Develop your text skills in higher education (5 cr)

Objective

Objectives
Upon completion of the course, the student will be able to communicate effectively in Finnish in his or her study environment. The student will be able to identify the essential contents of scientific and field-specific texts and will be able to utilize texts for his/her own needs The student will be able to summarize source texts and formulate his/her thoughts in Finnish. He/she will be able to write clear, structured and coherent texts (for example summary, report, essay) and connect his/her own and others’ thoughts to each other. Furthermore, the student will be able to distinguish between formal and informal styles.
His/her ability to recognize and improve his/her written language skills will be enhanced. objective of the course is level B1-B2 as defined by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CERF).

Content

Content
- text types in higher education studies, reading strategies and vocabulary expansion
- utilizing and evaluating the source texts
- identifying a text’s consistency
- providing a summary and describing typical summarizing structures
- cohesion, connectors and connections between things
- the structure of written language and its standardization
- use of formal Finnish
- identifying one’s linguistic strengths and challenges and strengthening one’s learning strategies and self-confidence as a writer
- basics of co-writing and co-writing platforms

Location and time

Course schedule 24.2.-25.4.2025
Weekdays and times vary. Exact schedule later in Moodle.

Materials

Teacher's material in Moodle.
No need to purchase a text book.

Teaching methods

Distance learning in Zoom

Exam schedules

The time and method of taking the exam will be defined later.

Student workload

5 credits = 135 hours of studying
- distance teaching
- homework and independent studying

Further information

This Finnish as a second language course is open to all Metropolia degree students, students of 3AMK and also students of Metropolia Open University of Applied Sciences.

The course requires good study skills and a lot of independent work, such as reading, analyzing texts, writing texts, studying grammar and practicing vocabulary. At least 8 hours/week should be set aside for independent study.

Artificial intelligence can be utilized in task formatting and learning. However, the content of the course assignments must be produced without the use of AI.

Evaluation scale

0-5

Assessment criteria, satisfactory (1)

Evaluation criteria, satisfactory (1–2)
- The student is able to understand texts related to his/her field. He/she identifies the main points in a text.
- The student is able to communicate information regarding the texts he/she has read and express his/her thoughts in various study-related situations.
- The student identifies principles of formality in communication in different types of texts and incorporates them into their writings.
- The student is able to write texts that are both comprehensible and partially detailed, even though there might appear some repeated errors in the basic grammatical structures and problems with cohesion.

Assessment criteria, good (3)

Evaluation criteria, good (3–4)
- The student understands a wide range of texts related to his/her studies and work. He/she is able to identify the main points in a text.
- The student is able to take part in discussions related to his/her field, utilize texts he/she has read and communicate information and views related to it quite accurately.
- The student is able to compose clear, coherent and quite detailed texts related to field-specific topics taking into account the requirements of different levels of formality in communication.
- The student is able to write a text using a variety of sentence structures and linguistic means. He/she has a relatively extensive vocabulary on his/her own field.
- The student is able to evaluate

Assessment criteria, excellent (5)

Evaluation criteria, excellent (5)
- A student is able to comprehend a wide range of texts related to his/her field with ease. He/she is able to explain the main points of the texts in his/her own words and describe, analyze and compare their content.
- The student is able to compose clear, well-structured, and detailed texts related to his/her field taking into account the appropriate level of formality in the situation.
- The student has a good command of basic grammatical structures and quite an extensive professional vocabulary.
- The student is willing and able to develop his/her language skills in a goal-oriented manner.

Assessment criteria, approved/failed

Evaluation criteria, approved/failed
- The student is able to understand texts related to his/her field of study. He/she is able to identify the main points in a text.
- The student is able to communicate information regarding the texts he/she has read and express his/her thoughts in various study-related situations.
- The student is able to write texts that are both comprehensible and partially detailed. He/she is familiar with the linguistic means for writing a clear and coherent text.
- The student is able to receive feedback and makes an effort to apply it to his/her oral and written communication.

Assessment methods and criteria

Continuous assessment
- active participation during the lessons
- homework
- an exam

Qualifications

Qualifications
A minimum level of B1 as defined by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CERF).