Proud to be tvmbo - Kortlopend Onderwijsonderzoek

4.3.1 Level of English and internationally-recognized tests
One school states one reason for starting vocational CLIL to be that the English
learned at school in regular classes is not up to standard: “Pupils' level of English is
good enough for most businesses.” Another school states that they have decided not
to start a tvmbo according to the official quality standard (see Appendix 1), but to
mainly focus on speaking skills. The subjects at this school which are taught in English
are mostly subjects that do not use books or have written tests (PE, home economics,
arts, crafts and design and computer science). One school also mentioned
that they are aiming for more spoken fluency by their students. A further reason
given by two participating schools was for students to prepare for an internationallyrecognized
English test - the Anglia test (including a speaking test) at the end of
their vmbo career.
4.3.2 European and International Orientation (EIO)
One important reason for starting tvmbo is internationalization: global communication
and understanding. Reasons given were that students broaden their horizons
and gain international knowledge and skills. They learn to have a wider international
perspective since the school provides a broad programme of international activities.
4.3.3 Link to primary and higher education
One school mentions that they work on continual learning. English at secondary
school is seen as a continual learning process from the primary school through to further
education.
4.3.4 Which kinds of vmbo?
Of the five schools asked, all of them had tvmbo in the theoretische leerweg. As can
be seen from Figure 4.1: Which kinds of tvmbo? below, schools have also implemented
tvmbo in other types of vmbo.
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