TALLINN — Estonia’s Ministry of Education and Research released poll results Friday showing that 20 percent of freshmen enter universities with insufficient knowledge of the Estonian language to manage.

The ministry is concerned that a lack of functional knowledge of the language will prevent students from fully understanding course material, especially in science. The poll was conducted at the [private_supervisor]University of Tartu from Sept. 1 2009 to March 1, 2010, with 298 people taking an Estonian language test. The test is based on the language learning program in secondary and high schools.

The study concludes that teachers should give more attention on developing functional language skills for ethnic minority students, who are primarily ethnic Russians. The study suggests putting more classroom time for Estonian language lessons.

According to Jaak Viller, director of the linguistics department at the Ministry of Education and Science, said the ministry is trying to change the study plan in secondary and high schools, among other measures.

“The new language development plan contains measures such as teacher trainings, tests to rate the language level,” Viller told Baltic Reports. “It is important that teachers would also focus on functional language skills, not only on the grammar.”

Given that only 20 percent have insufficient skills, it’s possible that more effort from indvidual students could be part of the problem as opposed to a structural issue in their education. Veera Šmõreitšik is an ethnic Russian 21-year-old student at the Tallinn Health Care College. Before college, Šmõreitšik attended Järve High School in Kohtla-Järve, a small city in northeastern Estonia.

Šmõreitšik speaks fluent Estonian, and told Baltic Reports that while schools could change methods, students can already learn if they apply themselves enough.

“Our teacher told us to write essays for ourselves, not the class, and that’s what we did,” Šmõreitšik said metaphorically.

Šmõreitšik said teachers could require students to read more Estonian literature, make more Estonian language group exercises in class, and write more essays in Estonian. [/private_supervisor] [private_subscription 1 month]University of Tartu from Sept. 1 2009 to March 1, 2010, with 298 people taking an Estonian language test. The test is based on the language learning program in secondary and high schools.

The study concludes that teachers should give more attention on developing functional language skills for ethnic minority students, who are primarily ethnic Russians. The study suggests putting more classroom time for Estonian language lessons.

According to Jaak Viller, director of the linguistics department at the Ministry of Education and Science, said the ministry is trying to change the study plan in secondary and high schools, among other measures.

“The new language development plan contains measures such as teacher trainings, tests to rate the language level,” Viller told Baltic Reports. “It is important that teachers would also focus on functional language skills, not only on the grammar.”

Given that only 20 percent have insufficient skills, it’s possible that more effort from indvidual students could be part of the problem as opposed to a structural issue in their education. Veera Šmõreitšik is an ethnic Russian 21-year-old student at the Tallinn Health Care College. Before college, Šmõreitšik attended Järve High School in Kohtla-Järve, a small city in northeastern Estonia.

Šmõreitšik speaks fluent Estonian, and told Baltic Reports that while schools could change methods, students can already learn if they apply themselves enough.

“Our teacher told us to write essays for ourselves, not the class, and that’s what we did,” Šmõreitšik said metaphorically.

Šmõreitšik said teachers could require students to read more Estonian literature, make more Estonian language group exercises in class, and write more essays in Estonian. [/private_subscription 1 month] [private_subscription 4 months]University of Tartu from Sept. 1 2009 to March 1, 2010, with 298 people taking an Estonian language test. The test is based on the language learning program in secondary and high schools.

The study concludes that teachers should give more attention on developing functional language skills for ethnic minority students, who are primarily ethnic Russians. The study suggests putting more classroom time for Estonian language lessons.

According to Jaak Viller, director of the linguistics department at the Ministry of Education and Science, said the ministry is trying to change the study plan in secondary and high schools, among other measures.

“The new language development plan contains measures such as teacher trainings, tests to rate the language level,” Viller told Baltic Reports. “It is important that teachers would also focus on functional language skills, not only on the grammar.”

Given that only 20 percent have insufficient skills, it’s possible that more effort from indvidual students could be part of the problem as opposed to a structural issue in their education. Veera Šmõreitšik is an ethnic Russian 21-year-old student at the Tallinn Health Care College. Before college, Šmõreitšik attended Järve High School in Kohtla-Järve, a small city in northeastern Estonia.

Šmõreitšik speaks fluent Estonian, and told Baltic Reports that while schools could change methods, students can already learn if they apply themselves enough.

“Our teacher told us to write essays for ourselves, not the class, and that’s what we did,” Šmõreitšik said metaphorically.

Šmõreitšik said teachers could require students to read more Estonian literature, make more Estonian language group exercises in class, and write more essays in Estonian. [/private_subscription 4 months] [private_subscription 1 year]University of Tartu from Sept. 1 2009 to March 1, 2010, with 298 people taking an Estonian language test. The test is based on the language learning program in secondary and high schools.

The study concludes that teachers should give more attention on developing functional language skills for ethnic minority students, who are primarily ethnic Russians. The study suggests putting more classroom time for Estonian language lessons.

According to Jaak Viller, director of the linguistics department at the Ministry of Education and Science, said the ministry is trying to change the study plan in secondary and high schools, among other measures.

“The new language development plan contains measures such as teacher trainings, tests to rate the language level,” Viller told Baltic Reports. “It is important that teachers would also focus on functional language skills, not only on the grammar.”

Given that only 20 percent have insufficient skills, it’s possible that more effort from indvidual students could be part of the problem as opposed to a structural issue in their education. Veera Šmõreitšik is an ethnic Russian 21-year-old student at the Tallinn Health Care College. Before college, Šmõreitšik attended Järve High School in Kohtla-Järve, a small city in northeastern Estonia.

Šmõreitšik speaks fluent Estonian, and told Baltic Reports that while schools could change methods, students can already learn if they apply themselves enough.

“Our teacher told us to write essays for ourselves, not the class, and that’s what we did,” Šmõreitšik said metaphorically.

Šmõreitšik said teachers could require students to read more Estonian literature, make more Estonian language group exercises in class, and write more essays in Estonian. [/private_subscription 1 year]

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