Hvis behov kunne tale! En undersøgelse om narrative konstruktioner af behov i andet- og fremmedsprogsundervisning og behovenes kompleksitet

Abstract

This article investigates target and learning needs of three stakeholder groups: 1) consisting of transnational knowledge workers, who participated in a Danish course for occupational purposes Danish for knowledge workers, 2) the teachers, and 3) administrative staff at the University of Copenhagen. Through qualitative and quantitative analysis of data collected at the University of Copenhagen in 2017 – 2018, this study sought to analyse how learners in semi-structured interviews from a narrative perspective construct their target and learning needs based on their past and present experiences with language classes and their view on their own needs in future language classes.

The interview data indicate that the construction of target and learning needs is highly individual. Except for one participant, none of the informants were aware of their past target and learning needs. Instead there is a tendency to become more aware of their needs as adults. Additionally, through narrative reflection, the learners were able to construct their present and future needs, and it became clear that these needs are linked to an English-as-lingua-franca-discourse. The quantitative results indicate that the three informant groups seem to construct relatively comparable target and learning needs. Of the three groups, the teachers appear quite homogenous. The analysis of the data collected from learners and the administrative staff demonstrates the complexity of needs, with emphasis on language learning areas and content subjects. Overall, all three stakeholder groups define their target learning goals to primarily be topics concerning everyday life and culture.