ELT in Finland

Abstract

This entry describes ELT at basic and secondary levels of education (Grades 1–12) in Finland. We discuss some major currents in Finnish society and its educational policy, or more specifically, in school curricula to consider the developments within ELT and the potential challenges therein. Today, the groups of students are increasingly multilingual and multicultural. Further, learners are exposed to English not only in the classroom but also in the various out‐of‐classroom contexts. English is used not only to interact with native speakers but also with other non‐native speakers of the language at home and abroad, thus functioning as a lingua franca or a global language.