Browsing by Subject "eri kieli- ja kulttuuritaustainen lapsi"

In order to manage in Finnish environment of daycare and school, it is crucial that a child from a different linguistic and cultural background masters Finnish in addition to his/her own mother tongue. Finnish is a way to make friends and to participate to his/her community. There are many methods to support language development of a children from a different linguistic backgrounds in early childhood education. This study focuses on one method: literature education. Main purpose of this study is to discover kindergarten teacher's and Finnish as a secondary language kindergarten teacher's experiences and views related to literature usage in Finnish development with children from a different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. This research discovers what sort of literature teachers use with children from a different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Teachers were asked what objectives they set for literature usage. In addition, research explores how literature usage has been supporting children from a different linguistic and cultural backgrounds to learn Finnish and how teachers evaluate learning process of the secondary language. Qualitative research was conducted by using content analysis and theme interviews as a research method. Four kindergarten teachers and four Finnish as a secondary language kindergarten teachers of Helsinki attended to interviews. Interviewees' answers revealed that literature is very usable tool for language development. Interviewees use literature daily in daycare in different situations and compositions. In particular reading with smaller groups are recommended because it supports small language learner better. Interviewees try to utilize literature versatile and to expand the story by drama or drawing. Discussion of story are highlighted so that a child from different linguistic and cultural background understands the story and learns essential concepts. Interviewees told that they choose literature for Finnish learning that are from the topic that children are interested about, language is versatile and literature includes pictures. Only auditative acceptance demanded a lot from a child from a different linguistic and cultural background. Interviewees aim for literature usage was richening child's vocabulary, improving listening skills and sentence structure. Interviewees used "Kettu-test" and language follow-up form for evaluating children language development. Also using observation and evaluation results as a base for child's language learning plan was mentioned.