Estonian and Finnish language and literature in textbooks
Submitted by:
Katri Karasma
Abstract:
In the curriculum of the Finnish comprehensive school there is an aim to know the languages of Uralic and Fenno-ugric families. I want to investigate what the Finnish textbooks tell about Estonian langugae and literature and the same about the Estonian textbooks, what they tell about the Finnish language and literature. In the grade 9 there is a section about the relationships between Fenno-ugric languages.
Research questions:
How much do the Finnish mother tongue textbooks tell about the Estonian language and literature and vice versa? What are the contents of the section?
The Finnish textbooks: Aleksis 9, Loitsu 9, Särmä 9 and Tekstitaituri 9.
The Estonian textbooks: Eesti keele õpik 9. klassile, 9. klassi Eesti keele õpik and Kahekõne 9. klassi kirjandusõpik.
Some results: In the Finnish textbooks there is about the relative languages 2-5 pages. The language kinship is represented in every book. Estonian and Finnish are Baltic-Finnic languages and very near each other. The number of speakers is in every book. Often there is a family tree. Aleksis 9 represents some characteristics about the Estonian language (differences in vowels and consonants, negation, possessive suffixes). About the literature only one book mentions a writer and tells a little about her book. One book gives a poem in Estonian and as a translation. Exercises are few. A tourist guide is in two books.
In the Estonian textbooks there is about the Finnish language to a lesser degree. In Eesti keele õpik there is a map about languages in Europ and as an example the word tere — terve in all uralic languages. In the next page there are five lines about the Finnish language. In 9. klassi Eesti keele õpik there is about the Finnish pronunciation. The Finnish literature is not mentioned in the textbooks.
References
Karasma, Katri. 2012. Oppikirjatutkimuksen hengenpelastusta. (Lifesaving of textbook research.) Aikakauskirja Äidinkielen opetustiede 41, 8-19. www.aidinkielenopetustieteenseurary.com
Koskinen, Katri. 2012. Suomalais-ugrilaiset kielet yhdeksännen luokan oppikirjoissa.
(The Fenno-ugric languages in the textbooks of grade 9.) Aikakauskirja Äidinkielen opetustiede 41, 86-100.
Lewis, Richard D. 2012. When cultures collide. Leading across cultures. Third edition.
Bookwell.