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saxelmwifo enis swavlebis sakiTxebi:
problemebi da gamowvevebi
Issues of State Language Teaching;
Problems and Challenges
Table 3. Immigration, emigration from 1971 till 2010 (in thousands of people) (OSF3)
Finland had to develop its own strategy towards linguistic diversity through an elaborated system of
teaching and exercising languages (Lähteenmäki, Vanhala-Aniszewski 2010). The fundament of this multifaceted
approach is, in my mind, the own history and the practical experience of the many centuries of multilinguality.
Teaching of languages in the school system
The language of instruction in the Finnish educational institutions can be Finnish or Swedish on all educational
levels, from the day care centre on. As a matter of fact, the institutions have either Finnish or Swedish
as their languages of instruction. Some upper secondary vocational institutions and universities are bilingual;
for example, the University of Helsinki is a university where students may use Swedish at all occasions if they
want to do so, and there are special lines for the bearers of the Swedish language at some departments. Sámi is
the language of instruction in some institutions of the general and vocational training in the Sámi-speaking
municipalities.
More and more the speakers of Swedish had to communicate with the speakers of Finnish, and their bilingualism
developed to a high degree. The number of mixed marriages also grow (today, a half of all marriages
with Swedes are mixed). Despite of the school system of its own, the Swedish-speaking population had
problems to maintain the mastery of their mother tongue at a sufficient level. Most of them learned Finnish
already at home, in the neighbourhood or at school (Björklund 2002). The University of Vaasa also promotes
bilingualism (Aschan 2011).
The Finnish foreign language instruction follows the time allocation prescribed by the government, presenting
two levels of language teaching. A1 denotes the language learned from the lower stage which is
obligatory to all students. A2 denotes the optional language that is also learned early. B1 denotes the language
learned from the upper stage which is obligatory. B2 denotes the language that starts in the upper secondary
school. B3 denotes the voluntary language at the same stage. In order to complete the upper secondary schooling,
at least one A1 and one B1 should be learned, including the other national language of the country. The
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