Interactief Taalonderwijs Voor Jonge Kinderen

This article describes the basic principles of interactive language teaching, as currently developed by the National Centre for Language Education (Expertisecentrum Nederlands). Based on a social constructivist view on learning and development, we argue that language education in the primary grades should aim at social, authentic, and strategic learning. We show how these principles are applied to the teaching o f oral/communicative language skills and vocabulary acquisition. A framework for literacy standards, and its consequences for assessment is also discussed.