bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Beoordeling Van Spreekvaardigheid en de Invloed Van 'Settings'; Theorie Voor de Praktijk
Authors: van Gelderen Amos
Published: March 2014

Rating of speaking ability in educational contexts is often confronted with the problem of selecting the most relevant criteria. Researchers as well as teachers are forced to design a rating scheme for each setting on an ad hoc basis. The most important characteristics of the setting are briefly discussed: purpose of rating, theoretical relevance of criteria, task definition, level of speaking ability and raters' working method. I will give examples of some rating schemes that were designed in different settings, including native, second language and foreign language speakers, in order to demonstrate the problems of selecting and defining rating criteria. Two perspectives for defining criteria are being distinguished: 1) a behavioral (using aspects of speaking behavior as basis), 2) a functional (using functions that speakers must fulfill as basis). Subsequently, I will give some suggestions for a theoretically founded scheme that can be used as a basis for selecting and defining rating criteria for several kinds of setting. The scheme is restricted to situations in which communication is the main purpose and speakers are evaluated on an individual basis. In these settings a functional perspective is regarded as more valid and efficient than a behavioral perspective in defining rating criteria. In conclusion an overview is presented of four rating dimensions from a functional point of view.
Towards an Ecology of Second Language Acquisition
Authors: Pallotti Gabriele
Published: March 2014

Recent work in second language acquisition research has seen a renewed interest in 'external factors' affecting the acquisition process. However, few studies have adressed the question of how the interactional features of the social context in which naturalistic learning takes place, can influence second language development. The research presented in this paper is an attempt to fill this gap, in applying a 'language socialization' (Schieffelin & Ochs, 1986) perspective on non-instructed second language acquisition. The subject of the study is a Moroccan five-year- old girl, who was videotaped in an ethnographic study of her acquisition of Italian as a second language. This approach allowed to collect data both on the girl's linguistic development and on the socio-interactional environment in which it took place. It was thus possible to investigate the systematic relationships between interlanguage and its context of acquisition.
This preliminary investigation focuses on three different language levels. The first is the lexicon: the very first words learned by the girl can be shown to have a particular relevance for the nursery school's communicative economy. The second area of investigation is morphology. Here, too, one can see how some of the first grammatical morphemes acquired, diminutives and superlatives, played a role in facilitating the learner's socialization. Finally, an examination of how syntactic structures were initially produced, shows that sentence construction was influenced by the interactional needs of the speaker in a particular communicative context. It is argued that all these aspects of second language acquisition can -at least partially - be explained by reference to the socio-cultural context of learning. Given the importance recently attributed to interaction as one of the most powerful determinants of naturalistic second language acquisition, it is suggested that the study of the sociolinguistic environment - or the 'ecology' of second language acquisition - is a profitable direction for future research.
Le Traitement Prototypique
Authors: Watorek Marzena
Published: March 2014

This paper presents results from a study of the language production of native speakers and advanced learners. Four groups often speakers (native French, native Italian, Italian learners of French, French learners of Italian) performed a picture description task, and a comparison was made between the information contained in the productions of natives vs. learners, and the linguistic means used to convey this information.
It was found that the processing of identical chunks of information ranged along a continuum from the analytic to the synthetic, from learners to natives, respectively. Two examples of this differential processing are discussed in detail: firstly, the division of the discourse into main structure and side structure, and secondly, the locating of entities in the picture. The former distinction emerges much more clearly in learner than in native production, and for the latter function, learners resort more frequently than native speakers to temporal adverbs such as puis/più and particles such as aussi/anche, in addition to purely spatial means.
Overall, it is shown that learners have a more neutral way of processing the task (Von Strutterheim's "prototypische Bearbeitung"), and it is argued in conclusion that it is precisely this charactristic of learner production which allows insights into both the structure of (descriptive) discourse and the language production process.
How are Lexical-Semantic Differences Represented in L2 Syntax? A Study of the Unaccusative/Unergative Distinction in L2 Chinese
Authors: Yuan Boping
Published: March 2014

It has been proposed that intransitive verbs can be divided into two subgroups, unaccusative verbs, such as break and arrive, and unergative verbs, such as laugh and swim. The former type has an internal argument, but no external one, whereas the latter type has an external argument but no internal one. Unaccusative verbs are verbs of change of state or location, while unergative verbs are a set of agentive monadic verbs including verbs of manner of motion. In English, the internal argument of the unaccusative verb has to move to subject position to be Case-marked. In Chinese, however, the internal argument can remain in object position and get inherent partitive Case as long as it is an indefinite NP. External arguments of unergative verbs in both English and Chinese are in preverbal position whether they are definite or indefinite. The study reported in this paper was aimed at finding out whether the lexical-semantic distinction between the unaccusative verb and the unergative verb could be properly represented in English-speaking learners' L2 syntax of Chinese and whether the learner would only allow the single argument of the unaccusative verb but disallow that of the unergative verb to be in object position. The results indicate that the unaccusative/unergative distinction is acquired very late by English-speaking learners, and that the acquisition does not proceed in a linear fashion.
De Organisatie Van de Woordenschat Bij Kinderen Met Een Cognitieve Deficientie
Authors: Vreugdenhil-Hovenier Priscilla
Published: March 2014

With adults, many words in the memory are ordered on the basis of semantic relations. Especially co-ordinative relations between words (dog-cat) are strongly represented. In a child's lexicon, this arrangement is not clearly present yet.
Studies into the development of lexical organization of normally developed children by means of word association tasks, have shown that co-ordinative relations are already present in a child's lexicon at an early stage (Eibers et al., 1993). However, these can only be addressed directly in a certain context (Contrast Association). The co-ordinations are not available independently yet (Free Association). This suggests that co-ordinative relations of adults have a contrastive origin.
In these studies the development of lexical organization of children with a cognitive deficiency has been looked at. The group to be examined consists of 42 pupils. It has been examined whether their lexical organization deviates from normally developed children. A comparison with adults has been made as well. These studies consist of two kinds of word association: Free Association and Contrast Association.
The most important findings point out that children with a cognitive deficiency do not deviate from normally developed children as far as their reactions in Free Association are concerned. Both groups of children mention the same small number of co-ordinations. With respect to the Contrast Association, however, the children with a cognitive deficiency mention considerably less co-ordinations than normally developed children. With the children with a cognitive deficiency, this results in a smaller number of co-ordinations in the Contrast Association, but apparently not in a smaller number of co-ordinations in the Free Association.
Instrumenten Ter Meting Van Taalverwervings-Aspecten
Authors: Klein-Gunnewiek Lisanne
Published: March 2014

This paper reports on an analysis of the validity of instruments used to measure aspects of language acquisition. In essence, this paper deals with the degree to which the instruments are an adequate reflexion of the theoretical construct. The relation between theoretical construct and its operationalization is central to the analysis into the validity. Therefore Pienemann's Processability Theory (1994) which is used as a basis for the operationalization is outlined. A description is also given of the development of the instruments for grammatical aspects of language acquisition. The analysis to the validity of the instruments showed that the instruments used mainly measure the grammatical aspects. Although the correlation between the grammatical aspects is very high, the instruments are not necessarily invalid.
Wat Heeft Taalinput in het Schoolse Leerproces van Doen met de Output in Interculturele Interactie?
Authors: Willems Gerard M.M.
Published: March 2014

By definition, foreign languages are learned with intercultural communication in mind. Therefore, it is curious, to say the least, that textbooks in use in foreign language teaching almost exclusively offer idealised native-speaker - native-speaker (NS) interaction. In the rare cases where alleged non-native speakers are involved, they appear to be indistinguishable, linguistically as well as pragmatically, from the NS.
On the basis of an anthropological definition of culture and a recent model relating the components of communicative competence (Willems, 1993), a task group of a Europe-wide LINGUA project devised an analytical tool to test how realistic and intercultural input materials in recent textbooks used in the Netherlands are. An example is given of how disastrous a naive, mainly linguistically based, competence works out in intercultural contacts. Subsequently, an analysis is attempted of a contrived dialogue in German written as an illustration of how negotiatory skills and a willingness to create a safe intercultural common ground may lead to more satisfactory results. It is suggested that the introduction of this type of input not only brings a much needed integrated cultural component to foreign language teaching, but also enhances the social competence of the learner which is useful in any type of communication, including the mono-cultural interaction, if such a thing exists.
Willems, G.M., (ed.) Attainment targets for foreign language teacher education in Europe, a European view. Brussels: ATEE Cahiers No. 5, 1993.
Vreemde-Talenonderwijs
Authors: Verhallen-van Ling Marianne
Published: March 2014

The most frequently used Dutch language course for primary schools (Taal actief, 'Language actively') was analysed with respect to vocabulary teaching. The analysis was restricted to the materials for 'group 6' (children of about 10 years old). It was shown that vocabulary was part of the curriculum, but only in a limited and non-systematic way. Only about 350 words which seemed adequate for the age group considered were presented in the course material. Furthermore, the words seemed to be randomly selected. Relatively few of the tasks and exercises were directed at the learning of new words or new word meanings. Most tasks had to do with the relation between words, for example providing words with opposite meanings. Generally, the exercises did not aim at the acquisition of new words and meanings, but at the testing of word knowledge.
Open Vragen
Authors: van Elmpt Marjolein , Loonen Pieter
Published: March 2014

The new exams for text comprehension at upper secondary level in the Netherlands will include open questions, besides the traditional multiple choice ones. It has been provisionally suggested that these open questions should be answered in LI (Dutch) rather than L2. But is L2 a serious handicap? In this research project, 67 Dutch students at pre-exam level were asked to take the same text comprehension test for English, 35 of them with questions and answers in Dutch, and 32 with questions and answers in English. The scores turned out to be roughly equal for the two groups. A similar (but much more limited) project for German showed considerable differences between the Dutch and the German groups.
Taalhulp op Maat
Authors: Hacquebord Hilde
Published: March 2014

This article des
ribes the implementation of a screening test of text comprehension in five secondary schools. The test results yield diagnostic information about the individual's reading style, which may be either compensating for a lack of word knowledge, or a 'bottom-up' reading style without bringing about meaning on the textual level. The typology of readers is carried out with the aim of improving the different reading problems by follow-up reading and language programs tailored to the specific individual needs. The schools apply different models of remediation, dependent on the different logistic possibilities and on the numbers of weak readers. It appears that 'remedial teaching' and the 'integrated model' conditions yield the best results.
Taalleerproblemen en het Ontwikkelen van een Nieuwe Leergang Engels
Authors: Hoeks-Mentjens M.C.L.F.
Published: March 2014

Since in 1993 the Dutch government set detailed goals for educational programmes on secondary schools for 14-year-olds, writing EFL materials has become an increasingly complex task for textbook writers.
Not only are they supposed to deal with these new objectives, but they are also expected to cater for all pupils within that age-group and ensure that (teacher)independent learning can be achieved.
Writing course books for all pupils implies writing for pupils with language learning difficulties as well. In a newly developed English course a distinction was made between dyslexic pupils, who experience purely phonological problems, on the one hand and poor language learners, who in addition are characterized by a poor general understanding on the other.
In this article the editor of 'Worldwide', the new Dutch EFL course, reports on how the various elements mentioned above have been incorporated into the material.
Woorden en Objecten
Authors: Visch-Brink Evy , Denes Gianfranco , Stronks Dick
Published: March 2014

The semantic system has a central position in the language processing system as the intermediate between language production and language comprehension. The system itself may be separated into distinctive components: visual and lexical semantics. Their is much discussion about the interference between the visual and lexical semantic system and about the quality of the processing routes. Some authors propose a unitary amodal system, other authors plead for modality-specific semantic systems. The stage of perceptual categorization is considered both as optional and as obligatory. The objective of this study is: to investigate visual and lexical semantic processing in aphasic patients (n=74) (control groups: right- hemispheric patients (n=10) and normals (n=96)) (i), to examine the relation between semantic deficits and aphasia type and severity (ii) and to explore the relation between presemantic and semantic visual processing. Instruments to measure presemantic and semantic processing: Object Decision (Riddoch & Humphreys, 1987) and the verbal and visual Semantic Association Test (Visch-Brink e.a.., 1993). Results: aphasie patients as a group were significantly impaired both in Object Decision and visual and verbal semantic processing. Some patients appeared to have a selective deficit in visual or verbal semantic processing (1). No correlation was found between the performance on the visual or verbal Semantic Association Test and the aphasia type or severity (ii). In some patients a dissociation was found between presemantic and semantic visual processing (iii). Conclusions: Visual and lexical semantic processing in aphasia may selectively disturbed, which pleads rather for a multiple than for a unitary semantic processing system. Aphasia type and the severity of aphasia do not function as indicators for the presence of a visual and/or lexical semantic disorder. For the interpretation of the meaning of a picture, the stage of perceptual categorization can be bypassed.
De Woordenschat Van Allochtone Tweede-Taalverwervers; Werk in Uitvoering
Authors: Appel René
Published: March 2014

The general introduction of this article deals with the quantitative and qualitative differen-ces between the vocabularies of first and second language learners. Quantitative differen-ces concern the number of words 'known' and qualitative differences have to do with the level' of word knowledge, for instance with the way words are embedded in the semantic network or with the proficiency in providing collocations. The second part of the article describes work in progress, i.e. two projects on the quality of word knowledge. The first project is on the acquisition of polysemous words (the knowledge of multiple word meanings). The results of a pilot study are reported. The second project is an educational experiment aiming at improving the deep word knowledge of minority children in their second language ('deep word knowledge' is seen as the knowledge of the various relations between words in the semantic network, especially the conceptual hierarchical relations).
Complexiteit en Instructie
Authors: de Jong Nel
Published: March 2014

There are many ways to teach grammatical structures. In this research, two types of instruction have been investigated. One was rule instruction: the rules were explained to the learners. The other was input enhancement: the learners were given correct examples in which the relevant elements were made salient by bold print and italics.
The structures differed in complexity. There were a simple, a complex and a very complex structure. The complexity was determined using De Graaff s (1997) definition. The aim was to find out whether a grammatical structure can be too complex to be acquired as a result of instruction.
Rule instruction turned out to have a learning effect for all structures. It leads to some explicit knowledge, but probably also to implicit knowledge. Input enhancement only had a learning effect for the simple structure. It probably, only leads to implicit knowledge: explicit knowledge could not be observed.
De
Graaff s definition of complexity turned out to be insufficiently specified. It does not distinguish between formal and functional complexity. Furthermore, within formal complexity, syntactic properties of words and word order features should be distinguished.
Betekenisonderhandeling in Lingua-Franca-Interactie
Authors: Bezemer Jeff
Published: March 2014

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.
De ja/nee Woordenschattoets
Authors: Eyckmans June
Published: March 2014

The Yes/No vocabulary test seems to be a promising tool for measuring the receptive vocabulary size of foreign language learners. The test consists of items that are either words or pseudowords and the subjects have to indicate whether or not they know the meaning of these items.
This article reports on two experiments in which the Yes/No test was used with French speaking learners of Dutch. In a first experiment, the format was used as a placement test in order to measure the extent to which the subjects had mastered the basic vocabulary of Dutch. In a second experiment, the test was computerised and followed by a translation task in order to obtain a concurrent validation. Both experiments were characterised by a rather low reliability and the presence of a bias in the data. The second experiment also revealed an unconvincing correlation between the results obtained on the Yes/No test and those obtained on the translation test. The accurateness of the Yes/No vocabulary test for Dutch is thus questioned and suggestions made for further research in order to improve this test format.
Woordselectie in het Onderwijs aan Jonge kinderen
Authors: Schlichting J.E.P.T.
Published: March 2014

In the Netherlands, there is a growing concern about the acquisition of Dutch by immigrant children, and politicians are inclined to support more language programmes for preschoolers. This paper argues that a special vocabulary for young children who have no knowledge of Dutch might be a useful instrument in teaching this group. A list of 1000 words was drawn up which is considered to contain a basic vocabulary for children entering primary education at the age of four. The normal order of acquisition of vocabulary in Dutch children was seen as the best guide toward selection. The main body of the list of words was taken from spontaneous language samples of children under four years old, the remainder was selected from published lists for four to six-year-old children.
Computergestuurde Adaptieve Toetsen Nederlands als Tweede Taal in de Volwasseneneducatie
Authors: Schuurs Uriel , Verweij Cocky
Published: March 2014

In the education of Dutch as a Second Language, frequent use is made of paper-based tests. In this contribution, we describe how an adaptive test was constructed on the basis of an item bank which already existed and test items that were written specifically for use in a computer test. Several advantages of a computer adaptive test are dealt with. We describe how field tests for Reading and Listening were carried out in order to scale the test items, using a One Parameter Logistic Model. In addition, research that was carried out on the basis of questionnaires clearly demonstrates that the computer test is satisfying for the students, as test results are immediately available to them. Teachers seemed to need some time to get used to the computer test, but they also stated that the computer test accurately reflected language levels of their students.
Paivio's "Dual Coding Theory" en Effect van Visuele Stimuli op het Verwerken en Onthouden van Informatie
Authors: Hoeflaak Arie
Published: March 2014

The use of video in foreign language teaching is considered to be a powerful tool by many teachers and researchers. It seems, however, that a sound 'video teaching methodology' has not yet been fully developed. This article sets out to present some reflections on the advantages of the use of video. We will then briefly describe some elements from two more or less theoretical studies, Lang (1995) and particularly Paivio (1986), and discuss the results of other experiments that we found in the literature. Finally, we will put forward some tentative ideas about experiments that we will prepare on the basis of the most important findings of other experiments. The main idea is that information is best processed if it is presented in a redundant way, e.g., both by an audio and a video channel. Many experiments claim that reversed subtitling (subtitles not in L1, but in L2 or FL) is the most successful visual support for foreign language learners. Our experimental design will be organized as follows. Subjects (pre-university students and first-year university students of French) will be divided into four experimental groups to be tested under four different conditions: 1) Image, sound (French spoken text), no subtitles; 2) Image, no sound, French subtitles; 3) No image, sound, subtitles; 4) Image, sound, subtitles. We hypothesize that condition 4 will yield the best result, but before conducting the experiment, we will have to examine three aspects: 1) The assessment format: subjects might consider open questions unclear, whereas, in closed questioning (true-false, multiple choice, cloze), items might be biased by the test constructor. 2) Clarifying the distinction between high, medium, and low redundancy. 3) Bi- or multimodal information input may lead to cognitive overload.
Taal(on)Bewustzijn en Tweede-Taalverwerving
Authors: van de Craats Ineke
Published: March 2014

In this paper, the question is raised as to what extent language awareness can contribute to second-language acquisition. It is argued here that adults (without skills in any other language than their mother tongue) acquiring a second language undergo a process of increasing language awareness when they learn a second language without any formal instruction. Confronted with an unknown language the code of which they have to crack without any help, these learners seem to become aware of the features of their own language before they focus on the structure of the new language. There is no direct access to this process of language awareness, but I believe that double constructions and self-corrections produced by these learners provide evidence that they become aware of differences between L1 and L2. Finally, it is suggested that noticing and input enhancement, even some explicit contrastive information on L1-L2 differences (which spontaneous learners try out to find for themselves) might benefit L2 learners who are unaware of the fact that they still use an L1 grammatical system.
Mentaal Visualiseren Als Leerstrategie
Authors: Eyckmans June , Boers Frank , Beeckmans Renaud
Published: March 2014

This article reports an experiment in which mental imagery was used as a mnemonic strategy to enhance learners' retention of figurative idioms. Language students in tertiary education were provided with on-line exercises on 120 English idioms. Under the experimental condition, participants were presented with multiple-choice exercises in which they were asked to hypothesise about the etymological origin of the given idioms. This task was meant to elicit mental imagery. Under the control condition, participants were presented with traditional multiple-choice exercises in which they were asked to identify the correct figurative meaning of the idioms. Retention was measured one week later by means of a gap-fill exercise in which the participants were asked to produce the keywords of the idioms in context. The results of the experiment suggest (i) that mental imagery can be a powerful mnemonic strategy, and (ii) that this strategy generates superior recall, especially with regard to etymologically rather transparent figurative idioms, even though processing these may require relatively little cognitive effort.
Code-Mixing in Moeder-Kind Interactie in Dove Families
Authors: Baker Anne , van den Bogaerde Beppie
Published: March 2014

In this article, we discuss the mixed input offered by four profoundly deaf mothers and the mixed output of their deaf and hearing children. Muysken (2000) distinguishes different forms of code-mixing: insertion, alternation and congruent lexicalisation. We applied these definitions to these language data and found that the mothers used mainly the last type of code-mixing, namely congruent lexicalisation. This results in a mixed form of NGT (Nederlandse Gebarentaal, 'Dutch Sign Language') and Dutch, in which the structure of the utterance is grammatical in both NGT and Dutch. Lexical insertion also occurs, both in the basically NGT utterances and in the Dutch utterances. The deaf children (up to age three) are just beginning to become bilingual and hardly produce any mixed utterances. The hearing children, on the other hand, clearly show that they code-mix, under the influence of the language input.
Interactie in de Kleine Kring
Authors: van der Beek Annie
Published: March 2014

The aim of 'Interaction in a small circle with teacher' is to stimulate the development of young students' language skills by the active participation in school conversation and to let them use more complex cognitive language functions. Students think about phenomena, processes or problems and put their thoughts into words. The teacher should play a coaching role. He stimulates further thinking and talking by students. Research shows that students use more complex cognitive language functions when they participate in 'Interaction in a small circle with teacher' than in traditional school activities. If the teacher provides appropriate opportunities to students by asking open questions, such as why? and how?, students use more complex language functions. There seems to be a positive connection between the teacher's role and the language skills of students.
A Stress Marker in Speech
Authors: van den Broek E.L.
Published: March 2014

This study examins the variability of the fundamental frequency of the voice (SD FO), as an indirect measure of physiological arousal, reflecting the intensity of emotions. The Subjective Unit of Distress (SUD) was applied to assess (a) the success of the experimental manipulation of stress, and (b) the validity of SD F0 as a stress measure. Twenty-five female participants suffering from a Panic Disorder with Agoraphobia participated. They relived an experience from the past and read a story aloud in both a stress triggering and a neutral condition. The increases in SUD, accompanied by decreases in SD F0, indicated that the experimental manipulation of stress was effective and validated the SD F0 as a stress marker. Hence, a new indirect physiological measure for the determination of stress was developed.
Spontane Spellingen.
Authors: van Rijnsoever R.
Published: March 2014

Charles Read described a spelling system for English created by some American preschool children. They represent English words with the standard alphabet and are thus compelled to classify distinct phones in some way. Read inferred from the children's spelling system aspects of their implicit categorization of speech sounds. He found that children related speech sounds( phonemes ) on a phonetic basis, represen-ting these phonemes with the same grapheme. These 'judgements' could be described in terms of phonetic features. The feature place of arti-culation appeared more important than any other feature.
We studied the spellings of Dutch preschool children and first graders. We reached the same conclusions as Charles Read for the spellings of Dutch preschool children, but not for Dutch first graders. Moreover we found a pattern of clusterreduction ( spellings like SOM for 'storm' ) and a number of spellings that consisted of consonants only ( e.g. KT for 'kat'). We interpreted these consonantal spellings as syllabic spellings, analogue to Liberman's (1973) findings of speech segmentation by young children.
"Diepe" Spelling en Het Leesproces, Speculaties en Data
Authors: van Heuven Vincent J.
Published: March 2014

Dutch orthography has traditionally been described as a morphophonemic writing system, a set of morpheme preserving regularities superimposed on a predominantly phonemic substratum.
Causes for complicating a strictly regular one-to-one phoneme-letter relationship in Dutch are isolated, and discussed in terms of the diffic-ulties they pose to children learning to write. Recent and older frequency counts of spelling errors substantiate the widespread view that deviations from a 1 - 1 phoneme-letter correspondence are highly conducive to error.
However, on the basis of (psycho)linguistic considerations, morpheme preserving regularities have been claimed to exert facilitating effects in the reading process.
A series of experiments is proposed to determine to what extent morpho-logically motivated deviations from a 1 - 1 phoneme-letter correspondence, as well as more arbitrary disturbances of these correspondences, contribute to visual word recognition and reading. Some recent results of analogous experiments on foreign orthographies are mentioned, and discussed with respect to their implications for Dutch orthography.
Zelfbeoordeling Van Taalvaardigheid Frans
Authors: Evers Riet
Published: March 2014

It is only quite recently, among other things as a result of the increasing demands for learner-centered education, that, particularly in the field of foreign language teaching to adults, an interest in the use of self-assessment techniques has begun to emerge.
However, for an appropriate use of self-assessment as a means of evaluation of foreign language proficiency, an insight into the validity and reliability characteristics of the learners' judgements is needed.
This paper discusses some findings of an experiment in which Dutch adult learners were asked to assess their proficiency in French by filling in two evaluation forms. In one form, the questions included aim at a global assess-ment of the learners' command of the French language both with regard to each of the four skills and to pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary and orthography.
The other form used covers only the four skills. The questions included in this form present, for each skill, a number of specific situations of language use. The learner is asked to indicate how well he thinks he can handle the French language in each situation described.
In order to determine the reliability of the self-ratings the learners were asked to fill in, after an interval of about two weeks, the latter forra a second time. Criteria for the validity of the learners' judgements were based on their scores on language-proficiency tests. Besides this, data on a number of personal characteristics were obtained.
The relationships between all these variables were analyzed. The research findings indicate among other things
1. that self-ratings which are based on a specification of language proficien-cy in terms of language activities are reliable to a fairly high degree;
2. that these self-ratings are better predictors of the test-scores than the ratings obtained by means of a global evaluation form;
3. that self-ratings of listening comprehension are less valid than self-ratings of speaking or reading comprehension.
Sapir Revisited?
Authors: Kurvers Jeanne
Published: March 2014

Children cannot mark well word boundaries in spoken language before they are about seven years of age, although some researchers (e.g., Karmiloff-Smith et al. 1996) claim a much earlier emergence. Different explanations have been put forward for the development of word marking skills: on the one hand developmental hypotheses which claim a primary role for language development or cognitive development, on the other hand the literacy hypothesis, which claims that systematic experience with written language is crucial for the development of formal metalinguistic skills, including the skill of marking words. The developmental hypothesis predicts age differences, i.e. between young children and adults, irrespective of literacy. The literacy hypothesis predicts differences between readers and non-readers, irrespective of age. Moreover, in the developmental hypotheses, it would not matter whether word boundaries were to be marked in a language with or without skill in the written language. The literacy hypothesis was tested twice in this contribution, first by comparing sentence segmentation skills of young children, adult illiterates and adult readers. It was tested again by comparing the segmentation skills of adult readers, whose mother tongue is only known in spoken form (speakers of Tarifit) with readers who know their mother tongue both in spoken and in written form. All comparisons confirmed the literacy hypothesis that knowledge of writing influences awareness of word boundaries in spoken form.
Dyslexie En Tweede-Taalverwerving
Authors: de Zeeuw Alarlies
Published: March 2014

Dyslexia is a language-development deficit in the area of reading and spelling. Research has provided evidence that the extent to which dyslexics have problems with literacy acquisition may differ across languages. It is thought that this is caused by differences in consistency concerning grapheme-phoneme correspondences. Consistencies and inconsistencies between languages may, therefore, also have an effect on L2 learning. If this is indeed the case, words that are orthographically and phonologically similar in both L1 and L2 will cause relatively few problems, while words that are only phonologically similar will cause greater inhibition effects for dyslexics compared to non-dyslexic readers. To test this hypothesis, I conducted a naming task with Dutch subjects who learned English at secondary school. The results show that dyslexic readers make more errors and have slower response times than non-dyslexic readers. I also compared two levels of proficiency (2 vmbo ('lower secondary professional education') and 5 vwo ('pre-university education'). In general, the dyslexies from vwo performed much better than dyslexies from vmbo, which was to be expected, as the students of vwo had had more experience in using the English language. The dyslexies in vwo did not, however, perform better compared to age-level controls than did the dyslexies in vmbo. Although more research is needed to determine what exactly the role of level of proficiency is in L2 acquisition, the results in general support the hypothesis that the inconsistencies in the English grapheme-phoneme correspondences provide an extra challenge for dyslexies who are learning English as a second language.
De Prosodie Van De Tussentaal Van Tweede-/Vreemde- Taalleerders
Authors: Rasier Laurent
Published: March 2014

In SLA research, the study of prosody suffers from a considerable under-representation. Indeed, most work devoted to L2 pronunciation has hitherto focussed on 'lower level phenomena', such as the phonemes of the target language. This paper gives an overview of the research on the acquisition of a foreign accent system and pinpoints some research questions that have not been explored yet. More specifically, it discusses the phonetic, phonological and functional aspects of the accent system of second/foreign language learners. Attention is also paid to the studies dealing with the teaching of sentence stress to second/foreign language learners. Although more research is needed, this paper provides a better understanding of the way a new accent system is acquired/learnt and can be taught.
Spreken En Schrijven Van Kinderen
Authors: Berenst Jan , Borst Nynke
Published: March 2014

The relationship between children's oral and written language use may be considered as one of the main issues in the study of literacy development. In this paper, the focus is on how 10-year-old children (grade 5) create a textual context in oral and written narratives for their recipients. The first aim of this research was to find out what kind of practices children use to contextualize their stories. The second aim was to compare the practices in the oral and written mode, to determine to what extent children at this age still rely on oral language practices in their written texts. A dependent group design was used to make a comparison between the practices in both conditions possible, while in both conditions the same story was retold. Results show that the children were able to contextualize their stories in the oral as well as in the written mode, but that some contextualization practices (such as the avoidance of exophoric references, and the use of dialogue) were more frequently found in the written mode of the stories. Besides, it was found that the sequence of the oral and written task was an important variable, but not in the expected way. The oral texts were influenced by the written texts (greater length, more dialogue, but also more exophoric references); the written texts, however, did not show any influence from the oral texts. The conclusion might be that we have to reconsider the relationship between children's oral and written language use at this age.
Elektronisch Schrijven In Het Echt, In Het Onderwijs En Als Onderzoeksobject
Authors: Jansen Frank
Published: March 2014

In this contribution, I give a sketchy account, based on personal experiences, of four characteristics of electronic texts and the problems they pose for composers and readers: 1. Discussion lists on Internet forums, and the problem of recovering interesting fragments; 2. The (overused) bulleted list; 3. Collaborative writing of public documents as a kind of completing a form; 4. The use of informal style in documents on the Internet. The remainder of this contribution is devoted to the question how much attention is given to these topics in the teaching of composition and communication and in language use research.
Werken aan Taalverwervingsgerichte Gesprekken is Inzetten op Het Hele Ecosysteem
Authors: Damhuis Resi , de Blauw Akke
Published: March 2014

Children develop their language proficiency through language acquisition oriented conversations with adult speakers. A conversation is acquisition-oriented when there is an adequate balance between the adult's input and feedback on the one hand and the child's production on the other hand. Educational settings happen to lack opportunities for production. However, as children need to participate in acquisition-oriented conversations, teachers will need to acquire interactional skills for creating those conversations and teacher counselors and teacher educators need to support teachers in acquiring these interactional skills. This is how we have defined the ecosystem. All of the elements discussed above are addressed in this paper. In cooperation with practitioners, we have developed teacher materials and training materials, and we have conducted a process evaluation. Based on this evaluation the teacher training was improved and training for teacher counselors and educators was developed. In a follow up study, conversations of the trainees will be analysed: did they improve their interactional behavior and create more opportunities for language acquisition? We hope to report on these results at a later occasion.
Tweede-Taalverwerving in Peuterspeelzalen en Latere Schoolprestaties van Allochtone Kinderen
Authors: van Steensel Roel , Nap-Kolhoff Elma
Published: March 2014

Over the last years public attention has focused more and more on preschool playgroups as a means of improving ethnic minority' children's chances for later school success. With regard to literacy development, one of the pillars of the school curriculum, ethnic minority children often appear to lag behind on comprehension literacy skills, rather than on technical literacy skills. Smith & Dickinson (1994) showed that the improvement of comprehension skills is possible in preschool education, provided they are accompanied by cognitively challenging interactions. It can be expected, however, that children whose home language is not the (pre)school language have difficulties participating in such interactions. The two studies presented in this paper seem to confirm this line of thought. The results of Study 1, a quantitative investigation into the relation between preschool playgroup participation and later school success, showed no significant differences on literacy tests in kindergarten, grades 1 and 2, between ethnic minority children who had and had not visited preschool playgroups. Study 2, a multiple case-study of three Turkish boys in a Dutch preschool playgroup, showed that Mehmet, Batuhan, and Yunus were only able to engage in cognitively challenging interactions after more than a year of preschool participation.
Is There Something Wrong With Turkish In The Netherlands?
Authors: Doğruöz A. Seza
Published: March 2014

Turkish spoken in the Netherlands (NL-Turkish) is described as "idiosyncratic", "different" or simply "wrong" by monolingual Turkish speakers in Turkey (TR-Turkish). It is a well-known fact that languages in contact affect each other in various ways (Thomason, 2001). As a result of contact, changes may occur in the linguistic systems of the contact languages. According to Owens (1996), these changes start with the borrowing of multi word unit (construction) structures from the contact language or languages. Based on this observation, this study explores the question if the borrowed structures of Dutch constructions cause NL-Turkish to be identified as unconventional by TR-Turkish speakers. As a case study, unconventional non-finite constructions are analyzed. The results of the analyses reveal structural copying of Dutch constructions in several ways, which causes unconventionality in NL-Turkish.
Bimodaal Codewisselen
Authors: van den Bogaerde Beppie
Published: March 2014

In this article, the authors combine the insights from two linguistic sub disciplines: language contact and sign language linguistics. After a short introduction about some possible outcomes of language contact the choice for code switching and an analysis along the lines of Myers-Scottons Matrix Language model is made.
First, the characteristics of bimodal language contact are discussed, and then the dataset is presented: a bimodal corpus by a deaf mother and her hearing son Jonas at the ages of approximately 3;0 and 6;0. Analyses show that a large part of the utterances is code blended, this means simultaneously signed and spoken. Even after a closer reanalysis it turns out to be difficult in many instances to decide what the matrix language is, although in many instances it is NGT.
Leerzame Gesprekken?
Authors: Berenst Jan , Kwant Aletta , de Glopper Kees
Published: March 2014

Kindergarten teachers who are talking with their nursery children during picture book reading about social and emotional themes, speak about the experiences and emotions of book characters, but also about the feelings of the children themselves. In both contexts the teachers tend to structure the interaction in a classical IRE frame, using highly projective elicitations as first pair parts and evaluations in the third sequential positions. This kind of elicitations and evaluations are not restrained to the knowledge domain, but are extended to the domains of children's experiences and feelings. The children prove to react very much according to the sequential projections of the teachers. So their answers do not so much reflect content learning as the learning of anaspect of the educational discourse, namely the participation framework that is expected in class.