Second Language Learners Of Dutch Research Articles

Teaching content through Dutch as a second language

AbstractWithin the Netherlands, Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) in foreign language teaching can be considered a sibling of ‘Language Oriented Content Teaching’ (LOCT), a pedagogy in mainstream classes with second language learners of Dutch, where Dutch is used as language of instruction. This article characterizes two decades of research on LOCT through Dutch in multilingual schools and discusses its relevance for CLIL development. A distinctive feature is the discourse coalition between subject and language researchers, teacher educators, curriculum development staff and others. Their cooperation furthered the identification of disciplinary literacies and subject specific language pedagogies which can be seen as a renewed conceptualization of content obligatory language (Snow, Met, & Genesee, 1989). LOCT work in the Dutch context shows how content obligatory language that is relevant and feasible can be identified and included in content teachers’ pedagogies, findings that might be useful for the further development of CLIL.

Advanced second language learners experience difficulties processing reduced word pronunciation variants

Abstract Words are often pronounced with fewer segments in casual conversations than in formal speech. Previous research has shown that foreign language learners and beginning second language learners experience problems processing reduced speech. We examined whether this also holds for advanced second language learners. We designed a dictation task in Dutch consisting of sentences spliced from casual conversations and an unreduced counterpart of this task, with the same sentences carefully articulated by the same speaker. Advanced second language learners of Dutch produced substantially more transcription errors for the reduced than for the unreduced sentences. These errors made the sentences incomprehensible or led to non-intended meanings. The learners often did not rely on the semantic and syntactic information in the sentence or on the subsegmental cues to overcome the reductions. Hence, advanced second language learners also appear to suffer from the reduced pronunciation variants of words that are abundant in everyday conversations.

Teachers, pupils and tasks: The genesis of dynamic learning opportunities

Abstract This study presents a qualitative analysis of two students’ learning opportunities drawn from a larger, quasi-experimental intervention reported in Van Gorp, De Maeyer and Van den Branden (2009a, 2009b). It focuses on the learning of content and language by two pupils in two primary school classrooms, and on the role of the teacher in enhancing the students’ learning. Participating in a larger task-based science project the two second language learners of Dutch (age 11–12) worked on a lesson unit consisting mainly of co-operative reading and discussion tasks. Students’ development in content knowledge and second language development were evaluated by an integrated language and content test in a pretest–posttest design. Two successful students were selected for in-depth analysis. It was hypothesized that the interaction between the teacher and those pupils could (partially) explain the students’ progress. Therefore, the relationship between the teacher–pupil interaction and learning gains was explored by means of microgenetic discourse analysis. The results of the discourse analysis illustrate how these two successful pupils constructed their own learning path in the classroom, making use of the teacher–pupil interaction to varying degrees, and how the interaction between task, pupil(s) and teacher facilitated and constrained learning opportunities.

Acquiring Nominal Gender by Deaf Learners and Hearing Adult Second Language Learners of Dutch

In this paper the acquisition of Dutch gender by deaf Dutch adults and hearing adult Turkish and Moroccan L2 learners of Dutch is discussed. Although, in the Netherlands, gender acquisition has been studied amply in ethnic minority children and adolescents, research with regard to ethnic minority adults and deaf adults is limited. The analysis of gender data was part of a comprehensive investigation of (writing) skills in these groups. The data were collected via a (semi-) spontaneous language task in which learners were invited to compose The Frog Story on the computer. Discovering and acquiring the gender paradigm turned out to be hard for the learner groups we investigated. Singular common nouns in Dutch take the definite determiner de and neuter nouns the definite determiner het. The results showed that in all learner groups most learners over generalized the use of de to neuter nouns. The reverse, the use of het with common nouns, hardly occurred. With respect to gender acquisition no differences were found between the various learner groups. The outcomes suggest that, in the domain of gender, the acquisition process in deaf learners of Dutch is comparable to the process of acquisition in hearing adult L2 learners of Dutch, despite their different learner situations (late L1 vs. late L2) and, in case of the adult L2 learners, their typologically different first languages. The explanation seems to be passing general learning stages, in combination with the disbalance between the effort required to learn a covert nominal gender distinction and the absence of informative or communicative value in using the gender distinction properly. This disbalance seems to lead to stagnation or fossization in early stages, in all learner groups.

Preference for linking element -en- in Dutch noun-noun compounds: native speakers and second language learners of Dutch

In Dutch, variation occurs in the formation of noun-noun compound words. Some compounds always add the linking element -en- between the two nouns; some compounds never use such a linking element; and still others allow both options. The element -en- is homophonous with the regular plural ending in Dutch, and we therefore investigated if plural semantics creates a preference for the linking element -en- in novel Dutch noun-noun compounds. We also investigated if the preference for linking -en- is influenced by just meaning (i.e., a semantic plural), form (i.e., a formal plural), or perhaps both. The influence of native language on preferences for Dutch compounds was also investigated. In study 1, we tested native speakers of Dutch; in study 2, Frisian-Dutch bilinguals; and, in study 3, speakers of German with Dutch as a second language. Plurality played a role in the preferences for Dutch compound formation in all tested groups. For native speakers of Dutch, Frisian, and German, moreover, the preference for a linking element in novel Dutch compounds was influenced by both the semantic plural and the formal plural. However, these effects were smaller for the native speakers of German. These findings confirm the findings of earlier studies (e.g. Schreuder et al. in Language and Cognitive Processes 13(5):551–573, 1998) showing linking -en- to carry an intrinsic plural meaning. Kiparsky’s level-ordering hypothesis (Linguistics in the morning calm, pp. 3–91, 1982) and Pinker’s words-and-rules theory (Words and rules: the ingredients of language, 1999) are re-considered in light of the present findings.

How subtle differences in orthography influence conceptual interpretation

The present study investigates linguistic relativity. The units of writing investigated are e and en, which are used to represent units of language in Dutch, Frisian, and Afrikaans. Dutch has homographic forms in the plural suffix -en and the linking element of noun-noun compounds en. Frisian does not have homography of this kind, while Afrikaans has a different homography. This raises the question whether second language learners of Dutch consistently interpret the linking en in Dutch noun-noun compounds as plural in the way that native speakers do. Plurality ratings for Dutch modifiers obtained from native Dutch speakers are compared with ratings from Frisian-Dutch bilinguals and Afrikaaners learning Dutch as L2. Significant differences relating to orthography are observed. We therefore argue that differing orthographic conventions in one’s native language (L1) can lead to different interpretations for the same everyday words written in Dutch (L2). Orthography thus provides an example of linguistic relativity. Keywords: linguistic relativity; second language learning; morphology; compounding; linking element; plurality; homography; Dutch; Frisian; Afrikaans

Animacy affects the processing of subject–object ambiguities in the second language: Evidence from self-paced reading with German second language learners of Dutch

ABSTRACTThe results of a self-paced reading study with German second language (L2) learners of Dutch showed that noun animacy affected the learners' on-line commitments when comprehending relative clauses in their L2. Earlier research has found that German L2 learners of Dutch do not show an on-line preference for subject–object word order in temporarily ambiguous relative clauses when no disambiguating material is available prior to the auxiliary verb. We investigated whether manipulating the animacy of the ambiguous noun phrases would push the learners to make an on-line commitment to either a subject- or object-first analysis. Results showed they performed like Dutch native speakers in that their reading times reflected an interaction between topichood and animacy in the on-line assignment of grammatical roles.

E-learning op Maat

The present study explored the effect of reading texts in an electronic learning environment for 46 adult second language learners of Dutch with different proficiency levels. The reading materials were selected dynamically, based on the "fit" between the vocabulary proficiency of individual students and the relative difficulty of the texts. Text difficulty was determined on the basis of the relative proportion of words unknown to the learner (lemma coverage). The texts were analyzed, selected and presented online, accompanied by a personalized electronic dictionary with words that were assumed to be unknown to the reader. The vocabulary learned implicitly while reading was measured in a pretest - treatment - posttest design. The learners read three texts, with lemma coverages of 92%, 90% and 85%, respectively. The relation between dictionary use and word retention was also examined. The study revealed an average word-learning improvement of 32,5%, with no differences between texts with a 92%, 90% or 85% lemma coverage. With respect to dictionary use, the learners looked up an average of 8.0 words. Two-thirds of these words were known to them; they looked up only one-third of the unknown words. We found there was a relation between dictionary use and the retention of unknown words. We concluded that the method we propose for an automated adaptive selection of reading texts and individualized dictionaries ensures that learners of different proficiency levels receive linguistic input that is best suited to their abilities.

Communicative competence and personality dimensions in first and second language learners

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relations between communicative competence and five dimensions of personality in 241 first and second language–learning children in The Netherlands. To determine the underlying communicative competence of the first and second language learners of Dutch, a broad array of linguistic measures and teacher judgments were collected. Observational scales referring to the Big Five personality factors were used to characterize the children's personalities. The results showed that three basic components underlie both the monolingual and bilingual children's communicative competence: organizational competence, involving lexical, syntactic, discourse, and functional abilities; pragmatic competence, involving sociocultural routines and illocutionary force; and strategic competence, involving the planning and monitoring of communicative behavior. The relations between the different dimensions of personality and the components of communicative competence revealed the following patterns to characterize first language learners: conscientiousness and emotional stability correlated with basic organizational skills; openness to experience correlated with pragmatic competence; and a broad range of personality characteristics with the acquisition of communicative strategies. In contrast, primarily openness to experience and, to a lesser extent, conscientiousness and extraversion were found to be related to the buildup of basic organizational skills, the acquisition of pragmatic skills, and the development of monitoring strategies in second language learners.

Improving linguistic fluency for writing: effects of explicitness and focus of instruction.

In an explorative classroom experiment the effects of several instructional conditions for writing were compared. Studies on writing suggest that linguistic fluency is an important factor in writer's abilities to manipulate sentence structures in order to produce comprehensible text. L1 writing theories indicate that working memory limitations play an important role in formulation. Therefore, improving linguistic fluency presumably frees working memory space and allows the writer to devote more attention to meaning-related problems. An important point of debate in language-learning theories is the role of explicit knowledge about linguistic structure. Some believe that explicit rule knowledge has an important role in acquiring fluency, while others maintain that explicit knowledge has no real influence on skill development, and that fluency develops on the basis of the implicit knowledge of linguistic structures. In recent L2 theories a focus solely on meaning appears insufficient for mastery of linguistic structures. Meaning-oriented language production should, in this view, be complemented by a focus on form(s). Four learning conditions for improving linguistic fluency were discriminated according to the dimensions “focus of instruction” (forms vs. meaning) and “explicitness of instruction” (implicit vs. explicit). Students of elementary grades 5 and 6 (including both first- and advanced second-language learners of Dutch) received four lessons involving the linguistic operations for adding information to sentences in meaningful contexts and avoiding unnecessary (repetition of) information. Results of the experiment show significant positive effects of all four conditions on two post-test formulation tasks in comparison to a control group.

Het Doen en Laten van NT2'ers

Modern Dutch has two causative verbs: 'doen' and laten'. According to Verhagen & Kemmer (1992; 1997), combinations with laten' can best be characterized as indirect causation, while combinations with 'doen' can be characterized as direct causation. Second-language learners of Dutch never get any explicit instruction about the difference between these verbs. This paper presents the results of an experiment on the knowledge of second-language learners of Dutch about the verbs 'doen' and laten'. Two groups of foreign students at the Leiden University participated in a test on these verbs. The first group had received one year of Dutch language lessons, and the second group had had approximately four years of lessons in Dutch. A group of Dutch students did the test as well. The results of this study show that both groups of foreign students had learnt something about the use of 'doen' en laten', although they had not received explicit instruction in these verbs. Their knowledge improved when they received more lessons in Dutch. They did not reach the same level as the Dutch students.

Betekenisonderhandeling in Lingua-Franca-Interactie

One of the central issues in research on native-nonnative speaker (NS-NNS) interaction is the negotiation of meaning that is initiated when problems of understanding arise. In lingua franca (LF) interaction, interlocutors communicate in a language other than their mother tongue. The interlocutors have to clarify problems of understanding without having native competence at their disposal. In this contribution, we report on a multiple-case study in which second language learners of Dutch perform an experimental task that requires the use of an LF. The aim of the study is to gain insight into the nature and the structure of negotiation of meaning in LF interaction. The nature of negotiation moves proves to be very similar to that of the moves found in NS-NNS interaction research. The data further point to a difference between language-based and information-based negotiation of meaning. The frequencies of sequences of moves show that the negotiation of meaning usually consists of either a confirmation check and a confirmation or a problem indicator and a clarification. The article concludes with the presentation of a model of negotiation of meaning in LF interaction.

An Experimental Study on the Learning of Arbitrary and Non-Arbitrary Gender of Pseudo Dutch Nouns by Nonnative and Native Speakers of Dutch

In this article we addres the question of whether, and to what exetent, noun gender attribution in languages such as French, German and Dutch can be formulated in terms of - semantic morphonological rules - competing semantic and morphonological cues - arbitrary idiosyncratic features In addressing this question we carried two learning experiments in which adult subjects, native speakers of Dutch and nonnative second language learners of Dutch, had to learn pseudo Dutch nouns. Our attempt was to provide some counter-evidence to falsify some claims Caroll (1989) made. In Caroll's view, L1 learners of French encode noun gender as an inherent feature of the noun in an obligatory fashion whereas English learners of French learn nouns as words distinct from their determiners. We argue, from the evidence we provide in our study, that the learning of gender values are equally difficult (or easy) for young native speakers, older native speakers, and nonnative speakers when these values are arbitrary. However, when learning the nonarbitrary gender values, it is easier for older native speakers to encode gender of nouns because they have already acquired many nouns from which cues or rules can be derived.