Multilingualism in education
Internationalization of the Brainport region – The White Paper
The Brainport region has developed into an international society. Think of the arrival of skilled workers, but also refugees, seasonal workers and status holders. This development has many consequences for your profession. Within the walls of your classroom you will find more and more students whose mother tongue is not Dutch. The number of newcomers entering our education system is expected to continue to grow. On the one hand, this creates diversity in your classroom. It makes your job extra challenging and children learn from each other. But it also brings challenges. Because how do you deal with these different languages and cultures? What does that mean for the offerings in your classroom? And what impact does it have on you as an educational professional? All questions that your colleagues in the Brainport region also regularly struggle with.
How best to deal with children whose mother tongue is not Dutch? That is a quest. What is certain is that the scientific view on this topic has changed. The idea used to be: Dutch is best learned by immediately immersing students in a full Dutch language bath. It is now clear that this approach has (too) many disadvantages. But: what is the right way to teach students Dutch? And as an education professional, how do you deal with the challenges of multilingualism in education?
To read more about it, you can download the white paper here.