Browsing by Subject "monikielinen luokkahuone"

With the global migration movement, even more classes have students whose strongest or clearest first language is some other than Finnish. However, only a few studies have been conducted on multilingual interaction practices in the classroom, and most of them have focused on schools in the capital area, although there are multilingual classrooms all over the Finland. In addition, studies have shown reserved attitudes towards multilingual classrooms. In this qualitative case study, the manifestations of translanguaging are investigated as part of the interaction in a multilingual classroom by examining in which activity sequences translanguaging occurs and who participates in the action. The study focuses especially on the person initiating a translanguaging and how the participation framework is determined and examines how multilingual turns are perceived in the classroom. The data for research has been collected from the second grade of an Eastern Finnish primary school. Of the nine students participating in research, most spoke other than Finnish as their heritage language. The data collection for the study was carried out using an ethnographic research method, combining field observations, video- and audio recordings. The study lasted two school days in the classroom, in addition to which a test recording was carried out. Manifestations of translanguaging were examined using conversational analysis. The findings of this study indicate that translanguaging turned out to work as a pedagogical resource, which was used for increasing mutual understanding or show a positive affective attitude towards the topic of speech. In the classroom, translanguaging functioned, among other things, as a demonstration of linguistic expertise and made it possible to hand over the turn to a certain speaker. Both the student and the teacher acted as initiators of multilingual shifts, but the study revealed that it is not always easy to identify the initiator of translanguaging in the context of an institutional discussion. Translanguaging can be seen as a pedagogical resource, which can originate from the students or the teacher, and which works as a creator of positive class spirit.