Transcript Esityksen nimi

Language Immersion in
Finland
-From Bilingual to Trilingual
Education?
Siv Björklund
University of Vaasa, Finland
LEARNME Project Workshop 2
8.5.2014
The Finnish education system in brief
Education provision in Finland
 Finland has two official national languages, Finnish and
Swedish
 Population structure in 2013:
Fi 89.3 %
Sw 5.3 %
Other languages 5.3 %
 Parallel education systems for the national languages have
been established. Both systems are regulated by the same laws
and the same national curricular frameworks
 Approximately 40 % of the student population in Swedish
schools is bilingual (Swedish-Finnish), though there is great
variation locally and regionally
Education provision in Finland
 The study of the other national language (“the other domestic
language”) is mandatory for all Finnish students.
 There are no bilingual Finnish-Swedish schools in Finland,
only schools with special status as language schools (e.g. The
Finnish-Russian school in Helsinki)
 Language immersion crosses the line of the existing parallel
system: Swedish is used as the language of instruction during
most of the Finnish-speaking immersion students’ time spent
in Finnish-speaking schools.
Bilingual Education in Europe
LANGUAGE IMMERSION
Addresses mainly majority speakers
Often used as an umbrella term for
many different bilingual
education programs
Core and variable features within
immersion have been identified.
Adaptations in new contexts
create challenges. Possible to
consistently identify immersion
education worldwide in future?
A need to find better ways within
the education system to foster
individual bilingualism for the
benefit of the surrounding
bilingual community
CLIL
Addresses mainly majority speakers
Often used as an umbrella term for
many different bilingual
education programs
More visible on the Europan arena
than immersion during the last
years
In general, more subject-based than
program-based
Mainly initiated or promoted within
the education system by
administrators and teachers, aim
at improving and renewing
language learning in general
Different types of immersion
programmes
Immersion programmes
language enhancement
language maintenance
language
revitalization
A) second language immersion
B) foreign language immersion
- one-way immersion, two-way immersion (dual immersion)
- early/delayed/late immersion
-total/partial immersion
6
Early total immersion in Finland
• For Finnish-speakers with no natural extensive experience of
the other official language in Finland, Swedish, and its culture.
• The immersion language (Swedish) is introduced early (at the
age of 3-6)
• Subject teaching (e.g. biology)
– in the immersion language is used to enhance students’ Swedish
language competence along with subject mastery
– in the mother tongue to foster the students’ Finnish (mother tongue)
language development along with subject mastery
• Teachers act as one language models.
• Mainly developed for Swedish as L2, but teaching of other
languages is integrated in Swedish immersion programs as
well
Swedish immersion aims at functional
multilingualism
Kindergarten/
Pre-School
100
Grades 1-3
Primary
Grades 4-6
Primary
Grade 7
Secondary
Grades 8-9
Secondary
80
60
Immersion language
Mother tongue
40
Foreign language 1
Foreign language 2
20
0
Foreign language 3
Principles for multiple language use
The languages of immersion are separated:
A. one teacher-one language
B. one subject-one language
The languages of immersion are integrated:
C. Teaching thematic units (thematic instruction crosses
both subject and language)
D. Daily schemes (during a school day students use at
least two, mostly multiple languages)
The discourse of the classroom is most likely bilingual,
often multilingual
Bilingual arrangements, strategies and
models by García 2009, 310
Bilingual
arrangement
Bilingual
strategies
Models of
bilingual
teaching
Theoretical
framework
Types
Flexible convergent
Strict separation
Flexible multiple





Random codeswitching
Monoliterate


Time-determined
Teacherdetermined
Place-determined
Subjectdetermined




Responsible codeswiching
Preview/view/review
Translanguaging
Co-languaging
Cross-linguistic
practices
Convergent
Immersion
Multiple
Subtractive
Additive/Recursive
Dynamic
transitional









maintenance
prestigious
Immersion
Revitalization
Developmental
Polydirectional
Two-way (dual)
CLIL/CLIL-type
Multiple multilingual
Multiple languages in immersion
(Multi-IM)
• The Multi-Im project aims at exploring
multilingual dimensions within Swedish
immersion programs. The research approach
is three-folded and includes:
1.sociolinguistic perspectives
2. psycholinguistic perspectives
3. pedagogic perspectives
• Data: teacher & student questionnaires and
interviews, classroom observations
The data of the study
Questionnaire
• completed by 97 students in grades 4-6 with
multiple-oriented language program
Case study
• 10 students in grades 4-5 (10-12 years of age);
4 girls and 6 boys;
• Finnish as mother tongue, Swedish as immersion
language, English from grade 2 or 3, German/French
from grade 4
• Structured interviews
Questionnaire data
Number of
completed
questionnaires
n
Total
%
Students with
studies in MT, ImL
and FL1*
n
%
Students with
studies in MT, ImL,
FL1 and FL2*
n
%
182
100 %
85
47 %
97
53 %
Female
96
100 %
44
46 %
52
54 %
Male
86
100 %
41
48 %
45
52 %
Total
182
100 %
85
47 %
97
53 %
Grade 4
41
100 %
18
44 %
23
66 %
Grade 5
80
100 %
31
39 %
49
61 %
Grade 6
61
100 %
36
59 %
25
41 %
To study and to know languages
(n= 95)
The student…
knows fever
languages than
studies at school
knows as many
languages as
studies at school
knows more
languages than
studies at school
Total
n
n
%
n
%
n
%
Total
95
3
3%
75
79 %
17
18 %
Female
52
1
2%
43
83 %
8
15 %
Male
43
2
5%
32
74 %
9
21 %
Knows more languages than
studies at school (n = 17)
The student
1 more
knows…
language
than studies at
school
Total
2 more
languages
3 more
languages
4 more
languages
11
5
0
1
Female
5
2
0
1
Male
6
3
0
0
• Spanish (8 students)
• German (4 students)
• Russian (3 students)
• Japanese (3 students)
• Estonian (2 students)
• French (1 student)
• English (1 student)
• Italian (1 student)
• Danish (1 student)
• Thai (1 student)
Perception of language learning
(n=97)
It is …
to learn
languages
easy or fairly easy
n
difficult or fairly difficult
%
n
%
Total
89
92 %
8
8%
Female
49
94 %
3
6%
Male
40
89 %
5
11 %
Total
89
92 %
8
8%
Grade 4
21
91 %
2
9%
Grade 5
47
96 %
2
4%
Grade 6
21
84 %
4
16 %
The foreign language I master best is..
(n=93)
Swedish
n
English
%
n
German
%
n
French
%
n
Finnish
%
n
Total
%
n
Total
55
60 %
33
35 %
3
3%
1
1%
1
1%
93
Female
36
71 %
13
25 %
2
4%
0
0%
0
0%
51
Male
19
45 %
20
49 %
1
2%
1
2%
1
2%
42
Total
55
60 %
33
35 %
3
3%
1
1%
1
1%
93
Grade 4
14
61 %
5
22 %
2
9%
1
4%
1
4%
23
Grade 5
28
62 %
16
36 %
1
2%
0
0%
0
0%
45
Grade 6
13
52 %
12
48 %
0
0%
0
0%
0
0%
25
Monolingual, bilingual and multilingual
thinking when doing activities (n = 97/96)
Monolingual,
English
1%
Monolingual,
Swedish
27 %
Bilingual,
Finnish +
Swedish
45 %
Monolingual,
Finnish
27 %
In what language(s) do you think
when doing activities in Swedish?
Monolingual,
English
26 %
Monolingual,
Finnish
34 %
Bilingual,
Finnish +
English
39 %
Bilingual,
Swedish+
English
1%
In what language(s) do you
think when doing activities in English?
Monolingual, bilingual and multilingual
thinking when doing activities (n = 62)
Monolingual,
Mono- Swedish
lingual,
2%
German
Mono5%
lingual,
English
2%
Monolingual,
Finnish
54 %
Bilingual,
Finnish +
German
30 %
Bilingual,
Finnish +
Swedish
2%
Bilingual,
Swedish +
German
3%
Multilingual,
Finnish +
Swedish +
German
2%
Language use (case study)
In what contexts have you needed ….
Frequent use
Swedish
English
in school
in school
in the yard
with friends (3)
German
with friends
in hobbies (8)
In town
in Sweden
on vacation (7)
No need
Internet, TV(1)
TV (1)
with relatives
on vacation/
abroad
Sweden (8)
no need (1)
on vacation/
abroad
with Mum (3)
no need (7)
Students’ comments on the use of
English
• ”On the Internet some sites may be in English
only”
• ”In Europe it is rather difficult to travel if one
does not know English”
• ”It would be useful to know at least English.
And Swedish, because Finland is still a
bilingual nation”
• ”English is a common language”
Languages spoken in foreign languge
lessons (case study, student views)
Finnish
More Finnish
Foreign language
Don’t know
which of
them
more,
equally
much both
Equally
much,
maybe a
bit more
German
Try to
speak
more
German
speak
Finnish if
don’t
know in
German
Finnish when
translating,
otherwise
French
Finnish when
asking the
teacher
Some preliminary results
• Immersion students indicate that they know all the languages
they study at school
• Immersion students in grades 4-6 are very confident in their
language skills
• Immersion students report using the foreign languages they
study in the classroom (but rarely outside the classroom)
• Swedish (L2) is important both locally (school, friends,
hobbies) and (inside)/outside one’s own country
• English (L3) is important mostly beyond one’s own country
(vacation), but the use of English outside school increases
over the grades
• German/French (L4) are rarely used, mainly languages studied
in school
Some preliminary results
• Almost 80 % of the students report using L1 in
thinking activities
• Thinking processes in specific classroom activities
during Swedish/English/German lessons:
– approximately 50-60 % of the students claim that
they think in only one language. Finnish (L1) is
dominant, whereas Swedish (L2) positions itself as
a mid language (between L1 and other languages).
• In particular the relationship between Swedish and
English will be focussed in further studies with
immersion students in grades 7-9.
Strategy for the National languages
of Finland (2012)
“Good language skills are the key to all language use and to
viable bilingualism; for this reason, sufficient learning of
languages must be ensured at all education levels. Teaching
must be developed so that increasing attention will be paid to
communication skills. Effort will also be made to expand the
provision of language immersion. In order to improve learning
outcomes in the Swedish language, it would be well founded
to investigate whether the number of Swedish lessons could be
increased at least so that the continuum of education is ensured
until the last grade of comprehensive school.” (p. 24)
Strategy for the National languages
of Finland (2012)
““Better conditions are created for ensuring adequate and highstandard immersion teaching.
• Within the appropriations reserved in the State Budget for the
personnel training of teaching staff, enough immersion
teachers are trained both within basic training and further
training to meet this country’s need for them. (Ministry of
Education and Culture)
• As part of the preparations for the training, the need for
immersion teachers is determined on the basis of the demand
for immersion. Together with universities, the Ministry will
create a specialisation path for immersion teachers within the
training programmes for kindergarten teachers, class teachers
and subject teachers. (Ministry of Education and Culture)
Strategy for the National languages
of Finland (2012)
• A curriculum for national immersion teaching
is drawn up as part of the revision of curricula
in basic education. The core curriculum takes
into account the continuum and special
features of immersion teaching. (National
Board of Education)
• Municipalities and parents are informed of
immersion activities and possibilities.
(National Board of Education)” (p. 26)
Journal of Immersion and
Content-Based Language
Education
28
Literature on multiple languages in
Swedish immersion
•
Bergroth, M. (2006). Immersion students in the matriculation examination. Three years after immersion.
In: S. Björklund, K. Mård-Miettinen, M. Bergström & M. Södergård (eds), Exploring Dual-Focussed
Education. Integrating Language and Content for Individual and Societal Needs, 123-134. Vaasa: Vaasa
University.
•
Björklund, S., K. Mård-Miettinen & T. Mäenpää (2012). Functional multilingual competence. Exploring the
pedagogical potential within immersion. In: M. Bendtsen, M. Björklund, L. Forsman & K. Sjöholm (eds),
Global trends meet local needs, 203-217. Åbo Akademi University.
•
Björklund, S. & K. Mård-Miettinen (2011). Integration of multiple languages in immersion: Swedish
immersion in Finland. In: D. J. Tedick, D. Christian & T. Williams Fortune (eds), Immersion Education:
Practices, Policies, Possibilities, 13-35. Multilingual Matters.
•
Björklund, Siv (2011). Swedish immersion as a way to promote early multilingualism in Finland. In: Idske
Bangma, Cor van der Meer & Alex Riemersma (eds), Trilingual Primary Education in Europe, 1331.Mercator: Leeuwarden.
•
Björklund, S. (2005). Toward trilingual education in Vaasa/Vasa, Finland. International Journal of the
Sociology of Language, 23-40.
•
Björklund, S. & I. Suni (2000). The role of English as L3 in a Swedish immersion program in Finland. Impacts
on language teaching and language relations. In: J. Cenoz & U. Jessner (eds), English in Europe. The
acquisition of a third language, 198-221. Multilingual Matters. Clevedon.