Migrant women, work, and investment in language learning: Two success stories
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Päivi Iikkanen
Abstract
In the media, migrant mothers are often portrayed as uneducated, having trouble learning a new language, and preferring to stay at home rather than entering paid employment. This article offers a contrasting point of view as a result of examining how two migrant women narrativize their experiences of language learning and working-life-related integration during a three-year period. Specific attention is paid to how the women make sense of their language use over time, and how this may have contributed to their integration into working life and the wellbeing of their families. Interview data was analyzed using the short story analytical approach, focusing on both the content and the various scales of context portrayed in the stories. The analysis is informed theoretically by the concept of investment. The findings indicate that, first, English was used when interacting with members and institutions of the Finnish society, but gradually the use of English was replaced by an emerging Finnish proficiency. At first with the help of English and later, by deciding to invest in learning Finnish, both key participants managed to build new careers and meaningful lives for themselves and their families in a new environment.
Appendix
A The clock task Natalie completed in the first interview (11/2015)
B The clock task Natalie completed in the second interview (9/2017)
C The clock task Katherina completed in the first interview (1/2016)
D The clock task Katherina completed in the second interview (2/2018)
E Katherina’s timeline for the third interview (2018)
F Excerpt 2: original interview with Natalie
1 P: elikkä nyt sä joudut, joudut, tai voit, puhua vietnamia sitte päivälläkin täällä
2 vai puhutteko te suomea?
3 N: joo, no, koska, [työntekijä], se kiinalaine on tässä
4 me puhutaankin täällä Finglish, niin kuin English ja suomi
5 ja se [aviomies] kanssa kaikki pitää puhua englantia
6 ja sitten suomea
7 P: mm, eli kolmea kieltä
8 N: sekaisin
9 P: vuorotellen ja sekaisin
10 N: me mainostetaan international [workplace] tässä ja
11 mutta ei se haittaa, aika hauska
12 [aviomies] oppii muutama vietnamia sanoja
13 P: nii, itse asiassa se sano äsken, että hän niinku ymmärtää sitä jo
14 N: nii, ja sitten
15 nii, nii ja sitten se [työntekijä] nyt vähän niinkun oppia suomen kieli
16 ja jotain niinko lisää ja
17 se enemmän ja semmosta se aika hauska, ja vaikka englanti on niinkun, sitä
18 P: kaikki osaa sitä?
19 N: kaikki osaa
20 P: joo, se on niinku yhteinen kieli
21 P: mut se on kyllä hyvä juttu, jos pystyy oppimaan suomee tässä sitte heki samalla
22 N: kyllä
23 P: joo, muistan vaan, ku mulla oli niitä kellotaulukuvia
24 P: niin sä kirjotit siihev viimeksi, että suomea koko päivän
25 N: nii, joo, totta se on koulussa ja nytkin kotona
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© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Training student writers in conducting peer feedback in L2 writing: A meaning-making perspective
- Assessing the use of multiple-choice translation items in English proficiency tests: The case of the national English proficiency test in Turkey
- Translingual negotiation strategies in CMC contexts: English-medium communication in online marketplaces
- Alignment effect in the continuation task of Chinese low-intermediate English learners
- Racializing the problem of and solution to foreign accent in business
- Migrant women, work, and investment in language learning: Two success stories
- Student motivation in Dutch secondary school EFL literature lessons
- Developing 21st century skills for the first language classroom: Investigating the relationship between Chinese primary students’ oral interaction strategy use and their group discussion performance
- How memories of study abroad experience are contextualized in the language classroom
- Spanish L1 EFL learners’ recognition knowledge of English academic vocabulary: The role of cognateness, word frequency and length
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Training student writers in conducting peer feedback in L2 writing: A meaning-making perspective
- Assessing the use of multiple-choice translation items in English proficiency tests: The case of the national English proficiency test in Turkey
- Translingual negotiation strategies in CMC contexts: English-medium communication in online marketplaces
- Alignment effect in the continuation task of Chinese low-intermediate English learners
- Racializing the problem of and solution to foreign accent in business
- Migrant women, work, and investment in language learning: Two success stories
- Student motivation in Dutch secondary school EFL literature lessons
- Developing 21st century skills for the first language classroom: Investigating the relationship between Chinese primary students’ oral interaction strategy use and their group discussion performance
- How memories of study abroad experience are contextualized in the language classroom
- Spanish L1 EFL learners’ recognition knowledge of English academic vocabulary: The role of cognateness, word frequency and length
