Bewuste taalvaardigheid ontleed: Onderzoek naar contextrijk, taalcontrastief en procesgericht grammaticaonderwijs in de vakken Nederlands, Engels en Duits

Abstract

This dissertation addresses the shortcomings of traditional grammar instruction by proposing and evaluating an alternative, context-rich, cross-linguistic and process-oriented approach. The research is structured into three parts—exploration and framework development, development of teaching materials and evaluation of effectiveness—across five interconnected studies. Exploration and framework development The initial phase investigated the current state of grammar instruction and identified opportunities for integrating linguistic meta-concepts. Traditional methods often emphasize rules of thumb, leaving little room for deeper linguistic understanding. A survey and focus group interviews revealed that while many teachers support integrating meta-concepts and promoting language awareness, they lack the necessary materials and expertise. Teachers of Dutch, English and German highlighted ‘tense/aspect’, ‘agreement’, and ‘syntactical function’ as the most useful meta-concepts, though preferences varied between subjects. Interestingly, English and German teachers preferred ‘word order’ over ‘tense/aspect’ due to its practical applicability in cross-linguistic comparisons. A second study using stimulated recall revealed that students predominantly used explicit knowledge when implicit knowledge fell short, particularly during grammatical judgment tasks. Transfer of knowledge occurred more frequently from Dutch to other languages than between foreign languages. Crucially, students’ reliance on rule-based strategies hindered language awareness, underscoring a gap between the goals of grammar instruction and what is achieved through traditional methods. Development of teaching materials The second phase involved designing the Cross-Linguistic Awareness Program (CLAP), a lesson series grounded in four design principles: (DP1) enrichment of traditional instruction, (DP2) contextualization of syntactical concepts, (DP3) promotion of cross-linguistic comparisons, and (DP4) emphasis on reasoning over correct answers. These principles support deeper understanding by connecting linguistic form, function, and meaning and encouraging higher-order thinking skills. CLAP focused on ‘syntactical function’ and was iteratively refined through expert input and feedback from teachers and students. Core to CLAP were animations that helped overcome teachers' limited linguistic knowledge and facilitated student engagement. The program proved effective in boosting both student motivation and language awareness across all three languages. Encouragingly, students increasingly used language-general meta-concepts to analyse language-specific forms—an indicator of improved linguistic knowledge. The program was later expanded to include lessons on ‘word order’ and ‘agreement’. Alongside the lesson series, an innovative assessment instrument was developed to evaluate students’ language awareness. It included tasks measuring both proficiency and consciousness across three languages and meta-concepts. Item formats ranged from grammaticality judgment tasks to justifications of ambiguous sentence interpretations. The instrument was statistically validated, allowing for consistent measurement of progress over time. Evaluation of effectiveness In the final phase, a large-scale intervention study with 200 students and four teachers assessed the effectiveness of CLAP. Using a switching replications design, we measured gains in grammar-related motivation and language awareness at three intervals. While some inconsistencies in lesson completion occurred, the intervention broadly reflected authentic classroom conditions. The results confirmed the viability and impact of CLAP as a supplement to traditional grammar instruction, promoting a more reflective, transferable and meaningful understanding of grammar. In sum, this dissertation offers a theoretically grounded and empirically validated pathway for enriching grammar instruction through context-rich, cross-linguistic and process-oriented methods.