Akateemisen saksan kielen rooli suomalaisopiskelijoiden näkökulmasta

Abstract

In most academic disciplines nowadays, German plays only a minor role in academic publishing. On the other hand, academic mobility has increased and Germany is the most popular target country for Finnish students. For any successful academic exchange with German-speaking countries, a sound competence in German is a major advantage. To explore students’ opinions about multilingualism and the role of German, an online-survey amongst 20400 students, with 3516 respondents (17,3 %), was conducted in 2008. The main emphasis was on language skills needed for studying in Finland and German-speaking countries, on possible culture-bound practices and on students’ self-evaluation of oral skills in German. The results show that German is still the second most important foreign language in Finland although it plays only a minor role at Finnish universities. In addition, oral skills are more emphasised at universities in German-speaking countries, which indicates a clear need for oral German language training.