In Norway, a high proportion of newly arrived immigrant students (NAIS) are enrolled in vocational education (Blixen & Hellne-Halvorsen, 2022). Oral communicative skills in Norwegian are foundational in the professions that these students are training for (Batenburg et al., 2020). Therefore, a strong emphasis on oracy in the locally dominant language is important in VET in general, and in VET for NAIS in particular. However, to our knowledge, research on oracy in vocational education is scarce. Whereas the emphasis on literacy and literacy skills in both academic education and VET has increased over the last 10-20 years (e.g., Visén, 2021; Hellne-Halvorsen, 2019), oracy has received far less attention both in research and classroom practice (Batenburg et al., 2020). Thus, it is crucial to explore what characterizes the oracy demands in various professions, as well as what role these abilities play in the training of the students. In this study, we therefore investigate the following questions: What do educators in VET perceive as the key requirements for oral skills in Norwegian in their professions? What part does oracy in Norwegian play in the training of students? And how are Norwegian oral communicative skills assessed? The study started in January 2023. Qualitative data was collected from seven upper secondary schools with vocational programmes, mainly in the Healthcare, Childhood and Youth development-programmes as well as in Technical and Industrial production-programmes. Both educators (N=30) and students (N=30) participated in our study. The data analysis is guided by a sociocultural framework, especially the principles of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) (e.g., Gibbons, 2015). This will enable us to develop insights into the oracy demands and training in VET, crucial for both educational policy and practice, especially with regards to better targeted pedagogies for newly arrived and linguistically diverse immigrant students. We will share first findings and main themes in this talk.

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