Allowance for language assistants
Aim
A 'language assistant' is a Dutch or Flemish student following a course abroad and carrying out activities for a department of Dutch. In facilitating Dutch language assistants, the Dutch Language Union aims to support the foreign departments of Dutch in Europe as regards staff. Language assistants (primarily) assist with language acquisition of the foreign students of Dutch. They can also be recruited for additional activities of the department of Dutch.
Criteria
European departments of Dutch may apply for language assistants irrespective of the status of the course. The department of Dutch will provide the supervision of the language assistant. Language assistants are exclusively students studying at a foreign university with a grant from the European Union. A language assistant may be recruited for a maximum of four hours per week. In return, language assistants will receive an hourly allowance from the Language Union. This allowance is independent of their grant from the European Union. The language assistantship cannot be seen as a work placement and will therefore not qualify for course credits.
Set of tasks/contents
A language assistant is primarily recruited for language acquisition. As young native speakers with a limited knowledge of language didactics, language assistants are ideally suited to the task of assisting non-Dutch speaking contemporaries with comparative interests and backgrounds in practising their language skills. In this way, they directly contribute towards strengthening the Dutch language skills of the foreign students. Since these language assistants are not required to be Dutch studies specialists, they will mainly be used in oral proficiency lessons during which they can help promote the fluency, vocabulary and communicative skills of the foreign students.
In view of the limited subject didactic skills of the language assistants, they will only assist sporadically in lectures other than the language lessons. Language assistants may also be involved on an ad hoc basis in the general tasks and activities of the foreign department of Dutch.
The foreign department will be expected to supervise the language assistants. A language assistant may therefore never be recruited unsupervised or be assigned a task at a foreign university where there is no lecturer in Dutch.
Procedure
Departments must notify the Language Union of their interest in appointing a language assistant. Departments that have a language assistant assigned to them, will be included in special language assistant pages on this website.
Students in the language area will be informed of the possibility of being recruited as language assistants by the national Socrates agencies of the Netherlands and Belgium. Students can find information on the project via the Taalunieversum.
Candidate language assistants should address their candidature directly to the contact person of the foreign department of Dutch as mentioned on the website. On the website, the students will find details of the information they will have to submit to the departments as a minimum.
The departments will provide the Language Union with all the details of the language assistant they have selected.
The language assistants will receive a form from the Language Union on which the necessary information should be entered; an advance payment will be made on the basis of this information.
After their stay abroad, the language assistants will submit a brief report on their language assistantship and an overview of the hours worked. This report/overview must also be signed by the lecturer. The students will subsequently receive the remaining amount.
Wegwijzer – Colofon – Contact – Vrijwaring – Opmerkingen en reacties
