No Verbs, No Syntax: The Development and Use of Verbs in Non-Literate Learners’ Spoken Finnish

Abstract

There are many published studies describing the learning of Finnish as an additional language (L2) by educated adult learners, but hardly any research is available on how low-educated adults learn Finnish. This article presents findings on the development and use of verbs in four non-literate learners’ spoken language. The focus is on verbs because of their essential role both in spoken and written utterances. The data were collected in a classroom context during a literacy training of 10 months, and the data collection method was participant-observation supported by note taking and audiotaping. the general premise of the study is a combination of sociocultural and usage-based theories of language learning. The findings show that the participants used verbs rather infrequently: only 22.7% of all the utterances included at least one verb, although individual differences were found both in the number of verbs and the use of the verbs. The main reason for the low use of verbs seems to be the absence of the subjects’ explicit teaching. In Finnish, the learning of verbs just by picking them out from spoken language without the support of literacy skills and especially without explicit teaching is challenging because of the complex verb conjugation system.