Does vocationally oriented foreign language teaching meet the needs of Finnish and German vocational school students?

Abstract

This article is based on upper secondary vocational school students’ interviews made in Finland and in Germany in 2016 and in 2017. The study results suggest that in both countries, English language skills are seen as the most important foreign language skills and the students would like to have more vocationally oriented English language classes with focus on authentic spoken language communication. The differences in the educational systems of the two countries might result in differences in students‘ perceptions of whether and to what extent they will actually need foreign languages in their future working life.