Values and Attitudes of Nordic Language Teachers Towards Second Language Education (original) (raw)

Second Language and Mother Tongue Education for Immigrant Children in Nordic Educational Policies: Search for a Common Nordic Dimension

Second Language and Mother Tongue Education for Immigrant Children in Nordic Educational Policies: Search for a Common Nordic Dimension, 2023

The purpose of this article is to investigate whether and how a common Nordic dimension underlies existing policies on second language (L2) and immigrant mother tongue (L1) education. Our research question was: What do policy documents in the five Nordic countries say about L2 and L1 instruction? The theoretical foundation lies in the research fields of language policies and social justice. Document analysis was used to analyze policy documents. Our results show that there is a common Nordic dimension regarding L2 and L1 instruction, demonstrated through an explicit ambition to provide opportunities for the education of immigrant students in L2 and L1. However, there are differences between the Nordic countries in their commitment to principles of social justice, and how the policies are implemented.

Language, citizenship and schooling: A minority teacher’s perspective

London Review of Education, 2021

In an age in which a shift towards increased authoritarianism and populism means that citizenship is defined in increasingly exclusive ways, migrant teachers’ perspectives are vital in informing inclusive educational decision making, policies and practices. We draw on the life history tradition to present the perspectives of one minority teacher, living and working in Norway. Elif, a Turkish-Norwegian, reflects on her motivations in pursuing teaching as a career. As a multilingual minority teacher, she considers the relationships between language use, citizenship and belonging. For Elif, having Turkish roots and living in Norway presents certain advantages, possibilities and challenges, both in school and society. She suggests that her intercultural experiences and multilingual skills provide her with insights that enable special relationships with minority students, whose language skills and identities she seeks to activate and demystify. She identifies tensions between the Norwegi...

WORKING PAPER SERIES Managing Immigrant Multilingualism in Swedish Compulsory Schools

This paper focuses on how language policies formulated at the national level are accommodated, challenged and negotiated by school politicians at the local level. Local school politicians are of particular interest here because in Sweden it is the task of the municipal educational committees to ensure that educational activities are conducted in compliance with state regulations and guidelines. The results suggest that there is a large discrepancy between politico-idological discourses on multilingualism and multiculturalism and the educational discourses on Swedish as the key to school success

Language and Initial Literacy Training for Immigrants: the Norwegian Approach

Providing equal access to lifelong learning for all adults in the country is an important principle of Norwegian educational policy. To ensure that this principle is implemented in practice, it is necessary to focus especially on adults with low levels of education. Their involvement in lifelong learning activities is promoted with a threefold objective: to enhance the quality of life of the individual, to benefit society by ensuring active citizenship, and to serve the interests of the country’s economy by increasing the employability of the work force. These principles are of particular importance when applied to a relatively new sector of Norwegian society: the immigrants. According to a 2012 White Paper from the Norwegian Government, “the most important goal for the Government’s integration policy is to ensure that all people who live in Norway are able to utilize their resources and participate in the community.” To achieve this goal it is essential to ensure the communication flow, which on the side of the immigrant involves both oral mastery of the language of the host country, a measure of understanding of the host country’s culture, and a good level of literacy. A focus on functional literacy permeates current Norwegian educational policy at all levels. Literacy is no longer perceived in terms of a dichotomy alphabetism vs analphabetism, nor simply as a set of autonomous skills to be mastered, but as the core component of living communication. Within the educational field working on immigrant integration, however, both the thematic and ideological approach to this issue, the prevailing regulations, the structure of the provision and the didactic approach have undergone many changes in the past forty years. This article will attempt to give an overview of these developments and identify the main strengths and challenges of the current situation.

State Organized Language Learning for Immigrants in Norway: a Case Study of a Selection of Local Courses

Studies About Languages, 2012

This article examines Norwegian language courses in Norway aimed at newly arrived immigrants. The study is based on the analysis of data obtained from a survey of participants of such courses, and the results show the stronger and weaker points of this kind of language training. Among other topics examined are the participants' backgrounds, motivations for learning and linguistic habits. The article also describes how language courses for immigrants are organised in Norway, and what kind of rights and obligations immigrants there have with regards to language learning. The Norwegian approach to language learning for immigrants is then briefly compared to the way such challenges are met in Lithuania. In order to better describe the strenghts and weaknessed of the Norwegian way of organising language courses for immigrants, data from the VOX database (Norwegian Agency for Lifelong Learning) has been incorporated. These data consist of both basic information regarding the participa...

Anglonormativity in Norwegian language education policy and in the educational trajectories of immigrant adolescents

Language Policy, 2022

In the Nordic countries, policy debates about English often highlight the threat of domain loss for national languages, but the high status of English may also have a differential impact on people in Nordic societies. This article investigates a policy gap in Norwegian upper secondary education, whereby an advanced English subject requirement may hinder graduation for immigrant adolescents with little previous English instruction, despite English not being the medium of education in Norway. The aim of the study is to examine the impact of the upper secondary English requirement and of sheltered instruction as a local policy solution for such students. I use nexus analysis (Hult, 2015) to analyze ethnographic data from one upper secondary school that created an ad hoc sheltered English class. Data include field notes, classroom video and audio recordings, language portraits, and interviews with one school leader, one teacher, and six students. I draw on decolonial theory (e.g., García et al., 2021; Santos, 2007), notably Anglonormativity (McKinney, 2017), to trace discursive, interactional, and personal policy scales. I found that the sheltered class reflected discourses of integration and Anglonormativity, but nonetheless offered greater affordances for participation than a mainstream English class. Furthermore, comparing the emphasis on English remediation with students' broader repertoires surfaced possibilities for reframing students as resourceful multilingual learners. I discuss policy options that might better address underlying issues of epistemic justice, compared to solutions limited to increasing students' proficiency in languages of power like English.

Multilingualism at a school for newly arrived students in Norway

International Journal of Multilingualism, 2022

Research shows that having a multilingual background has many advantages. However, several studies indicate that students’ multilingual backgrounds are not used as resources in the classroom. Most classroom studies on multilingualism have been conducted at mainstream schools, and a few in classes for newly arrived students at mainstream schools. This study investigates teachers’ qualifications, perceptions and practices concerning multilingualism at a secondary school in Norway devoted entirely to newly arrived students. Using mixed methods, the findings reveal that teachers possess some basic knowledge of multilingualism, but fail to apply the knowledge in classroom settings. They focus primarily on the development of students’ second language, in this case Norwegian, even in third language classes such as English, indicating that they believe language learning occurs stepwise rather than simultaneously. The study calls for more classroom research on how newly arrived students’ language proficiencies are recognised, assessed, seen as resources and utilised in their education.

Mother tongue education in four Nordic countries - problem, right or resource?

Apples - Journal of Applied Language Studies

The Declaration of a Nordic Language Policy stipulates that all Nordic residents have the right to preserve and develop their mother tongue and their national minority languages. Hence, this article investigates the question of mother tongue education for linguistic minority students. Through four ‘telling cases’, the article explores how four Nordic countries, Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden, orient towards mother tongues, Indigenous and national minority languages in their educational policies. Drawing on Ruíz’ (1984) framework of orientations in language planning, we investigate the following question: In what ways are mother tongues framed as rights, resources, or problems in four telling cases of educational policy in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden? The analysis of the telling cases shows that although all four countries provide various forms of mother tongue education, thus apparently aligning with the intentions in the Declaration of a Nordic Language Policy, there ...

Overcoming language barriers to citizenship: Predictors of adult immigrant satisfaction with language training programme in Sweden

Education, Citizenship and Social Justice, 2018

The Scandinavian countries currently face their largest ever wave of immigration. The immigration wave increases the need for immigrants to learn the host language to be able to participate in work life and become a citizen of the host country. Yet, the language training programmes-'Swedish for Immigrants' in Sweden have come under great criticism for inefficiency. But now, surveys have been carried out with the adult immigrants taking part in the language training programmes. Consequently, the purpose of the present study is to identify predictors of adult immigrant students' attitudes towards language learning at the training programmes in Sweden. Using survey data collected from adult immigrants participating in the language training programmes, we conduct a series of ordinary least squares regressions. We report that the majority of immigrant students are satisfied with the language programmes. Our findings indicate that satisfaction seems to be due to variables such as level of education, age at arrival, and language exposure through social networks but not to socioeconomic status or sex.