Ritva Kantelinen

Towards a Better Quality and Comparability of Language Education in Finnish Polytechnics.

The objective of language studies in Finnish polytechnics is to provide the student with language and communication skills which meet the needs of working life and the students professional development in future. To ensure high quality and to provide uniformity in foreign language education in Rectors Conference of Finnish Polytechnics has given polytechnics the recommendations for common national goals and practices in language education. The recommendations are based on the results of a national survey carried out in 2003–2004 to identify the practices used in implementing polytechnic language education. This article describes the development work of polytechnic language education.

Language Education - Foreign Languages

This article focuses on describing the issues considered to form the basis for the current quality of foreign language teaching in basic education in Finland. This basis has its cornerstones in research-based teacher education and active networking between the different stakeholders in the field. We introduce the main aims and core contents of language teaching as well as the latest trends of pedagogical approaches, methods and role of assessment. We present descriptions of projects and networks set up to support the application of both the latest results of research on language education and the implementation of the national core curriculum at the local school level.

Language Education – Towards Transversal Intercultural Language Proficiency

This chapter focuses on describing the issues considered to form the basis for the current quality of foreign language teaching in basic education in Finland. This basis has its cornerstones in research-based teacher education and active networking between the different stakeholders in the field.

Finnish-Russian Cooperation in Teacher Education

Thanks to globalization and the internationalization of higher education, joint international study programs are growing rapidly. The focus of this chapter is on a Finnish-Russian educational project to design, create, implement, and develop a jointly offered study module called “Teaching Foreign Languages to Young Learners,” known as TeFoLa (25 ECTS).