Finnish learning, gamification, and functionality – how do these usually combine? A typical situation is that a group that has first studied vocabulary and grammar and then practised these with traditional tasks proceeds to the ‘application phase’, i.e. functional and gamified tasks. However, what if the game was the first step to learning Finnish? What if the first things to be practised through the game were the first things learners need in practice?

The perspective and model were implemented in the MAKU project, which developed, amongst other interventions, a learning game for cleaning company employees in the autumn of 2023. Their own wish was to practise answering the ‘where is…?’ – type of questions. Therefore, we created a game in which we added location phrases that were as authentic as possible in a shopping centre context. The phrases were also based on the wishes and needs of the employees.

Gamified Finnish learning at the workplace

The MAKU project (Multisensory Approaches to Language Learning) aimed to research and develop solutions for functional Finnish language learning at the workplace. One of the project’s stakeholders was a large cleaning company that wanted to support language learning for people who had moved to Finland from elsewhere.

The MAKU team studied the language learning needs of cleaning workers at one of the company’s locations in a shopping centre. There, the entire team, including the supervisors, had migrant background. Most of the employees had Finnish language skills ranging from elementary, intermediate, and advanced. This situation was repeated during the project with different stakeholders in different fields where each language learner was at an individual stage of Finnish learning process.

In the case of the cleaning team, we conducted two focus group interviews to find out their language learning needs specifically related to work. Examples of everyday language situations included talking to customers, communicating with team members when there was no common language, and understanding shopping centre emergency notifications. In addition, the team in question had a supportive work community where the supervisor promoted and encouraged learning Finnish through games (Einovaara, Kivistö &; Rivera-Macias 2024).

The design of the game specifically based on the situation and needs of its future users had a positive impact on the whole process. The players were immediately motivated, as they were able to practise the Finnish that was constantly needed in their work. While playing, they learned much more Finnish than just the ‘official’ phrases of the game. The employees constantly came up with more situations that they hoped to learn. Based on this, additional cards were first developed for the game, and eventually an entire sequel with new phrases and situations.

The game was also tested with a diversity of test users, and two completely new versions were developed. Based on the original shopping centre game board, a hotel-based game board, and then a version intended for financial management students. The relatively simple game mechanics made it possible to modify the board to different vocabularies.

Language is action – learning a language is finding agency

The perspective, in which only after reaching a certain basic level, a learner can proceed to practising the working language and the situations in which it is used, is linked to traditional language teaching. The latter still has a strong position in teaching Finnish as a foreign language. Traditionally, basic structures are practised in the classroom until the level is sufficient for the world of authentic language (Reel 2010). In contrast, functional pedagogy teaches the language structures that are needed in a genuine communicative situation (Kela &; Komppa 2011).

Since language is never separate from the layers it contains, no language is merely a system of symbols, but language as a system always containing active social functions. When a person learns a new language, they do not only memorise words and phrases, but adopt a completely new kind of system with all the patterns and ways of acting that it contains (Shore 2012; 2020). Therefore, learning a new language does not only enable agency as part of society, but it also makes the learner an active actor.

When we codesigned the game for the genuine language needs of the cleaning company’s employees, we also ended up implementing a kind of pilot on functional language learning and teaching, which for most learners starts from scratch. As their first grammatical structures, they studied inessive or where-postpositions (kaupan vieressä – next to the shop, kioskin edessä – in front of the kiosk), which in Finnish courses usually come across only towards the end of the first textbook. The result was motivated Finnish language learners who were able to practise the words and phrases they genuinely needed in their work right from the start and continuously.

Lastly, the board game was tested in early December 2024 with a different target group for additional feedback. The group was formed by migrant women who saw the potential of the game to teach Finnish language to their children too! This was an unexpected coincidence, as a new Laurea UAS project focusing on multilingualism in early childhood education starts in February 2025. Subsequently, the Laurea team started to plan new modifications and adaptations to the board game to make it a floor game for small children. This shows the scalability of the board game, where a very simple but strongly informed pedagogical idea can be co-developed and applied in different language learning settings.

This is a translation of the original publication in Finnish Pelaamalla kiinni uuteen kieleen, that includes pictures and a list of references.

Picture: Shutterstock