Connectives in advanced Swedish EFL learners’ written English – preliminary results

unrest and 
conflicts. 
 At the same time, others may feel that integration is necessary because it is not workable to 
force people to abandon and forget their ethnic and religious heritage. There is no inherent 
right in the universe that would justify one people to exclude others, and the world's situation 
at be does not allow for rigid nationalism. For the survival of us all, we must make room for 
each other and not just physical space. Regardless of religious affinity or other morally 
obligating persuasion, there seems to be a concensus worldwide that human life must be 
protected and that the basic, inalienable rights apply to all. As a result, a nation like Sweden 
may, therefore, have to open up their community to people from other places. 
 Therefore, however difficult it may be, Sweden must moderate in the struggle between 
assimilation and integration and move towards, not only allowing but encouraging a society to 
emerge where the "indigenous" people can and want to live in "neighborly love" with 
immigrants. For the new settlers it will mean adjusting to the people and their ways who 
already are a part of this community, but not to the extent that they must bury their past and 
be reborn a native Swede. Swedes, on their part, will have to become flexible and tolerant, 
and they must be willing to recognize and enjoy the benefits that may come with a changing 
society. It is not only for the migrating people that the price is costly; so also for the nation 
that receives them. And it is this price that Swedes will have to pay, the less begrudgingly the 
lower it will be! 
Marie Tapper 142
LOCNESS highest score essay 
638 words 
score: 6.0 
A man/woman’s financial reward should be commensurate with their 
contribution to the society in which they live 
In "first-world" cultures around the globe, the value of a human being has become equated with 
the dollars he or she generates in the marketplace--i.e., in the job he or she performs for monetary 
compensation. The amount of that financial reward, unfortunately, has become equated with 
worth as a person. However, most of the traditional household roles formerly performed by 
women exclusively (but now handled by people of both sexes) have never been compensated by 
the dollar. This poses a problem, since undoubtedly those at-home tasks contribute services to 
society equally valuable in comparison to marketplace "jobs". Therefore, in order for society to 
fully acknowledge the value of both types of jobs--in the home and outside the home, some sort 
of compensation should be made for "home-making service" as well as for he or she who works 
outside the home. 
The career with a capital C is traditionally seen as the route to performing a service to society 
worth rewarding with a paycheck. Certainly doctors, lawyers and Indian chiefs contribute 
invaluable resources to human civilization and deserve to be compensated for their labors. 
Teachers, engineers, artists, politicians and all those who enrich our lives and our cultures, and 
on whom we depend, are indispensable to society. Whether they be male or female has no 
bearing on the size of their reward; "equal pay for equal work" is a well-worded and time-
honored phrase. 
But what is "equal work"? It is fairly easy to establish equity between marketplace jobs with 
duties and responsibilities that are roughly similar. That is, a teacher of sophomore high school 
English and a teacher of senior high school English perform comparable tasks and therefore 
should be equally compensated. But how do we compare raising a family of four children over a 
period of twenty-five years to the job of an neurosurgeon over the same period of time? I know 
of no culture on this globe that pays a woman (or a man, for that matter) a yearly salary of 
$50,000 for nurturing and educating children from the cradle to near-dependence. And yet this 
contribution to society in so immense as to be practically immeasurable. In fact, many of the ills 
of society in the U.S. today have been traced by study after study to the lack of firm guidance 
and support from the family. 
For the better part of this century, the bulk of that familial guidance service was provided by the 
at-home female who did not demand financial compensation, and of course, it remains an unpaid 
job today, whether it's Mom or Dad who stays at home. In the 90s, however, a person who 
chooses the tough "homemaker" position is made to feel a bit ashamed that he or she has taken 
the option of a non-marketplace, non-public and non-financially rewarded job. Perhaps this is 
due to the fact that women have successfully entered the once male-dominated workworld, and 
thus the stay-at-home Mom feels torn or ambivalent because the media makes her feel behind the 
times. On the other hand, maybe it's simply due to the fact that the crucial task of raising children 
has no dollar value attached to it, and is therefore symbolically worthless in our market-driven 
culture. 
Connectives in advanced Swedish EFL learners’ written English 143
Our choice, then, is to decide whether mothers, or even childless homemakers, for that matter, 
should be financially rewarded, or whether our society needs to re-examine its notions of worthy 
societal contributions. How about making the paycheck out to the couple, or to the entire family, 
instead of the individual person (it, of course, the worker is married)? Perhaps this is a solution 
worth its salt since it communicates physically, materially, that each member of a partnership is 
an equally worthy contributor. 
SWICLE lowest score essay 
374 words 
score: 3.5 
Integration or Assimilation 
Since the Middle Ages Sweden has recieved many people of foreign backgrounds. Some have 
been completely assimilated in the Swedish society. Others have stayed in their own language 
and cultural spheres. Since the 50s Sweden's government policy has been assimilation or at 
least the idea of assimilation. A great number of Finnish people immigrated to Sweden in the 
late 50s and 60s due to lack of labour. A majority of these immigrants rather easily 
assimilated mostly due to similiar social and cultural backgrounds. Their process of 
assimilation has not, so far, been very successful. Some critics even call it a failure. The 
problem, in my opinion, is that, for some reasons, Swedish authorities and employers do not 
realize what good resources these people are for the Swedish society. 
 In spite of the fact that they very often are skilled or university graduates employers do not 
usually employ them. Jobs they do get are simple and certain skills or knowledge is not 
required. Many foreigners work under these conditions. Even when they attend Swedish 
languge classes in their spare time reaching a higher level ot proficiency of Swedish, 
considering speaking, writing and understanding the language they do not get better jobs. 
 Sweden has over the centuries been a very closed and united nation. Its inhabitants have 
looked upon people from strange countries with great suspect. This might be one of the 
reasons Swedish companies which need trained people and accademics mostly do not employ 
non Europeans. 
 However, I think that assimilation is the right way to go. Though it has to be modified to 
work out. A mutual respect and understanding have to be built up between foreigners and 
Swedes, and we have to realize that immigrants and refugees from remote nations cannot 
completely assimilate. 
On the other hand integration instead of assimilation would not solve the problem. t would 
probably mean a development towards ghettos, as has been and still is the situation in the 
USA, creating severe social, economic and racial problems. If the immigrants' and refugees' 
skill and knowledge are not taken seriously, there would be a great danger of developing the 
same situation here in Sweden as in the USA. I don't think any Swedish would welcome that. 
Marie Tapper 144
LOCNESS lowest score essay 
333 words 
score: 3.0 
Money is the root of all evil 
It's difficult to justify this saying in a world where money is power and power is everything. 
Without money nothing works. We went off the barter system years ago. So if one wants to eat, 
have some where to sleep, have transportation and clothing, the almighty dollar is a must. 
It's probably more correct to say that, "Absolute power currupts absolute". Once ones basic and 
comfort needs are met, what's next, power or the power to influence. This begats the will for 
more power and the cicle goes on. Unless the individual has a good work ethic and good sence, 
the power can become intoxicating to the point of it being the obsession that controls a person's 
life. 
Anything that comes easy most probably won't be as appreciated or valued as something that 
comes with effort. Money makes things happen, and quickly. If one has to work hard for their 
salary, they most likely will spend it more wisely than if someone always had plenty of money 
and never had to work for a living. 
This brings up another theory of how people use money. Some use it to live and others live to 
use it. Money can be either a slave for us or it can make us slaves. Many people rate the quality 
of life and sucess by a dollar figure that they made last year. Others rate success one heir more 
substantive accomplishments that agree with their sense of values, of which money is not 
number one. The people who rate their success by that dollar figure also must compare and be 
competitive with others. The person who rates success on substantive accomplishments can stand 
alone and have self satisfaction. 
Money is something that our society has made indespencable. It is for us to use, not for it to use 
us. We are to be the masters and use it for our needs and good. It is not to be our master.