De e ju bara finska Status differences between languages in children s peer interaction NERA s 37th Congress, Trondheim, 5-7 March 2009 PhD Liselott Forsman & EdD Anna Slotte-Lüttge, Åbo Akademi University, Finland (liforsma@abo.fi, anna.slotte-luttge@abo.fi, www.vasa.abo.fi/users/aluttge) Michaela Pörn, Åbo Akademi University Fritjof Sahlström, University of Helsinki Fredrik Rusk, Ida Hummelstedt (research assistants) Research project Multilingual learning and identity in the everyday lives of Finnish children MULIE/FLIS () aims at understanding learning and identityconstruction in the everyday lives of Finnish children from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds Social constructionist perspective on learning Conversation Analysis, CA (Schegloff 2006) 2 1
Data longitudinal video recordings from multilingual six- and seven-year-old children s everyday interactions at home, at school and at an after-school program during one week in April 2008: focus child Sara Swedish-medium school in Finland; area strongly dominated by Finnish most of the children bilingual in Swedish and Finnish Sara s home languages: Rwanda and Swedish, (English) 3 Purpose of paper to discuss how children orient to and take part in the constitution of the different status between languages in their interaction in a multilingual preschool setting in Finland 4 2
Finnish - English EXAMPLE 1 01 (Hanna) ska vi ta utehäftena å? are we taking the outdoor notebooks too? 02 (Kajsa) nä nope 03 Sara ai nii Hanna ja sku lära dig engelska oh, right Hanna I was supposed to teach you English 04 Hanna ai niin e int- de ju bara- de ju bara de ju bara finska oh, right isn t it s only it s only it s only Finnish isn t it 05 Sara ai nii oh, right 5 Knowledge in Finnish expected everyday competence in the Swedish school knowledge of non-competence used as tool in teasing situations demonstrate competence through known-answerquestions S: vet du va e puro? do you know what is porrid? P: nå? well? 6 3
Reluctance to show non-competence How do children use and make use of /show competence in /learn / position themselves regarding and through Finnish? 7 EXAMPLE 2 vai hiljaa (or quiet) 01 Reetta (tää on) Dean (x) koska mä en (x)- (this is) Dea s (x) cause I don t - 02 ((walks towards Sara and Hanna) 03 Sara ((turns towards Reetta)) 04 Hanna ((turns towards Reetta)) 05 Sara nojoo: well 06 Sara halussa suu: kiinni (sounding partly like shut your mouth ) 07 ((walks towards Reetta)) 08 Reetta ((turns around, walks away, stops, turns back towards Sara)) 09 Sara vai hiljaa?or quiet 10 ((puts her clothes onto the shelf)) 11 ((walks away)) 12 Sara (3.0) eller va -(.) Hanna (3.0) or what -(.) Hanna 13 ((looks at Hanna)) 14 (1.4) 15 Hanna (x) men (ja vaffö) satt ja den här långärmade där i(.) där vi gatan long-sleeved there in (.) at the street x) but (I why) did I put this 8 4
Ex. 2: vai hiljaa (or quiet) Functional use of multilingualism code switch + embodied action -> tools to constitute power, position status as more equal Intended result reached pragmatic competence prosody intonation 9 EXAMPLE 3: onks se kolme (is it three) 01 Sara (2.0) ja vä- ja väljer ett (.) hu många ha du (2.0) I ch- I choose one (.) how many have you got 03 Hanna tre three 05 (3.5) 06 Sara onks sä (vielä) onks sull onks se kolme do you (still) have you go- is it three 08 Hanna mm 09 ((drinks from her glass)) 10 Sara ups sori oops sorry 12 ((puts her hand to her mouth)) 13 Hanna (1.7) i:s int prata finska (1.7) don t speak Finnish 15 Sara mm (1.0) ska vi prata tyst s å int Emelin hör (1.0) mm (1.0) let s talk quietly s o Emelin doesn t hear (1.0) 17 ((leans towards Hanna)) 18 de at vi får en uppgift it that we get an exercise 20 Sara (2.5) ufppgift- (.) uppgifter e jätteroliga (2.5) excer- (.) exercises are great fun 22 Hanna just de (2.4) men den dä som vi hade då så d- den va jättelätt that s right (2.4) but the one that we had then i- it was super easy 10 5
Ex. 3: onks se kolme (is it three) handles her non-competence through code switching demonstrating her knowing of the norms for language use in the school 11 Summary English learning object learning activity paper, pen same content, developed as the learning continues repetition orientation against right-wrong clear positioning in the roles of the expert and the novice Finnish expected everyday knowledge learning activities in everyday use knowing Finnish entails knowing words and norms orientation against right-wrong only from the learner s part participants avoid novice position expert position 12 6