Speaking in a foreign language is considered challenging to both teach and learn. Virtual humans (VHs), as conversational agents (CAs), provide opportunities to practise speaking skills. Lower secondary school students (N = 25) engaged in an AI-based spoken dialogue system (SDS) and interacted verbally with VHs in simulated everyday-life scenarios to solve given tasks. Our analysis is based on system-generated metrics and self-reported experiences collected through questionnaires, logbooks, and interviews. Thematic analysis resulted in seven themes, revolving around the speaking practice method, scenarios and technology, which, in combination with descriptive statistics, enabled a deeper understanding of the students’ experiences. The results indicate that, on average, they found it easy, fun, and safe, but sometimes frustrating in scenarios not always relevant to their everyday lives. Factors suggested as underlying the levels of experienced frustration include technical issues and constraints with the system, such as not being understood or heard as expected. The findings suggest that lower secondary school students conversing with VHs in the SDS in an institutional educational context facilitated a beneficial opportunity for practising speaking skills, especially pronunciation and interaction in dialogues, aligning with the key principles of second language acquisition (SLA) for language development.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the mobile activities newly arrived migrants are engaged in when learning the Swedish language and about Swedish culture and society. Further, the study also explores the use of a mobile application (app) provided to the newly arrived migrants to use for pronunciation practice. The study involved 38 newly arrived Arabic speaking migrants participating in an introduction program of the Swedish language and Swedish culture provided by the Swedish government. The participants were divided into two groups: a control group who received training according to the traditional introduction programme and an experimental group who used a mobile app for pronunciation training as a complement to the programme. We applied a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods for data collection and analysis. The participants were interviewed about their use of mobile phones as well as recorded in a number of activities inside and outside the classroom to compare their language evolvement. In addition, surveys, logging of weekly mobile activities and observations were performed.The results show that the participants used a wide range of different mobile tools, both inside and outside the classroom. However, they used the mobiles mostly for communication with their family and friends rather than for communication with Swedes and learning Swedish. Further, compared to the control group, the experimental group showed an improved speech tempo and self-confidence in speaking. The study thus indicates that focused linguistic training with a pronunciation app is useful for developing spoken language skills, which can lead to improved integration. The participants expressed need and interest in having more mobile apps for both language and culture training.

Education is in the process of transforming traditional print-based instruction into digital formats. This multi-case study sheds light on the challenge of coping with the old and new in literacy teaching in the context of technology-mediated instruction in the early years of schooling (7–8 years old children). By investigating the relation between literacy and digital technology in diverse pedagogical contexts we capture the complexity in the educational transformation that needs to be acknowledged. Each of the cases demonstrates a distinct knowledge focus and goal for early literacy instruction, organisation and access around technology and what is made visible in instruction. All these factors had consequences for the teaching that occurred. Depending on epistemological beliefs, digital competencies were taught separately from literacy and considered as a goal on its own or integrated with literacy considered as a means and a goal for literacy teaching and learning. Implicit pedagogy with weaker classification and framing enabled conditions for infused approaches making use of digital technology in multimodal, functional and learner centred literacy practices. Furthermore, initial guidance and the weaving of invisible and visible pedagogy highlight a possible way to both exploit the potential of digital technology and support children from various backgrounds. The balance of teacher and student control was further affected in regard to the organisation of technology and choices of pedagogical methods. This research hereby expands the current discussion on the relation between technology and literacy with an understanding that the epistemological focus and context of practices are necessary tools to problematize, rather than measure or value, emerging practices in early literacy instruction. We conclude that in addition to the necessary heavy investments in digital technology in schools there is a need to provide room for action for the teachers and address issues of purpose, pedagogy and organisation around technology.

The aim of this study was to investigate professional agency in the context of higher education as manifested in Swedish teacher educators’ perceptions regarding their working life in a digital society and to seek to obtain insights on salient factors influencing professional agency and identity. Eighteen semi-structured interviews with teacher educators working at four different universities were analysed using directed content analysis. The theoretical perspective taken is a subject-centred socio-cultural approach to professional agency. This is an approach where the social context (the socio-cultural conditions) and individuals’ agency (professional subjects) are mutually constitutive but analytically separate. Agency is something that is exercised, and in this study, professional agency was explored in the work context, in teaching practice and in relation to the professional identity. The results of this study not only confirm the complexity of being a professional TE in the times of digitalisation but more importantly demonstrate a paradox in the TE’s perceived high agency that both enables and hinders self-development (the individual) as well as development of the working community, the organisation, and the university. The study implies that considerations and understanding of the TE’s autonomy and perceived agency are significant for professional and work development.

This paper explores how digital competence is conceptualized in recent revisions in the curriculum for Swedish compulsory school. Four themes are identified based on a thematic content analysis of the revisions in the subject descriptions: use of digital tools and media, programming, critical awareness and responsibility. The distribution of the thematic revisions differs among the subjects, but the most dominating theme, permeating all the subjects, concerns the tool-oriented use of digital tools and media. This strong dominance of operational perspective tends to narrow the conceptualization compared to international definitions and frameworks of digital competence.