Tips for the language volunteer

Tip 1: Stick to your role as a language volunteer

Many language volunteers help a family member, friend or acquaintance learn the Dutch language. They may quickly fall back on the personal relationship the language volunteer and language learner have with each other in class. This can impede the language learning process: in that position, do you still dare to correct the language learner on language mistakes? Can a serious explanation still take place? To avoid these problems, you can make clear agreements with each other.

Agree on a clear start and end time for the lesson and save personal stories for after the lesson. Do you also speak to the language learner outside of NT2 class? Be careful not to get stuck in your role as a language volunteer. Correcting incorrect language use can be very helpful, but can become irritating in a friendly setting, or make the language learner insecure.

Tip 2: Trust the language learning process

Many multilinguals learn a second language naturally. Simply by listening carefully to the language around them and repeating the speech. So while courses and textbooks can speed up the language learning process, they are not necessary.

What do you, as a language volunteer, gain from this information? Above all, don't worry too much about your learner's language learning process. The language learning process develops naturally, and you are only there to support when necessary.

Tip 3: Keep the language learner talking

The easiest and most fun way to learn a language is by talking. You don't need any teaching material and you are interacting in a fun way. Being able to speak the second language is often the most important thing. This allows the language learner to communicate quickly with the people around him.

Think of everyday topics to talk about, such as morning routines, public transportation and home situations. This will allow the language learner to apply the knowledge gained immediately outside of class. Explain unclear words and constructions if you encounter them during your conversations.

Tip 4: Provide relevant topics.

Often a language volunteer chooses to read to the language learner. And that's a good idea, because that's how you create language offerings that are useful to the language learner. The only thing is that children's books are often chosen for reading aloud because they contain short and understandable sentences.

The problem with this is that the topics in children's books do not match the interests of adult language learners. Topics such as “playing hide and seek” and “crafts” are not interesting to them.

Therefore, choose books that contain short and understandable sentences but also deal with interesting topics. Examples are the books Verhalenvertellers, in which newcomers tell stories, and Beren op de weg or Water bij de melk, in which stories from different countries are translated into Dutch.

You can also look at advertisements and marketing statements or certain short articles from lifestyle magazines. These often use short, simple sentences.

Tip 5: Correct in moderation

While it is important to clear up major or repeated mistakes, you don't have to correct every language error. Successful communication is essential, and correcting every small mistake actually interrupts that communication.

In addition, being reminded of mistakes so often is not always motivating for the language learner. If in some cases you do find it important to correct, it can be done in a subtle way. For example, if the language learner says, “I read two book.” you can reply with: “Which two books have you read?” This way you have given the correct form of “books,” but the conversation is not interrupted.

Tip 6: Stay positive

Often enough you hear Dutch native speakers say that Dutch is a super difficult language. Besides not being true, because the difficulty level of Dutch depends on the language learner's native language, it is also incredibly demotivating.

So don't emphasize how difficult Dutch is, but keep it positive by praising what the language learner already speaks in Dutch. This way you keep the learning process positive and the language learner will continue in good spirits.