Demystifying Multilingualism and Intercultural Competence in Norwegian Secondary Schools. 16th February 2022
At the backdrop of globalisation, international mobility and continuously diverse and multicultural societies, the Norwegian curriculum for the second foreign language (L3) recognises multilingualism and intercultural competence as core elements of language learning. Multilingualism and intercultural competence are however complex and contested concepts. This contention influences how they are implemented in Norwegian secondary schools - begging for this complexity to be demystified. At the backdrop of globalisation, international mobility and continuously diverse and multicultural societies, the Norwegian curriculum for the second foreign language (L3) recognises multilingualism and intercultural competence as core elements of language learning. Multilingualism and intercultural competence are however complex and contested concepts. This contention influences how they are implemented in Norwegian secondary schools - begging for this complexity to be demystified.
Main content
In this seminar, Irina Tiurikova will present the findings of her PhD study which falls under the Ungspråk project. Her study, which focuses on teachers’ views on the intersection of multilingualism and intercultural competence, finds the implementation of these concepts as highly dependent on the teachers who play the main role in implementing them. Tiurikova’s presentation will address the following key questions: (1) How do foreign language teachers in Norwegian secondary schools conceptualise multilingualism and intercultural competence in relation to foreign language teaching? (2) To what extent and how do these teachers see these two core elements as complex but at the same time interrelated? The study is based on qualitative semi-structured interviews conducted with six teachers of foreign languages from different secondary schools in Western Norway.