Proud to be tvmbo - Kortlopend Onderwijsonderzoek

• Organize English language activities in the Netherlands, as well as EIO activities
such as exchanges or e-mail projects with students abroad.
• Invite native speakers into the class – a language assistant, parents, sports personalities,
musicians, drama groups. or other native speaker guests who can engage an
audience with a topic.
• Organize trips to England and think about how appropriate the activities are for
vmbo students: e.g. an activity or adventure week is perhaps better than a language
course.
• In the classroom, create objects and do projects related to EIO.
• Do projects on the Internet (such as Learning Circles).
• Look for opportunities to join (e.g. Comenius) projects with schools around the
world.
• Although no schools at present have considered vocational EIO, it is useful to incorporate
this into the curriculum, perhaps thinking about trips in the Netherlands
to companies which use English as the language of communication, exchanges
with vocational schools and work experience in English-speaking environments.
7.3.3 Recommendations for teachers in the classroom
Below we list a number of recommendations for tvmbo teachers. For more information,
see Chapters 5 and 6, which explain these classroom strategies in more detail.
Our basic finding is that it is most important to engage the learners actively as much as
and as often as possible, with both subject matter and language, using as much English
as possible.
Structure
• Create very structured lessons, which include a lot of checking of understanding
and variety in terms of activities.
• Formulate both subject and language learning aims for each lesson and share these
with your students.
Materials
• Find appropriate authentic materials: texts, DVDs, objects, visuals. Be very careful
about choosing materials that are at the right level of English for your students,
for example by using the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages
as a benchmark. If learners are at A2 level, find materials and create tasks
at A2 or B1 level – or just above their present language level.
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