Bilingualism – The Finnish Way

 

It is a well established fact that Finland’s educational system ranks amongst the very best of today’s world. It is less known, however, that Finland is a thoroughly bilingual country. On the first half of the course concentrates on explore bilingualism: its definitions and measurements. After this general introduction, Finland as a bilingual country is taken under the magnifying glass. This course addresses the questions why is Finland a bilingual country, how, and to what extent the Finnish educational system succeeds in educating bilingual citizens? More specifically this interdisciplinary course will investigate topics like:

 

What is bilingualism?

The historical background of Finland’s bilingualism

The structure of Finland’s educational system

Language politics and policies of Finland

Research related to issues on bilingualism in Finland

What are the challenges of bilingual Finland?

How does the Finnish system address the challenge of bilingualism?

How does it relate to comparative perspectives?

The language minorities in Finland

Finnish as a language minority in EU?

 

A selection of translated texts and articles on Finnish history, development on educational system, language policies and bilingualism will be available on Oncourse. Students are expected to read the texts and do the weekly written homework assignments and actively take part in the discussion in class.