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World Englishes, Vol 16, No. 1, pp. 105114, 1997. 08832919

English in Flanders (Belgium)

MICHAEL GOETHALS*

ABSTRACT: This contribution should be read as an addendum to Arthur van Essen's description of
English in Mainland Europe and more specifically in the Netherlands (this issue). Belgium is a federal state,
with Dutch-speaking Flanders as the northern half, French-speaking Wallonia as the southern half, and a
German-speaking minority in the East, and with the `officially bilingual' Brussels capital district as a
largely French-speaking `island' in the middle. Due to the educational and cultural autonomy of the
language communities, language teaching and cultural development develop differently (see OECD, 1991).
Facts and comments will be given on the position of English in Flemish education (teacher training and
certification of language proficiency, types and intensity of EFL courses, materials and methods), in
Flemish society and in daily life; on its image and the quality of its use; and on its status, in competition
with Dutch, the standard L1 language in Flanders, and with French, the L1 of the other half of the
country.

1. INTRODUCTION

The Belgian linguistic scene

A correct understanding, or rather a correction of the common international (mis)under-
standing, of the position of English in Flanders should start with a look at the general
language situation in this country. This will result in a correction of the picture of a
`bilingual' Belgium.

Facts and attitudes

`Flanders' and `Flemish' refer to the region and the people (the community), `Dutch' to
the language spoken in that area. The same holds for `Wallonia' and `Walloon' versus
`French.'
A few overall percentages may be useful. Of Belgium's ten million inhabitants, about
9 percent are of foreign nationality, 250,000 of whom live in Flanders. Of the other 9.1
million about 1 percent are German speakers; 38 percent are French-speaking; and
61 percent Dutch-speaking, including the Flemings in Brussels. In the Brussels capital
region about 80 percent are French-speaking.
Belgium is not a bilingual country. In terms of officially recognized languages, it is a
trilingual country. It is not the case that all Belgians (not even most of them, nor all
educated adults) are bilingual in the sense that they can easily/fluently switch from Dutch
to French or vice versa, nor that they can operate in both these languages, nor that they are
confronted with these languages daily. Flanders and Wallonia are, respectively, mono-
lingual Dutch and monolingual French. That is not only a general fact, it is a legal
obligation for trade, administration and education. I hereby generalize towards the
respective standard-languages and do not take into consideration, probably arguably,
the dialects that many use in their homes.
French is a foreign language for Flemish inhabitants, just as (or for many even more

* Kuleuven, Faculty of Arts, Teacher Training Centre, English as a Foreign Language, Erasmushuis, Blijde-
Inkomststraat 21, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium.

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106 Michael Goethals

than) English is. It is a foreign language in the same sense as Spanish or Russian, only to a
lesser degree of `foreign-ness.' French is not a `second language' as Dutch is for the
immigrants of Flanders (or French for the large number of North African immigrants in
Brussels and in other towns. For a discussion of the second language situation and the
specific problems of these immigrant children, see Beheydt, 1983).
The degree of `foreign-ness' could be argued. Indeed, French words or phrases are
frequently present or available in Flanders (on radio and TV, food labels, maps, publicity),
more than in the Netherlands or England, but this does not mean much more than a
familiar presence and an opportunity to come into contact with it. It is not a functional
part of daily communication. Most of the children and adults live day in day out without
any `need' for French. There may be a higher chance of meeting a French-speaking visitor
(tourist, traveller, business partner, correspondent) in Flanders than, for example, in
Germany, but this hardly has any influence on everyday life. This is even more so for
Dutch in Wallonia.

Brussels
Things are different in the capital region of Brussels: a political and linguistic `island' in
Flanders, approximately in the middle of the country. The capital is officially bilingual.
This means that French and Dutch are compulsory in all public functions: public services
have to function in both languages, and the public can require to be served in both
languages.
An important exception is the educational system, which is monolingual in Brussels as in
the rest of the country: schools are either French or Dutch with the exception of
international schools: these do not follow Belgian curricula nor do they depend on Belgian
subsidies. Because of the official bilingual situation of the region, schools have to offer
courses in the second national language (FL courses) much earlier in their program than
schools in Flanders and Wallonia (see Tables 13).
The majority of French-speaking people in Brussels have an evident negative influence
on the use of Dutch, especially where trade and services are concerned. The foreign visitor
may not always be able to avoid an impression of French dominance which in turn may
incite an assertive Fleming to refuse to answer when addressed in French. Flanders and
Belgium are small. Foreign visitors, travelling through a small country like Belgium and
making a stop in the Brussels area which is about halfway in all directions or foreigners
working in Brussels, in companies or in European institutions, usually (over)generalize
their impression of Brussels as a French-speaking area. On a worldwide scale, competence
in French (as first, second and foreign language) is far more widespread. It is therefore not
surprising that most international press agencies, journalists and observers `consume'
information only in the French language. Consequently, publications in English usually
give the French equivalents of the names of Flemish/Dutch towns, rivers, street names and
institutions, whenever possible.

The `normality' of foreign languages in Flanders

All the factors described above somehow function in the background. In the foreground,
i.e., in education, the presence of foreign languages has a positive influence on the attitude
toward foreign language teaching in Flanders. That has been the case toward French for
centuries, and toward English since the Second World War, especially since the movement
toward unification in Europe gained momentum. It proves to be an important motivating
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English in Flanders (Belgium) 107

factor for students. And it plays a role in the fact that 13-year-old Flemish pupils already
know about 400 English words before even taking a first formal English class. Because of
their knowledge of Dutch and varieties of Dutch (Flemish), they probably know even more
French words.
Cable TV is available to all inhabitants in Flanders, with some 25 stations: seven in
Dutch (of which four are Flemish-Belgian), seven in French (of which three are Belgian),
five in English (two or three British, CNN, MTV), three in German, one in Italian and one
in Spanish plus sports and pay channels. The relatively little importance of Dutch
worldwide and the presence of other languages reinforce the general feeling of a need for
several different foreign languages. The knowledge of foreign languages has always been
highly valued in Flanders. Being good at foreign languages at school has always been a
point of public praise. The opportunities for didactic exploration of this foreign-languages-
aspect in everyday life are considerable even though too few teachers seem to take
advantage of it.
Close contact and conflicts between languages of different power and political status
have negative implications as well. For centuries, French has threatened Dutch in Flanders
with language death and shift (to French), most strongly so in the nineteenth century. The
political atmosphere between Flanders and Wallonia is often one of hostility. That
sometimes has a demotivating effect on the learning of French for some children.
Moreover, to Flemish students French has a taste of being `difficult,' `not feasible,'
`never good enough,' because of its complex morphology (compared to the relatively
simple morphology of English). Furthermore, many teachers find it hard to depart from
the secure paths of teaching and testing morphology and syntax for the adventurous and
more unpredictable outcome of a communicative approach.
Will English now also become a threat to the Dutch language? Some think it already has.
The public worries about university courses taught in English (see e.g., Devreese, 1991).
Articles regularly appear in the Flemish newspapers and magazines. The linguistic threat
exerted by the penetration of English into the domain of mass media, technology,
international trade, political exchanges and higher education can only be counteracted
by a strong emphasis on quality both in the teaching and use of English and in the use of
Dutch in scientific publications. Indeed, how can professional thinking, say reflective
teaching, prosper in the mind of the non-native speaker EFL teacher and still gain real
respect if s/he has no terms, concepts, words for it in his or her own language, so s/he can
talk to colleagues about it, formally and informally, in the teacher's room, in articles for
local teachers, in journals, in newsletters, in staff meetings, in local ELTA meetings, and in
InSeT (in-service training) seminars? In other words, Flanders and the Netherlands will
render the Dutch language the best possible service by offering a high-quality language
education, both in Dutch and in English (and in other foreign languages) in higher
education.

2. FOREIGN LANGUAGES IN FLEMISH EDUCATION1

Time tables and schools

A simplified overview of the current situation is given in Tables 13. The teaching
periods mentioned for secondary education refer to the subsidized General Secondary
Education Catholic schools network that accommodates some 75 percent of the General

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108 Michael Goethals

Table 1. Foreign languages in Flemish secondary schools: upper secondary education

General Secondary Education Technical Secondary

Education
Modern language sections Other sections
Ages Form Fr Eng Ge Fr Eng Ge Fr Eng Ge

17 6 4 4 3 3 2 2/0 3/2/0 2/2/0a 2/2/0

16 5 4 4 3 3 2 2/0 3/2/0 2/2/0a 2/2/0
15 4 4 3 2/1a 3 2 1/0 3/2 2/0a 2/0
14 3 4 3 1/0a 3 2 1/0 3/2 2/0a 2/0
a
The number of hours depends on the option chosen by the students (e.g., Latin-languages, math-languages, etc.)
In Tables 13 teaching periods = 50 minutes per week.

Table 2. Foreign languages in Flemish secondary schools:

lower secondary education

Catholic schools Community schools

Ages Form Fr Eng Fr Eng

13 2 2 2 3 2
12 1 2 0 3 2

Table 3. Foreign languages in Flemish

secondary schools: elementary education

Ages Form Flanders (Fr) Brussels (Fr)

11 6 2 2
10 5 2 2
9 4 2
8 3 2
7 2
6 1

Secondary Education pupils. As far as FLs are concerned, they hardly differ from the
community schools (the present Belgian term for state schools) and the subsidized official
schools (cities and municipalities), each accommodating half of the remaining pupils.
Many adults have the opportunity to choose from a large number of language courses in
evening classes, mainly in the so-called institutions for social promotion. These teach a
large number of students for French, English and (recently in growing demand) German.
They also fill the gap for Spanish, Italian and Russian, which are not offered in secondary
education. Furthermore there is, as everywhere, a considerable non-subsidized private
supply, especially in the business sector, as well as the supply of cultural services by
countries such as France, Germany, England, USA, and Spain.
Anyone familiar with the school timetables of different European countries will
probably be surprised that a Flemish pupil has to do with so few teaching periods for

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English in Flanders (Belgium) 109

the three languages mentioned and that the teaching of French and certainly German
starts that late. In comparison, a German child will usually get nine to ten years of three to
four teaching periods per week.
The paradox of the situation is that FLT in Flanders is probably becoming the victim of
its own reputation. Until now, the linguistic abilities of both teachers and pupils have been
described positively in international comparative reports. That proficiency, however, was
the outcome of many more teaching periods for foreign languages in secondary schools, in
the decades before the 1970s that is, before schools started to `go comprehensive.' Because
of this general satisfaction there was no real resistance against the consecutive reforms that
reduced the number of teaching periods for FLs.
Other studies have been published on the outcomes of FLT from the perspective of the
business world. Those have regularly raised the alarm that graduates are not or are badly
prepared for the use of FLs in a professional context. The common feeling in both
seemingly contradictory statements about the quality of Flemish language teaching is
dissatisfaction and discomfort.
A positive development is the increase of international contacts within the school
context. Many teachers take part in student exchanges during their training. Some attend
international seminars for European teachers, funded by the EU and the Council of
Europe. With their students they create partnerships and networks with other schools
abroad (see Hermans; this issue).

Foreign language teacher training and in-service training (InSeT)

There are two types of FL teacher qualification for secondary schools: Table 4 shows the
areas for which they are specifically trained and qualified.
Type 1 students have a three-year curriculum in a teacher training college (recently
renamed departments of education, as parts of larger polytechnics); type 2 top their
university degree (M.A.-level, locally labelled `licentie') for Germanic or Romance
languages with a teacher training course of a half year, spread over the last two-to-three
years. Type 1 is an integrated training package of general subjects, three subjects
methodology classes (a major, a minor and an option: for example, English, History,
and Religion) and ample practical training (some 150200 hours of classroom teaching).
Type 2 is mainly a theoretical introduction in educational theory and in the subject
methodology of the language(s) they will be teaching, training in reflective teaching and a
minimal initial practical experience (some 2040 hours of teaching).
In practice, this means that the teacher training colleges attract the relatively lower-
achieving secondary school-leavers, who are then fully prepared on a practical and
pedagogical level, but often remain academically weak (in linguistics and language
competence). On the other hand, teacher training at university provides us with

Table 4. Certification type per type of education

Age Forms General education Technical education Vocational education

1213 12 Type 1 Type1 Type 1

1415 34 Type 1 and 2 Type 1 Type 1
1617 56 Type 2 Type 1 and 2 Type 1

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110 Michael Goethals

academically strong teachers in the first place, who had a fair amount of educational
theory, both general and specific; only little time for teaching practice, and who will have
to take initiative themselves for all forms of in-service training (InSeT) and professional
development in their later careers.

3. EFL IN FLANDERS

The norm
All recent official curricula until far into the eighties required teachers to teach `slower
colloquial educated (Southern British) English' (a quote from the old curriculum for the
first years of English in comprehensive secondary schools, catholic school network, 1972,
p. 10) and corresponding RP pronunciation. In the most recent texts, however (e.g. Engels,
tweedeleerjaar, 1989), no reference to such norms can be found, in spite of a continued use
of expressions like `correct English,' `correct intonation patterns,' and `correct pronuncia-
tion.' There are several reasons for this. One of them is that American English is actively
present in business and entertainment, as everywhere in Europe. A number of pupils, as
well as some teachers spend long periods of time in the USA (through the Associated Field
Services) (AFS) or Youth for Understanding (YFU) exchange schemes) and adopt features
of American English. Obviously, no one (of the Flemish EFL methodologists, curriculum
writers and decision makers) found it useful, desirable or feasible to try to waste that
acquired competence.
On the other hand, the UK is nearby. The teaching tradition has favoured British
English for decades, if not for centuries, in most of the European countries. Certainly,
international meetings using English may consist of a mixture of British and American
native speakers and a similar mixture of influences may be heard in the English used by the
non-native speakers. But when European young people and European tourists in general
meet, British accents tend to dominate.
The overall impression is that varieties of British English are the most frequent in
Flanders, sometimes `infected' by American influences. I use the word `infected' because
many deplore or at least feel uneasy about this `contamination.' Similarly, none of the EFL
methodologists interviewed in Suffis (1989) sounded tolerant towards what they called
`Flemenglish,' neither in pronunciation nor in grammatical or lexical errors or peculia-
rities.
The details of this Flemish variant of `educated European English' (Strevens, 1987: 59)
are not relevant for this contribution and have been described elsewhere (Tops, 1987;
Suffis, 1989). However, from the research of Suffis (1989) it stands out clearly that Flemish
English is as recognizably different from the Dutch English in the Netherlands as from the
German or French Englishes.

The EFL teacher and teacher associations

The fact that EFL teachers most often teach other languages as well weakens their
anglophilism (attraction to both the English-speaking countries and to the English
language) and favours sensitivity to English as an international language. Similarly it
favours organizations for language teaching in general, rather than for EFL only. Thus it
should not be surprising that the WvT (Werkverband voor Taal- en literatuuronderwijs:
Association for the teaching of languages and literature), which covers mother tongue
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English in Flanders (Belgium) 111

teaching, drama and the teaching of Dutch, French, English and German as foreign
languages, co-founded NELLE (see the presentation of this European network of language
teacher associations in this issue).
Flanders has had an IATEFL branch since the early 1970s, the FATEFL (VVLE is the
acronym in Dutch: Vlaamse Vereniging Leerkrachten Engels). VVLE also was an early
NELLE member. For some years, the VVLE chairman was elected into the IATEFL
central committee, and some other years into NELLE's executive committee. The VVLE
also hosted a very successful IATEFL Conference in 1987. With its activities and products,
it has gained a solid presence in Flanders: a Newsletter, InSeT seminars, organized tours of
the English Teaching Theatre, Word and Action (Instant Theatre) and other English-
speaking performers, the sponsoring of an EFL resources centre at the university of
Antwerp, a phone-in language service for member teachers, British and American native
speaker guests for EFL classrooms, and a well-prepared and documented annual two-week
voyage for EFL teachers to the UK. Although it is an association for EFL only, the VVLE
has always maintained close ties with the VVL, the comprehensive Flemish Teachers
Association, of which it is a branch. Yet it has never managed to attract a larger
membership than some 10 percent of the over 5,000 EFL teachers/trainers/lecturers who
must be teaching in Flanders (my estimate), and has had to rely heavily on a small group of
committed members and completely on volunteer work. Janssens (1992) describes its
history and relation to IATEFL in more detail.
BAAHE, the Belgian Association of Anglicists in Higher Education, now is the Belgian
branch of ESSE, the European Society for the Study of English, but was founded two
decades earlier. To complete the association picture, there is a Belgian section of the ESU,
the English Speaking Union. The former is an exclusively academic association, the latter
has a predominant native speaker, literature, culture, economy and politics orientation.

EFL methods and the schoolbook market

Just as in the Netherlands and Germany, Flemish FLT started from a scholastic and
later humanistic tradition of grammar and translation, next to a stream of private
commercial schools. The reputation of successful FL learning is equally old. A probably
fabricated quotation is attributed to Luther: `put a Fleming in a bag, take it on your back,
travel through Spain; by the time you return, he'll speak Spanish.'
At the turn of the century, direct methods made their appearance in private schools. In
secondary (grammar) schools, they were not introduced before the late 1950s. The English
method Living English (Engels et al., 1954), remained the most popular model until the
beginning of the 1970s, especially in Catholic education. It was a structural, cognitive
direct approach. Later, when similar methods followed for French, these faced the direct
competition of the French SGAV production (and some local Belgian epigoni), the
structural-global audio-visual method.
Some similar competition was noticeable for English, with the British production of
SGAV-methods, like First Things First (Alexander, 1967) and its Flemish epigoni.
Surprisingly, British and locally published SGAV methods for English were adopted
almost exclusively in the state schools networks.
We witnessed an official discussion between school inspectors on whether or not to use
grammatical terminology in these direct courses, and if so, in Dutch or in the foreign
language. Catholic schools stuck to methods that gradually refined the structuralist
approach in the direction of cognitive code-learning, with substitution tables and explicit
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112 Michael Goethals

grammar (morpho-syntax) and with classroom instruction and most often with textbooks
in English only. By the mid-seventies they had also integrated audiovisual media, drama-
activities and a functional approach to a limited extent. The other schools would reduce
explicit grammar in the first years to a minimum, with an obligation for the teacher to keep
all grammatical explanation and terminology in Dutch.
After 1975, the state school sector was the fastest in turning to (first attempts of)
functional-notional approaches. Finally, since the early 1980s, all schools have largely
followed a common development, along the lines of the Council of Europe's Modern
Languages Project.
Ever since the 1970s, the Flemish EFL schoolbook market some 280,000 pupils in
secondary schools has been divided between British and Flemish publications, with a
larger share for the latter; one publisher's fairly recent informal survey noted that some
28 percent of the teachers used British publications. For the Flemish share, at least six
publishers have been in competition for more than two decades, and new ones have entered
the arena. In such a small market, there is intense competition between British and local
publishers. The local publishers' strongest selling point is, of course, their understanding of
the local needs and curriculum requirements, and their implicit or explicit contrastive
approaches.
The choice of textbooks is essentially the decision of the school. There used to be a list of
approved textbooks (prepared by a specific commission per school network), but that is no
longer the case. The relative influence of the individual teacher, of the director of larger
groups of teachers in a school, of inspectors or pedagogical advisors, and of promotion
campaigns differ per school network, per area and per school.
All in all, a majority of EFL teachers (and their pupils, today's graduates in all kinds of
professions) have kept a cognitive tradition going. Now that EFL textbooks are apparently
turning back to more grammar and exercises, in what one could call second or third
generation of functional or communicative methods, teachers may feel that they have come
full circle.
Recent trends towards a more communicative approach like task-based learning and the
training and assessment of the four skills, have more or less conquered their place in
textbooks and are high on the InSeT agenda; however, they have not yet penetrated
routine classroom practice. Most of the teachers, when hearing the word `communicative
methodology,' still think in terms of functional-notional methods, that is, practising
functional phrases. Further recent methodological developments towards more learner
autonomy, more emphasis on communicative activities than on functional/notional
content are challenges for the future. So are exploration of language corpuses for a
grammar of probability and systematic application of information technology at the
teacher's desk and in the classroom (multimedia PC, CD-ROM, the Internet).

The output: the Flemish EFL speaker

The question as to what is the average competence in English among the Flemish is
difficult to answer. In Flanders there are no national standardized examinations. Schools
design their own final tests in secondary schools for all subjects. Only exceptionally can a
student choose to take an international test. Standard tests such as UCLES, Oxford, the
London Chamber of Commerce examinations and the TOEFL can be taken on fixed days
at accredited institutions. I know of no studies that survey results in such tests and link
them to secondary school results; we therefore have to rely on personal estimates.
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English in Flanders (Belgium) 113

Our general experience is that students leaving general secondary school operate within
a wide range of proficiency in English from pre- to post-intermediate levels. A common
feeling in a recent discussion with colleagues was that the majority could successfully take
the Cambridge First Certificate EFL test. In a test on core vocabulary our department
organized 15 years ago, students were found to master an average of 76 percent of the
2,000 most frequent word clusters of the Leuven English Teaching Vocabulary-list, ranging
between 53 and 93 percent (See Engels et al., 1981: 16).
On the whole, Flemish travellers abroad and Flemings talking to foreigners in English
do relatively well at the survival level. English speaking visitors do not report problems
when they have to address people in the street or in shops. Of course, this `Flemenglish' is
heavily coloured by the local Flemish pronunciation.

4. CONCLUSION

One peculiar feature I find most typical of the English of most Flemish businessmen and
academic professionals (with the exception of English majors) is the persistent mispro-
nunciation of just a handful of words, most blatantly in the stress on the second syllable of
`manager' and `management,' in the pronunciation of (beef-) `steak' and (take a short)
`break' as [stek] and [brek]: typical errors for native speakers of French. I can only explain
this as the influence from: (a) the world of high finance, which in Belgium for many years
has been French dominated, and (b) from the army, where high ranking French speaking
officers brought their adaptation of English and American influences from their coopera-
tion with the British and American armies in the Second World War to the Belgian
barracks.

NOTE
1. For more in-depth details about the general organization of education in Flanders, see Buchberger (1992);
Soetaert and Van Heule (1995).

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(Received 26 April 1996.)

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