Näkökulmia kielen oppimisen käytäntöihin. Turun yliopiston kielikeskus 30 vuotta - Perspectives on Language Learning in Practice. University of Turku Language Centre 30-year Celebration

Tämä julkaisu ilmestyy Turussa 18.–19.5.2009 järjestettävien valtakunnallisten kielikeskuspäivien yhteydessä. Turun yliopiston kielikeskus viettää samaan aikaan 30-vuotisjuhlaansa. Erään luokittelun mukaan 30–45-vuotias elää varsinaista keski-ikäänsä, kun taas joissakin katsotaan, että 28–35 vuoden ikä on vasta ns. jäsentymisen vaihe ja että varhainenkin keski-ikä sijoittuu vasta ikävuosiin 35–42. Voitaneen siis sanoa, että kielikeskus on ainakin ohittanut nuoruusvuodet ja on jäsentymässä tai siirtymässä keski-ikään. Tämä tuo mukanaan tietynlaista kypsymistä, itsensä varaan asettumista, imagon ja profiilin vakiintumista. Tähän kasvuun saattaa liittyä myös jonkinlainen aikuistumisen kriisi. Sen myötä kuitenkin ymmärrys lisääntyy ja oman paikan rakentaminen yliopistoyhteisössä voimistuu. Arvo- ja ajatusmaailmaan tulee uusia kehityspiirteitä: olemassaolon ja toiminnan syvemmät perustelut, illuusioiden väheneminen, hallinnan tunne, tyydytys onnistuneesta toiminnasta ja realistinen voiman tunto. Laitos esittäytyy julkaisussa 13 kirjoituksen välityksellä. Tekstit ovat sisällöltään ja käsittelytavaltaan hyvin erilaisia, mutta juuri sellaisina ne valottavat monipuolisesti laitoksen ja sen henkilökunnan toimintaa ja tuntemuksia. Kuvaukset valaisevat laitoksen erikoisluonnetta ja kuvailevat henkilökunnan erilaisia tehtäviä. Kielikeskus paljastuu dynaamisemmaksi ja heterogeenisemmaksi yksiköksi kuin ensi silmäyksellä saattaa luulla, mutta juuri siinä piilee sen voima ja rikkaus. Juhlakirjaan toivottiin kirjoituksia kielikeskuksen opetukseen tai toimintaan liittyvistä aiheista. Kirjaan sisältyy selontekojen ja kuvausten lisäksi muutamia tiukan tieteellisiä artikkeleita. Joukossa on myös joitakin esseitä, jotka koskettelevat kielen ja kulttuurin välisiä suhteita ja luovat katsauksia kielikeskuksen monikulttuuriseen arkeen. Useassa kirjoituksessa käsitellään kielipedagogisia ja -didaktisia kysymyksiä. Erityisesti tulee esiin kielikeskuksessa viime vuosina tehty uudistustyö opetuksen ja oppimisedellytysten parantamiseksi. Samalla kun muun muassa opetusteknologiaa ja kielen oppimisen käytäntöjä virtuaalisissa oppimisympäristöissä on kehitetty, opettajan rooli on muovautunut uudentyyppiseksi: perinteisen opetushenkilöstön ja muun henkilökunnan tehtävät ja toimenkuva ovat selvästi lähentyneet toisiaan. Tämä suuntaus on jatkunut jo kauan ja jatkunee tulevaisuudessakin. Kolmekymmentä viime vuotta ovat olleet yliopistossa erittäin nopean muutoksen aikaa. Tämä on näkynyt erityisesti kielikeskuksen toiminnan laajenemisessa ja kehityksessä, joissa tosin on ollut notkahduksiakin. Varsinkin nopea kansainvälistyminen, Euroopan yhteisön laajentuminen ja koko maailman avautuminen ovat tuoneet mukanaan uusia haasteita, joihin kielikeskus on heti tarttunut: kielivalikoimaa on laajennettava, kielitaitoa kohennettava ja erilaisia kulttuureja tunnettava ja ymmärrettävä syvällisemmin. Turun yliopiston kielikeskus pyrkii omalta osaltaan täyttämään nämä velvoitteet ja luomaan toiminnallaan mahdollisimman hyvät edellytykset yliopiston kansainvälistymiselle. Nämä seikat on otettu huomioon laitoksen toimintalinjojen suunnittelussa ja kehittämisessä. Kieli-ja viestintäopintojen rakenteiden uudistamista jatketaan yhteistyössä tiedekuntien kanssa. Opintojen valinnaisuutta ja vapaaehtoisuutta pyritään lisäämään sekä turvaamaan kielivalintojen monipuolisuus ja kieliosaamisen laajaalaisuus resurssien mukaan. Toimintaa kehitetään niin, että siinä otetaan entistä paremmin huomioon yhteiskunnan monikulttuuristuminen ja Euroopan komission tavoite, jonka mukaan jokaisen EU- kansalaisen tulisi osata oman äidinkielensä lisäksi vähintään kahta yhteisön kieltä. Samalla otetaan huomioon globalisaation tuomat uudet haasteet tukemalla tärkeimpien Euroopan yhteisön ulkopuolisten kielten opetusta (mm. venäjä, kiina, japani, arabia). Edelleen kielikeskus seuraa tarkoin keskustelua Suomen kielikoulutuspolitiikan perusteista ja tavoitteista ja ottaa toimintansa suunnittelussa huomioon valtakunnalliset suositukset Suomen kielikoulutuksen uudistamiseksi vastaamaan nykypäivän ja tulevaisuuden tarpeita ja tavoitteita. Se että kielikeskus on viime vuosina selvästikin vakiinnuttanut asemansa yliopiston strategisesti tärkeänä yksikkönä, ei tarkoita sitä, että nyt voitaisiin turvautua pelkästään vanhoihin toimintamalleihin ja rutiineihin. Päinvastoin, koko maailmassa, suomalaisessa yhteiskunnassa ja yliopistojen toiminnassa tapahtuneet ja tapahtuvat suuret muutokset edellyttävät kielikeskustoimintojen vireää kehittämistä ja uudistusmieltä. Laitos onkin ilmoittanut tulossopimuksessaan tukevansa opetuskokeiluja ja innovatiivisia ratkaisuja. Opettajajohtoisen opetuksen ohella on voimakkaasti kehitetty myös ohjattua itseopiskelua, monimuotoopetusta sekä vaihtoehtoisia ja uudentyyppisiä oppimismuotoja. Uutta opetusteknologiaa käytetään tehokkaasti hyväksi ja kehitetään edelleen. Opetuksessa ja ohjauksessa käytetään suomalaisten ja ulkomaisten opiskelijoiden työpanosta. Laitoksen suunnittelu- ja kehittämistyössä opiskelijat ovat toimineet viime vuosina aktiivisesti ja ansiokkaasti: yhteistyö ylioppilaskunnan kanssa toimii erinomaisesti, ja sitä on tarkoitus vielä tehostaa. Laitos on saanut runsaasti kiitosta korkealaatuisesta toiminnastaan: muun muassa v. 1998 ja 2008 Turun yliopiston vuoden opettajan palkinnon, v. 1999 Turun yliopiston parhaan koulutusyksikön palkinnon ja v. 2007 vuoden opintojaksopalkinnon. On toivottavaa, että tämä tuloksellinen työ jatkuisi ja entisestäänkin paranisi tulevina vuosina. Hyvät tulokset on saavutettu kovilla ponnistuksilla ja tiukalla sitoutumisella työhön. Aina se ei ole ollut aivan helppoa nopeiden muutosten myllerryksessä, tiukentuneessa resurssitilanteessa ja vaatimusten ja odotusten ristiriidoissa. Toivon, että pääosin hyvin sujunut yhteistyö yliopiston johdon, tiedekuntien ja opiskelijoiden kanssa sekä henkilökunnan keskuudessa voisi säilyä ja kehittyä ja että alkava vuosikymmen kielikeskuksen historiassa voisi olla entistä parempi. Hyvä yhteistyö on hyvien tulosten edellytys. Suurten uudistusten vuosi 2010 sisältää mahdollisuuden parempaan, mutta se on samalla myös riski ehkä hyvinkin paljon muuttuvassa toimintaympäristössä. Lainaan lopuksi roomalaisen historioitsijan Sallustiuksen sanat: Concordia res parvae crescunt, discordia maximae dilabuntur. Yksimielisyys saa pienetkin asiat kukoistamaan, eripura suuretkin tuhoaa. Turun yliopistolla on hyvä kielikeskus, jota kannattaa vaalia ja tukea. Kiitän kaikkia kirjoittajia ja juhlajulkaisun toimittajia Minna Maijalaa, Timo Hulkkoa ja Jane Honkaa tämän julkaisun synnystä. Samoin esitän kiitokset kielikeskuksen kirjallisen viestinnän lehtoreille, Markus Lahdelle ja Arja Lampiselle, jot ka ovat nähneet vaivaa tekstien kielellisinä korjaajina. Koko kielikeskuksen nykyistä ja aikaisempaa henkilökuntaa kiitän työstä, jota laitoksen hyväksi on tehty kuluneiden 30 vuoden aikana. Erityisen kiitoksen ansaitsee laitoksen juhlatoimikunta kaikista juhlavuoden järjestelyistä.

Profiles of Second Language Learners in Bilingual Education: A Comparative Study of the Characteristics of Finnish and American Students

The purpose of this comparative study is to profile second language learners by exploring the factors which have an impact on their learning. The subjects come from two different countries: one group comes from Milwaukee, US, and the other from Turku, Finland. The subjects have attended bilingual classes from elementary school to senior high school in their respective countries. In the United States, the subjects (N = 57) started in one elementary school from where they moved on to two high schools in the district. The Finnish subjects (N = 39) attended the same school from elementary to high school. The longitudinal study was conducted during 1994-2004 and combines both qualitative and quantitative research methods. A Pilot Study carried out in 1990-1991 preceded the two subsequent studies that form the core material of this research. The theoretical part of the study focuses first on language policies in the United States and Finland: special emphasis is given to the history, development and current state of bilingual education, and the factors that have affected policy-making in the provision of language instruction. Current language learning theories and models form the theoretical foundation of the research, and underpin the empirical studies. Cognitively-labeled theories are at the forefront, but sociocultural theory and the ecological approach are also accounted for. The research methods consist of questionnaires, compositions and interviews. A combination of statistical methods as well as content analysis were used in the analysis. The attitude of the bilingual learners toward L1 and L2 was generally positive: the subjects enjoyed learning through two languages and were motivated to learn both. The knowledge of L1 and parental support, along with early literacy in L1, facilitated the learning of L2. This was particularly evident in the American subject group. The American subjects’ L2 learning was affected by the attitudes of the learners to the L1 culture and its speakers. Furthermore, the negative attitudes taken by L1 speakers toward L2 speakers and the lack of opportunities to engage in activities in the L1 culture affected the American subjects’ learning of L2, English. The research showed that many American L2 learners were isolated from the L1 culture and were even afraid to use English in everyday communication situations. In light of the research results, a politically neutral linguistic environment, which the Finnish subjects inhabited, was seen to be more favorable for learning. The Finnish subjects were learning L2, English, in a neutral zone where their own attitudes and motivation dictated their learning. The role of L2 as a means of international communication in Finland, as opposed to a means of exercising linguistic power, provided a neutral atmosphere for learning English. In both the American and Finnish groups, the learning of other languages was facilitated when the learner had a good foundation in their L1, and the learning of L1 and L2 were in balance. Learning was also fostered when the learners drew positive experiences from their surroundings and were provided with opportunities to engage in activities where L2 was used.

Making the impact on research and society : nichesourcing of Uralic language material for the benefit of linguistic research and native-speakers

Presentation at the 12th Bibliotheca Baltica Symposium at Södertörn University Library

Structure learning of context-specific graphical models

Abstract The ultimate problem considered in this thesis is modeling a high-dimensional joint distribution over a set of discrete variables. For this purpose, we consider classes of context-specific graphical models and the main emphasis is on learning the structure of such models from data. Traditional graphical models compactly represent a joint distribution through a factorization justi ed by statements of conditional independence which are encoded by a graph structure. Context-speci c independence is a natural generalization of conditional independence that only holds in a certain context, speci ed by the conditioning variables. We introduce context-speci c generalizations of both Bayesian networks and Markov networks by including statements of context-specific independence which can be encoded as a part of the model structures. For the purpose of learning context-speci c model structures from data, we derive score functions, based on results from Bayesian statistics, by which the plausibility of a structure is assessed. To identify high-scoring structures, we construct stochastic and deterministic search algorithms designed to exploit the structural decomposition of our score functions. Numerical experiments on synthetic and real-world data show that the increased exibility of context-specific structures can more accurately emulate the dependence structure among the variables and thereby improve the predictive accuracy of the models.

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.

Neural correlates of language learning in adults

The human language-learning ability persists throughout life, indicating considerable flexibility at the cognitive and neural level. This ability spans from expanding the vocabulary in the mother tongue to acquisition of a new language with its lexicon and grammar. The present thesis consists of five studies that tap both of these aspects of adult language learning by using magnetoencephalography (MEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during language processing and language learning tasks. The thesis shows that learning novel phonological word forms, either in the native tongue or when exposed to a foreign phonology, activates the brain in similar ways. The results also show that novel native words readily become integrated in the mental lexicon. Several studies in the thesis highlight the left temporal cortex as an important brain region in learning and accessing phonological forms. Incidental learning of foreign phonological word forms was reflected in functionally distinct temporal lobe areas that, respectively, reflected short-term memory processes and more stable learning that persisted to the next day. In a study where explicitly trained items were tracked for ten months, it was found that enhanced naming-related temporal and frontal activation one week after learning was predictive of good long-term memory. The results suggest that memory maintenance is an active process that depends on mechanisms of reconsolidation, and that these process vary considerably between individuals. The thesis put special emphasis on studying language learning in the context of language production. The neural foundation of language production has been studied considerably less than that of perceptive language, especially on the sentence level. A well-known paradigm in language production studies is picture naming, also used as a clinical tool in neuropsychology. This thesis shows that accessing the meaning and phonological form of a depicted object are subserved by different neural implementations. Moreover, a comparison between action and object naming from identical images indicated that the grammatical class of the retrieved word (verb, noun) is less important than the visual content of the image. In the present thesis, the picture naming was further modified into a novel paradigm in order to probe sentence-level speech production in a newly learned miniature language. Neural activity related to grammatical processing did not differ between the novel language and the mother tongue, but stronger neural activation for the novel language was observed during the planning of the upcoming output, likely related to more demanding lexical retrieval and short-term memory. In sum, the thesis aimed at examining language learning by combining different linguistic domains, such as phonology, semantics, and grammar, in a dynamic description of language processing in the human brain.

To Succeed Is to Believe: Comparison of Self-Efficacy Beliefs in Language Learning between Learner Groups of English and Swedish in Finland

In this thesis, I studied self-efficacy in the learning of English and Swedish in Finland. The theory of self-efficacy, which was created by Albert Bandura, suggests that the beliefs a person has of his or her capabilities in a certain task affect the person’s performance in the task. My aim was to study whether there are differences in self-efficacy beliefs between the learners of English and Swedish, and whether these beliefs correlate with the performance in the language in question. My hypotheses were that the learners of English have higher self-efficacy beliefs than the learners of Swedish and that self-efficacy beliefs correlate with language performance. The study was quantitative, and it consisted of a self-efficacy questionnaire and a language test which were distributed to students of English and Swedish in an upper secondary school in Rovaniemi. The study was answered by 137 students, of whom 93 were learners of English and 44 were learners of Swedish. The results indicated that the learners of English had a higher sense of efficacy than the learners of Swedish. The analysis proved that there was a significant correlation between English students’ self-efficacy and their performance in the language measured by the test and the grades. In addition, a significant correlation existed between Swedish students’ self-efficacy and their grades. However, there was no correlation between the Swedish students’ self-efficacy and their test results. The difference in the self-efficacy beliefs of the two language groups indicates that people in Finland are more confident in using English than Swedish, which also implies that English is more valued in Finnish society than Swedish. It is important to acknowledge the lower self-efficacy beliefs in Swedish because various studies have proven that self-efficacy affects academic achievement. As a suggestion for further research, the self-efficacy beliefs of different language groups could be compared in a qualitative study in order to understand the development of self-efficacy more profoundly.

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.

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.