The 'Doe meer met taal' (Get more out of language) campaign was launched to reach out to individuals with limited literacy skills whose mother tongue is Dutch. At its conclusion, people in the target group said they felt more motivated to improve their language skills. They are also more inclined to take proactive steps, for example by engaging in language-related activities at home. 66,000 people visited the campaign website.

Why this experiment was conducted: everyone should be equipped with functional literacy skills
The national Tel mee met Taal programme aims to prevent and reduce low literacy levels. Language information points (Taalhuizen) and language centres (Taalpunten) have been established to promote language skills. Practice shows, however, that these initiatives have difficulty reaching individuals with limited literacy skills whose mother tongue is Dutch. Moreover, this group does not always acknowledge or recognise that they have difficulties with language. Against this background, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science sought to run a campaign aimed at reaching out to these individuals and supporting local language initiatives.

Type of intervention: 'Doe meer met taal' campaign
The 'Doe meer met taal' campaign was developed in collaboration with DPC. In it, language is presented as a means rather than a goal in itself: how can language benefit you? Linking language to the personal aspirations and motivations of individuals with limited literacy skills makes it more relevant for them to engage with language. The campaign aims to give people the confidence that they can improve their language skills and encourage them to take a first step. Radio spots, online commercials and outdoor advertising were used for this purpose. The website doemeermetaal.nl gives individuals with limited literacy skills tips on how to deal with texts, reading and writing at work, online or in a family setting. Visitors are also pointed to free exercises on oefenen.nl and to training courses and programmes near to them.

Method used: baseline and impact measurements
A study was conducted prior to and after the campaign, with independent sampling amongst people aged 20-49 with low socio-economic status and whose educational level is primary education, vmbo-bl/kl (vocationally oriented learning/middle-management vocational learning pathways), mbo-1 or vmbo-gl/tl (mixed learning/theoretical leaning pathways), to investigate the effectiveness of the campaign. Only native speakers of Dutch were included. The data were weighted by sex, age, socio-economic status and region.

Result obtained: 66,000 website visitors and more people engaging with language in the home setting
The campaign attracted over 66,000 quality website visitors − people who stay long enough to read the information properly. This amply exceeded the target of 35,000 such visits. By far, most visits (90%) were generated by the online campaign. Despite the limited scope of sampling (N=241 in the baseline measurement and N=350 in the impact measurement), the impact study shows some significant differences between baseline and impact measurements. At the conclusion of the campaign, people placed heightened importance on writing non-official texts efectively and on writing for work purposes. Also, they were more likely to want to improve their language skills. They also said they were more inclined to take proactive steps, for example by engaging in languagerelated activities at home, and the proportion saying they have enrolled in a course or activity had risen slightly.

Impact: contribution to reducing low literacy and increased self-reliance
By encouraging people to take the first step towards improving their language skills, the campaign may contribute to reducing low literacy levels amongst adults over time. The campaign is being repeated in 2023. In addition, the campaign meets a need amongst municipalities and libraries, for example, to strengthen their communication with individuals with limited literacy skills. The short preparation time for the campaign meant that it was not possible to conduct a structured analysis to determine whether this was successful. Nonetheless, there are many examples of organisations that have used campaign messages in their own communications.

Source: https://www.binnl.nl/home+-+en/knowledge/publications/bin+nl+publications/HandlerDownloadFiles.ashx?idnv=2719979