Dutch Journal of Applied Linguistics - Volume 7, Issue 1, 2018

In a large corpus (2.9 million tokens) of chat conversations, we studied the impact of Flemish adolescents’ social background on non-standard writing. We found significant correlations between different aspects of social class (level of education, home language and profession of the parents) and all examined deviations from formal written standard Dutch. Clustering several social variables might not only lead to a better operationalization of the complex phenomenon of social class, it certainly allows for discriminating social groups with distinct linguistic practices: lower class teenagers used each of the non-standard features much more often and in some cases in a different way than their upper class peers. Possible explanations concern discrepancies in terms of both linguistic proficiency and linguistic attitudes. Our findings emphasize the importance of including social background as an independent variable in variationist studies on youngsters’ computer-mediated communication.

In the contexts where English is taught as a foreign language, especially to beginners, project-based learning is often perceived as complicated to implement and difficult to assess. This Indonesian research was inspired by the need to address those misgivings. First, a project-based model for practical learning activities in EFL classes was created using a research and development design. In this stage, a careful reading to the English as a Foreign Language curriculum for junior high school students was conducted in an attempt to identify the topics, basic competencies, and indicators of success. Based on the results of the curriculum analysis, a careful development of project-based learning tasks was carried out. This article first of all described how the learning materials were developed with reference to the results of curriculum analysis and characteristics of learners. The developed materials were then sent to expert judges to check for relevance, readability and quality of the materials. In the next stage, the materials were tried out in three junior high schools in Bali, Indonesia, to further check the readability and practicability of the product as a teaching and learning innovation. Finally, after a revision to the materials, a quasi-experiment involving 36 students, was conducted in a school to examine the impact of project-based learning on students’ productive skills in English as well as on their attitudes towards learning the language. The data collection method used during the quasi experiment included: classroom observation, interviews with teachers and students, and a questionnaire. The overall impact of the implementation was evaluated using a t-test formula. It was found that project-based learning caused consistent improvement in the abilities to speak (monologue and dialogue) and to write (on a topic of students’ own choice). In addition, it was observable that project-based learning has an impact on students’ positive attitudes toward learning the foreign language. This was indicated by the motivation, enthusiasm, and excitement on the part of the students during the process of planning, working on a project, as well as on the assessment procedures.

This research presents the results of a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the use of the Dutch placement verbs zetten (‘put’) and leggen (‘lay’) by French-speaking learners of Dutch. The experiment consisted of a productive task. The results confirm that the use of Dutch placement verbs is problematic for French-speaking learners, but they also reveal some important tendencies. First, our analysis demonstrates that French-speaking learners tend to underuse these verbs, which can be explained by the fact that placement events in French are often described by means of a neutral verb such as ‘mettre’ (‘put’) as opposed to the more specific verbs in Dutch. Secondly, the learners occasionally also tend to overuse the placement verbs in contexts where such verbs are not allowed, an observation which is seemingly paradoxical to the first one. Thirdly, learners also tend to confuse ‘zetten’ with ‘leggen’ and vice versa.

This paper presents an interdisciplinary study on the interface between young people, their language use, group belonging and urban space. Relevant literature from the fields of sociolinguistics and urban geography is reviewed and integrated, focusing on language, identity and place. The outcomes are based on on-site interviews and focus group meetings that were used to explore and explain the in-depth meanings of our assumption: language is a situated practice. Participants reported to adjust their language use to place ‘automatically’, indicating the awareness of unwritten norms. Furthermore, being in or out of place and adjustment of language use is merely a function of the presence of other people. It is concluded that the space where young people find themselves is crucial for physical and social distance between the self and others and, therefore, the way language is used.

The phoneme /h/ is absent in French and its acquisition has been described as being difficult for second language learners of Dutch, a language with /h/ in its phoneme inventory. In this study, several factors were examined that may affect the production of /h/ by Belgian-French learners of Dutch. Specifically, the factors included in this exploratory study were (1) L1-to-L2 transfer, (2) semantic contrastiveness, (3) the monitoring of one’s speech, and (4) educational grade. L1-to-L2 transfer was operationalized as the effect of liaison/elision contexts on /h/-production. The expectation was liaison contexts might transfer and would therefore hinder /h/-production. Semantic contrasts in minimal pairs including an h-initial word would elicit more /h/-productions if that word was contrasted with an empty onset than an onset (oor-hoor) filled by some other consonant (hand-tand). If a speaker pays more attention to his/her speech in an increased-monitoring task, the speaker is expected to produce /h/ more often, and finally it was expected that increased exposure to Dutch would result in more correct productions.

In a cross-sectional study, students from the first, third and sixth grades of secondary education (60 in total, aged between 12 years and 19 years old) took part in two reading-aloud tasks, which were assumed to differ in the degree of speech monitoring they require. The first task was a text, with which L1-to-L2 transfer was assessed, and the second a list of minimal pairs containing h-onsets contrasting with either empty or filled onsets. Monitoring was assessed by comparing results between reading tasks.

Results showed that increased monitoring positively influenced the numbers of [h]s produced, but that L1-to-L2 transfer of liaison/elision contexts did not occur. A small difference between conditions was found, but in the opposite direction. There was large between-learner variability and no performance increase with amount of exposure from first to sixth grade. Overall, performance left much room for improvement relative to native Dutch speakers and to the learners’ teacher. Further research is needed to better understand the development of French-speaker learners’ production of Dutch /h/.

Research towards aging of migrant populations has so far mostly focused on (bio)medical and psychological aspects. Here we explore to what extent second language ability is a factor influencing the healthy aging process of older Turkish migrants in the Netherlands. To get a first understanding of the linguistic situation of older migrants within this setting, interviews with ten healthcare consultants 1 with insight into their local Turkish community were conducted, forming a ‘needs-analysis’ of this group. It emerged that older migrants rely heavily on their ethnically close-knit networks for information and care. In communicating their healthcare needs to others outside the family, the older migrants experience language barriers, directly resulting from low L2 proficiency and L2 anxiety. These barriers prevent access to health information and induce dependence. This initial exploration of the interplay between language and aging in a migrant population can be used as input into more advanced, empirical investigations.