Dutch, a West-Germanic language, is spoken by approximately 23 million people worldwide. In Europe, it is the language of all of the Netherlands and the northern part of Belgium, called Flanders. It is often said that since the Dutch and the Flemish speak Dutch differently, they in fact speak two different languages -Netherlandic Dutch and Belgian Dutch (Flemish). Linguists, however, argue they are not necessarily two separate languages but rather two varieties -a Netherlandic and a Belgian variety -of the same language, Dutch. Since there are a substantial number of grammatical, lexical, phonetic and even spelling differences between Belgian and Netherlandic Dutch, the question is whether Dutch is a pluricentric language with two centres of standardization or not. By explaining the socio-historical background of the Dutch language and giving a comprehensive overview of the differences between Netherlandic and Belgian Dutch, this article attempts to answer the aforementioned (research) question.

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Language Awareness has been defined as “a person’s sensitivity to and conscious awareness of the nature of language and its role in human life” Donmal 1985: 7, The nature of this definition is too broad Thornbury 1997, allowing for a large number of possible interpretations. Various attempts have been made to narrow down the scope. L. Andrews, for instance, introduced a Language Exploration and Awareness approach to language teaching and learning, stressing, among others, that “students become aware when they have opportunities to explore the distinctions among regional and social varieties” 1998: 6. By extension, this may refer to linguistic varieties as well. Two such varieties of the same language, Dutch, are the ones used in Belgium and the Netherlands Vandekerckhove 2005. This article examines whether Polish students of Dutch are able to distinguish, i.e. are aware of the differences, between the aforementioned varieties of Dutch when used by native speakers. The results are discussed, among others, within the scope of one of the domains of Language Awareness and from the point of view of explicit vs. implicit language learning. Also, some pedagogical implications are provided.