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Tässä artikkelissa tarkastelemme opettajien (n = 596) maahanmuuttotaustaisten oppilaiden opetukseen liittyviä huolia. Keskitymme erityisesti opettajien pohdintoihin omasta opettajuudestaan ja yleisesti kouluun liittyviin tekijöihin. Suurimpina huolina opettajien riittämättömyyden tunteessa olivat opettajan oma osaaminen ja opetustaidot, mutta myös arviointi, sopivan oppimateriaalin puute ja opettajien jaksaminen nousivat isoiksi huolenaiheiksi. Kouluun liittyvistä tekijöistä opettajia huolettivat koulun puutteelliset resurssit ja toimimattomat käytänteet sekä oppilaisiin kohdistuvat matalat odotukset ja toisten opettajien negatiiviset asenteet. Opettajat mainitsivat yleisesti vastauksissaan, ettei koulu tavalla tai toisella vastaa maahanmuuttotaustaisten oppilaiden tarpeisiin. He myös tunnistivat samoja haasteita, joita viimeaikainen tutkimus on osoittanut: resurssien ja opettajien osaamisen riittämättömyys sekä rakenteiden joustamattomuus. Opettajien työssä jaksamisen ja oppilaiden parempien oppimistulosten kannalta olisi syytä lähteä etsimään ratkaisuja maahanmuuttotaustaisten oppilaiden opetusta ympäröiviin haasteisiin. Opettajien kokemat haasteet ovat sellaisia, joihin ei pelkällä opettajankoulutuksella juuri pystytä vaikuttamaan, vaan niihin vaaditaan poliittisia toimia ja rakenteellisia uudistuksia. acceptedVersion

The current Finnish core curriculum requires all teachers in basic education to be linguistically responsive. However, studies on the linguistically responsive practices used by teachers are scarce. The frequency with which teachers (N = 820) use 21 linguistically responsive practices was investigated through data that were gathered via an online survey. Based on factor analysis, teachers’ practices formed four categories: identifying language demands, linguistic scaffolding, explicit attention to language, and additional semiotic systems scaffolding. Teachers reported using the latter the most. Of teachers’ background factors, teaching experience of 2–5 years was linked to more frequent use of students’ interests to plan teaching compared to 0–2 or more than 10 years of experience. The results point out a need for more training in linguistically responsive teaching practices for in-service teachers, as experience is not linked to growth trajectories.

In both the school environment and teacher education, sustainable development is usually linked to the natural and social sciences and is rarely incorporated into language education or encouraged as part of language teacher education. As more research is needed on the practical implementation of sustainable development in language teaching and language teacher education, this study elucidates Finnish pre-service language teachers’ perceptions of sustainability dimensions (i.e. ecological, economic, social, and cultural) and their role in language teaching. We used a questionnaire comprising open-ended and Likert-scale questions to examine pre-service language teachers’ perceptions of and attitudes towards themes under all sustainability dimensions, and their feeling about their ability to integrate them into their teaching. Pre-service teachers ( n = 26) recognized the importance of the social and cultural dimensions in language teaching and felt more capable of addressing personal environmental actions than global problems in the language classroom. Some pre-service teachers produced concrete practices linking sustainability issues with language teaching, but they were mostly teacher-centred. The pre-service teachers did not link equality as tightly to the cultural and social aspects of language teaching as they did in their personal lives. These findings help in developing language teaching and teacher education programmes toward the educational sustainable development goals. Moreover, the questionnaire can be used to analyse the consideration of sustainability themes in language teaching and language teacher education.

Tarkastelemme luokanopettajaopiskelijoiden (n = 87) kieliopin hallintaa sekä käsityksiä kielellisestä tuesta matematiikan opetuksessa. Aineisto on kerätty opettajankoulutuksessa toteutetun monikielisyys- ja kielenoppimiskurssin yhteydessä kurssin alussa ja lopussa kyselylomakkeella, jolla kartoitettiin kielellistä tukemista matematiikan opetuksen yhteydessä. Tulosten perusteella näyttää siltä, että kieliopin hallintaan tulisi opettajankoulutuksessa kiinnittää jatkossa enemmän huomiota. Opiskelijoilla oli kuitenkin vankka käsitys erilaisista kielellisen tuen muodoista, kuten visuaalisuudesta ja sanaston ja rakenteiden tarkastelusta. Matematiikan oppiainekohtaisen kielitaidon tukemista tai oppilaiden ensikielen käyttämistä oppimisen tukena ei juurikaan mainittu, vaikka aiheita oli käsitelty kurssilla. Lisäksi osa opiskelijoista osoitti vielä loppumittauksessakin odottavansa oppilailta kielellistä toimijuutta tunnistamatta oppilaan kielellisen tuen tarpeita. Tutkimus osoittaa, että opettajankoulutuksen kieliopillisen tiedon opetusta on kehitettävä, samoin monikielisen oppilaan kielellisen tukemisen pedagogiikka vaatii huomiota. "This should be drawn. This exercise is linguistically difficult to all." Pre-service class teachers' grammatical knowledge and perceptions of linguistic support Abstract This study focuses on pre-service teachers’ (n = 87) grammatical knowledge and their perceptions of implementing linguistic support when teaching mathematics. The data were gathered at the beginning and at the end of a course on multilingualism and language learning with a test concerning linguistic support in teaching mathematics. In the future, students’ grammatical knowledge needs to be further developed in teacher education. Students were able to name various means of linguistic support, although the role of subject specific language and using students’ L1 as a tool for learning were not present in the students’ responses. Some pre-service teachers had high expectations of their students' agency in language awareness without recognizing the need for linguistic support by the teacher. There is a need for developing pre-service teachers’ grammatical knowledge in teacher education. Also, future teachers’ abilities to linguistically support multilingual learners should be focused on more. Keywords: pre-service class teachers, linguistically responsible pedagogy, linguistic support, grammar, mathematics

In quantity languages, the durations of segments affect the meanings of words. This can present problems for second language (L2) learners who do not already have this feature in their native language. This study examines the effects of an intensive, four-week language course with a communicative focus on the perception and production of non-native vowel duration contrasts. A total of 68 students of Finnish, divided into speakers of quantity or non-quantity languages, took part in identification and production tests before and after taking part in the course. The course produced a significant improvement on identification, but not production. Furthermore, a slight advantage was found for speakers of quantity languages in the identification task. Comparison to native control groups revealed significant differences between groups in both tasks. The results are discussed in relation to the interaction of perception and production, L2 learning models and relevance to L2 teaching.

Swallowing and communication disorders are common in persons with multiple sclerosis (MS). Both disorders are extremely variable and can have a major effect on health status and quality of life. This is why it is important to provide health care professionals who are working with persons with MS with tools to signal, assess, and treat swallowing and communication disorders. This synthesis gives an update on relevant and recent literature on swallowing and communication disorders, supplemented with current practice-based evidence. Studies on swallowing and communication disorders in MS are scarce: more and higher-quality research is needed. It should be emphasized that therapists need to focus on the patient’s acquisition of skills to participate in daily life. This means that each patient requires an individual approach based on their own needs.

We investigated Finnish primary school teachers’ understandings of processes of language learning, their reported linguistically responsive practices, their reported professional learning needs, and the links between these. The teachers (n = 246) responded to an online survey. Frequencies, possible links between the teachers’ background factors and their understandings and reported practices (one-way analysis of variance) and possible correlations between teachers’ understandings, reported practices and personal learning needs were investigated. Respondents had a solid understanding regarding the investigated language learning processes and reported using additional semiotic scaffolding practices, such as visual cues, most often. Over half of the respondents reported needing more information about their students’ backgrounds, experiences, and skills. The teachers with the highest levels of understanding reported using linguistically responsive practices the most and also sought the most professional learning. However, most Finnish primary school teachers would benefit from both theoretical and practical training in linguistically responsive pedagogy.

Phonological duration differences in quantity languages can be problematic for second language learners whose native language does not use duration contrastively. Recent studies have found improvement in the processing of non-native vowel duration contrasts with the use of listen-and-repeat training, and the current study explores the efficacy of similar methodology on consonant duration contrasts. 18 adult participants underwent two days of listen-and-repeat training with pseudoword stimuli containing either a sibilant or a stop consonant contrast. The results were examined with psychophysiological event-related potentials (mismatch negativity and P3), behavioral discrimination tests and a production task. The results revealed no training-related effects in the event-related potentials or the production task, but behavioral discrimination performance improved. Furthermore, differences emerged between the processing of the two consonant types. The findings suggest that stop consonants are processed more slowly than the sibilants, and the findings are discussed with regard to possible segmentation difficulties.

This study investigated which aspects of working with multilingual students bring joy to Finnish teachers. The data was collected via an online survey from teachers working mainly in basic education in Finland. The teachers (N = 588) reported a positive stance toward multilingual learners. The greatest number of responses (44%) cited students’ intrapersonal qualities, for example students’ motivation to learn and their academic, social, and emotional successes, as a source of joy. The positive impact of diversity on the school community (14%) and the teachers’ own development (12%) were the next most common sources of joy. Teachers with more experience working with multilingual learners were more likely to name students as a source of joy; similarly, teachers at schools with more multilingual learners were more likely to reference these students as a source of joy. The findings suggest that experience with many multilingual students promotes teachers’ commitment to them. publishedVersion

This article considers what students with a migrant background in Finnish comprehensive schools report as difficult, and how they succeed in overcoming these difficulties. We draw on two sets of school wellbeing and learning surveys for migrant students, conducted in 2016 and 2021 in comprehensive schools (grades 1–9) in and around two major cities in Finland. We pay attention to student answers to three questions: What is difficult in school? How do you succeed in difficult tasks in school? and Who helps you in school? The datasets from the two points in time are compared to see whether changes in school demographic situation and the student length of stay in Finland had an impact on student experiences. Our findings show that theory-based school subjects that depend strongly on language, such as science subjects, maths, Finnish, Swedish and English, are considered difficult. Additionally, interaction with peers, which also relies on language, causes challenges. The students report turning to teachers, other professionals and peers for assistance and support, and also mention personal strategies they have developed to overcome school-related difficulties. Understanding what migrant students find difficult, as well as how, and with the help of whom, they overcome such difficulties is crucial for the development of effective and sensitive pedagogical practices. publishedVersion

© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Background and Aims Previous studies have shown that age of acquisition affects language production in persons with aphasia (PWA), specifically, earlier-acquired words are better preserved compared to later-learned ones (for review, see Brysbaert & Ellis, 2016). Also, it has been argued that naming objects with lower name agreement requires inhibition of alternative names (Alario et al., 2004), and therefore puts higher demands on cognitive control. Bose and Schafer (2017) showed that although both PWA and healthy controls performed better at naming words with high naming agreement, the difference between the naming conditions was significantly greater for PWA. This could be due to reduced ability to inhibit irrelevant information in PWA. The current study aims to investigate whether cognitive control mediates the effects of psycholinguistic variables on object naming accuracy in aphasia. Methods and Procedures Participants (N = 31, 32% female) were right-handed, native Russian speakers with preserved visual and hearing abilities diagnosed with mild to moderate post-stroke aphasia. They were aged 40–70 (mean = 59.5, SD = 8.6). The participants were tested on a picture-naming task including 247 items and 2 subtests from the Russian Birmingham Cognitive Screen, namely Auditory attention, and Rule Finding tasks. Outcomes and Results To define whether cognitive control mediates the effect of psycholinguistic variables on naming response accuracy, multiple linear regression was used. Significant main effects of log-transformed word frequency, AoA, and cognitive control were found, as well as a significant interaction between log-transformed word frequency and cognitive control. Conclusions Our findings suggest that cognitive control mediated the effect of word frequency in naming in aphasia. PWA with weaker cognitive control name pictures depicting less-frequent words less accurately than more frequent words. This points to the fact that PWA have difficulty in lexical access when producing language. The implications of the study are that the focus of aphasia rehabilitation should be on very frequent structures and words as these are usually more preserved in PWA with weaker cognitive control.

This study investigates how Finnish teachers regard immigrant families’ home language policies. Of the teachers who responded, 53.3% believed it best for parents to speak their first languages at home, and 31.7% believed that both first language and language of instruction should be used at home. A minority of the teachers believed that only Finnish should be spoken at home. The teachers’ justifications for their beliefs reflected Ruiz’s (1984) orientations in language planning: language-as-right, language-as-resource, and language-as-problem, with most teachers oriented toward language-as-resource. Thus, many teachers’ beliefs align with the current educational stance of supporting multilingualism.

The number of students whose home language is different from the language of instruction is growing everywhere. Learning a new language while simultaneously learning different subjects in that language, is challenging and requires teacher support. However, research has shown that not all teachers have sufficient knowledge of language learning, how language learning influences the learning of content, or how to support multilingual learners in this context (Sullivan, 2016). In this study, Finnish teachers’ (N = 820) understandings of certain processes related to learning an additional language were examined, including whether there were differences in understandings between different teacher groups. Over 80% of the surveyed teachers were knowledgeable about the aspects related to classroom interaction and language use that can be considered as essential for being a linguistically responsive teacher: for example, they knew that social interaction supports learners’ language development. In this study, the less experience a teacher had in general, the more knowledgeable they were regarding language learning. Further, teachers of language related subjects had a better understanding of certain aspects of language learning compared to other subject teacher groups. Based on these results, professional development targeted at teachers who have been in the profession for several years is recommended.

Methods in Linguistics is a collection of articles presenting a broad variety of methods and approaches in the field of linguistics. It offers structure to the spectrum of methodological possibilities and helps the reader to identify the field of application as well as the strengths and weaknesses of different methods. The book consists of an extensive introductory part and a variety of articles, each written by experts of the method in question. It discusses questions related to different kinds of data and data collection, as well as methods used for analysing data. Since the methods used in linguistics are often related to a specific linguistic current, the book offers examples from a wide range of linguistic approaches. The book is addressed to students, researchers and other readers interested in the methods used in linguistics. The general methodological and metatheoretical knowledge offered in the introduction guides the reader through the different methodological choices presented and helps the reader to select the best method to meet her needs. First, the research process is explained step-by-step from the selection of topic and data to questions related to research design, analysis and the reporting of the results. The second part of the introduction focuses on fundamental theoretical and methodological questions, such as the criteria for knowledge, the nature of scientific knowledge and the scientific method. The third part addresses more specifically the methodology of linguistics, discussing the multifaceted nature of natural language and linguistics as a discipline. The introduction also covers many current topics in science, such as research ethics, data protection and open science principles. The book can be used as self-study material by students and researchers alike, or as course material in higher education. Learning is supported by the careful definition of terms, extensive indexes and additional readings suggested for each topic.

The aim of the study was to investigate how different teaching methods, singing, listening to songs and reciting song lyrics, affect the development of pronunciation of Finnish as a foreign language pronunciation. The second objective of the study was to investigate whether future classroom teachers and future Finnish as a second language teachers evaluate the strength of foreign accent differently. The results indicate that reciting song lyrics is the most beneficial for the development of pronunciation. This teaching method is especially useful for beginners’ level language learners. The future class teachers gave stricter evaluations of foreign accent than the future Finnish as a second language teachers. Based on the results of the study, it could be argued that reciting song lyrics could be used for teaching pronunciation. Further, the results support previous findings that more experienced listeners give milder evaluations than more unexperienced. Thus, it would be valuable for future teachers to gain experience in listening diverse accents.

This paper examines Finnish language teachers' beliefs and practices related to singing, listening to songs, and reciting poems as teaching techniques, and whether their teaching practices are congruent with their beliefs. Teachers viewed all three techniques as highly beneficial for language learning. Singing and reciting poems were considered most suitable for teaching pronunciation; listening to songs was considered most suitable for introducing topics. For teachers who reported using particular techniques, their practice was supported by their beliefs. However, overall, reported teaching practices did not completely align with teachers' stated beliefs. These findings have implications for teacher training and future research.

Arvioitu teos: Eila Hämäläinen: Suomi vieraana ja toisena kielenä Helsingin yliopistossa. Viisi ensimmäistä vuosikymmentä. Kakkoskieli 8. Helsingin yliopiston suomen kielen, suomalaisugrilaisten ja pohjoismaisten kielten ja kirjallisuuksien laitos. Helsinki. 2017. 101 s. + liitteet 97 s. isbn 978-951-51-3969-6.

Leena Maria Heikkolan suomen kielen alaan kuuluva väitöskirja tarkastettiin Åbo Akademissa perjantaina 17. maaliskuuta 2017. Vastaväittäjänä toimi professori Anneli Pajunen Tampereen yliopistosta ja kustoksena professori Urpo Nikanne. Leena Maria Heikkola: Kognitiivinen uupumus ja kieli MS-taudissa. Semispontaanien narratiivien määrällinen ja laadullinen analyysi. Åbo: Åbo Akademi University Press 2017. Kirja on luettavissa myös verkkojulkaisuna http://www.doria.fi/handle/10024/133657

Kirja-arvio Murdoch, Bruce & Theodoros, Deborah (toim.): Speech and language disorders in Multiple sclerosis.

Music and especially singing are ways to liven up language teaching. Singing creates a sense of togetherness and evokes feelings, which supports learning. It also makes it easier to focus on and recall language, and thus supports the learning of words, expressions, and structures. Teachers can use songs in their teaching, even if they are not music experts themselves.