Newsletter 12/2024
Greetings from Kielibuusti!
(you can read this newsletter in Finnish or Swedish by changing the language at the top of the page)
We are now well into the autumn semester and it is time for the newsletter. In the usual way, our three newsletters tailored for Kielibuusti’s different target groups and networks offer a taste of what’s been happening and what is coming up.
News and events on Kielibuusti:
The Kielibuusti project will end in its current form at the end of 2024. However, the development cooperation and the maintenance of the Kielibuusti.fi website will continue at the University of Helsinki and Aalto University as part of the targets supported by strategic funding from the Ministry of Education and Culture (Ministry announcement). Negotiations on the details of the future work are still ongoing within and between universities.
In the coming years, Kielibuusti will invite all Finnish higher education institutions and other partners to use the materials available on the Kielibuusti.fi website. Kielibuusti will continue to serve as a place to share useful materials and interesting language learning solutions, so if you are interested in collaboration or would like to suggest materials to be published on the site, please contact kielibuusti-info@helsinki.fi or kielibuusti-info@aalto.fi. We wish to express our warmest thanks to all our project partners!
While the project is approaching its end, Kielibuusti members have been active both as event organisers and visitors. In the autumn, we held two webinars for higher education institutions: In the first one, held on 9 October, we learned about a new grant based on learning Finnish in the bachelor’s and master’s programmes offered in English at the University of Eastern Finland (UEF) (Outi Väyrynen) and about the 'Towards University – preparatory education for immigrants' project of the University of Lapland and University of Oulu (Pauliina Keskinarkaus, Sinikka Vuonokari-Kämäräinen, Elina Palola and Liisa Väisänen). Approximately 120 participants registered for the event. In second webinar, held on 19 November, we were presented with the internship model of Metropolia University of Applied Sciences (Hanna Aho), in which students are able to access language-supported placement at their own university. Both webinars and the small group discussions they included also focused on the continuation of Kielibuusti in terms of sharing the network and best practices and maintaining the Kielibuusti website. Approximately 80 people registered.
Although the Kielibuusti project as such is ending, our aim is to maintain the Kielibuusti higher education network even after the project. Through the network, teachers in higher education institutions can continue to share information on measures taken, best practices and ideas at higher education institutions that follow the Kielibuusti themes. Moving forward, we will ask higher education institutions to appoint deputies for the Kielibuusti contact persons to ensure the flow of information. The higher education institutions will also be instructed to continue the series of webinars launched in the Kielibuusti project and to share best practices and materials also on Kielibuusti.fi. We will communicate more about this at a later date.
The closing event of the Kielibuusti project, Tackling the talent shortage with Finnish and Swedish skills, was organised on 5 November 2024. Success stories from the project were presented at the event. We also heard interesting speeches on the importance of language proficiency at work. We had a full house on-site at the Aalto University campus, and nearly 300 viewers watched the event on a live stream. In her trilingual speech, Suzanne Innes-Stubb, Executive in Residence at Aalto University and Spouse of the President of the Republic of Finland, described her own language learning journey. Her speech highlighted how Finnish and/or Swedish language skills can open up opportunities in both your professional and personal life She also encouraged practising a new language in everyday situations. The speech was also published on the kielibuusti.fi website.
In the Learning Finnish through Physical Exercise and Playing Games webinar aimed especially at Finnish teachers, on 6 November, we learned about three projects in which Finnish is learned outside the classroom. The topics Game Club for Finnish learners, Exercise in Finnish and Language Walks attracted around 50 listeners. The previously held Reading Circle webinar and the related blog article led to a request to hold a webinar for Finnish teachers in Northern Finland on 28 November regarding the use of literature in teaching Finnish as a second language (40 participants) and a presentation/article request for the 2025 Swedish as a Second Language Seminar for teachers in Stockholm.
Kielibuusti members have also spoken about the project and its outputs at various conferences. On 7–9 November, Kielibuusti instructors presented the portal and discussed the future of Finnish and Swedish language teachers and researchers at the autumn symposium of the Finnish Association for Applied Linguistics (AFinLa) in Turku. On 11–13 November, the Kielibuusti Swedish team visited the International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation (ICERI) in Sevilla for a poster presentation on the new open online materials, Sidu! Det svenska i Finland, which describe the Swedish-speaking and bilingual municipalities, the Swedish-speaking culture and the experiences of international experts who have learned Swedish in Finland.
Kielibuusti has been represented at many events, such as the Rekrytori for Internationals recruitment event at Cable Factory, Helsinki, on 25 September, and the Build Your Network, Build Your Career event at Helsinki City Hall on 7 November. On 14–15 November, the Integration event was organised in Turku for persons working in the field of immigration, integration and reception, where Kielibuusti and its website were presented to various user groups. Other events in which Kielibuusti has been involved include Talent Boost Network Day on 9 October and Talent Boost Summit on 12 November and the New Dimensions in Construction trade fair on 28 November.
On 27 November, Sanni Heinzmann and Inkeri Lehtimaja held a Master Class on Language Solutions for Companies Seeking to Internationalise produced by Aalto EE. You can order the lecture as an on-demand recording. Kielibuusti members also spoke in the webinars of VIERKO and KOHTAUTUS projects on 29 October and 28 November.
The cooperation between Kielibuusti, the City of Espoo and OP Uusimaa Bank in language-supported recruitment progressed to the point that, at the beginning of November, four multilingual customer advisors had been recruited as a part of the cooperation pilot. Experiences of the recruitment process have been excellent, and the recruitment model can hopefully continue in OP Uusimaa and other organisations.
We also have news from the publication front. A study on the language workshop model developed in the Kielibuusti project has been published in the Language and Health journal: Work community support in professional language learning among culturally and linguistically diverse nurses: Implementation of action research in a hospital setting (Komppa, J., Eronen, K., Korpela, E.). The model was also featured in the previously advertised article in the Kieli, koulutus ja yhteiskuntajournal, Kielikahvila työajalla, perehdytysyksikön kautta osaksi työyhteisöä vai talon oma kielenopettaja? Kolme ratkaisua kielenoppimisen tukemiseen työssä [Language café during working hours, integrating into a work community through an orientation unit, or an in-house language teacher? Three solutions for supporting language learning at work.] (Komppa, J., Backlund, A., Lätti, K., Raappana, H. & Rannikko, E.)
The Assess Your Language Proficiency tool in the Kielibuusti portal was presented in an article in the Kieli, koulutus ja yhteiskunta web journal, Uusi työkalu suomen ja ruotsin taitojen itsearviointiin [A new self-evaluation tool for Finnish and Swedish skills] (Feher, Z. & Udd, T.)
Monikielisen työyhteisön opas [Multilingual Work Community Guide] (2023), written as a part of Kielibuusti, has been nominated for the Business Book of the Year award of the Finnish Association of Business School Graduates. Visit the association's website to vote for the cause of multilingual work communities.
Useful content provided by Kielibuusti:
The Kielibuusti.fi website contains plenty of new content, and more is being added constantly. Those working with language learners in higher education institutions are likely to be interested in the tips for informal language learning on the page Practising Finnish and getting to know new people in a language café,, which provides instructions for higher education institutions and other organisations on organising language cafés and what to do as a language café instructor. The Finnish language learning related to substance teaching is reflected on the page:Highligthing Finnish in programmes held in English tips and tricks and in the 'How others have succeeded' section: Aalto University's weaving workshop involves weaving languages together.
The new tools introduced to the learners’ pages include Plan your Finnish learning, which helps you reflect on your own language learning methods and resources in relation to your goals. The tool also suggests new ways for learners to advance their own learning. We are also happy to announce that the online course search is now open.
In addition, the Kielibuusti.fi learners’ pages now have a completely new section for the learning materials developed in Kielibuusti, which will receive a lot of new content in December. These include the Academic Phrase Bank, the Discussions in Finnish video series and the MOOC course on grammar for advanced Finnish learners. Some of these materials have already been published, but they will be updated further. The MOOC course will still be modified before you can receive academic credit for it.
Finnish learners at B2 or C level may wish to hear more about the Kielisepät ('Language Smiths') learning community. The members of the community create learning resources for each other and move towards their goals together.
Other new content that is particularly suitable for advanced learners and those teaching them include the Literature Classics and Cultural History (tips and links) and the new episode of the Literature Podcasts for Finnish Learners series, The 19th Century and The Birth of National Identity.Another resource aimed at advanced learners of Finnish is ConLexis, an online dictionary with Finnish word articles. You can use the dictionary independently or under your teacher's guidance. It is particularly suitable for supporting the learning of writing and vocabulary. The content of the dictionary was expanded and its appearance was updated during the Kielibuusti project. We would be happy to receive feedback on the dictionary at kielibuusti-info@helsinki.fi.
In early 2025, the Boost your Finnish pronunciation video series will be published. The University of Helsinki’s 5-credit MOOC course will also become available for testing: Social Studies at Level A2–B1. The course will not open officially until autumn 2025, but you can start using and testing the course materials in the spring.
The Kielibuusti.fi teachers’ pages have also been updated. One of the most popular resources for Finnish teachers has been the teaching material bank. It has been developed so that uploading learning materials in material bank is now more straightforward and adding a copyright licence to the materials is easier, among other improvements.
The teachers’ pages will continue to receive new content, such as a new video series Information on the Background of Finnish in December 2024. Podcast episodes on the prosody of Finnish will be added to the Teaching Pronunciation page. The pages Teaching Experiments and Evaluation Assistance for Finnish Teachers will also be updated further. In the Teaching Experiments section, teachers from different parts of Finland can continue to suggest new texts to be added. You can send your suggestions to kielibuusti-info@helsinki.fi.
Materials for all language learners and those working with them will be updated in Finnish and Swedish on the Phrases for the Break Room page, which will also be supplemented by discussion cards produced by Finnish teachers in Oulu and updated by Kielibuusti members.
Updates have also been made on the pages for Swedish learners and teachers, and new content is constantly being added. You can read more about them in the Swedish version of this newsletter.
You should also tell students about Kielibuusti’s Instagram and Facebook pages, where we will add new content at least in January.
Thank you for joining us on the Kielibuusti journey!
Happy holidays!
Best regards,
Kielibuusti team
News and events on Kielibuusti:
The Kielibuusti project will end in its current form at the end of 2024. However, the development cooperation and the maintenance of the Kielibuusti.fi website will continue at the University of Helsinki and Aalto University as part of the targets supported by strategic funding from the Ministry of Education and Culture (Ministry announcement). Negotiations on the details of the future work are still ongoing within and between universities.
In the coming years, Kielibuusti will invite all Finnish higher education institutions and other partners to use the materials available on the Kielibuusti.fi website. Kielibuusti will continue to serve as a place to share useful materials and interesting language learning solutions, so if you are interested in collaboration or would like to suggest materials to be published on the site, please contact kielibuusti-info@helsinki.fi or kielibuusti-info@aalto.fi. We wish to express our warmest thanks to all our project partners!
While the project is approaching its end, Kielibuusti members have been active both as event organisers and visitors. In the autumn, we held two webinars for higher education institutions: In the first one, held on 9 October, we learned about a new grant based on learning Finnish in the bachelor’s and master’s programmes offered in English at the University of Eastern Finland (UEF) (Outi Väyrynen) and about the 'Towards University – preparatory education for immigrants' project of the University of Lapland and University of Oulu (Pauliina Keskinarkaus, Sinikka Vuonokari-Kämäräinen, Elina Palola and Liisa Väisänen). Approximately 120 participants registered for the event. In second webinar, held on 19 November, we were presented with the internship model of Metropolia University of Applied Sciences (Hanna Aho), in which students are able to access language-supported placement at their own university. Approximately 80 people registered. Both webinars and the small group discussions they included also focused on the continuation of Kielibuusti in terms of sharing the network and best practices and maintaining the Kielibuusti website.
Although the Kielibuusti project as such is ending, our aim is to maintain the Kielibuusti higher education network even after the project. Through the network, teachers in higher education institutions can continue to share information on measures taken, best practices and ideas at higher education institutions that follow the Kielibuusti themes.
The closing event of the Kielibuusti project, Tackling the talent shortage with Finnish and Swedish skills, was organised on 5 November 2024. Success stories from the project were presented at the event. We also heard interesting speeches on the importance of language proficiency at work. We had a full house on-site at the Aalto University campus, and nearly 300 viewers watched the event on a live stream. In her trilingual speech, Suzanne Innes-Stubb, Executive in Residence at Aalto University and Spouse of the President of the Republic of Finland, described her own language learning journey. Her speech highlighted how Finnish and/or Swedish language skills can open up opportunities in both your professional and personal life She also encouraged practising a new language in everyday situations. The speech was also published on the kielibuusti.fi website.
Kielibuusti has been represented at many events, such as the Build Your Network, Build Your Career event held at Helsinki City Hall on 7 November. The Kielibuusti stand was busy, and the Kielibuusti.fi website saw many new and enthusiastic users. The Rekrytori for Internationals event at Cable Factory, Helsinki on 25 September also included Kielibuusti. Many attendees needed support for studying Finnish from the basic level to the advanced level. Many had not heard of the portal before. On 14–15 November, the Integration event was organised in Turku for persons working in the field of immigration, integration and reception, where Kielibuusti and its website were presented to various user groups. Other events in which Kielibuusti has been involved include Talent Boost Network Day on 9 October and Talent Boost Summit on 12 November and the New Dimensions in Construction trade fair on 28 November.
Kielibuusti members have also spoken about the project and its outputs at various conferences. On 7–9 November, Kielibuusti instructors presented the portal and discussed the future of the project with Finnish and Swedish teachers and researchers at the autumn symposium of the Finnish Association for Applied Linguistics (AFinLa) in Turku. Meanwhile, the Kielibuustin Swedish team visited the International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation (ICERI) in Sevilla on 11–13 November to hold a poster presentation on the new open online materials,Sidu! Det svenska i Finland, which describe the Swedish-speaking and bilingual municipalities, the Swedish-speaking culture and the experiences of international experts who have learned Swedish in Finland.
On 27 November, Sanni Heinzmann and Inkeri Lehtimaja held a Master Class on Language Solutions for Companies Seeking to Internationalise produced by Aalto EE. You can order the lecture as an on-demand recording. Kielibuusti members also spoke in the webinars of VIERKO and KOHTAUTUS projects on 29 October and 28 November.
The cooperation between Kielibuusti, the City of Espoo and OP Uusimaa Bank in language-supported recruitment progressed to the point that, at the beginning of November, four multilingual customer advisors had been recruited as a part of the language-supported recruitment pilot in collaboration with Kielibuusti, Omnia University of Applied Sciences and Espoo. The recruitment process included defining a sufficient level of language proficiency for the job, language support in job interviews and workshops for both the work community and the new employees using Finnish as a second language Experiences of the recruitment process have been excellent, and the recruitment model can hopefully continue in OP Uusimaa and other organisations.
Kielibuusti has also organised events specifically aimed at teachers, such as the Learning Finnish through Physical Exercise and Playing Games webinar on 6 November and the Use of Literature Teaching in Finnish as a Second Language webinar for Finnish teachers in Northern Finland on 28 November.
We also have news from the publication front. A study on the language workshop model developed in the Kielibuusti project has been published in the Language and Health journal: Work community support in professional language learning among culturally and linguistically diverse nurses: Implementation of action research in a hospital setting (Komppa, J., Eronen, K., Korpela, E. 2024). The model was also featured in the previously advertised article in the Kieli, koulutus ja yhteiskunta journal, Kielikahvila työajalla, perehdytysyksikön kautta osaksi työyhteisöä vai talon oma kielenopettaja? Kolme ratkaisua kielenoppimisen tukemiseen työssä [Language café during working hours, integrating into a work community through an orientation unit, or an in-house language teacher? Three solutions for supporting language learning at work.] (Komppa, J., Backlund, A., Lätti, K., Raappana, H. & Rannikko, E. 2023)
The Assess Your Language Proficiency tool in the Kielibuusti portal was presented in an article in the Kieli, koulutus ja yhteiskunta web journal, Uusi työkalu suomen ja ruotsin taitojen itsearviointiin [A new self-evaluation tool for Finnish and Swedish skills] (Feher, Z. & Udd, T.)
Monikielisen työyhteisön opas [Multilingual Work Community Guide] (2023), written as a part of Kielibuusti, has been nominated for the Business Book of the Year award of the Finnish Association of Business School Graduates. Visit the association's website to vote for the cause of multilingual work communities.
Useful content provided by Kielibuusti:
As stated in the previous newsletter, the employers' section of the Kielibuusti.fi website has been thoroughly updated in 2024 in terms of its structure, usability and appearance. In a user survey carried out in November 2024, this can be seen as a significant increase in satisfaction with the findability of content and the usability of the website compared to a survey carried out a year earlier. Kielibuusti.fi has also expanded enormously, by almost double, between the two user surveys. This is reflected in the user survey as a significant increase in satisfaction with the content and its usefulness. The ability to find the content now scores as high as 8.7, and its usefulness scores 9.2.
The Kielibuusti.fi website is being constantly updated. The employers’ section now contains, for example, an article on the experiences of parallel use of English and Finnish at workplace, which can inspire any work community. Material for all language learners and those who work with them will be updated both in Finnish and in Swedish on the Phrases for the Break Room page.
The new tools introduced to the learners’ pages include Plan your Finnish learning, which helps you reflect on your own language learning methods and resources in relation to your goals. The tool also suggests new ways for learners to advance their own learning. We are also happy to announce that the online course search is now open.
In addition, the Kielibuusti.fi learners’ pages now have a completely new section for the learning materials developed in Kielibuusti, which will receive a lot of new content in December. One of these is the Academic Phrase Bank, which is worth suggesting to language learners. Another resource aimed at advanced learners of Finnish is ConLexis, an online dictionary with Finnish word articles. You can use the dictionary independently or under your teacher's guidance. It is particularly suitable for supporting the learning of writing and vocabulary. The content of the dictionary was expanded and its appearance was updated during the Kielibuusti project. We would be happy to receive feedback on the dictionary at kielibuusti-info@helsinki.fi.
We can also recommend the Kielisepät ('Language Smiths') learning community for advanced learners of Finnish at level B2 and C. The members of the community create learning resources for each other and move towards their goals together. You should also tell learners about Kielibuusti’s Instagram and Facebook pages, where we will add new content at least in January.
Thank you for joining us on the Kielibuusti journey!
Happy holidays!