Ion Drew: Teaching English in Norway: Ideas, Schemes and Resources

Acta Didactica Norge Vol. 7 Nr. 1 Art.

10

Ion Drew
Associate Professor, Department of Cultural Studies and
Languages, University of Stavanger

Rikke Pihlstrøm
Teaching English in Norway: Ideas, Schemes and Resources
Book review
Pihlstrøm, Rikke:
Teaching English in Norway: Ideas, Schemes and Resources
Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 2013
208 pages (English)
ISBN: 978-821-502-095-2
Teaching English in Norway: Ideas, Schemes and

Resources is a practical guide for practising teachers and
student teachers of English. It provides the reader with
numerous recommended lesson plans and activities for
English teaching and a presentation of the underlying
principles behind their use. Although the title and introductory ‘Note to
teachers’ do not specify the target group of learners, it nevertheless becomes
apparent through numerous references in the text that upper secondary school
learners especially, in addition to lower secondary learners, are the primary
target group.
The author, in addition to being a lecturer of Teaching English as a
Foreign Language at the Department of Teaching Education and School
Research at the University of Oslo, is also a teacher at an upper secondary
school and often refers to her own teaching. It is clear that she wishes to share
her knowledge, ideas and experiences with other English teachers and student
teachers. The book is a welcome initiative for teachers and those aspiring to be
teachers, an inspiration for those seeking fresh ideas and input, as well as an
understanding of some of the fundamental principles behind the teaching of
English as a foreign language. With its focus on teaching English at the upper
secondary level especially, the book fills a gap in the literature on guidelines for
English teachers in Norway.
The book contains eight chapters in the following order: learning and
teaching vocabulary, teaching and learning grammar, developing writing skills,
developing reading skills, developing speaking skills, developing listening
Ion Drew 1/3 2013©adno.no

Acta Didactica Norge Vol. 7 Nr. 1 Art. 10
skills, assessments, and teaching literature, media and society. The first seven
chapters begin with a brief presentation of underlying principles and research
connected to the topic before proceeding with practical guidelines and advice
about teaching and how to help learners develop in the given area. The main text
of the chapter on developing writing skills is much more comprehensive and
longer than the other chapters, possibly because the writing skill requires special
attention among the target group. The final chapter on teaching literature, media
and society is a collection of lesson plans of teachers in four upper secondary
schools. The author makes a point of especially recommending this chapter to
the readers.
The author’s style is simple, direct and to the point. She adopts a hands-on
approach with a desire to help teachers and student teachers with insight and
tools that will help their learners to develop their language skills, expand their
vocabulary and work on their grammar. Although the book is generally well-
written, the first chapter contains some inaccuracies in the sections on strategies
for understanding new words.
The author is careful not to overload the reader with theory, but rather
selects some theoretical perspectives that are considered important in the
context, or refers to the ideas of some scholars, before moving on to the practical
implications for classroom teaching and the presentation of practical activities.
In addition, references to useful websites and other resources appear frequently.
A comprehensive appendix with numerous recommended activities appears at
the end of each chapter. These normally outnumber the pages in the actual main
text of the chapter, thus reinforcing the practical focus of the book. The author
even suggests that those readers who are in a hurry can simply skip the research
and principles sections and proceed straight to the activities and teaching
resources.
For example, the chapter on developing reading skills initially presents the
abilities required by a good reader and different models of reading, such as
bottom-up, top-down and the currently predominant interactive (a combination
of bottom-up and top-down) model. It also has a section on the distinction
between active and passive readers, one on different ways of reading (scanning,
skimming and detailed reading) and one on different strategies (before-, while-
and post-strategies) during the reading process. The remainder of the chapter is a
17-page appendix including before-reading activities (e.g. identifying key terms
and/or useful phrases), while-reading activities (e.g. the Cornell Note-taking
System) and numerous activities connected to reading literature (e.g. add a new
scene or character, bio poetry and what to look for when analyzing a novel or
short story).
Another example, the chapter on developing writing skills, initially draws
the reader’s attention to the importance of genre awareness and the distinction
between the ‘private text’ (generating content in the creative phase of writing)
and the ‘public text’ (how effectively the text communicates its content to the

Acta Didactica Norge Vol. 7 Nr. 1 Art. 10
readers). The notion of a process-oriented approach to writing is introduced and

sections follow on generating ideas, such as brainstorming, clustering and free
writing, and writing to learn (WTL). Further sections address, for example, the
reader, the purpose of a text, how a text should be organized, and the distinction
between formal and informal English. The writer goes into detail on issues such
as building a paragraph, forming a thesis statement/research question, writing an
introduction, the five-paragraph essay and signposting (linking words) as
cohesive ties. These topics are extremely important for learners at this level to
be aware of, many of whom will go on to use English in higher education. As
with the other chapters, the activities in the appendix are directly related to the
topics raised in the main text of the chapter.
Arguably the main strengths of the book are its range of practical ideas for
teachers, especially at the upper secondary level, its references to sources that
can give teachers more ideas and the fact that it looks beyond just relying on the
textbook, a resource which in fact is hardly mentioned, but which has a very
strong tradition in Norwegian lower and upper secondary schools. It is
refreshing to see a book that aims to enhance the quality and variety of English
teaching at the upper levels of schooling in Norway.

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Acta Didactica Norge Vol. 7 Nr. 1 Art.

Teaching English in Norway: Ideas, Schemes and

Ion Drew 1/3 2013©adno.no

Ion Drew 2/3 2013©adno.no

readers). The notion of a process-oriented approach to writing is introduced and

Ion Drew 3/3 2013©adno.no

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