What is your research about?
In my dissertation I explore children’s beliefs about English and learning English, and how their beliefs connect to the English they encounter outside school. The study also sheds light on the importance of English in children’s everyday lives. In this study I generated data together with the participants as they progressed from grade 1 to grade 3 of Finnish primary school. The data comprises group discussions, snapshots taken by the children, and learner portraits drawn bu the children. In my dissertation I also explored what ethical research praxis constitutes in research conducted with young children.
What were the key findings of your research?
The findings of this study indicate that children hold intricate beliefs about English and learning English and argue for their views. The children’s beliefs about language gradually become more diverse and multifaceted as they progress in primary school. The beliefs on the one hand recycle a conception of language familiar from the school context, and on the other, gain more multifaceted meanings as the children engage with English outside school. The children not only assign English personal value but societal as well. The children describe how they participate in communities where English plays a significant role.
What new knowledge did your research produce?
Children are capable of discussing the status of English in society and the education system—when provided with the opportunity to do so. Traditionally children are portrayed as passive recipients of knowledge and values. The findings of this study shed light on how children actively inflict societal change in the Finnish linguistic landscape. Making use of child-perspective methods allow for gaining new knowledge of how children relate to the status of the English language in the Finnish education system and society. This study also pushes for change in the field of applied linguistics and foreign language learning and emphasizes a turn towards more ethical research praxis.
Master of Arts Karoliina Inha defends her doctoral dissertation in applied language studies "Of relation and reflection: Children’s beliefs about English and affordances for English in and outside school in the context of early foreign language learning" on Saturday, May 23, at 12:00 in room S212 of the Seminarium building at the University of Jyväskylä.
Opponent: Professor Ana Maria Ferreira Barcelos (Universidade Federal de Viçosa)
Custos: Professor Ari Huhta (University of Jyväskylä)
The public defense will be held in English. The opening speech (lectio praecursoria) will be in Finnish.
The dissertation is available online.
The event can be followed online.
Contact details
Karoliina Inha, karoliina.a.inha@jyu.fi, karoliina.inha@gmail.com
