PDF created on 13/07/2017
- European Commission
Language games (Unofficial translation)
Target Group
Geographic Area
City
Language
Belgium
AGE & GENDER
Minors
Asse
Dutch
Topic
Language
Type of Information
Organisation
Contact Person
Contact Person
Function
Link
Project Start
Ongoing Project
Summary
Issue/Challenge and
Goal/Assumption
Project or programme
Jeugddienst Asse
Lotte Verbeyst (Login to send email)
Youth worker
http://www.taalspelen.be
01/01/2001
No
Language games is an activity where, every Saturday and during two
hours, foreign children between 6 and 16 years of age can practice
full imersion in the Dutch language in a pleasant way. In a
extrascholarly way the children can further develop their Dutch.
Every week a theme is chosen (cooking, professions, seasons,
sports, ...) and attention is paid to language. The monitors make
sure that the children use their mother tongue as little as possible.
Goal: Avoiding and reducing school backlog and referring children
to other extracurricular activities (youth clubs, sport clubs,...).
Challenge: Could the threshold still be too high for some children to
come to the language games on Saturdays?
We experience difficulty in reaching the children and their parents
to inform them about the activities. In order to reach these goals, we
seek to cooperate with schools and through coordinators and
teachers to lead the the children to the language games.
Furthermore, we also organise several recruitment activities (friends
day, Saint Nicholas Day,...) with the scope of attracting as many
children as possible.
The activities are free so as to lower the threshold as much as
possible.
How does it work
Every Saturday the children can come to the language games
classes. There they are received by a group of volunteers - who
have previously undergone training on how to deal with foreign
children and how to develop fun activities...
Every week they 'work' on a specific theme. They then play games
laying the emphasis on certain words from this theme (Saint
Nicholas (toys), cooking (different kinds of food, cooking
terminology),...
On occasions we also organise excursions (skating, visiting a nearby
event...) and once a year, right before the start of the new school
year, we organise a weekend with the children of the Language
games. Thus, after two months holidays, they can practice their
Dutch during two full days, so they can be ready to start the school
year.
Dutch is not practiced in the same way as in school, by filling in
paper exercises for example. The focus is put on learning the
Out-of-school education
PDF created on 13/07/2017
- European Commission
language while playing/practicing.
Results
Evaluation
Every Saturday children are encouraged to practice their Dutch
language and to hear it in their spare time. Thus their school
backlog is reduced.
The Language games has been a successful project for over ten
years. Each year many children 'benefit' from it.
Given its huge success in Zellik, and the large demand from parents,
the project will soon be extended to Asse.
Who will benefit?
Children from Greater Asse who have problems with Dutch and are
willing to practice it in their spare time.
Source of funding
and Resources used
The project started with a grant (Social Impulse Fund) and the
following years it also received municipal support. Occasionally, we
also participated in competitions for voluntary work (e.g. Queen
Paola Prize) and those budgets went straight to the this project.
The past three years the youth service of Asse received additional
support from the Flemish government for actions on socially
vulnerable children and youths. Part of this support was used to
support the project.