Resumen de Evidence of language loss in progress?: Mother-tongue proficiency among students in Finland and Sweden

Therese Leinonen, Marika Tandefelt

• In this article we present some results from a study of Swedish language proficiency among young Swedish-speaking Finns and Swedes. The aim of the study was to find potential signs of language loss in the Swedish-speaking community in Finland. The participants were first-year university students representing four educational programs. We measured language proficiency using two different tests: an idiomatics test and a cloze test. In both tests the Swedish-speaking Finnish students showed poorer results than the students from Sweden. The results in the idiomatics test for the students from Finland were dependent on the variables language use, bilingualism, and geographical region. These variables show that a more extensive use of Swedish and more opportunities to use the language lead to a better mastery of idiomatic language. Some Swedish-speaking Finns living in areas dominated by Finnish do not automatically get these opportunities to develop their language skills in Swedish. Our conclusion is that there are signs of language loss within the Finland-Swedish minority group.