Silence and Question Marks in Drawings of Interactional Encounters

• Main Author: Niemelä, Heidi
• Format: Book Part
• Language: unknown
• Published: Springer International Publishing 2023
• Subjects: Finn; Arctic
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42979-8_8; https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/978-3-031-42979-8_8

Abstract In this chapter, discourses, language ideologies, and visual representations of the Finnish language are analysed in the Finnish primary school context. Pupils from age 11 to 13 from the cities of Oulu and Helsinki were asked to ‘draw the Finnish language’. These visual representations consist of many elements, in which people make a frequent appearance. Most of the people represented in the context of the Finnish language are named as Finns . However, some interactional encounters between native speakers of Finnish and foreigners are also represented, and this chapter focuses on exploring these representations. Six drawings from a data of 102 drawings of the Finnish language are being analysed in this chapter. In these drawings, an interactional encounter of a Finn and a foreigner or a lack of understanding is visualised. This raises a question on the assumed connection between one’s nationality and language. Are foreigners not considered possible speakers of Finnish?