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Teachers' attitudes towards (the alignment between) grammar in the L1 language curricula of primary and secondary education

Book Contribution - Book Chapter Conference Contribution

In recent years, Dutch grammar education (L1) in Flemish primary (PE) as well as secondary education (SE) has been the subject of much debate. Research into the grammatical knowledge of students in SE (n=359) suggests that this expertise falls short of the final attainment targets. Additional research now tries to pinpoint the reasons underlying this trend, focusing on the attitude of teachers, which is an 'understudied' aspect of language teaching. This research, centring around L1 teachers of Dutch in SE (n=255) and PE (n=318), applies two methodological instruments: a Likert-scale attitude questionnaire and teacher interviews. Teacher variables include gender, years of classroom experience, school type and school grade. The research in SE reveals that, in general, (1) teachers' attitudes correlate with students' performances, in that 52% of the teachers are rather pessimistic about their students' level of grammatical proficiency, (2) 76% of them believe that the general level of language proficiency has dropped in recent years and (3) 47% of the teachers are of the opinion that grammar education is a poor relation in the Dutch language curriculum, especially with a view to learning foreign languages. The second study conducted in PE shows that, in general, (1) 75% of the teachers think that their students' general level of language proficiency has declined, (2) 71% of them want to spend more time on grammar than the curriculum prescribes, (3) 80% of the teachers believe that Dutch grammar in PE is insufficiently aligned with Dutch grammar in SE and (4) 81% of them are of the opinion that Dutch grammar instruction is out of step with foreign language grammar instruction. One of the major problems this attitude study reveals, concerns the poor alignment between grammar in the Dutch language curricula of PE and SE. The majority (62%) of the teachers in PE, for instance, are completely oblivious to Dutch language expectations in the 1st year of SE. Additionally, 70% of them feel there is little, if any, interaction between teachers in PE and SE about the instruction of Dutch. Supporting this statement, the majority (63%) of the teachers in SE share this opinion. This perceived problematic alignment between grammar in the Dutch language curricula of PE and SE may have major implications for (future) curriculum design.
Book: ICERI Proceedings
Pages: 5642 - 5651
ISBN:9788461724840
Publication year:2014
BOF-keylabel:yes
IOF-keylabel:yes
Accessibility:Open