Presentations in Athena 302, Siltavuorenpenger 3 A, 00170 Helsinki, March 11 2020, 9:00-12:00:
| Time | Presentation |
| 9:00-9:30 | Registration, coffee and welcome |
| 9:30-10:00 | Sabine Kraenker, Christian Rink, Olli-Philippe Lautenbacher, Joel Montserrat, Dominique Lüscher: A pilot course in German, French and Finnish; our perception of the experiment in the middle of the semester as teachers, interpreters and students |
| 10:00-10:30 | Lotta Aunio: Swahili: National language and Lingua Franca |
| 10:30-11:00 | Salla Kurhila: Plurilingual practices in workplace meetings |
| 11:00-11:30 | Sandrine Eschenauer: Language mediation and empathy: theatre practice to improve language learning at school |
| 11:30-12:00 | Liban Ali Hersi: Modernization of Somali textbook materials in collaboration with teachers of Finnish as a second language |
A pilot course in German, French and Finnish: our perception of the experiment in the middle of the semester as teachers, interpreters and students
Olli-Philippe Lautenbacher, Christian Rink, Joel Montserrat, (Jaska Kammerer), Dominique Lüscher, Sabine Kraenker, University of Helsinki
The starting point of the communication is a pilot course on the representations of the second World War in German and French Literature and Cinema. This course included an interpretation of the presentations from German and French to Finnish, simultaneously and sequentially. The idea of this practice is to preserve the use of minor languages (French, German, Finnish) and to give to the students the possibility to obtain professional experience in a supportive environment. In the middle of the pilot study, it is now possible to give some feedback about this pilot course and to describe the students’, teachers’ and interpreters’ perceptions of this experience.
Modernization of Somali textbook materials in collaboration with teachers of Finnish as a second language
Liban Ali Hersi, University of Helsinki
The Somali language, with its 25 million speakers worldwide, is the ninth largest language in Africa and the fifth largest language in the Afro-Asiatic language family. Somali is the official language of the Republic of Somalia, and it is spoken in Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya. There are approximately 20 000 Somali speakers in Finland and over fifty percent of them are minors. That indicates that there is a large number of students in the Finnish basic education with Somali as a first language.
Most of the Somali language materials out of date; the new ones are usually in very basic forms. Therefore there is a need for modern and comprehensive textbooks for different levels of language learners. For example, pupils in primary schools, university students, bilingual families and different interest groups who want to learn or to be introduced to Somali would like to have a proper textbook.
In the context of language co-ownership, we cannot ignore the importance of collaboration with teachers of Finnish as a second language. These teachers see from a very close range the needs of multilingual Somali students for language materials. For this reason, in this talk, I consider the potential of producing multilingual textbooks, with the Finnish language involved, for example in vocabulary, short grammatical explanations, important expressions etc.
Swahili: National Language and Lingua Franca
Lotta Aunio, University of Helsinki
The first president of Tanzania, Julius Kambarage Nyerere (1922–1999), published his development blueprint Azimio la Arusha (Arusha Declaration) in 1967. In this publication he outlined the Ujamaa policy which included, for example, the creation of one-party system and self-reliance through the transformation of economic and cultural attitudes, but also the creation of Tanzanian identity as opposed to “tribal” identity through the use Swahili as the national language. Swahili became the sole medium of instruction in primary education and the language of the parliament alongside English. Bakita la Kiswahili la Taifa (National Swahili Council) was established in 1967 to “emphasize and encourage correct and standard Swahili usage”. While Nyerere’s idealistic socialist policy turned out not to work in practice and the whole country was on the brink of bankruptcy when Nyerere resigned in 1985, the spirit of Ujamaa has lived on. Nyerere is still considered the Father of the Nation and Swahili is an integral part of Tanzanian identity.
But Swahili was the lingua franca of Eastern Africa long before Nyerere and it continues to be spoken in almost 10 countries. In addition, Swahili is (one of) the most well-known African languages outside Africa and the first African language as an official language of the African Union. Estimations of the number of L2 speakers of Swahili range from 50 to 150 million. Even in Tanzania there are more L2 than L1 speakers of Swahili. Kiunguja, the Swahili variant of the main island of Zanzibar is the base of Standard Swahili, but in practice there is a lot of variation in Swahili as the Swahili variants of the mainland reflect the other languages spoken in the respective areas. The spread and subsequent change of Swahili is amplified by digitalization and social media as Swahili has become the language of the East African music and youth culture.
Plurilingual practices in workplace meetings
Salla Kurhila, University of Helsinki
In the globalizing world, an increasing number of work communities operate in more than one language, and many professionals conduct their work through a language which is not their first or strongest language. Many of them need to improve their language skills in order to find employment that corresponds to their education and to be considered as qualified professionals. In general, sufficient language skills are of primary importance in becoming a part of Finnish labor market and society.
In this talk, I will discuss practices in one workplace – a multilingual, non-governmental organisation in Finland. About half of the employees in the organization have a Finnish and half a Russian background. The work of these professionals is highly verbal, consisting, for example, of planning and organising different events, and discussing with collaborators and stakeholders. The professionals use different languages – mostly Finnish, Russian, and English – to perform these activities. Through selected extracts, I will show a few good practices used by the organisation to harness the plurilingual potential of the employees for the benefit of the work community.
Language mediation and empathy: theatre practice to improve language learning at school
Sandrine Eschenauer, Université Aix-Marseille
In this talk, I will explore the links between language mediation, empathy and the creative processes that psychologists (Lubart, 2003) relates to cognitive skills, as well as their possible implementations in the classroom. Following the example of studies carried out in particular in secondary schools and primary schools, we will see how developing mediation skills through theatrical practice seems to represent a lever for language learning. What processes are at work in a creative approach of an aesthetic nature? Why and how are these creative processes related to emotions, which are inseparable from cognition, as stated in work in affective and social neuroscience? (Damasio, 2003; Immordino-Yang and Damasio, 2007)? What is the link with empathy (Aden, 2010, 2015; Aden and Eschenauer, 2014; Eschenauer, 2018)? I will focus on the dynamic and bodily processes at the heart of language learning, which I believe should be called upon more as a complement to reflexivity: for it is our whole body that enables us to learn. Concrete examples of plurilingual classroom activities will help to illustrate the scientific argument.