Language learners in higher education: comparing students' prospects and the learning environment at Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences
Colleville, Kevin (2021)
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2021111920695
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2021111920695
Tiivistelmä
The goal of this thesis is to investigate Haaga-Helia students’ needs, prospects and expectations in terms of language learning, and then to see if and how Haaga-Helia can, according to its own policy, objectives and means, self-adjust in order to better satisfy the constantly evolving language demand.
The Theoretical Framework introduces the concept of language policy, as it is a determining factor of the language offer and other practices related to language use in a lot of higher educational structures. After a brief introduction of the situation at Haaga-Helia, the respective positions of English and other languages in higher education on the global scale are analysed and compared each other, before covering in more details the situation in Finland and Finnish universities and universities of applied sciences.
At this point of the thesis, languages other than English have proven to be just as effective academic and scientific languages, and therefore deserve to be considered, practiced and taught in higher education.
The Empirical part consists of a survey submitted to a sample of Haaga-Helia students, which includes both local and international students, whose expectations from Haaga-Helia in terms of providing an optimal language offer have been measured; as well as a questionnaire submitted via an interview to a member of Haaga-Helia staff that is competent in organising the language offer.
The survey to students reveals that, although Haaga-Helia manages to provide a satisfactory language learning environment, there is still room for improvement, notably on which and how many languages are offered: a vast majority of students think that more languages should be taught at Haaga-Helia.
The questionnaire to the staff confirms Haaga-Helia’s commitment to meet the students’ demand in terms of language learning, but also highlights the fact that the tools relied on need to be given much more attention, because such tools haven’t been promoted enough to students, and as a result, only a tiny proportion of the students surveyed know about their existence even by the middle of their studies, which is another one of the findings of the aforementioned survey.
The thesis concludes that Haaga-Helia has the power and the will to consider extending its language offer to its students, and that such a demand for more languages does exist. The solutions that are proposed include for example looking for more teaching personnel in order to add at least two new languages; as well as introducing new “ice-breaking” courses to be more focused on culture, but which aim at further boosting the interest in learning new languages among students and experimenting new ways of teaching languages.
The Theoretical Framework introduces the concept of language policy, as it is a determining factor of the language offer and other practices related to language use in a lot of higher educational structures. After a brief introduction of the situation at Haaga-Helia, the respective positions of English and other languages in higher education on the global scale are analysed and compared each other, before covering in more details the situation in Finland and Finnish universities and universities of applied sciences.
At this point of the thesis, languages other than English have proven to be just as effective academic and scientific languages, and therefore deserve to be considered, practiced and taught in higher education.
The Empirical part consists of a survey submitted to a sample of Haaga-Helia students, which includes both local and international students, whose expectations from Haaga-Helia in terms of providing an optimal language offer have been measured; as well as a questionnaire submitted via an interview to a member of Haaga-Helia staff that is competent in organising the language offer.
The survey to students reveals that, although Haaga-Helia manages to provide a satisfactory language learning environment, there is still room for improvement, notably on which and how many languages are offered: a vast majority of students think that more languages should be taught at Haaga-Helia.
The questionnaire to the staff confirms Haaga-Helia’s commitment to meet the students’ demand in terms of language learning, but also highlights the fact that the tools relied on need to be given much more attention, because such tools haven’t been promoted enough to students, and as a result, only a tiny proportion of the students surveyed know about their existence even by the middle of their studies, which is another one of the findings of the aforementioned survey.
The thesis concludes that Haaga-Helia has the power and the will to consider extending its language offer to its students, and that such a demand for more languages does exist. The solutions that are proposed include for example looking for more teaching personnel in order to add at least two new languages; as well as introducing new “ice-breaking” courses to be more focused on culture, but which aim at further boosting the interest in learning new languages among students and experimenting new ways of teaching languages.