
Marieke VanbuelResearch Foundation Flanders | FWO
Marieke Vanbuel
PhD
About
19
Publications
13,076
Reads
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27
Citations
Citations since 2017
Introduction
I am currently working on a postdoctoral research project in which I examine the effectiveness of L2 classes for adult learners of Dutch as a second language who have had little schooling prior to their arrival in the host country. By gathering large-scale semi-longitudinal data, this study may yield far-reaching implications for research, policy and practice.
Additional affiliations
October 2021 - present
September 2016 - September 2020
Position
- PhD Student
Description
- During my PhD, I examined the implementation and effectiveness of school language policies in primary schools in Flanders. By means of quantitative large-scale data in 30 schools and 4000 pupils, and qualitative data in a subset of 6 schools, my research showed that to date, the policies have little effect. Schools do implement language policies, but these often fail to improve the current situation. Both contextual factors and the policy interpretations of local stakeholders are of influence.
Education
September 2010 - July 2014
Publications
Publications (19)
Research shows that infants and preschoolers can learn novel words equally well through addressed speech as through overhearing two adults. However, most of this research draws from samples of ethnic majority children. The current study compares word learning in preschoolers (M age = 5;6) with an ethnic minority and an ethnic majority background (N...
Recent studies in the field of language education policy (LEP) have emphasized the agency of educators in language policy implementation, which considerably influences the policy outcome. These studies, however, often focus on LEP measures for newcomers or ethnic minority students, and on the language used for instruction as the main LEP indicator....
This article focuses on equity as inclusion in an adult L2 education system. Using a real-world high-stakes writing test, we examine to what extent learners with different educational backgrounds partaking in the same educational system have the same opportunity of achieving the same minimal standard. In the context of the current research, that mi...
Few studies have yet described concrete efforts by researchers in applied linguistics to systematically impact language policy. In linguistics, there is a general lack of published work on interactions between research and policy, and authors have decried a general dearth of policy literacy among applied linguists. The goal of the current paper is...
The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) is a widely used test of receptive vocabulary, but no researchers to date have examined the performance of low-educated, low-literate L2 adults, or compared these individuals’ performances to their more highly educated peers. In this study, we used many-facet Rasch analysis and mixed-effects linear regress...
This study examines how different stakeholders perceive the implementation of language education policy. Even though policies often prioritize a certain solution to the policy problem, the different stakeholders that are involved in the process of policy design and implementation may interpret them differently (Spillane et al., 2002 Spillane, J. P....
School-based language policies (SLP) are expected to have a positive effect on student achievement. To date, few studies have empirically examined the impact of such policies on student outcomes. This study investigates to what extent SLPs are related to pupils’ reading performance from an educational effectiveness perspective. In addition, the stu...
Governmental education policies provide vague, general confines in which local actors have to design concrete policies tailored to their needs. Such policies rely on the local capacities of schools for implementing them. Recently, qualitative studies reveal that a great deal of variation in policy enactment should be attributed to school contextual...
Aims and objectives
In the present study, we investigated whether Moroccan- and Turkish-heritage children living in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium, acquire new Dutch vocabulary to the same extent when they are provided with exactly the same type of language input. Turkish-heritage children seem to have significantly lower language pro...
This article was accidentally published in Volume 22 Issue 1 with two different DOIs.
The incorrect version of the article with DOI: 10.1177/1367006916648412 ( International Journal of Bilingualism; 22 (1): 3–15) has been withdrawn.
The correct and citable version of the article is as follows: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1367006916...
Questions
Questions (2)
I am modeling a multivariate multilevel model (level 1: response (4 different responses; cross-sectional design); level 2: pupils (N = 3997); level 3: schools). For each predictor I have added separate coefficients for each response (interactions).
Some of my higher-level predictor variables (school characteristics) do not have a significant effect on all the response variables. Is it best to keep the non-significant interactions in the model or to exclude them?
I actually have two questions related to multilevel modelling.
1) Is it best to add all your independent level-1 variables (which we use as control variables) all together or stepwise in your multilevel model?
2) And is it best to use a two- or three-level model if you're investigating schools and pupils? I'm not adding level-2 (classroom or teacher related variables), but a 3-level model (1 = pupils, 2 = classrooms, 3 = schools) may represent the data better? I have around 1000 pupils in 29 schools.
Projects
Projects (2)
In this project we investigated the perceptions and beliefs low-literate migrant mothers have about education, language learning, and literacy. Are our language education programs adapted to their needs, skills and prior learning experiences?
In this project we aim to get more insight into the implementation/translation processes of a school language policy in primary and secondary schools in Flanders, Belgium.