PERSPECTIVES ON FOREIGN-LANGUAGE POLICY -- Title page -- Copyright page -- Table of contents -- Preface -- Foreign-Language Teaching Policy in the Netherlands 1800-1970: A Historical Outline -- Introduction -- 1. 1796-1857: FLT and the Beginnings of a National Educational System -- 1.1 The national school -- 1.2 The Education Act of 1806 and its implications for FLT -- 1.3 The earliest form of foreign-language teacher training -- 1.4 FLT and the Latin schools -- 1.5 FLT in Higher Education -- 2. 1857-1876: The Education Acts of 1857, 1863 and 1876 -- 2.1 FLT in Extended Primary Education -- 2.2 FLT in the Higher Burgher Schools -- 2.3 FLT in the Grammar Schools -- 2.4 FLT at the University of Groningen -- 2.5 FLT and teacher training -- 3. 1876-1920: From Experiments to Consolidation -- 3.1 Government policy and FLT content -- 3.1.1 The Higher Burgher Schools (HBS -- 3.1.2 The Grammar Schools -- 3.1.3 Extended Primary Education -- 3.2 Foreign-language teacher training -- 4. 1920-1968: From Consolidation to Innovation -- 4.1 Consolidation in Secondary Education -- 4.2 Innovation: the post-war years and beyond -- 4.2.1 Higher Education -- 4.2.2 Secondary Education -- 5. Conclusion -- References -- The Task Force of the Dutch National Action Programme as an Instrument for Developing and Implementing Foreign-Language Policy -- A Growing Need for Foreign-Language Competence -- Supply and Demand Analysed -- Directions for a Future Policy -- The Establishment of the Task Force -- Central Issues of the Action Programme -- Concrete Actions to Implement the Recommendations -- The Political Testament of the Task Force -- Evaluation of the Task Force as an Instrument for Innovation -- References -- NAP as a Basis for a Coherent FLT Policy -- The Difficulty of Spanish for Dutch Learners -- Introduction -- Spanish in Dutch Education.

Easy and Difficult Languages? -- Mother Tongue and Foreign Language -- Differences in Learning Outcomes Between Languages -- School marks as a measure of learning outcom -- Learning outcomes and levels of language proficiency -- Perceived Difficulty -- The importance of learner characteristics in research into the difficulty of languages -- The difficulty of Spanish for Dutch learners -- References -- Changing Targets - Changing Tests -- Introduction -- Recommendations of the NAP and Points of Departure in Testing -- New Programmes and Tests -- Reading skill -- Listening skills -- Speaking skills -- Writing skills -- Priorities -- Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- Appendix A -- Appendix B -- Reading skills -- Listening skills -- Speaking skills -- Writing skills -- Horizon Taaland Language Planning in the United States -- Introduction -- Planning Oriented to Adult Use -- Centralization of Planning and Management -- The Choice of Languages -- Architecture -- Conclusion -- References -- Developing a Language-Competent American Society: Implications of the English-Only Movement -- Introduction -- Normative Bilingualism as Policy and Practice Internationally -- Pervasive Monolingualism as Policy and Practice Domestically -- Need for a Facilitative rather than Restrictive Policy -- Optimistic Developments within the Language Education Community -- Continuing Call for Restrictive Legislation -- Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- PlanningForeign-Language Education: An Israeli Perspective -- Introduction -- Language-Acquisition Planning -- National Language Capacity as the Basis for Language-Acquisition Policy -- The Situation in Israel -- Hebrew -- Arabic -- English -- The other languages -- Some Comparisons -- Notes -- References -- Implementation of Foreign-Language Policy in Finland -- Introduction -- Foreign-Language Planning.

Finnish Foreign-Language Policy -- Problems in Implementation -- The National Curriculum: The organizational level -- Interpersonal criteria -- Individual concerns -- Conclusion -- References -- Foreign-Language Policy from the Grass Roots -- Introduction -- Concepts of Language Policy -- The Project of a Society Based on a Language Division -- Realizing the Project -- Final Comments -- References -- Multilingualism in the Netherlands? -- Introduction -- Research questions -- The Investigation -- Method -- Informants -- Questionnaire -- Results -- Attitudes -- Conclusions -- Acknowledgements -- Notes -- References -- Minority Groups and Minority Languages in theNetherlands: Empirical Facts and Educational Policy -- Introduction -- Demographic Trends and Criteria -- Immigrant Minority Groups in the Netherlands -- The Status and Use of Ethnic-Minority Languages -- Shifting Perspectives on Home Language Instruction -- Outlook -- The role of the Ministry of Education -- The role of the municipalities -- The role of primary schools -- References -- From Mother Tongue to Foreign Language: Prospects for Minority-Language Educationin the Netherlands -- Introduction -- Migration to the Netherlands -- Primary Education -- Bilingual reception models -- Mother-Tongue Instruction -- Secondary Education -- Policy in Theory and Practice -- Theory -- Practice -- Discussion -- A Perspective -- Notes -- References -- Adult Second-Language Policy in the Netherlands: Some Considerations -- Introduction -- Policy and Tests -- Developments in adult education -- A Framework for Dutch as a Second Language for AdultLearners -- Functions of the scales -- Adult second-language learners -- Social demands and second-language learning -- Adult second-language education -- Problems in designing a DL2 framework -- Final exams -- Textbook construction and formative testing.

Conclusion -- Acknowledgements -- References -- Index.