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There is a tradition that is over a century old for teaching Danish as a foreign language in Iceland, at both upper secondary level and in courses of vocational education and training; furthermore, Danish has always been the first foreign language learned in compulsory education. In the autumn of 1994, a committee appointed by the Ministry of Education proposed that English should replace Danish as the first foreign language taught in the Folkeskole (primary and lower secondary education). This proposal aroused much public attention and discussion, reflecting a considerable divergence of views. It was striking , however, just how strong the reaction to the proposal was among a wide range of people in favour of Danish. National roots and the historical links with Denmark were stressed as well as a desire to retain contacts with Denmark and the other Nordic countries - and with proficiency in Danish having shown itself to work well as the Icelanders' key to the Nordic language community. The result was that it was decided to retain the teaching of Danish as the first foreign language in the Icelandic Folkeskole.
During the debate and in its wake, the voices that argue for innovations in Danish teaching have become more vociferous. Ways of making Danish teaching more efficient are being called for, ones that can lead to a more active mastery of Danish, not least when it comes to oral proficiency. It is generally held that one of the factors that can influence the development of a foreign language is the educational background of the teaching group.
The aim of Danish teaching in the Icelandic Folkeskole is for pupils to gain an all-round communicative competence. Many people point out that this objective is not being achieved and that many young people have difficulty expressing themselves orally in Danish. Unlike what was previously the case, Danish is now only very rarely heard in Icelanders' everyday lives. Outside the classroom there are only extremely limited opportunities of getting linguistic experiences, i.e. of gleaning the target language from one's surroundings and of testing it out in "real" communicative situations. So, as far as Danish teaching is concerned - as well as teaching in other languages that can only used actively to a small extent in native surroundings - what is got out of it mainly depends on the quality and effectiveness of the teaching. This puts the professionalism of the foreign language teacher centre stage.
The Icelandic School of Educational Studies is responsible for the education of future teachers at the Folkeskole. Teacher training, which is based on the single teacher principle, is a three-year course consisting of a general section and two specialised subjects. The points given to one such subject correspond roughly to a half-year university course. Within this short space of time one has to try to equip the student teacher with competence in areas directly related to that specific subject. As far as the subject Danish is concerned, this involves proficiency training, meta-awareness of the Danish language and culture - and the didactics of the subject! Moreover, those people who have passed a BA exam in Danish and have a one-year diploma of education are also entitled to teach in the Folkeskole. Because of the single teacher principle, however, there is no guarantee that those who are qualified to undertake Danish teaching will actually do so. A questionnaire survey carried out in 1993 revealed that only a few teachers of Danish have a BA in Danish and only about one fifth have Danish as a specialised subject from the Icelandic School of Educational Studies. [A questionnaire survey among Icelandic teachers of Danish for the final year at the Folkeskole, carried out by Audur Hauksdóttir in 1993.]
The subject tradition of Danish has roots that go back to a completely different linguistic and social reality than that which exists today. It is characterised by a certain 'lopsidedness', with high priority being given to reading proficiency and with a heavy emphasis on direct translation and the explicit learning of grammar at the expense of oral proficiency, which is neglected. Since Icelandic and Danish are closely related languages, a lot is handed to the pupil on a plate - not least as regards reading proficiency. Added to which, Icelanders as a people are keen readers, an asset when it comes to Danish teaching. Furthermore, there is full understanding among Icelanders of the fact that it is necessary to master a number of foreign languages - and, until now, Icelanders have felt a close link to its other Nordic countries. By neglecting oral proficiency one simultaneously limits the pupils' oral competence and ignores the motivation potential that lies in using Danish in an interaction during the learning process. At any rate, it can be claimed that Icelanders' oral proficiency in Danish is generally speaking too poor when compared to their reading proficiency and vocabulary. But how is the view of language and teaching in the subject tradition related to communicative language teaching?
Since Danish occupies so small a place in the everyday life of the pupils outside the classroom, it is vital that the teacher - in spite of the geographical distances involved - is able to make the Danish language and culture come alive in the classroom. Considerable communicative potential lies in classroom conversation if the teacher is capable of teaching in Danish. And one textbook is not enough, even though it has its own book of exercises and tasks. There is every opportunity for creating linguistic interaction by establishing personal contacts partly via such electronic media as multimedia and data communication and partly via the exchange of letters and pupil visits. In this context, it has to be remembered that meaningful communication with Danes presupposes a certain amount of cultural and social knowledge - both contrastive knowledge and that which in the local community is considered to be common, or shared, knowledge. By consciously including topical authentic material one can gradually give the pupils the necessary basic knowledge that is a prerequisite for successful communication in Danish taking place. Innovation calls for professionalisation.
There is much to suggest that it is unrealistic to expect future Danish teachers to be able - by means of a subject-related course of study that only corresponds to a half-year course at a university - to acquire a sufficiently good knowledge of Danish and the didactic qualifications needed for implementing communicative language teaching. In the light of post-war developments and the increasing dominance of the English language there is much to suggest that the younger generations are less familiar with Danish language and culture than the older generations. Pupils' competence in Danish can therefore only be achieved by means by extremely professional foreign language teaching. Despite certain alterations to Danish as a specialised subject - with greater emphasis on communicative goals - it is unrealistic under the present circumstances to expect innovations that can lead to radical changes in the subject tradition. The realisation of the aims of the curriculum and the innovations looked for in society require both an extension of and innovation in teacher training. But it is not enough to make greater demands of Danish teachers unless their conditions of employment are organised in such a way that the teachers who have actually qualified to teach Danish do so in practice. As things stand at present, the best one can hope for is for the firmly established subject tradition to be maintained.
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