The informants for my interviews are graduates of the English School who attended the school from an early age and for most of their childhood. Graduate interviewees were chosen rather than current students on the assumption that they, as adults, could better
articulate their experiences and interpretations. After all, people construct their identities most vividly when confronted with other ways of life; without a degree of distance from the school, the informants may therefore have been less able to attribute meaning to their school experiences in comparison to other experiences. Moreover, it has been suggested that identity is under a state of fluctuation and struggle during adolescence (e.g. Caldas and Caldas 2002: 419). I thus preferred to interview adults who have already gone through those crucial stages of adolescent identity development.
In order to find the graduates, I sent a formal letter to the English School presenting my research topic and contact information, which was forwarded to a randomly selected group of former students from different years. In total, nine graduates responded to the letter. Four of these graduates had to be excluded, however, because they each had a non-Finnish parent, leaving me with only five interviewees. I then contacted a retired teacher from the school, who gave me the contact information of another five former English School students who satisfied my criteria. Of these five, two graduates were available for interview, resulting with seven interviewees in total. As the interviews were to be very extensive, this was enough for my purposes. The aim was to investigate in-depth the experiences, views and interpretations of the interviewees, rather than to objectively prove a hypothesis.
I tried to control several variables as far as possible in selecting my interviewees. The most obvious one was the extent of their schooling in English. I wanted to find informants who had been through their entire comprehensive education in English, since English schooling is the focus of my investigation. It was also important that the informants had Finnish parents and had spent most of their lives in Finland. This was to isolate the influence of English immersion as much as possible – although, as stated, it is impossible to separate it completely from other influences of English language and culture, and it would be futile to attempt this.
After the prolonged search, I came as close as possible to my ideal informant group. All of the interviewees had parents who were both Finnish and all of them had been
schooled through English for their entire comprehensive education. Five of them had lived in Finland throughout their childhoods. Two of them, however, had lived abroad as children for periods of four and three years, in Spain and Hong Kong respectively. They both had attended English-speaking schools while abroad and Helsinki’s English School while in Finland. They were both Finnish by birth and had acquired the Finnish language before English. I decided therefore to include them in my investigation, but to keep in mind during the interviews and my discussion that their time abroad would also be of significance.
The graduates ranged in age from 23 to 56 years, and included four men and three women. Although age and gender variables are not factors in my research questions, I consider it enriching that my informants were at different stages in their lives and therefore viewed their experiences and identities through different lenses. It also ensures that any themes arising from my interviews are not limited to one particular age group or gender.
The graduates were each given questionnaires before the interviews asking basic background information: age, profession, length of time spent in the English School, time lived abroad. Profiles of this information are listed below. To respect their anonymity, they have all been given pseudonyms, which shall also be used during the analysis.
Antti
Age/Gender: 23 years old/ male
Occupation: Studying International Business at a University of Applied Sciences English School: Attended the English School from age 13 to 19.
Time abroad: Lived in England age 6, and Spain age 8 to 12.
(where he attended English medium schools)
Mari
Age/Gender: 24 years old/ female
Occupation: Project assistant in a university language faculty.
English School: Attended the English School from kindergarten to senior high school.
Time abroad: Has never lived abroad
Sami
Age/Gender: 24 years old/ male Occupation: Architect
English School: Attended the English School from kindergarten to senior high school.
Time abroad: France for six months, age 18 Germany for eight months, age 22
Timo
Age/Gender: 25 years old/ male
Occupation: Working as a project manager for a graphics design company English School: Attended the English School from kindergarten to junior high
(subsequently attended an International Baccalaureate program) Time abroad: Has never lived abroad.
Virpi
Age/ Gender: 56 years old/ female Occupation: IT analyst
English School: Attended the English School from elementary to junior high (there was no kindergarten or high school at the time) Time abroad: Has never lived abroad
Heikki
Age/Gender: 24 years old/ male
Occupation: Studying Advertising in an English University
English School: Attended the English School from kindergarten to senior high (apart from years spent abroad)
Time abroad: Lived in the U.S.A. age 9, and in Hong Kong age 14-16 (where he attended English language schools)
Anne
Age/Gender: 43 years old/ female Occupation: Secretary
English School: Attended the English School from elementary to junior high (there was no kindergarten or high school at the time) Time abroad: Has never lived abroad
FIGURE 2 Interviewee Profiles
6 RESULTS AND ANALYSIS
The results are organized according to the study’s research questions and sub-questions, under which themes that emerged from the interviews are discussed.