For six months, GLO-LO had a pleasure to host visiting scholar Loanne Janin from Université de Neuchâtel in Switzerland. After returning home she reflected on her time in Tampere as follows.
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When I decided to come to Tampere, the question I was asked most often was: “But why Finland? Aren’t you writing your dissertation about people who learn French?”
Yes. It’s like those jokes children tell: What do a miniskirt and a good speech have in common? What do a group of students learning French vocabulary in a classroom have in common with people building a fence in Finland? These two research topics may seem completely different, but they have much more in common than we might imagine.
Let’s start with the most obvious commonality, methodology. Both the researchers in GLO-LO and I use the same tools to analyse data. Conversation analysis allows us to study virtually any interaction, in very different contexts – even researchers tasting Swiss chocolate in a seminar room (any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental).
The second commonality is language learning. The second language speakers we study have similar profiles: they are often beginner level learners with a migrant background. Also, they learn the new language in a variety of ways. What people typically first come to think of, is classroom learning. Language learning can also happen in practical training or at work, as in the contexts studied in the GLO-LO project. Or one can learn languages with the help of an app, as I did – or at least tried. After 6 months I can barely order a coffee in Finnish, but I know that “sininen pupu on onnellinen”, ‘the blue rabbit is happy’. Merci, Duolingo.
The third commonality has to do with multimodality. I am interested in how learners explain vocabulary not only with words, but also with specific hand gestures. Having in my use the expertise of multimodality specialists, who can describe in detail how a person drills a hole or how a group coordinates to move the roof of a hut, has sharpened my eye.
Six months later and now back in Switzerland, I am still sure that I made the right decision. The fantastic opportunity I had, to work with the whole research team in Tampere, was really worth the trip to the sauna-and-korvapuustit country. A big kiitos to all of you for your amazing welcome!
Teksti ja kuva: Loanne Janin