Workshops on Dutch as foreign language

Dutch Taalunie organized a “Dutch as a Foreign Language Nederlands als Vreemde Taal NVT” workshop on St. Eustatius and Saba last week. The participants were all teach­ers of primary and second­ary education, who teach Dutch.

The objective of the workshop was to iden­tify questions and needs regarding NVT education. The workshop was fol­lowed by class visits.

Based on the findings from these visits and the input of the teachers during the work­shops, the Ministry of Edu­cation, Culture and Science and Taalunie will consider what is required for suc­cessful NVT education on St. Eustatius and Saba.

As part of the transition to English as language of instruction in education, proper consideration is giv­en to the Dutch language, which has the status of “strong foreign language.” After all, the islands are part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and annually a group of pupils set off to the European Netherlands for further education.

The guiding principle of English as language of instruction is that this transition should not be detriment to a good command of the Dutch lan­guage. NVT material has been developed for forms 5 through 8 of primary edu­cation and for classes 1 and 2 of secondary education in the past three years, in col­laboration with Taalunie, by order of the OCW.

On St. Eustatius a local work group is currently working on the creation of NVT material for the youngest. Dutch as a foreign lan­guage is the term for Dutch language education for non-Dutch speakers outside the Dutch language area.

The Daily Herald.