Employers

Language mentor

A language mentor is an employee responsible for linguistic matters. Colleagues may contact the language mentor with questions relating to language learning and use.
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Content:

Operating model for facilitating language issues in the work community.
For whom:

A Language mentor should be an employee who is interested in language and has advanced skills in the language. Language-learning employees and the entire work community also participate in the activities.
Time:

Training (e.g. 1 day), working time reserved for facilitation.
Current situation:

The working language is Finnish or Swedish, and the work community includes several employees whose language skills are limited.
Benefit:

Language mentor model supports language learning and increases language awareness in the work community.

A language mentor is the resident language coordinator of the work community tasked with raising awareness of language issues in the work community

Appointing a language mentor is a concrete way to improve opportunities for participation and finding chances for language learning in the everyday life of the workplace. The Language mentor encourages and guides the entire work community in receiving and orientating new employees.   

In the everyday life at the workplace, the Language mentor: 

  1. Supports the work community in language-aware working. 
  2. Develops language support at the workplace with the support of management. 
  3. Improves well-being and general atmosphere at work. 
  4. Promotes language-aware work practices. 
  5. Designs operating models and instructions. 
  6. Provides language support during discussion and oral situations. 
  7. Provides language support in reporting and other written tasks. 
  8. Raises awareness of linguistic issues, language used in the work community, and communication practices. 
  9. Familiarises new employees and interns with the language strategy. 

Language mentor training

The Language mentor model has been developed especially in Sweden in working with the elderly. The Språkombud language mentor training has been adopted in Sweden. 

In Finland, Language mentor training is organised by Taitotalo (2024).

©2024 Johanna Komppa, Eveliina Korpela, Lari Kotilainen, Salla Kurhila and Inkeri Lehtimaja

Language mentor, august 2024, produced by Johanna Komppa, Eveliina Korpela, Lari Kotilainen, Salla Kurhila and Inkeri Lehtimaja, is licensed under a CC-BY Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The material can be found at kielibuusti.fi. Photos: All rights reserved. 

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