The Proficiency in Swedish of Finnish Speaking University Students : Status and Directions for the Future
Palviainen, Å. (2010). The Proficiency in Swedish of Finnish-speaking University Students: Status and Directions for the Future(2010). XX. Apples – Journal of Applied Language Studies, Volume 4 (1), pp. 3-23. Retrieved from http://apples.jyu.fi
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Apples - Journal of Applied Language StudiesAuthors
Date
2010All Finnish-speaking students in Finland are obliged to study Swedish at lower and upper
secondary school. At university, students taking a degree must obtain a Civil Service
Language Proficiency (CSLP) Certificate in Swedish, for which spoken and written
proficiency corresponding to at least level B1 on the Council of Europe’s Common
European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) must be demonstrated, along
with the proficiency necessary for the professional field in question. This article aims to
empirically examine the extent to which university students demonstrate the requested
level of written proficiency when entering university, and to discuss potential actions to
meet the challenges of the current situation. A total of 490 university students participated
in the study, representing seven faculties at a Finnish-speaking university. Those 490
students wrote an essay in Swedish when beginning a course leading to obtaining a CSLP
Certificate; three independent raters evaluated all the essays according to the CEFR scale.
The results show that 52.9 % of the essays were marked below B1. This article concludes by
discussing the need for increased consistency in assessment procedures at all educational
stages. Possible actions for improving general level of skills at lower and upper secondary
schools are suggested, as is a reconsideration of the need for everyone to obtain the CSLP
Certificate as part of university study.
...


Publisher
Centre for Applied Language Studies at the University of JyväskyläISSN Search the Publication Forum
1457-9863
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http://apples.jyu.fiMetadata
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