Familiarise yourself with the aspects of mediation shown in the picture.

Discuss with your partner.

How you make use of mediation when you speak

• to someone in your first language (when you have a common first language)
• to someone in your first language, (when you are speaking to someone for whom your first language is a foreign language)
• in a language that is foreign to you, but which is a first language to the person you are speaking to
• a language that is foreign to you and to the person you are speaking to.

Pick an assignment you have completed in class, such as an essay.

1. What kind of feedback did you receive (e.g., on structure, fluency, spelling,…)?
2. Did you understand the feedback you received?
3. Did you feel that the feedback you received was

• relevant?
• Fair?

4. Did the feedback you received help you understand

• what skills you could still improve?
• Where could you pay more attention in the future to achieve a better result?
• How could you improve your skills?

This task can be completed as part of a process writing exercise.

Read the abstract of the final report of a study conducted at the Turku School of Economics, pp. 4–5: https://www.utu.fi/sites/default/files/media/KieVi/Raportti%20Kielitaitotarpeet.pdf.

The report looks into the language needs that someone with an MBA (Master of Business Administration) degree might need in working life.

1. Start by making a list of possible jobs where you could imagine working after general upper secondary school.
2. Think about the language skills required for the jobs you have mentioned. You can use the report to support your reflections.
3. Next, consider how language skills could be developed while working in the professions you have listed. Do the jobs require skills in, for example, creative use of language, use of precise official language, professional terminology, or scientific vocabulary? What cultural skills are required? Are particular languages more appreciated than others?
4. In what ways might your language skills develop alongside your chosen profession towards a more specific, specialist language?

This task functions well as an introductory task when compiling a Language CV.

Reflect on the following questions individually or in pairs.

1. How do you use your knowledge of your first language(s) (L1) to learn a new language?
2. How do you use the skills you develop in L1 classes to learn other languages? Think about skills such as presentation skills, interaction skills, and the ability to structure and bring coherence to a text.

1. Individually or in pairs, reflect on similarities between languages you know. You can start by thinking about issues such as vocabulary, language structures, communication styles and cultures. What similarities can you identify?
2. Do you take advantage of the similarities between the languages you know to learn them better? In what ways?

Watch this video from the British Council: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l57XikZUURU.

a) Which languages would you like to be more fluent in?

b) In your opinion, how does having realistic goals and monitoring your learning help you maintain your motivation to learn languages?

c) How can you make language learning more motivating for yourself?

Pick up a piece of evidence of your knowledge of a language from high school, such as an essay.

1. What kind of feedback have you received? For example, think about the structure, fluency or spelling of the text.
2. Did you understand the feedback you received?
3. Did you feel that the feedback you received

• relevant?
• was it fair?

4. Did the feedback you received help you to understand

• what skills you could still improve?
• what could you pay more attention to in the future to achieve a better result?
• how could you improve your skills?

This exercise can be carried out, for example, as part of the process writing exercise.

Pick an assignment you have completed in class, such as an essay or a spoken assignment. Share it with your partner.

1. Give your partner feedback on their performance. Reflect on the following

• What was particularly good about the performance?
• What would you do to improve the performance, if it were up to you?
• What advice could you give to your partner to improve their performance? Where could they look for help? Consider, for example, learning materials, Youtube channels, etc.

2. Reflect on the feedback you gave each other

• How could you make concrete use of the advice given by your partner? Write down two concrete ways.
• Did you learn anything new?
• How did you feel about getting feedback? How did you respond? Can you make use of the feedback you received in your future studies?

Subvertising, or creating parodies of advertisements (that resemble genuine ads; “anti-ads”) to make an ironic statement, takes a stand on social problems by using language that aims to influence, for example, consumer attitudes or consumption habits. They often comment on consumerism and the inequalities of world trade. You can find subvertisements, for example, in the subvertisement gallery of Voima Kustannus (in Finnish).

1. Find an anti-ad and look at how language is used (e.g., vocabulary to start with).
2. What does the anti-ad comment on? What is it about and what sort of perspective does it take on the matter at hand?
3. How does the anti-ad make its point? What kind of language is used?

This task can be done individually, in pairs, or in groups.

Internationalism and human rights go hand in hand. One way to promote international and ethical conduct is to work through different third sector organisations. By getting involved in, for example, community organisations or non-governmental organisations (NGOs), you can gainwork experience that can prove useful when finding your own direction in life.

1. Find out more about different organisations operating in Finland and abroad.
2. Think about your values and what is important to you. What are the issues that you would like to make an impact on, and does this affect the type of organisation you would like to be involved in? You can also take a critical look at how organisations operate.
3. Consider whether any of the organisations you got to know spiked your interest. Would you like to take part in the organisation? In what role would your skills be useful or what would you like to learn by getting involved?
   

If you are working in pairs, discuss the ideas that come up or introduce the organisations you have chosen to each other.