The IKI project

The present study was conducted in association with the IKI project (shortened from the Finnish words, Innovatiivisen Kielenoppimisen Kompassi, which translates into “map of and compass for innovative language education” in English), which is a University of Jyväskylä project, funded by the Ministry of Culture and Education. It is focused on discovering the different, inventive methods that are used, for example, in early foreign language instruction. Research extends beyond early childhood education, all the way until the end of primary and secondary education even among older learners. Its ultimate aim is to help foreign language teachers and other professionals working in the field of Education to improve and support their work and “pedagogical practices” (University of Jyväskylä 2020).

The present study is relevant to the project because it yields data that can help educators detect novel ways of teaching English in the context of ELL or, at least, recognize the

methods and principles that seem to be present in a novel situation within FL instruction, namely, early FL instruction in English to 7-year-old elementary school students.

Conducting research in association with the project, the process of obtaining permits for classroom observing was relatively easy. For the project’s purposes, IKI already had permissions for conducting research in certain cities and regions, which affected my decision-making process about where to collect data. I decided to stick to the regions where IKI was already recognized as a project, and contact schools in these areas. The teachers who agreed to participate in the study with their groups knew both about the present study and its aims, as well as the goals and purpose of the IKI project.

The data for this study were collected through observing ELL instruction. Preparing for observing, I had my hypotheses of what ELL would most likely look like. After having read the amendment of the NCC, articles on ELL and having ELL lessons during my teaching practica before, I already had a foundation or a basic understanding of what the instruction comprises. To support my notetaking, I had written down questions to help me focus on the most important aspects of each lesson, which I had defined largely based on my research questions. I made sure to carefully describe different activities featured during the lessons. At times, where applicable, I had also left room for teachers’ or students’ comments. Essentially, on my laptop, I had an electronic spreadsheet where I had questions to which I was trying to find answers but where I could also collect observations more freely if need be and write down additional points. I did not ask teachers any formal interview questions but decided to write down anything useful they might freely mention before or after class, for instance, about the challenges of ELL. To make sure that my spreadsheet would be as useful and detailed as possible, I piloted my research by gathering observations while watching a recording made in an ELL class.

This recording was provided to me by IKI.

The data were collected in two elementary schools, in Central Finland in Central Ostrobothnia, between November 2019 and February 2020 through observing early

English as a foreign language classes for first graders. In total, four teachers’ teaching was being observed, and the data consist of five different English classes, the duration of which ranged from 39 to 45 minutes depending on the school. As mentioned above, observations were written down as fieldnotes during said classes using a laptop. Due to ethical considerations, I told the participating teachers what I would be doing. I explained that I would document classroom activity by writing down my observations on my laptop and that I would keep the data completely anonymous to ensure that individual students, teachers, or the schools in question from could not be identified based on the descriptions. Despite the data being anonymous, I kept it in a safe, untitled folder.

The four teachers whose lessons were being observed had different backgrounds when it comes to experience or years in education, not to mention teaching young language learners. Two of the teachers were taking their first steps in their careers, while the third teacher was an experienced EFL teacher, but had just started teaching EFL to first graders.

The fourth teacher, on the other hand, was the most experienced with young learners, as the school they worked in had had a rather long tradition in providing ELL to their students even before the decision to commence EFL instruction in the first grade.

Besides teachers, students were also being observed. The groups did not differ when it came to the number of students in each of them, for each group’s size was 10 students.

However, a few students were absent on three of the five days, so there were instances where the size of one group could be as few as 8 students.

The data were later analyzed through content analysis. In the following Section, I will discuss theoretical considerations behind qualitative data collection and analysis methods and explain and motivate these choices for handling the data.