The Foreign Language Vocabulary Acquisition of Mono- and Bilingual Children and Teachers’ Evaluation Ability

Abstract

In 1985, English was made a compulsory subject in the last two years of the Dutch primary school curriculum. While many educationalists supported this decision, it also met with considerable criticism. A major concern was that learning a third language would be too great a burden for bilingual children. On the other hand, it was argued that the introduction of a new school subject could be a stimulating factor for the bilinguals as there would be no differences in advance knowledge compared to monolingual children. It was also suggested that the specific language experience of the former could turn out to be an advantage rather than a disadvantage. However, although there is some speculation in the literature regarding third language acquisition, as yet too little empirical evidence is available to support this.