Abstract:

Operational goals of the Language Boost Project will be drawn up for the national collaboration network of higher education institutions. With the sub-project Cross-institutional Finnish Language Studies for International Experts of the Higher Education, we are piloting a cross-institutional way of delivering language training to international staff and testing a new language teaching model based on situational and thematic language teaching approach.

The main goal of this Language Boost sub-project is to develop and offer courses in Finnish as a second language and extend language offerings outside each individual institution. To achieve this, university teachers from Aalto University, University of Helsinki, and University of Arts Helsinki have started to collaborate to develop new blended learning courses that would combine synchronous and asynchronous learning and teaching.

The courses should offer students maximum flexibility in terms of time and location and allow them to make full use of individual online learning in order to suit their own learning needs. At the same time, the new courses should make effective use of teaching capacity and digital resources. Cross-institutional courses also provide an access to courses at different levels, as it may be that staff member’s own institution does not offer courses at the appropriate level.
Aalto University, University of Helsinki, and University of Arts Helsinki staff contribute their joint expertise to create and teach the courses, which would afford students the unique opportunity to have an enhanced learning experience and possibilities to meet international staff members and teachers from other higher education institutions in Finland.

The co-teaching approach would also be valuable for teachers’ continuing professional development as the teachers are expected to benefit greatly from exchanging ideas and approaches to teaching, learning, and curriculum design. In this sub-project, teachers have already started to develop and test a model for language teaching that can be applied in the language instruction provided by higher education institutions. The model is based on thematic and situational teaching, focusing on functioning in professional life.

Keywords:

Co-teaching, Cross-institutional language studies, Finnish language teaching, Situational and thematic language teaching, Teacher collaboration.