Spring 1999
F 98 | S 98 | F 97
Official Organ of the Norwegian Teachers Association of North America
Torild Homstad, Editor
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Spring 1999 F 98 | S 98 | F 97 |
Official Organ of the Norwegian Teachers Association of North America Torild Homstad, Editor |
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Siden siste newsletter har jeg vært på et møte av US-Norway Forum. Det er et initiativ av Tom Vraalsen, den norske ambassadøren til USA. Han er interessert i å få til et bedre samarbeid mellom alle de norsk-amerikanske organisasjonene og lærestedene, inkludert NorTANA, Sons of Norway, Nordmanns-Forbundet, de norsk-lutherske collegene, m.m., og utestasjonene her. Dette var andre møtet; Vraalsen håper å ha møte en gang i året. Ambassaden har nå lansert et "bulletin board" for medlemmer av US-Norway Forum på internett-siden sin: |
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http://www.norway.org. Klikk på US-Norway Forum, og så US-Norway Forum Bulletin Board (Members only) (øverst på siden). Du kan så logge inn ved å bruke Norway17 som passord. Det er noe nytt, så det har ikke vært noe særlig ennå, men de har store håp om at dette kan bli et viktig møtested for utveksling av informasjon om norsk-amerikanske aktiviteter. Vi begynner nå å legge planer til møtet vårt ved SASS-møtet, fredag 30. april kl. 1200-1330 ved Norwegian Lunch. Husk å melde dere på! Øverst på dagsordenen må være hva vi skal bruke pengene fra Akademika-prisen til (kr. 50.000). Vennligst kom forberedt med idéer som kan drøftes under diskusjonen. Under dette korte møtet blir det også kunngjort om medlemmer som har fullført Ph.D.-graden eller fått nye stillinger. Dere kan gjerne sende slik informasjon direkte til meg før møtet: oleary@stolaf.edu. Og til slutt blir det nye styret presentert. Husk å sende inn stemmeseddelen før fristen! Vel møtt på SASS! Med vennlig hilsen fra -Margaret Hayford O'Leary | |
The Nordic Council of Ministers has given a generous three-year grant to colleges and universities in the Midwest to promote Nordic Studies among American high school and college students. In the first phase of the grant, directed by Thomas Petterson of the University of Minnesota, the following activities were funded:
The director of the second year is Agnete Schmidt of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The first project has been to recruit and train college students who will visit local high schools and tell them about opportunities in Nordic Studies. Young Cultural Ambassadors from Norway will visit and plans are underway for the next film seminar and the web site (www.stolaf.edu/depts/norwegian/nordic/).
To hear more about this exciting project and to discuss possibilities for future grants benefiting other geographical areas, come to the session at SASS, Marketing Nordic Studies in America: The Nordic Council Publicity Initiative, on Friday at 1:30, immediately following the NorTANA lunch.
What is it?
The purpose of the Ivar Aasen Centre
at Ørsta-Volda in Sunnmøre is to conduct
research into the culture that the New Norwegian written
language has spawned, and to disseminate information about
it.
The Centre has two constituent parts. One, operational from October 1997, is the Ivar Aasen Institute, an independent department of Volda College. The Institute has at present five employees, all of whom are engaged in research into aspects of New Norwegian written culture. The Institute has a policy of encouraging interdisciplinary research, and has therefore defined its remit broadly: it is not the ambition of the Institute to confine itself to micrological investigations of the sacred canonical texts of New Norwegian literary history, valuable though such investigations in themselves might be. Three of my colleagues (Svein Ivar Angell, J. Peter Burgess and Sveinung Vaage) have research-projects around aspects of the nation-building process from within the academic disciplines of history, cultural history and education. Odd Monsson has a linguistic project which uses the system of syllable quantity in the dialect of Nordfjord to re-examine the concept of syllable quantity in general, and I, who have a part-time post as Visiting Professor, have a project on the role of notions of Americanisation as a factor in the formation of collective identity.
In the Autumn of 2000 the Institute hopes to admit its first hovudfag-students to the new degree in New Norwegian Written Culture. This will be an interdisciplinary course whose overarching perspective is how writing has formed the basis for different types of collective identity. Within this context New Norwegian is seen as an example and paradigm. We hope to recruit students to this course both from Norway and abroad, and have already made agreements with partner-institutions in Finland, Sweden, the Faroes, Great Britain and Italy for student exchanges under the Socrates- and Nordplus-schemes. Suitably qualified American students will also be very welcome.
The other arm of the Aasen Centre is the National Centre for New Norwegian Written Culture at Ørsta, 4 km away. This is about to be built on a site adjacent to the existing Aasen Museum, a small stone building on the farm where Aasen grew up. The new National Centre has been designed by Norway's leading contemporary architect, Professor Sverre Fehn, who has previously been responsible for the Glacier Museum at Fjærland, the Aukrust Centre in Alvdal and the Cathedral Ruins Museum at Hamar. Fehn's building, of some 1600m2, will be a modernist landmark of great interest in its own right. It will contain a museum with permanent exhibits on Aasen and the New Norwegian language, there will be a cinema with a brief animated film about Aasen, interactive exhibits about Norwegian dialects, as well as exhibitions about individual writers, movements and other relevant literary themes, and about aspects of language, for example on minority language rights in Europe. There will also be an archive and research library, as well as a centre for IT-resources. The National Centre is due to open on 1 June 2000.
Ask not what you can do for the Aasen Centre...
At last year's SASS in Tempe I gave a presentation on the Aasen Centre, and aired the idea of a week-long course for American and Canadian teachers of Norwegian the week after the IASS meeting in England in August 2000. I am glad to say that planning for this course is now well advanced, and that it is scheduled to take place from 13.8.2000 to 20.8.2000.
There will be five themed days on the course: New Norwegian in the Economy; New Norwegian in Public Administration; The Written Culture of Sunnmøre; Contemporary New Norwegian Literature; and Language Planning and the New Norwegian Movement. The weekend after the core course there will be an excursion to Loen, Jølster and Fjærland.
Both for economic reasons, and to ensure the coherence of the group, we need to restrict numbers to eight.
Odd Monsson and I will be at SASS in
Seattle, where we hope to present the course. We shall have
application forms with us. The deadline for binding
applications will be in December 1999.
-Stephen Walton
A new Center for Scandinavian Studies at the University of Minnesota opened in January, with Susan Larson as Executive Director. The Center has a broad mission at the University of Minnesota&endash;to raise the profile of the Nordic countries and cultures at the University and within the community. The Center aims to create a lifelong interest in Nordic topics, and to make programming stimulating and accessible to both the academic and the general community. Larson is particularly interested in raising awareness of all aspects of modern Scandinavia, ranging from the arts to business and from law to engineering. Students must be engaged as modern young people by presenting modern, rapidly changing, socially advanced countries, rather than depending solely on ethnic affinities. The Center is involved with planning the Nordic Institute for Summer Scandinavian Studies, an upcoming major exhibition of Norwegian children's literature, coordinating the visits of the Young Cultural Ambassadors from Norway in the fall, and next winter's Annual Midwestern Scandinavian Retreat at Fall Creek, Wisconsin.
Terje Lehn Nilsen, husband of Kjellaug Myhre, NorTANA's good friend and supporter in UD, passed away in February. NorTANA sent flowers to Kjellaug and family on behalf of our membership. We received the following card from Kjellaug:
Kjære dere alle i Nortana,
Hjertelig takk for vakre blomster til min kjære mann Terje Lehn Nilsens båre. Omtanken varmer i en vond og vanskelig tid
-Kjellaug Myhre
Ingrid Urberg received tenure at Augustana College-Camrose in November. Gratulerer, Ingrid!
Micheline van Riemsdijk (University of Minnesota) has been appointed to a three-year position as Instructor of Norwegian at The University of Colorado, Boulder.
Anne Sabo (University of Washington) has been appointed to a four-year position in the Norwegian Department at St. Olaf College.
Troy Storfjell (University of Wisconsin) will begin a three-year appointment teaching Norwegian at Augustana College-Sioux Falls this fall.
Lars Fure announces that approximately $10,500 in travel grants has been awarded by the Norwegian Foreign Ministry to the following members of NorTANA: Oddvar Hoidal, Sherrill Harbison, Verne Moberg, Micheline van Riemsdijk, Audun Toven, Tanya Thresher, John Weinstock, and Monika Zagar.
Louis Janus (University of Minnesota) has published a new resource for Norwegian teachers and students, Norwegian Verbs and Essentials of Grammar, Passport Books. $16.95 (ISBN 0-8442-8596-X)
This book provides a comprehensive, yet accessible, reference to Norwegian verbs and grammar. All of the major verbal and grammatical concepts of the Norwegian language are presented in 25 units. Each unit is devoted to one particular concept, so that the user will be able to locate specific information quickly and easily. Explanations are concise, yet thorough, and are always followed by numerous examples to assure complete understanding and mastery.
Peter Thaler (University of Minnesota) has recently published a new book, Norwegian Minds&emdash;American Dreams: Ethnic Activism among Norwegian&emdash;American Intellectuals. University of Delaware Press. $32.50 (ISBN 0-87413-629-6.
This book examines the ideology of four Norwegian&emdash;American immigrant intellectuals during the early part of the twentieth century. It analyzes the writing of O.E. Rølvaag, Waldemar Ager, Simon Johnson, and Hans Rønnevik, searching for the concepts and images of Norwegian&emdash;American cultural activists in the Upper Midwestern heartland of their immigrant community. The study explores how Norwegian immigrant intellectuals in the United States utilized literature in the struggle waged for the preservation of a distinct Norwegian&emdash;American ethnic identity.
The National Institute on Summer Scandinavian Studies will be held at the University of Minnesota this summer. Session I (June 15 &emdash; July 20) will offer courses in Scandinavian Mythology and The Expressionist Film in Scandinavia. Session II (July 22 &emdash; August 25) offers a course in The Immigrant Experience. Intensive Norwegian and Intensive Swedish language courses will be offered over ten weeks, from June 15 to August 25. There will also be evening lectures and film series and workshops. Any one may attend the Summer Institute and many of the events will be open to the general public. More information is available at http://cla.umn.edu/scanctr/summerinst.html
The National Institute of Summer Scandinavian Studies (NISSS) is also supported by the Center for Scandinavian Studies, the Department of German, Scandinavian and Dutch, and the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Minnesota, the Center for Western European Studies at the University of Washington, and the Center for Western European Studies at the University of California, Berkeley.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is offering credit and non-credit Norwegian language courses in two six-week sessions.
Norwegian 101 and 102 integrate a variety of instructional technologies, including video- and audio-conferencing, audiographic, computer conferencing, and the World Wide Web. The primary challenge for the course designers and students is to create a learning community which encourages the interactivity necessary to achieve maximum proficiency in speaking, writing, listening, and cultural awareness.
101 will be taught from May 24-July 2; 102 from July 6- August 13. Classes in both sessions meet from 10:20 am to 12:20 p.m., Monday through Friday. The UW-Madison classes meet at 3265 Medical Sciences Center; the class location at UW-Milwaukee will be announced. Four credits may be earned in each of the six-week sessions.
Norwegian is also available as a non-credit course. Students must have access to e-mail and the World Wide Web. The non-credit fee is $300 per course. Students interested in this option should register by mail through the Registration Office, 139 Pyle Center, 702 Langdon St., Madison, WI 53706; In-person registration for the non-credit option is at the Madison Registration Office, 702 Langdon St. The office is open from 7:45 am-4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. The registration deadline is May 13, 1999.
For more information on the summer Norwegian program, contact the Department of Scandinavian Studies, 1306 Van Hise Hall, UW-Madison, 1220 Linden Dr., Madison, WI 53706; phone 608-262-2090; fax: 608-262-9417; e-mail scandst@macc.wisc.edu.
The Norwegian-American Bygdelag Centennial will be held at Luther College, Decorah, Iowa, July 29-31, 1999.
Bygdelag are organizations comprised of descendants of emigrants from Norway to North America. Every "lag" seeks to preserve and strengthen bonds with its home district or community of origin in Norway. Bygdelagenes Fellesraad is a national council for 32 affiliated lag. Marilyn D. Somdahl is President. 10129 Goodrich Cir. Mpls, MN 55437 612-831-4409.
http://www.lexiaintl.org/sylte/bygdelag.html
The Fifth District Sons of Norway is currently accepting applications for staff positions at two summer events, an Adult Heritage Retreat and a Youth Camp, Masse Moro. The dates for the Adult Retreat are Sunday, July 11 &emdash; Friday, July 16, 1999. The Youth Camp orientation will start on Friday, July 16, with camp running from Sunday, July 18 &emdash; Saturday, July 31, 1999. Both camps feature Norwegian language classes, crafts, folk dancing, sports like archery, volleyball and soccer, holidays, nature programs at the Beaver Creek Nature Center and star observatory, and lots of fun, all set in the beautiful pine forest of the Beaver Creek Reserve along the Eau Claire River in Wisconsin. There will also be some computerized genealogy sessions at the Adult Retreat. Staff positions available are, Counselor, Junior Counselor, Half-time Cook, Cook's Assistant, and Camp Nurse or Health Aide, as well as a woodcarving teacher for the Adult Retreat.
More information and applications are available from:
Mary Klockeman, Administrator
5th District Heritage Camp
2989 140th Street East
Dundas, MN 55019507-645-5875 e-mail: Klockem@RCONNECT.COM
Spaces are still available for students to attend Sons of Norway's Camp Norway Language and Culture Institute, set to take place this summer from June 29 - July 26, 1999 with an optional post-program tour from July 26 -31, 1999. Camp Norway combines fast-paced language learning with the direct experience of living in Skogn, Norway, about a 1-hour drive north of Trondheim. The cost for Camp Norway is $2,650 for Sons of Norway members, and $2,750 for nonmembers. While there is no deadline for registration, the deadline for scholarships was April 1. For information and application materials, please contact
Sons of Norway's Heritage Department
1455 W. Lake St.
Minneapolis, MN 55408
612-827-3611 or 1-800-945-8851; or email fraternal@sofn.com.
Camp Norway is also hiring Norwegian language instructors. Excellent command of the Norwegian language is a requirement. Staff are also asked to teach culture sessions and extra-curricular activities. For application materials and more information, please contact the Heritage Department at the above address.
The twentieth annual ASF Translation Prize will be awarded by the American-Scandinavian Foundation in the fall of 1999 for the best translation of poetry, fiction, drama or literary prose by a Scandinavian author after 1800.
The award includes $2000, publication of an excerpt in an issue of Scandinavian Review, and a commemorative bronze medallion.
The annual Inger Sjöberg Prize will also be awarded.
Rules:
Entries must be postmarked no later than June 1, 1999.
Opportunities for lecturing or advanced research in over 130 countries are available to college and university faculty and professionals outside academe. U.S. citizenship and the Ph.D. or comparable professional qualifications are required. For lecturing awards, university or college teaching experience is expected. Foreign language skills are needed in some countries, but most lecturing assignments are in English.
DEADLINES:
May 1, 1999, for distinguished Fulbright chairs in Western Europe and Canada;
August 1, 1999, for lecturing and research grants in academic year,
2000-2001;
November 1, 1999, for international education and academic administrator seminars;
January 1, 2000, for NATO advanced research fellowships and institutional grants;
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
USIA Fulbright Scholar Program,
Council for International Exchange of Scholars
3007 Tilden Street, NW, Suite 5L, Box PLST,
Washington, DC 20008-3009
Telephone: 202.686.7877
World Wide Web: http://www.cies.org
E-mail: apprequest@cies.iie.org (requests for application materials only)
The Barbara Morgridge Wisconsin Distinguished Fellowship in Scandinavian Studies will enable the Scandinavian Dept at UW-Madison to offer a stipend of $24,000 per year to one graduate student. Although open to all graduate students in Scandinavian Studies, preference is to be given to students in Norwegian. The scholarship has been endowed by John and Tashia Morgridge in honor of John's sister, Barbara, who has done distinguished work in the field of Scandinavian Studies.
A series of summer institutes offered by the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA) connects research with practice and is part of CARLAs ongoing mission to share what has been learned with language teachers and their second language learners. Each of the week-long institutes is a highly interactive blend of theory and practical application taught by faculty and staff at the University of Minnesota. The institutes will be held at the University of Minnesota on the Minneapolis campus. The cost of each institute is $275 for registrations received by May 15, 1999 ($300 after that date). Graduate-level credits are available at an additional cost. For more information see the CARLA website at http://carla.acad.umn.edu.
This summer institute will provide LCTL teachers with practical tools and hands-on experience in developing a wide range of materials that will fit the needs of LCTL students and will improve their ability to use the language for communicative purposes. The institute will be grounded in the latest research on effective language pedagogy and second language acquisition, and will focus on proficiency-oriented approaches to teaching.
Utilizing the text and materials that participants bring to the institute as a base, participants will:
Each day, from 9 am to 4 p.m., Institute participants will engage in an interactive program that features lectures and discussion of pedagogical principles and practices and hands-on work with materials in small groups and in the computer lab. Key topics include:
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Presenters: Bill Johnston is an Assistant Professor in the English as a Second Language program at the University of Minnesota and specializes in language teaching methods and materials and teacher development for ESL and LCTLs. He is the Conference Chair of the "Research and Practice in Language Teacher Education" conference to be held at the University of Minnesota this May. Louis Janus is the Network Coordinator of the NLRC-funded LCTL Project at CARLA and is a Norwegian teacher. He has authored software, reference materials, and a workbook for elementary Norwegian. Nancy Stenson is an Associate Professor of Linguistics and faculty coordinator of the NLRC-funded LCTL Project at CARLA. She has taught Irish since 1979, and team-teaches a course in technology and language learning at the University of Minnesota.
This summer institute is supported with special funding to encourage LCTL teachers to attend. After the institute (by Dec. 15, 1999), a rebate of $125 will be sent to participants who submit curricular material suitable for inclusion on the CARLA LCTL website. Thus, the cost for the institute would be only $150 for those who register by May 15, 1999. Contact Louis Janus at lctl@tc.umn.edu for more information about this rebate.
NorTANA will award a scholarship of up to $500 to a NorTANA member who wishes to attend this summer's LCTL/CARLA Teacher Development Summer Institute!
The NorTANA board of officers will decide on the recipient. This scholarship can be used towards tuition, transportation, housing, board. To submit an application, please write a letter stating your interest in applying, a statement of your teaching activities this year and next, and state your willingness to share the ideas and skills you learn at the workshop with other Norwegian teachers. The recipient will be responsible for applying for the workshop, and making all arrangements. Upon successful completion of the workshop (and submission of receipts or statements of expenses), NorTANA will reimburse the member up to $500.
The Norwegian Foreign Ministry each year offers two stipends to North American teachers of Norwegian to attend the Språkseminar (C-16) at the University of Oslo International Summer School. The stipend covers course fees, room and board during the three-week course, but not international transportation. Those interested in applying for the stipend should contact Torild Homstad, Administrator of the North American Admissions Office for the International Summer School immediately. Phone 1-800-639-0058,
or e-mail: homstad@stolaf.edu.
The Fall 1999 Norgesseminar will be held at Montana, State University in Bozeman from September 30 to October 2, with an excursion to Yellowstone National Park scheduled for October 3. This year's theme is Natur og miljø.
Louis Janus reports that the LCTL project at CARLA and NCOLCTL are working together to compile a list of national and regional associations of heritage schools, and heritage community organizations interested in language maintenance and development (i.e. teaching and learning). If you are aware of any that have been established and materialized in substantial numbers, please send any contact information you may have to:
Louis Janus
LCTL Project
CARLA
University of Minnesota
333 Appleby Hall
128 Pleasant St. SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455 janus005@maroon.tc.umn.eduor to the address below:
Lara Atella
NCOLCTL
1619 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Suite 400
Washington, DC 20036 Latella@nflc.org
Upon completion, the list will be made available online.
Stein på stein: Samfunnsfag og norsk for fremmedspråklige elever. Elisabeth Ellingsen and Kirsti MacDonald. J. W. Cappelens Forlag. 1998. Textbook with CD. 95 pp. ISBN 82-02-17124-5. NOK 185. Workbook with diskette143 pp. ISBN 82-02-17125-3. NOK. 225. 2 audio cassettes. NOK. 500. Fasit. NOK. 58. (continued on next page)
This text is intended for adult students of Norwegian who have had an introductory course. The text is divided into ten short chapters, each of which deals with a main topic, such as the languages in Norden, Health, Norwegian holidays, a Glimpse of the Norway of 100 years ago, etc. Each chapter contains several texts, written in a clear and concise bokmål, although there are a few authentic texts as well. Most of the texts are included on the accompanying CD rom, recorded by native speakers, both male and female. The workbook chapters follow the themes from the textbook, each chapter starting with suggestions for pre-reading discussion and introduction of some vocabulary before the texts are read. Grammatical exercises are also included in the workbook, beginning with rudimentary word order exercises. The diskette contains additional exercises not included in the workbook. The authors explain that not all of the grammatical exercises may be necessary for all students. Included in each workbook chapter are listening exercises, clearly indicated by a picture of a cassette. There are oral activities, group assignments and each chapter ends with a writing assignment. The text and workbook provide a good blend of resources for practice in the four modalities.
The textbook contains drawings and photos, some in color, and the workbook contains drawings as well. Since the volumes are in paperback, they are not prohibitively expensive. The texts are eclectic, including an interview with Jostein Gaarder and an excerpt from Kardemomme by, but since the chapters are so short, supplementation with additional texts would be required for instructors teaching on a semester system. On the other hand, the length would be very manageable for a community education course or for a summer program and would make a good core text for instructors who enjoy routinely assigning Internet activities or other outside reading.
-Marte Hult
Moment of Freedom (1966) and The Powder Tower(1969), the first two volumes in a trilogy by Jens Bjørneboe are scheduled for publication by Norvik Press (Dufour Editions) in March and October of 1999.
Nordic Letters of the Modern Breakthrough, 1870-1910, edited by Michael Robinson and Janet Garton, is a collection of essays by scholars from several countries examining the letters of central figures of the age, including Brandes, Drachmann, Hamsun, Ibsen, Lybeck, Pontoppidan, Amalie Skram and Strindberg. The volume adds considerably to our knowledge of the period, and of the literary institutions of the time, and will be of interest both to students of the Modern Breakthrough and those interested in letter writing generally. Publication by Norvik Press (Dufour Editions) is scheduled for July 1999.
Have you been searching for teaching materials to use in community education programs for either adults or children? &emdash;something between Norwegian in 10 Minutes a Day and the textbooks we use in our college and university classrooms? &emdash; Here are some new materials that we have discovered. Let NorTANA know if there are others available, or how these work for you.
Kari Norsk
Kari Norsk I, by Kari Lie, is a textbook designed specifically for short Norwegian language courses, such as those offered by Sons of Norway or through community education. The book is 30 pages long, has a spiral binding, and includes 7 lessons and a glossary. The lessons are 4-5 pages long and have color illustrations. They contain dialogs, songs, vocabulary overviews, short grammar explanations, and homework assignments. There is also a cassette tape with all the dialogs, vocabulary, and songs.
The lessons cover the following topics:
Kari Norsk II is a continuation of the curriculum offered in Kari Norsk I, or for those who have had some Norwegian instruction and want to expand their knowledge of Norwegian language and culture. Kari Norsk II takes a different Norwegian cultural focus each week. Topics include
The information in these units helps the learner utilize the grammatical concepts already covered in the first book. Both Kari Norsk I and II include a short teacher's guide.
The Kari Norsk books and cassettes are available through your local Scandinavian store or by calling the Tomten mail order catalog at 1-800-468-2424, or order direct from:
Kari Norsk & Sapmi Etc.
P0 Box 386146
Bloomington, MN 55438
You can contact Kari Lie directly via e-mail, kari@karinorsk.com, and you can find further information on her web site, http://www.karinorsk.com.
Norsktime
Norsktime is a textbook for teaching Norwegian language and culture to students of all ages, and is perhaps best suited to elementary school&emdash;aged children. It is written by Carol Flessland, the Youth Director for Sons of Norway District One. The book is 48 pages long, has a spiral binding, and includes 8 lessons, a reference section, and a glossary. The lessons are 4-5 pages long and have color illustrations. They contain short dialogs, speaking exercises, songs, rhymes, and fairy tales in English.
The lessons cover the following topics:
Norsktime is available for $12.00 (including postage) from:
Carol Flessland
19164 Judson Ct.
Hutchinson, MN 55350-4368
You can contact the author via phone (320-587-9654) or e-mail (flesslan@hutchtel.net)
International Book & Audio introduces a new series of short stories in the Norwegian language. Each set contains a bilingual book in Norwegian and English with an audio cassette narration by a native Norwegian. The stories are from a collection of H.C. Andersen that includes "Prestekragen", "Nattergalen", and "Keiserens Nye Klær".
The booklet is printed with parallel texts in Norwegian and English with color illustrations. Each story was translated in such as a way as to help identify similar words, phrases and sentences in both languages. The stories are simple and easy to understand, allowing the student to concentrate on the sound of the language and reading the words and phrases in Norwegian.
A glossary contains all the words used in the story in the order and context that they occur. This series can work with all levels.
If you are interested in this series and would like more information, call International Book & Audio at 1-888-904-8965, or in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area 612-444-4986. E-mail zds@visi.com. Each book is approximately 28 to 32 pages and is in color with illustrations. Each set comes in a clear plastic clamshell case for book and tape storage. Each set is priced at $15.95. Discounts apply to group or multiple orders of 5 or more. This same series is also available in Swedish.
Check out the NorTANA website: http://www.stolaf.edu/nortana//nortana.html . In addition to the NorTANA Newsletter you will also find information on Scandinavian programs across the country, a web-based grammar review, theme-based classroom exercises (health, geography, shopping, clothing and weather) and glossary and study guide to Anne Cath. Vestly's Ole Aleksander Filibom-bom-bom. The NorTANA website is also frequently updated, and our webmasters are always interested in receiving new contributions for posting.
Olaf Husby, NTNU, Trondheim, has established a home page for the organization for Norwegian as a Second Language, and has linked it to the NorTANA website. He invites comments from and dialog with NorTANA members.
http://www.hf.ntnu.no/anv/NO2/Norsk2.html
Daily headlines from both Dagbladet and Aftenposten are available via e-mail. You can subscribe by contacting the newspapers at:
Dagbladet: http://www.dagbladet.no/mail_distribusjon/epost.html
Aftenposten: http://www.aftenposten.no/spesial/nyhetsliste/
According to the latest issue of Språknytt, the journal of the Norwegian Language Council, both Bokmålsordboka and Nynorskordboka can be found at: http://www.dokpro.uio.no/orboksoek.html
Språkrådet also has its own web site: http://www.sprakrad.no
Språkrådet has also produced a new language resource book for textbook authors and consultants, Godt språk for eleven?, edited by Dag F. Simonsen. The book will appear soon in a paper edition, but is already available on the www at:
http://www.sprakrad.no/laerebok.htm
With this issue of the NorTANA newsletter we have enclosed brochures for several study abroad programs in Norway. Please share them with interested students.
Although it is late to apply for most study abroad programs for 1999-2000, it is important to continue to encourage students to plan ahead to participate in a study abroad program. Some programs will also accept late applicants, so it is worth checking if you have an enthusiastic student!
The program provides a unique opportunity for U.S. students to live and study with students from all over the world, while studying Norwegian language or other subjects in the humanities or social sciences. About one-fifth of the students at the ISS each summer are from North America. For more information, contact:
Oslo International Summer School
St. Olaf College
1520 St. Olaf Ave.
Northfield, MN 55057-1098
SUST is continuing to review applications for Fall 1999 until May 15. For more information, see enclosed brochure, or contact:
HECUA 1- 800-554-1089 / http://www.hecua.org/
With ten students in the Fall Semester and seventeen in the Spring Semester, the Oslo Year Program 1998-99 is sparkling with life and vigor. The students have come from the West Coast, the Midwest, and the East Coast of the United States. They have a wide variety of interests, and they have the offerings at the University of Oslo to meet those interests. Courses seem to be going well; the students are being challenged; and the group as whole has adjusted well to the Sogn Student Village (single rooms!) and the capital at large.
In the fall, we saw several plays by Henrik Ibsen performed at the National Theatre. We also visited his childhood home in Skien (Venstøp) and took in the province of Telemark in glowing autumn colors. This semester there has been snow aplenty for the skiers. Excursions are planned to Eidsvold and Lillehammer, and the Freia Chocolate Factory will receive the honors for the sweet-toothers. So will Syttende mai a bit later, of course,
Det ser ut til at livsglede og lærevilje har gått hånd i hånd. Snart er våren her.
-Rune Engebretsen
Fall Semester 1999 the Oslo Year Program will be led by Audun Toven from Pacific Lutheran University. Spring Semester 2000 Louis Janus from the University of Minnesota will be Program Leader. We are already planning several years in the future. If you are interested in leading the Oslo Year Program in the years ahead, please contact Torild Homstad, Oslo Summer School, St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN 55057 homstad@stolaf.edu for an Oslo Year Program Leader's job description and application.
The last three years have been an active period for NorTANA.
The Norwegian Teachers' Newsletter continues under the editorship of Torild Homstad, Director of the North American Admissions Office of the Oslo International Summer School. Current issues of the newsletter are mailed out, and also posted on the World-Wide Web at http://www.stolaf.edu/norwegian/nortana/nortana.html, and thus are accessible to members and non-members alike around the world. Coverage in the NTN includes announcements of open positions, conferences, summer programs, grants and stipends, interesting web sites, ongoing projects, new products, and upcoming events. Reviews of teaching and reference material attempt to keep NorTANA members abreast of the latest in pedagogy.
A continuing focus of NorTANA has been the sponsorship of workshops on aspects of pedagogy for its members. The most recent workshops include a workshop on developing multimedia materials, held at St. Olaf College in Northfield Minnesota June 12-14, 1997. We brought together 15 Norwegian teachers from the US and Canada for hands-on training in creating web exercises and explanations, computer assisted language lessons, and presentational software. Evening sessions focused on reviewing available commercial software and pedagogical material. A smaller, shorter workshop was held as a pre-conference workshop at the 1998 annual meeting of the Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study (SASS). Attended by approximately 20 SASS members, NorTANA presented a short demonstration of World-Wide Web resources as curricular support.
Our membership continues to grow. Currently there are ninety-three dues-paying, lifetime, and complimentary members, with an additional 65 libraries, newspapers and government agencies on the mailing list. While the name of the organization suggests a North American focus, sixteen NorTANA members come from Norway. Dues have remained reasonable: $10 for one year or $25 for 3 years.
In addition to the special seminars and workshops NorTANA sponsors, general meetings are held twice a year, one at the annual Fall Norway Seminar and the second at the annual Spring meeting of SASS, where the Association gathers for a luncheon, occasionally with a guest speaker.
The NorTANA website and e-mail list are ever more important sources of information and model of how a language teaching organization can reach out to its members. In addition, students can benefit from much of the detail available on the site (for example grammar explanations and exercises). Thanks go to Nancy Aarsvold and Margaret Hayford O'Leary for developing and maintaining the site.
NorTANA applied for and was accepted as a member of the National Council of Organizations of Less Commonly Taught languages. NCOLCTL has 17 member organizations, including organizations for teachers of Arabic, South Asian, Turkish, Celtic, Hebrew, Chinese and Japanese. Louis Janus and Ingrid Urberg represented NorTANA at the annual meeting held September 1998 at Temple University in Philadelphia. A theme for the conference was how to develop sharable modules for teaching. NorTANA has a presence on the NCOLCTL website http://www.councilnet.org, as do all the other member organizations.
NorTANA agreed to partially underwrite the expenses of one member to attend the summer teacher development workshop, sponsored by the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition. The workshop was cancelled due to lack of registration. NorTANA will again sponsor a participant to the LCTL/CARLA workshop this summer.
In fall 1998 NorTANA received the Akademika prize, awarded annually to the person or institution that has made a major contribution to disseminate knowledge about Norwegian literature (fiction or non-fiction) and research to an international audience. Suggestions for the best ways for NorTANA to use this award will be solicited at the NorTANA meeting at SASS.
In the NorTANA Newsletter we wish to include information on our members' publications and research activities. We are also interested in sharing information on teaching materials and strategies, as well as reviews of books, periodicals, and CD-ROM materials. For the fall 1999 newsletter send submissions by October 15, 1999 to Torild Homstad (homstad@stolaf.edu), St. Olaf College, 1520 St. Olaf Ave.; Northfield, MN 55057-1098.
Some of the following grants are for faculty; others are for undergraduates, and you will want to be informed on your students' behalf as well.
The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Norwegian Information Service in the United States offer travel grants of $750 - $1500 to members of NorTANA. Application deadline: Feb. 1.
For more information, contact:
The Norwegian Information Service in
the United States
825 Third Avenue, 38th floor
NEW YORK, NY 10022-7585
The Norwegian Emigration Fund of 1975 awards scholarships to Americans for advanced or specialized studies in Norway of subjects dealing with emigration history and relations between the United States and Norway.
Application deadline: Feb. 1.
Contact: Norwegian Information Service
The May 8th Memorial Fund is used to provide scholarships for attending a full year at a Norwegian Folk High School for young people between the ages of 18 and 22. Application deadline: March 15.
Contact: Norwegian Information Service.
The Norwegian Marshall Fund promotes research in Norway by Americans in science and humanities, which would be of importance to both countries. Application deadline: March 15
Contact: The Norway-America
Association
Drammensveien 20 C
N-0255 OSLO
Fax: 011-47-22-44-76-83
The American-Scandinavian Foundation awards grants (normally $2500) or fellowships ($15000) to US citizens and permanent residents for advanced study and research in the Scandinavian countries.
Application deadline: November 1
Contact: The American-Scandinavian Foundation
725 Park Ave.
NEW YORK, NY 10021
Tel: (212) 879-9779
The John Dana Archbold Fellowship Program offers fellowships to Norwegians and Americans for a year of graduate, post-doctoral, or professional study and research. Application deadline: Feb. 28.
Contact: The Nansen Fund, Inc.
77 Saddlebrook Ln.
HOUSTON, TX 77024
tel: (713) 680-8255
fax: (713) 686-3963
Fulbright Stipends are awarded for both study and research. Application deadline: early Fall.
Contact:
US Student Program
Institute of International Education
809 United Nations Plaza
NEW YORK, NY 10017
Membership in NorTANA costs $10.00 for one year, or $25.00 for three years. If you have let your membership lapse, now is the time to renew, as well as to encourage colleagues to join NorTANA. Your address label should indicate if it is time for you to renew. (If your label says '98 or earlier, you owe $10.00 for one year, or $25 for three--if it says '99, you are paid up until October.) Send dues to Solveig Zempel, Dept. of Norwegian, St. Olaf College, 1520 St. Olaf Ave., NORTHFIELD, MN 55057098.
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President: Margaret
Hayford O'Leary |
Vice President:
Louis Janus |
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Treasurer: Solveig
Zempel |
Newsletter Editor:
Torild Homstad |
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Secretary: Nancy
Aarsvold |
Board Member: Zoe
Borovsky |
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Board Member:
Ingrid Urberg |
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