Conditions for EFL learning and professional development. Finland-Swedish learner and Teacher perspectives

Förutsättningar för lärande i engelska som främmande språk och professionell utveckling finlandssvenska elev- och lärarperspektiv.

Engelskans dominerande roll som internationellt språk och andra globaliseringstrender påverkar också Svenskfinland. Dessa trender påverkar i sin tur förutsättningarna för lärande och undervisning i engelska som främmande språk, det vill säga undervisningsmålen, de förväntade elev- och lärarrollerna, materialens ändamålsenlighet samt lärares och elevers initiala erfarenheter av engelska och engelskspråkiga länder.

Denna studie undersöker förutsättningarna för lärande och professionell utveckling i det svenskspråkiga nybörjarklassrummet med engelska som främmande språk. Utgångsläget för 351 nybörjare i engelska som främmande språk och 19 av deras lärare beskrivs och analyseras.

Resultaten tyder på att engelska håller på att bli ett andraspråk snarare än ett traditionellt främmande språk för många unga elever. Dessa elever har också goda förutsättningar att lära sig engelska utanför skolan. Sådan var dock inte situationen för alla elever, vilket tyder på att det finns en anmärkningsvärd heterogenitet och även regional variation i det finlandssvenska klassrummet i engelska som främmande språk. Lärarresultaten tyder på att vissa lärare har klarat av att på ett konstruktivt sätt att tackla de förutsättningar de möter. Andra lärare uttrycker frustration över sin arbetssituation, läroplanen, undervisningsmaterialen och andra aktörer som är av betydelse för skolmiljön.

Studien påvisar att förutsättningarna för lärande och undervisning i engelska som främmande språk varierar i Svenskfinland. För att stöda elevers och lärares utveckling föreslås att dialogen mellan aktörer på olika nivå i samhället bör förbättras och systematiseras.

Conditions for EFL learning and professional development. Finland-Swedish learner and Teacher perspectives

This study is about the conditions for active learning and professional teaching of English as a foreign language (EFL) in a Finland-Swedish context. The study is based upon the assumption that EFL learning and teaching takes place through interaction and that the process is affected by the particular social context of the main actors, that is the learners and the teachers. It is also argued that the conditions for development-centred learning are vital for professional development.

The Finland-Swedish context of EFL is believed to be affected by the general trends of globalisation and the dominance of English as a means of international communication. These trends affect the conditions for learning and teaching EFL, that is the goals for EFL, the expected roles of teachers and learners, the suitability of materials and the experiences of the target language countries and exposure to English the actors bring with them into the EFL classroom.

The general aim of the project is to gain insights of the conditions for EFL learning and professional development in the Swedish-medium EFL-beginner classroom in Finland. What will be described and analysed are the startingpoints of: A) learners beginning their studies of English in grade 5 (e.g. attitudes towards, knowledge of and exposure to English), B) teachers who teach these beginners English (e.g. perception of pupils starting-points, own education and experiences of English, teaching materials, curricula and social context).

The approach to the project at large can be classified as abductive (Polkinghorne, 1983), since the researcher s own theoretical basis has grown simultaneously with the process of carrying out the empirical research and analysing the results. The methodological choices have been influenced by the variety of research questions and difference in roles and maturity between the two main groups of actors in this study. This has made it necessary to employ different methods when gathering information from the pupils (Study A, N=351) and teachers (Study B, N=19) and to make use of concrete operational questions to break down the actual research questions. In the choice of research methods the aim has been to design age-appropriate instruments that identify potential actors and relations in relevant EFL learning settings and thus to regard both types of actors as subjects rather than objects. The method of analysis was informed by hermeneutic and phenomenological approaches to analysis.

For many of the learners (Study A) it is evident that English is becoming a SL rather than a FL in the sense that they are aware of encountering the language frequently in a variety of contexts and through different media and actors, but this was not the case for all students in Swedish-speaking areas in Finland. For a substantial majority of pupils in the Swedish-medium primary schools in Finland the societal context outside school provides good opportunities for active, authentic, need-based EFL learning. Many of these learners are also able to make use of this extensive exposure to English and function as active more or less autonomous learners in these informal contexts. The traditional forms of activity reading, talking and listening still seem to be most effective ways of acquiring both productive vocabulary and listening comprehension skills in English.

Concerning the teacher results (Study B) there is a great divergence in their answers with regard to the research questions. This indicates that different teachers handle the challenges they encounter in fairly different ways. Some of these teachers have managed to apply a reflective and constructive way of dealing with at least some of the challenges they are faced with. Others express frustration with their work situation, with lack of guidance in the available curricula, available teaching materials and among other social actors.

The study indicates that the conditions for EFL learning and teaching in the Finland-Swedish context vary and that there is room for improvement. Suggestions are made on what measures could be taken within this context to best serve the fruitful interaction between learners and teachers and their development as learners and professionals. These suggestions are concerned with the structure and content of pre- and in-service teacher education, content and structure of teaching materials, national policy documents, structure and atmosphere of school communities. To achieve substantial improvement it is suggested that the mutual communication between all actors identified above needs to be developed further.