6.2 Research Participants and Questionnaire Data
Participants for the research interview were contacted and invited to take part through their respective Finnish language teachers at various institutions in the capital city region providing teaching in Finnish as a foreign language as well as through online communities of Finnish language learners. They were provided with the criteria for participation. Those who agreed to participate were provided with an anonymous online questionnaire in Finnish and English, the purpose of which was to gather background information on the circumstances of each participant’s relocation to Finland, their social situation and background as well as brief information about their studies of Finnish language.
While working within the limitations of availability of motivated participants, this research attempts to take into account the risks of generalization. As the demographic information below demonstrates, the interviewees represent a diverse array of life situations, allowing the research to contemplate the relevant issues from a number of perspectives. As told by Gillham, “one may seek informants who come from different
‘strata’ within the group – in terms of status, occupational category, or degree of experience,” (2005: 42–3). Although the settings of the participants with which this research is concerned are not entirely the same, the interviewees were not for example enrolled in the same course nor did all come from the same linguistic community, for these purposes one can consider their shared positions as foreign language-speaking immigrants and learners of Finnish as a second language sufficient to make up a sampling. This sampling in turn can be used not to draw definite or representative conclusions, but rather to analyse on the backdrop of theory, examining the phenomena that arise in analysis and generalising as to, for example, which of these may be prevalent among the foreign language-speaking immigrant community at large.
(Gillham 2005: 43)
The demographic information in Table 2 provides a general overview of the group of interview participants. The majority of participants identified themselves as female (seven female and five male respondents). All but one of the participants had resided in
Finland between four and nine years and similarly the same participant, P3, was the only one to have studied Finnish for more than 7 years. The diversity in countries of origin of the participants saw three participants from Russia and one participant from each of the other represented states respectively. None of the participants originated from an EU member state. The most common first language of participants was Russian with three speakers. Four of the participants had originally come to Finland on the basis of family ties, including P4 who was granted residency in Finland as a returning migrant (Finnish: paluumuuttaja) due to her ethnic Finnish background. This participant did not however indicate that Finnish language had been spoken in her home life or among her relatives. Five participants had originally come to Finland to study, but have since obtained employment in Finland. P3 came to Finland on the basis of employment and P7 and P8 came on the basis of international protection. All of those interviewed lived in city centres, with the majority in the capital city region while the remainder of participants lived in municipalities that place within the 15 most populated in Finland, which also have some of the highest proportions of foreign citizen residents.
Table 2. General demographics on research participants
P8 Female Somalia Somali 4–6 International
Protection 1–3
P9 Male Kenya Swahili,
Kikuyu 4–6 Studies 1–3
P10 Male Colombia Spanish 4–6 Family ties 1–3
P11 Female Armenia Armenian 4–6 Studies 1–3
P12 Male Nepal Nepali 7–9 Studies 4–6
While four of the interview participants were receiving education in Finnish language as part of publicly funded integration/labour market training for unemployed migrants, five were enrolled in voluntary Finnish language courses and one no longer participated in Finnish courses (P3). Participant 3 had, after studying Finnish for a number of years, gone on to complete studies in teaching Finnish as a foreign language and received employment as an instructor in integration training programming. Participants 1 and 2, who were enrolled in voluntary courses, had first received basic education in Finnish language as a part of English-language medium Master’s programmes at Finnish universities and since chosen to continue their language studies after graduating and finding employment. Five of the participants (P4, P5, P6, P7, P8) were unemployed or underemployed while seven were employed in full-time positions, engaged in post-secondary studies as well as full or part-time employment or fully engaged in their studies which acted as a means of sustaining their livelihood (P11 was employed as a PhD student and researcher). The three employed interviewees had obtained graduate degrees while the unemployed and underemployed participants had levels of education ranging from secondary school to professional school and undergraduate studies.
Table 3. Summary of research participants’ questionnaire answers relating to social situation, education, language studies and history
Among the participants, studies of languages of wider communication were common, with all but one participant (P5) having previously studied English. Studies of other commonly spoken languages, second official languages or languages of wider communication in their participants’ respective countries of origin were also common among this group, as exhibited in Table 3. In terms of methods and habitudes in studies of Finnish, three participants (P5, P8, P9) indicated that they did not supplement their learning in courses with independent work and practise, whether alone, with friends or colleagues or their partners. All other participants indicated that they studied in courses with contact teaching in addition to learning independently apart from P12, who indicated in the interview that after completing obligatory Finnish language courses as part of an English-medium university study programme his learning continued independently. Of the participants, six were married, three in a domestic partnership and three single. Of these nine in relationships, six were with Finnish-speaking partners (P1, P2, P3, P6, P10, P12) and three with speakers of their own native language (P4, P5, P8).
This data will be further examined in the interview analysis, in which the narratives of the participants will give further context to these demographics.