This study examines early foreign language teaching materials in Finland, in particular how they present and practice vocabulary. Vocabulary learning in early language learning is an understudied topic since most research has concentrated on learning results (Butler, 2015) or learners' perceptions (Mäntylä et al., 2022).
Although early foreign language teaching has become a Europe-wide trend, it is still a recent phenomenon in Finland. As of 2020, all Finnish pupils start studying their first foreign language in the first grade, at the age of seven. Even though in most cases (over 90%) the language is English, it is offered in a variety of languages. Teachers, pupils as well as their guardians have had a very positive attitude towards early language learning (e.g. Mård-Miettinen et al., 2021).
Textbooks are a characterizing feature of Finnish education system and much used in many subjects (Karvonen et al., 2017). Particularly Finnish language education has been very textbook-based (Harjanne et al., 2017). However, in Mård-Miettinen et al.'s (2021) study only 36 percent of teachers (N=550) used a textbook in early language teaching.
We examined five different textbooks used in Finland for early foreign language teaching. The languages covered were English, French, German, Swedish and Spanish. We analysed how the textbooks presented vocabulary using Thornbury's (2004) classification as a basis. In particular, we looked at how the books took into account pupils' existing linguistic resources, how they introduced and attempted to consolidate new vocabulary, what aspects of vocabulary knowledge were emphasised, what the role of formulaic sequences was, and if there were differences between the textbooks of different languages.
The results showed that the materials were rather similar to each other in terms of vocabulary learning. Even though the materials had versatile exercises, there was a lack of progression and consolidating tasks. Moreover, it seems the materials do not largely enhance learner agency or translanguaging. Therefore, the textbooks for early language learning in Finland are not fully in line with current understanding of vocabulary learning and language learning in general. In this presentation we elaborate on the findings and discuss the implications of the study for in- and pre-service teacher training as well as for textbook designers.
References:
Butler, Y. G. (2015). English language education among young learners in East Asia: A review of current research (2004–2014). Language Teaching, 48(3), 303–342.
Harjanne, P., Díaz Larenas C., & Tella, S. (2017). Foreign-language teaching and studying in Chilean and Finnish classrooms as seen by teachers. Journal of Language and Cultural Education, 5(3), 1–21.
Karvonen, U., Tainio, L., & Routarinne, S. (2017). Oppia kirjoista: Systemaattinen katsaus suomalaisten perusopetuksen oppimateriaalien tutkimukseen. Kasvatus & Aika, 11(4), 39–57.
Mård-Miettinen, K., Huhta, A., Reini, A., & Stylman, A. (2021). A1-englanti perusopetuksen vuosiluokilla 1–6. Finnish National Agency for Education.
Mäntylä K., Roiha A. & Dufva, H. (2022). Investigating young Finnish CLIL pupils' perceptions of foreign language use through visual narratives. Journal of Immersion and Content-Based Language Education.
Thornbury, S. (2004). How to teach vocabulary. Pearson.
