Finnish students’ dedication to and interaction in communicative oral practice in foreign language classroom

Abstract

The aim of this study is to gain a deeper understanding of how Finnish-speaking students’ communicative oral practice in a foreign language, Swedish1, is carried out through cooperative scheme-based and elaboration tasks in the language classroom. The specific focus is on the students’ dedication and participatory interaction. The study is carried out as a didactically oriented micro-ethnographic case study, in which the teacher acts as a researcher of her own teaching. The data, gathered through tape recordings of the students’ oral practice, are analysed through qualitative content analysis methods supplemented with some quantifications. The main research findings are that a good deal of dedication to the oral practice, as well as cooperation, and interactive and self-generated communication in Swedish are realised. Many students’ use of L1, Finnish, especially when creating intersubjectivity and in scaffolding, is also evident.