Language-safer space? Navigating multilingualism in a Finnish university language centre

Abstract

As the demographic and linguistic diversity within Finnish higher education grows, institutions face increasing demands to address linguistic inclusivity and equity in multilingual contexts. University language centres are sites where these demands are negotiated in everyday professional practice, alongside their role in offering language and communication courses, as well as translation and language consultation services. This study examines how staff describe and make sense of the linguistic spaces they navigate in their everyday work.

The research question is: How do language centre staff report and reflect on their experiences of navigating linguistic spaces within a Finnish language centre? The data consist of workshop discussions in which staff shared language-related experiences.

Using thematic content analysis and a narrative-based approach, the study highlights two themes: situations marked by ambiguity and unease when expectations and linguistic resources do not align, and reflexive reorientation in which participants adjust or reimagine language practices. These themes are read through the spatial theories of Doreen Massey and Suresh Canagarajah, which conceptualize space as a dynamic field where power relations are negotiated. The results are brought into dialogue with discussions of the safer space concept, which offers a frame for considering how equity and inclusion can be supported.

The study foregrounds the need for reflexivity not only among students but also among educators and other actors in positions of authority, whose language practices shape the communicative conditions of academia. The paper offers language-safer space as a tentative exploratory concept for future theoretical and practical development.