Englsh teaching in Finland(illustration from Meilahden secondary school)

It was a rather surreal experience meeting the English teacher, Riikka. As with other English teachers I met, they all sounded like native speakers, and had learnt their English in Finland. She only said she used to watch a lot of TV in English when she was young. (I have read and heard from various sources that the non-dubbing policy of foreign language programmes in Finland is a main reason why people's English standards are generally so high.)



But after having sat through an English class myself, I had a better idea of what it was that contributed to their success in English language teaching. As far as I can say there are a few reasons:

1. the high quality of English teachers. They learn from good examples, which is really important as imitation is always the first step in learning languages.

2. the appropriate curriculum and teaching materials: what they learn is directly applicable in daily life, thanks to the amazing publishing industry there. The authors and publishers are very enthusiastic about their work and liaise with teachers. I have read about how they could go through discussion meetings to revise the drafts by ten times.

It has very interesting topics like moving houses, pet, school, friendship like ‘what kinds of friends are you? what would you do if your friend told you a secret or you have promised your friend something?, shopping, music, sports, clothes, food, travel in the UK. I wish I had a book like that.

3. appropriate teaching method. They emphasise building a language immersion environment in primary school for kids to get used to the environment, and use it comfortably. More importantly, they adopt a communicative approach in establishing foundation by talking and listening, which makes the use of language alive. This has in fact been heavily criticised because it has been poorly implemented in many parts of the world.

Finland however does it differently in a way that strikes the right balance: they focus on grammar and groundwork in secondary schools. This suits children's general linguistic development quite well. Children first learn to use the language in daily life, and develop an interest in it. Then they learn the rules which consolidate their language skills and build a strong foundation.



Another special feature is they teach grammar with considerable Finnish. In Hong Kong, mixed code is frowned upon for fear that people can't speak either language well. (And I used to feel the same, but this trip has made me rethink!) It is a valid concern in many ways, but this begs the question - what kind of students are we catering for and what is the objective of language teaching?

Admittedly, if you want to be an amazing user of the language, you'd better learn to think in the language early on, and I agree with that completely. But not everyone needs to speak impeccably English.

I think Finland sets a realistic goal of ensuring that everyone understands the complexities within the English language. It may be too easy for some students and may interfere with one's linguistic development to a certain extent because of the use of another language. However, for many people, native tongue is the basis for learning to think and analyse. Resort to native tongue in teaching foreign languages can actually help students to grasp difficult concepts much more effectively than otherwise.

Having said that, the key is to understand the way native tongue is used in teaching foreign languages. It cannot be excessively relied on, and it shouldn't encourage any 'mixed' mumbo jumbo use of languages. I was impressed by the English teacher as she spoke each sentence exclusively in English first, and then in Finnish - as if she were playing the dual role of teaching and instantaneous self-interpreting. She hardly used any English word in a Finnish sentence and vice versa. So some food for thought!

cookery class: independent thinking and working together

It initially seemed no different from the cookery classes I had been through in HK myself, but after some observation I realised there are two interesting differences.





The teacher gave instructions and explained how to make the apple pie once. The teacher refused to give any demonstration. In this way students were encouraged to think for themselves how to make it and the teacher said ‘they were here to learn to think for themselves’. Teacher was of course there to answer questions and help out in small groups. (It's a bit like reading math problems in exercise books and attempting questions, and to be fair the recipe for apple pie is not terribly complicated!)

Another amazing thing was everyone got along really well and worked in groups. They naturally went around and helped each other out in other groups, very nicely. They were like a big family together, and would see how others were gettnig on.

And they were generous kids who liked to share ;) i got to try their apple pies as well, sweet! Another plus, the Finnish teacher didn't speak English, and I used my limited German to talk to her!

Sleeping beauties and cross play - dealing with interested and uninterested students

In the textile class, I had a rather interesting experience because I saw the two extremes - both interested and uninterested students.

There were a few girls who refused to participate and literally sat there for the entire period of one and a half hours. (I have to say this is the only incident i've seen, and indeed very uncommon.) I had a chat with them and they said school was really boring. I asked them about their hobbies and what they'd rather do - they said sleeping all day, and drinking. They were also checking their make up and eyelashes every now and then. Therefore I dubbed them sleeping beauties. I heard they had been playing truant, and it was getting worrying.

In fact, a couple of them had already finished the work, and were only refusing to write posters for their products. I also asked them whether there was anything at all that they liked about school. It set them thinking I thought, and one of them however said a firm no, and the rest looking rather hesitant, followed suit apparently because that's more cool. Very typical teenage rebellious attitude. It's clear that they aren't bad people at all - they are merely distracted and uninterested.

So how do Finnish schools deal with that?
I had a chat with the teachers there and realised that the law requires them to report any truancy problem to social workers because basic education is compulsory for everyone. This is usually the last resort as they'd first talk to the students and families about the problem.

It's difficult to manage these children especially in a class. The teacher really had no choice but to leave them on their own and attend to the rest of the class who actually wanted to learn. Finnish teachers stressed the importance of the student's own motivation and initiatve in learning.

Honestly that doesn't seem to be helping the children much, and 'leaving no child behind' is really an ideal. I get the impression that these kids are very rare in Finnish classroom, and teachers have traditionally had little to do with enforcing discipline.




In contrast, as soon as the lesson was over, I saw two girls waiting eagerly at the door because they wanted the teacher's help with making costume (as shown in the picture below) for a crossplay. The teacher said very shyly, 'I couldn't resist!'

Textile class

The students finished making their bags, and were making their reports by drawing and writing a bit about their products. I had a look at them and they all looked gorgeous in their own kinds of fabric.

My impression about textile classes is that they didn't look much different from classes in Hong Kong that I have seen (and been through myself). It is separate from cooking (while both are subsumed within Home Economics in Hong Kong).

As you can see in woodwork classes, the emphasis is on practical utility and doing what they can use in their daily lives.

Woodwork class at Meilahden yläasteen koulu (secondary)

These first five photos show students making their own speaker phones.



























These two students are making their own surfing boards (though the lakes in Finland are pretty calm).







































You see Tuomas making a name board which would be used for his own room eventually!

The woodwork classes here are pretty free. Students can choose to do whatever they like to do, within a reasonable range of choices. Their woodwork classes are designed for producing useful things for the daily life. I can imagine it would be so cool to have one's own handmade speakerphone.

Again, the students were the main initiators - they decide what and how to do it. The teachers are only there for assistance if they need it. I see each student working on his own mini project.

Students' art works at Meilahden yläasteen koulu

Marida has explained four areas in teaching fine arts: self expression through different mediums, design (glasses shown), and architecture (houses), art history, visual communication (eg film, photography).

Available facilities: ceramics, pottery, printing, black room for photography, film making, sculpture.

This school also offers a special Arts programme which has its admissions tests.

I suppose they are self-explanatory.