Dutch Journal of Applied Linguistics - Volume 5, Issue 2, 2016

This article explores a grammatical structure — differential object marking (DOM) — that is particularly difficult for L2 learners to acquire. DOM is a phenomenon in which some direct objects are morphologically marked and others are not. In Hindi, animate direct objects are always marked with the objective case marker ko, whereas specific direct objects are only optionally marked with ko. Inanimate and non-specific direct objects are never marked with ko and take the unmarked nominative form. DOM in Hindi has been found to pose a problem to heritage speakers of Hindi. The present study investigates whether similar difficulties exist for foreign language learners. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 30 foreign language learners of Hindi completing an oral production task. The results suggest that the learners do not have difficulties with the concept of DOM in itself — they know that not every direct object needs to be marked —, but rather with the variable conditions under which DOM occurs. The study defines five developmental profiles, which reflect a gradual accumulation of contexts appropriately marked with the objective case.

Interpersonal communication has been shown to influence health campaign outcomes, but little is known about ways in which conversations can actually be elicited. In this correlational study, we tested the assumption that perceived complexity of the message can be a predictor of interpersonal communication. Forty participants were exposed to six different health messages varying in perceived complexity. The results show that the more the message was perceived as complex, the longer it took to understand it. Longer message processing times, in turn, were associated with higher intentions to talk, but only about messages that were of low personal relevance. When messages had a high personal relevance, longer processing times were associated with lower intentions to talk. Apparently, if a message is clearly relevant, longer processing due to perceived complexity is detrimental to the occurrence of interpersonal communication.

From birth on, children are confronted with an ever-growing variation of languages. In Dutch primary schools the main language model nowadays is a submersion model centring round Standard-Dutch. The disappointing results of several small-scale bilingual experiments and the large-scale implementation of a bilingual model for immigrant children in the past had led the Ministry of Education to abandon bilingual education, that is, with the exception of models with English, German or French as a second language. The focus of the present article is on language variety at home and school. The main question is how the mother tongue, viz. the language the parents speak, influences their child’s proficiency in Dutch. Analysing data of 14,000 grade 2 pupils that were collected in the 2007, 2010 and 2013 measurement waves of the national COOL5–18 study, this paper first of all describes how often children speak their mother tongue. A distinction is made between Dutch; Frisian and Dutch regional languages and dialects; and foreign languages. The latter mostly refers to Turkish and Berber language varieties. Next, the correlation between speaking the mother tongue and the children’s proficiency in Dutch is analysed. The results show that for children of Dutch, Frisian and Dutch regional languages and dialect speaking parents there are no differences in level of Dutch relative to the number of times they speak their mother tongue. For children of a foreign language speaking parents, however, there is a tendency that the more often they speak their mother tongue the lower their proficiency in Dutch is. This negative relationship is not reduced by accounting for the mother’s educational level and proficiency of Dutch. Most of the children who speak a foreign language are of Turkish or Moroccan descent who in terms of school achievement lag considerably behind their native-Dutch peers. It is suggested that implementing so-called transition classes with targeted language courses during one school year and a follow-up in later years may help diminish this gap.

According to the Dutch government it is essential for migrants to learn Dutch in order to achieve social and economic independency. This article states that Dutch language proficiency is not necessary in order to survive for Spanish speaking migrants who live in Amsterdam. This statement is supported with results that are obtained through participant observation at Spanish speaking migrant organisations and 25 focus interviews with Spanish speakers. The research results lead to the conclusion that Spanish speaking migrants in Amsterdam survive by using English. The citizens of Amsterdam make it difficult for Spanish speaking migrants to learn Dutch because they prefer to speak English with them. Furthermore, also at the current labour market, Dutch is not used as an effective means of communication but instead as a selection tool. Knowledge of Dutch is only experienced as essential by Spanish speaking migrants who want to integrate and understand Dutch society.

In this paper we discuss the ethical aspects of secondary use of language data: data that have been created and stored for purposes such as administration, training or quality monitoring. Such recordings provide interesting natural language data that stay clear of the observer’s paradox (Labov, 1972). Additionally, they offer opportunities for the field of applied linguistics that seeks to understand everyday language use and to assist language users. However, obtaining informed consent from interactants can be extremely difficult if gatekeepers shield them from researchers for reasons of professional ethics or because of legislation. In this article, we draw on our conversation analytic research into police interviews with child witnesses to argue a) that conceptualizing pre-recorded data as archival data is more appropriate than applying the ‘human participants’ ethical model; and b) that if sufficient protective measures are taken, secondary use of data without informed consent can be ethically sound.