Multilingualism in a Football Team: The Case of IFK Mariehamn

Abstract

Until recently multilingualism in sports has not been much investigated. This paper deals with multilingualism in a football club, IFK Mariehamn, in the monolingually Swedish Åland Islands between Finland and Sweden. In a questionnaire distributed to the team, special emphasis was placed on language problems encountered by the players, who have eight different L1s representing eight different nationalities. The main languages of communication within the team are Swedish and English, while Finnish, the dominant language used in the Finnish league is hardly used at all, except between the Finnish members of the team. The language used in training sessions was Swedish, while the main language of communication off the field was English. During matches and training sessions, the main language problem for the team was that there were two players who did not know Swedish and had very little knowledge of English. These linguistic shortcomings were at least partly due to players arriving late in the season, when they had not had the time to learn the restricted football vocabulary in Swedish. As their English, too, was scrappy, misunderstandings due to language problems could occur on the field.

Appendix: The Questionnaire

(can be done in English, Swedish or Finnish)

1.1 General Information

As a researcher in linguistics and language learning I have always been interested in multilingualism. I have therefore thought it would be interesting to make a linguistic investigation of a sports team consisting of players from many different countries speaking many different languages. IFK Mariehamn is a particularly interesting case, as the language foreign players have to learn at least to some extent (Swedish) is a language different from the main language in the league, where Finnish is the language almost exclusively used by referees, officials and most players in the other teams.

Some of the questions I will try to answer are: Who speaks what language to whom in what situations and why? What language-related problems are there? How are they tackled and how do they relate to the individual players’ proficienc in the different languages (Swedish, Finnish, English)? The purpose of my investigation is to provide the basis for a conference paper with the provisional title ‘Multilingualism in a football club: the case of IFK Mariehamn’ to be delivered at an international conference on multilingualism in Warsaw in September 2011.

It is obvious that I need a lot of information from players as well as coaches and club officials. I have therefore compiled a questionnaire and would be grateful if everybody concerned could fill it in and leave it to the club office in an envelope addressed to me before 25 March. The questionnaires are available in Swedish, English and Finnish and everybody can choose the language he knows best. The information from the questionnaires will later be supplemented by interviews with a smaller number of key persons. I hope to get information from not only the present players in the team but also from players who were in the team during one of the previous years. If anyone does not want his name to be mentioned in any context he can say so on the last page of the questionnaire.

Thank you for participating in this little project by filling in the questionnaire. If you want more information or wish to comment on the investigation generally you are welcome to do so by e-mailing hakan.ringbom@abo.fi or by phoning me, 48162 after 2 May. During most of March and April I can be reached by phone, 02-2318924.

Håkan Ringbom

Questionnaire for Players

Name:

Nationality:

• 1. Proficiency in different languages (indicate with a cross where it is relevant)

 

	Mother tongue	Excellent	Very good	Good	Fair	Weak
Swedish
Finnish
English
German
Russian
Other languages

Definitions:

Excellent:

Nearly native-like proficiency

Very Good:

Can speak fluently, has no difficulties in understanding speech

Good:

Understands a lot, but does not speak very well

Fair:

Understands some, but speaks very little

Weak:

Understands a little, cannot speak

If you had more than one language in your childhood home or if you have gone to school in two different languages, indicate both these as your mother tongues.

• 2. How long have you lived in Åland or in some other place where Swedish functions well as a communication medium in your environment?

   

  O All my life

  O 8–15 years

  O 4–7 years

  O 1–3 years

  O Less than a year

• 3. IFKs language in the field during matches and training sessions is Swedish. What do you think about it?

   

  O It is the most sensible alternative

  O English would be better

• 4. Has IFK in any way tried to help foreign players to improve their Swedish proficiency, thus integrating them better in the team and the Åland environment?

 

O

Yes

O

No

 

If yes, in what way?

Has it helped you?

The communication situation

• 5. What language(s) do you speak with your teammates off the field? Indicate the language and the order.

(1 = the language I speak most, 2 = a language I quite often speak, 3 = a language I sometimes speak)

 

	1	2	3
Swedish
Finnish
English
German
Russian
Other languages

For (2) and (3) you can indicate more than one language, if applicable.

Do you ever mix languages when you speak?

 

O

Yes

O

No

If yes, what languages?

• 6. What language(s) do you speak with the coaches? Indicate the order (separately for each coach).

   

  Lyyski	1	2	3
  Swedish
  English
  Finnish

   

  Ward	1	2	3
  Swedish
  English
  Finnish

• 7. What language(s) do you speak with IFKs club officials? Indicate the order

   

  	1	2	3
  Swedish
  English
  Finnish

• 8. What language(s) do you speak with players from the Finnish teams? Indicate the order

   

  	1	2	3
  Swedish
  English
  Finnish

• 9. What language(s) do you speak with referees, and with officials in Finnish teams? Indicate the order.

   

  	1	2	3
  Swedish
  English
  Finnish

• 10. What language(s) do you speak in Åland, with others than teammates and club officials? Indicate the order.

   

  	1	2	3
  Swedish
  English
  Finnish

• 11. In what situations have you been frustrated because of language problems?

   

  	Often	Sometimes	Never
  During training sessions with teammates	O	O	O
  During training sessions with the coach	O	O	O
  During matches with referees and match officials	O	O	O
  During matches with players in Finnish teams	O	O	O
  Off the field, with teammates	O	O	O
  Off the field with club officials	O	O	O
  Off the field with players from
  Finnish teams	O	O	O
  In Åland talking to others than IFK people	O	O	O

   

  O	I have not experienced any language problems

• 12. If you have felt frustrated, this depends on

   

  O	Mainly my own limited proficiency in the language
  O	Mainly my partner’s limited proficiency in the language
  O	Both my own and my partner’s limited proficiency

• 13. When you are talking to a teammate and have problems because of his limited proficiency, what do you do? Indicate what strategies you use and how often.

 

	Often	Sometimes	Never
I try to speak more slowly and clearly	O	O	O
I change into another language	O	O	O
I ask somebody for help	O	O	O
I change/simplify the content of my message	O	O	O
I use non-linguistic means (body language, mimics)	O	O	O
I try to rephrase my message in some other way	O	O	O
I repeat my message	O	O	O
I try to use words from my mother tongue or some other language to convey my message	O	O	O

Is there a difference when you talk to people who are not teammates?

 

O

Yes

O

No

If yes, what kind of difference?

• 14. What do you do if you have difficulties in understanding what your partner says? Indicate how often.

   

  	Often	Sometimes	Never
  I ask him to speak more slowly and clearly	O	O	O
  I ask him to repeat what he said	O	O	O
  I ask him to say the word(s) in some other language	O	O	O
  I ask him to explain the meaning of the word(s)	O	O	O

• 15. What do you do when you notice that you yourself do not know the language well enough to convey your message?

 

	Often	Sometimes	Never
I try to get help from others	O	O	O
I change/simplify the content of my message	O	O	O
I try to get help from my mother tongue	O	O	O
I try to get help from English	O	O	O
I try to get help from other languages than
English and my mother tongue	O	O	O
I gesticulate and use body language, mimics and other non-linguistic means to convey my message	O	O	O
I change the topic of the conversation	O	O	O

Especially important: Describe your language-related problems in various situations for example on the other side of the page. Indicate whether you feel that the problems mainly depend on your own or your communication partner’s lack of proficiency. You can also give the information orally by contacting Håkan Ringbom directly.

 

I have no objection to my name being mentioned in this investigation	O
I do not want my name to be mentioned in any context	O

For team captains (present and previous)

As team captain you have an especially important role in communicating between the team and others. Describe as fully as possible the language-related problems you have met. You can also do this orally by contacting Håkan Ringbom.