Niina Hynninen, Irina Herneaho, Johanna Isosävi, Mei Yang
{"title":"Perspectives on Language and Participation","authors":"Niina Hynninen, Irina Herneaho, Johanna Isosävi, Mei Yang","doi":"10.30661/afinlavk.131460","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30661/afinlavk.131460","url":null,"abstract":"Language plays a key role in enabling and restricting participation in society. Considering the increasing linguistic diversity in education, working life and society at large, it is important to understand what it requires from individuals to participate and for institutions to support participation. The yearbook articles explore the concept of participation in relation to language, social justice, and social inclusion, highlighting how language choices and the use of specific linguistic resources can either support or hinder participation. That learning to master a specific national language would be a prerequisite for participation in society is challenged, and what is emphasised instead is the need for inclusive practices and a broader understanding of linguistic competence that goes beyond monolingual ideologies. In all, the yearbook provides a window to the richness of socially engaged applied linguistics as practiced in Finland and beyond.","PeriodicalId":470487,"journal":{"name":"AFinLA:n vuosikirja","volume":"49 4","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135168425","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Tommaso M. Milani, Simon Bauer, Kerstin Von Brömssen, Andrea Spehar
{"title":"Participation on whose terms? Applied linguistics, politics and social justice","authors":"Tommaso M. Milani, Simon Bauer, Kerstin Von Brömssen, Andrea Spehar","doi":"10.30661/afinlavk.127858","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30661/afinlavk.127858","url":null,"abstract":"The aim of this position paper is to engage with the focus of this yearbook on language and participation by revisiting some of the arguments advanced by the North American political philosopher Nancy Fraser, who theorized (1) the structural components that enable and/or constrain participation, and (2) the ways in which we can transform the status quo with a view to achieving a more just society. The paper begins by outlining Fraser’s main ideas; it then moves on to illustrate how this theoretical framework may help us shed light on the dilemmas and/or pitfalls of well-meaning initiatives that seek to enhance adult migrants’ participation. The empirical focus is on courses in civic orientation (samhällsorientering) for newly arrived adult migrants in Sweden. The paper ends with some reflections about the importance of a politically engaged applied linguistics.","PeriodicalId":470487,"journal":{"name":"AFinLA:n vuosikirja","volume":"7 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135168429","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Diskursiivinen ja ideologinen osallisuus – esimerkkinä tulkatut asioimistilanteet ja verkon keskustelupalstat","authors":"Simo Määttä","doi":"10.30661/afinlavk.127817","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30661/afinlavk.127817","url":null,"abstract":"Tässä kirjoituksessa käsitellään osallisuutta diskurssin ja ideologian näkökulmasta. Johdannossa tarkastellaan osallisuutta valikoiduissa diskurssin ja ideologian määritelmissä ja tarkennetaan, millä tavalla käsitteitä sovelletaan analysoiduissa esimerkeissä. Analyysissa eritellään ensin diskursiivista ja ideologista osallisuutta raportoinnin diskurssin ja yksinkertaistavien kieli- ideologioiden luonnehtimissa asioimis- ja oikeustulkkaustilanteissa. Analyysin toisessa osassa tarkastelun kohteena ovat verkon keskustelupalstojen arkidiskurssia edustavat esimerkit, joissa materialisoituvat muukalaisvihamieliset maahanmuuttoideologiat. Loppuluvussa kootaan yhteen analyysin tulokset ja pohditaan diskursiivisen ja ideologisen osallisuuden tutkimukseen liittyviä haasteita.","PeriodicalId":470487,"journal":{"name":"AFinLA:n vuosikirja","volume":"80 2","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135166298","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Selkokielellä kriisiä rakentamassa: koronadiskurssit selkomediassa ja tukijärjestöjen viestinnässä","authors":"Mikko T. Virtanen, Auli Kulkki-Nieminen","doi":"10.30661/afinlavk.127105","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30661/afinlavk.127105","url":null,"abstract":"In this article, we consider a fundamental but so far little-investigated area of crisis communication: Easy Language journalism and public communication. Specifically, we focus on Easy Finnish material related to the Covid-19 pandemic. By adopting a Discourse Analytic perspective, we look at the ways in which the pandemic is constructed as a crisis across genres and ideological discourses operating in the overall ecology of Finnish Easy Language mass communication. As a result, we identify and describe four discourses that are foregrounded in our data: responsibility discourse, equality discourse, trust discourse and coping discourse. Our results highlight the importance of Easy Language communication in supporting the social inclusion of its target groups during a time of global crisis further severed by the so-called infodemic. The data covers the years 2020 and 2021 and includes material from the media and third-sector organizations.","PeriodicalId":470487,"journal":{"name":"AFinLA:n vuosikirja","volume":"33 4","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135168393","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Vastasaapuneet ja osallisuuden rakentuminen yhteisissä ja erillisissä luokkahuoneissa","authors":"Maria Ahlholm, Ella Väätäinen, Sirkku Latomaa","doi":"10.30661/afinlavk.127123","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30661/afinlavk.127123","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines the ways in which newly arrived pupils are integrated into the school community and how pupils are supported in adopting the language of instruction. We see language learning as a socialization process: language is for interaction, and through language we situate ourselves in social reality. The article draws on two data sources: a survey of preparatory education teachers in Finland and research project publications drawing on ethnographic data collected in preparatory classes. The survey responses indicate that in some schools, the basis for the integration of newly arrived pupils has been built into the school culture; in others, structures such as group size and spatial arrangement challenge the creation of functional practices. The classroom studies suggest that in the early stages of language learning, learners benefit the most from the linguistic model of their peers, while later, when learning subject- specific content, teachers’ support is crucial for them.","PeriodicalId":470487,"journal":{"name":"AFinLA:n vuosikirja","volume":"41 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135166297","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sanna Mustonen, Mervi Kaukko, Jenni Alisaari, Maria Petäjäniemi, Leena Maria Heikkola, Raisa Harju-Autti, Nick Haswell
{"title":"Pakolaistaustaisten oppilaiden tuki koulutoimen hallinnollisissa diskursseissa","authors":"Sanna Mustonen, Mervi Kaukko, Jenni Alisaari, Maria Petäjäniemi, Leena Maria Heikkola, Raisa Harju-Autti, Nick Haswell","doi":"10.30661/afinlavk.127097","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30661/afinlavk.127097","url":null,"abstract":"In this article, we examine Finnish school administration discourses concerning support for students with a refugee background. The data consisted of expert interviews and was analysed using a critical discourse analysis approach. Regarding learning support, we identified discourses concerning tensions between policy and practices, as well as the deus ex machina discourse. Regarding psychosocial support, the discourses of uncertainty, caution and deus ex machina were identified. Thus, built within the experts’ discourses there is a strong understanding of the importance of learning support but uncertainty regarding the need for psychosocial support. Two further discourses, those of exclusion and securitization discourses were also identified as significant in the reception of students with a refugee background. These two discourses were resisted by the experts we interviewed. The results indicate a continuing need for common policies at the national level to provide long-term support for refugee-background students as well as further teacher training development.","PeriodicalId":470487,"journal":{"name":"AFinLA:n vuosikirja","volume":"101 4","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135168568","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Anna Kristina Hultgren, Marion Nao, Peter Wingrove, Dogan Yuksel, Beatrice Zuaro
{"title":"New insights into the trend towards English as a medium of instruction in European higher education through transdisciplinary participation","authors":"Anna Kristina Hultgren, Marion Nao, Peter Wingrove, Dogan Yuksel, Beatrice Zuaro","doi":"10.30661/afinlavk.127850","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30661/afinlavk.127850","url":null,"abstract":"The drive towards English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) in universities in non-English-dominant countries can generate heated debates, yet the drivers of EMI are still not fully understood. This position paper argues for transdisciplinary participation in order to shed new light on the drivers of EMI. Transdisciplinary participation is conceptualized as engaging with theories, methodologies and practices in other disciplines in order to approach a topical issue in a new way. We exemplify transdisciplinary participation as bringing together applied linguists and those involved in academic governance to re-theorize the rise of EMI as linked to steering at a distance governance reforms that have swept across the European higher education sector since the 1980s. Showcasing three cases from across Europe, we argue that steering at a distance may shed new light on the drivers of EMI. At a more general level, we highlight how disciplinary positioning shapes the creation of knowledge.","PeriodicalId":470487,"journal":{"name":"AFinLA:n vuosikirja","volume":"5 3","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135168559","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Kielenkäyttäjäprofiilit monikielisen työyhteisön tukena – tutkimuksellinen kehittämistyö kielentutkijan työkaluna","authors":"Eveliina Korpela, Inkeri Lehtimaja","doi":"10.30661/afinlavk.126198","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30661/afinlavk.126198","url":null,"abstract":"Artikkelissa tarkastellaan, miten kielentutkijat voivat hyödyntää tutkimuksellista kehittämisprosessia vuorovaikutuskäytänteiden kehittämiseksi monikielisissä työyhteisöissä. Lisäksi esitellään sitä, miten tutkimustuloksia voidaan soveltaa käytännössä. Työntekijöiden haastattelujen ja hankkeessa Monikielistyvä työelämä tehdyn tutkimuksen perusteella on luotu kielenkäyttäjäprofiileja, jotka kuvaavat kielen oppimiseen vaikuttavia tekijöitä sekä asenteita monikielisyyttä kohtaan työpaikalla. Kielenkäyttäjäprofiilit ovat käytännöllinen ja havainnollinen tapa kuvata monikielisiin työyhteisöihin liittyviä ilmiöitä ja aikuisten kielenoppijoiden erilaisia haasteita ja tarpeita. Artikkelissa kuvataan tutkimuksellisen kehittämisprosessin työskentelymenetelmiä, esitellään prosessin tuloksena syntyneet kielenkäyttäjäprofiilit ja osoitetaan, miten niitä voidaan hyödyntää monikielisissä työyhteisöissä kielten oppimisen tukemiseen, vuorovaikutuskäytänteiden kehittämiseen ja työntekijöiden osallisuuden kokemuksen vahvistamiseen.","PeriodicalId":470487,"journal":{"name":"AFinLA:n vuosikirja","volume":"17 5","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135166299","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Kieli ja osallisuuden eri ulottuvuudet Suomessa asuvien ulkomaalaistaustaisten diskursseissa","authors":"Liisa-Maria Lehto","doi":"10.30661/afinlavk.127115","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30661/afinlavk.127115","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines how inclusion is constructed in the discourses of migrants living in Finland. In the article, inclusion is discussed in relation to the concepts of integration and belonging. It is argued that inclusion, language and social structure are tied together through interaction. Drawing on data from pair conversations among migrants, the article focuses on the ways in which the participants speak about different dimensions of inclusion: concrete, abstract and solidary, and how these ways of speaking reflect language ideologies. The findings show that the concrete dimension of inclusion is depicted as requirements to learn Finnish and as tightly connected to the everyday context. Abstract inclusion implies the overall importance of language in human life and emphasizes the key role of language in crossing societal boundaries, and the solidary dimension emphasizes the reciprocity of language. The findings illustrate the participants’ willingness to make an effort to participate in society.","PeriodicalId":470487,"journal":{"name":"AFinLA:n vuosikirja","volume":"252 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135166300","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}