1 tailor-made language education: dutch for migrants in the netherlands and flanders elwine halewijn...
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Tailor-made Language Education: Dutch for migrants
in the Netherlands and Flanders
Elwine Halewijn – ITTA, University of Amsterdam
Sociocultural Aspects of Language LearningMadrid, 30 april 2009
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What are we talking about?
Second language:
Spanish
Migrants with different mothertongues
Foreign language:
English
Speakers of Spanish
SPAIN
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Migrants in the Netherlands• 20% of population (16.000.000)• From Europe and USA, Canada etc. (9%)• From rest of the world (11%):
Turkey Marroco Surinam AntillesRest
34%
19%19%
7%
21%
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Migration goals
Migrants
RefugeWork
Family reunionMarriage
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Reflect for 2 minutes:
1. From which origins are the migrants in your country?
2. What do they do in daily life?
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Typical for Beginners’ courses
+ Concentration on ‘general language’
- Immediate needs of students
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Life outside classroom:
Raises children
Looks for work
Starts a company
Does voluntary work
Is an employee
Arranges household administration
Studies
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Customization: a trend
BUT: start only after months or years
BUT: grouping of learners
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The project• Goal:
Instruments to respond to individual needs of newcomers from the start
• Funded by Nederlandse Taalunie
• Carried out by:– CTO (Louvain)– ITTA (Amsterdam)
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Benefits• Efficient language training
• Motivation
• Transfer
• Preparation for follow up
• High probability of continuing learning process
Guiding principles• Shaping instruction to needs• Learner indicates own
objectives
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Central device: website Information and instruments that aim to stimulate a more needs-centered fashion of second language teaching
www.nt2-beginnersdoelen.org
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www.beginnersdoelenNT2.org
Explanation of concept
Catalogue ofLeaning goals
Instruments and examples for
Implementation
Reference to CEF
Intake
Teacher skills
Management of learning paths
Organisation or Grouping of
students
Teaching Materials
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Catalogue of learning goalsOrganized on
basis roles
• Functional domains
• Illustrated by practical situations
• Concretized in actions and tasks
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ROLE FUNCTIONAL DOMAIN
Household/family administrator
Contact with official agencies - Housing - Monetary transactions and insurance
Consumer Contact in storesHealthMobility
Student Course or educational programmeHigher education
Allocator of leisure time
Social contacts and relationships with neighborsAllocation of leisure timeMedia and current events
Parent/caregiver Parenting/caregivingHealthcareEducation
Jobseeker Looking for a job
Employee At the workplace, general or specific (technology, trade and services, health and welfare)
Entrepreneurship
Dealing with official institutionsBusiness management
Volunteering
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Successful implementation
Overview of learning goals is not enough
Conditions for successful implementation are not met
Therefore: pilot projects
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1. Intake• Intake-form to identify learners
profiles
• Pilot on intake– Interpreters– Repeated intake
• Extra documentation
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Orienting activity to help participants select relevant roles
Video fragments to illustrate this is possible with beginners
2. Organization of groups
Case: groups not based on roles
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‘Custom corners’ approach
Meets heterogeniousity
Part of weekly programmeAddition to curriculum
• Participants work in pairs/groups
• Instructor offers help• Fixed corner, or ‘shopping
around’
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3. Developing teaching skills
• Documentation of necessary skills
• Training modules for teacher trainers
• Management of competence development
• Background literature
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4. Inventory of role-based materials+ Model to organize and manage materials
+ Model to adapt activities to a role-based approach
+ Exemplary activities for reading skills at level (A1) in different roles
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Aim:
1. Tuning courses to language proficiency of participants
2. Identifying what participants are capable of
5. Help with benchmarking courses(using the CEFR)
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6. Possible implementations
Descriptions of different projects that implement role-based approach
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Criteria for examples1. Model examples, meet criteria:- Goal oriented from the start- Meet individual characteristics- Goal oriented intake and coaching of
students- Goal oriented evaluation- Stimulating active, authonomous learning
2. Stimulating examplesMeet only one or two of these criteria
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Conclusion
New dynamics in the classroom
• More chances for interaction
• More chances for autonomous learning
• Learner can guide own learning process
• Learner gains more insight in own problems
• Different role for instructor
• Door to outside world
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• Learners bring in own real-life experiences • Learners help each other in situations they
recognise• Easily linked with apprenticeship or real-life tasks
Door to outside world
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Taskforce for follow-up
Follow new initiatives to supplement, refine and implement the existing instruments
Examples:• Collection of extra teaching materials
• Fill up the catalogue
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Interested?
www.beginnersdoelenNT2.org
• materials• articles• presentation
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Even more interested?
Odysseus: Second language at the workplaceLanguage needs of migrant workers: organising language learning for the vocational/workplace context
ECML/European Council, 2003www.ecml.at
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Thank you.