Creation & Development of Teaching Materials in Nynorsk

1. Creation & Development of Teaching Materials in Nynorsk 6. november 2008 Hjalmar Eiksund, Nynorsksenteret hjalmar.eiksund@hivolda.no

2. A brief historical review • The Creation of Teaching Materials • Primary and lower secondary schools • Upper secondary schools • Higher education • The National Centre for Teaching of Nynorsk

3. A Brief Historical Review • Norwegian has two forms as a written medium • Bokmål (The Majority Language)Based on a former version of Danish, but is now an independent written variety of Norwegian. • Nynorsk (The Minority Language)Based on the Norwegian dialects, collected and systematised in the mid-nineteenth century. • Today Bokmål users outnumbers Nynorsk users by six to one. • The choice of main written language in a region often dictated by politics, class and local culture

4. A Brief Historical Review • Legal Status of Nynorsk • Enjoys strong legal protection from theNorwegian national assembly • 1878: Teaching offered in the spoken variety used by each pupil. • 1885: Nynorsk and Bokmål with equal status in school and public administration. • 1907: Examination in both written varieties as part of the teaching of the basic mother tongue (only in Upper secondary schools).

5. A Brief Historical Review • Legal Status of Nynorsk • Today • All teaching material must be available in both varieties, at the same time and at the same price. • Creation and Production of teaching materials are taken care of by the book editors. • All education is free of charge: All books from year 1 to year 13 are purchased by the authorities.

6. The Creation of Teaching Materials • Primary & Lower Secondary Schools • 98,3 % of all pupils attend public schools • The local education authority decide which written form (Bokmål or Nynorsk) to use at each school • The acquisition of teaching materials often delegated to each individual school

7. The Creation of Teaching Materials • Primary & Lower Secondary Schools • Parallel language groups of pupils:If at least ten pupils in the grades 1-7 demands teaching the other form og Norwegian than the common language to the area, the local council has to establish a minority language class.

8. The Creation of Teaching Materials • Primary & Lower Secondary Schools • Printed materialsThe market is well supplied with books in both written forms of Norwegian.

9. The Creation of Teaching Materials • Primary & Lower Secondary Schools • Audio-visual teaching materialsIf the teaching material are necessary in education, the law requires parallel language editions. Therefore some editors defines it as additional resources to avoid parallel versions. • Additional resources only available in Bokmål

10. The Creation of Teaching Materials • Primary & Lower Secondary Schools • Computer softwareAvailable in both written forms of Norwegian • Operative systems • Office support programmes • Web-readers • Support programmes (dyslexia and dyscalculia) • Learning management systems (LMS)

11. The Creation of Teaching Materials • Primary & Lower Secondary Schools • National web portals for teaching resourcesSomewhat different • Products of pedagogical pioneers • Parallel language versions are few and far between • Recent years: Several national web portals have been established whose aim is to categorize and simplify the access to the resources that do exist. • Difficult to find which ones written in Nynorsk.

12. The Creation of Teaching Materials • Upper Secondary Schools • 93,2 % of all pupils attend public schools. • The county education authority is legally responsible to meet the requirements of the law. • The acquisition of teaching materials often delegated to, and financed over the budget of each individual school. • The pupils themselves choose which variety to use in their own education.

13. The Creation of Teaching Materials • Upper Secondary Schools • Printed materials • The legal requirement of teaching material in both language at the same time in not respected in practice. • Many reports stated that the parallel Nynorsk versions appear on the market later than the Bokmål versions. • Some subjects are only available in a Bokmål edition. • Today there is far greater focus on this situation, and efforts are being made meeting the language requirements.

14. The Creation of Teaching Materials • Upper Secondary SchoolsNational web portals for teaching resources • Almost equal situation to the lower secondary schools. • Work in progress on: • www.diglib.noCommercial actor to provide online resources • www.ndla.noState web portal targeting the upper secondary level

15. The Creation of Teaching Materials • Government White Papers on language • The national authorities are aware of the problem of digital teaching materials • This autumn information has been gathered regarding the status of Nynorsk on the Internet. • Demands has been made to define the distinction between what is bound by the language law and which who are not. • Two white papers which both strengthen the legal status of Nynorsk.

16. The Creation of Teaching Materials • Higher Education • No legal requirement regulates the teaching language. • Many subjects only have books in other languages • Books with a mix of the two Norwegian variants

17. Challenges facing users of Nynorsk • A story of success • Legislative rights in schools. • Numbers of major national cultural and educational institutions use Nynorsk. • Large numbers of Nynorsk authors and writers. • Influential national and many local newspapers in Nynorsk. • Nynorsk in the national broadcasting media.

18. Challenges facing users of Nynorsk • A story of success ? • The majority language (Bokmål) has got the hegemony. • Bokmål dominates the major national newspapers. • Popular magazines, advertising and films are dominated by Bokmål. • Young people lack linguistic models in their everyday life. • Nynorsk is underrepresented in the society. • Lack of prestige

19. NynorsksenteretThe National Centre for the Teaching of Nynorsk • A national resource centre for Nynorsk in compulsory education. • Lead and co-ordinate research on the teaching of Nynorsk, methods and forms of assessment. • Contribute to the development of expertise and offer help and advice to motivate for and promote the learning of Nynorsk.

20. NynorsksenteretThe National Centre for the Teaching of Nynorsk • Target groups: • teachers • school administrators • teacher trainers • researchers • developers of teaching resources

21. NynorsksenteretThe National Centre for the Teaching of Nynorsk • Activities • Research & development work. • Pilot projects in cooperation with relevant professional environment, networks and organisations. • Improving language competence and furthering motivation for learning Nynorsk. • Positive experiences are systematised, tested and published

22. NynorsksenteretThe National Centre for the Teaching of Nynorsk • Examples of products made or supported by Nynorsksenteret: • www.nynorsksenteret.no/kursInteractive training in Nynorsk grammar. • www.nynorsksenteret.no/tekstbasenLinguistic examples of everyday use of Nynorsk. • www.nynorsksenteret.no/teikneseriarExample of how to use cartoons in education of Nynorsk. • www.skuleipraksis.noEducational movies of good methods in education of Nynorsk. • www.nynorsksenteret.no/grammatikkGrammar to Nynorsk made for minority language pupils. • www.nynorsksenteret.no/lesformegA brand new anthology of Nynorsk literature in pre-primary education • www.nynorsksenteret.no/bladMagazine free of charge, containing methods and inspiring stories of excellent teaching experiences.

23. NynorsksenteretThe National Centre for the Teaching of Nynorsk • In shortMain tasks: • Find areas in the teaching of Nynorsk that are underrepresented • Contribute to the development of new methods and resources • Make efforts to make these methods and teaching materials part of the local and national curriculum.

24. Thank you www.nynorsksenteret.no