Browsing by Subject "ruotsin kieli"

The purpose of my bachelor’s thesis was to describe the thoughts of children who speak both Finnish and Swedish as their first languages. I investigated how bilingual children make a language choice when interacting with peers. I also observed how code-switching from Finnish to Swedish appeared in children’s talk. My intent was to expand the understanding of language development of a bilingual child from an early education teacher’s view. The questions of my study were: 1. What thoughts do children who speak Finnish and Swedish as their first languages have about bilingualism? 2. How do bilingual children make a language choice when interacting with peers? 3. How does code-switching appear in children’s talk? My thesis was a qualitative study and as the study method I used a theme interview. I gathered the material by interviewing four simultaneously bilingual children aged six to eight who speak both Finnish and Swedish as their first languages. I analysed the material with content analysis. The study shows that children think their bilingualism is a natural part of their lives. They had thoughts about languages transferring from one generation to next. When interacting with peers children followed their joint language history and also negotiated what languages to use together. Appearance of code-switching was variable. Code-switching worked as a part of children’s language strategy to make discussion more fluent. The conclusion of the study is that bilingualism generally does not affect child’s language development. Children mainly do not feel that their bilingualism is a negative thing. Code-switching is a conscious language skill and strategy. In an interaction between bilingual children it is natural to speak both languages and negotiate together which languages to use.

The purpose of this study is to examine the attitudes high school students have towards studying Swedish. The second research question is to find the underlying reasons behind the attitudes. The general aim of the study is to examine how high school students regard Swedish as a school subject and a general phenomenon. Previous studies have shown factors that affect language attitudes and these are for example teacher, parents and peers. The study was conducted by qualitative approach using a questionnaire. 28 second-year high school students from southern Finland filled in the open form. The data was collected in February 2016 from group of 11 students that studied Swedish as an A language and group of 17 students that studied it as a B language. In the analysis the material was categorized into three different themes (general ideas and impressions of Swedish, attitudes towards studying Swedish and the reasons behind the attitudes). Students’ attitudes towards Swedish proved to be quite positive. However, many of the students felt that studying Swedish is unnecessary because they felt that they rarely need it and it is only used in certain areas. Many of the respondents understood the historical and language political reasons for Swedish’ obligatoriness, but hoped for other optional languages besides Swedish. The research showed that the skills of the student can affect positively on his/her attitude towards and motivation for studying Swedish. The most significant reason behind the attitudes was the teacher. A good teacher inspires and encourages students to learn whereas a bad teacher can affect negatively for learning enthusiasm. Also parents and peers seemed to have influence on students’ attitudes. In the future the scope could be expanded to different parts of Finland and regional differences in attitudes could be observed. Different age groups could be included to the research and examine the change in the attitudes. It could also be interesting to examine teachers’ attitudes and how they are able to convey them in their teaching.