TaalDigitaal

TaalDigitaal is a database of interactive language exercises. At the moment exercises are available for students who want to learn Dutch. The exercises are designed to help students to master Dutch grammar and vocabulary. The site can be used as practice material to complement various NT2 course books.

The exercises are suitable for students with both vocational and higher education qualifications. Anyone with level A2 or above of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages will be able to use them.

There are three kinds of exercises:

• Dialogue exercises

  In these exercises the student carries out a simple 'conversation' with the program. Usually there are several possible correct replies, to which the program will respond appropriately. This way, the same dialogue exercise can be done in a number of different ways. The exercises provide practice not just in grammar, but also in responding in the most appropriate way in concrete language situations.
  Demonstration exercise
  List of all the dialogue exercises

• Orientation exercises - grammar

  4 Exercises which, between them, test a lot of grammar. After each exercise the student receives advice on which grammar topics need more practice. You can find these orientation exercises at the top of the list of grammer exercises.

• Grammar exercises

  A lot of exercises, sorted by grammar topic. There are 24 topics, chosen to target common difficulties students can encounter when learning Dutch. At the top of the list of grammar exercises there are some orientation exercises.
  Demonstration exercise
  List of all the grammar exercises

Level of difficulty

The dialogue and grammar exercises are graded by level of difficulty. Exercises are marked green, orange or red: green for the easiest available exercises and red for the most difficult. This colour coding does not correspond with the CEFR levels, it simply indicates a gradual increase in difficulty.

About the authors

The exercises were developed by Jan Landsbergen and Frank Landsbergen.
Jan Landsbergen is a mathematician and IT specialist. He led the language group at Philips Research and was professor of language technology at the University of Utrecht. Since retiring from this post, he has gained a lot of experience of teaching Dutch as a second language to students from vocational and higher educational backgrounds at the Studiecentrum Talen Eindhoven.
Frank Landsbergen has a PhD in linguistics, and has taught Dutch as a second language at the language centre at the University of Utrecht, as well as developing training courses at the VU Language centre in Amsterdam. He is currently working at the INL in Leiden as a computer linguist.
Frank and Jan run a joint company, Landsbergen Talen (www.landsbergentalen.nl).