Eija Aalto: Coordinator

   Surname: Aalto
First name: Eija
Address for correspondence: e-mail
Nationality: Finnish

Affiliation with educational networks/association

  • AFinLa (Association finlandaise de linguistique appliquée);
  • ÄOL (Association of Finnish mother tongue teachers);
  • S2-opettajien yhdistys ry. (Association of teachers of Finnish as a second language);
  • OAJ (Trade Union of Education in Finland)

Work information

Occupation or position
currently held:
Senior Lecturer in the Pedagogy of Finnish Language, Literature and Finnish as a Second Language
Main activities and responsibilities: At the Department of Teacher Education: responsible for the In-Service teacher training, and for the basic education of students specialising in Finnish as a second language
Name of employer: University of Jyväskylä, Department of Teacher Education
Country of employment: Finland

Languages of communication

Mother tongue: Finnish
Other languages: English, Swedish, German, Estonian

Project expertise

Marille - Majority language instruction as basis for plurilingual education. Diversifying "Mother Tongue" Teaching in Multilingual Contexts.

Expertise in the topic of this project

Practice in the field:

Teacher education:

Further education of in-service teachers on a regular basis: topics covering e.g. SLA, evaluation of language skills, functional aspects in language teaching (1991- to date) 

MA level pre-teacher education for all subject areas (evaluation of language skills and teaching methods in multilingual classrooms) and for those specialising in Finnish as a second language (2005 – to date)

Lecturer and course designer:
Finnish as a second language teacher (exchange and degree students and summer courses; Secondary school). Numerous courses in all difficulty levels (1989 – to date)

Materials design:
Study book series of 3 books (incl. teacher's guides and cd's) for comprehensive school in Finnish as a second language (2007 - 2009);
Electronic SOPPI-material: web-based material for teacher education on evaluation of language skills of students in multilingual and heterogeneous groups and adapting teaching methods;
A lot of experience in designing web-based learning materials

Other relevant experience:

Evaluator of Finnish as a second language test performances in The Finnish National Foreign Language Certificate (1994 – to date)

Test writer in The Finnish National Foreign Language Certificate (1994 – to date) 

Publications

  • Boeckmann, K-B., E. Aalto, A. Abel, T. Atanassoska, T. Lamb (2011). Promoting plurilingualism. Majority language in multilingual settings. Graz: European Centre for Modern Languages / Council of Europe.
  • Aalto, E. & M. Kauppinen (2011). Tavoitteena monikielinen äidinkielen ja kirjallisuuden opetus. 'Plurilingual majority language teaching as an aim' Published in AFinLA-e: //ojs.tsv.fi/index.php/afinla/article/view/4453
  • Aalto, E., Mustonen, S., Tukia, K. 2009. Funktionaalisuus toisen kielen opetuksen lähtökohtana. 'Functionalism as a basis for second language teaching'  – Virittäjä 113 (3), 402–423.
  • Aalto, E., K. Tukia & S. Mustonen 2010. Oppimisen prosessia ohjaamassa. 'Supervising the learning process' In Tani, H. & Nissilä,L. (eds.) Tasolta toiselle. Opas kielitaidon tasojen kuvausasteikon käyttöön suomi toisena kielenä -opetuksessa. Opetushallitus. 6 - 23.
  • Electronic SOPPI-material: web-based material for teacher education on evaluation of language skills of students in multilingual and heterogeneous groups and adapting teaching methods: //virtuaaliyliopisto.jyu.fi/soppi