Jens Skarkerud Haugan – International Association & Group for the EDUCATIONAL ROLE OF LANGUAGE

	Contact details: jens.haugan@inn.no
	Affiliation: Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences, Faculty of Education, Department of Scandinavian Languages and Literature, Campus Hamar 2318 Hamar, Norway
	ERLA key words; language and schooling, language and education, language and methodology, language and culture, language and society, language and personality, language teaching, language learning, language acquisition, attitudes to language, language policy
	ERLA key problems: All four main areas of the identified ERLA directions are related to “problems” I am interested in investigating. My main contribution to ERLA has, so far, been theinvestigation of Norwegian Nynorsk as an alternative written language in school and society

I have been a member of the ERL Network since the first ERL conference in 2016 and I eventually also joined the ERL Association when it became clear that ERL/ERLA was my natural “research family”.I am often referred to as one of the “ERL veterans”. My role is, first of all, as an attendee and contributor at the ERL conferences and by publishing in the ERL Journal, and I also try to contribute with perspectives or advice when this is possible.

The term “educational role of language” can be interpreted in different ways, but it must, obviously, have a perspective on language in education, one way or the other. Since I am working in teacher education and my field of teaching and research is the Norwegian language, I naturally try to find relevant perspectives that lead to “research-based teaching”, hence, I try to develop my own teaching practice and knowledge and the field of teaching and learning Norwegian. In the ERL/ERLA context, I am trying to find perspectives that may be relevant to other teachers/researchers with other interests than Norwegian in particular. My perspectives so far have been on methodology by viewing a first language or so-called mother tongue as a second language, and I have looked at motivational aspects of teaching and learning that have to do with the emotional and affective side of language. I have also looked at literacy and language policy as a part of the educational role of language. Mainly, I see “the educational role of language” as two sides of a coin: the one side, where the educational system (schoolingand teacher education) and language policy play an important role, and the other side, where it is seen from the perspective of the individual pupil or student with focus on e.g. motivation, emotions and identity.

My main goal is to contribute to a well-functioning network of researchers and practitionersby being active myself. I would like to learn from other ERLA members, but also inspire other researchers by presenting new perspectives.

I would very much like to be a part of joint ERLA projects, preferably with focus on language teaching/learning with perspectives on motivation, emotions, identity, language policy and/or parallel languages (cf. Nynorsk and Bokmål in Norway)..