To awaken the desire to write through non-argumentative texts

By Marie Aalen

Sometimes the Norwegian course can be a redeeming factor for participants who have a lot on their minds. Although our main focus is on argumentative texts in the B1/B2 exam, awakening the desire to write should itself be a goal for us as teachers.

WITH WRITING ENJOYMENT AS A LEARNING GOAL AT B1/B2: Just as reading for pleasure is the path to good reading skills, "writing for pleasure" is a path to good writing skills. PHOTO: Sverre Chr. Jarild

Email to a friend

Argumentative texts can seem uninspiring to many at first; it feels more like a technical exercise you have to go through to pass the Norwegian test.

"Write an email to a friend about..." I find is a type of assignment that for many people feels easier than just "write a text about..." With write an email to a friend, it opens up a recipient that the student is familiar with and likes, and the desire to explain to this person about their thoughts, provides more spontaneous writing pleasure than when there is no personal recipient other than the teacher. But through this type of assignment, the teacher can gain unique access to the students' thoughts about what they have learned at school and experienced in Norway:

1) Hello my friend.

I hope you and your family are doing well. I would like to tell you about what it is like to be older in Norway.

Norwegians are fortunate to have an excellent care system for the elderly where the state takes care of them, unlike the situation in Syria, where there is a lack of care services for the elderly.

Most elderly people in Norway live in their own homes...

2) Hello dear friend

It's been a little over a year since I moved to Oslo. Life here is completely different than it was at the asylum reception center in Northern Norway. Here I can say "I'm in Norway"!

Everything was different for me, and some things still are, from the weather and climate to the people and lifestyle, and not least the system. But first and foremost, it was the language that was the strangest and most incomprehensible, and you remember that it was my nightmare…

Saying

Proverbs, which I usually bring up in connection with a review of Norwegian history, can be redeeming for students because they express commonly known experiences:

3) … All the children had to go to bed before 8:00 p.m. After we had said good night to everyone, we went to our room. Mom followed us to our room. After we had gone to bed, she turned off the light and locked the door. We waited and heard her go back to the living room. We got up and I went to turn on the light. We started talking, sometimes playing cards and other games. But when we heard her in the hallway, we ran to turn off the light and pretended to be asleep. She would peek in and go back. Sometimes she would sneak into our room and find us in the middle of a conversation. As a punishment, we were made to stand on our knees in the corner of shame for twenty minutes. When I remember this, I have to smile. That's why I say: When the cat is gone, the mice dance on the table.

When the end is good, all is well , and the expression "luck in a bad way" can trigger many memories of when disaster almost struck:

4) In Turkey I met a friend who knew a man who could take me to Europe, but I had to pay him money… After three days he suddenly came and said: You have to leave tonight. Then I was very happy, because I was going to leave that same day. At night we went together to the beach, and there was this ship. Just when I was about to be happy, I saw a small boat, and it was also a little damaged, and I remember that it was a very bad moment in my life.

Me: What is it?

Him: Hahahaha, that's the boat I was talking about.

Me: Are you crazy, you were talking about a big ship.

He: Yes, but I have a problem with that ship now, so I switched to this boat.

Me: Ohhh, but it's not safe.

Him: Don't think about it.

Me: Are you stupid, how can I not think about it, this is my life, besides, I said I couldn't swim.

Him: Don't talk so loudly. If you don't leave now, you will lose all the money you gave me.

Me: You tricked me, I'm going to the police.

Him: Go and do whatever you want.

Then I left him and did not join in. After two days I heard that a boat had gone down to sea two days ago, when I asked about it, it was the same boat.

Then I thanked God, and said: It was truly a stroke of luck.

I have experienced that students who otherwise hardly ever write have been inspired to write by this very saying. A student who had recently had a son after his wife had a long and difficult birth, wrote a text about it and concluded as follows:

5) Finally our baby came and our sunny day because when we saw the baby, we forgot everything. When the end is good, all is well.

Norwegian proverbs can inspire some people to write texts based on proverbs from their own language, and this student called his style " After every dark night we have a sunny day".

Tell about memories

Some students are inspired by sharing memories, e.g.: Tell us about your childhood:

6) This is how I would describe my childhood : It was very funny and weird at the same time ! I did the things that only boys do in our society. I will never forget the day I managed to climb a tree. There was a big, tall mulberry tree in the backyard of my neighbor's house. Me and my friends wanted some of the fruits..

Or: Tell me about a person you can never forget:

7) One day I went into a restaurant and sat down. Then a waitress came. But I told her to wait for someone because I didn't have any money. Luckily, a Pakistani man came and sat next to me. Then he asked me why I hadn't ordered food or anything to drink. Because I didn't have any money, I told him. Poor you! he said. I was lucky that he could speak English. After we had eaten together, I went home with him. Then I told him everything that had happened to me. Eventually, I started working as a tailor in his factory... Rashid is a person that I can never forget.

Singer

The student who wrote the short story, an excerpt of which you will find below, was inspired by a song by Delillo, Forgotten Memories, which we played in class. In the autobiographical short story, which is eight pages long, I can see that he has acquired many of the linguistic details that we worked on in NorskPluss B1 course. Writing about the last dramatic memories he had of his father had a literary and mentally redeeming effect on this student. The text can be found in its entirety in Module 11B in NorskPluss B2.

8) I've always wondered why people remember the bad memories more than the good memories.

The worst and most difficult thing in my entire life happened to me and my father seven years ago when we went to the city together. I was going to university, and my father was going to the hospital to get medicine for cancer. My father was quite tall with a slim body and dark hair, and he was often in a good mood, which is why all our neighbors liked him so much. But this dreaded disease made him weak, and his body became thin.

Even though my father had been sick for several years, he was patient and strong, and no one knew that he was in a lot of pain, and especially that it was difficult to go to the hospital to get medicine because of the war. Even though I was the youngest son, I often accompanied him to get treatment at the hospital, because my other siblings were a little afraid that something serious would happen. But I wasn't.

But we didn't know that this day, 7/11 - 2012, would be the worst day for us when two soldiers stopped us to check our IDs...

Marie Aalen is the editor of the NorskPluss series and has been a teacher at Oslo Voksenopplæring Rosenhof for 30 years. Marie has extensive experience in teaching and using digital language courses. She has developed assessment tests in Norwegian for the Oslo VO Servicesenteret. Marie Aalen has a Nordic major and Norwegian as a second language in her professional circle.