Applying the language guidelines to teaching
This page contains instructions for teachers and programme directors on how Aalto’s Guidelines on the Languages of the Degrees and Instruction affects the planning and implementation of teaching.
Tools and tips for multilingual teaching
Aalto University aims to deliver a multilingual and inclusive educational experience for students as well as for all who take care of teaching duties. Teaching at Aalto is organised in Finnish, Swedish and English. This page gives you ideas for implementing teaching multilingually, information about language-aware pedagogy, and guidelines for using the available digital services that support multilingual teaching.
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Multilingual teaching and language-aware university pedagogy
Multilingual teaching means teaching that makes use of more than a single language. Language-aware teaching means being aware of the vital role that language plays in learning. Language cannot be separated from the content of learning, since learners acquire and process information and conceptualise phenomena by means of language. Learners with the ability to look at a matter through more than a single language lens are able to learn the content in greater depth. As students develop expertise in their field, they also learn to communicate in ways typical of that field; their own language skills are an integral part of their expertise. Teachers, in teaching the subject content of their field, are therefore also teachers of the language used in their field.
The use of several languages promotes content learning as well as language learning. This does not necessarily mean gaining a mastery of another language; a teacher may just start by getting to know the key concepts of the field in the another language. Studies show that language skills are best developed by using the language boldly and by learning from one’s mistakes.
Language-awareness in teaching is also aware of the fact that students have diverse linguistic backgrounds and language skills. The language used for teaching and studying is, in fact. a question of equality and inclusiveness. Language also relates to one’s sense of identity, and the use of different languages can therefore sometimes rouse strong feelings. That is why it is also important to create a safe environment for using and learning different languages.
The planning of the languages used in teaching
The languages used in teaching are planned at the programme level and appear in Sisu’s information about courses and course implementations. Before planning your implementation of a course, please familiarise yourself with the instructions on how the Guidelines on the Languages of the Degrees and Instruction are to be applied to the planning and implementation of teaching.
Providing teaching multilingually
Below you will find a list of practices and procedures that a teacher should take into account when implementing teaching in a multilingual way. You will also find links to instructions and support for using digital services in teaching.
In multilingual education, the language of instruction or the supplementary language of instruction and language of study attainments need to be languages of the programme and major. The languages of instruction are planned during the curriculum design of the programme. You can find more information about the planning of the languages of instruction here: Applying the language guidelines to teaching | Aalto University
Communications and teaching work
| What | How | Instructions and further information |
|---|---|---|
| Plan student communications. | Tell students how, when, and through what channels and languages you will keep in touch with them during the course. One way to do this is to use the text-field function on the front page of MyCourses or the Announcements forum. You can also create separate discussion forums for each language group. | |
| Inform students of the course languages. | You can inform students of the languages of instruction by using the text field on the front page of MyCourses or the Announcements forum. | |
| Collect information from students on their chosen language of study attainment (i.e. language used for completing the course studies; ‘language of learning’ in Sisu) and on the possible languages for performing group work. | You can collect information on students’ languages of study attainment before the course begins, or at the start of the course, by using MyCourses’ Questionnaire or Choice activity. | |
| Plan the parallel use of languages in the students’ course work. | Students may be divided into various language groups for performing laboratory work, exercises or small group work, even if the common parts of the lecture are held in a single language. |
Translations of lectures, materials and assignments
| What | How | Instructions and further information |
|---|---|---|
| Prepare learning materials and their translations. |
Course literature can be offered in several languages. For the different languages, different literature can be used so long as it enables students to achieve the same learning outcomes. Providing course literature in multiple languages gives students the opportunity to delve into a subject in either one or more than one language: they have more freedom of choice with respect to the course material. Help for finding course literature is available from the staff of the Learning Centre. Office 365 (which includes Word, PowerPoint, etc.) has a built-in translation tool for converting documents from one language to another. Note: Remember to check the automatic translation, as AI may produce faulty translations. |
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| Prepare examination questions and assignments along with their translations. | It is beneficial to offer examination questions in all languages of study attainments: this way, there is no need to gather information on the languages of study attainments from the students, and, on the other hand, the student can use all the languages they know to understand the question. The teacher can translate the questions themselves or inquire about the translation of exam questions from Aalto's translation services ([email protected]). | |
| Plan the real-time subtitling and translation of lectures and presentations. |
AI-based tools can help you to offer translation and subtitling of your lectures in real time. Real-time subtitling and translations of subtitles and meeting transcriptions can be useful aids in a multilingual teaching and learning environment. Real-time subtitling provides immediate transcription of speech into text, which is a valuable aid for students for whom the speech is not in a native language, as well as for hearing-impaired students and students who find it easier to understand information when presented as text. Automatically translated subtitles allow students to follow lectures in a language of their choosing. Computer-assisted transcriptions of meetings can provide comprehensive written accounts of the spoken contents of meetings, along with options for identifying the speakers and for time-stamping all parts of the discussion. While these AI-equipped tools can offer significant support to teacher, it is important to keep in mind that they are not error-free. Users should be wary of possible mistakes and errors in the accuracy of the translations. |
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| Subtitle recorded lectures and instructional videos. | A teacher may record a lecture or make an instructional video in Finnish and afterwards add automatically translated English subtitles. This would make the video accessible to students without the proficiency to understand the video without the subtitles. Note: Accessibility guidelines state that videos that are intended for permanent use must also have captioning in the original language (i.e. recordings in Finnish should have captions in Finnish also). |
Learning environment
| What | How | Instructions and further information |
|---|---|---|
| Create a multilingual workspace for your course in MyCourses. |
MyCourses learning environment provides a range of possibilities for creating multilingual versions, either of your whole course or of specific activities in it. For example, if you want to be able to conduct surveys and questionnaires or give students the option of turning in assignments in different languages, you can use MyCourses options for:
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Assessment and feedback
| What | How | Instructions and further information |
|---|---|---|
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Plan multilingual assessment and feedback methods. |
The language of the feedback can be different from the language of study attainment, as long as the teacher and students have agreed about the language and understand each other. Utilise self-assessment and peer feedback. Make translations of assessment criteria and any existing templates for receiving feedback. |
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| Prepare for receiving student assignments in multiple languages in MyCourses. |
If you want to provide your students with the chance to turn in assignments in different languages, MyCourses gives options for:
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| Provide students with the option of giving feedback on the course multilingually. | Aalto's course feedback tool allows interim feedback as well as final feedback on a course to be collected in Finnish, English and Swedish. The teacher can prepare different language versions of the questions, and the students can answer the feedback survey in the language they choose. |
Other tips for promoting multilingualism in teaching
Regardless of which programme your own teaching belongs to, you can always act in a language-aware way and promote multilingualism. Here are some ideas for the parallel use of languages. The tips use Finnish and English as examples, but they apply to other language pairs as well (Swedish–Finnish and Swedish–English).
| Tips | Why? |
|---|---|
| For an English lecture, provide an introduction and summary of the course in Finnish also. | To facilitate the Finnish-speakers’ comprehension and also to help international students develop Finnish skills. |
| Make your lecture slides in two languages. | Seeing languages in parallel helps students to follow the lecture and it supports their learning the terms and concepts in both languages. |
| Include Finnish terms when teaching in English by adding the terms to lecture slides, for example, or by handing out separate word lists. | Supports the learning of key concepts in the national languages of Finland (Finnish and Swedish). |
| Allow students to ask questions in Finnish during a lecture class given in English. You can restate the question in English (or ask the students to do so) and respond in English. | Allows student participation to be evaluated as part of their overall evaluation in cases where the language of the instruction is different from the language of study attainment. |
| Encourage students to perform information retrieval tasks multilingually in the languages they know. Urge them also to read texts in a language that is not their strongest. Offering supporting questions and a list of core concepts can help with reading. | This gives students the opportunity to use languages in a versatile manner, strengthening their proficiencies and skills for multilingual work. |
| Ask students to agree on the language used when they have classroom discussions in pairs or in small groups. Encourage them also to use different languages in discussions and thereby develop their language skills. | This gives students the flexibility to use either their primary language or one(s) they want to practice. |
| Ask students to indicate which language(s) they can or prefer to use in group work assignments for the course, then organise the groups accordingly. Encourage students to participate multilingually and use their developing language skills. The writing produced in group work may be done in the course's language of instruction, even if the discussions take place in a different language. | This gives students the flexibility to use either their primary language or one(s) they want to practice. This supports both inclusion and internationalisation, enabling the language of study attainment to remain in focus without automatically separating Finnish-speaking and international students from each other on a linguistic basis. |
| Allow students to present their project, research, group work, etc. multilingually and urge them to present it in a language in which they need practice. The use of terms lists, notes and presentation slides support communication skills. Questions from the audience and discussions can be conducted in a different language. | Builds students' self-assurance about giving a presentation in a different language; develops language proficiency. |
| Assignments may include model responses in different languages to show wordings for students to consider when formulating their own responses. | Supports the commensurability of students’ responses and develops students’ learning skills and language proficiency. |
Support services for teachers for carrying out multilingual teaching
For your questions about carrying out multilingual teaching, help is available from the heads of education at your own school (such as the manager of academic affairs or the vice dean for education) and from Learning Services (LES).
Your school’s pedagogical specialists and digipedagogical specialists can assist with planning the teaching methods and using the digital learning environments (such as MyCourses). You can find the specialists for your school on the Teacher Services web pages.
Through MyTeaching Support, you can receive planning and development assistance for pedagogical questions, get help on using digital learning environments, or enquire about pedagogical training.
Teacher services
The Teacher services team advances learning centricity and the quality of teaching by offering support services for the teaching staff. The team is a part of Learning Services.
MyTeaching Support - get help with your (digi)pedagogical questions
MyTeaching Support offers planning and development assistance for teachers for pedagogical reflection, use of digital learning environments, and questions related to pedagogical training.
Digital services for multilingual teaching
Digital platforms for teaching and learning in Aalto University
Every teacher's core digital platforms include the student information system Sisu and the digital learning environment MyCourses.
Here, you will also find digital platforms that facilitate everyday tasks in contact and online teaching.
AI supported translation tools used in Aalto
Get to know how Aalto's tools can support document and message translation, as well as multilingual teaching through features like live captions and translated subtitles. Already now.
Panopto media service
Panopto media service for uploading and sharing videos and for creating video captures and webcasts.
Main page for instructions of course feedback tool
At Aalto University, course feedback is collected from almost all courses. On these pages you will find teacher's instructions for using the course feedback tool on MyCourses.
Aalto University language guidelines
General language guidelines
Aalto University language policies and principles
Guidelines on the languages of the degrees and instruction
Guidelines on the languages of the degrees and instruction ((in force from 1 January 2024)
Applying the language guidelines to teaching
This page contains instructions for teachers and programme directors on how Aalto’s Guidelines on the Languages of the Degrees and Instruction affects the planning and implementation of teaching.
Other pages related to the topic in aalto.fi
Tools and tips for teaching
On this page we have gathered different teaching-related tools and guidelines on different themes to support the planning and implementing of teaching.
Teaching practices
A checklist for teaching practices and steps that need to be taken over the entire lifespan of a course.
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