Browsing by Author "Bloch, Gali"

During the process of integration into Finnish classrooms, immigrant children and adolescents receive extra support with the official languages of the country, in order to have equal opportunities with their peers whose native language is Finnish or Swedish. Concerning other school subjects, they attend the same number of hours as their Finnish peers for the same purpose of obtaining equal opportunities. Due to historical and cultural reasons Russian-speaking adolescent immigrants, who represent a significant part of people with foreign backgrounds relocating to Finland, have a lower mastery of English than their Finnish peers. For the latter English is not only a school subject but also a highly appreciated means of informal communication. This study aims to collect the opinions of Russian-speaking adolescent new immigrants about their attitudes towards English both as a school subject and as a means of peer communication, to determine the connection between the participants’ level of English and their immediate environment, and to find dependence between their self-perception as English speakers and their general feeling of inclusion into peer groups. The study was based on the questionnaire responses of 24 Russian-speaking adolescents aged 12-17 who immigrated to Finland between 2017-2021. The data were quantitative and were collected via polar, multiple-choice, and Likert scale questions. The results of the study showed that over a third of the participants estimated their English skills as insufficient or non-existing. A strong connection was found between the participants’ evaluation of their English skills, their parents’ English skills, and with availability of books in English or movies without dubbing at home. None of the participants reported receiving supplementary English lessons at school on a permanent basis, and only few of them were given extra help from time to time. The participants’ academic achievements coincided with their degree of ability to communicate in English with their peers in informal situations. All the participants with an unsatisfactory level of English reported sensing discomfort when their peers used English, with almost one-third feeling excluded from communication, with 80% of the participants with unsatisfying English skills assuming they would have more Finnish-speaking friends had they spoken English fluently.