TERESA JARAMILLO BENÉITEZ

With just over 5 million people, Finland is one of Europe's richest and most successful nations.

One of the secrets of Finland's success is a high level of public investment in education and training. Finland's education system is one of the best in the world.

The population of Finland is 5.4 million.

Population density is low, only 15.7 people per square kilometer.

Most of the population is concentrated in the south, especially in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area, which is a home to 1.3 million people.

Finnish is spoken by 90 % and Swedish by 6 %.

A minority indigenous language called Sami which has official status in the Lapland regions of Northern Finland.

The 4.2 % of the population speak a language other than Finnish, Swedish or Sámi as a mother tongue.

Preparatory instruction.

half a year to two years.

An individual learning plan is formulated for each pupil.

According to the Finnish constitution, an individual has the right to use his or her own national language, Finnish or Swedish, before the authorities.

The Language Act concerns the constitutionally determined national languages: Finnish and Swedish.

Finnish citizenship

Sámi has legal status. The Sami Language Act

providing for the right to use Sami as an official language in the Sami homeland area.

The Constitution gives a special position also to the Roma people and to the users of sign language.

Since 1991 the municipalities, schools and teachers can use a foreign language to teach any subject as in CLIL

In the newly (1999) re-codified Finnish Constitution were guaranteed the rights of the Swedish-speaking population by a special Language Act, which, together with some special laws, provides for equality in the official use of the native language and access to education and public careers.

1 year of voluntary pre-primary education

9 years of primary education (comprehensive school) Compulsory

Upper secondary education, comprising general education and vocational education and training.

Higher education, provided by universities and polytechnics.

One distinctive characteristic of the Finnish comprehensive school is the number of languages studied.

All pupils study two languages beside their mother tongue, and also have the option of one elective.

Compulsory/optional language Starts at the latest Most popular language

A1 compulsory 3rd grade English

A2 Optional 5th grade German

B1 compulsory 7th grade Swedish

B2 optional 8th grade German

The main objectives of the programme are:

Improve the level of foreign-language students.

Promote the confidence of the students getting motivate them and encourage them to study more to be able to handle another language.

Provide a challenge to teachers wishing to teach in another language for any reason.

Facilitate educational institutions to receive foreign students, to promote the exchange of students and teachers and to respond to the current internationalization of the education.

The number of Finnish schools that implement bilingual education has remained quite stable (4-8%).

The majority of the Finnish schools provide teaching in English and Finnish, and their common goal is for the students to learn English not only during their foreign language classes but also during classes where content is taught through the medium of English.

CLIL education is voluntary in Finland.

Is offer in comprehensive school. (9- 16 years)

Different Finnish schools offer CLIL education at least in Swedish, English, German, Russian, French, and Spanish.

CLIL in Finland involves a number of vehicular languages.

The most common subjects taught in English in comprehensive schools (and upper secondary schools are:

Environmental science, mathematics, visual arts, geography, biology, music,

physical education, religion, chemistry, crafts, physics.

In CLIL teaching, the key issue is to have competent language skills for the teaching context.

self-confidence. Native English speakers are not

automatically better CLIL teachers. Level 5 general language test

"Language proficiency".

Immersion is unique among bilingual education methods as it is traditionally a foreign or second language learning method for speakers of the majority language.

The age at which the students begin the immersion

Age groups : Early immersion (begins during early

childhood) Middle/delayed immersion (begins ages

8 to 10) Late immersion (begins during teenage

years).

The amount of teaching conducted through the second language

Beyond these differences according to the age of students and the amount of L2 instruction.

CATEGORIES: Heritage language immersion double-immersion dual immersion

Performance in reading literacy is still high in Finland by international standards. Finland’s average score came in 6 place among all participating countries.

Finland’s proficiency in scientific literacy, Finland ranked in 5 place among all participating countries.

Finland’s national average in mathematical literacy has fallen by 25 points since the PISA 2003 assessment.

Finland has a complex education system. Two compulsory languages during their

school years, and many have studied more than two.

Immigrant pupils are integrated into Finnish or Swedish classes in order to make them feel part of the school community

Teacher’s curriculum flexibility. They are free to choose their concrete methods.

High network of CLIL schools