Norwegian subject curriculum (NOR1-04)

Purpose

Norwegian is an important school subject for cultural understanding, communication, education and development of identity.

Through active use of the Norwegian language when working with their own texts and in the encounter with the texts of others, children and young people are introduced to culture and social life. The Norwegian subject curriculum opens an area where they can find their own voices, learn to express themselves, be heard and receive feedback. Thus the subject represents a democratic public arena that equips pupils with the necessary background for participation in social life and working life. More than ever before, society needs individuals who master language and texts. Norwegian shall help the individual pupil develop his or her language and writing skills based on the pupil's own abilities and capabilities. Competence in reading and writing are objectives in themselves, but they also form the basis for learning and understanding in all school subjects at all year levels.

A major aim for learning Norwegian throughout the 13 years of schooling is linguistic confidence and a belief in one's own culture as the basis for development of identity, respect for other cultures, active social participation and lifelong learning. The Norwegian subject curriculum establishes itself in the field of tension between the historical and the contemporary, and the national and the global. Seeing Norwegian language and culture in a historical and national perspective can provide the pupils with insight into and understanding of the community they are a part of. Including international perspectives in the Norwegian subject curriculum can help to develop cultural understanding, tolerance and respect for individuals from other cultures. The international situation today is dominated by cultural exchange and communication across former borders — linguistically, culturally, socially and geographically. In this context, Norwegian cultural heritage offers a great store of texts that may find new and unexpected importance precisely in a situation where communication takes on new forms and perspectives are expanded. Hence, cultural heritage is a living tradition that changes and is recreated, and the Norwegian subject will encourage pupils to become active contributors in this process.

In Norway there are three official languages, "Bokmål", "Nynorsk" and Sami, in addition to many dialects and sociolects, and other languages than Norwegian. Norwegian language and culture are developing in a situation characterised by cultural diversity and internationalisation in interaction with the neighbouring Nordic languages, other minority languages in Norway and with impulses from English.

It is within this linguistic and cultural diversity that children and young people develop their linguistic competence. Bearing this language situation in mind we must lay the groundwork so that children and young people can acquire awareness of linguistic diversity and learn to write both the official forms of the Norwegian language, "hovedmål" (the first-choice language, which can be either "Bokmål" or "Nynorsk") and "sidemål" (the second-choice language, which will then be the opposite of the first choice).

The Norwegian subject deals with a wide range of texts, spoken, written and composite texts, where text, sound and pictures interact. A Norwegian subject curriculum for our time is based upon an extended text concept that includes all these types of text. The subject is meant to help pupils orient themselves in the diversity of texts and provide them with the opportunity to experience, reflect and assess. Good learning strategies and the ability to reflect critically should also be stimulated, in addition to motivating the desire to read and write as well as developing and instilling good reading and writing habits. Through reading and writing, children can learn to develop clear ideas, explore new worlds and dare to speak their mind and use critical assessment. After a while, children will acquire the ability to understand the differences between fiction and non-fiction from the past and present; they will learn to interpret the information from these texts and to reach deeper understanding in subject matter they choose on their own. Thus they will have the opportunity to develop their own perspectives on the long development lines, breaks in and conflicts of the history of texts.