Dr Kaisa Pankakoski

(she/her)

Publication

• Date
• Type

Research

My PhD study and postdoctoral research are in the interdisciplinary field of Family Language Policy. The multidisciplinary theoretical framework and field developed from language policy and child language acquisition research. It now explores bilingual and multilingual families’ circumstances, covering a variety of topics from language input and parental discourse strategies to language ideologies and children’s views.

My research highlights the struggles many transnational families face regarding heritage language transmission; an important theme for me is wellbeing in multilingual family settings. Often parents and children view foreign (heritage) language transmission as difficult and draining. When children do not achieve certain parental expectations regarding language development, this can negatively impact family wellbeing and lead to a change in language use. My current research focuses on these challenging insights into the multilingual families' experiences in managing many languages and explores solutions that can ease the transmission process.

See my ESRC profile page for more information about my current projects; for a list of public engagements and experience, please send me an email.

Research interests

• Multilingualism
• Bilingualism
• Sociolinguistics
• Language, culture and society
• Language ideologies
• Family Language Policy
• Wellbeing and FLP
• Neurodiversity
• Parental language strategies
• Multilingual parenting

Biography

Since leaving my native Finland in the 1990s, I have studied and worked in Spain, France, Chile, and the UK. After completing an undergraduate degree in European Studies at the University of Portsmouth I gained a postgraduate degree at Cardiff University School of Journalism, Media and Culture. My dissertation titled Euroscepticism in Britain and Finland: attitudes and print media since accession looked at the two countries’ different histories and societies leading to different cultures of euroscepticism in a comparative analysis in the pre-Brexit era. My dissertation, that was awarded distinction, sparked my interest in research.

I spent ten years working as a freelance researcher, journalist, writer, and translator across the world before returning to academia (and Cardiff University) in 2015 to complete a PhD in sociolinguistics at the School of Welsh. My thesis explores 14 multilingual case study families’ circumstances in two bilingual societies whereby potentially multilingual children have been immersed in both the official languages of the country and a foreign language. The findings reveal that a local language community is critical: transmission of a language that is not an official language of the country was considered especially challenging.

After the PhD, I joined the School of English, Communication and Philosophy. I am now an associate researcher at the Centre for Language and Communication Research.

I have published in several non-academic contexts and peer-reviewed journals, including Early Child Development and Care. Below is a selection of my more recent blog posts and articles that are available online.

Doctoral Academy blog posts

14 top tips to help you prepare for the PhD viva

Words of wisdom for new postgraduate researchers: Part two

Words of wisdom for new postgraduate researchers: Part one

10 self-care tips for the PhD

Should you go on a writing retreat?

Articles and blog posts in Finnish

Olemmeko samassa juonessa? Ammattilaisten sekä eri kieli- ja kulttuuritaustaisten lasten ja perheiden kiinnittyminen varhaiskasvatuksen yhteiseen toimintakulttuuriin

Monkielisen lapsen aaltoileva kielten kehitys

Kielikysymyksiä Suomessa ja Walesissa

Kieli kasvaa lasta kuuntelemalla

Lapsiperhearkea kolmella kielellä

Articles in Welsh

The BBC: Byw mewn tair iaith

Golwg: Magu plant mewn tair iaith yng Nghymru a'r Ffindir

Honours and awards

Research funding and grants

Postdoctoral research funding, monograph writing grants, and conference organising grants

• The ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship 2024-2026 
• Finnish Association of Science Editors and Journalists grant
• The Association of Finnish Nonfiction Writers grant
• University of Oxford Creative Multilingualism research programme conference bid

PhD funding grants

• The Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland
• Oskar Öflunds Stiftelse
• The Ella and Georg Ehrnrooth Foundation
• The Society of Swedish Literature in Finland
• City of Helsinki Research Grant
• The Finnish Literature Society
• Funds for women graduates
• The Finnish Section of the Nordic Federation of Public Administration
• The Finnish National Agency for Education
• The Philological Society
• School of Welsh scholarship for tuition fees