A3 Refereed book chapter or chapter in a compilation book
"You have to choose your words wisely" Finnish pre.service teachers´ understandings of, and support of, multilingual students´academic language development
Authors: Alisaari, Jenni; Heikkola, Leena Maria; Harju-Autti, Raisa
Editors: Warren, Anne Reath; Iversen, Jonas Yassin; Straszer, Bóglarka
Publication year: 2025
Book title : Teacher Education for Working in Linguistically Diverse Classrooms: Nordic Perspectives
Series title: Current Issues in Bilingualism
ISBN: 978-3-98554-136-2
eISBN: 978-3-96110-507-6
ISSN: 2747-9919
eISSN: 2747-9927
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15147416
Web address : https://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/482
The aim of this study was to examine Finnish pre-service primary school teachers’
(𝑛 = 92) understandings of academic language development and self-reported
preparedness to support language learning when teaching multilingual students
(MLSs) in Finnish primary schools. Data were gathered with a survey and analysed
qualitatively and quantitatively. Results indicated that the pre-service teachers had
a reasonable understanding of language learning and reported skills to support academic
language development, but there were gaps in awareness of how to provide
concrete linguistic support for MLSs. Moreover, there were considerable gaps in
the pre-service teachers’ grammar knowledge and one-third of them did not see
a connection between language and mathematical problem-solving skills. The results
indicate that the pre-service teachers’ awareness of linguistically responsive
teaching is still developing. Providing pre-service teachers with research-based and
practice-oriented instruction for supporting academic language development in all
subjects is needed.
