Taalvaardigheid, attitudes en motivatie van Nederlandstalige en Franstalige leerlingen in het Nederlandstalig onderwijs in Brussel

Abstract

In Brussels, parents can freely choose to enrol their children in either Dutchor French language schools. In many cases, and increasingly so, Francophoneparents prefer the Durch language education system which they believe willprovide their children a bilingual learning experience. This influx of predominantlyFrench-speaking, as well as other non-Dutch-speaking pupils, hasresulted in a linguistically diverse, rather than a predominantly Dutch-speakingpupil population in Dutch language schools in Brussels. As a consequence,a form of non-structured immersion education has materialized,which tends to be perceived as problematic and even detrimental to the languagelearning process.Earlier cross-sectional research into the language proficiency, attitudes andmotivations of Dutch and French-speaking pupils in Dutch language schoolsin Brussels (Housen, Mettewie & Pierrard 2004; Mettewie, 2004), has shownthat Dutch-speaking pupils have similar language proficiency levels, as well asattitudes and motivations, as their Flemish peers. It further demonstrated thatthe Dutch language or L2 proficiency of the French-speaking pupils equalsthe Dutch-speaking pupils' Dutch or L1 (1st language) proficiency in mostdomains of language proficiency. These French-speaking pupils in additiondisplayed more positive attitudes and srronger motivation towards the L2 (2ndlanguage) learning process.The current longitudinal research followed up on two cohorts of Dutchand French-speaking pupils during three consecutive school years (2001,2002 and 2003), in order to study the long-term development of their languageproficiencies, as well as their social-psychological orientation towardsFrench and Dutch. It also investigated the relationship between both theselatent constructs. The ultimate goal of this research is to determine to whatextent such a form of non-structured immersion education leads to bilingualproficiency, and how attitudes and motivation relate to this process in thelong term.