Induced synesthesia-like behaviour could positively influence learning the Dutch alphabet for Syrians.

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Induced synesthesia-like behaviour could positively

influence learning the Dutch alphabet for Syrians.

An orienting research into the problems of Syrians learning Dutch.

Final Version

Jade Eversmann

10995587

Supervisors: Mw. Dr. Romke Rouw Bsc Jip Gudden Abstract

Many Syrians have come to the Netherlands in recent years to seek asylum. For them to stay in the Netherlands, they must complete an integration course within three years, in which they must learn the Dutch language. In order for them to reach the required level of Dutch, many need to start at the basics and learn the alphabet. Grapheme- colour synesthesia is phenomenon in which people experience a colour sensation when perceiving a letter. According to Colizoli (2012), this

phenomenon is inducible when reading in certain colours for extended periods of time. This in turn could help learning a second alphabet, in this case Arabic or Kurdish to Dutch. As little is known about the problems when it comes to learning Dutch with a Syrian background, this study aims to explore these problems by asking volunteers and teachers about their experiences with teaching Dutch to Syrians. Their opinion on implementing colour into teaching the alphabet and inducing synesthesia-like behaviour was asked as well. Problems found when learning Dutch with a Syrian background include the short vowel sounds, diphthongs and differentiating between the P and B sounds. All interviewees responded positively to implementing synesthesia-like behaviour in the teachings of the alphabet. This research provides a look into the problems of Arabic-Dutch learners and gives promising results for the future of research of synesthesia-like behaviour in learning. Keywords: Synesthesia, Grapheme-colour, Arabic, Dutch, Syrian refugees, Alphabet, Linguistics

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Introduction Syrian immigration

Due to unrest in Syria caused by a civil war, many Syrians flee their homes to Europe in search of safety. In 2017 more than 8500 Syrian refugees came to the Netherlands to seek asylum (Pharos, 2019). Most refugees speak Arabic, Kurdish or Armenian and those that did follow higher education such as university and college, often also speak French and/or English (Pharos, 2019). To get Asylum in the Netherlands, refugees must take part in an integration course and complete and pass the exam within three years. In this course Dutch writing, reading, and speaking are taught, along with knowledge about Dutch society and the job market, and it is expected from refugees to reach at least level A2 in Dutch which includes, understanding and retaining information from short text fragments (Ministerie van justitie en veiligheid, 2018). Most refugees do not have prior knowledge of the Dutch language or the Latin alphabet in and of itself, and thus must start from scratch. Learning Dutch plays a significant role in the integration process into Dutch society and it is desirable to learn it as fast as possible after arrival, therefore finding a way to help those learning Dutch, would also be beneficial. Learning the Dutch alphabet

In order to be able to help people who are trying to learn the Dutch alphabet, we first need a deeper and better understanding of what causes an alphabet to be learned in a quicker manner. A German study from Scheible et al. (2018) found that refugees who are literate in a language that does not use the Latin alphabet often learn the Latin alphabet easier than those who are illiterate. However, if people are literate in a language that does not use the Latin alphabet, they still are not as fast with acquisition of the German language as those that are already familiar with the Latin alphabet. Scheible (2008) argues that it is easier to learn a second language because learning strategies and skills are (subconsciously) applied, which are acquired while learning the first language.

While Dutch and German are not the same language, their linguistic distance is quite small. Gray and Atkinson (2003) created a phylogenetic tree that uses an evolutionary biological approach to

language, in which the numbers represent inferred ages of nodes in years. The linguistic difference between Dutch and German is 0.037 on the phylogenetic tree of Gray and Atkinson (G&A) (Schepens et al, 2013). The Automated Similarity Judgement Program (ASJP Database) compares lists of 40 words from different languages to find a lexical distance. The distance between Dutch and German is 5664 (Schepens et al, 2013). Schepens et al. (2013) concluded in their research that linguistic

distance is a good predictor for learning a new language. Since Dutch and German are close linguistically, we can assume that the results found by Scheible (2018) in Germany will be comparable to refugees learning Dutch. Thus, refugees that learn Dutch and have proficiency in reading and writing their own language, will get a quicker grasp on the Dutch language opposed to those who are illiterate. However, they will still not be as fast as those who are familiar with the Latin alphabet and will therefore need support in learning this second alphabet.

The problems with learning Dutch

The problems with learning Dutch as a second language can be ascribed to multiple factors, which we can put int two groups:

- The general problems when it comes to learning a second language (L2)

- Dutch specific problems. The first group of problems are mostly caused by the influence of - the first language (L1) on learning L2.

Appel (1985) found that there are three influences from L1 on L2: - (negative) transfer of L1 into L2

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- Structural differences that have influence on the rate of L2 development - Preference for structures in L2 that are similar to those of L1.

He also found that L1 influence is not a homogenous factor that can always be accounted for and that if children had trouble learning L1, they will often have more problems learning L2. Th last finding of Appel (1985) was that culture does not necessarily influence the acquisition of a new language in a new culture in children. A different problem is described in the speech learning model (SLM) (Flege, 1995). While learning the first language at a young age, phonetic categories are created to put in the sounds that belong to this language. Next, when learning the L2, the sounds from the L2 can either be ascribed to an already existing phonetic category or form a new one. A sound can create a new phonetic category when it differs greatly from L1 sounds and thus are easier to discern. If, however, the sounds between the L1 and L2 cannot be perceptually discerned by the learner, the produced sound will fall into an already established phonetic category and be produced as an L1 sound.

Dutch-specific problems are widely unknown, as little research has been done regarding the specific difficulties of learning Dutch as a second language with an Arabian first language. Evans & Alshangiti (2018) looked at both the perception and production of British English vowels and consonants by Arabic learners of English. They found that both high proficiency English (HP) and low proficiency English (LP) Arabic -English listeners had trouble identifying similar phonemes. The most problematic phonemes were /tʃ (check), dʒ (juice), ʒ (vision), ŋ (sing)/. Apart from these phonemes which

appeared to be troublesome for both groups, the LP group also had trouble identifying the dental fricatives /θ (think), v (voice), ð (this), f (find)/ and /p/(pet)-/b/(bad) contrast. For vowels, /u (blue); ʊ (put)/ were most difficult for HP & LP learners along with the central vowels /ɜ (turn)ː, eə (where)/ and the low-front vowels /ɒ (hot), ʌ(cup), aʊ(now)/. See Table 1 for summary.

Table 1

Summary of problematic phonemes and vowels as described by Evans & Alshangiti (2018) Problematic phonemes

for both HP and LP listeners Problematic phonemes for LP listeners Problematic vowels HP and LP listeners Problematic vowels for LP listeners

tʃ (check) θ (think) u (blue) ɜ (turn)

dʒ (juice) v (voice) ʊ (put) eə (where)

ʒ(vision) ð (this) ɒ (hot)

ŋ (sing) f (find) ʌ (cup)

p (pet) aʊ(now)

b (bad)

All phonetic descriptions are symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) as stated by the International Phonetic Association (2005)

When looking at the production of sounds, Evans & Alshangiti (2018) found that the HP group produces more intelligible sounds opposed to the LP group. They also found that if interviewees had more trouble perceiving a sound, they would also have more trouble producing it. Therefore, the sounds with the most difficulties between produced and perceived sounds, are the same sounds. The linguistic distance between Dutch and English is quite small, 0.0832 G&A score and 6586 ASJP

distance (Schepens et al, 2013). Dutch also has the phonemes /dʒ, ʒ, ŋ, v, f, ɜː, p, b/ and accordingly, we can assume that Arabic speakers will have trouble both producing and perceiving these sounds.

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Now that there has been a hypothesis on were the problems in learning the Dutch alphabet may be, the question arises how we can help those trying to learn Dutch as a second language. Treiman et al. (2010) shows us that when children are familiar with the names of letters, they use this knowledge to learn letter sounds, which shows us that motivated associations are easier to learn opposed to arbitrary associations. Thus, if we can help strengthen the association between letter sound, form, and name, this may help make it easier to learn the basics of the language. One study done by Colizoli (2012) shows that reading in specific colours results in the creation of strong letter-colour associations. This behaviour then becomes similar to that of grapheme-colour synesthetes. Synesthesia

Grapheme-colour synesthesia is a form of synesthesia in which a visual letter, symbol, character etc. (grapheme) induces a colour sensation. This colour sensation is always the same for a specific grapheme, triggers automatically and is unique per individual. This sensation can be perceived either internally (associator) or externally (projector) (Simner et al, 2006; Simner 2007; Simner 2013). In a study from Asano et al. (2010) it appears that Japanese grapheme colour synesthetes perceive colours similarly between two of their alphabets (Japanese consists of three different alphabets). They found that within the two alphabets, when two characters sounded similar, the perceived colour was also similar, suggesting a phonetic connection between colour and grapheme. Combining these results with those of Colizoli et al. (2012), it is to be expected that learning a new alphabet using colours will induce synesthesia-like effects in non synesthetes, as students read the new letters in certain colours for extended periods of time. In a review from Watson et al. (2014) it is stated that synesthetes report being able to remember things connected to their synesthesia (phone numbers, names etc) better and easier. Thus, it can be hypothesised that inducing synesthesia-like behaviour while learning a second alphabet, will help learn it quicker and easier.

The aim of this study is to explore the problems Syrians experience when learning Dutch and to see if these problems can be obviated with induced synesthesia-like behaviour. To examine this question, Dutch volunteers who teach or have taught Dutch to Syrian refugees are interviewed. Evans & Alshangiti (2018) shows that it is to be expected that there will be problems regarding the recognition of the difference between certain letters, such as /p/ and /b/. Interviewees will be introduced to synesthesia and how it relates to learning a second alphabet and asked about their opinion on the efficiency of synesthesia-like behaviour. It is hypothesised that problems like these, regarding the alphabet, can be obviated by strengthening the connection between name, shape, and sound of a letter and therefore synesthesia like behaviour should positively influence learning. By interviewing teachers and volunteers that teach Dutch to Syrians, instead of Syrians learning Dutch, it is possible to gain not only a professional insight but, also get a more accurate estimate of problems from less interviewees. Instead of asking individuals what their problems were, teachers that teach groups give the most common problems. Besides this, they can give their professional opinion about implementing synesthesia-like behaviour in their teachings.

Participants

We asked 8 interview participants (5 female, 3 male) who reported to teach or have taught Dutch for an average of 4.8 years (min 0.5, max 8) to Syrian refugees to answer questions about their

experience in teaching. Interviewees were contacted through adverts on social media such as

Facebook and Instagram (1 response), through language course companies (BOOST, NT2, Ambitiouzz, 3 responses), and through personal contacts (4 responses). The semi-structured interviews were held

by phone. Before the start of the interview, people were informed of the expected duration, the number of questions, the goal of the research, how data would be processed and finally, permission to record the interview was asked, and informed consent; they can withdraw their information whenever they like and that any reports are pseudo-anonymised.

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Method

participants are called via mobile phone (Xiaomi Pocophone F1, android version

10QKQ1.190828.002) and calls are recorded with the built-in recording app (Recorder, MIUI Global 12.0.2.0). Recording settings are as follows: Type: Interview, format: MP3, quality: Standard. After the call ends, recordings are named using date and time. In a separate document, the codes for interviewees are linked to the individual. All sensitive data is stored safely.

The interview itself is semi-structured and consists of 13 open questions per interviewee with room for new questions, depending on the answers of the interviewees. The semi-structured interview set up was chosen to gain more in-depth data in the experience of people who teach Dutch to Syrians. This set up allows for questions and elaborations on subjects that may have been missed in initial set up. The first part of the interview consists of the following questions: how long they have taught Dutch to Syrian refugees, what language the Syrians speak, differences between those proficient with the Latin alphabet and those only proficient in Arabic, whether they had noticed specific problems for Syrians regarding the Dutch language and the alphabet specifically, and methods they used to help with these difficulties (appendix A). Interviews were held in Dutch. After these

questions, an explanation of synesthesia and how we could implement this phenomenon when learning a second alphabet is given. This introduction consists of a definition of grapheme-colour synesthesia, how this behaviour is inducible and that it might be possible to implement this

knowledge by presenting the Dutch alphabet in colours. Interviewees are then asked their thoughts on the idea of using colours when learning a new alphabet. Lastly, an open question is given whether the interviewees have more thoughts they wanted to share about teaching Dutch to Syrians. This is done to gain insight in problems that may have been missed before and gain a broader social context which may not have been discussed before.

During the interview, subjects unrelated to language may come up. When this happens, the

interviewer is free to address these subjects by asking questions related to the new subject and may ask about them in context of the research. This is once again done to account for subjects that may have been overlooked during initial set up and explore new subjects that were previously unknown. The interview ends with an acknowledgement of their participation with the research and a thanks for their time.

Analyses

The interviews are transcribed verbatim in Microsoft Word 365© before they are coded and

shortened in the same program. During this process, names and sensitive or personal information is removed from the text. Coding is done by removing sentences and phrases that are unrelated to questions or not of interest for this study, this includes repetitions, examples that did not include specific problems, questions of clarifications (and answers from the interviewer), explanations that were deemed unnecessary as the term itself was already explanatory, catch phrases and filler words, and unnecessary clarifications (such as reasoning why certain problems were not noticed). Coding like this will result in a partially quantitative research for the problems, while it could be considered more of a qualitative research on the subject of methods and implementing synesthesia-like behaviour as the opinions are kept in the coding progress. This results in the use of both the

positivistic as well as interpretative paradigms as described by Participatief Praktijkonderzoek (2019). After rereading through the coded interviews, a label system is formed as seen in table 2. These labels are created by finding categories within the text and naming these categories. Labels were ascribed to sentences or fragments of the interview that fit the labels as described in table 2. It is then checked what subjects and specific items were mentioned over all the interviews within these labels to count how often certain subjects are mentioned.

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Table 2

Label system as used to code all interviews

Label

Sub-label

Explanation

Problems Dutch Problems concerning the Dutch language

Grammar/spelling Problems concerning grammar or the spelling of words and problems concerning sentence structures

Sounds Problems concerning the sounds of letters Writing Problems concerning writing

Causes Causes of the problems concerning Dutch

Arabic Causation is interference with the Arabic language or the difference between Arabic and Dutch

Extern Extern cause, includes education, knowledge of other languages, the problems not specific for Syrians, age Intern Intern cause, includes motivation, interference with

known language (other than Arabic)

Methods Used/mentioned methods in education

Sound Methods to counter sound problems

Percentages of general

problems mentioned

Grammar Sound Writing

Percentages of specific

sound problems

/p/-/b/ /e/ grapheme-phoneme /ʌy/ /i/ /u/ /ɔ/

Causations of problems

Arabic Exeternal Internal

Fig 2. Chart of specific sound problems reported. among

general sound problem. /p/-/b/ 60%, /e/ 40%, grapheme-phoneme 40%, /ʌy/ 20%, /i/ 20%, /u/ 20%, /ɔ/ 20% in order of lighter shade of blue.

Fig. 1. Chart of general problems mentioned.

Grammar in green, mentioned 75%. Sound in blue, mentioned 62.5%. Writing in yellow, mentioned 25%

Fig. 3 Causations of problems reported. Arabic in red,

25%. External causes in yellow, 62.5%. Internal causes in green, 62.5%

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These differences in expectation might be because in this study, volunteers and teachers were asked about problems they had noticed, whereas Evans & Alshangiti (2018) tested Arabic English learners. In further research a similar approach as Evans & Alshangiti (2018) to Dutch-Arabic could give more insight on the exact problems as experienced by Arabic Dutch learners or Syrians.

Little has been said about specific Kurdish sound problems. Said to be problematic were the /o/ sound, in which some Kurdish speakers would add the /i/ sounds, resulting in a /ɔɪ/ (toy) sound. Other problems were grammar related, such as difficulties conjugating verbs. No differences between Arabic and Kurdish speakers learning Dutch were mentioned, even though two interviewees reported having experience with Kurdish speaking Syrians. The previously stated problems were only mentioned by one of these interviewees. To gain more insight into the problems regarding Kurdish-Dutch, more specific studies focussing on Kurdish should be considered.

One interviewee’s opinion was that the problems regarding sound and the alphabet are trivial opposed to the overall picture. It was argued that those problems should not be dwelled on but, instead one should move on to the next part of learning Dutch and the problem will likely correct itself. Another interviewee had not noticed any sound related problems in Syrians and therefore also considered these problems trivial

One might notice that not all percentages add up to 100%. This is due to the qualitative nature of the study. One person can mention multiple problems and one problem can be mentioned by multiple people.

It could be argued that the positive response of interviewees could be established due to the way synesthesia was introduced to them, or the way the question regarding the influence was asked. Nevertheless, most interviewees reasoned why they thought it could work and/or mentioned familiarities with working with colours in their teachings and methods. This could arguably confirm that the way the question was asked had little influence on the response as interviewees reasoned in their own extend. It thus remains unclear how much influence the asking technique has had on the response of interviewees.

Two interviewees had raised their concerns about whether teaching letters in colours would fit their target audience. Their thoughts on the subject were that colour might come across as childish and that adults might lose their motivation if they feel like they are being treated as pre-schoolers. Others mentioned already working with colour schemes when it comes to sentence structures and grammar, these interviewees did not raise the same concerns about this subject. This shows that perhaps if one is familiar with teaching in colours, these concerns dissipate, however, it should still be noted that if colours were to be implemented in teaching, one should be careful to try and keep the teaching materials professional. Regarding children learning Dutch as a second language, one interviewee worried about putting children into separate classes, as this would inhibit them from learning Dutch with their peers. It was argued that children should not be put into separate classes. This interviewee however, had taught a child that had already gone through the basics of learning Dutch before being placed into his group. For learning the basics, children are put into a separate learning class and synesthesia-like alphabet training would only take place in this class.

Interviewees confirmed similar results as found by Scheible et al. (2018) in Germany. If one is familiar with the Latin alphabet due to proficiency in another language, they learn the Dutch alphabet faster, despite there being some chances of interference. When literate in Arabic, they learn a second

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alphabet faster opposed to those who never learned to write and read in any alphabet. This suggests that implementing colour may be the most important for the illiterate group.

During the interviews, many interviewees linked the progress of learning to a variety of causes. Some introduced the subject of opportunities of receiving education. They mentioned that not everyone in their groups has had the opportunity to go to school and receive education, which would explain the two biggest groups of illiterates and literates in Arabic. Others mentioned motivation due to gender and age. Two interviewees had noticed that women are often more motivated to learn Dutch, as they are often more invested into the lives of their children in the Netherlands, or just because they are more inquisitive. Two interviewees had noticed that not only is it harder to learn a second language at an older age, but older people are also often less motivated to learn, as they have already lived their life in Syria. It might be interesting to further research the influence of gender on integration into the Netherlands

One thing that could make implementing colour a little more difficult, are the difficulties among diphthongs. One interviewee justly noted that it might be an idea to link colours to sound groups instead of just individual letters. That way, diphthongs can be taught in the same way. For example, if we were to just teach the O in colour, subjects would only learn the /o/ sound (lopen) but not the /ɔ/ (trom) or /u/ (bloem) sounds, which both include the letter O. Linking colours to each individual sound and perhaps making these colours similar if they include similar letters could prevent learning only one sound per letter. How this idea could be implemented exactly and how effective this would be, should be further investigated.

It becomes more important to learn Dutch quickly now that, as one interviewee noted, the language requirements for becoming a Dutch civilian might become stricter and higher. The Dutch government might change the required level of Dutch to B2 level instead of A2 as off 2021 (Besluit

Naturalisatietoets 2021, November 3rd, 2020). If this were to happen, learning Dutch as fast as possible becomes more important than ever before., thus, learning the basics (the alphabet) quicker becomes more important and could possibly help those trying to integrate into the Netherlands reach this higher level of requirement. It is expected that the illiterate group may become bigger now that the war in Syria is over but there’s still unrest, as stated by one of the interviewees. They

expressed their concerns about a bigger group of people now arriving that has never had the chance to receive education at all. To be able to implement faster teaching most effectively, immigrants should be split up into three groups when taught Dutch: literate in the Latin alphabet, literate in another alphabet, and illiterate. Synesthesia-like behaviour should mostly benefit the two later groups. This way of teaching would mean that all students would receive education suited to their level. This could mean that those who do not need the basics of the alphabet do not feel as if progress is made too slow, while those that do need these basics do not feel pressured or dragged behind. This may heighten the motivation of all groups, as 25% of interviewees mentioned this as an important factor in the learning progress, according to interviewees. Of course, before it can be studied if this was true, it should first be studied whether dividing immigrants into the previously mentioned three groups is beneficial.

An interesting thought is how implementing synesthesia-like behaviour in teaching could also benefit people who are colour-blind. Most colours would of course still be perceived, however since there are 26 letters in the Dutch alphabet, there will likely be colours used that are hard to differentiate for colour blind people. Colour blindness affects 8% of males and 0.4% of females (Fareed et al, 2015) so, assumably refugees who are colour blind will enter the Netherlands and will want to learn Dutch. If

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inducing synesthesia-like behaviour were to be implemented, this should be accounted for, not only for this method but, for other methods that make use of colours as well. One possibility is to

implement symbols along the colours next to the letters. One downside of this technique, however, is that while reading, the symbols would be rather small if standard textbook letter sizes were to be used. In earlier stages of learning the alphabet, the use of symbols might still be beneficial. Another option would be to put the letters into symbolised boxes such as squares and star shapes, but this might be considered annoying for students when trying to read regular text, as it spaces out the words. Again, for early stages this could still be beneficial.

Another option for colour blind people might lay in other types of synesthesia. Although grapheme-colour synesthesia is the most well-known and well-studied form of synesthesia, it is not the only form to exist. Ordinal Linguistic Personification (OLP) is a form of synesthesia in which individuals automatically assign personifications (such as gender, age, and character traits) to sequential linguistic units (such as numerals, dates, and letters) (Simner & Holenstein, 2007). Visuospatial numbers-lines is another variant on synesthesia is which individuals experience ordinal sequences in spatial arrays (Sagiv et al, 2006). Both forms of synesthesia can apply to sequences of letters. Grapheme-colour synesthesia-like behaviour appears to be inducible in non-synesthetes and thus, it is not unthinkable that other types of synesthesia-like behaviour might be inducible as well. This could resolve the problem regarding colour blind individuals. Before it is possible to study the exact workings of this, first it should be studied whether other types of synesthesia can be induced in the same way Colizoli (2012) proposed.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the results of this orienting study are promising for the future of research towards implementing synesthesia in teaching. It also opens a door to possible deeper research into the differences between Dutch and Arabic and the differences in the perception and production of vowels.

References

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Appendix 1 The interview

Nederlands als tweede taal bij Syriërs

Doel: inzicht krijgen van de moeilijkheden bij het leren van Nederlands als tweede taal door Syriërs Doel interview: Inzicht krijgen in de moeilijkheden bij het leren van Nederlands zoals bevonden door vrijwilligers die lesgeven/gaven aan Syriërs

1. Hoe lang heeft u lesgegeven?

2. Welke taal spraken Syriërs voornamelijk?

3. Heeft u in de periode dat u lesgaf aan Syrische vluchtelingen gemerkt of er een specifiek onderdeel was waar zij moeite mee hadden bij het leren van de Nederlandse taal? 4. Kunt u voorbeelden noemen?

5. Heeft u specifiek moeilijkheden opgemerkt bij het leren van het Nederlandse alfabet? 6. Zo ja, welke?

7. Heeft u zelf methodes geprobeerd om deze moeilijkheden (met klank) begrijpelijker/duidelijker te maken?

8. Zo ja, wat heeft u geprobeerd?

9. Zo nee, zou u zoiets gebruiken/gebruikt hebben als het ter uw beschikking stond? 10. Denkt u dat als we de verschillende letters kleuren geven dat dit kan helpen bij de

herkenning van de moeilijkheden in klank? 11. En denkt u dat het kan helpen bij de uitspraak?

12. Hoe belangrijk is volgens u de uitspraak bij het leren van Nederlands? 13. Waarom?