Abstract:

In recent years, the teaching of Dutch spelling and grammar has come under fire in Flemish and Dutch secondary education (SE). The general perception in society, including the perception of teachers (Devos, 2012; Devos and Van Vooren, 2014), is that language performance of secondary school pupils is waning. The present Flemish Minister for Education, however, claims that “there is no hard evidence for a falling trend in grammar and spelling levels, only observations from the educational field” (Stevens, 2016). In order to empirically test these observations, a longitudinal inquiry into the learning of grammar and spelling was carried out in this study.

Ten years ago, research by Van Vooren and Devos (2008) into the spelling and grammatical knowledge of third grade students in SE suggested that their knowledge falls short of the final attainment targets, as set by the government, which are briefly worded descriptions of the knowledge, insights and skills that pupils should have mastered by the end of each school year (Flemish Government, 2014; Uyttendaele, 2014). In 2008, SE-pupils (n=359; aged 17-18 years) were asked to complete a Dutch grammar and spelling test in 20 minutes. The questions were selected from real examinations and Dutch handbooks and were approved by teachers.

The test consisted of 4 categories (spelling of words, spelling of verbs, word classes and parsing) and independent variables were:
(1) geography (Flanders versus the Netherlands),
(2) gender (male versus female),
(3) curriculum (Latin versus non-Latin) and
(4) school type (athenaeum (i.e. state school/official education) versus college (i.e. private school)).

In the current replication study the same test was used to investigate those same independent variables in a new cohort of informants, i.e. third grade students in SE (n=344; aged 17-18 years). Again, the results of this study point to “hard evidence” for a falling trend in grammar and spelling levels among third grade students in Flanders and the Netherlands.

References:
[1] Devos, Filip. 2012. Grammatica in het Vlaamse lager en secundair onderwijs: een verkennend attitude-onderzoek bij leerkrachten [Grammar in Flemish primary and secondary education: an exploratory study on teachers’ attitudes]. In: Over taal, vol. 51, no. 5, pp. 134-137.
[2] Devos, Filip and Valerie Van Vooren. 2014. Teachers’ attitudes towards (the alignment between) grammar in the L1 language curriculum of primary and secondary education. In: ICERI 2014 Proceedings CD. Sevilla: IATED, pp. 5642-5651.
[3] Flemish Government. 2014. Secundair onderwijs - A-stroom - Nederlands - Vakgebonden eindtermen [Secondary education – top bracket - Dutch - Final attainment targets for specific subjects]. Retrieved from http://www.ond.vlaanderen.be/curriculum/secundair-onderwijs/eerste-graad/vakgebonden/a-stroom/nederlands/eindtermen.htm.
[4] Stevens, J. 2016. Spelling? Wasda? [Spelling? Whatsthat?]. Knack, vol. 46, no. 6, pp. 34-37.
[5] Uyttendaele, J. 2014. Taalbeschouwing volgens de nieuwe eindtermen Nederlands [Language according to the new final attainment targets for Dutch]. Retrieved from http://www.netdidned.be/TAALBESCHOUWING%20VOLGENS%20DE%20NIEUWE%20EINDTERMEN%20NEDERLANDS12-2-14.doc.
[6] Van Vooren, V. and F. Devos. 2008. Grammaticaonderwijs: het oude zeer [Teaching grammar: a sore spot]. Over taal, vol. 47, no. 4, pp. 90-92.

Keywords:

Grammar education, attainment targets, secondary education, curriculum design.