It Depends on the language
Author(s):
Annukka Muuri (presenting / submitting)
Conference:
ECER 2012
Network:
21. Emerging Researchers' Group (for presentation at Emerging Researchers' Conference)
Format:
Paper

Session Information

ERG SES H 04, Intercultural education

Parallel Paper Session

Time:
2012-09-18
13:15-14:45
Room:
FCEE - Aula 2.4
Chair:
Patrícia Fidalgo

Contribution

 

It depends on the language

Finnish skills of immigrant pupils in the sixth grade in Turku

Nowadays in the schools around the world are increasingly immigrants pupils. The schools have to take into account the students, who are learning the new language and organize new teaching methods, groups and cuuriculum, that they settle in  society and don't drop out of school.

The purpose of this study is to explore the variation of immigrant pupils’ skills of Finnish as a second language in the sixth grade in Turku. The study also explores how the variables (mother tongue, gender, educational background of the pupils’ parents, the age and reason of moving to Finland and the time lived in Finland) and teaching arrangements such as preparatory stage, lessons in mother tongue and Finnish as a second language influence the pupils’ Finnish language proficiency. 

The theoretical background of study is based on the scientific research and statistics on immigrant pupils and teaching. Also theories on bilingualism and second language acquisition as well as evaluation of language proficiency are central to the theoretical context.

 

Method

The study is positivistic and the method of the study is a quantitative survey research. The survey group consisted of 219 immigrants in sixth grade in Turku. The sample of study was vey heterogein, because there was 23 different languages, participiants had moved to Finland in the different reasons and ages. The research material was gathered by using Finnish tests prepared by special teachers and second language teachers. Teachers evaluated their pupils’ oral and writing skills by using the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. In addition, the pupils and their parents answered the questionnaire prepared by researcher.

Expected Outcomes

According to the results, over half of the pupils had good Finnish language abilities. On average every fourth had excellent Finnish proficiency and every sixth managed adequately. The time lived in Finland, the mother tongue, the age and reason of moving to Finland and the educational background of the parents seem to have indicative link to Finnish skills. The longer the pupils had lived in Finland, and the younger they had come to Finland, the better their success in tests. Pupils with refugee status achieved the poorest results, whereas those returning to Finland succeeded the best. Also, the parents’ high educational background seemed to link to higher test results. Teaching arrangements have a clear link to success in the tests. Particularly studying one’s own mother tongue seems to support second language acquisition. It seems, that it isi very important support mother tongue studies. Also, according to research results, those who had studied one year of preparatory studies achieved better results than those who had only half a year of preparatory studies. Studies in Finnish as a second language did not seem to have a statistically significant link to success in the tests.

References

Baker, C. 1988. Key Issues in Bilingualism and Bilingual Education. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd. Baker, C. & Jones, S. P. 1998. Encyclopedia of Bilingualism and Bilingual Education. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd. Baker, C. 1996. Foundations of bilingual education and bilingualism. 2nd edition. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd. Beal, C. 1994. Boys and girls: The development of gender roles. McGraw-Hill, Inc.:United States of America. Genesee, F., Nicoladis E., Paradis, J. 1995. Language differentiation in early bilingual development. Journal of child language. Vol. 22. Number 3. 611-631. Bialystok, E. 2001. Bilingualism in development. Language, literacy, & cognition. New York: Campridge university press. Krashen, S. 1981. Second language acquisition and second language learning. Oxford: Pergamon Press. Lyon, J. 1996. Becoming Bilingual. Language Acquisition in a Bilingual Community. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd. Martin, M. 2007: A Square Peg into a Round Hole? Fifteen years of Finnish as a second language research. Nordand. Nordisk Tidsskrift for andrespråksforskning 2007/1, s. 63 86. Ortega, L. 2009. Understanding second language acquisition. Understanding language series. Hodder Education. Part of Hachette livre UK: Lontoo. Romaine, S. 2004. Bilingual language development. Teoksessa Trott K., Dobbinson S. & Griffiths P. (toim.) The Child language reader. London: Routledge, 287-303.

Author Information

Annukka Muuri (presenting / submitting)
The univeristy of Turku
Education
Turku

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