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A design for vocabulary supporting activities for NT2 students at College Zuid

Borgman, Danique Corine Maria (2019) A design for vocabulary supporting activities for NT2 students at College Zuid.

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Abstract:The language level of Dutch as a second language (NT2) students when they move to regular secondary education is often insufficient, resulting in lagging performances in school subjects. At College Zuid, these lagging performances of NT2 students have been noticed. Therefore, College Zuid introduced a program for additional language support to motivate NT2 students to improve their Dutch language level. Unfortunately, this program has not yet the desired outcome of motivating students to increase their vocabulary level through practicing. Since the NT2 support is an innovative idea of College Zuid (no other schools provide this support), there is no available curriculum for the lessons. Research (Expertgroep Doorlopende Leerlijnen Taal en Rekenen, 2008) states that extra support is important for NT2 students to improve their Dutch language acquisition. However, there is limited to no research done on how extra vocabulary support for NT2 students at a regular secondary school, should be given form so that the support is both useful and motivational. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate on a design for useful and motivational vocabulary activities for NT2 support at College Zuid in Enschede. Initial criteria for the vocabulary activities were based on the current situation analysis of College Zuid. These criteria were incorporated into eight pilot lessons and these pilot lessons were evaluated using an observation scheme and a final pilot lessons evaluation questionnaire. From the results of this study, it turned out that the students need vocabulary activities that are suitable, relevant, advantageous, motivational and include opportunities to practice words in different contexts. The students of this study have a positive attitude towards learning new vocabulary, which enhanced their motivation. Also, the vocabulary activities have been useful as students successfully learned new vocabulary during the pilot lessons. The study has shown that the language level of the students plays a role in preferences for pace and level of the lessons. The students in this study think Kahoot is a motivational and useful activity to improve their vocabulary knowledge. Also, this study shows that students are motivated for activities like searching the meaning of words and creating sentences with new words. It has been found that students are the least motivated for activities that involve writing stories and writing new words in their vocabulary notebook. This study has found the following design criteria for useful and motivational vocabulary activities: include discovery and word consolidating strategies, track student results, include opportunities to repeat words and strengthen network connections in context, use a combination of a communicative and focus on form approach, include blended work settings, resources and content and the activities should promote cooperative learning, be motivating and be advantageous. For future research on NT2 support, it is recommended to use an experimental and control group or to do a pre- and post-test to get more qualitative data regarding the effectiveness of the activities. Despite the limitations and the scope, this study gives first insights into effective and motivational vocabulary activities for NT2 support at College Zuid. The results of this study proved a baseline for further research on NT2 support. Keywords: Vocabulary, motivation, development, Dutch as a second language (NT2), portfolio.
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:17 linguistics and theory of literature, 18 languages and literature, 70 social sciences in general, 81 education, teaching
Programme:Educational Science and Technology MSc (60023)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/79676
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