I am a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Language and Communication Studies. I currently work as a grant researcher in my own project exploring experiences of the non-learning of Finnish among voluntary adult migrants. I have previously worked in a project entitled Language, Engagement and Belonging investigating Ukrainians in rural communities in Finland, as well as in the Building Blocks project in which I focused on students in the fast-progressing track of Finnish integration training, their language learning and paths to employment. My doctoral thesis, completed in 2020, explored everyday experiences of highly proficient second language speakers of Finnish through the concepts of language ideology, identity and legitimacy. I have also taught sociolinguistics on undergraduate courses in the Finnish language subject and have worked as a university teacher in applied linguistics (academic year 2019/2020).
My research is located at the intersection of language learning research, (critical) sociolinguistics and sociology. I am interested in language learning as a social process that involves learners’ diverse and changing identities and emotions as well as language ideological processes and social and societal power structures. My research has drawn mainly on discourse analytical and ethnographic perspectives.
