Take a quick glance at the schedule.
Pre-requisites and target group
Our Dutch as a Foreign Language ('NT2') courses target an audience with higher education. You must have had at least 12 years of education and master the western alphabet. Both prerequisites are tested before registration.
Do you want to register for level 6? Then you will have to take a level test. The intake procedure adhered to by ACE Group T is determined by the Flemish Brabant 'Huis van het Nederlands'. This entails prospective students not in possession of an 'NT2'-certificate undergoing an interview with an 'NT2'-teacher. Based on the interview and the prospective student's level of education, the teacher carrying out the interview determines if the student is required to take an additional COVAAR-test or not. For all courses higher than level 1, the intake also entails a written part.
When selecting a course it is also important to know how many hours a week you can spend on home study. This determines whether your best choice is a course of 1, 2 or 3 evenings a week.
Course content
In this course, you will learn to communicate independently in spoken and written Dutch in the most common situations. All kinds of socially relevant themes are presented. They relate to your life as consumer, road user, Internet user, vacationer, user of health care facilities, and so on.
Your vocabulary arsenal is more extensive and more precise and your attention to handling correct forms and structures is accentuated so that mistakes that impede your language use are eliminated.
Topics covered:
- Vacation and accommodation: What kind of accommodation do you choose? What are your best and worst travel memories? Have you ever made or written a complaint about a trip, a bad room, bad food, etc.?
- Health: Do you move to stay healthy? Does your memory improve if you move more? What do you remember about visits to the doctor? Is what you eat dangerous? Are you a careful food consumer? Do you eat extra light?
- Gestures and facial expressions: What do typical gestures mean in Flemish culture? How can you add strength to your words with non-verbals?
- Consumption: Do you know the name of the objects that you use every day? (What do you call that thing into which you screw a lightbulb?) Do you read and follow instructions for use for appliances? Do you also suffer from digital stress from too many mails and sms’s? Do you find it easy to choose from the abundant supply of products in a store? Would you change jobs for more money? What do you think of beggars who rake in the money without doing any work?
- Public transportation and the car: What can you do to fight congestion on the roads? Do you listen to traffic information? Should we all drive slower? What about sky-high traffic fines? How do you get a driver’s license? How do you get to the coast easily and safely during the summer rush?
- Information and facilities: What do you do with children in bitter divorces? Have you ever called a helpline? What chances do your children have to succeed in school in Flanders ?
Work formats
Each lesson has one or more reading and/or listening tasks and these are regularly followed by a realistic speaking and/or writing task. You perform tasks that are sometimes individual but very often also in pairs or small groups. The teacher coaches you during each task with tips and will afterwards give you ample feedback. The supporting vocabulary and grammar exercises are intended to help you remember new language elements.
In this year, you also put your independence as language user to the test: during the first semester, you will read a broad article on your own at home and during the second semester a Dutch short story or novel about which you report in class.
Course materials
In this course, you will use authentic material like newspaper articles, publications on the web, the news and broad informative programs on radio and TV but also from commercials and advertisements. You will be given a workbook with an ample amount of supporting exercises.
