Autoethnographic account of 2L Finnish learning: Disambiguation of language

After the recent refugee crisis Europe was plagued with anti-immigration policies and doubts about the effectiveness of immigrant integration programs; Finland was no exception. Integration programs include teaching of the official language, however not to advanced levels. This leaves foreigners as basic communicators —with poor language skills— and low profile candidates for mainstream job markets slowing social integration. This paper integrates the authors’ previous work about an online Finnish language learning system —ideation, construction and testing— created to resolve foreigners unmet needs. The data presented here, is the result of trial performed on such system and presented as an autoethnographic study focusing on the emotional implications and dual-role of a learner and researcher. Results show how online 2L systems help learners with ambiguous situations —linguistic and social— by lowering anxiety with indirect interaction. Future studies on possible solutions include the design of metacognitive strategies and reading/writing tools for 2L Finnish for specific
purposes.