Regional languages have gained attention since the ratification of the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages (European Council 1992) [1]. The Netherlands' national authorities did not ratify this charter in respect to Brabantish in contrast to e.g. Frisian and Limburgish, so there is no support from the charter for the facilitation and promotion of Brabantish. The province of Noord-Brabant now pursues a heritage policy that encourages the use, documentation and appreciation of Brabantish dialects as an expression of cultural capital [2]. Cultural heritage organizations aim at cherishing, stimulating and passing along the values of all cultural topics that have been handed down from former generations, including regional language.
Nowadays, dialects are losing their position as a first language to Dutch. This leads to change, and ultimately perhaps to language loss [3]. Brabantish is also excluded in education, since schools pursue a monolingual, Dutch-only approach. Therefore, future generations are less and less exposed to Brabantish dialects. Dialect speakers are worried about this development, because dialects are an important aspect of their cultural identity.
Heritage experts in Noord-Brabant are developing initiatives to incorporate heritage education in the curricula of primary and secondary education. However, language is rarely a part of such initiatives [4]. In other words, dialect education has not been implemented in a structural and sustainable way. There are some local projects, but they depend on people taking initiative out of enthusiasm for dialect as cultural heritage. However, the effectiveness and scope of these efforts have not been properly measured yet.
Therefore, we conducted an extensive nationwide survey (N=242) among teachers and developers of educational material to investigate how education modules are used in practice and how they are evaluated. In this presentation, the focus is on the results of the participants from Noord-Brabant (N=67). We discuss their attitudes, current practices and future desires with regard to dialect education.
[1] European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages (1992): https://www.coe.int/en/web/european-charter-regional-or-minority-languages/about-the-charter
[2] Hout, R. van & T. van de Wijngaard (2006). Lange leve de dialecten.
Streektaalbeleid in Nederland. Maastricht.
[3] Hoppenbrouwers, C. (1990). Het Regiolect: van Dialect tot Algemeen Nederlands. Muiderberg: Coutinho.
[4] https://www.erfgoedbrabantacademie.nl/erfgoedinstellingen-en-educatie
