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The paper focuses on language policies in two Nordic universities and the way in which administrative staff perceive the policies as instruments of language regulation. There has been much interest recently in multilingualism and language policy in the context of higher education, but there is little research so far focusing on administrative staff. This is despite their key role in both producing and mediating texts for the consumption of a multilingual university community. The study is based on interview and document data collected at the University of Helsinki (Finland) and the University of Stockholm (Sweden). The analysis focuses on how staff talk about the role of the policies in their work and work community, and particularly how they describe the impact of the policies on everyday language practices.

The number of migrant students in vocational education in Finland is rising. Their educational backgrounds and language resources are diverse, and research is needed to gain better understanding on how their existing knowledge can be acknowledged, supported, and deployed when they become multilingual professionals in their own fields. In this ethnographic study, we drew on the theoretical approaches of translanguaging and language architecture (García, O., and T.Kleyn. 2016. “Translanguaging Theory in Education.” In Translanguaging with Multilingual Students: Learning from Classroom Moments, edited by O. García, and T. Kleyn, 9–33. New York, London: Routledge; Li, Wei. 2018. “Translanguaging as a Practical Theory of Language.” Applied Linguistics 39 (1): 9–30; Flores, N. 2020. “From Academic Language to Language Architecture: Challenging Raciolinguistic Ideologies in Research and Practice.” Theory Into Practice 59 (1): 22–31). Both concepts promote the integration of students’ multilingual resources in their content studies. We focused on two multilingual students studying to become practical nurses. We applied small stories analysis (Georgakopoulou, A. 2015. “Small Stories Research: Methods - Analysis - Outreach.” In The Handbook of Narrative Analysis, edited by A. De Fina, and A. Georgakopoulou, 255–271. Wiley Blackwell) to ascertain how translanguaging practices support them in developing their vocational competence and language architecture. The data comprised ethnographic observations, interviews, and audio-recorded interaction. Although the official language of instruction is Finnish, students are encouraged to integrate their multilingual resources into their vocational development. The analysis illustrates how translanguaging not only deepens multilingual students’ understanding of field-specific content but also enables them to strategically use and strengthen their multilingual resources. peerReviewed

Tässä tutkimuksessa selvitettiin suomalaisten koulujen kirjavalikoimien monikielisyyttä sekä opettajien kokemuksia koulujensa luokka- ja koulukirjastojen laadusta. Kyselyyn vastasi ala- ja yläkoulujen opettajia ympäri Suomea (N = 83). Opettajat olivat koulukirjastoihin enemmän tyytyväisiä kuin luokkakirjastoihin: puolet alakoulun opettajista ja yli puolet yläkoulun opettajista oli tyytyväisiä koulukirjastoonsa. Opettajat, jotka pitivät koulu- tai luokkakirjastoaan hyvinä, kokivat, että heidän koulussaan arvostettiin kirjallisuutta ja lukemista. Ero oli tilastollisesti merkittävä opettajiin, jotka olivat tyytymättömiä koulunsa kirjavalikoimiin. Opettajat mainitsivat luokka- ja koulukirjastojen puutteiksi kirjojen vähyyden ja niiden vanhan iän, sekä sen, ettei koululla ole resursseja ylläpitää koulukirjastoa. Lisäksi havaittiin, että koulujen kirjavalikoimissa on tarjolla vähän monikielistä kirjallisuutta. Hieman alle puolet opettajista vastasi koulukirjastostaan löytyvän kirjallisuutta vain yhdellä kielellä. Yleisimmät kielet suomen lisäksi olivat englanti ja ruotsi, joiden jälkeen venäjä, ranska ja arabia. Noin viidesosa alakoulun opettajista mainitsi koulustaan löytyvän kirjallisuutta oppilaidensa kotikielillä. Book selections in schools as part of language awareness in literature education Abstract In this study we investigated multilingualism in the book selections of school libraries in Finland and teachers’ experiences of the quality of their classroom and school libraries. Our research survey was participated by teachers around Finland in basic education (N = 83), including teachers both in the primary and lower secondary levels. Teachers were more satisfied with their school libraries than individual classroom libraries: half of the primary school teachers and over half of the lower secondary school teachers were satisfied with their school libraries. Those teachers who found their school and classroom libraries satisfactory thought that literature and reading were valued in their schools. There was a statistically significant difference compared to the teachers who were dissatisfied with the book selection in their schools. Teachers mentioned as demerits of classroom and school libraries the shortage of books in general and the lack of recently published books. Also, the lack of resources to maintain a school library was mentioned as a defect. Teachers noted that book selections in their schools offered very little multilingual literature. A little less than half of the teachers said that their school library housed literature written in one language only. In addition to the literature in Finnish, school libraries most commonly offered books in English and Swedish. In addition, books in Russian, French, and Arabic were found in some libraries. Approximately 20 per cent of the primary school teachers mentioned that their school library offered literature in the first language of their students. Keywords: reading, multilingualism, school libraries, linguistic and cultural awareness in libraries

Vuoden 2022 vuorovaikutusteko -kunniamaininta myönnettiin Anne Leppäjärvelle ja Haaga-Helian maahanmuuttajataustaisten journalistien koulutustiimille.

Many universities in non-English speaking countries have been adopting English as a medium of instruction to internationalize their education. We set out to compare the language policies of a Finnish and a Japanese university using the lens of language ideology – a set of normative beliefs about the social dimension of language. Data were collected from selected documents of the two universities, and analyzed utilizing critical discursive psychology. This social constructionist approach allows mapping out language ideological landscapes – interrelationships among different co-occurring language ideologies – from which students may draw ideas about how they orient themselves towards their peers on international campuses today. Our analysis shows that different language ideological landscapes are constructed in the language policies of the two universities, affording them different positioning in the phenomenon of internationalization. The findings suggest that both multilingualism and languaging would be important discursive resources for universities to maintain ethnolinguistic nationalism and ensure equality among students with different linguistic backgrounds, in the process of internationalization of higher education through English. On international campuses where multilingualism is prevalent, students are likely to be constructed as cosmopolitans for inclusion, locals and foreigners for exclusion, or ‘native/native-like and non-native speakers’ for hierarchy through different monolingual language ideologies. peerReviewed

Particularly since the refugee “reception crisis” in 2015, Finland has started transforming into a more diverse and multicultural society. These societal changes have also been accompanied by sociolinguistic change, as well as language ideological debates and tensions, often manifesting in explicitly racist and xenophobic bursts of upset. In this article, our focus is on social media as a space where such societal and sociolinguistic upsets are articulated and re-worked. Drawing on recent sociolinguistic and discourse analytic work on transformative and critical popular cultural practices in social media, and studies on rap and belonging, we discuss how, in a mediatized society such as Finland, social media serve as a forum for antagonism and conflict, but also as a site for ‘talking back’. As our illustrative cases, we investigate two heteroglossic social media performances by entertainers and artists of color. In our analysis, we will show how these performances highlight and contest ideological notions of the way particular language resources are considered a key to Finnishness, as well as their role in the racialization and othering of people of color.

Arviointi on tärkeä oppimisen ohjaamisen väline. Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli tutkia suomi toisena kielenä (S2) opettajien käsityksiä formatiivisesta arvioinnista. Aineisto (n=208) kerättiin S2-opettajilta vuonna 2015. Tulokset osoittavat, että S2-opettajat käyttävät monia formatiivisen arvioinnin käytänteitä jokapäiväisessä työssään. Monet opettajista eivät kuitenkaan pidä sitä tehokkaana ja merkityksellisenä oppimisen edistämisen kannalta. Arviointikäsitykset jakautuvat melko tasaisesti arviointiosaamisen eri ulottuvuuksille. Opettajien käsitykset käsitteellisestä ja käytännöllisestä tiedosta ovat kuitenkin suppeampia verrattuna sosioemotionaaliseen ulottuvuuteen. Formatiivisen arvioinnin ydinkäsitteet tunnetaan hyvin, mutta niitä pidetään vain harvoin oppimista edistävinä keinoina. Näin ollen formatiivista arviointia ei sovelleta käytäntöön tarkoituksenmukaisesti. Opettajankoulutuksen tulisi selventää sekä formatiivisen arvioinnin tarkoitusta että hyviä käytäntöjä. Lisää tutkimusta tarvitaan erityisesti palautteen roolista S2-kontekstissa.

Tässä artikkelissa tarkastellaan eri kieli-ideologioiden—eli arkisten kieltä ja sen puhujia koskevien uskomusten—rooleja opiskelijoiden identiteetin rakentamisessa ja neuvotteluissa kansainvälistyvän korkeakoulutuksen kontekstissa. Englanninkielisten opiskelijoiden lisääntyvän monimuotoisuuden myötä kieli-ideologioita on tutkittu mahdollisena opiskelijoiden välisen epätasa-arvon rakentajana. Analysoin kahta fokusryhmäkeskustelua, joiden osallistujat ovat erään suomalaisen yliopiston kansainvälisten englanninkielisten maisteriohjelmien opiskelijoita. Tutkin opiskelijoiden puhetta kriittisen diskursiivisen psykologian avulla tarkoituksenani ymmärtää mahdollisia yhtymäkohtia kieli-ideologioiden ja opiskelijoiden identiteetin rakentamisen välillä. Kiinnitän erityisesti huomiota opiskelijoiden identiteettineuvotteluihin liittyviin ideologisiin dilemmoihin. Tutkimuksen tulokset osoittavat, että sekä uudet että vakiintuneet kieleen liittyvät ideologiat voivat tulla merkityksellisiksi opiskelijoiden identiteetin rakentamisessa ja neuvotteluissa. Pohdin, kuinka opiskelijoiden huomion kiinnittäminen jokaisen opiskelijan monikielisyyteen ja akateemisen kielen erityisiin tarkoituksiin ja ominaisuuksiin saattaa edistää opiskelijoiden välisten osallistavien vuorovaikutussuhteiden diskursiivista kestävyyttä. This paper examines the roles of different language ideologies—sets of common-sense beliefs about language and its speakers—in students’ identity construction and negotiation in the context of internationalizing higher education. Along with the increasing diversity of students as English speakers, language ideologies have been critically examined for potential contribution to inequalities among students. I analyze two focus group discussions of students from international English-medium instruction master’s programs at a Finnish university. I explore the students’ talk using critical discursive psychology to illuminate possible intersections between language ideologies and students’ situated identity construction, paying attention to ideological dilemmas alongside students’ identity negotiation. The findings indicate that both emerging and established language ideologies may become relevant to students’ identity construction and negotiation. Possibly, turning students’ attention towards the multilinguality of every student and the specific purposes and characteristics of academic language might contribute to the discursive sustainability of inclusive interpersonal relationships among students. peerReviewed

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This article looks at interest-driven and informal social media practices that have flourished in the pandemic period and its ensuing renaissance of domesticity. It investigates how tending plants and discussing them on social media serve as a particular site for connecting around loving and taking care of plants. Its focus is on the discursive means with which posters – guided by social media algorithms – rhetorically co-construct a morally acceptable version of a pandemic lifestyle around houseplants. More specifically, drawing on multimodal discourse studies, critical sociolinguistics and work on digital surveillance, it investigates how members of a Finland-based social media site observe and monitor themselves and others via their linguistically heterogeneous and multimodal posts. The paper demonstrates how constructions of tending plants highlight a normative subject who besides cultivating plants also cultivates themselves and others in the allegedly safe microcosm of the home, surrounded by the risk-ridden, tension-full, dangerous pandemic world. In the same way, as in many other types of informal and interest-driven social media activities, surveillance forms a crucial part of the routine digital activities and interactions about and around plants. Three manifestations of surveillance are discussed in detail: site-specific panoptic surveillance, peer surveillance and self-surveillance. peerReviewed

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In this chapter we present and compare two research experiences in the domain of linguistic repertoires (LRs) applied to the field of education. Our aim is to elucidate how we used different combinations of methods for data generation in the trilingual (German, Italian and Ladin) Italian province of South Tyrol and the bilingual (Finnish and Swedish) coastal regions of Finland in order to map the LRs of young multilingual participants aged 10 to 19. We investigated different aspects of their LRs (representations, use and trajectories) with multiple methods, ranging from more traditional sociolinguistic surveys such as questionnaires and inter views to multimodal and task-based methods such as language portraits, photographs and simulated contexts for multilingual interaction. We describe these methods and share some of the insights they enabled us to gain into the LRs of adolescents in two multilingual contexts in Europe. peerReviewed

In this chapter, our context is a co-located Swedish and Finnish medium high school campus. From a posthumanist viewpoint, we study the roles and functions of language(s) in the semiotic assemblages of learning environments and ask how language(s) feature as an integral and material part of the change in the spatial repertoire of learning environments. We investigate how the principle of separation of schools by medium of instruction, typical for Finnish education, becomes undermined through a new multilingual soundscape in the co-located schools, where the school community hears and uses many languages every day. In doing this, the co-located schools not only challenge Finnish language ideologies and practices, but may also promote language learning in a more effective manner than structured, curriculum based ‘planned’ forms of multilingual education. In the long run, the placing of Finnish and Swedish language schools in one location has led to teachers’ recognition of the new assemblage as a resource for pedagogical change.

Sustainable development is included in curricula in many countries – from primary to tertiary education, as well as in teacher training. Its principles also encompass language teaching, e.g., through enhancing equality of languages, multilingualism and multiculturalism. Several ethical issues are linked to sustainable development goals, which can be considered part of language teaching and assessment. Based on questionnaire data, this article addresses language teachers’ views on sustainable development and its connection to assessment of language learning. The results show that language teachers (N=29) do not recognize the link between assessment and teaching practices that follow sustainable development principles. Engagement and peer assessment seemed to be a way to support sustainable development principles in language teaching. Further, the results indicate that language teachers need more information about the effects of ethical assessment on supporting language learning and social sustainability. peerReviewed

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Väitöstutkimuksen aiheena olivat yliopisto-opiskelijat kielenoppijoina. nonPeerReviewed

In recent decades, increased diversity and migration have challenged school staff members’ ways of working. This study aimed to identify the challenges faced by Finnish school staff in supporting students with migrant backgrounds, and to elaborate on how they enact professional agency toward these challenges. The data consist of 15 thematic interviews with staff members across various work positions in two Finnish lower secondary schools. Based on thematic analysis, the challenges within the staff community and the education policies were found to include the following: (1) the diversification of students makes tensions more visible in the staff community, and (2) inflexible education policies restrict support processes. In these challenges, staff members practiced professional agency via a focus on their own work level, relying on certain colleagues, and trusting their own professionalism, under strong autonomy tradition. However, outside of their own work level, staff members prefer to adapt to the conditions by compromising, and they seem have not strong participation in higher decision-making. As a conclusion, it would be valuable to resource time expressly for establishing new practices, strengthen head teachers’ ability to promote a culture of shared leadership, while clarifying the boundaries of pedagogical autonomy, and facilitate the participation in higher decision-making. publishedVersion

Although languages other than English, along with various forms of translation, are intrinsic to multilingual researchers’ scholarly activities, they generally remain less visible in English-medium publications. In this discussion paper, I explore this topic from a broader sociopolitical perspective by looking at the use and function of translation in various stages of research and writing for publication. Drawing on recent studies on multilingualism in academia and my own experience as a teacher of research communication, I argue that in the academic context, translation cannot be seen as a mere linguistic act or a communication tool as it is inextricably tied to complex and multilayered contexts, identities, and ideologies. Thus, translation decisions should not be based solely on practical considerations but also on a critical evaluation of the intricate social, cultural, ethical, and ideological dimensions of scholarly communication and interaction. Developing a greater awareness of the multiple functions and far-reaching effects of translation is beneficial for all actors directly or indirectly involved in scholarly research and publishing. I believe that a deeper reflection on these issues not only contributes to more diversity and equity in academia but enables novice multilingual writers to embrace their agency and make decisions that are better aligned with their personal values, interests, and goals.

Within sociolinguistics, perspectives to multilingualism have changed considerably during the last decades. At the same time, along the ‘multilingual turn’ in sociolinguistics and in language education studies, the number of available concepts to discuss multilingual repertoires and practices has increased very quickly. Notions such as translanguaging and plurilingualism have entered the linguistic parlance yet the actual nature of the change or its pedagogical relevance might be difficult to discern amid the diverse scholarly discourses where theoretical and practical concerns are tangled together. This article discusses the multilingual turn and its theoretical and pedagogical consequences by focusing on some broader, metatheoretical changes that have taken place along the so-called turn in language education studies. These changes in perceiving the essence of language, language skills, language learning and multilingualism are tightly connected with ideological changes within the field. I illustrate these ideologies and discuss their relevance especially for classroom pedagogy with newcomer students.

Research on multilingualism in the home has approached the family as a fixed unit thus neglecting the dynamic view of the family and its intersection with family language practices. The present study aims to address this gap by focusing on Russian-speaking mothers in Finland who have raised their children bilingually in single-parent as well as in dual-parent families. Russian speakers are the largest minority language group in Finland, and their number is constantly growing. The current study is a contribution to the research on family language practices in the Finnish context. It examines the nexus of shifts in family configurations and language practices and explores how the dynamic changes in family constellations shape language practices in four families. The study reveals that creating new kinships leads to shifts in the language practices of the peripheral family members and that forming voluntary kin can expand heritage language use and enable an overhearer and bystander role for children. Non-residential family members expand the family's linguistic repertoire and support the legitimacy of already established practices. Being sole caretakers enables mothers to encourage language practices that they consider beneficial for their children without encountering any resistance from other family members. peerReviewed

Tässä artikkelissa tutkimme suomalaisten englanninopettajien käsityksiä maahanmuuttajaoppilaista, joilla on monikielinen tausta, vieraan kielen luokkahuoneessa. Aiemmat tutkimukset monikielisistä oppijoista ovat keskittyneet toisen kielen oppimiseen tai oppijan äidinkieleen. Tässä tutkimuksessa keskitymme englantiin vieraana kielenä, sillä maailma on aiempaa monikielisempi ja liikkuvuus yleisempää kuin ennen. Aineistona on englannin opettajien haastattelut (n=7), joissa he pohtivat kokemuksiaan maahanmuuttajaoppilaista vieraan kielen oppitunnilla. Analyysimenetelmänä oli laadullinen sisällönanalyysi. Tulokset osoittavat, että osallistujat eivät olleet pohtineet monikielisyyttä englannin oppitunnilla, mutta joitain ennakkokäsityksiä voitiin havaita. Opettajien käsitykset monikielisistä oppilaista olivat ristiriitaisia: he eivät halunneet johdattaa huomiota oppilaan kielelliseen taustaan, mutta toisaalta he olivat havainneet monikielisten oppijoiden olevan luokkatovereitaan kielitietoisempia. Vaikkakaan opettajat eivät tunnistaneet oppilaiden kielellisiä resursseja ja pohtineet monikielisyyden mahdollisuuksia, he olivat tukeneet monikielisiä oppilaita monia eri kielellisiä keinoja käyttäen. This article sets out to explore English as foreign language (EFL) teachers’ views of teaching migrant pupils with multilingual backgrounds in a regular classroom. Previous studies on multilingual pupils have mostly concentrated on second language learning contexts or on the role of pupils’ L1. In an increasingly multilingual world and due to growing migration, this study concentrates on EFL. The data were interviews with English teachers (n=7), who reflected on their experiences with migrant pupils in the foreign language classroom. The data were analysed through qualitative content analysis. The participants had not really pondered on the role of multilingualism in the EFL classroom and some underlying preconceptions could be detected. Teachers’ perception of the multilingual pupil was controversial in that they did not want to draw attention to the linguistic background of the pupil but, on the other hand, they had noticed that multilingual learners had greater language awareness than their mainstream peers. Although not fully aware of the potential of multilingualism and the pupils’ linguistic resources in EFL teaching, the teachers had used several ways of supporting their multilingual learners, reflecting the principles of translanguaging. peerReviewed

This article discusses raciolinguistic ideologies in the Finnish educational context. Ethnographic interviews and observational data gathered during 2015–2020 from two young males who came to Finland from the Middle-East in autumn 2015 as unaccompanied minors were analysed applying the small stories approach. The research questions were: 1) What kinds of racializing discourses are circulated, negotiated, and resisted in the participants’ self- and other positionings? 2) How is valuation of their language and literacy skills and participation in education reflected in these positionings? Critical linguistic ethnography was used to identify the racializing discourses. The results indicate that structural raciolinguistic ideologies repeatedly impacted the participants’ educational paths: notwithstanding their good command of Finnish they may have been judged as deficient language users, weakening their chances of equal participation in classroom interaction and access to further studies or practical training. However, outside the educational context, they may successfully deploy their multilingual repertoires for networking and entrepreneurship. While intersecting factors such as race, gender, or religion influence participation, they are treated as language issues in a politically correct but vague way. This calls for a critical discussion of how students’ struggles with participation should be situated within broader structural biases. peerReviewed

During the past decade, the field of family language policy has broadened its scope and turned its attention to diverse family configurations in versatile sociolinguistic contexts. The current study contributes to this endeavor by focusing on two single-parent families who live in Finland and who strive to support Russian as a family language. Applying nexus analysis as an epistemological stance and as an analytical lens, the study takes an emic perspective on family language policy. Furthermore, it examines how family language policy is manifested and negotiated during mother–child play and what discourses shape it. The findings reveal two contrasting ways in which family language policy is manifested and negotiated in the families. Confident family language policy in one of the families is informed by the mother’s historical body (i.e., prior experience of raising children bilingually), while in the other family, discourse in place represented by divergent language ideologies plays a significant role in shaping family language policy and is connected with hesitant decisions about language use in the family.

Suomi on aina ollut monikielinen maa, ja osa Suomen kotoperäisistä kielistä mainitaan jo perustuslaissa. Karjalan kieli sieltä kuitenkin puuttuu, eikä karjala näy muissakaan laeissa. Miten nämä erot vaikuttavat kielten kehittämiseen ja säilyttämiseen? Mitä karjalan kielen edistäjät tavoittelevat, ja miten karjalan asemaa pyritään parantamaan?

As working life across the world is increasingly multilingual, multicultural and multidisciplinary, higher education language teaching is faced with a challenge of how to prepare students for it. Many universities have recently developed multilingual pedagogies but central to their success is learners’ perceptions of these practices. To fill this gap, this article explores first year university students’ language learner biographies to gain insight into how learners construct their linguistic realities. The biographies were studied with discourse analytical methods to examine the participants’ beliefs about language learning and their sense of agency in it. The results reveal that participants tend not to portray themselves as agentive learners but rather position agency as an outside factor affecting their language learning. In addition, the participants’ discourses differed in terms of languages, which adds to previous studies noting the complexity of learner beliefs. Understanding these dynamics can help teachers address students’ beliefs in the classroom and accordingly support learners to create meaning in their language learning. The findings further suggest that beliefs should be studied from multilingual perspectives also in the future. peerReviewed

© 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/),which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. This article investigates the language orientations in education policy documents for early childhood education and care (ECEC) in Finland and Norway. Finland, an officially bilingual country, and Norway, a predominantly monolingual country, share similar views on ECEC. However, the ECEC field in both countries has undergone major changes in recent years: more children are attending ECEC, and the increasing number of children with diverse backgrounds and minority languages. The document analysis includes seven policy documents related to ECEC in Finland and Norway. The analytical approach is based on Ruíz’ framework for language orientations, i.e. language as resource, language as right and language as problem. The analysis shows that the language orientation in ECEC policy is rather vague and open. On the one hand, multilingualism is seen as a resource. On the other hand, multilingualism is considered as challenging in terms of language diversity, facilitating multilingual and first language development. In both countries, there seems to be a a monolingual ideology underlying the policy. We discuss these findings in light of policy implementations and finally underline the importance of critical multilingual awareness in early childhood teacher education.

Tarkastelen tässä artikkelissa saamelaisen Suohpanterror-taidekollektiivin kielivalintoja visuaalisen monikielisyyden näkökulmasta. Suohpanterrorin visuaalisesti näyttävissä teoksissa käytetään useita eri kieliä, ja kielen valintaan sisältyykin aina kieli-ideologisia, valtaa koskevia näkökulmia. Analysoin eri kielten funktioita Suohpanterrorin Instagram-sivustolla julkaistuissa monikielisissä teoksissa. Analyyttisenä apuvälineenä toimii kielellisen fetisismin käsite, jolla tarkoitetaan kielten käyttöä ei-viestinnällisessä tarkoituksessa.

In this article we present results from a case study of five business professionals and their workplace literacy practices and literacy events. The five interviewees are Swedish-speaking Finns, part of a 5 % minority in Finland, and they live both in the Helsinki capital area and in the Vaasa region. The business professionals work for two anonymized companies: Delta, a global business consultant company, and Zeta, a Scandinavian bank. Our theoretical framework is New literacy studies (Barton 2007/1994). All the interviewees use at least three languages at their work: their mother tongue Swedish, their second language Finnish (both are national languages in Finland), and English. High skills of both national languages are needed to perform the work tasks, and national languages are used more than English. The writing tasks are diverse and connected to the specialized work tasks of each employee, with the exception of e-mails that all interviewees write daily. The language choices are influenced by several factors, among them the language preferences of the recipient and the task at hand. Evidently, the companies have managed to make the best use of the language skills of the interviewees.

This special issue brings together empirical studies that investigate how bodily practices feature in action formation and action ascription in multilingual interaction (Schegloff, 2007; Levinson, 2013). Grounded in video-based conversation analysis and drawing on data from diverse sociomaterial settings, the articles investigate the contingent interactional processes through which speakers from different language backgrounds accomplish actions and achieve intersubjectivity. They demonstrate how specific constellations of linguistic resources, bodily conduct, spatial configurations, and material ecology are built into accomplishment of actions at different levels of interactional organization. Collectively, the articles illustrate how the participants draw on each other’s expertise, including different languages (code-switching, translanguaging) and bodily conduct as an integral part of the “web of resources” that are mobilized when actions are formulated and managed in interaction. publishedVersion Non

This article is about navigating asylum, employment and language policy in a new country as an asylum seeker. Through the story of one individual, we show that profound inequalities are exacerbated when forced migrants are limited in their choice of language they might study or use. The individual is Tailor F, an Iraqi man seeking asylum, and the country is Finland, officially bilingual, with a majority language (Finnish) and a minority language (Swedish). Finland’s official bilingualism does not extend evenly to language education provided for asylum seekers, who are taught Finnish regardless of the region where they are placed. Upon arrival, Tailor F was housed in a reception centre for asylum seekers located in a Swedish-dominant rural area of the country. Through our linguistic ethnography we examine how he navigates multilingually in his early settlement, his current work and his online life. We relate his story to explicit and implicit official bilingualism in Finland and discuss his lived experiences in relation to the contexts of asylum policy and employment. Tailor F’s story shows how, through his practices, he has contested implicit language policy for asylum seekers in order to gain membership of the local Swedish-dominant community, achieve a sense of belonging, and potentially realise his aspirations for the future.