Teacher’s Manual for Norsk, nordmenn og Norge 1: Beginning Norwegian

TEACHING SUGGESTIONS

r€ACt1.ng 5Ugg€5r.ons Some General Teaching Suggestions The method an instructor chooses to use must to a great extent be de~ermined by and tailored to that individual instructor's own personallty , as well as the nature of the students and the context of a given teaching situation. Therefore. no attempt is being made here to prescribe the way the material in the textbook should be presented. What follows are rather some suggestions that may serve to stimulate the instructor 's own thinking as he or she adapts them to suit a personal teaching style and situation. The underlying philosophy of Norsk, nordmenn og Norge is that language is a tool of communication. Students seem to respond-well to this concept and to its logical extension. namely. the greatest possible use of the language in the classroom. Some instructors prefer to use Norwegian exclusively. while others like to use a mixture of the languages. preserving the right to explain points of grammar in English. Whatever your personal style requires. it is a good idea to have such phrases as "ViEr sa god," "Pa side ... ," "Hva betyr ... i 3 linje... ?" etc., replace their English counterparts as soon as possible. The use of Norwegian by both instructor and students for daily class operations should be facilitated by the fact that most of this vocabulary ;s introduced in the text and thus does not require extra vocabulary for the students. Personalizing the material -- immediately applying new vocabulary and structures to actual information-exchanging situations -- will further enhance the students' perception that the new language can indeed be used for communication. From the very first class period, when Norwegian is used to find out the names and hometowns of the class-members,. and throughout the rest of the course, questions should be addressed to individual students so that the new vocabulary may become personally meaningful to them. The instructor may first ask a question of an individual student, then have each half of the class ask each other, then have individual~ practice exchanging information with each other. This personal "interview" may then be followed by a writing assignment in which each student submits five facts about the person "interviewed" or, later, writes an essay about that person or about him/herself. Instructors are urged to use the textbook to the least possible extent during the class period. This may be achieved by preparing well in advance the material to be covered, its order and the strategies . drills, etc., to be used. The content of the class period ought to be varied and may include introducing new material, reviewing previous material and allowing students to practice both types with each other. The pace should be lively, showing a preference for returning to specific points and practicing them at several different points during the period, rather than getting bogged down on a single point. Operating without the textbook will encourage the instructor to find concrete examples in the classroom (or prepared slides and props) to illustrate new vocabulary and grammatical constructions. It will also encourage better eye-contact with the students, who are more likely to be actively following along rather than being somewhere on their own in the text. 4 Some General Teaching Suggestions The value of having students work with each other in pairs or small groups with the teacher as a circulating resource person is worthy of further amplification. This allows each student a greater degree of participation than the traditional "teacher-centered" situation, and it frees the students to ask questions that they might refrain from asking in the larger group and/or forget to ask by the time the period ends. In addition to practicing questionanswer constructions in this way, the use of pairs and small groups may be applied to practicing drills and answering questions on the reading sections. In the latter two cases, one student per pair/ group is designated the leader and given the entire drill or set of questions and answers. That individual then conducts the session within the group as the instructor would with the entire class. In using small groups, three things are important to keep in mind: 1) The students should know exactly what they are to be doing, 2) the instructor should be present, answering questions, spotting difficulties, etc., and 3) there should be some sort of follow-up with the whole class afterward. Another way of making...