Our focus is on understanding the evolution of linguistic repertoires among children and adults, both in educational settings and the broader community. For millennia, communicating through diverse verbal and other semiotic resources has been the norm across various cultures. The Council of Europe concisely defines individual multilingualism as "the repertoire of varieties of language," reflecting a perspective that views multilingualism as a natural, dynamic, and holistic phenomenon. In this view, learners' linguistic repertoires may consist of varying degrees of language resources from different languages, mirroring their life histories and experiences with language.
Our work spans across and involves multiple languages: Norwegian, Norwegian as a second language and heritage language, English, French, Spanish, and German. Moreover, we conduct research on language didactics, language ideologies, and linguistic practices. Our common goal is to enable individuals to learn languages and develop their linguistic repertoires for personal enjoyment and benefit and for the greater good of society. Achieving this goal requires understanding how different people learn languages and grasping the role of language both for individuals and society as a whole.
We base our research on various educational, social, and linguistic theories and methodologies to explore language learning and development within different language didactic contexts. Examples of such contexts include language subjects in schools, cross-disciplinary language development in school and adult education, and linguistics and language didactics in higher education.