Finnish in Toronto: Students and elderly immigrants in a community engaged service learning project

Authors

• Anu Muhonen Finnish Studies, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Toronto
• Heidi Vaarala The Centre for Applied Language Studies, University of Jyväskylä

DOI: https://doi.org/10.23997/pk.69151

Keywords:

beliefs, community engaged service learning -pedagogy, Finnish as a foreign language, higher education, immigrants, interaction, second language learning

Abstract

We will explore a community engaged service learning pedagogy project where the students of Finnish as a foreign language of the Finnish Studies Program at the University of Toronto and the Finnish seniors home, Suomi-koti, come together and engage in mutually beneficial encounters. In the project, the students of Finnish as a foreign language visit the Suomikoti regularly, participate in service learning activities and spend time with the Finnish speaking seniors. The study focuses on the discourse between an elderly Finnish immigrant couple (Pentti and Sirkka) and two Finnish as a foreign language students (Ilja and Rosa). The study further investigates what the participants think about language, how they talk about languages and language learning, and what kind of beliefs are expressed within these discourses.
Linguistic ethnography is applied both in the data collection and as a method. The data for the study was collected during the academic year 2016–2017 and consists of audio and video from recorded informal interviews and discussions, as well as of field notes and photo captures during the service learning practice. In addition, field notes and photos taken by students have been included in the study.                                      This study shows that what the students and the elderly discuss and how they think about language differs somewhat, but the beliefs connected to language and language learning do have many similarities, especially relating to authentic learning experiences and its meaningfulness. Commonly occurring themes in the discussion are, on the one hand, the personal memoirs and anecdotes shared by the elderly relating to their past and, on the other hand, the future plans and dreams of a life in Finnish by the young students. Community engaged service learning pedagogy opens new insights and practices to language teaching
and learning within higher education. It can also challenge some of the existing institutional practices and ideologies.