Swedish at WorkLaajuus (3 ECTS)

Objective

The students acquire the written and oral language skills in the second domestic language that are necessary in their professional field, as required by national legislation (352/2003 8§).

The students are able to communicate in Swedish in professional contexts both in Finland and in the other Nordic countries, taking into account the cultural and linguistic backgrounds of the communication partners.

The students acquire oral and written language and communication skills that are at least at the B1 level as defined in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. They learn to seek information related to their own professional field invarious sources and convey information both orally and in writing.

During their studies, the students form a positive and realistic view of their language and communicative competence as well as skills and motivation to develop it further.

Content

The course content will be tailored according to each Degree Programme or specialisation option.
The contents of the course focus on field-specific oral and written exercises related to the following themes:

- self-assessing one’s language and communication skills and developing learning strategies
- education and career planning
- organisations, working environments, tasks, processes and tools
- field-related texts; increasing and activating the knowledge of technical terminology
- key interactive communication situations: individual and group communication.

The description of the detailed course contents can be found in the course implementation plan.

Qualifications

The acquisition of professional language and communication competence in the second domestic language (Swedish) requires the starting level B1.1 as defined by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.

Assessment criteria, satisfactory (1)

In communication situations related to his/her field the student

• Manages in the most common general and specialised professional communication situations
• Composes simple, partly incoherent texts. Language errors may impair understanding but do not prevent the delivery of the message
• Participates in simple spoken interaction but often needs help from the conversation partner
• Uses basic general and technical terminology of his/her own field; inaccuracy and the influence of other languages may interfere with the delivery of the message. Uses basic grammatical structures in a repetitious and partly incorrect manner
• Pronounces in a mainly comprehensible manner, although the pronunciation deviates from the target language. The slow sentence rhythm makes it difficult to estimate if the message is delivered.

Assessment criteria, good (3)

In communication situations related to his/her field the student

• Manages relatively well in daily general and specialised professional discourse
• Composes coherent texts that successfully communicate the intended meaning
• Takes initiative in familiar professional communication situations
• Uses general and basic technical terminology of his/her own field relatively well. Lapses may occur in the choice of words or grammatical structures, but these do not cause misunderstanding
• Pronounces in a comprehensible manner. Pauses in the sentence rhythm do not cause misunderstanding.

Assessment criteria, excellent (5)

In communication situations related to his/her field the student

• Masters varied and demanding general and specialised professional communication situations
• Produces clear and detailed texts appropriate for the situation
• Is an active participant in professional communication situations and allows for the requirements of the situation . Speaks fluently and effortlessly and takes the conversation partner in account
• Uses technical and general terminology as well as grammatical structures diversely and almost without errors
• Pronounces clearly, with a natural sentence rhythm.