many and thus an important feature of collective cultural memory. Based on the premise that television series such as Downton Abbey are the primary means by which people learn about history today and that they play a major part in determining how the heritage and identity of England and Englishness have been understood, this article discusses why Downton Abbey is so popular, identifying seven primary reasons: the coherence of the historical setting and the characters; the current interest in country estates; the accessibility of the series to all generations; the modern tempo; the equal focus on the aristocratic members of the Crawley family and their servants; the attention to historical detail; and the prominence given to World War One as a catalyst for social and intellectual change. Special focus is placed on the historical context and the impact of World War One, as these are the most important and tangible reasons for the enormous popularity and success of Downton Abbey both on television and in literature.