DELA-NOBA PROJECT

SEMINAR in VILNUS29-30.9.2014Eija Suomela-Salmi & Satu Koistinen

1) Preparatory work

Translations into Finnish◦ all the questionnaires◦ selected teaching material (A la découverte de mon

quartier, Le cri des animaux, Bonjour!)

Research permits from the parents (20) ◦ 17 accepted to participate

What has been done ?

pre-experience questionnaire to parents (17 answers)

pre-experience questionnaire to teachers via different mailing lists 32 answers (wepropol-questionnaire)

Actions taken

Language biography activity

1/3 teaching activities (the two remaining will be carried out this semester)

Remains to be done: post-experience questionnaire to parents (webropol-questionnaire)

Most frequently spoken foreign languages

Language policy situation in Finland

Language Speakers

Russian 51 683 0,92 %

Estonian 25 096 0,42 %

English 12 063 0,21 %

Somali 11 681 0,20 %

Arabian 9 682 0,17 %

Chinese 7 078 0,12 %

Kurd 7 135 0,12 %

German 5 276 0,09 %

Official minority languages mentioned in the Constitution◦ Same c. 5400 speakers of which c. 2200 have same as

their mother tongue

◦ Romani (a non - regional minority language) c. 7500 speakers

◦ Sign language 5000-9000 speakers depending on how the calculation is done (no official statistics)

Official minority languages

If we consider only minority languages mentioned in the Constitution (Same, Romani and sign language) maximally 0,38 % of the population

if we include Swedish 5,7 %

People speaking a minority language

Finland has ratified the Charter for Regional and Minority languages mentioned in the Constitution (Same, Romani and sign language)

European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages

The speakers of official minority languages have the right to use their mother tongue when dealing with authorities

and they have the right to be served in their language according to Finnish Constitution

Minority languages in public life

English is mastered and used currently in public life.

Many organizations and institutions (for example the University of Turku) have their own language strategy in which English is always mentioned as a working language.

Even if Swedish is one of our official languages, English is more commonly mastered than Swedish.

Foreign languages in public life

Primary school

2 obligatory languages: Swedish or Finnish + one or two foreign languages (English, French, Spanish, German and Russian)

c. 90 % choose English as their 1st foreign language

Small towns and communities cannot offer all of the languages mentioned above for financial reasons.

In some cases the language of tuition can also be Same, Romani or sign language instead of Finnish or Swedish.

Language diversity in education

Immigrants can have additional tuition in their mother tongue provided◦ that there is a sufficient number of pupils (3-4/ language,

max. 2,5 hours/week)

◦ that teachers mastering the language are available.

55 different mother tongues in 2010

Problem in small towns and communities.

Financial support can be applied for from the state.

Secondary school

The pupils can choose two more optional languages◦ most often German, Russian, Spanish and French and

Latin, in rare cases Chinese

◦ if they have not chosen English in the primary school also English, but this is very rare.

The pupil has to choose Swedish if he has not chosen it in primary school.

Normally 2-3 hours/week/language

Teaching hours

Parents perspective on language learning and on minority languages

*- article proposal by Petra and Heidi and others to EDILIC conference publication?

- plurilingualism / focus on migrant-minority : why is this important?

*Abstract: The paper will focus on the three year project called Developing the Language Awareness/Eveil aux langues Approach in the Nordic and Baltic countries (DELA-NOBA) funded by Nordplus Horizontal from August 2013 to July 2016. The project takes up the questions of language diversity as they apply to the Nordic and Baltic countries in the context of the Language Awareness/Eveil aux languages approach being developed in European and international education more widely. This paper aims to contribute to societal discussion on language learning, language diversity and language learning from the perspective of the parents in the Nordic/Baltic countries. The focus is on plurilingualism focusing on migrant-minority languages. The project aims to contribute to societal discussions on and attitudes towards language diversity and language learning in the Nordic/Baltic countries by focusing on “languages that the school does not intend to teach (which may or may not be the mother tongues of some pupils)” (Candelier 2003).

*PLURILINGUAL AND PLURICULTURAL COMPETENCE (EU, 2007)

Pluri, understood as "more than two", has quickly revealed itself in many analyses as a concept of unmanageable and uncontrollable complexity. It has thus necessitated recourse to a unifying or dominant authority chosen from inside or outside the framework of multiplicity. Just as in formerly colonised countries where large numbers of languages co-exist, the language of the former coloniser may long remain the language of schooling. In the same way, in a foreign-language class where pupils are of many different linguistic origins, this multiplicity justifies exclusive use of the target language. Similarly, in many countries the establishment of national unity has historically involved a reduction in the number of "regional" languages and in specific cultural features. Multi/pluri (many) sometimes entails an appeal or return to uni (one). Questions are already being widely asked about the possible or supposed (dis)advantages of early bilingualism; one can imagine what suspicions, in terms of the cognitive health of individuals or the good governance of a country, might therefore surround the promotion of plurilingualism (which would cease to be the exclusive preserve of those exceptional individuals whom common usage describes not as pluri-lingual but as polyglot).

*Pluralism

*Pluralistic approach, meaning the recognition of difference, open curriculums, along with different intellectual, political and cultural perspectives where there is no single explanation of the truth (Brooker, 1999).

*Who are “the immigrants”?

*Uusi suomalainen / Nyir Islendingar

* “””””””colour””””””””””

*Name

*Language

*Social class

*2nd, 3rd, 100th generation

*Hierarchy among immigrants

*….

*Parent’s questionnaire: Finland

*Q1. The languages, that the parents were fluent with was Finnish, English, French, German, Swedish, Lingala, Tshiluba and Spanish. In one questionnaire the respondent has basic skills in Finnish. Other languages with basic skills were lot of similar to the languages that some parents were fluent with such as English, French, German, Swedish, but then also three parents had basics in Italian language.. There were 21 set languages in the questionnaire and then open space for adding other languages. Lingala and Tshiluba were added to the open space for other languages.

*Parent’s questionnaire: Finland

*Second question was about the languages that parents speak at home, and they are: Finnish, Swedish, French, Lingala and English.

*Parent’s questionnaire: Finland

*The languages that their children speak in general, and they are: English, French, Finnish, Spanish and Swedish.

*Parent’s questionnaire: Finland

*In the fourth question the emphasis was on the languages that parents speak with their children at home. In 16 of the questionnaires/families the Finnish language was spoken at home. In 4 questionnaires French was also mentioned as language spoken at home, and in one English and in one Swedish.

*Parent’s questionnaire: Finland

*Q5: -All 18 respondents find that the other languages support in learning new languages -15 respondents do not think that other languages hinder the learning of new languages (three were left blank).

*Parent’s questionnaire: Finland

*Languages that their children study at school and about languages that their children would like to study at school.-Their children are studying English, French,

Finnish, Swedish and Spanish at school-what languages their children would like to

learn at school: the languages were mentioned that they are already studying at school. On a top of these languages the parents mentioned that they would like to study Sign language, German, Italian and Chinese. What about minority languages?

*Parent’s questionnaire: Finland

*According to this survey the children seem to be little more interested in the language itself than the cultures and traditions or at least their parents see their interest in this sense.

*Parent’s questionnaire: Finland

*T he question about the languages used at school most discussed at home (17)*Second popular topic was the questions

about the languages in general (16)*questions about the foreign languages and

culture (14)*About the languages used at home (13)*questions about their family roots (13)*questions about the languages in the family

in general (8)

*Parent’s questionnaire: Finland

*Imortance or languages in the society: 16 parents reported that in their opinion languages have an important role in today’s societies. 2 reported that languages are to some extent important. No responses on the other three option: I don’t know, not very important or not important at all

*Parent’s questionnaire: Finland

*- parents find language teaching at schools important*Parents find knowing languages important