Sociaal Milieu, Leeftijd en Sekse en de Taalvaardigheid in Het Nederlands Van Allochtone en Autochtone Basisschoolleerlingen

The results of a secondary analysis of the relationships between Dutch language proficiency and educational attainment of Dutch primary school children with different ethnic backgrounds are presented. Three groups of pupils are studied: 32 monolingual speakers of the Dutch standard language, 75 bilingual children speaking a Dutch dialect and standard Dutch and 39 bilingual non-indigenous children belonging to different ethnic groups. All children started their school career in the Netherlands. Main results are 1) the structure of Dutch language proficiency is equal for the three groups; 2) the effects of parental class on language proficiency differ between the three groups; 3) the effects of Dutch language proficiency on educational attainment are equal for the three groups and 4) 75% of the differences in Dutch language proficiency and school success can be explained by differences in social class.