'To switch or not to switch. An investigation of pupils' motivation to switch from bilingual HAVO to regular, non-bilingual HAVO at a Dutch bilingual secondary school

Abstract

The management of a bilingual secondary school in the Netherlands is concerned about their bilingual programmes: the Atheneum programme appears to be thriving, but in the HAVO programme, each year several pupils decide to switch to the regular, non-bilingual HAVO programme. This research explores the thusfar uninvestigated concept of switching from a bilingual to a regular programme, and attempts to explicate pupils' motivation to do so. Bilingual HAVO pupils' and switchers' motivation and attitude are tested on ten variables (through a survey), and an interview with the school's coordinator of bilingual education was conducted to discover aspects of school organisation which may affect the switchers' rate.