The Teaching of English - as a Foreign Language

The Teaching of English
The history of foreign language teaching in Norway is not very long in a historical perspective. About a hundred years ago most Norwegians had little or no need to be able to communicate with people who spoke another language. The case today is very different. Kids who grow up in 2003 hardly know what it is like to be a member of a small community without many opportunities of communication with other language groups. The kids of our time are born and raised to be citizens of the world – geographically, racially, politically and language-wise. Not only is our country now inhabited by people from all over the world, but media, technology and travel habits bring the world to us - and us to the world. This makes the demand for good communication skills in at least one foreign language stronger and more appearent than some decades ago. Our Norwegian languge is such a small lingual community that the knowledge of a second language is decisive for us to be able t...