Apples - Journal of Applied Language Studies
type: channel
description: Apples - Journal of Applied Language Studies is a peer reviewed international Open Access journal housed by the Language Campus at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland. Apples transgresses disciplinary boundaries and invites submissions that broadly relate to issues of language in society. We welcome manuscripts from all areas and fields that discuss linguistic and discursive phenomena and their societal embeddedness, by addressing in/equity, exclusion/inclusion, societal challenges and developments, or language rights.
publisher: University of Jyväskylä
language: en
publication name: Apples - Journal of Applied Language Studies
issn: 1457-9863
copyright: Author’s Warranty and Publication Agreement The corresponding Author (hereafter Author) hereby warrants on behalf of all the authors (hereafter author(s)) that the manuscript here submitted to the journal Apples - Journal of Applied Language Studies is original and has not been published or submitted to publication elsewhere in part or in whole. The Author also commits not to send the manuscript for consideration elsewhere while the article is being processed by Apples - Journal of Applied Language Studies. The Author also warrants to have the full authority to submit the article. Apples will not accept a manuscript for which the copyright is held by a third party. The Author also warrants that the article contains no libelous or unlawful statements, and does not infringe on the rights of others. If the article contains any material protected by the copyright of others, the Author must deliver a written permission from the copyright owner(s) to reproduce such material in the article. The Author also understands that: 1. The Author hereby agrees that the Publisher (the University of Jyväskylä, Centre for Applied Language Studies) has the right to publish, distribute, display and copy the article. When the manuscript is ready for publication, it will be published at Publisher's own expense and under the Publisher's name. The author(s) retains the copyright to the article. 2. The Author understands that no royalties or remuneration will be paid by the Publisher to the author(s) for the above-named submitted manuscript. 3. The Author is responsible for the content, originality and integrity of the article, and will indemnify and defend the Publisher against any claim, demand or recovery against the Publisher by reason of any violation of any proprietary right or copyright, or because of any libelous or scandalous matter contained in the manuscript. 4. The publisher will have the right to edit the work, provided that the meaning of the text is not materially altered. 5. …
items: Using your time wisely? Encountering racial time in institutional (non)transitions in the Nordic context
items: Communal and epistemic functions and value of the Arabic language in Norway
items: Reliability of assessment of five L1 groups in a high stakes test: Specific focus on Arabic L1 test takers
items: Editorial: Educational encounters with Arabic-speakers in the Nordic countries
items: From university to working life: International student’s Finnish language learning experiences
items: Educational encounters through food, drink, and Arabic
items: Delayed, Accelerated, Racialized: Exploring Neoliberal Temporal Encounters in Language Learning across Institutional Boundaries
items: Keeping up with the normies: Rememiotizing SpongeBob SquarePants in mental health memes
items: Teachers’ perceptions on multilingualism in the context of two national languages
items: The prominence of English in Danish workplaces: Approaching a bilingual labour market
items: Between efficacy and inequity: Teachers’ practices and beliefs regarding ability grouping for coping with learner diversity in language education at upper secondary school
items: Newly Arrived Primary School Students’ Cross-Chronotopic Movements through Language Learner Agency and Peer Scaffolding
items: The functional irrythmicality of spontaneous speech
items: Börje Vähämäki: Mastering Finnish
items: University Language Centres in Finland – Role and Challenges
items: Challenges and Aspirations of University Language Centres with Particular Reference to Croatia
items: Reconceptualising the role of talk in CLIL
items: Migrants and Literacy Crises
items: Editorial
items: Languages as objects of learning
items: Expertise sharing in the field of court translating and interpreting
items: A Linguistic journey to the border
items: Erasmus exchange students
items: Interpreting and managing a monolingual norm in an English-speaking class in Finland
items: Objects as artifacts
items: Negotiating a New Culture of Doing Learning?
items: (Re)Defining Freedom of Speech
items: The Proficiency in Swedish of Finnish speaking University Students
items: Figurative Verben in der alltäglichen Wissenschaftssprache des Deutschen

Using your time wisely? Encountering racial time in institutional (non)transitions in the Nordic context
type: item
description: In this paper, we discuss how controlling the time and (im)mobility of the Other in the Nordic context—governed by hegemonic whiteness—constitutes a coercive system. We do this by focusing on racial time (Mulinari, 2021) as the unequal distribution of time in which control of time and racialization are co-constructed. Our discussion is based on ethnographic data drawn from fieldwork in two Swedish upper secondary schools in language introduction programs and language introduction combined with national vocational programs; and in Finland, integration training comprising transition to the labor market. More specifically, we present examples from Arabic-speaking migrants in forced migration, foregrounding non-transitions within the education system and work life. We argue that such delays imposed on the racialized migrant bodies in this context are systemic, and discuss how the requirement of competence in the national language becomes tied to institutional walls. We also refer to neoliberal tropes of the employable, the educable, and the integrateable migrant body through the notions of will and use (Ahmed, 2014, 2019), and to the risk of becoming a “willful”, “useless”, and “undeserving” subject. The paper ends with a reflection on potential stranger encounters of otherwise as a way to break with dysfunctional institutional walls.
subject: SI: Educational encounters with Arabic speakers in the Nordic countries
  topic: section
subject: non-transitions
  topic: keywords
subject: institutional wall
  topic: keywords
subject: migration
  topic: keywords
subject: racial time
  topic: keywords
subject: strange encounters
  topic: keywords
creator: Christina Hedman
creator: Ameera Masoud-Jaakonaho
creator: Enni Paul
rights: Copyright (c) 2021 Christina Hedman, Ameera Masoud, Enni Paul https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2026-08-24
publication date: 2026-08-24
starting page: 48
ending page: 63
doi: 10.47862/apples.160970

Communal and epistemic functions and value of the Arabic language in Norway
type: item
description: -
subject: SI: Educational encounters with Arabic speakers in the Nordic countries
  topic: section
subject: -
  topic: keywords
creator: Nora S. Eggen
rights: Copyright (c) 2021 Nora S. Eggen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2026-08-24
publication date: 2026-08-24
starting page: 100
ending page: 105
doi: 10.47862/apples.180153

Reliability of assessment of five L1 groups in a high stakes test: Specific focus on Arabic L1 test takers
type: item
description: Language proficiency tests are frequently employed in citizenship application processes in many countries. This article investigates a high-stakes proficiency test used in Finland – the National Certificate for Language Proficiency (NCLP) – by examining the reliability of assessments for one spoken task, in the light of test justice and fairness. The data are drawn from project Broken Finnish: Accent perceptions in societal gatekeeping from NCLP. The data includes ratings from two assessment rounds, conducted in 2015 and 2016, based on a recorded spoken task completed by NCLP participants representing five different first language (L1) groups: Arabic, Estonian, Finland Swedish, Russian and Thai. We studied whether the repeated assessments were equivalent in terms of reliability regarding the L1 groups, with a specific focus on the Arabic L1 speakers. This focus was selected due to the pronounced discrimination experienced by Arabic L1 speakers in Finland, and the role of the NCLP gatekeeping citizenship, resulting in tangible real-life consequences for the test takers. Quantitative statistical methods were utilized, such as Gamma Coefficient (γ) and the agreement between ratings with Cohen’s Kappa (κ) and Spearman rank-correlations (r). Results showed that the separate subjective assessments were not equivalent among different language groups. The assessments of the Arabic L1 test takers had drastic variability. This raises concerns regarding the reliability and consequential validity of the assessments, highlighting critical issues of fairness and justice in language testing.
subject: SI: Educational encounters with Arabic speakers in the Nordic countries
  topic: section
subject: High-stakes national proficiency test
  topic: keywords
subject: Arabic L1
  topic: keywords
subject: reliability
  topic: keywords
subject: test fairness and justice
  topic: keywords
subject: large scale assessment
  topic: keywords
creator: Mia Halonen
creator: Najat Ouakrim-Soivio
creator: Elina Vaara
rights: Copyright (c) 2021 Mia Halonen, Najat Ouakrim-Soivio, Elina Vaara https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2026-08-24
publication date: 2026-08-24
starting page: 81
ending page: 99
doi: 10.47862/apples.160071

Editorial: Educational encounters with Arabic-speakers in the Nordic countries
type: item
description: -
subject: SI: Educational encounters with Arabic speakers in the Nordic countries
  topic: section
creator: Ingrid Rodrick Beiler
creator: Sofia Antera
creator: Marianne Teräs
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Ingrid Rodrick Beiler, Sofia Antera, Marianne Teräs https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2026-08-24
publication date: 2026-08-24
starting page: 1
ending page: 8
doi: 10.47862/apples.180150

From university to working life: International student’s Finnish language learning experiences
type: item
description: In Finland’s integration policy, learning an official language, Finnish or Swedish, is prioritised to promote migrants’ entry into the labour market and participation in society. The implementation of the integration policy primarily focuses on formal language courses offered as part of integration training for unemployed jobseeker migrants with residence permits. However, this approach leaves other migrants largely outside the scope of integration training that provides Finnish language courses. Meanwhile, opportunities to learn Finnish outside formal education settings, namely non-formal and informal learning, have been mostly overlooked in integration and language education policies, as well as in academic research. This ethnographic study addresses these aspects by exploring the Finnish language learning trajectory and personal curriculum of an Arabic-speaking international higher education student, Ahmed, with a particular focus on the variety of his experiences across formal, non-formal and informal learning settings, which provide the context and opportunities for ‘integrative encounters’. Specifically, integrative encounters refer to micro-spaces, such as peer or group activities, that are meant to foster intercultural dialogue and promote migrants’ integration. The research findings thus reveal how these learning settings, whether formal, non-formal or informal, not only facilitate but also hinder an international student’s learning of Finnish during studies and after graduation. Furthermore, the findings illustrate how non-formal and informal learning alongside formal education, enabled by more or less integrative encounters, impact migrants’ broader integration process. Overall, this research highlights the necessity of adopting a holistic approach to language education and integration policies to effectively support migrants’ integration into working life and society at large.
subject: SI: Educational encounters with Arabic speakers in the Nordic countries
  topic: section
subject: international student
  topic: keywords
subject: integration policy
  topic: keywords
subject: language learning environments
  topic: keywords
subject: personal curriculum
  topic: keywords
subject: integrative encounters
  topic: keywords
creator: Sonya Sahradyan
creator: Maarit Virolainen
rights: Copyright (c) 2021 Sonya Sahradyan, Maarit Virolainen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2026-08-24
publication date: 2026-08-24
starting page: 28
ending page: 47
doi: 10.47862/apples.161232

Educational encounters through food, drink, and Arabic
type: item
description: This article investigates how food and drink may facilitate educational and relational encounters with Arabic-speaking adult students and open up possibilities for transpositioning (Hawkins & Tiwari, 2024; Li Wei & Lee, 2024) in adult basic education (ABE). Drawing on sensory ethnography (Pink, 2015), we analyze how food, drink, and communication across Arabic, Nordic languages, and English created joint emplacement and relational reciprocity in adult basic education settings in Finland and Norway. Adult students from South-West Asia and North Africa used educational spaces to act as teachers and hosts, in settings where they are often positioned as guests or even social clients. These encounters may allow for greater reciprocity than what is common in adult migrant education, as food and drink connect to transnational histories, affective and sociomaterial realities, and lived experiences.
subject: SI: Educational encounters with Arabic speakers in the Nordic countries
  topic: section
subject: transpositioning
  topic: keywords
subject: educational encounters
  topic: keywords
subject: sensory ethnography
  topic: keywords
subject: Arabic
  topic: keywords
subject: adult basic education
  topic: keywords
creator: Johanna Ennser-Kananen
creator: Ingrid Rodrick Beiler
creator: Joke Dewilde
rights: Copyright (c) 2021 Johanna Ennser-Kananen, Ingrid Rodrick Beiler, Joke Dewilde https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2026-08-24
publication date: 2026-08-24
starting page: 9
ending page: 27
doi: 10.47862/apples.160987

Delayed, Accelerated, Racialized: Exploring Neoliberal Temporal Encounters in Language Learning across Institutional Boundaries
type: item
description: Drawing on ethnographic data from eight adult learners partaking in a Swedish for Immigrants class, this article demonstrates that institutional practices are shaped by two neoliberal rationalities: market orientation and self-speakerism. The school’s market-oriented logic is materialized through regulated and accelerated access to work. At the same time, the ideology of self-speakerism operates through the slowing down of learners’ institutional time in the name of linguistic improvement. I argue that acceleration and slowing down both function as “technologies of temporal management” (Del Percio, 2021), governing not only migrants’ learning trajectories, but also the regulation of the Swedish labor market. These neoliberal temporal logics produce lived experiences of uneven temporal mobilities, which are materialized in waiting and feelings of being stuck. Lastly, I argue that the learners’ differential access to and navigation of these regimes produce lived experiences of racial time (Mills, 2020), through which racialized hierarchies of access, mobility, and belonging are reproduced.
subject: SI: Educational encounters with Arabic speakers in the Nordic countries
  topic: section
subject: neoliberalism
  topic: keywords
subject: temporality
  topic: keywords
subject: racial time
  topic: keywords
subject: acceleration and slowing down
  topic: keywords
subject: migration
  topic: keywords
subject: SFI
  topic: keywords
creator: Samah Ibrahim
rights: Copyright (c) 2021 Samah Ibrahim https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2026-06-29
publication date: 2026-06-29
starting page: 64
ending page: 80
doi: 10.47862/apples.178122

Keeping up with the normies: Rememiotizing SpongeBob SquarePants in mental health memes
type: item
description: Mental health discussions online are increasing and becoming more multimodal. Memes relying on pop-cultural references are integral parts of online cultures, and similar memes on mental health are also gaining popularity. Drawing on multimodal discourse studies, this article examines mental health memes (collected mainly from Imgur.com and Instagram and by using reverse snowball method) utilizing imagery from the cartoon series SpongeBob SquarePants. The article introduces a new analytical concept developed specifically for meme analysis: rememiotization. Building on scholarship on resemiotization and entextualization, rememiotization focuses on how semiotic resources are used and socio-cultural discourses materialized in memetic context, thus contributing to both meme studies and digital discourse studies. Exploring questions on how SpongeBob is rememiotized into mental health memes and how rememiotization participates in representing mental health issues, the article suggests that memes use different semiotic resources to represent issues related to mental health. Specifically, the memes represent how people relate to their mental health problems, other people, and treatment – emphasizing the feeling of social and societal exclusion. The paper also shows how these memes use humour to critique socio-cultural norms around mental health, de-centring the problem-talk focused discourses on mental health while representing experience-based narratives. Still, the memes pathologize and individualize mental health problems and thereby participate in contemporary diagnostic and therapeutic culture. By illuminating how people themselves process living with mental distress in memes, this paper provides crucial information about mental health not found in other contexts and offers new insight for successful mental health communication.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: memes
  topic: keywords
subject: mental health
  topic: keywords
subject: rememiotization
  topic: keywords
subject: SpongeBob Squarepants
  topic: keywords
subject: multimodal discourse analysis
  topic: keywords
creator: Reeta Karjalainen
rights: Copyright (c) 2021 Reeta Karjalainen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2026-04-29
publication date: 2026-04-29
starting page: 44
ending page: 64
doi: 10.47862/apples.161514

Teachers’ perceptions on multilingualism in the context of two national languages
type: item
description: This study examines teachers’ views concerning multilingualism in Finnish-language and Swedish-language schools in Finland. Using the concepts of linguistically responsive teaching and sustainable translanguaging, the following research questions were posed: 1. How do teachers in Finnish-language and Swedish-language schools perceive multilingualism as reflected in their language use? 2. How do teachers in Finnish-language and Swedish-language schools perceive multilingualism as reflected in their guidance of the students’ language use? The data were collected through an online survey (N = 2 865) conducted in schools located in 291 municipalities across Finland, covering the entire country. Participants included primary school teachers, subject teachers, and special needs teachers. Almost a third of the participating schools reported no students with home languages other than Finnish, Swedish, or Saami. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were adopted. The results reveal that the teachers in Finnish-language schools relate the concept of linguistic diversity to all languages, whereas the teachers in Swedish-language schools often embrace the national languages within that concept. Furthermore, the results confirm the outcomes of previous research, reporting that Swedish-language schools have a dual role: to safeguard the use of the school language, which has a minority position in the Finnish society, and to acknowledge growing linguistic diversity. Teachers in both school types partially embrace multilingualism but need further support to implement linguistically responsive teaching. The results also suggest that to help teachers develop strategies for linguistically responsive teaching, the connection between teachers’ orientations and pedagogical knowledge needs to be further emphasised.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: linguistically responsive teaching
  topic: keywords
subject: multilingualism
  topic: keywords
subject: national languages
  topic: keywords
subject: teachers' language use
  topic: keywords
subject: students' language use
  topic: keywords
creator: Anna Slotte
creator: Anne-Maria Kuosa
creator: Emma Heikkilä
creator: Kirsi Wallinheimo
creator: Maria Ahlholm
rights: Copyright (c) 2021 Anna Slotte, Anne-Maria Kuosa , Emma Heikkilä, Kirsi Wallinheimo, Maria Ahlholm https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2026-04-29
publication date: 2026-04-29
starting page: 24
ending page: 43
doi: 10.47862/apples.155612

The prominence of English in Danish workplaces: Approaching a bilingual labour market
type: item
description: We investigate the use of English in Danish workplaces using a representative questionnaire survey (n ≈ 854). Previous qualitative studies show that English is a frequently used lingua franca in white-collar workplaces, but not to the same extent in other types of work. Also, while many Danes have strong English competences, not everyone is able to use English. In order to better understand how much and where English is used in the labour market we investigate 1) How often Danes use English at work 2) How English use at work is related to location, age, education, industry, job title and job tasks. We find that an overwhelming majority of respondents use English at work, but that there are noticeable differences between educational groups, industries and job titles. Managers and IT workers are frequent users of English at work, whereas teachers and healthcare workers report relatively low frequency of use. Contrary to previous studies, we do not find a simple correlation between level of education and use of English. The results point to a labour market where English is a part of everyday working life for the large majority, but also to certain industries where the role of English is limited. Finally, we discuss the implications of these results in terms of labour market inclusion and exclusion.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: English in the Nordic countries
  topic: keywords
subject: multilingualism in the workplace
  topic: keywords
subject: English as an everyday language
  topic: keywords
subject: English in Denmark
  topic: keywords
subject: labor market inclusion and exclusion
  topic: keywords
subject: questionnaire survey
  topic: keywords
creator: Dorte Lønsmann
creator: Jacob Thøgersen
rights: Copyright (c) 2021 Dorte Lønsmann, Jacob Thøgersen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2026-04-29
publication date: 2026-04-29
starting page: 1
ending page: 23
doi: 10.47862/apples.161347

Between efficacy and inequity: Teachers’ practices and beliefs regarding ability grouping for coping with learner diversity in language education at upper secondary school
type: item
description: According to Gymnasieskolernes Lærerforening (2020), the student composition at Danish upper secondary schools has become increasingly heterogeneous over time, as more learners are allowed in than before. Teachers are forced to deal with this, for example through differentiated instruction, and more specifically ability grouping. The strategy of ability grouping, where learners are divided into homogeneous groups/classes according to their level, is a controversial approach, which according to several international studies, has shown modest positive effects, mostly among strong students, and extended negative effects in relation to equity. In an online survey study regarding teaching differentiation (Rasmussen & Fernández, 2023), we found evidence for a relatively widespread use of ability grouping in third foreign language subjects such as German and Spanish in upper secondary schools in Denmark, as well as a tendency to abandon the practice after some time. This discovery led us to expand our study to include observations and interviews (with learners, teachers and school leaders) focusing specifically on ability grouping practices. Results indicate that many foreign language teachers practice some form of ability grouping. We find a polarized landscape, with strong believers, who experience teaching success and a positive response from the learners; outspoken opponents, who either reject the practice as a matter of principle or because of negative experiences; and some neutral school leaders who trust their teachers’ ability to decide what is best for their students, even when no evaluations of this practice are performed and even when the leaders themselves might doubt its appropriateness.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: ability grouping
  topic: keywords
subject: foreign language teaching
  topic: keywords
subject: upper secondary school
  topic: keywords
subject: differentiation
  topic: keywords
subject: LOTE
  topic: keywords
creator: Susana Silvia Fernández
creator: Astrid Mus Rasmussen
rights: Copyright (c) 2021 Susana Silvia Fernández, Astrid Mus Rasmussen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2026-04-29
publication date: 2026-04-29
starting page: 106
ending page: 126
doi: 10.47862/apples.162651

Newly Arrived Primary School Students’ Cross-Chronotopic Movements through Language Learner Agency and Peer Scaffolding
type: item
description: Global migration continues to reshape and enrich educational landscapes, introducing increased linguistic and cultural diversity into classrooms. In Sweden, this has contributed to a multilingual school environment, in which newly arrived students navigate the new educational context through both a new language of instruction and their existing linguistic resources. This paper explores how two newly arrived students, in a Swedish primary school, engage in learning through Multilingual Study Mentoring (MSM). Drawing on a case study of the two students, the study examines how language learner agency and peer scaffolding emerge as involvement practices in Multilingual Study Mentoring sessions in Greek and within the mainstream classroom context. The findings highlight how support structures—established by the municipality, school, and educators—foster responsibility, belonging, and meaningful participation. By focusing on interactions including teachers, students and Multilingual Study Mentors the study shows how the students adapt, collaborate, and co-construct learning in ways that respond to their needs. The cross-chronotopic movement between the MSM room and the mainstream classroom also highlights the fluid and negotiated nature of involvement across multiple learning spaces. This paper contributes to a deeper understanding of student participation in multilingual education and sheds light on the under-researched role of MSM in the Swedish context.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: multilingual study mentoring
  topic: keywords
subject: migrant students
  topic: keywords
subject: multilingualism
  topic: keywords
subject: Swedish primary school
  topic: keywords
subject: linguistic ethnography
  topic: keywords
creator: Eirini Akavalou
rights: Copyright (c) 2021 Eirini Akavalou https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2026-04-29
publication date: 2026-04-29
starting page: 127
ending page: 150
doi: 10.47862/apples.162741

The functional irrythmicality of spontaneous speech
type: item
description: Experimental evidence has fully refuted the stress- and syllable-timing hypothesis (SSH) of speech rhythms. However, it remains the prevailing view and still features in accounts of the rhythms of speech because no other hypothesis matches its deceptively bewitching power. This paper, written from a discourse perspective, proposes a replacement for SSH: spontaneous speech is functionally irrhythmic. Although the formal events of speech – phones, strong and weak syllables, words, phrases – occur ‘in time’ (they can be plotted on a time line) they do not occur ‘on time’, (they do not occur at equal time intervals). English is not stress-timed, French is not syllable-timed. The rare patches of rhythmicality are either ‘elected’ – as in scanning readings of poetry and the uttering of proverbs – or ‘coincidental’ – the side-effects of higher order choices made by speakers. Coincidental rhythmicality is most likely to occur where there are equal numbers of syllables between stresses. In spontaneous speech, the speaker’s attention is on planning and uttering selections of meaning in pursuit of their social-worldly purposes, and this results in an irrhythmic norm which aids comprehension.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
creator: Richard Cauldwell
rights: Copyright (c)
date: 2002-12-31
publication date: 2002-12-31
starting page: 1
ending page: 24

Börje Vähämäki: Mastering Finnish
type: item
subject: Book reviews
  topic: section
creator: Maisa Martin
rights: Copyright (c)
date: 2001-12-31
publication date: 2001-12-31
starting page: 3
ending page: 5

University Language Centres in Finland – Role and Challenges
type: item
description: The present article examines university language centres in Finland, their current role, and the challenges they face. The aim is to provide a point of comparison to Ivan Poljaković’s article on language centres in European higher education. In Finland, the framework and basic functions of university language centres are well defined by legislation and long-standing practices within the universities. The strategic planning of language studies in Finnish higher education takes place on the European, national, university and language centre levels. In this process , the language centres have their own roles and responsibilities. It is also important that the centres define their particular identity and status in relation to their basic tasks. Due to their multidisciplinary nature, involving several languages and various fields, today’s language centres foster and promote interdisciplinary scholarship and research in language pedagogy. Defining the role and tasks of a language centre entails defining the kind of research best suited to its strategy and goals. Pedagogical expertise is a salient characteristic of Finnish language centres, distinguishing them from many academic fields and departments. By employing a well-conceived recruitment policy resulting in a highly professional faculty, Finnish language centres can establish a strong identity and can benefit greatly from internal expertise and know-how. In addition, active cooperation is undertaken both internally and with outside partners, for example national (FINELC) and international (CERCLES) networks. Finally, the concept of integration in language centre teaching is central. For language centres in general, the practice of integrated teaching would be an effective way of promoting their expertise and enhancing their visibility.
subject: Discussion notes
  topic: section
creator: Ulla-Kristiina Tuomi
creator: Heidi Rontu
rights: Copyright (c)
date: 2011-08-22
publication date: 2011-08-22
starting page: 45
ending page: 50

Challenges and Aspirations of University Language Centres with Particular Reference to Croatia
type: item
description: The recent political, social and economic changes in Europe have had a great impact on higher education, in particular with regard to foreign language teaching at universities. This has resulted in an increased need for foreign language teaching at universities especially among non-philological studies. The expansion of new language centres has been a step forward in meeting the challenges of the Bologna Process and the emerging multilingual Europe. Language centres play an important role in second language learning especially in teaching foreign languages for specific purposes. However, they have not always been on equal terms with modern language departments and other non-linguistic departments. Language centre staff are often treated with mistrust, and misconception of their work is not uncommon. Several changes need to occur to improve the status of language centres. Firstly, the teaching staff should take more initiatives in research which would ensure a better standing and a more adequate status within the higher education institution they operate in. Furthermore, universities should develop language policies to promote foreign language learning according to the European Council recommendations. This would contribute to a more harmonious cooperation between language centres and other departments at universities.
subject: Discussion notes
  topic: section
subject: language centres, foreign language for specific purposes (lsp), bologna process, foreign language policy
  topic: keywords
creator: Ivan Poljaković
rights: Copyright (c)
date: 2011-08-22
publication date: 2011-08-22
starting page: 37
ending page: 44

Reconceptualising the role of talk in CLIL
type: item
description: This theoretical paper offers a reconceptualisation of talk in CLIL based on sociocultural and dialogic theories of education. Building on these educational theories and the experiences of an on-going CLIL project, this paper presents a pedagogical model for the navigation of the ‘talkscape’ of the CLIL classroom. This model comprises a total of seven talk-types: organisational, social, critical, expert, exploratory, meta and pedagogic. In addition to these talk-types, the paper introduces the notion of a ‘transitional dynamic’. This notion aims to capture the transition from first language to foreign language use in CLIL both within the context of individual courses and across a broader CLIL educational pathway. It is hoped that this model provides a useful tool in both the practical realisation and theoretical development of CLIL.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: clil, dialogic, transitional dynamic, sociocultural, pedagogical model
  topic: keywords
creator: Josephine Moate
rights: Copyright (c)
date: 2011-08-22
publication date: 2011-08-22
starting page: 17
ending page: 35

Migrants and Literacy Crises
type: item
description: International comparisons of levels of literacy have in some countries been interpreted as an indication of a prevailing literacy crisis that demands political actions to avoid negative impact on national competitiveness, democracy, and coherence. Special attention is focused in the Danish crisis discourse on literacy as a reading competence and on migrants who, in particular, have become symbols of the crisis. In this article, the values and beliefs embedded in the political actions taken in the wake of the literacy crisis are analysed and the implications of the functionally based discursive construction of the literacy crisis for migrants are discussed. Based on an understanding of literacies as historically situated practices and value systems it is argued that the construction of the Danish literacy crisis can be seen as an ideological phenomenon aimed at changing pedagogical and educational values and practices. In addition, the specific construction of the literacy crisis leads to an increased pressure on migrants to adjust and adapt to a monolingual standard of literacy, and to certain valued literacy practices.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
creator: Lars Holm
creator: Helle Laursen
rights: Copyright (c)
date: 2011-08-22
publication date: 2011-08-22
starting page: 3
ending page: 16

Editorial
type: item
subject: Editorials
  topic: section
creator: Tarja Nikula
creator: Sabine Ylönen
rights: Copyright (c)
date: 2011-08-22
publication date: 2011-08-22
starting page: 1
ending page: 1

Languages as objects of learning
type: item
description: This paper considers multilingualism from the point of view of language learning and teaching. We discuss the ‘monological’ thinking in linguistics and in the research of language learning and teaching and argue that the monological stand, more often than not, also embeds a monolingual bias. As an alternative to monologism, we discuss dialogical notion of language and argue that this inherently involves a multilingual stand.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
creator: Hannele Dufva
creator: Minna Suni
creator: Mari Aro
creator: Olli-Pekka Salo
rights: Copyright (c)
date: 2011-06-17
publication date: 2011-06-17
starting page: 109
ending page: 124

Expertise sharing in the field of court translating and interpreting
type: item
description: This article focuses on the challenges of multilingual court work in Finland. First, it argues for the need of shared expertise and multiprofessional collaboration in the field of legal translating and court interpreting. This claim is justified by a short description of a previous analysis of legal translation, by some recent interviews, by a survey, and by the theory of situated learning and legitimate peripheral participation. Second, the article describes a problematic multilingual session in a Finnish district court on the basis of a transcribed hearing. Finally, the article makes some suggestions for the development of the current situation of court interpreting and legal translating in Finland.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: court interpreting, expertise sharing, multilingual hearing
  topic: keywords
creator: Tuija Kinnunen
rights: Copyright (c)
date: 2011-06-17
publication date: 2011-06-17
starting page: 92
ending page: 108

A Linguistic journey to the border
type: item
description: Language is a powerful tool. Linguistic creativity provides the means to new ways of knowing, thinking, and being, and allows a new set of dialogues to emerge. This paper illuminates how Guillermo Gómez-Peña, a Chicano performance artist, writer, activist and educator uses language to do just this. In this paper, I will specifically focus on Gómez-Peña’s use of monolingual English and Spanish, as well as his application of code-mixed dialogue and illustrate how his linguistic innovation reflects his position on Border Culture.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
creator: Dana Cole
rights: Copyright (c)
date: 2011-06-17
publication date: 2011-06-17
starting page: 77
ending page: 92

Erasmus exchange students
type: item
description: The present paper examines how some Erasmus exchange students studying temporarily at the University of Szeged or at the Charles University in Prague are socialized in(to) their new communities of practice. The paper adopts a language socialization perspective combined with a community of practice approach, and thus contributes to a vastly under-researched area within ELF. The paper reveals that the participants collect first hand experience of using ELF within their newly emerging Erasmus community of practice. Very importantly, though, ELF, is not the only language that they are using within the Erasmus community; and the Erasmus community is not the only community of practice which they orient themselves to. As will be shown, their experience of language socialization is a multifaceted one, characterized by pride and satisfaction, on the one hand, and dilemmas and regret, on the other.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: language socialization, english as a lingua franca (elf), communities of practice
  topic: keywords
creator: Karolina Kalocsai
rights: Copyright (c)
date: 2009-01-01
publication date: 2009-01-01
starting page: 25
ending page: 49

Interpreting and managing a monolingual norm in an English-speaking class in Finland
type: item
description: This study explores the stances that multilingual learners adopt in the face of a monolingual, “English-only” norm in a primary English medium class in Finland. I examine classroom interaction focusing on three students and the ways in which they reinterpret, reformulate, and contest this norm. This research is informed by the perspective of language socialization and draws on methods of microethnographic discourse analysis. I find that the three focal students come into opposition when they interpret and manage the institutional monolingual norm differently, indexing issues of mother tongue expertise and group membership. Aleksi employs a variety of discursive practices in resisting the English language norm, conceptualizing it quite differently than Lucille who seeks to monitor language use among her peers. Ali operates on the border, revealing a surprising degree of metalinguistic awareness and interest in how languages are situated institutionally. All three students articulate different stances on the use of English and Finnish in their lives. Language use transcends institutional boundaries, and norms are reproduced in concert and in conflict with other members of the class. My findings speak to contested language practice everywhere, to institutional norms regarding language use, to the ways in which students respond, reproduce, and reject institutional linguistic ideologies, and the different roles students give to languages in their daily lives.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
creator: Alicia Jinkerson
rights: Copyright (c)
date: 2011-06-17
publication date: 2011-06-17
starting page: 27
ending page: 48

Objects as artifacts
type: item
description: In this paper, I propose a shift in analytic focus from language to artifacts – that is, to personally meaningful objects that surface in interaction and generate talk – as a means of accounting for the historical dimension of the relationship between form and meaning. Artifacts activate memories and feelings from other times and places, informing ways of speaking in the conversational here-and-now. By applying discourse analysis to a conversation recorded during fieldwork at a social center for Spanish senior citizens in Paris, I show how various timescales – that is, the microgenetic scale of unfolding talk, the “series of connected discourse events” over weeks, months or even years, and the ontogenetic scale of individuals’ lives (Larsen-Freeman and Cameron 2008: 169) – converge in a single interaction. Such timescales inform not only the social meanings (the identities, stances, alignments) that individuals create, but also the linguistic resources they use to do so.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
creator: David Divita
rights: Copyright (c)
date: 2011-06-17
publication date: 2011-06-17
starting page: 13
ending page: 26

Negotiating a New Culture of Doing Learning?
type: item
description: The article examines aspects of interaction, learning and teacher approach in an international, web-supported learning project, which was organised between three universities as part of their programmes in teacher education. The study focuses on interpretative resources which may contribute to how students perceive teacher interventions and presence in web-based learning activity. The roles and actions of teachers and students in a web-learning environment are not merely interpreted on the basis of intentional verbalised moves. The negotiation of the presence and role of participants is also guided by a variety of visual and linguistic cues on the web as well as the discourses around the learning activities. From a research methodological point of view, the article emphasizes the importance of data-driven research paradigms and a wide scope of data-collection in mapping the complex context in which the participants act. As for pedagogical implications, it seems that developing successful pedagogies is not a matter of developing particular kinds of designs for learning environments, new task types or interaction patterns alone. What is important is to involve teachers and students alike in assessing the collaborative processes of learning, aware of the complexity of meaning-making in web-supported study.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
creator: L. Kuure
creator: M. Saarenkunnas
creator: P. Taalas
rights: Copyright (c)
date: 2002-12-31
publication date: 2002-12-31
starting page: 25
ending page: 41

(Re)Defining Freedom of Speech
type: item
subject: Review articles
  topic: section
creator: Eric Johnson
rights: Copyright (c)
date: 2009-01-01
publication date: 2009-01-01
starting page: 3
ending page: 23

The Proficiency in Swedish of Finnish speaking University Students
type: item
description: All Finnish-speaking students in Finland are obliged to study Swedish at lower and upper secondary school. At university, students taking a degree must obtain a Civil Service Language Proficiency (CSLP) Certificate in Swedish, for which spoken and written proficiency corresponding to at least level B1 on the Council of Europe’s Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) must be demonstrated, along with the proficiency necessary for the professional field in question. This article aims to empirically examine the extent to which university students demonstrate the requested level of written proficiency when entering university, and to discuss potential actions to meet the challenges of the current situation. A total of 490 university students participated in the study, representing seven faculties at a Finnish-speaking university. Those 490 students wrote an essay in Swedish when beginning a course leading to obtaining a CSLP Certificate; three independent raters evaluated all the essays according to the CEFR scale. The results show that 52.9 % of the essays were marked below B1. This article concludes by discussing the need for increased consistency in assessment procedures at all educational stages. Possible actions for improving general level of skills at lower and upper secondary schools are suggested, as is a reconsideration of the need for everyone to obtain the CSLP Certificate as part of university study.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: university students, written proficiency, swedish as a foreign language, civil service language proficiency certificate, language education policies in finland
  topic: keywords
creator: Åsa Palviainen
rights: Copyright (c)
date: 2010-10-20
publication date: 2010-10-20
starting page: 3
ending page: 23

Editorial
type: item
subject: Editorials
  topic: section
creator: Tarja Nikula
creator: Sabine Ylönen
rights: Copyright (c)
date: 2010-10-20
publication date: 2010-10-20
starting page: 1
ending page: 2

Figurative Verben in der alltäglichen Wissenschaftssprache des Deutschen
type: item
description: Expressions such as ‘einer Frage nachgehen’, ‘ein Beispiel heranziehen’ or ‘an einem Beispiel etw. sehen’ are common in academic German. Interestingly, the verbs in such expressions are often – in part (e.g. gehen, ziehen), or as a whole (e.g. sehen) – derived from everyday language and they have developed a figurative meaning from a concrete origin. The seemingly ‘easy’ base forms often belong to the most frequent German verbs (Jones & Tschirner 2005) and are encountered relatively early by learners of German as a foreign language. However, studies concerned with English as a foreign language (Altenberg & Granger 2001, Lennon 1996) point to the difficulties that even advanced learners have with such verbs due to their polysemy and their occurrence in similar lexical forms, that is, in products of word formation. These figuratively used words or expressions are considered to be an essential characteristic feature of academic German (e.g. Graefen 1997, Hund 1999, Fandrych 2004), distinguishing it from other languages. Fandrych (2001, 2002, 2005) compared text commenting devices in both academic German and English. His results point to a difference between these otherwise closely related languages with respect to academic lexis: while English draws more on vocabulary of Latin-Roman origin, German derives words from everyday language. However, previous studies are based on a rather limited data base and do not provide any quantitative information about this type of German academic vocabulary. A comprehensive empirical study is needed to verify the observation, especially with regard to the importance of this lexis for learners of German who wish to study in Germany. In this paper a corpus-linguistic pilot study is presented which aims to empirically examine the contention that such figurativeness is a central feature of academic German. The term figurativeness in the context of academic language is used with respect to phenomena of meaning transfer and meaning extensio…
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Deutsch als Wissenschaftssprache
  topic: keywords
subject: wissenschaftssprachliche Verben
  topic: keywords
subject: Korpuslinguistik
  topic: keywords
subject: Figurativität
  topic: keywords
subject: Deutsch als Fremdsprache
  topic: keywords
creator: Cordula Meissner
rights: Copyright (c) 2009 Cordula Meissner https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2009-01-01
publication date: 2009-01-01
starting page: 96
ending page: 116