Search results for "Kielipolitiikka"

University language policies : How does Finnish constitutional bilingualism meet the needs for internationalisation in English?

2018

In this article, we discuss the position of Finnish constitutional bilingualism in higher education in the context of internationalisation in English, by focusing on two universities: one dominantly monolingual (Finnish), one dominantly bilingual (Finnish–Swedish); in addition, both teach in English. This article investigates how discourses around language choices (language policy documents, selected staff and student interviews) construe these universities as monolingual, bilingual or trilingual, and what these discourses say about the universities as organisations themselves. Results suggest that, although lack of clarity remains regarding language choices in many practical situations, Fi…

Nordic language policies for higher education and their multi-layered motivations

2016

Language policies have been drafted in Nordic higher education with the obvious, but unproblematised and unchallenged motivation caused by internationalisation. In this article, we analyse the various motivations for drafting language policies in Nordic higher education and the ideological implications of those motivations. We do this by approaching the question from multiple (macro, meso and micro) viewpoints, in order to make visible some of the undercurrents in higher education language policy. We are particularly interested in the explicit motivations for language policy change, and the explicit and implicit actors and action represented in our data. We will first discuss the background…

Exploring bilingual ideology and identity of EMI medical teachers and students in China’s mainland

2022

This qualitative research in-progress investigates the bilingual ideology and identity of EMI (English-medium-instruction) teachers and students at a Chinese medical university that aims to enrich the understanding of bi/multilingualism in the EFL (English as a Foreign Language) context from domestic stakeholders’ perspectives. The researcher conducted a series of semi-structured interviews with Chinese medical content teachers and students throughout an academic term. Supplementary research materials include written materials, such as lecturers’ PowerPoint slides and institutional documents. The preliminary findings suggest that the teachers and students present diverse ideological stances…

Multilayered perspectives on language policy in higher education : Finland, Estonia, and Latvia in comparison

2016

This article analyses language policies in higher education (HE) in Finland, Estonia, and Latvia, as well as the European Union (EU). We take a multilayered approach to language policies in order to illuminate the intertwined nature of local, national, and international language policies in HE. We are particularly interested in the construction of national language(s) and the language(s) of internationalisation in our case countries. Finland, Estonia, and Latvia share common features as relatively small non-Anglophone countries in the Baltic region, while simultaneously having somewhat differing political and cultural histories. The results of our discursive analysis indicate that while the…

Bilingual children as policy agents : Language policy and education policy in minority language medium Early Childhood Education and Care

2017

AbstractThe current study examines bilingual children as language policy agents in the interplay between official language policy and education policy at three Swedish-medium preschools in Finland. For this purpose we monitored nine Finnish-Swedish bilingual children aged 3 to 5 years for 18 months. The preschools were located in three different parts of Finland, in milieux with varying degrees of language dominance. The children were video recorded during their normal daytime routines in early childhood education and care. Three types of communicative situations were analyzed: an educator-led small group activity, free play with friends, and an activity in which one child was playing alone…

Language Education Policies and Early Childhood Education

2020

This chapter discusses the importance of different types of early language education in the public system according to national policy in two geopolitical contexts: Continental Northern Europe and the UK. We define early language education policy as the language policies in early childhood education (ECE) including planning, practices, and ideologies related to the teaching and learning of languages. We present a variety of theoretical approaches and discuss their applicability to the field of early language education research. These approaches include traditional top-down policy implementation models as well as more dynamic and ecological theoretical approaches. Following that, we look at …

Language orientations in early childhood education policy in Finland and Norway

2021

© 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/),which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. This article investigates the language orientations in education policy documents for early childhood education and care (ECEC) in Finland and Norway. Finland, an officially bilingual country, and Norway, a predominantly monolingual country, share similar views on ECEC. However, the ECEC field in both c…

Tavoitteena vahva ja yhtenäinen kansa : historia ja kieli kansallisen identiteetin rakentamisen välineinä Pätsin aikakauden Virossa 1934-1940

2018

In this dissertation, I study national campaigns aimed at constructing Estonian national identity in 1934–1940. The campaigns were organized through the cooperation of Konstantin Päts’ authoritarian government and civil society. I focus on the folk art campaign and on the name changing campaign. The name changing campaign was the largest national project in Estonia, aiming at the Estonification of names. Initially, the campaign focused on changing individuals’ surnames and first names, but later also on changing the names of places, streets and properties. The name changing campaign had history political and language political dimensions. Through the folk art campaign, the state tried to af…

Formulerande av familjespråkpolicy - en gemensam, komplex och ständigt pågående process

2012

Integrating a Nexus: the history of political discourse and language policy research

2019

Historians of political discourse and language policy researchers should join forces to develop methods of textual analysis that help to integrate political and intellectual history. They could do so by focusing their analysis on interconnections between material realities, human physical action, practices and structures, as well as institutions and ideologies as discursive constructs. Such a version of soft constructivism underscoring the discursive nature of much of politics encourages historians to analyse past political discourses more systematically. Concepts such as nexus, historical body, mobility and discursive transfers borrowed from language research deepen our analytical understa…