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Finnish and Swedish are the national languages of Finland. Yet there are few schools in Finland where instruction is given in both languages, apart from immersion or second language classes, and the issue remains highly controversial. In this study, we report some of the findings of an internet survey conducted at Pietarsaari lukio and Jakobstad gymnasium in 2013. The Finnish- speaking and Swedish-speaking upper secondary schools were put under one roof in the fall of 2013 when Pietarsaari Lukio moved in with the Swedish-speaking Jakobstad Gymnasium. Our report focuses on how Finnish and Swedish speaking students (N=111) and teachers (N=26) perceived the new opportunities for using both languages and what kinds of emotions they attached to the change in their learning environment. The findings indicate that students had a mainly positive view of the change, and that while the two languages were kept separate in school, students’ use of languages, including English, was more diverse and flexible outside the school context. The current situation has features of both parallel monolingualism (Heller 1999) or diglossia, and more flexible translanguaging (García 2008) or heteroglossia.

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in analyzing the linguistic features typical of various L2 proficiency levels. In the Academy of Finland project Topling, the development of writing skills of L2 learners of English, Swedish and Finnish was followed for over two years with a focus on learners’ proficiency level and their use of various linguistic structures in a number of writing tasks. This study focuses on questions used by L2 learners of English, Swedish and Finnish in email messages they were asked to write to their teachers. Findings show that there are similarities and differences in the forms and functions across the three languages and across the levels of the CEFR proficiency scale. It is suggested that at least some of the differences may be due to a complex interplay between pragmatic considerations and writers’ L2 proficiency in terms of what kind of linguistic resources they have at their disposal. More research is needed in order to further clarify the nature of this relationship.

This paper reports on the past experiences of learning English and Swedish – in a study conducted as part of a research project From Novice to Expert. Viewing language learning as a sociocultural activity, the study focused on agency, or the capacity to act, and its role in learning the two languages in school and out-of school. A questionnaire (with open-ended questions) was administered to students of English and Swedish at the beginning of their university studies. The questions concerned the students’ experiences of learning the languages when they still went to school. The data collected were subjected to qualitative content analysis. Importantly, the responses revealed differences in the exercise of agency and consequently in the learning opportunities seized by the two groups of students especially in their spare time. Other similarities and differences (both in experiences and beliefs) were found from one language to another, and also from one learning environment to another.

Finnish and Swedish are the national languages of Finland. Yet there are few schools in Finland where instruction is given in both languages, apart from immersion or second language classes, and the issue remains highly controversial. In this study, we report some of the findings of an internet survey conducted at Pietarsaari lukio and Jakobstad gymnasium in 2013. The Finnish- speaking and Swedish-speaking upper secondary schools were put under one roof in the fall of 2013 when Pietarsaari Lukio moved in with the Swedish-speaking Jakobstad Gymnasium. Our report focuses on how Finnish and Swedish speaking students (N=111) and teachers (N=26) perceived the new opportunities for using both languages and what kinds of emotions they attached to the change in their learning environment. The findings indicate that students had a mainly positive view of the change, and that while the two languages were kept separate in school, students’ use of languages, including English, was more diverse and flexible outside the school context. The current situation has features of both parallel monolingualism (Heller 1999) or diglossia, and more flexible translanguaging (García 2008) or heteroglossia. peerReviewed

Suomessa on käyty usean vuoden ajan keskustelua kaksikielisistä kouluista. Erityisen kiivaana keskustelu kävi syksyllä 2011, jolloin niin suomen- kuin ruotsinkielisessä lehdistössä esiteltiin mielipiteitä puolesta ja vastaan (Boyd & Palviainen 2015). Onko kaksikielinen koulu uhka vai resurssi? Miten molempien kielten asema koulussa turvataan? Suomessa on tällä hetkellä parikymmentä peruskoulua, joissa kaksi kieltä saman katon alla on arkea. Lukiokoulutuksessa kaksikielistä koulua on ryhdytty vasta kokeilemaan. nonPeerReviewed

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This case study investigates the role of agency in the development of two students’ expertise during their participation in the year-long KOO-KIT program (Language Technology for Language Teachers) for pre-service language teachers at the Centre for Applied Language Studies of the University of Jyväskylä in the 2000s. The curriculum of the program was organized around project-based learning, with theoretical and pedagogical lessons and hands-on technology courses alternating with practical team work in web-based design. The data consist of the teachers’ observations and narrative assessments of the students’ performance, and the students’ self-reports during the one-year course. The findings show that the development of the students’ expertise was highly dynamic, situated and closely linked to the quality of agency they were able to construct with other participants and their team mates, in particular. Finally, the implications of the findings for the execution and development of such programs for pre-service language teachers will be discussed. peerReviewed

[Minna Suni: Toista kieltä vuorovaikutuksessa. Kielellisten resurssien jakaminen toisen kielen omaksumisen alkuvaiheessa]

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Applied linguistics has been witnessing a narrative (or an autobiographical) turn. For the past 15 years we have been working with written narratives as a means of looking at subjective experiences of learning or teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL). It is only more recently that we have begun to experiment with narratives in another mode (i.e., with visual ones). In this specific study pre-service teachers (n = 62) who were about to graduate from a five-year MA program were asked to draw a picture of themselves as giving a foreign language class in the not so far future. The study was conducted within a sociocultural framework, and teaching thus viewed as intentional, goal-directed and mediated activity. Based on the narrative and conceptual analysis of the images, some key findings of the study will be reported concerning beliefs about foreign language teaching in relation to such issues as learning environment, artifacts and interaction in a foreign language class.