Alfabetisatie in Het Nederlands Van Turkse Vrouwen

This article concerns literacy in Dutch among migrant labourers and more specifically among Turkish women, as the author's main expe-rience lies in that field. The article aims to provide volunteers teaching Dutch to migrant labourers with some practical knowledge about literacy. First the Turkish Women Committee and its aims are introduced, because this committee tries to improve the position of Turkish women abroad by - amongst others - organising literacy classes in Turkish in Amsterdam. Dutch lessons are given as well. Linguistic arguments for literacy in the mother tongue are only put forward when social and cultural reasons have been introduced. Then some principles of phonetics are put forward, a comparison of Dutch and Turkish vowels and indications for phonetic correction. Finally, an order is indicated in which to present the Dutch vowels, and what phases there are to be observed in teaching pronunciation, reading and writing. Correct discrimination of speech sounds is considered absolutely necessary before teaching the last two skills.