Osus! – an abbreviation of the project’s name in Finnish Ohjatusti sujuvaan suomeen – or Guiding Towards Fluent Finnish is the development project (2023—2025) for Finnish as a Foreign Language education at the Centre of Language and Communication Studies, CeLCS. The project is funded by the strategic funding from the Ministry of Education and Culture and involves Finnish as a Foreign Language teachers in CeLCS. The strategic funding and project work enable the development of Finnish as a Foreign Language education towards more diverse opportunities for learning Finnish.
The project name, Guiding Towards Fluent Finnish, reflects its main objectives: to streamline Finnish language studies and increase student guidance. New, independently completed online courses, currently under development, will support the language learning of international talents and will be available in addition to in-person courses. Furthermore, the selection of Finnish as a Foreign Language courses in CeLCS will expand with optional courses.
The primary focus of Finnish as a Foreign Language education at the Language Centre is teaching Finnish language basics up to level B1. The students include international exchange students, degree students, doctoral researchers, and staff members. As part of the project, Finnish language teaching aims to be tailored to the specific needs of each group.
Within the Osus project, a completely new introductory course designed to enhance language learning readiness has been developed. Students can complete this course before starting their actual Finnish language studies. The idea is to allow students to begin exploring the Finnish language and building language learning skills as early as possible, even while still in their home country.
Feel free to get in touch if you would like to learn more about the project!
Project coordinator Emilia Hongisto, emilia.hongisto@utu.fi
Director of CeLCS Michael Nelson, micnel@utu.fi