University of California, Berkeley, has selected Direct Dutch method for students of Dutch
Today Dr. Inez Hollander, senior lecturer in Dutch Studies at the University of California, Berkeley informed the Direct Dutch Institute in The Hague, Netherlands that the Dutch department has chosen the teaching method which was developed and published by the Hague language institute Direct Dutch.
After having compared various methods of Dutch for foreigners, Dr. Hollander concluded that the Direct Dutch method is especially suitable for instruction to American students. Dr. Hollander, who worked as a teacher at the Direct Dutch Institute in the beginning of the nineties, writes in her review of the method:
“Because I found the method that we used inadequate and incomplete, I had to supplement it with extra exercises and eventually I resorted to the Direct Dutch exercises and texts I had used with so much fun with expats in The Hague. My students became curious. Where did I get these texts and exercises and could they not use these instead of the regular method?”
The Direct Dutch method was developed in 1985 when the institute was established in The Hague. Over the years the institute specialized in this didactic method which focuses on conversation. Teachers receive a special training. From the very beginning the teacher speaks Dutch with the students.
Reading and writing is taught by means of the course book and the accompanying CD.The title of the course book “Home in on Holland” refers to the teaching principle that students are shown the way through Dutch language and culture. Therefore an important part of the course is the cultural dimension. Teaching a language cannot be separated from the cultural context.”
Dr. Inez Hollander teaches at the Dutch department of the University of California, Berkeley and is the author of the acclaimed novel Ontwaken uit de Amerikaanse droom (“Waking up from the American Dream” – Archipel, 2004). She received a Ph.D in American literature. In the mid-nineties she moved to the U.S.
Her first publication, The Road from Pompey’s Head: The Life and Work of Hamilton Basso, was published by Louisiana State University Press in 1999. ‘Silenced Voices: The Uncovering of a Colonial Family’s History in the Dutch East Indies’, was published in 2008 by Ohio University Press.
Together with Frans Blom and Christine van Baalen she compiled the first ‘Dutch for Reading Knowledge’ book (John Benjamins 2012) which promotes a high level of reading and translation competency by drawing from Dutch grammar and reading strategies and providing many translation “shortcuts” and tips when tackling complex texts. Her latest novel is ‘Euro Trippy, A Novella about Midlife Crisis, Henry Miller and Living Large’ published as e-book and available at Amazon.
Hollander also sits on the Board of the Netherland-America Foundation in New York City and she is the Chair of the Netherland-America Business Exchange Innovation Program.
You can download a review of the Direct Dutch method by Dr. Inez Hollander (University of California, Berkeley) here.