The core of English as a school subject – Teachers’ interpretations of the core aims of a school subject open or constrain what can be taught and learned in the subject in school. The global spread of English and its changing status in the world have impacted how English as a school subject is understood and what it is meant to achieve. This article explores teachers’ understandings of the core aims of English as a school subject at the end of basic English education in Norway.
The spread of English through globalization, technology, and migration –together with the rise in non-native users of English – is challenging previous definitions of what it means to know or to be proficient in English (Graddol, 2006; Jenkins, Cogo, & Dewey, 2011). As English increasingly becomes a language of contact for diverse speakers, new understandings of English competence potentially conflict with the established understanding and practices of the English language classroom (Hult & King, 2011; Nauman, 2011; Seidlhofer, 2011). Moreover, in many countries, changes in English education have often been top-down and rapidly implemented, assuming the benefits of early education and underestimating the teaching challenges involved in implementation (Hu, 2007).
In anticipating a new subject curriculum for deeper learning of central elements in English as a school subject (Kunnskapsdepartement, 2017), it is timely to investigate how teachers understand these elements and the relationships between them. While much research on English language teaching in Norway has focused on developing specific English language skills – such as reading (Bakken, 2017; Brevik, 2014; Charboneau, 2012), writing (Burner, 2016), speaking (Bøhn, 2015; Bøhn & Hansen, 2017), and vocabulary development (Hestetræet, 2012) – less research has focused on the overall aims of the subject and even less on teachers’ understanding of these aims and how they expand or constrain what can be learned in the subject.
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