10-RES-Hogelands

Resources > Hogelands: Dutch for Intermediate Learners

Introduction
Hogelands is a comprehensive tutor-supported online course for intermediate learners of Dutch. The course runs over a thirty-two weeks study period. It is meant for students who have successfully completed Lagelands, Virtual Dutch’s comprehensive online course for beginners, or who have reached a linguistic standard roughly equivalent to level A2 as defined by the Council of Europe. The course is taught in Dutch and in English.
Hogelands is built around ten thematic lessons. All lessons have a different theme, ranging from science and education, to the Dutch multicultural society and the Golden Age. Each lesson includes reading and listening texts, with grammatical and other commentary. All text and audio material is authentic.
The online activities are designed to develop the four language skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing. Some writing and reading exercises and tasks are self-scoring and self-correcting, but the majority students need to email to the tutor for feedback. A key feature of the course is the videoconferencing sessions between the tutor and the students. They allow students to practise their listening and speaking skills and to interact directly with the course tutor and their fellow students all around the globe.
Hogelands is taught as part of the Postgraduate Certificate in Dutch Cultural Studies (from September 2010 also as part of the Diploma in Dutch Cultural Studies) at University College London. It can also be taken as a ‘short course’.

Mode of Delivery
Blended Learning
The Dutch-language learning materials of Hogelands are all web-based, and all content - such as authentic reading texts, audio materials, grammar explanations - is presented online. The assignments for the activities can be found there and are done in the students’ own time. The role of the tutor is to provide detailed feedback, either in writing or orally during web calls, on the tasks and exercises which students email the tutor on a weekly basis. Students do some of the speaking exercises online with the tutor or a fellow student. The web calls are therefore also an important part of the social, human aspect of the course. Only the grammar activities are fully interactive and self-correcting and do not involve tutor-support.
It is also the tutor’s task to guarantee the smooth running of the course. Therefore the course offers a lot of information and help files on the technological and practical aspects of the course, including a detailed weekly time table with deadlines and appointments for web calls.

Course Types
Comprehensive Skills
Hogelands is a comprehensive course; all online activities are designed to develop the main language skills of speaking, listening, reading, writing, vocabulary and grammar. Hogelands also offers a set of resources (called ‘hulpmiddelen’) to help the students digest the new materials and to give guidelines and tips to complete the written and oral exercises. Tools to help digest the new materials include: glossary including all new vocabulary in lessons, overview of irregular verbs encountered in lessons, links to online Dutch grammars of Virtual Dutch that offer extra self-correcting grammar exercises, and learning tips on so-called transferable and academic skills (e.g. ‘how do I summarise a text’?; ‘how do I study new vocabulary?’)

Syllabus Types
Topic-based
Hogelands is build around 10 thematic lessons with a different theme/topic (e.g. science, education, multiculturalism). They are divided into two ‘blocks’ of five lessons each. The structure of every lesson is broadly the same, but all reading and literary texts and listening materials are related to the specific topic of the lesson.
Every lesson starts with an introduction to the topic of the lesson, to the topic-related reading, and literary texts and listening materials. It also lists all different exercises and tasks and their learning objectives. The listening activity comes next, followed by the grammar section. In the grammar section students study a grammar topic that is a feature of the reading texts for that lesson. Then follow the reading activities. The fifth section is called ‘oefeningen’ (exercises) and contains about five different writing and speaking exercises that are related to the topics studied in the texts and audio fragment. Every lesson closes with a glossary of the new, topic-specific words encountered in the lesson.

Skills-based
An important feature of some of the activities in Hogelands is that, on top of the usual language skills outlined above, they teach students so-called transferable skills: e.g. how to debate, how to summarise a text, how to give arguments pro/con, how to analyse new words, e.g.by splitting them into word parts. The section ‘hulpmiddelen’ or resources offers further learning tips on these (transferable) skills (in Dutch and English).

Activities
Reading
Two sections of every lesson are specifically designed to test students’ reading skills. The first is called ‘leesteksten’ and consists of three (authentic) reading texts that are borrowed from Dutch and Belgian newspapers and magazines and that are related to the topic of the lesson. The texts come complete with word explanations (in a popup window). Every text is followed by one comprehension and two vocabulary exercises. Examples of the comprehension exercises include specific questions on the content or the structure of the text, making of summary, etc.
In the second reading section, students study a literary text (poem, short story, song, part of a novel). The text comes complete with word explanations (in a popup window). The literary text is followed by a comprehension and two vocabulary exercises. Comprehension exercises include: specific content questions, translation into English, modernising of (Early Modern Dutch or 19th- century Dutch) poem/text.
Note: As this is a course that has extensive introductions, explanations, assignments, feedback, etc., in Dutch, students are constantly practising their reading skills.

Example of a literary reading text from seventeenth-century in Hogelands

Writing
Most writing exercises are part of the ‘oefeningen’ (exercises) section. Students are asked to write short Dutch texts (250-500 words) on topics related to those of the reading texts or audio fragment. Students write on average two/three such texts in every lesson. Examples include: analysis/opinion on social/cultural problem (and comparison with country of origin); writing of poem/column/letter/poster; comparison/analysis of two websites, works of art, etc; report on research conducted (questionnaire or interviews) among fellow students, etc.

Listening
The listening exercises are based on authentic online audio materials. Most audio fragments include video and are borrowed from a Dutch current affairs programme. Students generally watch a whole or a part of a programme (about 10-15 minutes). The topic of the programme is related to the subject of the lesson. Students watch/listen to the fragment on the external website. For each fragment the course provides a transcript in Dutch with English word explanations. Students generally do one activity (can be written or oral), examples include: summarising the fragment, specific questions asked about the content of the fragment by the tutor via Skype, review of the programme, or presentation on the content of the programme via Skype to other students/tutor, etc.
Note1: there’s a risk that audio/video materials are no longer available online after a certain period of time.
Note2: students tend to use the transcript to complete the exercises, not necessarily the audio fragment
Listening is also practised in all web calls between student and tutor, and student and fellow student(s).

Speaking
The majority of the speaking exercises can be found in the ‘oefeningen’ (exercises) section. Students are asked to have a discussion on a particular topic with a fellow student via Skype and to record the session (and email it to the tutor). Sessions generally last between 10 and 30 minutes and take place on a weekly basis. Topics are related to those of the reading texts or audio materials and include discussions on: measures against obesity, ‘comic strips are literature, do you agree?’, sign language in Dutch and the native tongue, ‘white lies, do they exist?’, etc.
Every fortnight the tutor conducts a web call with each student individually to discuss their progress, to give feedback, etc. The call is in Dutch and thus another opportunity for the students to practise their speaking (and listening) skills.

Vocabulary
Vocabulary exercises are part of all reading sections of Hogelands. Every reading/literary text comes complete with two vocabulary exercises. Examples of vocabulary exercises are: specific questions on new words in text (splitting of compound words, looking for synonyms, giving Dutch definitions); re-use of new vocabulary; making of example sentences with new vocabulary, etc. Every lesson ends with a glossary of new, topic-related words in the texts and audio fragment. The glossary comes complete with a self-correcting vocabulary test testing the students' knowledge of the new words. Examples include matching of words with their synonyms, antonyms, English translations, gap-fill exercises etc.

Grammar
Every lesson contains a section on grammar/syntax that is particularly relevant to the reading texts in the lesson. The course offers a short introduction and links to the Advanced Dutch Grammar of Virtual Dutch, an online reference grammar that was developed together with the course. The grammar offers a series of self-correcting exercises for every topic (about 6 to 10 self-correcting grammar exercises for every lesson).

Example of grammar explanation in Advanced Dutch Grammar

Transferable Skills
Some of the activities in Hogelands teach the students so-called transferable skills: e.g. how to debate, how to summarise a text, how to give arguments pro/con, how to analyse new words (by splitting them into word parts e.g.). The section ‘hulpmiddelen’ or resources offers further learning tips on these (transferable) skills (in Dutch and English).

Activities using authentic materials
All activities in the course are based on authentic materials ranging from the listening activities on the basis of a current affairs programme, to the comprehension exercise on a newspaper article, to the oral presentation students give on a Dutch children’s book. Some reading texts are shortened.

Levels
Intermediate
Despite the somewhat misleading name of the course (chosen to contrast the name of the Dutch Beginners Course Lagelands) it is meant for intermediate students. Students should have a linguistic standard, roughly equivalent to level A2 as defined by the Council of Europe, at the start of the course. The level students reach at the end of the course is equivalent to level B2 as defined by the Council of Europe (ACTFL (American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages) proficiency guidelines: advanced/superior). At the end of the course students: will be able to communicate both orally and written in a wide range of contexts and situations; to express their opinions; to report what other people have said; to make structured notes; and to write different types of text. They will also have insight into language structure and good self-study skills.

Progression
Linear
Within each block, the level of the five lessons is roughly the same. The level of Block 2 is slightly higher than that of Block 1: the topics of the lessons are more complex (e.g. Dutch Golden Age), the grammar topics are more complicated, texts that students have to write are longer, assignments are more demanding (e.g. writing a summary (in block 1) vs writing an argumentative text (in block 2)).

Independent units
Hogelands consists of 10 lessons divided into 2 blocks. Every lesson has an individual topic and mirrors the structure of the other lessons. Within each block the level of the lessons are roughly the same; this allows the tutor flexibility in deciding the order of the lessons and what activities within each lesson students need to complete.

Assessment
Assignments
Students are assessed on three assignments spread over the two terms of the course. Every assignment includes a listening activity, a writing activity, a vocabulary and comprehension exercise, and an oral activity. Practically this means that students are assessed on the activities they do over a two/three weeks’ period. The activities are part of the regular tasks/exercises of three different lessons and are similar to the ones they have been doing in earlier lessons. The assessed activities are accessible to students at all time – i.e. students know well in advance what activities will be assessed and what the activities consist of. Most other exercises and tasks are corrected and commented on by the tutor, but are for practice only.

Plagiarism
Every assignment may be followed by a so-called follow-up web call; i.e. if plagiarism is suspected the tutor may decide to organise a web call in which further questions are asked about the tasks in the assignment to determine whether the submitted assignment is the student’s own work.

Web applications
Freeware
All self-correcting exercises (i.e. vocabulary and grammar exercises) were developed with Hot Potatoes freeware. The course was developed using the freeware Content Management System and Website Builder LightNEasy.

CMS
Hogelands was developed using the freeware Content Management System and Website Builder LightNEasy. This CMS automatically converts HTML pages into PHP templates. Some knowledge of HTML code is required. LightnEasy is freeware.