Demystifying Multilingualism and Intercultural Competence in Norwegian Secondary Schools

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.

This seminar is organised by
IMER Bergen.
The event is fully digital,
and you can participate through Zoom
. Please register your attendance
using this link to enable us to effectively accommodate the event.

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.

Irina Tiurikova is a PhD candidate at the Department of Foreign Languages at The University of Bergen and a member of the Research group Multilingualism on my mind. She is also the IMER Junior scholar network coordinator. She has published several articles on multilingualism and multilingual identity.