Department of Finnish, Finno-Ugrian and Scandinavian Studies

Finnish Language Studies

During their Finnish studies students are trained to become language professionals: they learn to deal with Finnish expertly and they develop a broad, scientific insight into language, its significance to humankind and its position in culture and society. The wide choice of courses offered makes it possible for students to concentrate on the theories or methodologies and the topics they consider to be important.

Curriculum

The focus of teaching is on guiding students in the learning process and on mastering the necessary skills. Studies get off to a brisk start: all of the basic studies can be completed in the first academic year, and the next stage, intermediate studies, can be taken in the following year. It is also possible for students to write their Master’s thesis in one year: students receive guidance in their thesis writing while taking part in a "thesis group", which lasts for one academic year. Thus, in principle, a full-time student can complete a Master’s degree in Finnish, including the required minor subjects, in four years.

Research results are made use of directly in teaching, and research has been developed with the needs of teaching in mind. In the 1990s, the Department’s research focused especially on spoken interaction, cognitive linguistics, text analysis and Finnish as a second and foreign language. These areas support teaching of both the general skills required by students and the professional skills they will need in the future. Students may choose to specialise in any of these areas by completing corresponding modules in their intermediate and advanced studies. The other modules offered are: language development and change; grammar, vocabulary and semantics; language consultancy; onomastics and linguistic communication.

Modern Finnish is the result of a long process of development, and so the study of Finnish naturally includes the history of its phonology, grammar and vocabulary, and the shaping of written Finnish into its present form. In addition, students are acquainted with the different approaches to the grammar of Modern Finnish; they are introduced to semantic analysis; and they study different aspects of spoken interaction and its role in understanding and interpreting expressions. The courses offered aim at giving a picture of how language varies according to the situations in which it is being used. A professional in Finnish must also be able to explain about language use to others and to correct errors and improve the style of texts, as well as justify these changes. No clear-cut specialisations are offered in Finnish Language studies. Instead, the options provided help students to concentrate on the topics and approaches that they consider to be important.

Some of the courses aim to publish collections of research papers written by their students at the end of the course, with the aim of using these in the Department’s teaching and in futher education courses. Over the past few years, the Department has published half a dozen such thematic collections of articles based on the work of undergraduates and several based on the work of postgraduate students.

Both students and staff are actively encouraged to participate in international exchange programmes. The Department has been involved in the Socrates exchange programme, for example, and especially the projects concerning teaching of small European languages. Cooperation with other Nordic countries in student and staff exchanges has been furthered by establishing Finnplus as part of the Nordplus network covering all the Nordic countries. The Finnplus network facilitates active and flexible exchanges of teachers and students between the Finnish departments of Nordic universities. Through its exchange agreements, the Department sends ten to fifteen of its students to foreign universities and receives exchange students in even greater numbers, as well as foreign scholarship students from the Centre for International Mobility (CIMO).