54
Finnish and Hungarian Philology
UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI NAPOLI "L'ORIENTALE"
Overview
Date/time interval
Syllabus
Course Objectives
FINNISH LANGUAGE I-II-III
EXPECTED LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of the course, students will achieve language skills and abilities corresponding to A1 (Year I), A2 (Year II) and B1 (Year III) levels of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR).
APPLYING KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING
Students will be expected to demonstrate:
at the end of the Finnish Language I course
> that they know the basic grammatical structures of the Finnish language and have good elementary language proficiency in it, both oral and written, allowing them to interact in some everyday communicative situations;
at the end of the Finnish Language II course
> that they have an advanced knowledge of the majority of the grammatical structures of the Finnish language, the elements of syntax related to the structure of the simple sentence, as well as to possess good linguistic competence, both oral and written, enabling them to interact in a good number of communicative situations;
at the end of the Finnish Language III course
> that they have an advanced knowledge of the structures of the Finnish language and they possess in-depth linguistic competence, both oral and written, enabling them to produce and understand a text and/or a written/oral message, placing it in the proper cultural context.
ADDITIONAL EXPECTED LEARNING OUTCOMES
Making judgements
Upon completion of the course, students should demonstrate the ability to interpret and synthesize original texts in Finnish language in a personal and effective manner.
Communication skills
Upon completion of the course, students will be expected to demonstrate their ability to argue in a clear and fitting manner in Finnish. Students will be expected to demonstrate their ability to understand, analyze and translate written texts of various kinds.
Learning skills
Upon completion of the course, students will be expected to have acquired the critical abilities necessary to find in-depth material for further reading that are appropriate to the syllabus of each course.
FINNISH LITERATURE I-II
EXPECTED LEARNING OUTCOMES
The program aims to provide a comprehensive view of the culture and literature of Finland from its origins to the contemporary age.
APPLYING KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING
Students are expected to demonstrate a knowledge and understanding of the literary texts covered during the course.
ADDITIONAL EXPECTED LEARNING OUTCOMES
Making judgements
Students should be able to reflect independently on themes, trends and texts covered as well as to apply critically and with autonomy of judgment the methodological tools learned.
Communication skills
Students should be able to describe, from the perspective of their personal reading experiences, the literary texts and themes covered in class.
Course Prerequisites
For the first-year course(s), there are no prerequisites.
For the subsequent year(s), prerequisites correspond to the skills and abilities acquired in previous year(s).
Teaching Methods
The Finnish language courses consist in 1) a module lasting one semester, of 48/54 hours of frontal teaching, held by the professor in the first semester and 2) a module lasting one year (referring to the academic year) of practical communication exercises, held by the foreign language instructor (CEL) whose mother tongue is Finnish.
The classes are interactive, participatory and aim to develop communication skills, thus requiring active and continuous participation by attending the classes frequently.
In case a student is unable to attend the classes, they will have to contact the professor (adequately in advance of the session during which they wish to take the examination) during office hours in order to obtain the necessary instructions on the use of the study materials.
The teaching and study materials for the class activities and for preparing for the exam will be available online on the Moodle (CLAOR) e-learning platform, also accessible for those who are not attending courses.
All students, attending or not, are invited to subscribe to the university Moodle (CLAOR) e-learning platform.
Assessment Methods
FINNISH LANGUAGE EXAMINATIONS
Each exam consists in
1) a written language assessment test (performed via Moodle),
2) a test to assess oral skills (“speaking”), carried out by the CEL, as well as
3) an oral exam carried out by the professor.
The written test, which is preparatory for the “speaking” and the oral exam, consist of exercises and a questionnaire (multiple choice, short answer, etc.), based on which the level of language comprehension as well as of lexical, grammatical and stylistic abilities will be assessed.
Once the student has passed the written test, they may participate in the test to assess oral skills, which will be on topics that have been discussed during the linguistic practice.
Once again, it is necessary to participate regularly in the linguistic practice with the Finnish language CEL, carried out during the entire academic year.
The evaluation of the assessment will be given on a scale of A-D: receiving the notes A, B or C means that the student has passed the test, receiving a D means that they have not passed the test.
The students that have passed the first two tests will be able to take the oral exam, which will be held in-person and consist of an oral exam by the professor in Italian and in Finnish. During the oral exam, the competences and the abilities acquired during the course will be tested on topics related to the study plan.
This exam will be evaluated with a numeral note between 18 and 30, with consideration to the results of the previous two tests.
Not passing the written and the oral skills tests affects the possibility of taking the oral exam.
FINNISH LITERATURE EXAMINATIONS
The oral exams for the Finnish Literature courses will be held in-person, mainly in Italian but possible to carry out in Finnish as well, following the instructions given by the professor during the first lessons.
Each student wanting to take a Finnish literature exam will have to, in due time, agree on a topic which is relevant to the study plan with the professor. The topic will be presented during the exam based on the instructions mentioned above.
The exams will be evaluated based on a few basic criteria, primarily the ability to analyze and synthesize the given material, the thoroughness of knowledge, correct use of terminology, originality of the approach and personal thoughts.
The evaluation will be given as a numeral note between 18 and 30, with a vote below 18 meaning not having passed the exam.
Texts
The following publications are of a generic nature. During classes there will be other study materials provided and they will be available on the Moodle platform.
Lena Dal Pozzo & Elina Ylinärä (2021) Totta kai! Corso di lingua finlandese. Milano: Hoepli.
Fred Karlsson (2013) Grammatica finlandese. Fonologia. Morfologia. Cenni di sintassi. Ed. Lena Dal Pozzo. Milano: Hoepli.
Leila White (2019) Suomen kielioppia ulkomaalaisille. Helsinki: Finn Lectura.
Kai Laitinen (1995) La letteratura finlandese: un breve profilo. Transl. Maria Antonietta Iannella-Helenius, Helsinki : Otava.
Viola Parente-Čapková (2025) "Profilo di letteratura finlandese", in la Rondine, online: https://rondine.fi/2025/02/profilo-di-letteratura-finlandese/
George C. Schoolfield (ed.) (1998) A History of Finland’s Literature. Vol. 4, Histories of Scandinavian Literature. Lincoln-London: University of Nebraska Press.
Massimo Longo Adorno (2014) Storia della Finlandia contemporanea, Milano: Franco Angeli.
Contents
FINNISH LANGUAGE I-II-III
1) The Finnish language and its place in the European linguistic landscape
2) Phonetic, morphological, syntactic, and lexical characteristics of the Finnish language
3) Standard Finnish and its relation to the spoken variants of Finnish
4) Introduction to literary translation and to the contrastive analysis of Italian and Finnish
FINNISH LITERATURE I-II
1) Finnish literature in its historical development
2) Significant authors and works of contemporary literature in Finland
3) Reading and analysis of literary passages in Finnish and/or in their Italian (or English) translations
Course Language
Italian and Finnish
More information
For any other information, please contact the professor by sending an email provided by her.