Suomen kielen käyttämiseen liittyvät tunteet, käsitykset ja toimijuus - Finnish language users’ emotions, beliefs and agency

Abstract

In this article, I will explore the emotions of two highly educated Finnish lan-guage users in relation to their language learning and language use. I will al-so examine how the emotions and beliefs are related to the users’ agency, and how their emotions, beliefs and agency change in the course of a year. The data of this socioculturally informed study consist mainly of interviews which were conducted in two phases; the first round at the end of the integration training for adult immigrants and the second round after a one-year period. At the end of the integration training, the key participants felt emotions which are typi-cal of language anxiety. Above all, those emotions were aroused in informal learning environments in situations that required oral communication in Finn-ish. The emotions were connected to the participants’ beliefs about themselves, their language skills, language learning and interlocutor. Especially the fear of making mistakes complicated communication. Negative emotions and beliefs restricted the participants’ agency. The participants did not take advantage of the possibilities offered by the learning environment to practice their Finnish but preferred to communicate in English. During the year, the participants’ agencies developed in different directions.