Pietarilaisten oppilaiden suomen kielen kommunikatiivinen kompetenssi yleisten kielitutkintojen valossa
Date: 2007
Abstract:
The grammaticai competence through the language assessment: Finnish as
a foreign language in the school in St.Petersburg
The article concerns the material, based on my investigation on the
communicative competence of Russian-speaking Finnish learners in the
secondary school of St.Petersburg. The investigation was the part of the
international Finnish-Russian research project "Language and Education in
Intercultural Integration", financed by the Academy of Finland and coordinated
by the Centre for Applied Language Studies of the University of JyvaskyHi in
1996-2000. In the framework of the theoretical basis of L2 learning and
acquisition, the structural model of communicative language competence
(Canale, M. & Swain, M. 1980; Canale, M. 1983) consists of different
components, one of which is grammatical competence. Actually, grammatical
competence is reflected in other competences such as socio-linguistic
competence (through lexical and idiomatic competence) and especially in
discourse competence (through syntactical and textual competence). The group
of Finnish learners (n = 30, grades 9-ll of Russian school, age 14-17 years)
participated in the YKI (Yleiset kielitutkinnot) tests three times, in 1996, 1998
and 1999. My interest was focused on the skills in reading comprehension,
writing, and structures and vocabulary. One of the most interesting questions
was to find out the different components of communicative competence of
young learners of Finnish from their performances in the tests. On the basis of
the original analysis, the results showed that the eriticaI point for the learners in
Finnish language acquisition was the integration of grammatical and sociolinguistic
competences. Thus, the correct word form from the grammatical point
of view can appear as semantic disharmony from the socio-linguistic
perspective, which is dealt with as a mistake according to the YKI criteria. The
culture-orientated content of the test tasks influences the selection of the proper
word and structure. The detailed analysis of the performances and YKI´s hidden
curriculum of test tasks can be used in the practical work of teachers of Finnish
as a foreign language in non-authentic contexts for getting information about
learners´ grammaticai and socio-linguistic competence.