Migrants' Inclusion in Civil Societies: The Case of Language Cafés in Sweden

This article investigates the role of language cafés as venues where newly arrived migrants to Sweden can socialize and practice the target language. More specifically, we aim to explore how café organizers and volunteers orient to social inclusion as they are interviewed about the goals of the local café and engage in talk‐in‐interaction with the visitors during video‐recorded café sessions. At the methodological level, we rely on ethnomethodologically informed ethnography and conversation analysis, through which we adopt an emic approach to data analysis by taking into account the members' interpretation of their social world and the actions they accomplish in it. Our analysis uncovers the organizers' and volunteers' conceptualization of social inclusion, which they articulate in terms of fostering a sense of belonging and empowerment; they also perceive the mutual benefits derived from the encounters with the migrants at the local café. Overall, the migrants' views dovetail with the concept of "everyday citizenship," which highlights the dimensions of belonging, rights, and access to resources for social participation as constitutive of social inclusion. These findings highlight the perceived role of language cafés as a way to act on the existing social reality to transform the local community into an inclusive, equal, and integrated society

Gestural Matching and Contingent Teaching: Highlighting Learnables in Table-talk at Language Cafés

This study explores how iconic gestural matching in responsive turns is used in Swedish L2 talk not only to demonstrate understanding, but also as a referable by L1 speakers to highlight part of the previous turn as the focus of instruction. Gestural matching indicates intersubjective understanding (de Fornel, 1992), cohesion across turns (Koschmann & LeBaron, 2002), or conjoint actions (Lerner, 2002). In the context of L2 learning, they can be used for pedagogical purposes (Eskildsen & Wagner, 2015; Majlesi, 2015). This study reports on the use of gestural matching in “language cafés”, where gestures are recycled to make part of the prior turn salient and relevant for the emergence of learnables and for contingent teaching

Finger dialogue. The embodied accomplishment of learnables in instructing grammar on a worksheet

This study is about embodied and endogenous grammar instruction on worksheets in teaching Swedish as a second language. It is demonstrated how an ‘awareness’ to produce a linguistic construct ‘grammatically correct’ is co-achieved by the teacher and the student. To see and understand the grammatical features of the words, an interactive instructional sequence is initiated by the teacher. This interactive scaffolding between the teacher and the student, to use meta-talk and to talk about abstract grammar, requires some concrete referents on a surface jointly attended to, and which are seen, pointed to and talked about. It is shown in detail how the interactional business of the interchange is dependent upon a constant integration of talk, gesture and orientation to the written grammatical construct on a sheet of paper. Teaching grammar is, thus, done through the objectification of quite abstract linguistic units and categories, and the transposition of the abstraction onto tangible and visible objects on the paper. Therefore, the result of the organization of order in instruction is a moment-by-moment sense-making, including accounting for how to understand a grammatical phrase, and the rationale behind the relations of the grammatical constructs, and, also, transforming the organization of knowledge. This study shows that foregrounding grammatical learnables on a paper are actualized by the mobilization of diverse semiotic resources resulting in seeing, understanding and reaching an instructed vision (cf. Goodwin, 1994) as the progressive achievement of observable and reportable embodied actions (Garfinkel, 1967, 2002). Grammatical learnables are, therefore, the procedural outcome of the hands-on practices as mutually achieved embodied accomplishments

Lärande genom handling : Hur möjligheter till undervisning och lärande åstadkoms i svenska som andraspråkutbildning

This doctoral dissertation is an empirical qualitative research study on the emergence of learnables in classrooms of Swedish as a second language. It adopts a dialogical and praxeological approach, and analysis is based on video recorded teacher-student interactivities in classrooms. Learnables are taken to be linguistic items or constructs that are displayed as unknown by students, or problematized by students or teachers, and therefore oriented to as explainable, remediable, or improvable. Learnables are introduced in planned or less planned classroom activities, either in passing, while continuing the current main activity, or in sidesequences. In these activities, teachers and students not only talk, but also use other embodied resources (e.g. pointing) or available artifacts (e.g. worksheets) to highlight linguistic learnables. Teachers and students use these resources for achieving and maintaining intersubjectivity as well as contributing learnables to the interactivities. Through manifest embodied practices, abstract linguistic learnables become objectified, and knowledge about them gets organized in and through joint co-operative activities.Denna avhandling är en empirisk, kvalitativ studie om uppkomsten av s.k. ”learnables” i svenska som andraspråksutbildning. Studien antar ett dialogiskt och praxeologiskt perspektiv, och analysen baseras på video-inspelade lärare-elevinteraktiviteter i klassrummet. ”Learnables” utgörs av språkliga objekt eller konstruktioner, som hanteras som obekanta av elever, eller som problematiseras av elever eller lärare, och därför orienteras emot som objekt som kan förklaras, korrigeras eller förbättras. ”Learnables” kan uppstå i planerade eller mindre planerade klarssrumsaktiviteter, antingen i förbigående, samtidigt som huvudaktiviteten fortsätter utan avbrott, eller i sidosekvenser. I dessa aktiviteter använder lärare och elever inte bara talspråk, utan även andra kroppsliga resurser (t.ex. pekningar) eller tillgängliga artefakter (t.ex. papper) för att fokusera på språkliga ”learnables”. Lärare och elever använder dessa medel för att uppnå och bibehålla intersubjektivitet, samt för att bidra med ”learnables” till interaktiviteterna. Genom konkreta kroppsliga metoder blir abstrakta, språkliga ”learnables” objektifierade och kunskapen om dem organiseras i och genom deltagarnas koordinerade handlingar

Gestural Matching and Contingent Teaching

This study explores how iconic gestural matching in responsive turns is used in Swedish L2 talk not only to demonstrate understanding, but also as a referable by L1 speakers to highlight part of the previous turn as the focus of instruction. Gestural matching indicates intersubjective understanding (de Fornel, 1992), cohesion across turns (Koschmann & LeBaron, 2002), or conjoint actions (Lerner, 2002). In the context of L2 learning, they can be used for pedagogical purposes (Eskildsen & Wagner, 2015; Majlesi, 2015). This study reports on the use of gestural matching in “language cafés”, where gestures are recycled to make part of the prior turn salient and relevant for the emergence of learnables and for contingent teaching

Multimodal gestalts in reformulating practices in language cafés

This study focuses on the multimodal gestalts (Mondada, 2014) in unsolicited other-reformulations produced by L1 speaking volunteers in language cafés where visitors practice Swedish with volunteers from the local community. The unsolicited other-reformulations in our collection: (a) act as clarifications of what was said before, and (b) highlight (Goodwin, 2018; Majlesi, 2022/this issue) lexical items used in the prior turn, thereby orienting to them as learnables (Majlesi & Broth, 2012). Our findings suggest that multimodal gestalts in other-reformulations make parts of the original turn more visible and transparent for L2 speakers, and therefore make such parts salient for language learning

Multimodal Gestalts in Reformulating Practices in Language Cafés

This study focuses on the multimodal gestalts (Mondada, 2014) in unsolicited other-reformulations produced by L1 speaking volunteers in language cafés where visitors practice Swedish with volunteers from the local community. The unsolicited other-reformulations in our collection: (a) act as clarifications of what was said before, and (b) highlight (Goodwin, 2018; Majlesi, 2022/this issue) lexical items used in the prior turn, thereby orienting to them as learnables (Majlesi & Broth, 2012). Our findings suggest that multimodal gestalts in other-reformulations make parts of the original turn more visible and transparent for L2 speakers, and therefore make such parts salient for language learning

"She didn't expect to get a slap" : Modeling "proper" conduct among teachers and students in training classes for care workers in Sweden

The current study is carried out in an ethnically diverse three-semester vocational adult education programme in Sweden for those who aspire to register as assistant nurses. The data is based on field notes taken during participant observations and video-recordings of the classroom interaction in a course on dementia care in the autumn of 2014. In Sweden, care work is framed by the goals stated in The Swedish Social Services Act, which is to promote the elderly’s right to self-determination and independence. In the class in which this study was carried out, this policy informed the teaching of “good” communication practices. The aim of this article is to demonstrate how the strategies taught in school that embody this policy come into conflict with the seemingly unavoidable dilemmas experienced by trainee students on the work floor. We analyse two examples of teachers acting out hypothetical scenes for the purpose of modeling proper caregiver conduct in dealing with frail, powerless individuals with dementia. The students’ descriptions of their own conduct in managing challenging resident behaviour are thereby considered as accountable actions. The article brings into focus the complexity of the power relations and institutional asymmetries at play concerning the teaching situation in training classes for care workers.Multilingual practices and pedagogic challenges in elderly car