Inspired by previous research exploring visual learner narratives, this study explores which learning activities and emotions are represented in Norwegian pupils’ drawings of themselves in two different multilingual settings, learning L2 English and L3 French/German/Spanish.
Key principles of a multilingual pedagogy are to encourage students to see their full linguistic repertoire as a valuable resource, and to explore how previous language learning experiences can assist them in further language learning. For example, pupils in Norwegian secondary school should reflect on which strategies from L2 English can be useful when learning their third language French, German or Spanish. However, in an interview study (Haukås, 2016), Norwegian L3 teachers claim that there are hardly any possibilities of transferring strategies from L2 English to the L3, because L2 English and the L3 are learned in completely different ways. Prompted by these findings and inspired by previous research exploring visual learner narratives, this study investigates which learning activities and emotions are represented in Norwegian pupils’ drawings of themselves learning L2 English and L3 French/German/Spanish. Altogether 321 Norwegian secondary school pupils (school year 9) participated in the project, and the drawings were made during class time. Along with each drawing, the pupils were asked to explain what they included in their drawing and to describe similarities and differences between learning L2 English and the L3. Findings from this study may provide important insight into learners’ strategies for learning foreign languages (L2 and L3) and to what extent they perceive the learning of L2 English and learning an L3 as belonging to two different worlds. The analysis shows that pupils to a large extent experience the learning of L2 English and L3 French, German or Spanish as similar, but the use of digital media is much more common when learning L2 English. Furthermore, the drawings display clear differences related to emotions.
