Creation & Development of Teaching Materials in Nynorsk

Creation & Development of Teaching Materials in Nynorsk

6. november 2008

Hjalmar Eiksund, Nynorsksenteret [email protected]

• 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


• 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.


• Primary & Lower Secondary Schools– Printed materials

The market is well supplied with books in both written forms of Norwegian.


• 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


• 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)


• 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.


• 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.


• 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.


• Upper Secondary SchoolsNational web portals for teaching resources– Almost equal situation to the lower secondary

schools.– Work in progress on:• www.diglib.no

Commercial actor to provide online resources• www.ndla.no

State web portal targeting the upper secondary level


• 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.


• 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

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.


• Target groups:– teachers– school administrators– teacher trainers– researchers– developers of teaching resources


• 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

NynorsksenteretThe National Centre for the Teaching of Nynorsk• Examples of products made or supported by

Nynorsksenteret:– www.nynorsksenteret.no/kurs

Interactive training in Nynorsk grammar.– www.nynorsksenteret.no/tekstbasen

Linguistic examples of everyday use of Nynorsk.– www.nynorsksenteret.no/teikneseriar

Example of how to use cartoons in education of Nynorsk.– www.skuleipraksis.no

Educational movies of good methods in education of Nynorsk.– www.nynorsksenteret.no/grammatikk

Grammar to Nynorsk made for minority language pupils.– www.nynorsksenteret.no/lesformeg

A brand new anthology of Nynorsk literature in pre-primary education– www.nynorsksenteret.no/blad

Magazine free of charge, containing methods and inspiring stories of excellent teaching experiences.


• 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.

Thank you

www.nynorsksenteret.no

Documents

Creation & Development of Teaching Materials in Nynorsk