Ряба С.А. Foreign language teaching in compulsory school: Finnish experience
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Ряба С.А. – студентка Педагогічного інституту Київського університету імені Бориса Грінченка, спеціальність «Початкова освіта», кафедра іноземних мов і методик їх навчання Київського університету імені Бориса Грінченка
Анотація: The article highlights the necessity of critical understanding and creative implementation of the positive educational experience of the European countries into the educational process of Ukrainian schools; Finnish educational system is proved to be one of the best education systems in the world; the priority features of the Finnish foreign language education are determined; the implementation of Finnish foreign language teaching experience is supposed to be helpful in significant improvement of the educational process of Ukrainian primary school.
Ключові слова: Finland, positive educational experience, foreign language teaching, compulsory school, critical understanding and creative implementation, educational process, primary school.
Аннотация: В статье подчеркивается необходимость критического осмысления и творческого воплощения положительного образовательного опыта европейских стран в учебный процесс украинских школ; доказано, что Финская система образования является одной из лучших систем образования в мире; определены приоритетные особенности обучения иностранному языку в Финляндии; сделано предположение, что реализация финского опыта иноязычного образования значительно улучшит образовательный процесс украинской начальной школы.
Ключевые слова: Финляндия, позитивный образовательный опыт, обучение иностранному языку, обязательная школа, критическое осмысление и творческая реализация, образовательный процесс, начальная школа.
Annotation: У статті наголошується на необхідності критичного осмислення та творчого втілення позитивного освітнього досвіду європейських країн в освітній процес українських шкіл; доведено, що Фінська система освіти є однією з кращих систем освіти в світі; визначено пріоритетні особливості іншомовної фінської освіти; зроблено припущення, що реалізація фінського досвіду іншомовної освіти значно поліпшить освітній процес української початкової школи.
Key words: Фінляндія, позитивний освітній досвід, навчання іноземної мови, обов’язкова школа, критичне осмислення та творче втілення, освітній процес, початкова школа.
Зміст |
Problem setting
It is a common knowledge that education has been always considered one of those extremely important things all over the world. It is a primary way to provide young people with knowledge, skills, and competences necessary to live a life of harmonious relationships with diverse human beings [6, p. 104]. But despite that, it still remains that each country is differ from one another in its education systems. And it’s not a secret that some countries are better at educating than others. Currently, a lot of countries throughout the world and Ukraine as well are interested in being the most successful in offering education to their citizens.
Needless to say, the Ukrainian education system is continuously changing and the Ukrainian nation is still desire to recover the glory of the country which once has had the best education system in the world. Moreover, the great attention is given to the process of studying foreign languages as Ukraine strives to become the part of successful but complex and multifaceted European world. Acquiring foreign language communicative competence has become more than just important in modern Ukrainian society. These days, it is extremely beneficial since being able to speak a foreign language helps become competitive in the labour market and be successful in intercultural communication.
Here, it should be noted that teaching a foreign language at Ukrainian school, namely primary school, has a number of shortcomings, which naturally affect the level of English of those who are taught. As a result, most learners are very poor in English and are not able to communicate with native speakers. That is why the new State Standard of Primary Education, according to which primary school students start learning the English language from the very beginning of their school life, was adopted on April 20, 2011. It greatly increases primary school teachers’ responsibility as they lay the foundations for further students’ practical skills development.
The integration of Ukraine into the European Community causes the necessity of critical understanding and creative implementation of the positive educational experience of the European countries, especially Finland that has been classed as one of the most successful in offering education to its citizens, into the educational process of Ukrainian primary school.
Analysis of recent achievements and publications
The analysis of the latest publications has caramelized that the problem of primary school students’ foreign language teaching is an urgent topic in the scientific world. A great number of both native and foreign scholars have dedicated their theoretical and experimental works to different aspects of the just mentioned issue, namely M. Stronin, Sh. Amonashvili, H. Rohova, О. Bihych, V. Plakhotnik, N. Halskova, S. Roman, О. Huz, М. Denysenko, О. Petraschuk, А. Spivakovska, T. Pakhomova, H. Savytska, Y. Hromova, І. Mural, L. Yuhova, C. Livingstone and many others.
Theoretical study of modern approaches to teaching a foreign language in Finland is carried out in the writings of such Finnish researchers as Pasi Sahlberg, David Lasagabaster and Yolanda Ruiz de Zarobe.
However, the analysis of scientific sources lets us claim that even although the abovementioned problem has been investigated rather comprehensively, such aspect as implementation of Finnish positive educational experience into the process of teaching a foreign language to Ukrainian primary school students has been given insufficient attention.
The objective of the article
The purpose of our study is to highlight the necessity of critical understanding and creative implementation of the positive educational experience of the European countries into the educational process of Ukrainian schools, to prove that Finnish educational system is one of the best education systems in the world, and to determine the priority features of the Finnish foreign language education.
The statement of the fundamental material
Learning a foreign language is like exploring a terra incognita. Students constantly encounter a great variety of ambiguous stimuli ranging from confusing sounds to exact meaning of vocabulary items or idioms, as well as grammar aspects of the language being acquired. Learning a foreign language is also abundant in ambiguous situations dealing with sociocultural issues of the target language community [6, p. 105-106]. In addition, we would like to point out that one of the most important and basic elements that make such an educational activity as primary school students’ foreign language teaching successful is the teacher’s professional competence, the methods, ways, techniques and the like which are used in the process of teaching.
We are to state that it has become clear everywhere that the schools we have today will not be able to provide opportunities to learn what is necessary in the future. The demand for the better quality teaching and learning, and more stable and efficient education is universal. Indeed, education systems are facing a twin challenge: how to change schools so that students may learn new types of knowledge and skills required in an unpredictably changing knowledge world [5, p. 1].
As Ukraine enters the European educational space, Finnish foreign language teaching experience might become, to our mind, a “strong engine” which will lead to the significant improvement of the educational process of Ukrainian primary school in case of its implementation. Primarily, we have to understand why education in Finland works. Here’s an overview of what Finland is doing right.
According to the latest results of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), Finland, the 2012 Index leader, has fallen to the fifth place [3]. Nevertheless, Finland still holds in top five of the best education systems in the world. And it is worth to note that in 2013 Harvard University Professor Tony Wagner praised the Finnish school system as “where students are released from the schools ready to innovations” [2].
It should be noted that in Finland, school is the center of the community. School provides not just educational services, but social services as well. Education is about creating personality [1]. Deep-seated motivation and ambitious personal interest are extremely valuable in Finnish culture. “Finns do not really exist outside of Finland,” says Finnish educator Pasi Sahlberg. “This drives people to take education more seriously. For example, nobody speaks this funny language that we do. Finland is bilingual, and every student learns both Finnish and Swedish. And every Finn who wants to be successful has to master at least one other language, often English, but he also typically learns German, French, Russian and many others. Even the smallest children understand that nobody else speaks Finnish, and if they want to do anything else in life, they need to learn languages” [5, p. 45]. Here we can draw a parallel with Ukraine and its native language and the importance of learning foreign languages.
We would like to point out that Finns demonstrate a deep respect for teachers and their academic accomplishments. Teacher’s profession is appreciated in all society. In Finland, only one in ten applicants to teaching is admitted. Finnish policy towards teachers is very different from that one in other countries. First of all, every teacher in Finnish school has to have Masters Degree. All Finnish teachers have to be treated like professionals. It should be mentioned that teachers in Finland have the opportunity to spend much time on their professional development. From our point of view, it definitely leads to high quality education [1].
We can make a constructive conclusion that Finnish students have the great educational start from the very beginning – in primary school. Primary education in Finland is compulsory from the year of a child’s six or seventh birthday and lasts for nine years. Unlike in Ukraine, general education in Finland is carried out within a single structure. In other words, there is no division into primary education (from 7 to 10 years of age) and secondary education (from 11 to 15 years of age).
We would like to point out that Finnish school atmosphere plays central role in constant successful students’ achievement. There are really small sized classes in Finnish schools, so, that there is a real differentiated instruction for primary school students as primary school is really a child centered facility. Moreover, each class is equipped with modern information technologies which give full information lessons content. Furthermore, Finnish schools are provided with up to three teachers per class: two focus on instructions, the third one works with students who are struggling [4].
Finnish educators are open for the experience sharing. So, there are some elements that are proven to help students learn better and to improve harmony in the classroom. Having Finnish students work together is called collaboration. Such cooperation during the lesson helps foster a sense of community between students. It gives a great opportunity to the weaker students to learn something new and important from the stronger students in a given topic. Collaboration gives a chance for learning about teamwork. In English class, Finnish teachers put the kids together in pairs or teams to make some projects. Thus, students work and learn together and make progress in foreign language learning.
It must be added that interaction in Finnish ESL class is essential because it gives an opportunity for the students to be actively involved in discussions so that they keep in mind the information better. A famous teaching method encouraging interaction is direct instruction. This method has teachers teach material and then has the students repeat the key information back. This method requires much attention of the students and also helps them learn more effectively.
One more Finnish foreign language teaching secret includes reviewing all the learning material at the end of the time period. It helps not only the students with going over the new information, but it also helps teachers determine which points were understood and which points the teacher needs to spend a bit more time on. Finnish teachers cannot imagine the education process without feedback. So, freely communication, open questions, tests, and conversations are the integral parts of each foreign language lesson.
Conclusion and the prospects of the above research
Having studied the subject of the article, we may sum up that critical understanding and creative implementation of the positive educational experience of the European countries into the educational process of Ukrainian schools is essential. Finland has been classed as one of the most successful in offering education to its citizens. Hence, for successful implementation of Finnish foreign language teaching experience into the educational process of Ukrainian primary school it is necessary to do the following:
- to change the attitude to the teacher’s profession;
- to focus on the quality of teachers’ professional competence;
- to give teachers the training and the autonomy to do the best for the child;
- to maintain a child centered facility;
- to create the internal child’s motivation and personal interest;
- to improve the methodical provision in Ukrainian schools;
- to adopt Finnish foreign language teaching “secret” elements.
The result of the study indicates that teaching experience exchanging between countries is the basis of successful foreign language education in the whole world and Ukraine as well.
Undoubtedly, the article research material does not exhaust all aspects of the problem under our consideration. The prospects for further scientific research in this field we see in the analyzing the contents, forms, and methods of foreign language teaching practice in Maltese schools with the aim of determining the direction of the national education system improving.
References
- Amy S. Choi. What the best education systems are doing right. – Accessed: http://ideas.ted.com/what-the-best-education-systems-are-doing-right/
- Background and Basics. What makes PISA unique? – Accessed: http://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisafaq/
- MBC Times. 20 Best Education Systems in the World. – Accessed: http://www.mbctimes.com/english/20-best-education-systems-world
- Primary education – basic schooling begins when you’re seven. – Accessed: http://www.studyinfinland.fi/destination_finland/education_system/primary_education
- Sahlberg Pasi. Finnish lessons: what can the world learn from educational change in Finland / Pasi Sahlberg. – Teachers College Press, New York, 2014. – 204 p.
- Sinelnyk I. P. Prospective Primary School Teachers’ Education for Communicative Tolerance / I. P. Sinelnyk // Іншомовна освіта педагога: виклики, проблеми, перспективи: матер. Міжнар. наук.-практ. конф., 5 листоп. 2015 р./ М-во освіти і науки України, Київ. ун-т ім. Б.Грінченка, Британська Рада в Україні, Гете Інститут в Україні, Авторизований центр міжнародних екзаменів “Grade Education Centre”. – К.: Київ. ун-т ім. Б. Грінченка, 2015. – 260 с. – С. 104-109.