Creation & Development of Teaching Materials in Nynorsk 6. november 2008 Hjalmar Eiksund, Nynorsksenteret

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

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

A Brief Historical Review Legal Status of Nynorsk – Enjoys strong legal protection from the Norwegian 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).

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.

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

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.

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

The Creation of Teaching Materials Primary & Lower Secondary Schools – Audio-visual teaching materials If 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

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

The Creation of Teaching Materials Primary & Lower Secondary Schools – National web portals for teaching resources Somewhat 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.

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.

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.

The Creation of Teaching Materials Upper Secondary Schools National web portals for teaching resources – Almost equal situation to the lower secondary schools. – Work in progress on: Commercial actor to provide online resources State web portal targeting the upper secondary level

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.

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

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.

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

Nynorsksenteret The 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.

Nynorsksenteret The National Centre for the Teaching of Nynorsk Target groups: – teachers – school administrators – teacher trainers – researchers – developers of teaching resources

Nynorsksenteret The 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

Nynorsksenteret The National Centre for the Teaching of Nynorsk Examples of products made or supported by Nynorsksenteret: – Interactive training in Nynorsk grammar. – Linguistic examples of everyday use of Nynorsk. – Example of how to use cartoons in education of Nynorsk. – Educational movies of good methods in education of Nynorsk. – Grammar to Nynorsk made for minority language pupils. – A brand new anthology of Nynorsk literature in pre-primary education – Magazine free of charge, containing methods and inspiring stories of excellent teaching experiences.

Nynorsksenteret The National Centre for the Teaching of Nynorsk In short Main 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.

Thank you