Development of a Test of Spoken Dutch for Prospective Immigrants

Abstract

Based on a parliamentary vote with broad support, the Ministry of Justice of the Netherlands in December 2003 commissioned the development of an examination system to test the Dutch oral language skills of foreigners who want to immigrate permanently to the Netherlands for economic or family reasons. This assessment would take place in the country of origin prior to being admitted to the Netherlands. Moreover, the test would also be appropriate for use within the framework of an examination scheme for naturalization within the Netherlands, which would require a higher level of ability than at first entry. The reporting scale for the test would therefore represent reliable measurement at different points on the underlying ability continuum. It was further required by the Ministry of Justice that the reporting scale be related to the scales of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (henceforth: CEF; Council of Europe, 2001). Furthermore, the test of the Dutch language was to be accompanied by a test assessing knowledge of Dutch society, its political structure, its rules and norms, and some historical and geographical facts. ¹ This article reports on some aspects of the production and validation of the language test, i.e., the test of spoken Dutch, henceforth referred to as the TGN (the acronym of the Dutch name: Toets Gesproken Nederlands). ² Both tests were developed by a consortium with main contractor CINOP (NL) and subcontractors Language Testing Services (NL) and Ordinate Corporation (USA).

¹The specifications for the test of knowledge of Dutch society were defined to take into account the minimal level of ability in the Dutch language of the candidates. For the development of this test, see De Jong and Tijssen (2005).

²For the full report in Dutch see Kerkhoff, Poelmans, De Jong, & Lennig (2005).

Notes

¹The specifications for the test of knowledge of Dutch society were defined to take into account the minimal level of ability in the Dutch language of the candidates. For the development of this test, see De Jong and Tijssen (2005).

²For the full report in Dutch see Kerkhoff, Poelmans, De Jong, & Lennig (2005).

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⁴The derivation of these cut-offs is explained later in this article.

⁵The FACETS programme forms as many groups as possible given the size of the dataset, each group containing about an equal number of subjects.