Learning Norwegian in Norwegian to become Norwegian? A study on the monolingual strategy for refugees learning Norwegian at Voksenopplæringen and how it affects their prospects for integration into society.

Abstract

Refugees in Norway are the group that experiences discrimination and social exclusion the most. The main reason of discrimination and unsuccessful integration is insufficient language skills. Even though, that they are provided with up to 3000 hours of language learning within an Introduction program that is specially designed for them to help them to reconstruct their lives in Norway, there is only about 35% who manages to achieve B1 and B2 levels that can be sufficient for further work or education. The possible hindrance to learning might be the monolingual strategy itself, which implies that they have to learn a language in a language they don't understand. Previous researches neglected to explain the efficiency of this approach, however, different approach was always impossible to employ due to financial and human resources restrictions.