More than just "Uh, was?"

During lower secondary education pupils learn German for at least two years (havo/vwo). However, there is a(n) (unspoken) native speaker norm and little spoken communication takes place in the classroom. This results into pupils not achieving basis communicative skills and hardly daring to speak German. In order to improve this, plurilingual strategies can be taught. The CEFR companion volume with new descriptors for plurilingualism and the proposal of curriculum.nu for the new school curriculum also speak for that. Therefore, this research investigates to what extent the teaching of plurilingual strategies during German classes can better prepare pupils for effective communication with German speakers.