Abstract:

Language and cultural competence are a key part of both academic expertise and 21st century working life skills. Nowadays, more and more workplaces are multilingual, and in the future, there is a growing demand for specialists who are able to work and share their expertise in multilingual and multicultural environments (Pirhonen, 2023).

While recent studies confirm (Critchley and Wyburd, 2021; Fisher et al., 2020) that multilingual and multicultural competencies are vital for university students, there is at the same time a decreasing interest and motivation among students to study other foreign languages than English (Pyykkö, 2017).
In this presentation I will describe the background and processes of creating a new kind of language and communication studies based on multilingual approach for new Bachelor programmes in Social Sciences at LUT University, Finland. Traditionally all languages have been studied separately. In this new multilingual approach, languages (Finnish, Swedish and English or other advanced foreign language) are used in parallel, and students develop their communication skills in the course, switching languages from one task to another.

The aim of the new multilingual way of communication and language studies is to provide the student into a persuasive academic communicator. The goal is for the student to learn the way of thinking, speaking, and writing in their own discipline and to develop into an academic and working life expertise and gain the tools to expand and deepen their own expertise.

New communication and language studies consist of three different courses (field specific texts, interaction and oral communication, and academic writing) using several languages in all courses in accordance with the objectives of the programmes in Social Sciences. This new way of implementing multilingual language and communication studies also forces teachers to cooperate in a totally new way in planning and implementing the courses and thus rethinking both the contents and pedagogy.

References:
[1] M. Critchley and J. Wyburd. “Evolution of university internationalisation strategies and language policies: Challenges and opportunities for language centres,” Language Learning in Higher Education, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 3–13, 2021. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1515/cercles-2021-0001.
[2] L. Fisher, M. Evans, K. Forbes, A. Gayton and Y. Liu. “Participative multilingual identity construction in the languages classroom: A multi-theoretical conceptualisation,” International Journal of Multilingualism, vol. 17. no. 4, pp. 448–466, 2020. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1080/14790718.2018.1524896.
[4] H. Pirhonen, "Aspiring multilinguals or contented bilinguals? University students negotiating their multilingual and professional identities," Language Learning in Higher Education, vol.13, no. 1, pp. 5-27, 2023. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1515/cercles-2023-2006
[5] R. Pyykkö, ”Monikielisyys vahvuudeksi. Selvitys Suomen kielivarannon tilasta ja tasosta,” Opetus- ja kulttuuriministeriön julkaisuja, vol. 51, 2017. Retrieved from http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-263-535-8

Keywords:

Multilingual Pedagogy, Language Learning, Higher Education.