Netherlands Can Speak the Frisian Language Lnd Over 90 Percent Can Understand It
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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 365 131 FL 021 712 AUTHOR Jong, Sikko de; Riemersma, Alex M. J. TITLE Bilingual Education in Fryslan: Levels of Language Proficiency in Both Dutch And Frisian at the End of Primary School. PUB DATE 8 Dec 93 NOTE 18p.; Paper presented at the International Conference on Maintenance and Loss of Minority Languages (Noordwijkerhout, The Netherlands, September 1-4, 1992) and at the International Association of Applied Linguistics World Congress (10th, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, August 8-12, 1993). PUB TYPE Repurts Research/Technical (143) Speeches/Conference Papers (150) EDRS PRICE MFOI/PC01 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Bilingual Education; Bilingualism; *Dutch; Educational Policy; Elementary Education; *Language Maintenance; Language Role; *Second Language Learning; Second Languages; Uncommonly Taught Languages IDENTIFIERS *Frisian; *Netherlands (Friesland) ABSTRACT A majority of the population of Friesland in the Netherlands can speak the Frisian language Lnd over 90 percent can understand it. Frisian is spoken by 55 percent of the population but only 10 percent of the pop'llation Ciai to be fluent in writing Frisian. A brief review o.the development of Frisian in education suggests that Frisian has a rather strong position in formal legislation in education. Further, the formulation of objectives hints at the direction of full bilingualism. However, the position of Frisian in daily practice is rather weak and the implementation of Frisian has not resulted in a strong position of Frisian in primary education. Analysis of class hours per week spent on other minority languages in Europe such as Catalan, Basque, and Welsh supports this point. A research project is described that investigated the command of Frisian and Dutch by both Frisian- and Dutch-speaking students. Data are presented concerning students' speaking, reading, comprehension, spelling, and composition abilities. Findings support two conclusions: (1) education in Frisian does not negatively influence the command of the Dutch language of either Frisian- or Dutch-speaking pupils in Friesland, and (2) the command of the Frisian language of both Frisian- and Dutch-speaking pupils is of a very low level at the end of primary school. (Contains 27 references.) (JP) *********************************************************************** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. * *********************************************************************** U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUC.*.TION Otlfce of EducahonaI Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) ,Xhfsdocument has been reproduced as recen,ed from the person or orgamrafion en.net.np r Minor changes have been made lo anprove Sikko de Jong & Alex M.J. Riemersma reproduct.on aualay opnons BILINGUAL EDUCATION IN FRYSLAN: rnent do not nec.ss-vny represent offictai Levels of language proficiency in both Dutch and Frisian at the end of primary school' to) 1. THE CURRENT POSITION OF THE FRISIAN LANGUAGE D ee) Friesland is one of the twelve provinces of the Netherlands. The frontiers of the Frisian language area are more or less ;17 congruent with the borders of the province. The population ofthe provinceof Friesland numbersabout 600,000. A majority of the population can speak the Frisian language; over 90 percent can understand it. As a daily langu- age and asa mother-tongue,Frisianis spoken by about 55 percent. Frisian literacy is much weaker: 65 percent can read Frisian, only 10 percent claim to be fluent in writing Frisi- an. For further details see Gorter et al. 1984. Linguistically Frisian and Dutch are both in between German and English. After the Middle Ages language contacts between Frisian and Dutch became more and morefrequent, and the linguistic differences between these two languages narrowed. In general, one couldsay, that today bothlanguages are syntactically almost identical, that the differences in voca- bulary are decreasing more and more, and that even phonology, grammar and pronunciation are in danger of being levelled to those of Dutch. 2. DEVELOPMENT OF FRISISAN IN EDUCATION Throughout the 20th century, in Friesland the education of the Frisian language has been considered an important instrument of language maintenance. People and authorities, responsible for other domains of life in society,tend to declare the school as the only responsible instrument for language mainte- nance. Fortunately, education is nottheonly topic of language planning in Friesland. In the la:3t decades there is a growing interest for the position of Frisian in public administration, judiciary, cultural life and economic life as well. As far as the minority language has a real function in daily life, for examplein health care institutions, churchlife, economic life, mass media, cultural life etc., there will be a greater chance for reversing language shift. From 1970 onwards the central government recognises the bilin- gual status of the province of Friesland. As a consequence of this recognition,in primary education and teacher training, Frisian has been a compulsory subject from 1980 onwards. From p-s(? 1988 all schools for special education are to pay attention to IN ., the Frisian language and culture in the curriculum. Frisian is permitted as a medium of instruction in primary education and special education explicitly. "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY )k--. / (7-;--/k't--Y---*-, / it t TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES BEST COPY MAILABLE 2 INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)." 2 In 1974 one out of four primary schoolshad Frisian as a subject and/or medium on the course list. Nowadays this number is over 95%, the only exceptions being situated onthe is- lands.Objectives are formulated by central administration, and Teacher Training Programmes, teachingmaterials and school guidance facilities are provided. In fact, Frisian is taught on average onehour a week in all primary schools in Friesland. At this moment about one outof ten schools is teaching the basic skills ofreading, writing and arithmetic through the medium of Frisian. Mostof them are situated in the countryside and have a student-body ofwhich over 75% is Frisian-speaking. They canbe qualified as early immersion schools,as mentioned in the 1989inquiry of the inspectorate (Inspectie van het onderwijs 1989: 33). From August 1993, Frisian is a compulsorysubject in the lower classes of secondary education. Along within-service training programmes, projects areset upfor the development of a curriculum, teaching materials and tests. However, theobjec- tives for Frisian in secondary education, althoughformulated on request of centraladministration,don't have the same status as the objectives set for the othersubjects. Until now, in secondary education Frisian is taught at oneout of four schools, on average in one or twogrades and only one hour a week. In the next few years Frisianin secondary educa- tion is to have the same position as in primaryschools (Rie- mersma 1993). Frisian in higher education has a very limited function(Rie- mersma 1987). At the TeacherTraining Colleges for both prima- ry and secondary educationFrisian is taught as a subject and very seldom used as a medium(Gildemacher & Riemersma 1993). In 1993, two Colleges for Higher VocationalTraining at Ljou- wert established the J.H. Halbertsma-Akademy,responsible for Frisian studies at both Colleges and relatedprojects. Depart- ments for Frisian studies exists at theuniversities of Am- sterdam and Groningen (Breuker 1987). One might conclude that Frisian has a ratherstrong position in formal legislation on education. The formulationof objec- tives hints at the direction of full bilingualism.However, the position of Frisian in daily practiceof education is rather weak (cf. Sikma & Gorter (1991)). 3 3. ACTUAL POSITION OF FRISIAN IN PRIMARY EDUCATION In primary education Frisian has been a compulsory subject for more then 10 years. In 1980 there was a lot of enthusiasm among the advocates of the Frisian language. The obligation to teach Frisian was seen as a crucial step for the maintenance of the Frisian language. To implement this obligation a lot of work has been done:Special projects on curriculum development and the development of teaching materials have been carried out.More than 2,500 teachers have taken a special course of in-service training,set up by the teacher training colleges and school guidance institutes. In 1985 and 1989 the school inspectorate has gathered quantita- tive data on the education of Frisian. In two reports this information was made public(De Jong 1986;Inspectie van het onderwijs 1989). The 1989 inquiry of the schoolinspectorate shows that the choice of objectives for the education of Frisian is limited to under- standing and reading of the Frisian language and that there is hardly any differentiation in objectives. To sum up: 80% of the primary schools have embodied reading ofthe Frisian language, in combination with other skills, in their objectives. 22% of the primary schools do not use Frisian as a medium of instruction'. In on)y 10% of the primary schools in writing Frisian is part of the curriculum. No wonder,Frisian in writing is hardly used in daily life. However, the exclusion of writing is also due to the command of the Frisian language by tea- chers: 38% of the teachers say that they can hardly write in Frisian or not at all. The percentage of the schools who want to educate all the skills of Frisian has decreased from 22% to 16% in a period of 3 years. Although there