VAKKI Publications (Dec 2020)
Vor-und Nachteile der Digitalisierung bei der Arbeit von Sprachexpertinnen und –experten
Abstract
While the future of work is discussed from many perspectives, discussions on how an individual's own work tasks are changing are relatively rare (Dufva et al. 2017). This article builds on our alumni study (Selkälä, Tahkokorpi & Virtaluoto 2018), in which we discovered that despite the perceived changes in working life - often called the disruption of work - the foreign language alumni of the Oulu University have found permanent positions in the traditional professions of language graduates with relative ease. For them, the disruption of work has not affected employability or the terms of employment. To investigate how working life has changed for people in these professions, we gathered group and individual interview data in 2018-2019 on the career development of language professionals. We transcribed the data and analyzed it through thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke 2012). This article discusses the main theme we discovered in the data: the digitalization of work. Based on the data, digitalization has had a profound impact on the work of language professionals, but teachers and other language professionals experience this impact very differently. We conclude by suggesting ways in which the effects of digitalization could be managed.
