Finnish language taking over the Swedish-speaking minority students’ everyday lives?

Author(s):

Heidi Harju-Luukkainen(presenting / submitting)Sari Sulkunen

Conference:

ECER 2014

Network:

31. LEd – Network on Language and Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

31 SES 01, Issues on Grammar and Spelling

Paper Session

Time:

2014-09-02

13:15-14:45

Room:

B006 Anfiteatro

Chair:

Ingrid Gogolin

Contribution

Swedish is presently one of the two official languages in Finland, which makes Finland a bilingual country. The constitution enables equal educational opportunities for both the Finnish-speaking majority and the Swedish-speaking minority citizens from childcare up to the university level. This equality on one hand and the fact that Finland has two national languages on the other, has produced two parallel school systems, in which the Swedish-speaking minority and Finnish-speaking majority schools are run side by side, with almost equal curriculums and resources. The language of instruction in schools is either Finnish or Swedish.

Very often minority citizens have a lower socioeconomical status and poorer educational performance than those belonging to the majority (OECD 2013). In Finland, however, the Swedish-speaking minority in fact has a higher socioeconomical status, and yet they show lower educational performance. According to both national and international assessments the Swedish-speaking students have performed poorer in many key assessment areas. (Harju-Luukkainen & Hellgren 2013, Harju-Luukkainen & Nissinen 2011, Harju-Luukkainen & Vettenranta 2013) These assessments have revealed problems especially on Swedish-speaking students’ reading literacy skills. According to Harju-Luukkainen and Nissinen (2011), who analyzed the PISA 2009 data, reasons for the lower outcome in reading literacy included firstly students’ different understanding and use of reading related strategies and secondly students’ language usage at home. In fact approximately 19 percent of youths attending the Swedish-speaking schools use mostly another language (Finnish) at home context.

In this paper we try to illuminate this language related phenomenon further and take a closer look at students’ Swedish language usage and comprehension of Swedish in and outside school context in Swedish-speaking schools.

Method

In this paper we present findings from a survey conducted among Swedish-speaking students in spring 2013. All together 589 students from primary, secondary and upper secondary schools answered questions connected to their language usage and comprehension of Swedish in and outside school. The survey data was collected using an on-line questionnaire. The survey was implemented in collaboration with the teachers, so that almost all students responded. In this paper we present only a part of the results that was collected. Descriptive data but also statistical significance between different student groups are presented.

Expected Outcomes

According to the results, the older the students get, the more they start to use the majority language (Finnish) with their friends, during lessons and during breaks at schools. For example, approximately 20 percent of the students in secondary school had often difficulties to understand what teacher (speaking Swedish) means during lessons. Also almost 40 percent of the students had difficulties in understanding words that teachers used during lessons. Despite these results the student’s saw their bilingualism as a resource. These results illuminate the phenomenon of Swedish-speaking minority students poorer educational outcome further. The results highlight the fact that even though the minority language students are given equal educational opportunities in a country, the majority language takes over in students lives. Also comprehension of the minority language and following the education becomes thereby more difficult. With no doubt, Swedish-speaking minority students in Finland need extra support in order to better comprehend and use their mother tongue in school context

References

Harju-Luukkainen, H. & Nissinen, K. (2011). Finlandssvenska 15-åriga elevers resultatnivå i PISA 2009 –undersökningen. [15 – year old students’ educational outcome in PISA 2009 –assessment in Swedish –language schools] Finnish Institute for Educational Research. University of Jyväskylä. Jyväskylän yliopistopaino: Jyväskylä. Harju-Luukkainen, H. & Hellgren, J. (2013). Kansalliset ja kansainväliset arvioinnit nostavat esiin kehittämisen kohteita ruotsinkielisessä peruskoulussa. [National and international assessments highlight developmental objects in Swedish –language schools in Finland] In Tainio, L. & Harju-Luukkainen, H. (Eds.), Kaksikielinen koulu – tulevaisuuden monikielinen Suomi. Tvåspråkig skola – ett flerspråkigt Finland i framtiden. [Bilingual school – Multilingual Finland in the future] (Pp. 245-270). Suomen kasvatustieteellinen seura. Kasvatusalan tutkimuksia 62. Jyväskylän yliopistopaino: Jyväskylä. Harju-Luukkainen, H., & Vettenranta, J. (2013). The Influence of Local Culture on Students' Educational Outcomes. In Tirri, K., & Kuusisto, E. (Eds.), Interaction in Educational Domains. (Pages 77-90). Rotterdam: Sense Publishers. OECD 2013. PISA 2012 Results: Excellence Through Equity: Giving Every Student the Chance to Succeed. (Volume II) Paris: OECD

Author Information

Heidi Harju-Luukkainen (presenting / submitting)

University of Helsinki, University of Jyväskylä

Sari Sulkunen

University of Jyväskylä

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