Ontwikkelingen in Tl- en T2-Vaardigheidsniveau Van Turkse en Marokkaanse Leerlingen

In this article the results of a large-scale investigation into the level of language proficiency are presented. The central question is whether there can be identified developments in first and second language proficiency of Turkish and Moroccan pupils. As a point of reference for the second language level of both non-indigenous groups the language level of their indigenous classmates is used. The sample consists of 120 schools and 368 Turkish, 254 Moroccan and 1582 Dutch pupils in the last year of primary education. The main results are: (1) the proficiency of Turkish is fairly good, while the proficiency of Arabic is extremely low; (2) there are large differences in the influence of moment of entrance in Dutch primary education between Turkish and Moroccan pupils with regard to their first and second language level; (3) because nowadays most non-indigenous children enter Dutch education in the first grade it must be expected that the level of (especially written) Arabic will go down further soon, this notwithstanding the fact that most Moroccan pupils attend some hours of Arabic language teaching every week; (4) compared with their indigenous classmates the Dutch language proficiency of Turkish and Moroccan pupils is very low, even after controlling for moment of entrance and socio-economic milieu.