My Swedish grammar website is published, and you are all welcome to visit it! This blog post will have a summary in Swedish below.
Building blocks
The figure you see here below meets you on the homepage of Svensk grammatik och ordbildning (Swedish grammar and word formation), and it is a symbol for my way of looking at language rules. They are building blocks that create a strong foundation for developing a deep knowledge of Swedish. And grammar is fun!
When you understand the Swedish language rules you will also know how to use the words you have learned. The grammar rules tell you how to put them together, and the word formation rules help you understand and remember new words.
First tested in education
Before I begun working with the kalmstrom.com applications I taught the Swedish language to immigrants for many years. It was an interesting and rewarding task, which engaged me a lot.
I often made my own Swedish grammar instructions and exercises when I could not find anything on the market that suited my students. Most of them had high educations from their home countries, and they were not new beginners. This meant that they could benefit from theoretical and logical reasoning about the Swedish language, but they needed written information and exercises on their level.
I learned from experience what worked and what did not work for this group of students, and the documents I made for them became the basis for the grammar books I published.
My son and our CEO, Peter, helped me transform the content of some of the grammar books into a computer program, that was sold as a cd-rom. Now this program is transformed again, into a website with Swedish grammar rules.
English translation
When we added the Swedish grammar rules to a website it was possible to also add an important enhancement - translation. By clicking a radio button students will get an English translation of the rules beside the Swedish text.
Currently work is in progress to add a Finnish translation also. I hope it will be possible for us to translate into more languages in the future, because it is of course not optimal to get the explanations in the language you are learning and not in your own language! But for the Swedish grammar books and the cd-roms that was the only alternative, if you did not want to have a clumsy, multiple language text all the time.
Examples with sound
The Swedish grammar rules are illustrated with examples, often with recorded sound. This way the students will get a better understanding of how the rule works in Swedish sentences and phrases, and I hope they will listen to the recordings many times to acquire a set of "templates" for their own language building.
Word formation rules
Not only Swedish grammar rules are included in Svensk grammatik och ordbildning. The website also contains all the important guidelines for Swedish word formation. To build a vocabulary you must understand how words are related to one another. The Swedish word formation rules can even teach you how to create new words, for example the compounds that are so common in the Swedish language.
Pronunciation
Svensk grammatik och ordbildning also contains a section about Swedish pronunciation. This is important, not only because the students need to learn the pronunciation rules, but also because these rules sometimes actually govern the grammar and word formation.
Grammar exercises
After many of the grammar rules there are several kinds of exercises, where the students can test if they have really understood the rules. Also here we have added sound when possible.
Just like the grammar rules the exercises are on several levels, so that both advanced students and others who have not come that far will find something useful. Svensk grammatik och ordbildning is however not intended for total new beginners.
Cooperation project
The Swedish grammar site has been built in cooperation between four people with different expertise. Peter Kalmström, has been the project leader and managed the technically most advanced parts. The kalmstrom.com Graphic Designer Jitendra Joshi has created the website design and helped me to enter the Swedish and English text. Siret Kalmstrom has proofread my English translation, and as she is learning Swedish she has also commented on my explanations of the Swedish grammar rules.
Further development
Now Siret and Jitendra are working with the Finnish translation of the grammar and word formation rules. As both have other tasks it will take some time, but we hope to release the new version by the end of this year.
We are also planning an app for iPhone and iPad. It will be a convenient help for many learners of Swedish to have the grammar rules so readily at hand in their mobile devices.
Swedish summary:
Svensk grammatik och ordbildning är en nypublicerad webbsajt for studier i svenska som andraspråk och främmande språk, avsedd för skolor som anordnar svenskkurser för invandrare och för utländska lärosäten med svenskundervisning. Sajten bygger på mina läroböcker och på det datorprogram som tidigare getts ut av Tallstugans förlag.
Svensk grammatik och ordbildning innehåller regler och övningar, exempel med ljud och en möjlighet att få all regeltext översatt till engelska. Sajten är avsedd för ungdomar och vuxna som redan har grundläggande kunskaper i svenska.
Kate Kalmström
COO
kalmstrom.com Business Solutions
Tallstugan
Building blocks
The figure you see here below meets you on the homepage of Svensk grammatik och ordbildning (Swedish grammar and word formation), and it is a symbol for my way of looking at language rules. They are building blocks that create a strong foundation for developing a deep knowledge of Swedish. And grammar is fun!
When you understand the Swedish language rules you will also know how to use the words you have learned. The grammar rules tell you how to put them together, and the word formation rules help you understand and remember new words.
Before I begun working with the kalmstrom.com applications I taught the Swedish language to immigrants for many years. It was an interesting and rewarding task, which engaged me a lot.
I often made my own Swedish grammar instructions and exercises when I could not find anything on the market that suited my students. Most of them had high educations from their home countries, and they were not new beginners. This meant that they could benefit from theoretical and logical reasoning about the Swedish language, but they needed written information and exercises on their level.
I learned from experience what worked and what did not work for this group of students, and the documents I made for them became the basis for the grammar books I published.
My son and our CEO, Peter, helped me transform the content of some of the grammar books into a computer program, that was sold as a cd-rom. Now this program is transformed again, into a website with Swedish grammar rules.
English translation
When we added the Swedish grammar rules to a website it was possible to also add an important enhancement - translation. By clicking a radio button students will get an English translation of the rules beside the Swedish text.
Currently work is in progress to add a Finnish translation also. I hope it will be possible for us to translate into more languages in the future, because it is of course not optimal to get the explanations in the language you are learning and not in your own language! But for the Swedish grammar books and the cd-roms that was the only alternative, if you did not want to have a clumsy, multiple language text all the time.
Examples with sound
The Swedish grammar rules are illustrated with examples, often with recorded sound. This way the students will get a better understanding of how the rule works in Swedish sentences and phrases, and I hope they will listen to the recordings many times to acquire a set of "templates" for their own language building.Word formation rules
Not only Swedish grammar rules are included in Svensk grammatik och ordbildning. The website also contains all the important guidelines for Swedish word formation. To build a vocabulary you must understand how words are related to one another. The Swedish word formation rules can even teach you how to create new words, for example the compounds that are so common in the Swedish language.
Pronunciation
Svensk grammatik och ordbildning also contains a section about Swedish pronunciation. This is important, not only because the students need to learn the pronunciation rules, but also because these rules sometimes actually govern the grammar and word formation.
Grammar exercises
After many of the grammar rules there are several kinds of exercises, where the students can test if they have really understood the rules. Also here we have added sound when possible.
Just like the grammar rules the exercises are on several levels, so that both advanced students and others who have not come that far will find something useful. Svensk grammatik och ordbildning is however not intended for total new beginners.
Cooperation project
The Swedish grammar site has been built in cooperation between four people with different expertise. Peter Kalmström, has been the project leader and managed the technically most advanced parts. The kalmstrom.com Graphic Designer Jitendra Joshi has created the website design and helped me to enter the Swedish and English text. Siret Kalmstrom has proofread my English translation, and as she is learning Swedish she has also commented on my explanations of the Swedish grammar rules.
Further development
Now Siret and Jitendra are working with the Finnish translation of the grammar and word formation rules. As both have other tasks it will take some time, but we hope to release the new version by the end of this year.
We are also planning an app for iPhone and iPad. It will be a convenient help for many learners of Swedish to have the grammar rules so readily at hand in their mobile devices.
Svensk grammatik och ordbildning är en nypublicerad webbsajt for studier i svenska som andraspråk och främmande språk, avsedd för skolor som anordnar svenskkurser för invandrare och för utländska lärosäten med svenskundervisning. Sajten bygger på mina läroböcker och på det datorprogram som tidigare getts ut av Tallstugans förlag.
Svensk grammatik och ordbildning innehåller regler och övningar, exempel med ljud och en möjlighet att få all regeltext översatt till engelska. Sajten är avsedd för ungdomar och vuxna som redan har grundläggande kunskaper i svenska.
Kate Kalmström
COO
kalmstrom.com Business Solutions
Tallstugan
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