Browsing by Subject "monikielisyys"

Objectives. Specific language impairment (SLI) is a heterogeneous disorder and its symptoms change with development. For most people it has a profound effect on functional ability, participation, and learning. The symptoms are persistent especially among those with difficulties in speech-reception. Simultaneous learning of multiple languages increases the individual variation in linguistic difficulties. Language functioning of Finnish monolingual and multilingual children at age over 10 years has not been thoroughly investigated. The objective of this study was to describe how SLI manifests itself in 11–12-years-old monolingual and multilingual children. The study focused on language ability and health-related quality of life. The acquired information may help in improving supporting practices. Methods. Four male participants at age of 11–12 years living in the Capital Region of Finland, and with SLI diagnosis (F80.2) were recruited from Helsinki University Central Hospital Audiophoniatric ward 22 for the study. Two participants were monolingual and two were multilingual learning Finnish as their second language. The gathered data consisted of language tests and questionnaires intended for parents, teachers, and the participants. Testing was videotaped and the acquired narratives were transcribed. Results were compared against age norms as well as previous literature. Furthermore, the questionnaire data were grouped based on the content, and the results were analyzed qualitatively. In addition, the test results and questionnaire data were compared to each other. Finally, the differences in language abilities were examined in relation to medical reports written before school age. Results and conclusions. All participants had deficiencies in language abilities, but language symptoms, social ability, academic achievement, and quality of life varied individually. Results were in line with previous studies. Difficulties were observed especially in grammatical and reading abilities, short-term memory and word naming. Moreover, according to parents and teachers, the participants had problems in speech reception, narration, pragmatics, and some of them also in social interactions. Finnish vocabulary among the multilingual participants was smaller than that of their monolingual counterparts. However, differences in other areas were larger at single-level than at group-level. Three of the participants still received substantial support in school. Support of the fourth participant had been discontinued due to favorable progress. Majority of the participants perceived their health-related quality of life slightly weaker than that of controls. Based on the results, it is important to support pragmatic skills at school age since previous studies have shown an association of these to social integration. A Study with a larger sample size and longitudinal setting is needed in the future.

The aim of this research is to clarify experiences of six teachers with different qualifications about Language awareness in a simultaneous teaching -pilot program. This program has been implemented in schools in Helsinki. My objective in this research is to sort out teachers’ experiences about planning, implementation, possible effects, or changes within this program and how translanguaging has been used in teaching. Important theoretical concepts of this research are language awareness and translanguaging. In addition, I examine mother tongue teaching, Finnish as a second language teaching, preparatory teaching for newly arrived students and multilingualism in Finnish schools from the perspectives of Finnish school system and Finnish primary school curriculum. The character of this research is qualitative content analysis. In this research I will specify the material which I have collected by using semi-structured interviews and I will present themes that were established from the material. The material contains interviews of six teachers which have been part of the pilot program. In the material we can hear experiences of mother tongue teachers, class teacher, subject teacher, and Finnish as a second language -teacher, from the middle and elementary school point of view. The results of my research give indication about capabilities of language awareness simultaneous teaching in practice and what types of thoughts teachers have about multilingual, language awareness and translanguaging utilised in teaching during this pilot program. The main results of my research indicate that middle and elementary schools have differences between teachers pedagogical planning which depend on the qualifications of the teachers. In planning, structural challenges and difficulties occurred during scheduling. In the implementation there were differences in using different languages, for example the languages were centre of the teaching or part of teaching to support learning. Experiences of possible effects of the pilot program were developed in language skills, changes in motivation, individual and peer attitude in language skills, learning and support in work, knowing students, interests of teachers outside of the pilot program and parents’ varying feedback. Utilizing translanguaging and various types of languages in classes appeared dissimilar and the teacher’s role in multilingual interaction differed based on the qualifications of the teacher. The teachers experienced the pilot program overall as a positive, useful, and necessary matter. The need for this kind of language awareness simultaneous teaching in which mother tongue teachers work together with other teachers were reflected within the teachers’ experiences. There were many advantages which display that there might be a lack or shortage in linguistic support and in multilingualism becoming a norm in the Finnish comprehensive school.

Tässä tutkimuksessa käsitellään lapsen kielen kehitystä ja sen tukemista varhaiskasvatuksessa. Tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli selvittää millaisia kokemuksia varhaiskasvatuksenopettajilla, kas- vattajilla ja hoitajilla on lasten kielen kehityksen tukemisesta päiväkotiryhmässä, jossa on myös suomea vieraana kielenä puhuvia monikielisiä lapsia. Lisäksi tarkoituksena oli selvittää var- haiskasvatuksen ammattilaisten kokemuksia siitä, millaisia työkaluja Varhaiskasvatussuunni- telma antaa kasvattajille lasten kielen kehityksen tukemiseksi. Tutkimus toteutettiin laadullisena tutkimuksena, haastattelemalla neljää varhaiskasvatuksen ammattilaista, puolistrukturoitua teemahaastattelurunkoa käyttäen. Haastattelut olivat yksilö- haastatteluja ja toteutuivat haastateltavien työaikojen ulkopuolella. Haastatteluaineisto litteroi- tiin ja aineiston analysoinnissa käytettiin sisällönanalyysia. Aineistosta nousi esiin tärkeäksi kielen kehityksen tukemisessa erityisesti positiivinen vuoro- vaikutus lasten kanssa, yhteistyö huoltajien kanssa sekä kannustus ja rakentava palaute. Lisäksi kasvattajat pitivät oman äidinkielen kehityksen tukemista tärkeänä yleisesti lapsen kielen kehi- tyksessä ja uusien kielten oppimisessa.

With the global migration movement, even more classes have students whose strongest or clearest first language is some other than Finnish. However, only a few studies have been conducted on multilingual interaction practices in the classroom, and most of them have focused on schools in the capital area, although there are multilingual classrooms all over the Finland. In addition, studies have shown reserved attitudes towards multilingual classrooms. In this qualitative case study, the manifestations of translanguaging are investigated as part of the interaction in a multilingual classroom by examining in which activity sequences translanguaging occurs and who participates in the action. The study focuses especially on the person initiating a translanguaging and how the participation framework is determined and examines how multilingual turns are perceived in the classroom. The data for research has been collected from the second grade of an Eastern Finnish primary school. Of the nine students participating in research, most spoke other than Finnish as their heritage language. The data collection for the study was carried out using an ethnographic research method, combining field observations, video- and audio recordings. The study lasted two school days in the classroom, in addition to which a test recording was carried out. Manifestations of translanguaging were examined using conversational analysis. The findings of this study indicate that translanguaging turned out to work as a pedagogical resource, which was used for increasing mutual understanding or show a positive affective attitude towards the topic of speech. In the classroom, translanguaging functioned, among other things, as a demonstration of linguistic expertise and made it possible to hand over the turn to a certain speaker. Both the student and the teacher acted as initiators of multilingual shifts, but the study revealed that it is not always easy to identify the initiator of translanguaging in the context of an institutional discussion. Translanguaging can be seen as a pedagogical resource, which can originate from the students or the teacher, and which works as a creator of positive class spirit.

Aims. The number of immigrant students has risen considerably during the last years in Finnish schools and will further rise in the future. In some schools in the Helsinki metropolitan area, immigrant students are already the majority, and it has been forecast that by the year 2030 every fourth student in Helsinki is an immigrant or has immigrant background. The growth of multilingualism has been recognized in the National Core Curriculum for Basic Education (2014) through language awareness in school culture and translanguaging, which is a relatively new concept in Finnish research. When there are more and more multilingual students in Finnish schools, it is important to study how class teachers experience multilingualism in schools. The aim of this study is to investigate 5th and 6th class teachers' experiences of students' mother tongue in school life and teaching. Methods. This study uses a qualititative approach. The research material was gathered through semi-structured interviews. Six teachers who have multilingual students in their classes were interviewed individually. The material was analyzed with phenomenographical analysis methods. Results and conclusions. According to the teachers, the variety of languages is taken into account in school life and in teaching to an extent. However, the teachers don't use translanguaging systematically as a teaching method. They believe that they have to know the students' languages in order to use them in teaching. The teachers think that it is important that students know their own mother tongue, and they encourage students to participate in classes teaching their own mother tongue. Even so, the teachers think that parents have the main responsibility of maintaining the students' skills in their own mother tongue. The teachers believe that students mostly learn Finnish quite quickly in their peer group at school. The teachers think that it is important that the students learn and know Finnish in order to e.g. prevent marginalization.

Objectives. Multilingualism will become more and more visible in schools with immigration. According to the forecast, by 2030, one in four residents of the Helsinki region will speak a foreign language, ie speak their first language other than Finnish, Swedish or Sámi. This means that at least one in four school-age children speaks more than just their school language at home. The diversity of students' language backgrounds must also be taken into account in school teaching. Research has been conducted on the challenges and opportunities of multilingualism in basic education from the perspective of teachers and schools, among others. The perspective of children and young people who speak Finnish as a second language, ie multilingual, has received less attention. The aim of this study is to bring the student’s perspective on the topic, as they themselves are best placed to tell about their own multiplicity in terms of both the challenges and opportunities involved. Methods. The study examines the challenges and opportunities of multilingualism from the student’s perspective. Research has three needs, which are research need, supporting the development of multicultural schools, and increasing understanding of multilingual students. The extract of the study was a qualitative case study, the material of which has been collected through semi-structured thematic interviews. The material was collected by interviewing three young people who speak Finnish as a second language. Interviewees were selected for the study based on their multilingual backgrounds. Content analysis from data sources was used as the data analysis method. Results and conclusions. According to the interviewees, linguistic challenges arose in learning Finnish, studying in another language and especially in reading comprehension and language fluency. The challenges experienced in the school environment were strongly related to situations that were perceived as difficult to adapt to. The potential for multilingualism in this study was not combined with teaching at all. Multilingualism was perceived as an empowering factor in maintaining friendships, an important part of one's own identity and a tool for self-expression. Although summaries of young people’s responses could be made, despite the similarities, young people’s experiences of the challenges in primary education varied widely. The research provides information and increases educators ’understanding of what issues should also be addressed when encountering a multilingual learner.

Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoituksena on selvittää opettajien käsityksiä kielitietoisuudesta. Kysyn, miten opettajat ja rehtorit hahmottavat kielitietoisuus-käsitettä ja millaisia arvoja ja käytänteitä he liittävät käsitteeseen. Tutkimukseni tärkeimpiä käsitteitä ovat kielitietoisuus, kielitaju ja kielitietoinen toimintakulttuuri. Tarkastelen kielitietoisuutta myös perusopetuksen opetussuunnitelman perusteiden näkökulmasta. Lisäksi käsittelen oman äidinkielen opetusta, valmistavaa opetusta ja suomi toisena kielenä -opetusta. Tutkimukseni on toteutettu kvalitatiivisena sisällönanalyysinä. Erittelen puolistrukturoidun teemahaastattelun avulla kerättyä aineistoa ja analysoin siitä nousevia teemoja. Aineisto koostuu viiden opettajan ja kahden rehtorin haastattelusta. Opettajat ja rehtorit edustivat eri kokoisia kouluja ja paikkakuntia eri puolilla Suomea. Tutkimuksessa keskityttiin alakoulun kontekstiin. Tulokset kuvaavat opettajien ja rehtorien erilaisia käsityksiä ja kokemuksia kielitietoisuudesta. Päätulokset osoittavat, että paikkakunnan koko vaikuttaa opettajien ja rehtoreiden kielitietoisuuden käsityksiin ja käytäntöihin. Kielitietoisuuden käsite oli jäänyt haastatelluille osin epäselväksi, mikä näkyi esimerkiksi siinä, että käsitteen määritelmät olivat melko suppeita. Haastatellut tarkastelivat kielitietoisuutta enemmän arvojen kuin käytännön tai akateemisen viitekehyksen kautta. Haastatellut nimesivät kuitenkin erilaisia esimerkkejä ja käytäntöjä, joilla pyrittiin kielitietoiseen toimintaan. Kaikki haastatellut kokivat kielitietoisen toimintakulttuurin myönteisenä ja edistämisen arvoisena asiana.

One objective of this study is to examine how teachers perceive the scope of preparatory education. Additionally, I aim to explore teachers' experiences and views on integration within preparatory education. My research questions are: 1) How do teachers of preparatory education perceive the scope of preparatory education?; 2) What facilitates and impedes integration during preparatory education?; 3) How do teachers of preparatory education perceive the significance of integration for newly arrived students? Previous research has suggested that the scope of preparatory education is not the most crucial aspect. Previous research on integration indicates that it is an essential part of the newcomer's school path. I also examine these previous findings in my study. The study was conducted as a qualitative content analysis, utilizing data from a report published in 2022 by the Finnish Education Evaluation Centre (FINEEC) “Linguistic skills and capacities to attend school - evaluation of preparatory education and instructions in the student’s own mother tongue”. The collected data is from 2021. I narrowed down the data to fit my research and focused only on responses from teachers currently teaching preparatory education. Three of the survey questions were particularly relevant to my research, and I analyzed their open-ended responses. The data revealed that the majority of teachers perceived the current scope of preparatory education as appropriate. Slightly less than half of the teachers supported extending the scope. When discussing the scope, teachers highlighted five key aspects: individuality and diverse backgrounds, flexibility, integration, lack of support, and learning a new language. Based on these factors, teachers felt that decisions about the scope of education should be made on an individual basis, considering the students' unique needs.Teachers considered integration important for the development of the newcomer's language skills and integration. Three key factors affecting integration emerged from the data: collaboration with other teachers, teachers' attitudes, and personnel resources.