Practical implications

Internal variables such as age and working memory are not something that we as humans can influence. However, caregivers do have the ability to, to a certain extent, mould the linguistic environment of their children. The fact that environmental factors can influence the language acquisition process is, then, a fortunate finding. Generally, children raised in a (part) Moroccan household in The Netherlands will benefit from larger amounts of input in the majority language. Thus, parents should best make an effort to provide their children with enough Dutch input. The effect of input quantity on linguistic development does, however, appear to be mediated by the quality of the input.

Specifically, these results show that it is also important that the input which children receive is of a sufficiently high quality. Although it is probably impossible to determine the exact level of quality, or the exact amount of input, that will ‘guarantee’ proper development of the Dutch language, the findings of this thesis make it clear that those children with more high-quality input have a better chance at obtaining a high level of proficiency. This also means that an increase in the amount of input is not necessarily beneficial to linguistic

development when the quality of this input is poor. The results of this thesis define two means by which high-quality input can be provided to the child.

The first is by providing the child with as much input from native speakers of Dutch. The results demonstrate that, generally, the more non-native input a child receives, the lower its proficiency will be. Therefore, I would like to stress the importance of seeking eithers persons who or environments which have this input readily available. This may be as trivial as asking a neighbour to spend time with the child or finding a Dutch speaking babysitter, or as fundamental as deciding to send the child to Dutch pre-school or have the child participate in after-school activities.

I realise that there may be family situations in which it is impossible to offer the child frequent exposure to native speakers. In this regard, it is important to recall that there appears to be a continuum in terms of the quality of input and its effect on linguistic proficiency. While input from native speakers is more beneficial than input from non-native speakers, input from relatively proficient non-native speakers is in turn more valuable than input from speakers with very low levels of proficiency. Thus, whenever native input is scarcely

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to make efforts to have much of this input come from relatively proficient non-native speakers of Dutch.

With this in mind, if primary providers of input to the child, parents and mothers particularly, choose to speak Dutch to their children, it is important that they be aware of the benefits of bettering their own proficiency. Learning Dutch when this language was not available during caregivers’ childhood would be expected to assist the child in its

development, as its average input quality would improve. This is particularly important in situations where the main source of Dutch input, before the child starts attending school, comes from the child’s parents or other non-native Dutch speaking family members, but promoting ofthe child’s linguistic development in any setting. With this being said, there likely exist situations in which it is better not to speak Dutch to a child. For caregivers who have not (yet) acquired a reasonable level of Dutch proficiency but who are responsible for a large part of the child’s input, it may be better to speak to the child in their native language instead.

This observation is also made by Place and Hoff (2011), who suggest that any deviation from the natural communication between a parent and child in the parent’s native language may have a general undesirable effect and take into account that sufficient access to the minority language is vital for complete acquisition. Therefore, Place and Hoff advise against parent-child communication through the majority language. This viewpoint is backed by Wong-Fillmore (2000), who states that acquisition of a L2 nowadays is more often a subtractive than an additive process with the L2 replacing more than supplementing the first language, often leading to (partial) language loss. Wong-Fillmore and Snow (2000) also state that of those migrant children in America that lag behind other children in their English proficiency many actually speak primarily in English instead of their first language, also with conversational partners who speak little English. Although I do not wish to make quite such strong statements, the negative effect of non-native input found in the current thesis suggests that there are situations in which parent-child communication in Dutch may not benefit the child’s linguistic development.

The second means of ensuring qualitatively good input is via language and literacy activities at home. Children benefit from frequent engagement in language and literacy activities where the output offered is thought to contain more complex and rich language. Such activities include watching education television programs, being read to from educative reading materials and being told fairy tales, rhymes or riddles. Thus, parents would be advised to seek as much additional sources of language and literacy as possible.

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Finally, in the spirit of killing two birds with one stone, input from native speakers or highly proficiency non-native speakers could well be combined with the already high-quality input used in home language and literacy activities. In some cases, again, this might only be possible by asking persons from outside the home to engage in language activities with the child. For example, asking a neighbour or friend to read to the child is one option. Another means of boosting the amount of high-quality input from native or highly proficiency speakers could be by being selective in the type of input offered to the child. For instance, Dutch television programmes are generally available to all and thus provides easy access to native input.