Multilingualism in Belgium: a Clash Between Politics and Cognition

1. Multilingualism in Belgium: a Clash Between Politics and Cognition Piet Van de Craen, Katja Lochtman, Katrien Mondt, Evy Ceuleers, Laure Allain & Barbara De Groot

2. Multilingualism in Belgium • The Context • The political context • A bit of history and … a bit of law • Education as a regional matter • The Research Project • Linguistic aspects • Language pedagogical aspects • Social psychological aspects • Neurolinguistic and neurocognitive aspects • Economic aspects

3. The Context • Politically: Belgium is a near federal state with • three communities (one German-speaking, one French-speaking and one Dutch-speaking); • three regions (Wallonia, Flanders, Brussels); • four language areas (one German, one French, one Dutch, one officially bilingual); • seven governments...

4. A Bit of History... • In 19th century Belgium, according to the Constitution, language use was free; in practice this meant that French was the sole language that mattered. • Between 1840-1950 the Flemish Movement undertook actions to ‘dutchify’ higher education, the army and administration in Dutch-speaking Belgium. • In 1963 a number of language laws were voted...

5. …and a bit of law • Belgian language laws relating to language learning and teaching: • in Wallonia and Flanders: second language learning starts in grade 5, age 11; • in Brussels: it starts in grade 3, age 9. • Since 1963 no changes have taken place. But: • 1998: in Wallonia le Décret Onkelinx, allowing primary schools to organize enseignement du type immersif; • 2004: in Flanders: a decree on language initiation that makes the law of 1963 compulsory.

6. Education as a regional matter • Wallonia: enseignement du type immersif (50 -80% of the curriculum), 51 primary schools in 2004-2005, popular success, high social demand, yet schools keep low profile… results are good, problems with teachers and teaching material. Languages: Dutch, English, German. • Brussels: 3 CLIL oriented primary Dutch-speaking schools with mixed population started in 2001; results are good, different subject-matter is taught in French for +/- 20% of the curriculum. Languages: Dutch and French.

7. The Research Project: Introduction 1 • General hypotheses: CLIL will positively affect • language proficiency in both Dutch and French but other languages will also be affected... • language pedagogical thinking and, hopefully, this approach will entail new ways of teaching foreign languages… • social psychological aspects of both teachers and pupils such as attitudes and motivation… • neurocognitive aspects of the brain in the sense that multilingual brains are considered ‘better brains’… • economic aspects such as well-being and job market success since multilingualism is a core value in Belgian society albeit not officially supported by educational authorities.

8. The Research Project: Introduction 2 • Studies in Wallona and Brussels • Wallonia: homogeneous group of French-speaking pupils • Brussels: three groups can be distinguished: • Dutch-speakers: usually the minority; • French-speakers: usually the majority; • other language speakers : ‘traditional’ migrant languages, Moroccan, Berber, Turkish but also African languages, Kurdish, Spanish, … • remark: some are false French speakers, some are bilingual (Dutch-French) or have other combinations of languages… some are trilingual, in other words: heterogeneous groups...

9. The Research Project: Introduction 3 • The sociolinguistic context of Wallonia: • French-speaking; • in the past less attention was paid to foreign language learning; • relatively small cities and municipalities • The sociolinguistic context of Brussels: • officially a French-Dutch bilingual city; • dominantly French-speaking; • in fact, largest French-speaking city of Belgium; • capital of Europe: enormous amount of languages around

10. Conclusion... • Politically there is a lot apprehensiveness towards CLIL or CLIL like initiatives. • Yet, there is a lot of social demand. • There are some signs that the situation will improve: • the existence of a parent’s organization (TIBEM); • the debate has finally started; • as research results are coming in… time is on our side….