Professional Swedish (5 ECTS)

Objective

On completion of the course, the student will possess 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 student
• is 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
• has oral and written language and communication skills that are at least at the level B1 as defined in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages
• is able to seek information related to their own professional field in various sources and convey information both orally and in writing
• has a positive and realistic view of their language and communicative competence as well as skills and motivation to develop the competence 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 of the profession
• field-related texts; increasing and activating the knowledge of technical terminology
• key interactive communication situations: individual and group communication.

Evaluation scale

Hyväksytty/Hylätty

Assessment criteria, satisfactory (1)

In communication situations related to their field the student
• is able to cope in the most common general and specialised professional communication situations
• composes simple, though 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 their own field; however, inaccuracy and the influence of other languages may interfere with the delivery of the message.
• uses basic grammatical structures in a repetitious manner and partly incorrectly
• pronounces words mostly in a manner that can be understood, although the pronunciation deviates from that of the target language. Furthermore, the slow sentence rhythm makes the delivery of the message difficult.

Assessment criteria, good (3)

In communication situations related to their field the student
• succeeds relatively well in daily general and specialised professional discourse
• composes coherent texts that successfully communicate the intended meaning despite of grammatical errors and insufficient vocabulary
• takes initiative in familiar professional communication situations
• uses general and basic technical terminology of their own field relatively well; lapses may occur in the choice of words or grammatical structures, but these do not cause misunderstanding
• pronounces in a manner that can be understood; pauses in the sentence rhythm do not cause misunderstandings.

Assessment criteria, excellent (5)

In communication situations related to their field the student
• masters even 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 into account
• uses technical and general terminology as well as grammatical structures diversely and almost without errors
• pronounces clearly, with a natural sentence rhythm.

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.