English on Dutch schools for pre-vocational training

For Dutch youngsters English is everywhere in their culture: music, games, vlogs, etc. Therefore, we often assume they learn English language skills almost without effort and teaching. However, what happens if English is not your cup of tea? And studying is difficult for you? How do you keep up with the rest? For students in pre-vocational levels (Dutch VMBO-b/VMBO-k) English teachers can play an important role. These teachers from a school in Drenthe asked the Science Shop Language, Culture and Communication to research their results and collaboratively strengthen their educational programme. Students of Applied Linguistics Laurens, Muteber and Pamela stared their research project recently.

Questions from practice and research

Therefore, we are looking for a motivated student who can look at the English lessons on this education level. The teachers sometimes doubt if the teaching methods are effective enough for their students. How do you improve language learning and keep the students motivated at the same time? These are important questions to ask, because many students on these levels are very vulnerable if they enter the job market without a basic level of English.