ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the demand for English-language education in the Netherlands. With the government-funded experiments in international education, the government has created an opportunity for English-language education to grow, but the question remains whether the government of the Netherlands should be able to reject this possibility, or whether it can still close it again. In the view of the government and of the schools that offer education in the English language, the reason for its growth is the increase in the number of Dutch pupils who belong to the target group for English-language education. Social class also has a slight effect on the choice of English-language education. Van der Pluijm’s analysis did not convince everyone because he also included in his analyses 65 Dutch pupils who spoke no Dutch at home or who had gone to school in a foreign country in 1988.
