The Connectivity of Musical Aptitude and Foreign Language Learning Skills: Neural and Behavioural Evidence

Given the structural and acoustical similarities between speech and music, and possible overlapping cerebral structures in speech and music processing, a possible relationship between musical aptitude and linguistic abilities, especially in terms of second language pronunciation skills, was investigated. Moreover, the laterality effect of the mother tongue was examined with both adults and children by means of dichotic listening scores. Finally, two event-related potential studies sought to reveal whether children with advanced second language pronunciation skills and higher general musical aptitude differed from children with less-advanced pronunciation skills and less musical aptitude in accuracy when preattentively processing mistuned triads and music / speech sound durations. The results showed a significant relationship between musical aptitude, English language pronunciation skills, chord discrimination ability, and sound-change-evoked brain activation in response to musical stimuli (durational differences and triad contrasts). Regular music practice may also have a modulatory effect on the brain’s linguistic organization and cause altered hemispheric functioning in those who have regularly practised music for years. Based on the present results, it is proposed that language skills, both in production and discrimination, are interconnected with perceptual musical skills.

To Integrate Or Not: A Comparison of the English Skills of Finnish Students in Mainstream Education and Content and Language Integrated Learning

The objective of the thesis was to study the possible linguistic differences of English of Finnish mainstream students and Finnish students following content and language integrated learning (CLIL), in terms of the given language test. The difference of test results between the test groups was further analyzed in more detail. The research was carried out by comparing the 9th grade students of the Finnish comprehensive school (the mainstream group) and CLIL students of the 9th grade of the Finnish comprehensive school (the CLIL group). The comparison was based on the national language test for the 9th grade students of the Finnish comprehensive school 2006 (A-English), produced by Sukol-Palvelu, owned by the Federation of Foreign Language Teachers in Finland SUKOL. The mainstream group of the present study consisted of 30 students, whereas the CLIL group included 27 students. Testing was carried out in spring 2007. The test results of the mainstream group (average of 64.1% out of the maximum score) were consistent with the results of the national average (63.9%). The average score of the CLIL students for the present study was 83.3% out of the maximum score. The results of the two groups in question were rather similar in the tasks measuring the skill of listening comprehension, in addition to one of the reading comprehension tasks. Moreover, a particular task with requirements of cultural and reactional skills produced results rather similar between the test groups. The differences between the results of the mainstream group and the CLIL group were most evident in three particular tasks. In general, the CLIL group performed clearly better than the mainstream group in the task measuring the knowledge of the polite conversational manners of the English-speaking world and in the tasks with requirements of lexical and structural knowledge of English. However, the writing task resulted in the most evident difference of results between the groups. In other words, the CLIL students of the present study were clearly more capable of producing English language with more varied vocabulary and more complex structures than the mainstream students. Thus, it might be argued whether the CLIL programme is to enhance the students´ performance in the productive skill of writing in particular. As a result, it might be useful to consider the possibilities of the CLIL programme in developing certain linguistic skills of the mainstream students of English as well.

Saksan opiskelijasta saksan opettajaksi. Aineenopettajaopiskelijan ammatillinen kasvu ohjatussa harjoitttelussa

Tutkimuksessani tarkastelin, miten ammatillinen kasvu ilmenee saksan opetusharjoittelijoiden näkemyksissä ja toiminnassa opettajan pedagogisiin opintoihin kuuluvan ohjatun harjoittelun aikana. Keräsin tutkimusaineiston lukuvuosina 2007–2010 kaikilta saksan opetusharjoittelijoilta, jotka suorittivat ohjatussa harjoittelussa vähintään 15 op Turun normaalikoulussa. Tutkimusaineistona käytin henkilökohtaisia harjoittelusuunnitelmia (HOPS) ja reflektiovihkoja, jotka ovat ohjatun harjoittelun normaaleja työvälineitä. Täydensin aineistoa ohjatun harjoittelun alussa toteutetulla kyselyllä ja harjoittelun päätteeksi tehdyllä puolistrukturoidulla teemahaastattelulla. Toimin tutkimuksen aikana Turun normaalikoulussa saksan opettajana ja aineryhmän harjoittelusta vastaavana opettajana. Tutkimuskysymykset tarkentuivat aineistolähtöisesti. Ensimmäinen tutkimuskysymys liittyi siihen, miten harjoittelijoiden ideaalit hyvästä vieraan kielen opetuksesta ja henkilökohtaiset tavoitteet toteutuivat ohjatun harjoittelun aikana. Alkukyselyn pohjalta ideaaleiksi nousivat vuorovaikutus ja monipuoliset työtavat, kulttuurin opettaminen, tavoitekielen käyttö luokkakielenä sekä selkeä kieliopin opetus. Tutkimuksessa kävi ilmi, että alkukyselyssä esiin tullut hyvän opettajan tai vieraan kielen opetuksen ideaali ei välttämättä näy opettajaksi opiskelevan HOPSeihin kirjatuissa henkilökohtaisissa tavoitteissa tai toteudu hänen harjoitustunneillaan. Parhaiten opetusharjoittelijat kokivat onnistuneensa vuorovaikutuksen luomisessa oppilaisiin ja opiskelijoihin sekä monipuolisten työtapojen käytössä. Eriyttäminen ja oppimaan oppimisen ohjaaminen koettiin hankalina. Suurin osa harjoittelijoista oli tyytyväisiä siihen, miten he onnistuivat tuomaan kulttuuria opetukseensa, kun taas tavoitekielen käyttö luokkakielenä ja kieliopin opetus koettiin haasteellisiksi. Toisessa tutkimuskysymyksessä tarkasteltiin, millainen ammatillinen näkemys vieraan kielen opiskelijalla on ohjatun harjoittelun jälkeen. Opetusharjoittelijat korostivat opettajan kasvatustyötä ja opettajien välistä yhteistyötä. Ajatus toimia saksan tai vieraan kielen opettajana oli vahvistunut pedagogisten opintojen aikana. Kolmas tutkimuskysymys kohdistui sen selvittämiseen, miten HOPS ja reflektiovihko toimivat harjoittelijoiden kasvun tukena. Harjoittelijoiden kirjallinen itsereflektio vaihteli syvällisistä pohdinnoista niukkiin merkintöihin. Suurimmassa osassa reflektiovihoista harjoittelijat olivat miettineet palautteissa esille tulleita asioita. HOPS ja reflektiovihko ovat tämän tutkimuksen perusteella toimivia harjoittelun ohjauksen välineitä, kunhan harjoittelijoita ohjataan niiden käytössä. Itsereflektion merkityksen puolesta puhuu se, että harjoittelijat, jotka olivat myös kirjallisesti pohtineet saksan käyttöä luokkakielenä, olivat muita tyytyväisempiä siihen, miten he kokivat onnistuneensa luokkakielen käytössä.

Cultural and linguistic context and lexical inferencing in English language learning: A case study

In an increasingly multilingual world, English language has kept a marked predominance as a global language. In many countries, English is the primary choice for foreign language learning. There is a long history of research in English language learning. The same applies for research in reading. A main interest since the 1970s has been the reading strategy defined as inferencing or guessing the meaning of unknown words from context. Inferencing has ben widely researched, however, the results and conclusions seem to be mixed. While some agree that inferencing is a useful strategy, others doubt its usefulness. Nevertheless, most of the research seem to agree that the cultural background affects comprehension and inferencing. While most of these studies have been done with texts and contexts created by the researches, little has been done using natural prose. The present study will attempt to further clarify the process of inferencing and the effects of the text’s cultural context and the linguistic background of the reader using a text that has not been created by the researcher. The participants of the study are 40 international students from Turku, Finland. Their linguistic background was obtained through a questionnaire and proved to be diverse. Think aloud protocols were performed to investigate their inferencing process and find connections between their inferences, comments, the text, and their linguistic background. The results show that: some inferences were made based on the participants’ world knowledge, experience, other languages, and English language knowledge; other inferences and comments were made based on the text, its use of language and vocabulary, and few cues provided by the author. The results from the present study and previous research seem to show that: 1) linguistic background is a source of information for inferencing but is not a major source; 2) the cultural context of the text affected the inferences made by the participants according to their closeness or distance from it.

A case study of the English language teachers’ attitudes toward use of information and communication technology (ICT) in Finland

This qualitative study was aimed at investigating foreign language teachers’ attitudes toward use of information and communication technology (ICT) in their instruction. The insight was gained through the reported experience of ICT implementation by teachers, in what way and for which purpose they refer to use of technology, what kind of support and training they are provided with, and what beliefs they express about the influence of ICT implementation. This case study took place in one of the training schools in Finland. Five teachers participated in semi-structured interviews through a face-to-face approach. The findings demonstrated positive attitudes of teachers toward integration of ICT. The teachers shared their opinions about positive influence that ICT implementation has on both teaching and learning processes. However, they also pointed out the negative sides of ICT use: distraction of the students from usage of technology and technical problems causing frustration to the teachers. In addition, the responses revealed that the teachers are provided with adequate training aimed at enhancing their qualification which is provided with well-timed technology support and colleagues’ collaboration facilitating an efficient and smooth pace of the teaching process. According to the teachers’ opinions ICT integration in education appeared to have changed the role of the teacher. Due to different alterations in the field of ICT development teachers are required to upgrade their skills. The paper concludes with the limitations of the study and the recommendations for conducting further research.

A case study of the English language teachers’ attitudes toward use of information and communication technology (ICT) in Finland

This qualitative study was aimed at investigating foreign language teachers’ attitudes toward use of information and communication technology (ICT) in their instruction. The insight was gained through the reported experience of ICT implementation by teachers, in what way and for which purpose they refer to use of technology, what kind of support and training they are provided with, and what beliefs they express about the influence of ICT implementation. This case study took place in one of the training schools in Finland. Five teachers participated in semi-structured interviews through a face-to-face approach. The findings demonstrated positive attitudes of teachers toward integration of ICT. The teachers shared their opinions about positive influence that ICT implementation has on both teaching and learning processes. However, they also pointed out the negative sides of ICT use: distraction of the students from usage of technology and technical problems causing frustration to the teachers. In addition, the responses revealed that the teachers are provided with adequate training aimed at enhancing their qualification which is provided with well-timed technology support and colleagues’ collaboration facilitating an efficient and smooth pace of the teaching process. According to the teachers’ opinions ICT integration in education appeared to have changed the role of the teacher. Due to different alterations in the field of ICT development teachers are required to upgrade their skills. The paper concludes with the limitations of the study and the recommendations for conducting further research.

In pursuit of an intercultural dimension in EFL-teaching : exploring cognitions among Finland-Swedish comprehensive school teachers

This thesis is about the educational purpose of foreign language teaching (FLT) in an increasingly internationalised world.The past 20-30 years have witnessed a fundamental rethinking of the aims of FLT, entailing a shift in emphasis from linguistic competence over communicative competence to intercultural competence. The growing emphasis on cultural issues, called for by research and international curricular documents, places new demandson language teachers. The overall aim of this study is to deepen the knowledge about the attitudes of teachers at the upper level of the Finland-Swedish comprehensive school towards the treatment of culture in English foreign language (EFL) teaching. The questions in focus are: 1) How do teachers interpret the concept"culture" in EFL-teaching?, 2) How do they specify the cultural objectives of their teaching? and 3) What do they do to attain these objectives? The thesis strives to reveal whether or not language teaching today can be describedas intercultural, in the sense that culture is taught with the aim of promotingintercultural understanding, tolerance and empathy. This abductive and largely exploratory study is placed within a constructivist and sociocultural framework,and is inspired by both phenomenography and hermeneutics. It takes its starting-point in language didactics, and can also be regarded as a contribution to teacher cognition research. The empirical data consists of verbatim transcribed interviews with 13 Finland-Swedish teachers of English at grades 7-9. The findings are presented according to three orientations and reviewed with reference to the 2004 Finnish National Framework Curriculum. Within the cognitive orientation, "culture" is perceived as factual knowledge, and the teaching of cultureis defined in terms of the transmission of knowledge, especially about Britain and the USA (Pedagogy of Information). Within the action-related orientation, "culture" is seen as skills of a social and socio-linguistic nature, andthe teaching aims at preparing the students for contacts with people from the target language areas (Pedagogy of Preparation). Within the affective orientation, which takes a more holistic approach, "culture" is seen as a bi-directional perspective. Students are encouraged to look at their own familiar culture from another perspective, and learn to empathise with and show respect for otherness in general, not just concerning representatives of English-speaking countries (Pedagogy of Encounter). Very few of the interviewed teachers represent the third approach, which is the one that can be characterised as truly intercultural. The study indicates that many teachers feel unsure about how to teach culture in an appropriate and up-to-date manner. This is attributed to, among other things, lack of teacher insights as well as lack of time and adequate material. The thesis ends with a set of recommendations as to how EFL could be developed ina more intercultural direction.