Samenvatting

Ever since 1983 English has been obligatory at the Dutch Pedagogical Academy of Primary Education. However, it was not until late 2010 that the knowledge base for this curriculum was completed. Recent research has shown that the Dutch academies only offer a barely sufficient English curriculum to their students. This paper examines the curricula for English language teacher education in three universities in the north of the Netherlands. Specifically, it analyses the difference between how the curriculum was intended by the government, how it was planned by the academies and how it was enacted by the academies’ teachers. These results were then compared to interviews held with three alumni from these academies.

Analysis of the data showed some variations across the curricula in terms of content, but teaching skills and subject matter knowledge were paid most attention to in all academies. Although the findings are specific to the curricula under research, the results of this study show that currently there is too little time available for the English curriculum at teacher training college. A number of improvements are appointed by the academies´ teachers, of which an increase in time for the curricula is the most important. The alumni add to this that they would like to increase their own language skills to gain more insight into the didactic aspects that make English a fun subject for children. Additional research is recommended on how to implement these improvements.