Proud to be tvmbo - Kortlopend Onderwijsonderzoek

2.6 Suggestions for schools
There is a body of literature from around the world about the results of bilingual education
for students who are similar to the vmbo population in the Netherlands. There is
also a body of international literature which gives practical suggestions for CLIL
schools, many of which are relevant for tvmbo. In this section, these practical suggestions
are divided into two themes: suggestions for classroom practice and for inservice
training. This section summarizes these findings.
2.6.1 Suggestions for classroom practice for tvmbo
This section aims to summarize suggestions found in the literature for classroom practice
for bilingual vmbo. We have taken tips from different areas: methodology literature
related to dealing with English language learners (ELLs) in the USA (Chamot and
O’Malley, 1994, Echevarria et al, 2004, Coggins et al, 2007) , literature about dealing
with literacy in specific subjects (Wellington and Osborne, 2001, Kersaint et al, 2009,
Coggins et al, 2007), literature on CLIL methodology (Dale, van der Es and Tanner,
2010, Gibbons, 2002 and Bentley, 2010) and about teaching in vmbo (Visser and
Richter, 2005).
Much is also to be learned in bilingual education in the Netherlands from the literature
on taalgericht vakonderwijs, where attention is paid to the Dutch language development
of students who have Dutch as a second language and are learning content in
Dutch. Hajer and Meestringa (2004) discuss the role of language in subject lessons.
They point out that language, learning and thinking are interwoven and suggest many
practical ways for teachers to support learners of a second language understand content
and produce language.
Below we summarize the findings from this part of the literature study for classroom
practice for tvmbo.
Vary, vary,vary
Vary your activities in the classroom and keep them short. Use, for example, the theory
of multiple intelligence (Gardner, 1993) to create tasks which appeal to different
“intelligences” or learning styles. Develop different activities while keeping in mind
the eight modes of human activities involving language (listening, speaking, reading,
writing, viewing, shaping, watching, moving) (Vollmer, 2006). That is, think about
how students can listen to, see, speak about and write about what they are learning.
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