Driessen, G. (1992). Developments in first and second language acquisition of Turkish and Moroccan children in the Netherlands. Paper Second International Conference on Maintenance and Loss of Ethnic Minority Languages, Noordwijkerhout, the Netherlands, September 1-4, 1992.

1. DEVELOPMENTS IN FIRST AT{D SECOND LANGUAGE
ACQTITSITION OF TTJRKISH AND MOROCCAÀI CHILDREN
IN TIIE NETTIERLANDS
Geert W.J.M. Driessen
Institute for Applied Social Sciences
University of Nijmegen
P.O. Box 9048, 6500 KJ Nijmegen, The Netherlands

2. l.Introduction
A part of the Turkish and Moroccan children's school education in the Netherlands consiss of
Minority Language and Culture Teaching (henceforth OErc). These children hare the
opportunity to attend up to 2.5 hours per week so-called 'in-school' OETC classes during regular
school hours, which means that they miss pars of the Dutch curriculum. Besides this school-based
OErc children may also attend OErc outside school and/or ou§ide regular school hours.
Until recently little was known about:
1. levels of first language skills among immigrant children at the end of primary education;
2. the effect of OETC attendance on these levels;
3. any effects of in-school OETC attendance - and the resulting absence during regular
instruction - on Dutch language skills;
4. the dwelopment of f,rst and second language proficiency as an effect of length of stay in the
Netherlands.
In this paper a summary will be given of a part of the study that was conducted to answer these
questions.
2. Research design
During the school years 1987/1988 and 1988/1989 data were collected for a large-scale study of
the let/els of first and second language proficienry among Turkish and Moroccan pupils and of the
effects of OETC. 120 primary schools with 368 Turkish, 254 Moroccan and 1,582 Dutch pupils in
their final year (8) were involved in the study. The design of the study enables to a certain extent
comparisons to be made between Turkish and Moroccan pupils' performance in their home
language and in Dutch. Moreover, their skills in Dutch can be compared with those of their Dutch
classmates, whose ability in Durch can be taken as a point of rderence.

3. 3. Research irrstruments and variables
A total of 21 different tests and questionnaires were administered to pupils, class teachers,
minority language teachers, and headteachers of the participating schools. The follovittg
dependent and independent variables were constructed'
To assess the home language proficienq of the Turkish and Moroccan children written tests were
used that measured the passive and productive skills. The resul§ on these tests were converted into
the percentage correctly answered items. Beside the tests a self-assessment scale was administered,
on which the pupils could indicate how they perceived their oral and written language skills. The
higher the score on this scale, the higher the competence'
Le,/els of Dutch language proficienq were determined by a written test of academic progress.
Three dimensions could be distirguished: spelling, usage' and parsing. The results were expressed
as the percentage of correctly completed items.
T1r1e ethnic origin of ttre pupils was derived from the ethnic background of the father or, if he
was absent, of the mother.
I*ngth oÍ stoy in the Netherlands was determined by the period the pupil had attended school in
the Netherlands.
Rates of panicipation in OEN classes were determined by the arerage number of hours per
week pupils had attended OErc classes during the past years. A distinction was made between in-
school OErc and out-of-school OETC activities.
T'be socio-economic background of the pupils was determined by a combination of the
educational and vocational level oftheir parents.

4. 4. Results
Wide differences exist between Turkish and Moroccan pupils in respect of lwels of first language
proficiency. The level of written skills among Moroccan pupils is particularly low. Nearly half of
these pupils are unable to express themselves in written Arabic at the end of primary school.
Howorer, comparative research conducted in Morocco shows that this level is not íls poor as it
look at first sight. Written Arabic is apparently a difficult language to learn, which is probably
due to the fact that for none of the Moroccan pupils written Arabic is the actual mother tongue. To
this should be added that there are scant possibilities for actual contact with this language in the
Netherlands, that the time arailable for learning the language is scarce, and that the conditions
under which this happens are far from ideal. As regards these latter two aspects, the correlations
between the amount of OETC attendance and the level of language competence are generally fairly
weak. In other words, it is not true that if pupils receive more OETC, their competence in their
first language increases automatically. If the scores on the two language measures are set against
the moment of primary school entry, it appears that the language level of Tirrkish pupils is the
same at each of the three measurement points (see Thble 1). For the Moroccan pupils, however, a
clear split can be observed with the group that has attended a Dutch school for more than three
years; in comparison with the group that has been in a Dutch school for up to three years, their
scores hare fallen dramatically. Analysis show that an another important factor in explaining
differences in language proficienry is the actual language that is spoken at home. Pupils who speak
Arabic at home with their parents have a better proficienry than pupils who speak Berber.
When tested for Dutch language skills, Turkish and Moroccan pupils in the final year of primary
school attain far lower scores than their Dutch classmates. The differences are particularly et/ident
on the 'usage' component. After controlling for differences in the numbers of years spent in Dutch
education and socio-economic background, the gap between the scores of immigrant and Dutch
pupils narrows, but the differences remain substantial. If the development of test scores is set
against the number of years in Dutch education (see Thble 2), it can be concluded that Turkish and
Moroccan pupils differ strongly in this respect. Moroccan pupils appear to dwelop more gradually
than their Turkish classmates. Turkish pupils seem to hare reached their 'top' already after three
years of education in a Dutch school; to put it differently, there are no differences between

5. Turkish pupils in the final primary school year with 4 to 6 years of experience in a Dutch school
and Turks with 7 to 8 years of experience.
Incidentally, it does not look as though OErc a$endance has a detrimental effect on the
performance levels of pupils who frequently attend OErc classes and who, in consequence, miss
regular lessons: their Dutch language scores are not lower than those of pupils who attend OErc
classes rel atively infrequently.
5. Prospects
The findings presented above indicate that, in terms of rates of language acquisition, Turkish and
Moroccan pupils develop differently; this goes for their native language as well as for Durch' As
regards the acquisition of Arabig there appears to be a strgnation or even a loss of language. It is
unlikely that current OErc provisions in primary education will be able to stop this proces§.
Given the scant opportunities to attend OErc in secondary school, this means that for many
Moroccan children OErc in primary school constitutes their 'terminal' education in Arabic. It is
to be expected, therefore, that after primary school the level of first language proficienry will only
decline. Research studies have revealed that this may happen fast. This could well mean that in the
not too distant future the large majority of the Moroccan population in the Netherlands will not or
no longer be able to communicate in written Arabic. However, oral communicative skills in
Arabic are also likely to dwindle swiftly. The expectations for the T[rkish language are less
gloomy. The dwelopment of the scores on the language measures shorvs that the lwels of Turkish
pupil§ first language skills remain fairly constant over time.
Finally, the levels of Dutch language skills among Turkish and Moroccan pupils are low, wen
after controlling for social background and the number of years spent in a Dutch school. It will be
some time, therefore, before Turkish and Moroccan children born in the Netherlands attain the
same lwel of written Dutch as their Dutch classmates.

6. Tahles
Iable I - Fiͧt language test
education (means)
scores and self-aSse§§ment scoÍe§ by number of years h Durch
yccr§
frirks
u3 4-6 7-8 Ë
Moraccans
0-3 4-6 7-8 Ë
.0206
.0000
.0047
76 59 52 ,03
53 26 27 .16
3.6 3.3 3.1 .M
r00 100 100 .00
70 7L 74 .01
4.1 4.3 4.r .01
.0000
.0047
test: % )0t
te§t. % correef
self-assessmenf
I The percent4go of pupils who had at least one item correct
2
For the I group: the mean percentage of eorrectly answered iterns
3
Scores range from (1) 'not competent' o (5) ory competent'
Thble 2 - Durch language te§t §core§ by number of years in Dutch edueation (means)
year§
furks
0-j 4-6 7-8 Ë
Maroccans
0-s 44 7-8 É
test: % correct 47 69 70 .09 .0000 45 63 72 .21 .0000

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