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Moet tussentaal een plaats krijgen in het NVT-onderwijs ? Studie naar het begrip van tussentaal van leerders van het Algemeen Nederlands

Fraikin, Julie

(2021)

Details

Supervisors

Hiligsmann, Philippe

Faculty

Faculté de philosophie, arts et lettres

Degree label

Master [60] en langues et lettres modernes, orientation germaniques

Abstract

enColloquial Belgian Dutch or tussentaal, like it is generally called in academic publications, is a Dutch language variant that is situated between standard Dutch and the Flemish dialects (Vandekerckhove 2007). While dialects are decreasingly spoken by the Flemish population, the use of tussentaal has increased tremendously over the past few decades in the Flemish linguistic landscape (Delarue 2013). 80% of Flemish families speak tussentaal. It is present not only at home, but also at work, in the Flemish media, in informal talk shows, and in interviews with politicians (Begine 2017). In Belgium, children from the French Community’s school system, learn standard Dutch at school as second or third language. The gap between standard Dutch and Colloquial Belgian Dutch is so large that French learners experience difficulties understanding a conversation in Flemish. In this thesis, a very close look will firstly be taken on the phenomenon of Colloquial Belgian Dutch and how it has emerged. Secondly, the question whether tussentaal should be taught in school will be examined. Indeed, some scholars are afraid that teaching tussentaal will create confusion and deteriorate the teaching quality of the official Dutch language (Hiligsmann 2010). However, if no attention is drawn to tussentaal in the Dutch as Foreign Language classes, there is a risk that French learners, who have been studying standard Dutch for several years, will be defenceless when crossing the language border (ibid.). Frustration and integration difficulties can be the direct consequences of neglecting the phenomenon of tussentaal in the Dutch language classes. This is the reason why I would like to investigate the French learners’ comprehension of tussentaal. With the aid of listening exercises in Colloquial Dutch, I will first test the comprehension of the students in their junior year of secondary school. Then, the difficulty level of the task will be assessed by these students using a Likert scale. On the basis of the real comprehension level of the students, I will suggest to integrate tussentaal in secondary school’s Dutch language programs. Practical options will also be highlighted to help students decode this new language.