Anne Pitkänen-Huhta

Languaging in Ultima Thule: Multilingualism in the Life of a Sami Boy.

Abstract In this paper we investigate multilingualism as a phenomenon which pervades different social and cultural levels but is manifested in the everyday life of multilingual individuals. As an illustration, we examine multilingualism from the perspective of a young Sami boy, Ante, and explore how different languages function as a complex – but at times problematic – set of resources for him. To capture the complexity and fluidity in the relationships between various languages in his life, we base our theorising on such concepts as ‘linguistic resources’, ‘heteroglossia’ and ‘languaging’. With the help of multimodal data we examine how the linguistic resources present in Antes daily life may provide affordances and set constraints for him. In addition, we study how Ante himself, as a multilingual child, takes issue with the languages in his life. We argue that the multilingualism present in Antes environment embodies many opportunities and resources, but is also a source of ambiguity. The ways in which Ante moves between languages, makes choices between them and positions himself in relation to them seem to suggest that while languages do position Ante in various ways, he can also choose which language to use and when as part of his active languaging work.

Multimodal Literacy Practices in the Indigenous Sámi Classroom: Children Navigating in a Complex Multilingual Setting

This article explores multimodal literacy practices in a transforming multilingual context of an indigenous and endangered Sámi language classroom. Looking at literacy practices as embedded in a complex and shifting terrain of language ideologies, language norms, and individual experiences and attitudes, we examined how multilingual Sámi children navigate and appropriate meaning-making resources available for them while designing their own picture books. We adopted a discourse ethnographic approach to analyse these multimodal picture books and found three different but interrelated orientations to the making of the books, each organising and valuing multimodal resources in his or her own way. We conclude with a discussion of the value of repetition and creativity in multimodal literacy practices in a changing multilingual minority language context.

Discursive construction of a high-stakes test: the many faces of a test-taker

As part of a larger project, we studied how a foreign language test got discursively constructed in the talk of upper-secondary-school leavers. A group of students were asked to keep an oral diary to record their ideas, feelings and experiences of preparing for and taking the test over the last spring term of school, as part of a high-stakes national examination. In addition, they took part in discussions either in pairs or groups of three after having learned about the final test results. After transcribing the data, drawing on a form of discourse analysis originally launched by a group of social psychologists, we identified (at least) four interpretative repertoires in the students’ accounts - with different constructions of themselves as test-takers, the test, and their performance in the test - including expectations and explanations for success or failure as well as credit or blame. The findings point to variation in the uses of these repertoires, not only from one context to another but also from moment to moment.

Dynamic Multimodal Language Practices in Multilingual Indigenous Sámi Classrooms in Finland

Starting from the premise that dynamic language practices are an emerging property of interaction, and that languages are learnt by participating in language practices, we focus in this chapter on the tensions and creativity that arise from complex, changing, and interconnected multilingual discourses, practices, and experiences in indigenous Sami classrooms. Drawing on longitudinal ethnographic and discourse-analytic research on a multilingual indigenous Sami community in Finland, we will examine the strategies and practices that a group of Sami children develop, use, and modify while navigating this complex terrain. We illustrate the various ways in which the children adopt and play with the emergent norms and use their linguistic and cultural resources to navigate in a multilingual educational context. The aim of this study was to highlight the multilingual repertoires of these children, validate their literacy practices, and evaluate the presence of multilingualism and Sami languages in the classroom.

ALR special issue: Visual methods in Applied Language Studies

Abstract This introductory article serves two purposes. Firstly, it provides the background for the set of 11 articles that appear in the special issue of this journal and summarizes the articles along a number of dimensions. All the articles address aspects of multilingualism as subjectively experienced and they all make use of visual methodologies. Secondly, it subjects the articles to two meta-analyses. The first one compares and contrasts the studies by site: production, image and audiencing. The second one, in contrast, classifies the studies by the research strategy chosen by the researchers: looking, seeing or designing. The article concludes by pointing to future directions in research on multilingualism as lived, and suggests a visual turn.