ISBN: 87 7701 525 8
|
| ISSN: 0909 9328 ISBN: 87 7701 525 8 No 9, 1997: Theme: |
 |
Editors for no. 9: |
Foreword
Danish as a second language
Lis Kornum: The Council of Europe conference on foreign languages
Bergthóra S. Kristjánsdóttir: Danish as a second language in the Folkeskole FULL TEXT
Peter Villads Vedel: In search of a second language pedagogics
Karen Risager: Teaching Danish as a second language FULL TEXT
Anne Holmen: Danish as a second language
Jens Skovholm: Where are language schools going to?
Karen Tommerup Jensen: Danish in Greenland FULL TEXT
Johannes Wagner: A critical look at second language pedagogics
Anette Hagel-Sørensen, Jørgen Brems & Gitte Østergaard Nielsen: Is that meant to be Danish?
Marchen Haudrup & Torben Nielsen: Teaching and materials for teaching adult ethnic minorities in England and Germany
Jens Normann Jørgensen: Code shifts in bilingual children
Peter Villads Vedel: New teacher education in Danish as a second language
Return to overview of Sprogforum publications
Two widely differing histories of teaching Danish as a second language emerge according to within which institutional framework the teaching has taken place. Folkeskole teaching of bilingual children has been typified by the idea that as long as the children took part for a shorter or lengthier space of time in specially organised teaching in reception classes, they would be able - without any real difficulty - to participate in teaching based on the principles of native language teaching, possibly supplemented by some remedial teaching. Within areas of adult education, too, teachers' self-perception has been dominated by an approach to teaching that has been more determined by the idea of Danish as a subject than as a language. This applies, for example, to sections of adult education centres' teaching of Danish as a second language.
Typical of the development of teaching for adult immigrants and refugees at language schools on the other hand has been a level of self-perception on the part of the language teachers. The focus has been on developing the Danish language competence of the course participants and on organising teaching that is more reminiscent of foreign language teaching than teaching based on the native language.
So there are very different points of departure and issues that have to be solved in the two systems in terms of subject-matter and methodology - as is reflected in the articles.
The two widely differing angles of attack are both apparently rooted in the fact that teaching Danish as a second language has been given low political and economic priority. For both types of teacher groups this low priority has meant meagre resources for pedagogical and methodological development as well as insufficient in-service training opportunities. Colleges of education, for example, have only to a very small extent done anything about making teaching bilingual speakers part of the course of teacher training. There are apparently no innovations in this direction to be found in the new overall course of teacher training, either. Until the mid-1980s it was sufficient for teachers at language schools to have a so-called 48-hour competence-giving course.
This means that the individual teacher has to a great extent been left to manage things as best as he or she could. This has led to people at Folkeskole level relying far too much on a 'language bath' doing the trick - the idea being that the bilingual child would learn in the same way as the Danish child learns Danish without any special methodology. At language schools, teachers have been able to lean on subject traditions from foreign language teaching. It is on such a basis - despite both a lack of training and bad conditions of work and employment - that considerable expertise has been gained in teaching Danish as a second language.
An increased awareness and upgrading of the area over recent years has resulted in a number of beneficial measures. From having been long-serving day labourers under the Leisure Act, teachers at language schools have now gained agreed rates and conditions of employment. The 90s have been characterised by a whole series of experimental pilot and development projects, in both the Folkeskole and language schools. One new measure was the introduction of a specific competence-giving course for language school teachers. This creates a basis for both subject profilation and professionalisation.
Teaching Danish as a second language is a special teaching assignment that calls for special qualifications, as is clearly reflected in the new course of training. One can only hope that it will have a spin-off effect on the institutions that have not yet discovered that the qualifications a native language teacher and a second language teacher require are not identical.
We begin this theme number with a number of articles that focus on the special conditions that prevail in, on the one hand, the Folkeskole and, on the other, language schools for adults. In her article Bergthóra Kristjánsdóttir emphasises the second language teacher's function as a language teacher compared to his or her role as a social counsellor. Via a comparison with the subject objectives booklet for English a marked discrepancy crystallises in the perception of the role of the native language. Whilst the native language (here: Danish) is seen as an asset in the development of proficiency in English, its usefulness (i.e. the native language of the bilingual child) is questioned in the acquisition of Danish. In the following article, Peter Villads Vedel gives an account of a survey carried out among immigrant teachers at language schools, describing a number of the things that are specific for second language pedagogics compared to foreign language pedagogics. Karen Risager looks at some of the issues that are peculiar to second language teaching in cultural and social studies - among other things, it is point out that teaching of cultural and social studies is to take place in Danish long before the course participants are sufficiently proficient in Danish. Anne Holmen discusses various positions and assumptions that flourish in the educational debate within the education of both children and adults. She has especially focused on the view of handicaps which dominates assessments of second language competence. In his article, Jens Skovholm looks at the role of language schools in relation to society's integration requirements. He nudges a little at teachers' self-perception as language teachers, advocating a wider teaching objective.
Karen Tommerup Jensen and Elin Fredsted (Open Pages) both have Danish as a foreign language as the point of departure for their articles. Tommerup Jensen looks at Danish teaching in Greenland, while Elin Fredsted describes particular characteristics of Danish language in the border region. Johannes Wagner gives a critical account of various teaching materials for immigrants, criticising second language teaching i.a. for having turned in on itself too much in the 1990s. He therefore calls for greater openness regarding the measures that are at present taking place within foreign language pedagogics and for a willingness to seek similarities rather than differences between foreign and second language pedagogics.
In their article, Jørgen Brems, Anette Hagel-Sørensen and Gitte Østergaard Nielsen write about some the experiences which a number of experiments with so-called school-compensatory subject teaching for adults have resulted in. Marchen Haudrup and Torben Nielsen have new material from outside Denmark: They write about inspiring teaching in England as well as look through some new teaching materials from England and Germany for teaching adult immigrants with little schooling.
Jens Normann Jørgensen outlines what lies behind code shifts in bilingual children. It is crucial that code shifts are not simply seen as an expression of a lack of language but that specific pragmatic intentions are part of children's code shifts.
Finally, Peter Villads Vedel gives a brief outline of the new course of education in Danish as a second language for adult immigrants.
At various points in this number of Sprogforum there are quotations from lectures given by young immigrants at the Ministry of Education's conference Language and education - the importance of communication in teaching. The lectures have been printed in the Ministry of Education's report, 1996.
The editors
Sprogforum's homepage |
Contents of
this number
|
Ordering
Sprogforum
Language acquisition |
