‘Broken Finnish’: Accent perceptions in societal gatekeeping (Broken Finnish)
Main funder
Funder's project number: 315581
Funds granted by main funder (€)
- 480 000,00
Funding program
Project timetable
Project start date: 01/09/2018
Project end date: 31/08/2024
Summary
‘Broken Finnish’ focuses on accent perceptions in the National Certificates of Language Proficiency test in Finland. It explores how the test takers’ pronunciation is perceived as ‘foreign accent’ by the raters and how these perceptions affect the general proficiency rating. As the test is a requirement for proving language proficiency for Finnish citizenship, it is a crucial societal gatekeeper.
The focus is on the rating of the speech of four migrant groups, Arabic, Estonian, Russian, and Thai, and an older Finnish minority group, Finland Swedish. The migrant groups belong to the biggest migrant groups, and all the groups face negative stereotyping in Finland. The project studies whether the stereotypes affect speech proficiency rating by examining the acoustic quality of the ‘accents’ in relation to the raters’ verbalised perceptions and ratings of them. The research team consist of sociolinguists, (socio)phoneticians, language test researchers and statisticians.
The focus is on the rating of the speech of four migrant groups, Arabic, Estonian, Russian, and Thai, and an older Finnish minority group, Finland Swedish. The migrant groups belong to the biggest migrant groups, and all the groups face negative stereotyping in Finland. The project studies whether the stereotypes affect speech proficiency rating by examining the acoustic quality of the ‘accents’ in relation to the raters’ verbalised perceptions and ratings of them. The research team consist of sociolinguists, (socio)phoneticians, language test researchers and statisticians.
Principal Investigator
Primary responsible unit
Web page
https://www.jyu.fi/hytk/fi/laitokset/solki/broken-finnish/in-english; https://www.jyu.fi/hytk/fi/laitokset/solki/broken-finnish
Internal follow-up group
Profiling area: School of Wellbeing (University of Jyväskylä JYU) JYU.Well
Related publications and other outputs
- Puhujan keskimääräinen äänenkorkeus kielitaidon arvioinnissa (2023) Ullakonoja, Riikka; O1; 978-952-68723-9-1
- Rimaa hipoen selviää tilanteesta – Yleisten kielitutkintojen suomen kielen arvioijien käsityksiä arvioinnista ja suullisesta kielitaidosta [Klarar med nöd och näppe av en taluppgift – bedömarnas uppfattningar om språkbedömning och muntliga färdigheter i provet i finska i Allmänna Språkexamina]. Jyväskylän yliopisto [Jyväskylä universitet] (2023) Ahola, Sari; O1; OA
- "Vierasta korostusta on niin vähän, että arvaan viro" : yleisten kielitutkintojen suomen kielen arvioijien käsityksiä suomenruotsalaisten puhumasta suomesta (2022) Ohranen, Sari; et al.; A1; OA
- ‘Broken Finnish’ : Speaker L1 and its recognition affecting rating in National Certificates of Language Proficiency test in Finnish (2021) Ahola, Sari; et al.; B3; OA
- “Come join us, and lose your accent!” : Accent Modification Courses as Hierarchization of International Student (2021) Ennser-Kananen, Johanna; et al.; A1; OA
- Ensikielen tunnistamisen merkityksestä suullisen kielitaidon arvioinnissa Yleisissä kielitutkinnoissa (2020) Halonen, Mia; et al.; A3; OA; 978-951-9388-71-7
- Sujuvaa mutta viron kielen vaikutusta : yleisten kielitutkintojen arvioijien käsityksiä vironkielisten suomenoppijoiden suullisesta taidosta (2020) Ahola, Sari; A1; OA
- Yleisten kielitutkintojen arvioijien käsityksiä thainkieliseksi tunnistettujen suomenoppijoiden suullisesta kielitaidosta (2020) Ahola, Sari; A1; OA
