Meertaligheid in Brussel

Abstract

This article gives the most important results of the research concerningthe use of languages at home and at school by children of the Dutchprimary schools in Brussels. This research was conducted in the frameworkof a larger European research project, Multilingual Cities, on theinitiative of Prof. Dr. G. Extra (Catholic University of Tilburg). In sixdifferent European cities (The Hague, Madrid, Lyon, Göteborg, Hamburgand Brussels) the same questionnaire was used. The research inBrussels was conducted by the Centre of Intercultural Education (GhentUniversity).Although Brussels is officially a bilingual region, with two linguisticallyseparated school systems, it seems no longer appropriate to takethis official framework as the sole starting point if we want to come togrips with the social and cultural reality. In fact the rationale of the researchproject was to go beyond existing ways of framing the Brusselseducational situation and to find out what is actually going on ‘on thegrounds’, simply by looking what the linguistic background and proficiencyof pupils is.