"I have ants in my pants": Classroom Rhyming Inspired by Roald Dahl's Poetry

How Do Finnish School Children End Up Rhyming in English?

Finnish 12- to 13-year-olds, fairy tales, and poems in English in a classroom are not a common combination. However, when the fairytales are written with witty humor and a twinkle in the eye as Roald Dahl's versions are, not even adolescent rascals are able to resist, especially not when the teaching unit is designed and carried out by two sparkly teacher trainees, Chloe and Sarah, from the United Kingdom. How did this all happen? Before introducing this successful literature unit, I will outline the principles of Finnish education and the linguistic backgrounds of these 6th graders.

On the Finnish Education System

Finland is an independent Nordic country with 5.4 million inhabitants. The Finnish education system has been in the focus of attention for a decade now due to the high achievement in the OECD Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) studies (oecd.org/pisa/) reporting outstanding scores of Finnish 15-year-olds in mathematical and scientific competences as well as in literacy. Several reasons have been identified behind this success. For example, most children attend municipal kindergarten prior to the start of the formal education at the age of seven. Typically, kindergarten teachers have a bachelor's degree in education. The one-year preschool is optional and free of charge, as is the actual education, which also includes a free lunch during the school day. Education is inclusive and integral: each child receives, when necessary, individual support from the multi-professional staff. The minimum requirement for teachers is a master's degree because the ability to apply theory in practice is perceived as essential. The high-standard of teacher education in turn lures exchange students from abroad. Children's language acquisition is promoted regardless of the mother tongue or country of origin. Children learn to read quickly at a young age because all TV programs are subtitled and broadcast in the original language. They acquire foreign languages effortlessly due to access to foreign languages.

Language instruction plays a significant role in Finland due to the marginality of the two official languages, Finnish and Swedish, which are not widely spoken in the world. For this reason, Finns need to master additional languages. Various language instruction approaches have been introduced especially from 1980's onwards. One of them is Content and Language Integrated Learning (CL IL), which combines both foreign language instruction and content teaching. In other words, resembling the Canadian language immersion programs, various subjects are taught and learned through an additional foreign language with the aim to gain better language proficiency. The proportion of the foreign language varies, which means that the instruction may also be bilingual.

Plurality of Languages and Basic Information of the school

To describe the plurality of languages, let me introduce a boy in the class we are about to follow in this teaching unit. He is from Bosnia, and his mother tongue is Bosnian, but he also speaks some Croatian. He has learned everyday Finnish in interaction with other kids in the playground and in the kindergarten, whereas academic Finnish he has mainly learnt at school. Because he is a student in a CL IL class, he also learns through English. He regularly attends classes in his native language, which is naturally also spoken at home. In addition to these languages, he has opted for one more voluntary language, German (Swedish and French were also available). Consequently, he is studying four languages at the age of 12.

Our school is the Teacher Training School of Turku University (tnk. utu.fi, also in English), which is one of the most multicultural in southwestern Finland with 50 mother tongues and more than 1000 learners in elementary, lower, and upper secondary levels as well as the International School. We provide instruction both in Finnish and English (CL IL and International Baccalaureate program), offering versatile practicing opportunities to both future class teachers and subject teachers. The Teacher Training School of Turku University also hosts many...