‘Broken Finnish’ : Speaker L1 and its recognition affecting rating in National Certificates of Language Proficiency test in Finnish

Abstract

As many European countries have language proficiency requirements for obtaining citizenship, language testing is a possible source of social inequality. The ‘Broken Finnish’ project has been set up to ensure test fairness by addressing the proficiency rating in the National Certificates of Language Proficiency (NCLP) test for Finnish in Finland, with a special focus on perceptions of pronunciation and ‘accent’ in relation to the examinee’s L1 and how the raters recognise them. We explore if and how these perceptions affect the proficiency ratings. We are also interested in studying where the perceptions might arise from. In this paper, we present results from one L1 group: Thai speakers