The Russian-speaking parents in Finland about their children and their education
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33910/2686-830X-2019-1-2-84-96Keywords:
family language policy, the home language maintenance, Russian-speakers in Finland, child bilingualism, a survey of the Russian-speaking parents abroad, the educational system through the eyes of parentsAbstract
The article considers the problem of the family language policy on the base of the survey of the 90 Russian-speaking parents in Finland. The parents tell from where and why they immigrated to Finland, about the education gained in their country of birth and in their country of dwelling, about their language knowledge and its application principles, as well as identity issues. Then, the study analyzes the parents’ relation to the educational systems in Finland and Russia and their views upon the ideal educational system, upon the languages of education and the use of the new media. It deals with the language competences of the children, with the language maintenance means and with perspectives of the parents’ unions influence on the situation of the bilingual upbringing. It is demonstrated that many parents who were born in Finland or immigrated to the country at a childhood age may lack of the representations of the Russian pedagogical system and those who studied back in the USSR have inadequate views upon the functioning of the modern Russian school. Both systems reveal pluses and minuses. The respondents know many languages and use them in various spheres of life. Children, even those who were born in the same family, of different age and gender, know Russian and other languages to different degrees. They do not use new media very often, although parents think that computer literacy is natural these days, there is no hurry with this. The positive attitude toward the Finnish educational system combines with the feeling of the insufficiency in the sphere of teaching Russian as a home and as a foreign language, partly already compensated through the private supplementary education and through multiple forms of the parents’ help. Diverse specific proposals concern the development of the Russian language maintenance: creation of the camps of various directions and duration throughout the year, parents’ unions with the goal to organize collaborative events according to all interests and to promote the Russian-speaking communicative milieu, to elaborate better textbooks and programs.
References
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Smith-Christmas, C. (2016) Family language policy: Maintaining an endangered language in the home. Houndmills; New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 137 p. DOI: 10.1057/9781137521811 (In English)
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