Towards language-aware pedagogy? experiences of students in multilingual Finnish schools

Abstract

Curricular reform requires Finnish schools to be language aware and promote instruction that builds on students’ linguistic resources. However, knowledge about students’ experiences related thereto remains scarce. To create understanding about linguistic integration in increasingly multilingual schools, this study quantitatively explores the relationship between lower secondary school students’ (aged 13–16, N = 409) experiences and their linguistic backgrounds from three perspectives: (i) pedagogical practices, (ii) first language(s), and (iii) participating in academic-language situations. Theoretically, the study follows a sociocultural understanding of operationalising scaffolding within a learner’s zone of proximal development, valuing multilingualism as a resource, and identifying the demands of academic language. The data were collected at two multilingual schools via a survey. The findings reveal questions about the implementation of the language-aware curriculum requirement in schools. The experiences of students with diverse linguistic backgrounds differ, and thus, multilingual schools should pay specific attention to translating language awareness into pedagogical practices. The results further suggest that if activating learners via co-constructing, negotiating, and reformulating knowledge is helpful for emergent learners of Finnish, finding novel strategies to transform language and pedagogical understandings for sociocultural applications could help students overcome linguistic boundaries.