New bilingualism in the bilingual Finnish context

Abstract

Despite of constituting only 5.8% of the Finnish population, the Finland-Swedes form a national group in Finland for historical reasons. Unlike most other minorities in Europe, the Finland-Swedes can be defined neither by a common origin – because parts of their ancestors came as immigrants from different European countries during the 19th century – nor by territory (they do not dispose of a specific territory). According to Finnish legislation, Finland is a bilingual nation with two national languages, and the question of language is a matter of personal choice. There are parallel educational institutions in both Finnish and Swedish and both languages are compulsory subjects at school. Presently, the situation of the Swedish language in Finland seems to be good and there is no lack of pupils in Swedish schools. Nevertheless, the question of language use or of (linguistic) identity is a complex one – especially in respect of pupils with a mixed linguistic background. A study conducted on that subject, including pupils from Finnish as well as from Swedish schools, led to interesting results, particularly with regard to a special kind of bilingualism at Swedish schools. The study also reveals that school language is of utmost importance with regard to the forming of language identity and the use of language.