Search results for "RSS"

Reforming the national core curriculum for bilingual education in Finland

2016

This article explores the discourses surrounding the act of writing Section 10 Bilingual education in the new Finnish national core curriculum, which will be implemented in 2016. This section will set the parameters for programs that integrate language and content learning, where a minimum of two languages are used for instruction in content subjects. The main research questions discussed in this article are how and why certain discourses are expressed, or left unexpressed, in the final draft version of the curriculum. The data for qualitative analysis consists of participatory observations and minutes of meetings in the working group assembled for writing the draft.

Rapping the ‘Better folk’: Ideological and scalar negotiations of past and present

2017

Drawing on sociolinguistics of globalization, discourse studies and global hip hop studies, this article examines how the ideological sociocultural and -historical reality of Finland is (re)constructed and (re)negotiated in a local rap song and how the song takes issue with the official, but often tension-ridden Finnish–Swedish bilingualism. Its specific, ironic take arises from the fact that the rap artist is Finnish-speaking, but echoes a Swedish-speaking minority who are traditionally and stereotypically seen as a privileged, historical elite. The song exemplifies how rap can constitute a site for investigation of language ideological debates in bi/multilingual societies and how national…

Variation in the use of constructed action according to discourse type and age in Finnish Sign Language

2022

This paper presents a study of the use of constructed action (CA) in the stories and conversations of adult Finnish Sign Language (FinSL) signers of different ages. CA is defined here as a type of depiction in which a signer enacts the actions, feelings, thoughts and utterances of discourse referents with different parts of their body. Most studies on CA in sign languages have been done on the basis of signed storytelling, and little is known about how the use of CA varies in different discourse types. The use of CA has also been noted to vary between individual signers, but we do not yet know much about the socio-individual phenomena that may be linked to this variation. In the present stu…

Assemblage of art, discourse and ice hockey : designing knowledge about work

2021

This article examines speculative design's capacity to co‐produce knowledge about contradictions and potentialities of work in professional ice hockey. Building on the Deleuzian concept of assemblage, speculative design has been used for two purposes: (a) to bring together the perspectives of art, anthropology, discourse studies, and professional sports in co‐constructing knowledge about hockey work; and (b) to analyze and present the key findings of an ethnography on hockey work through an art exhibition of speculative hockey memorabilia. As such, these art pieces showed the intertwined relationships of material, discursive, and affective aspects in hockey work as well as the multiplicity …

Hands-on tasks in CLIL science classrooms as sites for subject-specific language use and learning

2015

This paper is concerned with content and language integrated learning (CLIL), i.e. classrooms where a foreign or second language (L2) is used as the means of instruction and where content and language learning objectives merge. More specifically, it explores the potential of hands-on tasks in CLIL chemistry and physics lessons to serve as sites for using and learning subject-specific language, conceptualised as both special concepts and terminology as well as subject-specific ways of constructing meaning. Using discourse analysis, attention was directed to hands-on tasks as well as pre-task and post-task phases. The findings indicate that despite the evident content orientation in the tasks…

Discussion : Language in nature resource economies

2019

Spelling out consequences : conditional constructions as a means to resist proposals in organisational planning process

2016

Organisational planning processes often materialise as a series of meetings, where the future of the organisation is jointly discussed and negotiated as a part of local decision-making sequences. Using conversation and discourse analytical approaches, this article investigates how proposals concerning the future can also be resisted by employing a specific device, a conditional construction ( if X, then Y). The data for the study originate from a city organisation, whose customer services are being developed. The results show how the conditional constructions work in two interrelated ways. First, by introducing a problematic hypothetical situation, they outline the undesirable consequences…

Constructions of bilingualism in Finnish Government programmes and a newspaper discussion site debate

2014

The concept of bilingualism in Finnish political discourse is predominantly used in the meaning of official or state bilingualism, focussing on the two constitutionally defined ‘national languages’; i.e. Finnish and Swedish. Legally, both Finnish and Swedish speakers have a right for public services, such as schooling or health care, in their first language. On the other hand, several language ideological debates have taken place in recent years, challenging especially the status of Swedish in administration and education. These debates have reshaped the discourses on what counts as bilingualism. This paper analyses on one hand the historical discursive development of the “official will” pr…

Focal social actions through which space is configured and reconfigured when orienting to a Finnish Sign Language class

2018

Abstract This paper focuses on how signing students organise themselves spatially in social interactions in a university lecture hall. One may view space as a concrete location, a social construct, and a normative actor with historical trajectories. The study addresses the question, ‘What are the mediated actions through which the students and teacher (re)configure space for participating in a class?' Following a methodological framework of Mediated Discourse Analysis and multimodal interaction analysis, I approach this question by examining the social actions occurring when entering a lecture hall. The primary data includes video recordings, photos, and participatory observations, document…

Modulation of Forssman Glycosphingolipid Expression by Murine Macrophages: Coinduction with Class II MHC Antigen by the Lymphokines IL4 and IL6

1990

In contrast to murine spleen M phi, resident peritoneal M phi from health mice express very little Forssman glycolipid antigen (Fo). The following experiments suggest that Fo expression by peritoneal M phi may be associated with inflammation. Balb/c and CBA/J mice were given inflammatory stimuli by i.p. injection of live BCG, thioglycollate (TG), Corynebacterium parvum (CP), proteose peptone (PP), or LPS. Control animals received pyrogen-free saline. Expression of Fo and Ia antigen by peritoneal M phi was determined by immunofluorescence after 4 d. Application of TG or CP led to an up to 30-fold increase in Fo+, Ia+ double positive M phi over that in control animals. LPS caused mainly an in…