Language Minority Student’s Reflections about Their Language, School Achievement and Well-being

Author(s):

Monica Londen

Conference:

ECER 2009

Network:

7. Social Justice and Intercultural Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

07 SES 09 A, Education and Identity: Student Perspectives

Paper Session

Time:

2009-09-30

10:30-12:00

Room:

HG, HS 31

Chair:

Francesca Gobbo

Contribution

Finland is a bilingual country with Finnish and Swedish as the two official languages. The majority (92 %) of the population have Finnish as their mother tongue and 5,5 % Swedish and 2,5 % another language as their mother tongue. Finland is, however, becoming increasingly multilingual. This study analyses several issues relating to language and school among language minority students in Finland (Kovero & Londen, 2009). The majority of the pupils in Swedish schools in the Helsinki city area come from bilingual Finnish-Swedish homes and the environment outside home and school is also strongly influenced by the Finnish language. It is therefore important to identify factors both at school and at home that support and maintain a strong self-appreciation of their minority language and of their bilingual identity. The objective of the study is to describe the pupils’ linguistic background and to analyse their own views on and reflections of the Swedish language and the Swedish speaking minority in Finland. Issues relating to school achievement are also included in the study. Furthermore the aim is to delineate how the pupils spend their leisure time and which factors (such as e.g. parents, siblings, music, Internet, friends, health) the pupils view as important for their own well-being.

Method

The target group consists of 987 pupils from grades 5–6 (11–13 year olds), grade 9 (15-year olds) and second grade in upper secondary school (17-year olds) in fifteen Swedish schools in Southern Finland. Data was collected through a questionnaire consisting of 84 questions; 74 with fixed answering categories and 12 open-ended questions.

Expected Outcomes

The results indicate that the students’ language backgrounds are diverse: 62 % come from bilingual (Finnish-Swedish) homes, 26 % from monolingual Swedish homes, 8 % from monolingual Finnish homes and 4 % from homes where one or more other language(s) are spoken. Still, the pupils highly value the Swedish language and their Finland-Swedish identity as well as their (possible) bilingualism even when the Swedish language is not strongly present in their everyday life outside of school. In this paper results relating to school (such as the pupils’ favorite school subjects and school subjects they consider to be difficult) and the pupils’ awareness of and reflections on their own language minority group will be presented. Also, it is also clear that the students’ awareness of themselves as language minority members needs to be actively supported both at school and at home.

References

Arinen, Pekka & Karjalainen, Tommi, 2006. PISA 2006 Ensituloksia. OECD, Opetusministeriö, Helsingin yliopisto, Koulutuksen arviointikeskus. Cummins, Jim. 2000. Language, power and pedagogy. Bilingual Children in the Crossfire. Great Britain: Cambrian Printers. Finnäs, Fjalar, 2000. Tvåspråkiga familjer i statistikens ljus. Forskningsrapport nr 37. Institutet för finlandssvensk samhällsforskning. Vasa. Hall, Stuart, 1992. The question of cultural identity. In Hall Stuart, Heldand David & McGrew Tony. (Eds.). Modernity and its Futures. Understanding Modern Societies, Book IV. UK: Polity Press. Kovero, C. & Londen, M. (2009) Språk, identitet och skola. En undersökning i svenska skolor i huvudstadsregionen. Nordica Helsingiensia. Institutionen för nordiska språk och nordisk litteratur. University of Helsinki. Helsinki: Helsinki.University Press. Liebkind, Karmela, Mia Teräsaho & Inga Jasinskaja-Lahti, 2006. Upplevelser av hot mot den finlandssvenska identiteten – orsak till identitetsförstärkande stategier? I Karmela Liebkind & Tom Sandlund (red.) Räcker det med svenskan? Om finlandssvenskarnas anknytning till sina organisationer. Skrifter utgivna av Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland. Nr 684, s.89-122. Lojander-Visapää, Catharina, 2001. Med rätt att välja. Språkval och språkstrategier i språkligt blandade hushåll i Helsingfors. Skrifter utgivna av Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland, nr 630. Norusis, Marija. J, 2002. SPSS 11.0 Guide to Data Analysis. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Slotte-Lüttge, Anna, 2005. Ja vet int va de heter på svenska. Interaktion mellan tvåspråkiga elever och deras lärare i en enspråkig klassrumsdiskurs. Åbo: Åbo Akademis förlag. Sonn, C. C., Bishop, B. B., & Drew, N. M.(1999). Sense of community: Issues and considerations from a cross-cultural perspective. Community, Family and Work, 2, 205-218. Unicef. Child Poverty in Perspective: An overview of child well-being in rich countries. Report Card 7. http://unicef-icdc.org.

Author Information

Monica Londen

University of Helsinki

Department of Education