Teaching Pronunciation: Norwegian as a Second Language

Why do foreigners often have problems with their Norwegian pronunciation? Which problems are general and which are specific to Norwegian? What can the student and the teacher do to improve pronunciation skills? What characterizes a good pronunciation and how are different pronunciations assessed? What effect does the Norwegian orthography have on the pronunciation?

These questions are important in this course. It has both a theoretical and a practical approach to the teaching of pronunciation and listening skills. This course examines spoken Norwegian from a second language perspective. Through lectures and exercises students learn to analyze spoken variations of Norwegian as a second language and to create and try out ways of teaching.

KNOWLEDGE
The candidate:

• Has basic knowledge of phonology and phonetics.
• Has knowledge of Norwegian phonology seen from cross-linguistic point of view, with special emphasis on linguistic traits which are regarded as being particularly difficult for second language learners.
• Has knowledge about key issues, theories, problems, processes and tools with regard to the teaching of pronunciation as well as an understanding of pronunciation processes as complex processes.
• Has basic knowledge of the development of the teaching of pronunciation, and understands the relationship between different views on different teaching methods and how this will affect the teaching of pronunciation.
• Understands the role that pronunciation skills plays in everyday life and how pronunciation skills affect social interaction in different contexts.


SKILLS

The candidate:

• Is familiar with and knows how to use tools of the discipline to analyze and describe spoken Norwegian.
• Is familiar with and can use the tools of the discipline to analyze and describe accent marked speech.
• Can define and describe the goal of pronunciation teaching in light of the learner’s linguistic background and the requirements that verbal communication demands.
• Can develop curricula based on analyses of accent marked speech.
• Can present the material orally and in writing.

Lectures and seminars. More on assessment: A written assignment and an oral exam. Compulsory activities must have been approved before the student is permitted to take the oral examination. The written assignment should be based on data from the compulsory activity. The length of the assignment varies according to the type of problem that has been studied, but is usually 7-10 pages (A4 pages, 1,5 spacing). In addition to the 7-10 pages of text there may be tables, figures and diagrams. Both the oral exam and the written assignment must be passed in order to pass the course. If the course is not passed, the student must retake the part(s) which he/she failed.