Newsletter 02/2024

The Kielibuusti newsletters – each one tailored to a different target group – feature selected details of past and upcoming events, publications and other things that connect with Kielibuusti's core themes. The newsletter is sent out four times a year.

Greetings from Kielibuusti!

(you can read this newsletter in Finnish here and in Swedish here)

We are now well into the spring semester – and this final year of the Kielibuusti project. It is therefore time for the first newsletter of 2024. 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.

Recent news from Kielibuusti: 

One event that has already taken place this year was a webinar for teachers entitled Supporting Finnish language learning with reading groups The webinar has held on 5 February and drew around forty participants, who mostly worked in higher education institutions. It presented information on and experiences of three different types of reading groups aimed at supporting Finnish language learning.  

Things are also happening on the language learning application front, where the CaptainA Finnish pronunciation app continues to develop. At the end of 2023, the vocabulary from chapters 6–9 of the book ‘Oma Suomi 1’ were added to CaptainA, supplementing the vocabulary from chapters 1–5 already contained in the app. 

There is also good news to share about teaching of Swedish as a second language (R2): The R2 courses offered by the Open University have been so popular that Aalto Open University will run an extra Swedish 1 and Swedish 2 course in the late spring terms and the University of Helsinki’s Open University will offer Swedish 4.

The user and usability survey conducted in late 2023 investigated the opinions and experiences of the different user groups of the kielibuusti.fi website on the usefulness and usability of the site. This valuable information is now being used to further develop the site. You can read about it in the Kieliverkosto article Kielibuusti.fi website offers models and tools for language learning and language learning support among higher-educated international professionals – user and usability survey guides further development (Jepa Viinanen).

There are also new publications on Kielibuusti’s own website, such as the blog post Kielibuusti language tips for boosting learners’ agency (Emese Jäppinen), which shows how Kielibuusti’s weekly language tips published on Instagram can be utilised in language teaching. The article Interaction is the key to developing professional language skills (Hanna Airaksinen), meanwhile, discusses the results of the Quickly into Work project, which developed both an internship model that includes language support as well as a student tool that help students set and monitor language goals for their internships.

Please note that a summary of Kielibuusti’s publications can be found by selecting ‘Kielibuusti project’ at the bottom of the main page and then selecting ‘Publications’.

Coming up next in Kielibuusti: 

During the spring, Kielibuusti will be running two higher education-focused webinars. The first of these, due to be held on Wed 13 March from 14.00 to 16.00, will present Examples of actions taken by higher education institutions to promote the language skills of international students and improve their employability. Through a range of presentations, the topic will be explored from multiple angles. Jyrki Rajala (Centria) will talk about the coaching model for ICT experts developed in the Export Expert project, which includes career planning, integration into working life and language skills development. Hanna Aho (Metropolia) will talk about the Tokasa project’s bilingual and action-based nurse training program. The topic of promoting language learning among university students, meanwhile, will be tackled by Inkeri Lehtimaja (Aalto University). The webinar will also give participants the opportunity to share their own thoughts and experiences on the topic. More information will be provided by the universities’ contact persons, but registration is already open.

There will be another higher education-focused webinar later in the spring on Tues 14 May from 13.00 to 15.00. This webinar will tackle The role of higher education institutions’ language strategy work in promoting language learning for international students and staff. Presenting on this topic will be, among others, Eveliina Korpela (Metropolia) and Inkeri Lehtimaja (Aalto). More information on this will also be sent to universities via their contact persons closer to the date.

The training day Finnish in Nursing 2 will be held at Laurea's Tikkurila campus on Thursday 18 April from 10.00 to 15.30. The target groups for this training are international nurses from all over Finland, Finnish language teachers, nursing teachers, and employer representatives. The training day will include workshop activities and sharing of ideas. The topics of the day include implementation of bilingual nurse training, models and ideas for Finnish language teaching in nursing, and enabling Finnish language learning in the workplace. More information about the programme – together with the registration link – will be published on the Kielibuusti website in the coming weeks. If you are interested in participating, make sure to put the event on your calendar straight away! For more information, please contact Kristiina Kuparinen (kristiina.kuparinen@laurea.fi). 

On 9 April at the University of Helsinki, there will be meeting aimed particularly at those teaching Finnish language courses to staff members of higher education institutions. Topics will include cooperation in organisingFinnish language trainingfor university staff and, in particular, the need for and interest in organising online joint courses for advanced learners after the end of the Kielibuusti project.  (Currently being run for the second time is Kielibuusti’ country-wide writing course for advanced learners. There have also been two country-wide courses which focused on speaking skills.) Teachers involved in Finnish language training for university staff can register for the event using this form.

During the spring, Kielibuusti will be running two webinars for international professionals, both of which focus on the importance of language skills in Finnish working life and provide information about the language learning support available at kielibuusti.fi. Both webinars are free of charge, and you are welcome to spread the word among your students.

TE-live: Working in Finland – why and how to learn Finnish? 27 February at 13.00 (further information in English on the event website) 
Boost your career with Finnish/Swedish skills! Kielibuusti services for international professionals 10 April 2024 at 14.00 (further information and registration in English) on the event website)

During the spring, Kielibuusti will also being running webinars for teachers. The webinar Exciting AI – Experiences of using AI tools in language teaching will be held on 5 March from 15.00 to 16.00. In the webinar, language teachers will share about the ways in which they have made use of AI tools. Among others, Réka Aarnos and Camilla Kåla will offer a teacher's perspective and Kamilla Yamileva will share her experiences as a student. There will also be time for open discussion in which participants can share their own experiences and tips. Further information and registration on the event website. You can also register for the event directly with this form 

Remember that Kielibuusti is also active on social media, so remember to follow us on Twitter and Linkedin. It is worth tipping off language learners about both the kielibuusti.fi website and the Kielibuusti Instagram account, where language tips are posted.

Good content for teaching and for recommending to students:

For learners of Finnish and Swedish, a language self-assessment test has been published on the Kielibuusti online portal. The test can be taken in Finnish, Swedish or English. In the self-assessment test, the language learner assesses what they feel able to do in Finnish/Swedish in different language situations. At the end, the learner receives an assessment, based on their own answers, of their CEFR level of proficiency in the four areas of language proficiency (listening/reading/speaking/writing). Click here for the Finnish self-assessment test. / Click here for the Swedish self-assessment test.    

 The language tips published on Instagram are now available for learners of both Finnish and Swedish. So remember to tip off your students about the language tips (kielivinkit/språktips) Kielibuusti Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/kielibuusti/! 

The ‘Phrases and tips for the multilingual coffee room’ material has now been published on the website.

Break room discussions strengthen the sense of community in the workplace, and they can also boost Finnish language learning. The Kielibuusti project has produced a booklet of phrases and tips for the multilingual coffee room. It encourages those learning Finnish to have conversations in Finnish, and gives native speakers tips on how to support others’ learning of Finnish. Many language learners would like to have more opportunities to practise the language and to be able to participate in everyday life with their still-developing language skills. Break room conversations are a great opportunity to use the language in everyday life!  

  For those learning Finnish, the coffee room booklet presents, in both Finnish and English, 15 tips for everyday life and work. Each tip is accompanied by useful colloquial phrases, which you can also listen to and watch on YouTube. Check out the material Phrases for Finnish learners for their workplace coffee room. These are certainly worth using also in Finnish language teaching. 
  The material also offers native speakers and fluent speakers of Finnish concrete ways to support learners’ understanding and language acquisition. Check out the tips on How to speak clearly and help your listener to understand. These can also be used in different language buddy activities, integration activities or in any context where Finnish learners and native speakers interact.
  If desired, you can print out the coffee room tips. There is also a ready-to-print file on the website with which you can have the material printed as a handy spiral-bound booklet. The materials for the coffee room booklet will also be made available in Swedish on our website during the spring.

The next newsletter will be published in May. Until then, we wish you all a pleasant winter and a good start to the spring!

sincerely

The Kielibuusti team

Ps. If you have subscribed to the Kielibuusti newsletter, you will receive an e-mail with a link to the Kielibuusti.fi website each time the next newsletter is published. If you no longer wish to receive these e-mails, please let us know at kielibuusti-info(at)aalto.fi. If you are not yet a member of the Kielibuusti network and would like to receive an email reminder every time a new newsletter is published, please subscribe to the newsletter via either the link at the bottom of the Kielibuusti homepage.

Recent news from Kielibuusti: 

Kielibuusti has held webinars for both career and business services in the early part of the year. The Language skills for international jobseekers - Kielibuusti tools for career services webinar, held on 25 January, described step-by-step how career counsellors can support international clients in planning their Finnish or Swedish language learning using tools such as a language learning plan. The webinar was attended by around forty participants, and the recording and materials were sent to around 120 people who had registered for the event.

The webinar Language solutions for internationalising companies – Tools from Kielibuusti to support the work of business services, which was held on 15 February 2024, explained how the tools on the kielibuusti.fi websitecan be used to facilitate the recruitment of international experts to Finnish/Swedish-speaking work communities, support their language learning, and introduce new linguistic practices such as parallel use of official languages together with English.  Around 30 people attended the webinar, and the recording and materials were sent to all those who registered for the event – a total of around 100 people. Towards the end of the webinar there was active discussion of the factors which affect companies' language policies and language support needs.

Another webinar already held this year was the Kielibuusti webinar Supporting Finnish language learning with reading groups, which took place on 5 February and drew around forty participants. The webinar presented information on and experiences of three different types of reading group that support Finnish language learning. In addition, the Finnish pronunciation practice app CaptainA continues to expand with the addition of extra vocabularies from Finnish textbooks.

The user and usability survey conducted in late 2023 investigated the opinions and experiences of the different user groups of the kielibuusti.fi website on the usefulness and usability of the site. This valuable information is now being used to further develop the site. You can read about it in the Kieliverkosto article Kielibuusti.fi-sivusto tarjoaa malleja ja työkaluja korkeakoulutettujen kansainvälisten osaajien kielenoppimiseen ja sen tukemiseen – käyttäjä- ja käytettävyystutkimus ohjaa jatkokehitystä (Jepa Viinanen).

There is also new content on Kielibuusti’s own webpage, such as the article Interaction is the key to developing professional language skills (Hanna Airaksinen), which discusses the two products of the Quickly into Work project: an internship model that includes language support and a student tool that help students set and monitor language goals for their internships.

Please note that a summary of Kielibuusti’s publications can be found by selecting ‘Kielibuusti project’ at the bottom of the main page and then selecting ‘Publications’.

Coming up next in Kielibuusti: 

On 3 March at 13.00, Kielibuusti will be running the webinar Language solutions for internationalising companies – Kielibuusti’s tools for companies. Come and find out how the tools on kielibuusti.fi can both facilitate your work to recruit international talent into Finnish- or Swedish-speaking work communities and also help you to adopt new language practices. The website offers free models for objectives such as promoting the parallel use of Finnish/Swedish and English and supporting the language learning of international employees. Also on offer are concrete operating practices for various tasks, such as language-aware recruitment and induction, and for different work situations, such as meetings.

TE-live: Working in Finland – why and how to learn Finnish? 27 February at 13.00 (further information in English on the event website) 
Boost your career with Finnish/Swedish skills! Kielibuusti services for international professionals 10 April 2024 at 14.00 (further information and registration in English) on the event website)

Kielibuusti will also be present at Innopoli’s Espoo Career Bootcamp, which will be held 9.45–10.45 on 29 February.

People living in Espoo or considering moving there may be interested to hear about the Hello Espoo event being run in English by the City of Espoo on 7 March 2024. The event will include a presentation on the Kielibuusti project and a keynote speech on the topic of Why and how markets are learn Finnish? Introduction to Kielibuusti information platform. For more information, visit the event website

This spring, Kielibuusti will be running higher education-focused webinars. In the first, which will be held on 13 March from 14.00 to 16.00, we will hear Examples of actions taken by higher education institutions to promote the language skills of international students and improve their employability. The second, set for 14 May from 13.00 to 15.00, will tackle The role of higher education institutions’ language strategy work in promoting language learning for international students and staff.

Kielibuusti will also be offering webinars and trainings for teachers during the spring, including the webinar Exciting AI – Experiences of using AI tools in language teaching on 5 March from 15.00 to 16.00 and the Finnish in Nursing 2 training day at Laurea's Tikkurila office on Thursday 18 April from 10.00 to 15.30. On 9 April at the University of Helsinki, there will be meeting aimed particularly at those teaching Finnish language courses to staff members of higher education institutions.

Remember that Kielibuusti is also active on social media, so remember to follow us on Twitter and Linkedin.

Useful content from Kielibuusti:

The language tips published on Instagram are now available for learners of both Finnish and Swedish. So remember to tip off language learners about the language tips (kielivinkit/språktips) Kielibuusti Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/kielibuusti/! 