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Child Bilingualism and Second Language Learning: Multidisciplinary perspectives
Edited by Fangfang Li, Karen E. Pollock and Robbin Gibb
[Bilingual Processing and Acquisition 10] 2020
► pp. 137–166

Chapter 8
Current developments in bilingual primary education in the Netherlands

| Utrecht University
| Utrecht University

This contribution addresses two studies of the processes and outcomes of English as a foreign language (EFL) in Dutch primary education. Firstly, this article describes a preliminary study of the learning outcomes at the end of primary education, comparing pupils’ language proficiency after either two years or six to eight years of low-intensity EFL programs. Secondly, it describes the outcomes of a subsequent classroom observation study in a high-intensity bilingual primary education pilot in grade 1, focusing on teacher language use and teacher-pupil interaction. Results are related to learning outcome in terms of pupils’ receptive vocabulary knowledge. Conclusions focus on foreign language teaching in primary education in general, and bilingual primary education in particular.

Article outline
  • Introduction
    • Content and language integrated learning
    • Bilingual primary education in the Netherlands
    • Factors influencing second language learning
    • The role of linguistic input on vocabulary development
    • The present studies
  • Study 1
    • Method
      • Participants
      • Instruments
      • Procedure
    • Results
      • Written test results
      • Oral proficiency test results
    • Discussion Study 1
  • Study 2
    • Method
      • Participants
        • Teachers
        • Pupils
      • Materials and procedure
        • The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test
        • Classroom observations
        • Transcription procedure
      • Data analysis
        • Linguistic analyses
        • Amount of talk
        • Lexical diversity
        • Lexical sophistication
        • Syntactic complexity
    • Statistical analyses
      • Results
    • The relation between teachers’ input and children’s vocabulary
    • Word-level model
    • Utterance-level model
      • Discussion Study 2
  • General discussion and conclusion
    • Limitations and future research
    • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 1 December 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/bpa.10.08gra
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