The primary aim of this study is to provide information on how effective institutes for Dutch as a foreign language organise their education. As many teachers still seem to be left to fend for themselves in their efforts to improve their teaching, examples of good practice are provided through six case study descriptions of effective institutes. These descriptions are set into the context of the theoretical approaches concerning Dutch studies and the effectiveness of the institutes. It is hoped that this thesis will give these teachers clues as to how to improve their teaching of Dutch as a foreign language. This curriculum study is based upon five sources used to a different extent during its three phases, namely: an extensive questionnaire filled in at the institutes labelled as effective in teaching Dutch as a foreign language; interviews with teachers; interviews with students; observations of classroom practice, and publications/websites concerning the institutes. Great attention has been paid to the triangulation of the data, i.e. the extent to which information originating from these sources leads to a specific perception of the given area, making the description more complete and objective. The choice of the effective institutes is based upon the results of the lowest level of the Certificate of Dutch as a Foreign Language (CNaVT; A2-level CEFR) examination as the students, typically without any existing knowledge of Dutch, reach this level within the first year of their studies. To describe the video/audio recordings of an “as-normal-as possible” teaching week, an adapted version of the taxonomy of the Dutch Inspectorate for Education is used. In the descriptions short transcriptions of these recordings are provided in order to give as accurate as possible a picture of the lessons that were delivered. In the last chapter the future trends are also described. The pillars of this study are: the didactic preconditions, organisational setting, content of the curriculum, and didactic approach of the teacher. ...