A3 Book section, Chapters in research books
Scaffolding learning through reflection : Finnish language students recycling, negotiating, and reinterpreting instructions in a portfolio assignment (2024)

Räsänen, E. (2024). Scaffolding learning through reflection : Finnish language students recycling, negotiating, and reinterpreting instructions in a portfolio assignment. In M. Kivilehto, L. Lahti, T. Pitkänen, E. Pitkäsalo, & M. Tervola (Eds.), Tutkimuksellisia siltoja rakentamassa (pp. 234-255). Suomen soveltavan kielitieteen yhdistys. AFinLA:n vuosikirja, 2024. https://doi.org/10.30661/afinlavk.143399

JYU authors or editors

Publication details

All authors or editors: Räsänen, Elisa

Parent publication: Tutkimuksellisia siltoja rakentamassa

Parent publication editors: Kivilehto, Marja; Lahti, Laura; Pitkänen, Taina; Pitkäsalo, Eliisa; Tervola, Maija

ISBN: 978-951-9388-79-3

Journal or series: AFinLA:n vuosikirja

eISSN: 2343-2608

Publication year: 2024

Publication date: 06/11/2024

Number in series: 2024

Pages range: 234-255

Number of pages in the book: 375

Publisher: Suomen soveltavan kielitieteen yhdistys

Publication country: Finland

Publication language: English

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30661/afinlavk.143399

Publication open access: Openly available

Publication channel open access: Open Access channel

Additional information: Suomen soveltavan kielitieteen yhdistyksen julkaisuja ; 81
Suomen soveltavan kielitieteen yhdistyksen AFinLAn syyssymposium Tampereen yliopistossa 9.–11.11.2023

Abstract

Students’ everyday life interactions in the wild are an important resource for their language learning, and reflection helps in utilizing the learning potential of these experiences. Students need scaffolding to benefit from reflection, and task design must support learners’ agency. These requirements suggest a need to examine and develop such reflection tasks. This paper examines a portfolio task developed by the teacher-researcher to enhance students’ learning in the wild as part of an U.S. university-level Finnish Studies program. Drawing on nexus analysis and using discourse analysis, the paper maps and analyzes how phrases from the instructions circulate to the subsequent reflections, and what the implications of this circulation are for the discourses created as well as for learning. The analysis reveals how the students recycle, negotiate, and reinterpret phrases from the original task, and how the task scaffolds the reflections. Pedagogical implications focus on how the task can be developed. The author advocates for the use of nexus analysis in teacher research to bridge research practice with task development and instructional change. As part of their training, pre-service teachers are recommended to collect and analyze student data to study the implications of the learning tasks they develop and use.

Keywords: Finnish language; foreign languages; language learning; class teaching; educational methods; everyday life; linguistic interaction; reflection (cognitive processes); nexus analysis; discourse analysis

Free keywords: discourse analysis; discourses in place; language learning in the wild; nexus analysis; written reflection

Contributing organizations

Ministry reporting: Yes

VIRTA submission year: 2024

Preliminary JUFO rating: 1