Toegepaste Taalwetenschap in Artikelen - Volume 16, Issue 1, 1983

While research data indicate that Dutch education is problematic for Surinamese children, Dutch educational policy takes the view that the children can adapt to the curriculum quickly or even im-mediately, because they supposedly have a Dutch-speaking background. However, the language situation of Surinamese children is complex: a vast proportion of the children is bilingual and speaks a non-standard variety of Dutch: Surinamese Dutch (SN). Therefore, it is important to find out how the school fits the specific situa-tion of these children. The curriculum and the demands of the school, as well as the expectations of the teachers toward the children partly define the success of failure of the child. Language attitudes, too, can lead to a self fulfilling prophecy as regards to teacher expectations.This article deals with the perceptions of teachers with respect to language problems in the school and with teacher attitudes con-cerning the language use of Surinamese children. According to the majority of the teachers. Surinamese children have difficulties with a number of schoolsubjects as a consequence of their different home language. In particular the 'concentration schools', schools with a population of more than 15% Surinamese children, experience these problems most acutely. The majority of teachers indicate that they pursue command of the standard language as an objective. Most of the teachers locate the problems with the chil-dren, not with the school system itself.Investigating to what extent teachers-attitudes influence the educational results of the children is a complex task. First of all, the question needs to be answered wether teachers already have specific attitudes toward SN, since it is a rather new phenomenon to have Surinamese children in the classroom. The data suggest that, at this point, many teachers do not view SN as a seperate language variety, but as 'poor Dutch'. Nevertheless they are reasonably positive about the characteristics of SN, which may reflect their insecurity about this variety of Dutch. Comparing attitudes towards urban dialects and SN shows that teachers have a more pronounced and somewhat more negative attitude towards the urban dialects of their Dutch pupils. There is an important attitudinal difference between teachers from different cities. Teachers do not express stereotypes about the consequences of bilingualism for a child's intellectual development, but as regards the specific classroom situation, the majority of the teachers reports difficulties for children with a different home language. However, most teachers oppose special provisions in the school for use of the home language as a medium of instruction or as a subject.It seems that the views of teachers are linked to societal norms and educational policy, in which an ethnocentric point of view predominates. While information about sociolinguistic insights may not on its own change these norms, ignoring such information will certainly not bring about a change. Therefore, specific language curricula need to be developed.

Analyzing the concept 'problem' in educational perspective it is argued that it is relevant to conceive education as an interaction process. In distinguishing two approaches in interaction analysis a plea is made for qualitative research. Sequently, the papers in this collection are placed in such a programme of classroom research. Finally some remarks on the relation between interaction analysis and teacher training and retraining are formulated.

Within the study of interaction in the classroom we might distinguish three perspectives: a linguistic one, one that is related to schoolpolitics and a practical one. Linguists often tend to concentrate only on the linguistic perspective. To restore the balance, in this contribution I'll lay stress on the practical perspective, while the schoolpolitical perspective will figure as significant context. With a "practical perspective" on the analysis of classroom interaction I do not mean to offer a list of instructions which teachers can (or must) apply in their classroom prac-tice, but to create the possibility for teachers to have a meaningful reflection at their own lessons. How this can be done I'll try to show by discussing some aspects of the so called "Paulusproject", a curriculum innovation project which emphazises the role of language in learning processes. Successsively attention will be paid to:- the backgrounds, aims and practice of the Paulusproject: At the St.Pauluslyceum in Tilburg a small group of tea-chers has developped during the last 7 years several pro-grams for various subjects (like history and biology) for pupils of the 7-th form (12,13 years old). In those programs one has tried to achieve an integration of subject teaching and language teaching.the way in which the profeet teachers reflect at their own practice:In the Paulusproject curriculum development has always been closely related to the reflection at the existing classroom practice. This reflection has been made possible by team teaching(a biologist and an Enlish teacher working together in one and the same lesson) and by re-cording the lessons on videotape. In general meetings the project teachers watched these videotapes and made "explorative analysis" of lessons. An example will be given of the way teachers used interaction analysis du-ring such a meeting.an example of practice oriented analysis of classroom interaction:Discussing a few fragments from biology lessons I'll try to show what I mean by an 'explorative' analysis. Although from a linguistic point of view such an ana-lysis may have various hooks and eyes, I'll suggest that for the progress of the project it has been of great value: it can be made rather quick by the teachers themselves and it maintains a high level of liveliness.some general conclusions:With reference to the experience we have had in the Pau-lusproject, I'll conclude with some remarks on interaction analysis, curriculum innovation and the description of innovation.

In this paper, part of the preliminary results of a spelling survey project are presented along with some general theoretical consider-ations about writing.In the first part it is argued, that until recently, spelling research had either psycholinguistic or educational aims. There is now a growing awareness of the importance of trying to incorporate various factors, originating on the one hand from psycho- and sociolinguistic research, and on the other hand from educational psychology. As a result the acquisition and development of writing skills is now looked upon from a broader angle. However, school teachers are reluctant to adopt these insights, first, because this means a radical attitude change toward the traditional idea of "writing correctly", and second, because up to now, little didactic support is offered in this respect.In the second part, part of the examination results of 664 compositions from 183 pupils from two schools, one in Louvain and one in Antwerp, are discussed. We did not just look at spelling failures but also at lexicological, morphological and syntactic shortcomings. Moreover we looked at the teacher and the didactic methods. The general results are discussed, as well as certain details such as the dropping of the final -n, letter changes and verb ending in the simple present. Apart from differences between the schools, there are a number of differences compared to previous Dutch research as well.In the final part some theoretical aspects of "invented spelling" are discussed. It is argued that current didactics should devote more time to stimulating writing procedures than to inventing new techniques for the teaching of spelling.

The article presented here gives a brief illustration of some results of a case study which took place in 1982. This study fits in with the framework of a larger scale project of the SLO (Foundation for Curriculum Development, Enschede): Language competence in primary school.The goal of this research was twofold:- what is the influence of teacher nlanning on the interaction- what is the influence of the interaction, especially with regard to the contribution of the children, on the implementation of the planning.In short, we want to outline the reciprocal influence of nlanning and interaction.The study took place in two classes of a more or less open-plan primary school in Kerkrade. Both linguists and educationalists worked together in a close interdisciplinary co-operation. In addition we worked closely together with the teachers involved and with the curriculum developers.The researchers participated in the classes for two weeks, made videotapes, and transcripts. Also we took Stimulated Recall Inter-views; viewing sessions with researchers and teachers together to obtain teachers' objectives, interpretations and to verify internretations of the researchers. This method should always play an important role in analyzing Classroom interaction.This article focuses on one of the most important results of the study; the model of analysis. Within this model interaction is defined as a process of negotiation. Furthermore we made a distinction between teacher planning before and during the lesson, referred to as pre-active and intra-active planning. A central position in this model is taken up by the notion 'moment of decision'. This notion allows us to make the connexion between interaction and planning visible. A series of these moments establishes the actual interaction. It is in these moments that both the teacher and the children achieve consensus with relation to the organisa-tion and content of the interaction. Each participant negotiates from a certain point of view.Within a language situation the perspectives of the participants are never the same. They depend on the rights and obligations one has within the specific situation. Concerning the classroom situation we point out some aspects of on the one hand the teacher and on the other hand the group of children. We pay attention to the institutional role of the teacher, her intentions, planning, objectives and past educational experiences with or without the same group of children. Children of their own also have intentions and past experiences. For the analysis of a 'moment of decision' we describe both the perspectives of teacher and pupil, and the consensus they achieved.

With respect to the language norm there is less certainty for Frisian than for Dutch. It is a moot point whether there should be a strict norm, and if so what form this norm should take.In the teaching of Frisian three kinds of motives have always played apartj viz. language-political, cultural and pedagogic-didac-tic motives. The problem of the norm has mainly been approached from the first two motives, leading to a norm which is as "Frisian" as possible, free of Dutch influences, but not in keeping with the linguistic usage of the average speaker or' Frisian. Schools may in this way overshoot the target aimed at.It is insufficiently realized that the noria problem in education must be approached from a well-defined concept of man, society and education. in this article the norm problem is approached from an emancipatory point of view. This stand results in a flexible, rather eclectic norm,. I do not aim at teaching my pupils the one and only "real Frisian", but rather at getting started a process of awareness of the issues and at increasing their skill in using their own language. Didactically this means creating as many language situations as possible, in which reflection on the language used by the pupils is an important instrument in increasing the command of the language.

A speaker whom you cannot localize by means of his speech, uses a Standard Language. In order to teach this language you need a grammar and dictionaries in which its norms have been fixed. Many Dutch speaking people have a linguistic minority complex: they prefer speaking foreign languages and are not interested in the norms of their mother tongue. Maybe this explains why Standard Dutch norms have been fixed only relatively late. Van Dale's Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal functions as a kind of unofficial Standard Dictionary, but a Standard Grammar of Dutch does not exist and is only to appear in 3 984: the Algemene Nederlandse Spraakkunst.The language situation in Flanders (the Dutch speaking part of Belgium), is probably unique in Europe in that the average intellectual does not master a standard language, and instead uses a mixture, composed of his dialect and Standard Dutch. So here the need of language norms at school is very great. In respect to language use there is an emergency state in Flanders.Whereas about 40 years ago a number of Flemings even wanted to create a separate southern variant of Standard Dutch, their influence is now rapidly decreasing, and Flemish schools need more than ever a plan for resolving the Standard problem as fast as possible. Hitherto this has failed, and so the schools have to rely upon booklets in which the most widespread dialect words and grammatical differences with Standard Dutch are treated.The whole process of standardisation in Flanders is severely delayed by an emotional problem: many Flemings have rather strong negative feelings towards the Dutch.

This article deals with the relationship between the concrete perceptible linguistic phenomena and their underlying schemata of speech action, illustrated by an analysis of this relationship in the educational institution, i.e. in a classroom.The concrete linguistic utterances are realisations of actions being specific "positions" within the schema. For the analysis of these schemata of speech action and the way they are put to use in communicative interaction, e.g. in classrooms, it is necessary to distinguish the discrete units that constitute the schema. These units are determined by the goal of the schema. As yet, the relationship between schemata of speech action and linguistic surface phenomena is not unequivocal. This is caused by the complex nature of communicative interaction. Schemata of speech action provide a potential for possible linear realizations. The analysis is illustrated with the help of empirical data taken from real communication in a classroom.An understanding of schemata of speech action allows teachers to better comprehend their own actions and those of their pupils.

To identify problems that citizens meet when reading a public leaf-let, we invited some subjects to participate in a thinking aloud experiment. They were asked to find out if a Dutch regulation on Rent Rebate Grants would apply in the situation of a certain Mr. De Vries. The thinking aloud procedure as a method of collecting data is often criticized. However, objections against this method also hold for other, more widely accepted methods like those using open end questions, etc.The analysis of the thinking aloud protocols we collected, led us to three provisional conclusions, that could be the base for a number of hypotheses in further research:1. Readers tend to follow their own intuitions about the way they should act, rather than the instructions a leaflet provides. It is supposed that a leaflet would be more effective if it 'forces' the reader to follow the text exactly. Flowcharts seem to be an adequate solution.2. Readers have to 'translate' the text of a leaflet into instruc-tions for solving their problem. These translations seem to raise fewer difficulties when the text is written in a style using 'prescriptions' (commands) or 'scenario's' (conditional statements), than when the text is written in a 'descriptive' style.3. Readers often wrongly do not skip text passages that are irrelevant to their personal situation. More explicit indications in this respect could make the texts more effective.

An attempt is made to analyse some aspects of the sequencing structure in the openings of lessons.It is shown that there are different levels of sequencing for different sets of participants. On a base-line two sequential posi-tions are realized within the participant set "whole class". Posi-tion one is occupied by the teacher and contains at least an utterance or nonverbal signal with a directive function. Position two is the nonverbal reaction of the pupils to this directive. It can have situation-sensitive expansions through the embedding of sequences which are constrained on two levels: Topically, the embedded sequences handle more detailed aspects of the directive in position one; interactionally, they apply to a smaller set of participants. The base-line positions together with the embedded sequences form a kind of directive clusters. They are terminated with the comple-tion of position two, which is realized by the devices the teacher uses in initiating a next position for the participant set "whole class". Such verbal and nonverbal devices also constitute the respective participant sets and the shifts between them. Especially on boundaries as the transition from one directive cluster to the following the devices are typically ordered in a tripartite structure. It is shown that the pupils orient themselves to this order in coordinating their actions with those of the teacher.Some discussion is offered to the tasks different directive clusters have. One type organizes an additive kind of availability that is connected with the specific lesson. It is optionably insertable and located after a directive position of the other kind. This latter one organizes the discourse availability of the pupils. It is obligatory, though reducable to routinized nonverbal signals.Some properties of the sequential structure are also discussed. The directive clusters as a whole have the property of repeatabi-lity, contrary to the summons/answer-pair in conversational openings. The repetitions give the openings an intervalle charac-ter, alternating verbal and nonverbal positions and chaining clusters together.On the other hand the directive clusters as a whole are nonter-minal; the type of nonterminality differs from that of the summons/ answer-pair in conversational openings. Throughout the paper constrastive comparisons are made with Schegloff's analysis of sequencing in the openings of telephone calls. The analysis is based on 21 video-taped openings of lessons (recorded in Germany (FRG)).

Norms are not immutable, but are determined by the relations in society. Changes in society are followed from afar and hesitant-ly. Establishing norms only makes sense when they are rooted in reality, i.e. when they are in accord with social relations.Norms for the standard language are determined by various factors, intelligibility, comprehensibility, solidarity and status being among the most important ones. Intelligibility is dependent especially on pronunciation, comprehensibility especially on linguistic form and usage. In oral communication intelligibility is the most important factor, often being a prerequisite for comprehensibility.Whenever conveying linguistic contents is the prime objective in speaking, one must make high demand upon pronunciation, linguistic form and usage, so that phonemes and concepts will not be mis-understood. In this case the room for variation from person to person is limited. Norms related to solidarity and status may allow a much greater variation from group to group and from person to person.Each form of education in a standard language or in another first language will have to consider and will have to teach the importance of the influence of social factors on language norms, as well as the right of each individual and each group to determine one's own position in the "norm space" as defined by social factors. School and society can and should pay much more attention to language as a social skill.

The article deals with the relationship between verbal communication as a teaching objective and as a medium of teaching/learning. This relationship is of special interest for foreign language teaching/ learning aiming at ccmnunicative competence in spoken language. The article enters into the question in which ways teaching/learning ob-jects are constituted in the course of ongoing interaction, how acti-vities with regard to such objects are stimulated and steered, and what kinds of activities are defined by the participants themselves as LEARNING or count for them as such. Psycholinguistic input-(in-take) output models are being argued against, because classroom learning is not simply characterized by ready-made prestructured in-put and predetermined output, but both have first to be constituted through some strategic form of social interaction.Two examples of foreign language learning in the classroom are pre-sented: first of an EFL lesson, where the distortion of target langu-age function potential is demonstrated and the "staged" production of language prof iciency within a pedagogic interaction pattern is shown; and second of a German FL lesson, where a grammatical item is focussed and exercised. The sequence is an example of rigorous reali-zation of the I(nitiation)-R(esponse)-E(valuation) pattern as the ba-sic pattern of sequential organization in the classroom. It clearly shows how LEARNING is defined/executed as standardized response for-mats and "conditioned" chains of I-R-pairs. Many of the performed linguistic deviations(of the target language)seem due to interaction mechanisms rather than to general principles of language development.Conversational analysis of teaching-learning discourse shows that learning is not merely to be considered as a direct conventionalized consequence of ( initiating ) teaching ( acts ). On the one hand the inter-action pattern is merely a framework wherein "inner" mental processes are evoked and organized, which can manifest themselves in various forms. On the other hand there is a strong tendency for the teacher to control the entire learning process and to make expected outcomes collectively significant and thus for the learner a tendency mainly to adjust to prefabricated response formats, which at the same time serve as evidence for didactically intended cognitions. Hence, the stronger the predetermination and imposing of LEARNING by the teach-er, the more learning tends to become a mere guessing game and pure-ly mechanical.The restrictions of traditional classrooms are obvious from these examples: restrictions with regard to the experience of functional potential of the target language and with regard to the embedding of focussed learning-items into a functional perspective. These re-strictions have to be changed in order to enable learners to parti-cipate in problem-constitution, to bring in own perceptions of con-cepts/problems and to bring in own problem-solving strategies as systematic parts of language development and as systematic parts of official classroom discourse, i.e. as objects of active mutual indication and interpretation.Conversational analysis can be an important tool for the study of such "alternative" structuring of classroom interaction and its con-tribution to a more learner-centered and functionally oriented (foreign)language LEARNING.

A positive attitude of teachers towards non-standard varieties and speakers of non-standard varieties is an important prerequisite in handling the problems involved with language variation in school. In this paper we present some results of two studies of language attitude change of student teachers, teachers and children in primary schools. The first study is an inquiry into the nature of language attitudes of students in teacher training colleges. The second study is a case study carried out in the innovation stage of the Kerkrade-project, a sociolinguistic project intended to improve language education of children who originally speak dialect.Results of the first study suggest that grade, experience in teaching dialect-speaking children and knowledge of and information received about language variation in school have a positive effect on the language attitudes of student teachers as well as on their judgements of the appropriateness of dialect in several educatio-nal situations.Results from the second study indicate that introducing dialect in the verbal interaction in the classroom has a positive effect on the beliefs of teachers about the usefulness of the childrens' mother tongue in educational situations. Furthermore children saw that their own language was accepted by their teachers, as a language that was no longer inferior to the standard variety. A comparison with results from pupils of schools not participating in the project reveals that children who did participate no longer think of the school as a pure standard language environment. Finally observations of classroom interaction indicate that the use of dialect has a beneficial influence on the participation of dialect speaking children.

The persons who are being referred to by means of we_ may change in the course of conversation. We will demonstrate by means of a number of examples taken from classroom-discourse that the addressee - and so also the language student- knows exactly (because of context, situation and knowledge of the world) who is meant by we at each point in the conversation. The examples will show some typical environments for we. It will be shown that the referent of we changes when the situation being referred to changes.