Norwegian Sign Language Curriculum (NOR4-04)

Basic skills are integrated into the competence aims, where they help develop and form part of the pupils’ academic skills. Basic skills in Norwegian Sign Language are as follows:

Oral skills involve listening and interacting in different communication situations and creating meaning by comprehending and expressing oneself in Sign Language. Listening means using all the senses to understand, interpret and evaluate statements made by others. The pupils' oral skills are developed by active interaction and the use of different communicative strategies. This means mastering oral genres in increasingly complex situations and adapting the language to a given purpose and recipient.

Producing text involves expressing oneself in Norwegian Sign Language with clarity and precision. It is also a way of developing and structuring ideas and thoughts, and it is an important tool for learning. The subject has a particular responsibility for developing the pupils' ability to plan, create and refine increasingly complex Sign Language texts adapted for a given purpose and recipient. Producing composite texts in Sign Language involves combining elements such as Sign Language, written text, sound and images to form a coherent whole. Acquiring skill in producing Sign Language texts requires a systematic approach to textual knowledge, various strategies and formal skills in Sign Language.

Reading skills are both a core skill and a cultural competence. Reading involves comprehending and deriving meaning from texts in different genres on screen and in direct communication while taking a critical and independent view of the texts. Being able to read means immersing oneself in texts and gaining an insight into other people's thoughts, experiences and creativity. It also involves aesthetic experiences and developing imagination and mental images. Furthermore, it means being able to find information in different texts, acquiring subject knowledge, and comprehending logical reasoning and presentation in a wide range of text types. This takes place both in direct interaction with others and via a third person such as an interpreter, for example. The pupils should develop reading skills by working systematically on reading strategies adapted to the given purpose and to different types of text in the subject. They should progress from basic decoding and comprehension of simple texts to understanding, interpreting, reflecting on and evaluating increasingly complex texts.

Numeracy involves interpreting and understanding information in texts containing figures, quantities or geometrical shapes. This means being able to evaluate, reflect on and communicate about complex texts containing graphic representations, tables and statistics. Numeracy skills are developed by deriving comprehensive meaning from increasingly complex texts where different forms of expression must be seen in the context of each other.

Digital skills involve using digital tools, media and learning resources to obtain and process information, creating and editing different types of text, and communicating with each other. In this context it is important to be able to critically evaluate and use sources. Digital skills are part of the process of learning how to read and produce increasingly complex texts and involve identifying, using and eventually evaluating and citing digital sources in own texts.