Search results for "analyysi"
showing 10 items of 1950 documents
Figure–Ground Spatial Relationships in Finnish Sign Language Discourse
2020
AbstractThis study is about expressing spatial relationships between Figure and Ground in Finnish Sign Language discourse and shows that the variation in this expression is primarily discourse dependent. The main findings are, first, that Ground mainly precedes Figure whether the Figure is new or a known referent within the discourse; the reverse order is possible only when the Figure is known. Second, the lexical signolla(‘have’) appears more frequently in expressing spatial relationships with a new Figure and less frequently with a known Figure but never in a construction with Figure preceding Ground; the formoli(‘had’), referring to the past, appears only in Figure preceding Ground const…
On the participatory agency of texts: Using institutional forms in performance appraisal interviews
2020
Abstract Drawing on studies of the performative effects and agency of texts in organizations, the paper investigates how the agency of texts figures through their participatory status in interaction. The empirical data for the study consist of video-recorded performance appraisal interviews in a Finnish public organization in which the interaction relies heavily on an appraisal form. The data are analyzed through a sequential analysis that draws on multimodal conversation analysis and ethnographic knowledge. The analysis shows that the human participants orient to three different acts that are inscribed in the textual document: 1) presenting demands for the participants; 2) offering topics …
Drawing conclusions about what co-participants know: Knowledge-probing question–answer sequences in new employee orientation lectures
2019
This study aims to uncover the processes of interaction through which knowledge acquisition in new employee orientation is monitored and controlled. Using video-recordings of orientation lectures as data, the study focuses on question–answer sequences in which the lecturer’s question probes into the state of the employees’ knowledge; in particular, it looks at the third turn of the sequence, in which the lecturer comes to a conclusion concerning the participants’ knowledge. This is shown to be an unavoidably practical accomplishment, which is contingent on both the often ambivalent responses of the participants and the design of the knowledge-probing question. Also, the lecturer orients to…
Policing language in the world of new work : the commodification of workplace communication in organizational consulting
2021
Abstract This paper examines how the shift to knowledge and innovation economy has created new sites for the commodification of language and communication in the context of organizational consulting. The data come from a consultant-led development and training program of the management teams of a Finnish educational organization. In the study, the year-long training was videotaped (45 h) and followed ethnographically. By using rhetorical discourse analysis as a method, we examine how the consultant-led training activities present the role of language and communication in changing working life. The results show how the activities factualize the transformation of work and the centrality of la…
Editorial : Networks Applied in Science Education Research
2020
Science education research is, in many ways, involved with exploring relational aspects of diverse elements that affect students’ learning outcomes; at one end, the elements may be concepts to be learned, and at the other end, the relations between students in different types of learning settings and environments and, ultimately, how such elements may interact [...]
Speaking out against everyday sexism : Gender and epistemics in accusations of “mansplaining”
2021
In everyday interaction, subtle manifestations of sexism often pass unacknowledged and become internalised and thus perceived as “natural” conduct. The introduction of new vocabularies for referring to previously unnamed sexist conduct would presumably enable individuals to start problematising hitherto unchallengeable sexism. In this paper, we investigate whether and how these vocabularies empower people to speak out against sexism. We focus on the use of the term “mansplaining” which, although coined over 10 years ago, remains controversial and contested. Using Conversation Analysis and Membership Categorisation Analysis, this paper excavates the interactional methods individuals use to f…
Constructing Nonagency at the Beginning of Psychotherapy : The 10DT model
2018
This study examined how nine clients discursively constructed non-agency in their first session of individual psychotherapy. With open reading and linguistic analysis of the transcribed first sessions, combined with theory-based considerations, we created a model of discursive means for ascribing agentic and non-agentic positions, the 10 Discursive Tools model (10DT). There was large variability in how the tools functioned to create the impression of problematic agency, and the clients could not be classified according to their tool use patterns. The study shows the potential of the 10DT model for the detailed examination of presentations of “not-being-able” produced by psychotherapy client…
Charitable food aid in Finland: from a social issue to an environmental solution
2019
Since the establishment of the first food bank in 1995, charitable food aid (CFA) has become entrenched in Finland as a seemingly irreplaceable solution to food poverty. Further, it has recently been suggested that the focus of food aid activities is shifting from food poverty and temporary hunger alleviation towards environmental sustainability through addressing food waste via organized re-distribution of expiring food from retail to charitable organizations. This potentially creates a mechanism that (1) solidifies food poverty and (2) fortifies the paradoxical situation where charitable organizations delivering food aid are dependent on food waste rather than trying to reduce it. To unde…
Material scaffolding : Supporting the comprehension of migrant cleaners at work
2016
Linguistic diversity is growing in labour markets throughout Europe, including Finland, where cleaning is the most common job for immigrants. This paper explores material scaffolding provided for second language users in tasks involved in cleaning work. The notion of ‘scaffolding’ refers to temporary and adaptive support, and here the emphasis is especially on ‘material scaffolding’, that is, material artefacts and body movements employed in mentoring. The theoretical framework of the study is van Lier’s (2004) ecological perspective on language learning, and a discourse-ethnographic perspective of nexus analysis (Scollon and Scollon 2004) is adopted to analyse the ethnographic data collect…
Affordances and constraints: Second language learning in cleaning work
2016
This paper examines opportunities for language learning in a cleaning job, which is a typical entry-level job for immigrants. An ethnographic case study approach is taken to investigate examples of the conditions that allow or prevent language learning for the focal participant, a sub-Saharan man who works as a cleaner in Finland. This case illustrates on a micro-scale the impact of the new economy on a worker in a company that has outsourced its cleaning services. Theoretically and methodologically, the study applies van Lier’s (2004) ecological approach to language learning and Scollon and Scollon’s (2004) nexus analysis. The analysis of interaction order shows that within outsourced clea…