Davvisámegielat čálamáhtu konteaksta [The context of North Sámi literacy]

The context of North Sámi literacy This article sets out to unravel the contexts of Sámi literacy that are necessarily and unavoidably intertwined with the bilingual and biliterate actuality of the Sámi learners in North Sámi speaking regions of Sápmi in Sweden, Norway and Finland. The study presented in this paper is a language sociological cross-sectional case study. Our primary material consists of the 128 questionnaires that were gathered from 9 and 12 year old North Sámi learners and their parents during the school year 2012-2013. We have approached and analysed the questionnaire data using the Hornbergian Continua of Biliteracy theoretical framework as our main conceptual tool. According to our findings Sámi language is often conceived of as being a difficult language to write and having more value when spoken fluently. Such views seems to, in turn, have negative effects on how literacy skills in Sámi are perceived both by the pupils and their parents. Paradoxically, when placed on the scales of the Continua of Biliteracy framework, we see that the literacy context of many young Sámi learners of today is limited to the literary realm of school, and to literate rather than oral contexts. Our findings further implicate that there are substantial interregional differences in the state of Sámi literacy that are due to as well ideological as practical factors that arise in this complex bi- and multilingual context. Although some regions are coping better with reaching balanced biliteracy and good Sámi litercy skills among Sámi learners, Sámi literacy practices everywhere are in need of special attention and focused measures so that they can withstand the pressures that in the present cause considerable lack of balance in many Sámi learners biliteracy scales.
Literacy in Sápmi: Multilingualism, revitalization and literacy development in the global north