Finnish society, as well as Finnish schools, have always been multilingual. Thanks to immigration in particular, Finland's linguistic landscape has in recent decades become increasingly rich.
Salla-Maaria Suuriniemi’s doctoral thesis examines how multilingualism manifests in Finnish basic education and what language ideologies are evident in school communities.
“My study demonstrates that, in spite of increasing multilingualism in schools and the demand for language awareness, the language policy of Finnish schools is still primarily guided by notions based on the ideology of monolingualism.”
The study data included school-specific curricula, teachers’ responses to a questionnaire and school textbooks.
Multilingualism is affecting an increasing number of schools
“In practice, multilingualism is currently evident particularly in the schools of the Helsinki Metropolitan Area and other larger cities, but in the future its effect will spread even further among Finnish schools,” Suuriniemi says.
In basic education, almost every tenth pupil has a first language other than Finnish, Swedish or Sámi. In other words, this group of pupils is large and continuously growing.
“While the study data show different language orientations, views in support of monolingual practices prevail, and pupils’ multilingualism often continues to be seen as a problem and an obstacle to learning and participation.”
For example, it is often assumed that readers of textbooks are monolingual with Finnish as their first language.
“While multilingualism and extensive language skills are commonly valued, language proficiency is still often seen only as skills in the school's language of instruction and the foreign languages traditionally studied in school. What remain unacknowledged are the language reserve created through immigration and by pupils who speak other languages, as well as the everyday multilingualism at schools.”
Multilingualism requires reorientation
According to Suuriniemi, the increasing multilingualism at schools requires reorientation in terms of languages and language use from school communities and teachers.
“Teaching and the operating culture of schools can no longer be based on the idea that all pupils or other members of the school community share a similar relationship with the school's language of instruction, be it Finnish or Swedish.”
Instead, schools must take into consideration, for example, the needs of recent arrivals, who are studying Finnish or Swedish as a new language, as well as the multilingual background of pupils.
“Language awareness is already a requirement for teachers in the national core curriculum.”
Language awareness includes the notion that each teacher is a teacher of the language of instruction in their school subject, thus being responsible for their pupils’ language learning. Language awareness furthermore emphasises appreciation of and support for the multilingualism of the school community.
“The purpose of research on and training in language pedagogy is to provide teachers with solid research evidence and information on how to take advantage of multilingualism.
“In support of the reorientation, teachers need both pedagogical methods for their lessons and language policy decisions pertaining to the school’s operating culture as a whole,” Suuriniemi sums up.
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Salla-Maaria Suuriniemi defended her doctoral thesis entitled Multilingualism and Language Awareness in Finnish Schools – Language orientations in curricula, in teacher responses, and in textbooks (in Finnish with an English-language abstract) on 6 October 2023. The thesis is available in the Helda repository.
The teacher questionnaire and textbook datasets were collected from 2019 to 2021 under the Cultural, Worldview and Language Awareness in Basic Education project KUPERA.