Language exam sets guidelines for teaching and motivates speaking
Keywords:
Finnish language, impact, Ingrians, language exams, washbackAbstract
This is a study on washback of a language exam in Ingrians’ language course in 2003–2016. Ingrians are ethnic Finns who have been living in Russia for many generations. In order to immigrate to Finland on the basis of Finnish origin they had to prove Finnish language skills in A2 level. In this research I analyze how the teachers describe the washback of the exam on their teaching. The teachers were working in Russia, teaching Finnish to Ingrians who intended to move to Finland. The data consists mainly of interviews with the teachers and with the specialists of the language exam committee. In the interviews I asked the
teachers to describe how the exam has influenced teaching content and methods and the atmosphere in the classroom. The strongest washback was on teaching content and methods, especially oral exercises, students’ good motivation and transparent objectives for the language course.
