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Utrecht ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ linguist Evelyn Bosma has won , (in Dutch) together with her colleague Naomi Nota. The academics will be helping to create an episode of Klokhuis, the popular Dutch children's television programme, all about their research into the effect of bilingualism on the development of Frisian children, including on their language development.

Every year, the Klokhuis Academic Prize honours interesting and relevant academic research concerning children age from 9 to 12. Together with her colleague Naomi Nota, Bosma awaited the (online) announcement this Sunday afternoon by Klokhuis presenter Janouk Kelderman. Bosma: ‘Of course we cheered when we were called out as winners. I only later noticed that Naomi and I were showered in digital confetti during the announcement, which was very funny.’

Over a quarter of the votes

Bosma is investigating whether Frisian-Dutch bilingual children use the overlap between their two languages when reading. Nine other projects had been nominated alongside her research. Some 4086 children cast a vote, with no fewer than 1055 voting for Bosma's research. Bosma: ‘It seems Frisian children voted en masse.’

The Dutch children's news programme, 'Jeugdjournaal', also showed an item about the award ceremony

Thanks

In her speech accepting the award, Bosma thanked the Frisian school children who had participated in her study. ‘And I would also really like to thank Marrit Jansma, our research assistant who administered most of the tests to the children in Friesland. It may have been Naomi and I who stood there shining at the award ceremony, but the study would never have been so successful without Marit.’

Children's news programme and Omrop Fryslân network

Bosma winning the Klokhuis Academic Award did not go unnoticed, with the Jeugdjournaal, the Dutch children's news programme, showing an item about the award ceremony . (In Dutch). ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ sites like  (in Dutch) also covered her research, as of course did the daily newspaper  (in Dutch) and regional network  (in Dutch) website too. The latter article can also be read