Toegepaste Taalwetenschap in Artikelen - Volume 2, Issue 1, 1977

Migration of foreign workers and their families is a familiar phenomenon throughout Europe. From this it follows that the inte-gration of migrant children into the educational system is not a specifically Dutch problem. Comparison with the integration of migrant children elsewhere in Europe - notably in Sweden - shows the policy of the Dutch government to be rather restrictive. Attention is given to the nature of the initiatives which have been taken so far in the Netherlands in this field, to the quantitative dimensions of the problem, to the bicultural educational aims pursued, to a number of problems which arise with respect to their realisation, and to the language programmes which have been developed so far for the benefit of migrant children.Furthermore, two domains are discussed which deserve much more attention, particularly from the point of view of educa-tional research: the development and evaluation of new language programmes for migrant children and the development and evalua-tion of training programmes for teachers who will be involved in the teaching of these children. As regards the latter cate-gory, special attention is given to the activities of the Ver-duin Committee, which since April 1976 has been working on the implementation of an in-service training programme for infant and primary school teachers who will be engaged in this special type of education.

This article discusses some ideas regarding the second-language education at the kindergarten for migrant workers children. The ideas are based on opinions about the nature of the second-language-learning process and on the results of a small experiment on the usage of Dutch by foreign children. It is argued that there are a lot of similarities between the first- and the second-language-learning processes. In the first-language-learning process the parents present the child with a kind of hidden curriculum which facilitates the acquisi-tion of the syntax, semantics and pragmatics of a language. The basic characteristics of this hidden curriculum can also be used for a second-language curriculum for foreign children in the kindergarten.

The Netherlands have become one of the most varied multi-racial societies of Europe after the last war.Any West European country which had or still has colonies, now has the important task of facing multi-racial changes and coming to grips with them. There are, of course, language problems, e.g. the fact that our teachers have not been trained in socio-linguistics. Therefore they have no knowledge of the language situation of the migrated child.They rarely succeed in teaching these children to master the languageso as to be able to communicate in the language as adequately as they do in a mother tongue situation. If a teacher wants to help Surinam children become completely bilingual he will have to realise that the elementary mechanisms of his own language differ from those of Surinam, Hindi, Chinese, Moroccan or any other language in the world.Hence, language education of Surinam children is much more than just teaching things like vocabulary and sentence structure. It is, there-fore, to be expected that children from Surinam will not be motivated to learn Dutch as well as they know their own mother tongue, as long as the pluriformity of society is not taken into account in their education, in study books, magazines, television and the press.Most children in Surinam live in an environment where more than one language is spoken, sometimes including Dutch. This situation continues in the Netherlands, although there are differences in the received pronunciation of Dutch: the Dutch which a Surinam child uses differs markedly from the Dutch spoken by teachers, school children, in fact, the vast majority of the new society. It is clear that the children of Surinam migrants get into difficulties compared with native Dutch children in our system of education. These difficulties already begin when the children fail to understand what the teacher is trying to tell them. The school education of the Surinam child is such, that he does not readily ask the teacher for an explanation when there is something he does not understand. Many things, therefor , remain unnoticed, because the teacher does not realise that the child is unfamiliar with even simple concepts. Besides, the children make mistakes because they have learned to think and talk in their own language.The stimulation of the acquisition of Dutch requires:1. countering interference which occurs because two or more languages (Sranan Tongo, Hindi, Dutch) are used together;2. forcing back institutionalised deviations of Dutch received pronunciation.In the framework of establishing one's identity all this must never lead to an underestimation of the native language.From research work by Alers and Voskuil it appears, that especially the influence of Sranan Tongo on the Dutch of Surinam children is very great.Three categories of "typical mistakes" may be pointed out:1.the connection between spoken language and written language,2. difficulties of a syntactical nature,3. difficulties of a morphological nature.

In secondary schools in the industrial area in and around Rotterdam an experimental curriculum 'Dutch as a foreign language' for teen-agers is being developed in cooperation with teachers and linguists. The process started in 1975 with:1. A study of literature (concerning psychology in teaching foreign languages, curriculum development and applied linguistics).2. Analysis of existing methods 'Dutch as a foreign language'.3. Visits to secondary schools with so-called international prepa-ratory classes and interviews with the language teachers.The experimental material Starting points were:- the experiences of the teachers- four courses Dutch as a foreign language for adults- one Dutch course for French speaking Belgian teenagers.Each lesson of the experimental material consists of an A-, B- and C- part.The A- part introduces new words and structures, includes exercises and ends with a test.The B- part introduces more words, structures and exercises and also ends with a test.The C- part starts with a dialogue and repeats what is introduced in the A- and B- part in various contexts and in 4-phase drills on tape.The procedureAn experiment on a small scale '75-'76.It involved 3 schools, 3 language teachers and 75 students.Ten lessons were designed and then criticized by the teachers and two linguists, before being introduced in the classroom.After that the material was revised with the help of teachers and linguists.Now an experiment on a large scale is in progress. This involves 12 secondary schools, 22 teachers and 400 students of 20 different nationalities.The revised material is printed on loose leaves.- The instruction sheets for the teacher are in pink, explaining the aim of the lesson and giving a working method in three phases:1. Introduction - with emphasis on visual aspects,2. Demonstration - with emphasis on oral aspects,3. Repetition - oral and written assimilation.- The material for the students, on white sheets, has simple illustrations.- The tests are on yellow sheets.As yet little is known about the psychological and linguistic background of Dutch as a foreign language in an environment where Dutch is the only medium of instruction.The teachers and author of this experimental curriculum have not yet been able to find any support from scientific research in this field.

Language teaching to migrant workers in The Netherlands needs an improvement in two ways. Apart from various problems with regard to the environment in which the teaching of Dutch to foreign workers takes place, this type of language training also suffers from serious inadequacies in the linguistic and methodological field.This paper discusses a few of these latter problems pertaining to both the teacher and the learner, i.e. the foreign worker.With regard to the -- usually unpaid and voluntary -- teacher, we point out such factors as- inexperience with the teaching of a second language and the consequen-ces of such a situation- disparity between the language of the teacher and the dialect/sociolect of the environment in which the foreign worker finds himself; a dispa-rity because of the socio-cultural gap between the two- discrepancy between certain features in the teacher's dialect and those of the standard language in the teaching method- use of 'foreigner talk' in the class situation With regard to the learner we diseuse euch matters as - expectation of the foreign worker when learning the language of his new country of residence; an expectation which to a great extent diffe, from what can objectively be defined as learning objectives- lack of contact with speakers of Butch resulting in a low level of oral proficiency by the foreign worker- problems relating to 'Pidgin'--DutchThe language department of Netherlands Centre Foreigners is engaged in developping language materiale for migrant workers and their families, in particular for those who are speakers of 'Pidgin'-Dutch.Certain preliminary considerations concerning this teaching method are dis-cussed.

This article concerns literacy in Dutch among migrant labourers and more specifically among Turkish women, as the author's main expe-rience lies in that field. The article aims to provide volunteers teaching Dutch to migrant labourers with some practical knowledge about literacy.First the Turkish Women Committee and its aims are introduced, because this committee tries to improve the position of Turkish women abroad by - amongst others - organising literacy classes in Turkish in Amsterdam. Dutch lessons are given as well.Linguistic arguments for literacy in the mother tongue are only put forward when social and cultural reasons have been introduced.Then some principles of phonetics are put forward, a comparison of Dutch and Turkish vowels and indications for phonetic correction.Finally, an order is indicated in which to present the Dutch vowels, and what phases there are to be observed in teaching pronunciation, reading and writing. Correct discrimination of speech sounds is considered absolutely necessary before teaching the last two skills.

Test-objectives have been formulated in the following way:With regard to the behavioural component we have first defined the objectives for the highest level in the four skills and from them we have derived the underlying objectives.With regard to the content component:- with a view to defining the vocabulary we composed a word-list from existing lists. The function-words and verbs of this list we have checked in course-books for other than language subjects in use in secondary schools,- with a view to defining the degree of complexity of syntax we have checked the requirements of the "Certificaat Nederlands als vreemde taal"(Beersmans . 1976) in course-books for other than language subjects in use in secondary schools,-with a view to selecting phonological, morphological and syntac-tical aspects to be tested we have conducted an inquiry among teachers of "international transitory classes".