Search results for "FINLAND"
showing 10 items of 1724 documents
Second language comprehensibility and accentedness across oral proficiency levels : A comparison of two L1s
2021
Second language comprehensibility and accentedness are highly complex phenomena, and numerous studies have been conducted to better understand these constructs. However, research has seldom addressed L2 comprehensibility and accentedness in relation to speakers' proficiency in the target language. This study explores L2 English comprehensibility and accentedness across three proficiency levels. The speakers were 60 teenaged Finns, half of them speaking Finnish as their L1 and half speaking Finland-Swedish as their L1. Using 20-s speech samples, the comprehensibility and accentedness of the speakers were rated by 34 English-speaking teenagers on a 9-point scale. Comparisons were made regardi…
Identity and language discourses in elf context : a case study of five Finnish university students working in an international student organization i…
2016
Tämän tutkielman tarkoituksena oli selvittää, kuinka englantia työssään virallisena kielenä käyttävien suomalaisten korkeakouluopiskelijoiden identiteetti rakentuu englannin kielellä. Työn keskiössä ovat diskurssit ja identiteetti, jonka nähdään rakentuvan diskursiivisesti kielestä ja kaksikielisyydestä puhumisen kautta. Essentiaalisen identiteetin sijaan tutkielmassa sovelletaan käsitystä dynaamisista, päällekkäisistä ja samanaikaisista identiteeteistä. Työn taustan muodostaa toisen kielen ja lingua franca –englannin identiteettitutkimukset. Tutkimuskysymykset ovat: 1) Millaisia diskursseja haastateltavat tuottavat puhuessaan englannin kielestä ja kaksikielisyyd…
Om hur finskspråkiga och svenskspråkiga lyssnare bedömer och värderar avancerade talares uttal av finlandssvenska
2018
Syftet med denna studie är att analysera avancerade finskspråkiga inlärares uttal av finlandssvenska i fritt tal: vilka är de svåraste inlärningsmålen i S2-uttal (andra- och främmande språk) och hurdana skillnader finns det mellan talare på olika färdighetsnivåer? Därtill undersöks om finskspråkiga lyssnare värderar uttalet på samma sätt som svenskspråkiga lyssnare. S2-talarnas prestationer i en monologuppgift värderas av finskspråkiga och svenskspråkiga lyssnare gällande hur bra talarna kan segment och prosodi i finlandssvenska. Forskning i finskspråkiga talares S2-uttal av finlandssvenska ger oss ett speciellt perspektiv på S2- uttalsinlärning. Eftersom språken liknar varandra fonetiskt b…
Prosody and fluency of Finland Swedish as a second language: Investigating global parameters for automated speaking assessment
2023
This study investigates prosody and fluency of Finland Swedish as a second language (L2). The main objective is to investigate global measures of prosody and fluency as predictors of overall oral proficiency, fluency, and pronunciation ratings. We analyzed parameters related to temporal fluency, timing (based on syllable durations), and f0 change from spontaneous speech produced by 30 native and 235 non-native speakers of Finland Swedish representing proficiency levels from beginner to intermediate. We used pairwise comparisons to investigate the differences between native speech (L1) and L2 samples from different proficiency levels. To study the predictability of ratings with acoustic para…
“Opportunities, but Nothing Very Concrete” : The Challenge Finns Face with Chinese Delegations’ General Level of Interest in Finland
2015
This paper explores the challenge of finding common ground between the Finns and the Chinese in the context of co-operation, trade and inward investment facilitation related to general lack of specific interest displayed by the Chinese. The article is ethnographic in nature and is mainly based on data obtained from interviewing individuals working for local governments in Finland and one of the state agencies responsible for attracting foreign investment. The study uses Speech Codes Theory (Philipsen, 1997) when analyzing the cultural aspects of expectations regarding communication between Chinese and Finns. According to interviewees, lack of serious interest, vague government guidelines, t…
Data from: Optimizing management to enhance multifunctionality in a boreal forest landscape
2016
1. The boreal biome, representing approximately one third of remaining global forests, provides a number of crucial ecosystem services. A particular challenge in forest ecosystems is to reconcile demand for increased timber production with provisioning of other ecosystem services and biodiversity. However, there is still little knowledge about how forest management could help solve this challenge. Hence, studies that investigate how to manage forests to reduce trade-offs between ecosystem services and biodiversity are urgently needed to help forest owners and policy-makers take informed decisions. 2. We applied seven alternative forest management regimes using a forest growth simulator in a…
Socioeconomic differences in the use of alcohol and drunkenness in adolescents: Trends in the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study in Finla…
2018
Aims: The aims of this study were to explore time-based trends of socioeconomic differences in alcohol use and drunkenness in Finnish adolescents from 1990 to 2014 and to investigate the significance of two indicators in detecting socioeconomic differences in alcohol use and drunkenness. Methods: Data were retrieved from seven surveys conducted as part of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study in Finland from 1990 to 2014. The alcohol use and drunkenness of 15-year-old students, as well as socioeconomic status, including educational aspiration and perceived family wealth, were assessed via a self-report questionnaire. Logistic regression models were used to investigate t…
Depressive symptoms and long-term income: The Young Finns Study
2016
Abstract Background Higher depressive symptoms have been associated with lower future income. However, studies examining this issue have had limited follow-up times and have used self-reported measures of income. Also, possible confounders or mediators have not been accounted. Methods 971 women and 738 men were selected from the ongoing prospective Young Finns Study (YFS) that began in 1980. Depressive symptoms were measured in 1992 when participants were from 15 to 30 years old. Information on annual income and earnings from 1993 to 2010 were obtained from the Finnish Longitudinal Employer-Employee Data (FLEED) of Statistics Finland and linked to the YFS. Results Higher depressive symptoms…
Body weight and premature retirement : population-based evidence from Finland
2021
Background Health status is a principal determinant of labour market participation. In this study, we examined whether excess weight is associated with withdrawal from the labour market owing to premature retirement. Methods The analyses were based on nationally representative data from Finland over the period 2001–15 (N ∼ 2500). The longitudinal data included objective measures of body weight (i.e. body mass index and waist circumference) linked to register-based information on actual retirement age. The association between the body weight measures and premature retirement was modelled using cubic b-splines via logistic regression. The models accounted for other possible risk factors and p…
Turvekiista paljastaa demokratian puutteita
2022
Sen lisäksi, että koskemattomien luonnonvarojen hyödyntäminen pilaa alkuperäistä luontoa, se tuottaa usein haittoja myös ihmisille. Kansalaisten näkökulmasta kysymys on ympäristöoikeudenmukaisuudesta, jolla tarkoitetaan sitä, että luonnonvarojen käytöstä koituvien hyötyjen ja haittojen pitäisi kohdistua tasapuolisesti ja sosiaalisesti oikeudenmukaisesti eri ihmisryhmiin. Haitoista kärsivät ihmiset ovat monissa tilanteissa ryhtyneet protestoimaan omaa lähiluontoa hyödyntävää toimintaa vastaan ja vaatineet julkista valtaa estämään toiminnan tai ainakin sääntelemään sitä tiukemmin. Tällainen ympäristökonflikti on syntynyt, kun turpeennostoalueiden lähellä asuvat ihmiset ovat vastustaneet turve…