What language do you prefer that the teacher uses in your English class?

The overall tendency is that the teacher uses English, and translates into Norwegian to ensure understanding, and on request from students. Most of the students prefer that the teacher uses both English and Norwegian.

16. What do you think about the level of the teaching?

4Name of country of origin

Half the learners report that they do not find the level too demanding. Two of these students give somewhat contradictory answers: One comments that she needs English for beginners, but later comments that the level of the teaching suits her well. Another student answers that he started with English training in Norway only having learnt the alphabet in English and a few English words. Despite this, his response to the question about the level of the teaching is

“I think it is fine. It is not too difficult. Not too easy.”

Summary and discussion

The organization of the teaching, teaching methods and teaching materials which the students experienced in their countries of origin have many similarities. Firstly, all learners report that the teacher usually lectured in front of the blackboard and administered all class activity.

What is described in these responses are typical teacher-oriented teaching situations, where the classroom communication is regulated by the teacher. These are patterns that are typical of large-power-distance societies. Large-power-distance school environments are

characterized by teacher-student inequality, with students considering the teachers as

authority figures who must be met with much respect (Hofstede, Hofstede & Minkov, 2010, pp. 69-70). This is a contrast to student-centred teaching in the small-power-distance

situations typical in Norwegian schools. The respondents all come from countries with larger power distance than Norway. As newcomers they are unfamiliar with the situation in

Norwegian classrooms where teachers are supposed to treat their students as equals, and where teachers show acceptance of for example interventions from the students’ and even disagreement.

All respondents report that digital tools were not a part of the teaching in the countries of origin. In Norway, however, the situation is that most of the upper secondary school learners use computers, and information technology and digital tools are important parts of their school lives and private lives (Jama, 2018, p. 55). Based on the information that the NA learners in this study have not used computers in their learning before arriving in Norway, it is reasonable to believe that they meet a challenge with so much of their studies taking place on digital platforms and with the computer as one of the most important tools in their

learning. None of the learners mentions challenges and problems with this. On the contrary, some of them mention that they find computers, Google translate and spell check programmes

useful. These are surprising findings. Since reading and writing skills are a prerequisite for making use of, for example, the internet (Hvistendahl & Roe, 2009, pp. 380-381), it seems reasonable to believe that NA students with low Norwegian and English competence, and little experience with computers in their school background, face other, and maybe bigger, challenges with digital learning than the majority language students. The interview did not focus on the use of computers, however, and the matter was not investigated further. Due to the central position digital tools have in teaching in Norway, NA students’ use of digital resources is a topic worthy of further study.

The most evident difference between teaching activities and methods in the students’

countries of origin and in Norway is, in addition to the use of digital and technical tools, the writing activities (long texts in particular). Besides demanding skills in written English, writing tasks also frequently ask for independent discussion and elaboration of viewpoints.

Tasks like these represent a contrast to what many minority language students are used to in school cultures where the teaching is very teacher oriented. In teacher-oriented school cultures, teachers “outline the intellectual path to be followed” (Hofstede et al., 2010, pp. 69-70). Quite different requirements meet NA students in Norwegian schools. In student-oriented school cultures, such as Norwegian school culture, students are supposed to “find their own intellectual paths”, be independent and show ability to analyse and express their own opinions (ibid.). With requirements like these plus expectations of writing skills far beyond their

competence, it is understandable that most of the learners report a non-preference and even a dislike for writing activities. Despite this, and differences in school culture, it is interesting, and unexpected, to notice that half of the respondents answer that they find the level of the teaching suitable. The explanation is not given. It might be that they are met with

well-adapted teaching and for that reason experience that they cope with the demands in English in their current English classes. Another explanation might be that they give the answer they feel are expected of them and which seems respectful towards the interviewer, the teacher and school, in accordance with expectations of students’ behaviour in teacher-oriented school cultures. It would be interesting to investigate what kind of adapted teaching in English each of them received, to see if the answer lies there.

4.1.3 What do learners need?

The data presented here have been collected through the questions in the part “reflection on teaching and learning”.