Class teachers, subject teachers and double qualified: Conceptions of teachers' skills in early foreign language teaching in Finland

The shift to an earlier start in foreign language teaching in Finland took place nationwide in 2020. Both class teachers and subject teachers faced a new situation. They would be teaching children younger than before, or they would be teaching a completely new subject for them. This presentation examines teachers' conceptions of the skills and competencies, including required language skills, that are important for a teacher in early foreign language teaching. The participants of this study were in total 44 teachers who were either subject teachers (specialized in the foreign language), class teachers (generalists without studies in the foreign language or language education), or teachers with a dual qualification as class teacher and subject teacher. The data for this study were gathered through essays that the teachers turned in as tasks during an in-service teacher training for early teaching of foreign languages. The essays were analyzed with content analysis.

The participants emphasized several different skills and competencies that are important for an early foreign language teacher to have, but only some of the skills were such that all or almost all teachers brought up. We identified altogether seven different categories of skills and competencies. The different types of teachers were in agreement in three of them, which were: Enthusiam and ability to inspire; Focus on children and the learning environment; and Skills for early years pedagogy. Thus, the most important aspects were teachers' personal qualities before skills for pedagogy.

The teachers were not as unanimous about the necessary language skills for teachers in early foreign language teaching as they were about the other skills and competencies. They did not consider foreign language education or language skills as important as the other skills. However, the majority of the respondents mentioned that communication in general in the target language is the most important about language skills in early foreign language teaching. The second most important aspect about language skills was possessing competence in basic grammar and pronunciation. It may be contradictory that the teachers of this study wanted early language teachers to be able to communicate in the foreign language but only require basic grammar and pronunciation from them. If teachers only have knowledge about the basics of the foreign language, communicating fluently in the language may be impossible. It is also important for language teachers to use target language at the right level for students.

Finland prides on ensuring equal opportunities and equal access to high-quality education to all students. In order for it to be realized in early foreign language teaching, further education should be guaranteed for and required of all those teachers who are made to teach a foreign language without sufficient language and cultural skills or knowledge of appropriate language learning activities for young learners. Language skills cannot be acquired from a single in-service teacher training course but take years of practice to learn.

This study also showed that an in-service teacher training for teachers of different educational backgrounds is beneficial as they get a closer look into each other's skills and competencies and learn to appreciate them better. Collaboration between teachers is becoming more necessary to fulfill the objectives of the core curriculum so joint workshops and trainings can be a springboard to it as well.