Contacthypothese en Taalleermotivatie in Nederlandstalige Scholen in Brussel

Brussels is a bilingual citv, where Dutch has gradually gained high status, both economically and politically over the past decades. However, there are no bilingual educational programmes for French and Dutch, which is why many Francophone parents chose to send their children to the Dutch-medium schools of Brussels. These schools are one of the very few places where French-speaking and Dutch-speaking pupils get in touch with each other. The present contribution analyses to what extent the contact situation in these schools influences the language learning motivation of the secondary7 school pupils. Results of the motivational aspects to learn their mother tongue and the second language are compared with those of peers from control schools in Flanders and Wallonia. The main conclusion is that the contact situation positively influences the motivation to learn the second language and does not affect the motivation to learn the mother tongue.