This paper uses multimodal CA to analyze embodied second language learning in social circus workshops. The participants are young adult refugees learning Finnish. The analysis shows how the supportive and tolerate atmosphere of the circus activities creates conditions for second language users to try out and play with language.
The terms Social circus refers to pedagogical circus activities that are used to do circus arts with (often somehow marginalized) groups of people. Social circus activities foster trust and collaboration between participants, and cherish imagination and playfulness. (See e.g. Bessone 2017, Kekäläinen 2014.) Because of these empowering characteristics, social circus provides a safe arena to experiment with language, too.
This paper analyses embodied second language learning in social circus workshops. More specifically, we focus on "reflection rounds" that take place in the end of every workshop and analyze, how the participants express their thoughts on the talked-about circus activities by using embodied and verbal resources.
The data for the research has been gathered with the methods of video-ethnography with a group of young adult refugees. The participants are not only newcomers in the Finnish society using Finnish as their L2 but also novices in doing circus. Therefore, the concurrent processes of learning the circus activities and the language of instruction are readily observable in the data. The dataset consists of 20 hours of videorecordings generated longitudinally during six months. The analysis uses multimodal conversation analysis (Mondada 2014, 2018) and benefits from ethnographic and experiential understanding gained during the research process.
On the basis of our observations, we argue that the supportive and tolerate atmosphere of the circus activities creates conditions where learners of language can try out and play with language. This kind of language play is valuable in creating a feeling of being competent in interaction.
