VAKKI Publications

Perifeeristen luontokohteiden kielimaisema: UNESCOn maailmanperintökohde määrällisen tarkastelun kohteena

Sanna Heittola — 2024-12-13

Language landscapes are cultural, complex and multidimensional. They reflect the diverse interaction between culture, society and the environment, while at the same time forming an integral part of local identity and cultural heritage. This article examines two peripheral language landscapes and explores the role language policy (Spolsky 2004) plays on remote natural sites. Our research focuses on the UNESCO World Heritage Site shared by two countries, Finland and Sweden, and the language landscapes of two nature trails. The photographed signs are categorized by language, number of languages, permanency and by their (in)official character. The signs are analyzed quantitatively, and the results show that the majority of the signs in both nature loca-tions are official and permanent. The most common language is Swedish. In the Finnish context, the majority (67 %) of the signs are multilingual while the majority of the signs (59 %) in Swedish context are monolingually Swedish. The results show that official language policy is visible even in remote nature context but that the nature trails do not reflect the actual languages in the society. This excludes especially the users of national minority and the users of immigrant languages from the intended user group of nature trails where the legal concept of everyman’s right on the other hand guarantees everyone’s right to enjoy nature.

Asiantuntijatiedon moninaisuus: Tarkastelussa podcast-tarjonta ja sen luokitteluperiaatteet

Merja Koskela — 2024-12-13

The ways and forms of presenting expert knowledge are constantly changing. For example, such media formats as podcasts, i.e. audio or video recordings available online, are increasingly being used to convey expert information. Podcasts tend to have multiple episodes, can be listened to at any time on any device suitable for the purpose, and are characterized by mutability and variation. Taking traditional models of expertise and expert communication as a starting point, the aim of the article is to consider how the ways of categorizing and presenting podcasts relate to these models, and how expertise is described in the context of podcasts. In this conceptual article, we focus on two podcast platforms, Yle Areena and Spotify, and examine the ways of classifying podcasts and describing the content. The results of the study indicate that the traditional models still function for describing the podcast offerings at large, but users’ perspective is not present in them. However, the intended use of the podcast defines the relevance of expertise and suggests who is deemed an expert. All in all, our study fills a gap in podcast research by examining podcasts as a practice of conveying expert knowledge.

”Gratis broddar till dig som är 65 år och bor i Göteborg”: En fallstudie av legitimeringsstrategier i svenska kommuners webbtexter riktade till seniorer

Hans Landqvist — 2024-12-13

Offers of free ice cleats to senior citizens is a rather new phenomenon in Sweden. Therefore, Swedish municipalities should strive to linguistically legitimize such offers to convince senior citizens to use ice cleats during the winter season. The research questions for the reported study are (1) Which main strategies for legitimation appear in the municipalities’ texts? (2) Which subtypes to different main strategies appear in the municipalities’ texts? (3) What general picture of the municipalities’ approach to senior citizens can the identified strategies be said to convey? A corpus of 23 texts on municipal websites, published in 2022 or 2023, is analysed, using van Leeuwen's model for legitimation analysis (2008) as a theoretical-methodical basis. The results of the study show that ice cleat offers are legitimized lexicogrammatically mainly through the two main legitimation strategies Authorization and Rationalization. The main strategy Moral Evaluation, with a focus on public health and the health and well-being of senior citizens, is also used. No instances of the main strategy Mythopoesis are identified. Several subtypes to the three main strategies Authorization, Rationalization and Moral Evaluation are identified in the corpus. Some of the strategies for legitimation used can be deemed as an expression of an equal relationship between municipalities and senior citizens, while others can be said to express an unequal relationship.

Voices in government crisis communication in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic: A rhetorical arena perspective

Hanna Limatius — 2024-12-13

The aim of this article is to explore the discursive and communicative choices made in the United States’ government crisis communication during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020–2023). The article investigates government crisis communication from the perspective of the rhetorical arena theory (RAT, Frandsen & Johansen 2017). In our analysis, we ask whose voices are present in the crisis communication and how these voices are used to achieve the authorities’ rhetorical aims. The method of the study was a qualitative discourse analysis of press releases and official guidance documents published on the websites of the U.S. Department of State (DoS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2020–2023. The results show that the rhetorical sub-arenas include a wide variety of different voices and actors. The two arenas overlap in terms of voices of authorities, politicians, and media, but each sub-arena carries the institutional characteristics of their publishers. While the CDC highlights the voices of authorities and experts offering information and encouraging people to follow their guidance, the DoS brings to the front the voices of politicians legitimating the role of the United States on the global scene and government decisions in the national context. The ways of using different discursive and rhetorical techniques on each arena are strategic choices by the authorities and form essential tools for their crisis communication.

Managing the shortage: A quantitative-qualitative study on the scale and effects of the severe lack in sign language interpreting resource in the German market

Laura Marie Maaß — 2024-12-13

This study provides an insight into the extent of the shortage of sign language interpreters in Germany and the impact this has on the co-operation and workflows between hearing sign language interpreters and their deaf clients. There is a considerable lack in sign language interpreters in Germany; on average, each deaf person can only receive around 18 hours of interpreting services per year. In the context of growing demands for participation and inclusion, for example in education, and the accessibility of events of all kinds, we see a growing tension between the two groups. With almost 800 respondents, this study provides insight in the relationship between hearing sign language interpreters and their deaf clients. It focusses on various application scenarios and shows, among other things, that the shortage is currently reflected in the area of acute medical emergencies and that the current free market will not cover this shortage.

Att kommunicera stöd för språklig mångfald: Analys av lokala planer för småbarnspedagogik i tolv tvåspråkiga kommuner

Pauliina Sopanen — 2024-12-13

Children's diverse linguistic backgrounds in Finnish early childhood education and care (ECEC) are acknowledged in the National core curriculum for ECEC. It states that multilingual children are supported in their languages, identities, general well-being, and self-esteem. In addition, the staff need to support and cooperate with multilingual families in matters related to multilingualism and learning. ECEC providers also create and follow a local curriculum, which is based on the national curriculum, and which considers local features and other local plans and curricula. In this study we examine intertextuality in local curricula for ECEC in twelve bilingual municipalities and specifically a section on multilingualism in languages other than Finnish and Swedish. We apply content analysis to examine similarities and differences in the local curricula on issues related to support for multilingual children and whether the rights of these children are realised on equal terms in the municipalities. The results show that issues related to language are discussed in each document. However, variation in authorities’ ways to handle the section on multilingualism becomes visible when the curricula are compared between the municipalities, between the language versions of the curricula and in the formulations. We argue the importance of following similar guidelines in municipalities even if local specifications are highlighted, to ensure equal possibilities for all multilingual children in ECEC.

Hi ChatGPT, Translate This Text into Easy Language: Is the New Easy Language Translator a Machine?

Christiane Maaß — 2024-12-13

We are surrounded by dysfunctional texts that are burdened with various communication barriers: They are not where we are looking for them, they are written in fonts that are too small, they are completely incomprehensible or unacceptable. Such texts make it difficult for us to act based on them and they need editing. Removing communication barriers is a form of translation. Accessible communication recognises and accommodates the diversity of communication partners. This diversity can be the result of differing interests and expertise in certain areas, differing educational opportunities, stressful life events such as flight or migration, but also disability. In recent years, accessible communication has become a major issue in Europe and around the world: Approaches include Easy Language, Plain Language, subtitling for the hearing impaired, text-to-speech interpreting, sign language interpreting, and audio description for the blind. An expert field has emerged here: It encompasses a labour market, study programmes, and scientific research. Recently, a new player has been added: artificial intelligence. Machine translation – between different languages, but also intralingually between different levels of comprehensibility – has recently improved enormously in quality. What does it entail that machine translation has become part of the field of accessible communication? Are human translators still necessary and what is their role? Who can use machine translation and for what? How is the field of accessible communication changing as a result? In this invited plenary talk of the XLIV VAKKI Symposium, held on 8-9 February 2024 at the University of Vaasa, I focus on Easy Language translation and try to find at least a preliminary answer to this question: Is the new Easy Language translator a machine?

Introduction: Diversity in Communication

Ella Lillqvist — 2024-12-13