Swedish, Finnish, English? Language in a Bilingual Society: A Special Issue

JCS 36 (6), November-December 2004

The four papers in this special issue, Swedish, Finnish, English? Language in a Bilingual Society (edited by Kaj Sjöholm), centre on the changing conditions for formal language learning among Swedish-minority pupils in Finland. The authors discuss contemporary tensions between Finnish and Swedish, between the two national languages and English, between the national and the international, and between monolingual and multilingual identities. They also explore the present situation of the Swedish minority in Finland from historical, legal-administrative, educational, and ethnic-minority perspectives.

Kaj Sjöholm, Swedish, Finnish, English? Finland’s Swedes in a changing world

Sevn-Erik Hansén, The Swedish ‘people’s school’ in Finland and the language question: homogenization and differentiation

Anna-Lena Østern, ‘My language tree’: young Finland-Swedish adults tell us about their linguistic and cultural identities

Anna Slotte-Lüttge (translated by Annika Lund), Roles and positioning in a meeting between Finland-Swedish bilingual pupils and their teacher

Kaj Sjöholm, The complexity of the learning and teaching of EFL among Swedish-minority students in bilingual Finland