The complexities of ”writing”: Conceptions of writing and the teaching of writing in Norway and other countries

1. The complexities of ”writing”:Conceptions of writing and the teaching of writing in Norway and other countries “Towards a Common European Framework of Reference for Languages of School Education?”, Kraków, Poland, April 28, 2006 Jon Smidt Professor, Dr.art. Sör-Tröndelag University College, Trondheim, Norway jon.smidt@hist.no

2. what is actually implied by terms like writing, writing competence, and the teaching of writing in different countries

3. the NONE (Norway/the Netherlands) project • Piet-Hein van de Ven, the Netherlands • Jon Smidt, Norway • the Dialogue-Testing-Dialogue procedure for international comparison of mother tongue education (Herrlitz & Sturm 1991) • Smidt & van de Ven 1994

4. We do, nevertheless, base our comparative study on the assumption that it is possible, through the windows of such incidents, to identify at least some of the characteristics of the school systems and cultures that teachers and pupils in the two classes have to take into account in what they say and do. It may for instance be possible to see what sort of writing is taken for granted or considered possible within these different school cultures. (Smidt & van de Ven 1994: 96)

5. Gunnar • /…/ These assignments we will go through in full class. One is a - (writes “tolkning” on the blackboard) - and the first one is an “interpretation” [tolkning], and it is based on the text - "Perleporten" - which we will start with on Tuesday. In the course of Tuesday that text will be thoroughly discussed. That means - that means that you will have material [stoff]. This time our emphasis will be on the writing. The material will have been thoroughly gone through. You - will come home with a lot that you got in the two hours of interpretation. Then the thing is to work it out to be an “interpretation”. The second one (writes on the blackboard) will be an analysis [literally: a “going through”] of a text you will get handed out, which will be a “pragmaticanalysis” [språkbruksanalyse], a – an assignment that - of the type we have been through earlier, a typical exam assignment. /…/

6. Henri • /.../ Well, with that stuff you are going to choose one of the three issues, does not even have to be one of those three, but probably there is one issue present, one issue of the three of which you say, well, I am going to use it, and you are now going to, in that style that is nicely individual, and rather biting, you are going to search for some extension and you are going to transform that in a nice piece of language. Is to be subdivided into paragraphs, and then just powerfully noted down why you dislike that very issue so terribly. /.../ What I want to agree with you now, or rather what I want to discuss with you now, are some stylistic means, which can be very useful. /…/

7. Hidden curriculum Norway: • “oppgaver” - formulated topics or assignments for writing • “go through” exam genres The Netherlands: • stylistics • classical rhetorical tradition

8. “Writing” in contemporary Norwegian elementary education • writing one of five basic competences in new national curriculum for schools 1-13 •  writing in school subjects like biology, mathematics, physics, history and religion gets more attention than before • a growing interest in multimodality of written texts

9. Writing across the curriculum in Norwegian elementary and secondary schools •  the implicit or explicit norms of writing in Norwegian schools from kindergarten to upper secondary school • What is writing used for in different school subjects? • What sort of writing is encouraged?

14. 1) Writing in connection with main topics • establishing factual knowledge • - and also the terms and genres of other school subjects than Norwegian • language and genres important, but usually not foregrounded