Alexia Giannakopoulou
LANGUAGE AND LITERACIES IN THE EARLY ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASSROOM
The purpose of this paper is to link theory and practice regarding the English for Young Learners (EYL) curriculum in the early grades of the Greek primary school, and provide a synthesis of findings from existing studies carried out mainly by teachers, who have the potential, as inside participants, to look into the educational experiences in ways that are not always apparent to those who look from the outside. The first part of the paper focuses on PEAP1, the EYL programme for grades 1 and 2, and how it enhances language development and whole child development. The second part presents Magic Books, the textbooks for grade 3, which were developed within the context of the PEAP project to ensure continuity between the first two grades and the third one. The paper focuses on how children embark upon becoming literate in a new language and expands the area of focus from traditional literacy (the ability to read and write) to multiliteracies and more specifically social and cultural literacies.
Alireza Jalilifar, Hamideh Golgol & Soheil Saidian
RESEARCH ARTICLE INTRODUCTIONS AND LITERATURE REVIEWS IN APPLIED LINGUISTICS: A GENRE-BASED STUDY
Following Swales‘ (1981, 1990) pioneering work on the move structure of research article introductions, the Create-a-Research-Space (CARS) model, a host of genre studies were carried out on different parts of the research article. However, research on the literature review sections in the studies organized in the introduction, literature review, method, result and discussion format remains extremely limited. Even lesser has been done to examine whether the literature review and the introduction as separate sections belong to the same genre. Thus, this study aimed at comparatively investigating research article introductions and literature reviews in the field of applied linguistics, adopting Swales‘ (2004) CARS model as the point of departure, to reveal how these two sections, when stranded, are different or alike in terms of the utilized rhetorical moves. The data comprised 30 articles, drawn from the most recent issues of 5 International Scientific Indexing journals. The findings of the analysis revealed that the two sections, besides bearing major similarities, perform slightly different tasks. The literature review section is more closely woven into the core of the research, more flexible in terms of the generic structure and thus less consistent with the strict CARS model. Despite these differences, the strong resemblance between the two sections implies that they belong to the same genre colony of academic research introductions. The CARS model was modified and presented in light of the findings of the study.
Efrosini Kritikos
CHALLENGES IN THE CODIFICATION OF ENDANGERED LANGUAGES: A CASE STUDY OF TSAKONIAN GREEK
Tsakonian is an endangered language in need of codification and digitization in order to allow its universal access and dissemination. This paper focuses on the processes of codification within a language planning framework and provides a historical review of the ‘graphization’ initiatives of the language in order to shed light on its evolvement to the present date. Of interest is how ‘unplanned’ language planning activities influenced by political, social and economic factors at the micro-level have affected these processes in the present case. A valid and reliable script institutionalized by the local community is vital in the creation of an emerging standard. This is essential for the development of the Tsakonian corpus via the uniform transcription of the language and transliteration of existing texts supporting the language’s transmission and survival. The scientific, educational, technical and political issues involved in the development of a standard script and writing system are examined. A democratic model of language planning is proposed where the community is an active agent in the decision making process addressing ethical concerns of ownership and access.
Marina Mattheoudakis, Aspasia Chatzidaki, Christina Maligkoudi & Eleni Agathopoulou
FAMILY AND SCHOOL LANGUAGE INPUT: THEIR ROLE IN BILINGUAL CHILDREN’S VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT
The current paper constitutes part of a large project on bilingual acquisition and bilingual education and attempts to assess language dominance in bilingual children through questionnaires and standardized language tests. Mainly, this paper investigates the correlation between (a) language dominance as attested by answers in questionnaires that relate to amount of exposure to L1/L2 input, as well as types and context (formal/informal) of input in either language, and (b) language dominance as revealed by diagnostic verbal tests. One of the target languages is Greek, an underinvestigated language in bilingualism, and the other language is German.
Results indicate complex correlations between the two types of instruments with respect to language dominance, with one of the main findings being the significance of formal education in either or both of the target languages. These results point to the importance of bilingual as opposed to monolingual literacy development for language dominance, which implies the need to support the native language of immigrant, minority group or middle class children in the school setting.
Ευάγγελος Παπακίτσος, Παναγιώτης Μακρυγιάννης & Ξανθίππη Φουλίδη
Η ΔΙΔΑΣΚΑΛΙΑ ΤΗΣ ΠΑΡΑΓΩΓΗΣ ΓΡΑΠΤΟΥ ΛΟΓΟΥ ΜΕ ΤΗ ΣΥΜΒΟΛΗ ΤΗΣ ΥΠΟΛΟΓΙΣΤΙΚΗΣ ΓΛΩΣΣΟΛΟΓΙΑΣ
In this paper it is argued that the use of methods of computational linguistics can significantly contribute to teaching Modern Greek and particularly how to improve the writing skill. The target group of this research were the students of the science direction of secondary schools and the students of science in tertiary education. In order to improve their writing skills, the authors propose the change of current teaching methodology in accordance with the results of a pilot application on students of secondary technical and vocational education. The proposed teaching method is reconfigured so that writing resembles computer programming in natural language, i.e. by using the concepts and processes of a subject that is common to all disciplines of science.
Asimina Tsali & Thomai Alexiou
DYSLEXIA AND READING THROUGH COLOURED BACKGROUND IN GREEK PRIMARY EFL LEARNING
English Foreign Language (EFL) learning may constitute a difficult or even painstaking endeavour for any Greek learner but for a learner with Learning Difficulties (LDs) it may be an extremely demotivating experience. Students with LDs and in particular dyslexia have distinctive educational needs which stem from difficulties they may face in mastering reading and becoming proficient in writing and spelling. Bearing in mind the multidimensional aspects involved in the teaching of English to Greek young learners with dyslexia, this study seeks to investigate the teaching of the reading skill, probing into the effectiveness of the coloured instead of white background in paper so as to make the reading tasks more accessible to students with LDs, establishing a dyslexia-friendly environment. This case study‟s findings reveal that the reading performance of young learners with dyslexia can be improved and facilitated with the use of coloured background resulting to the development of reading accuracy. We also investigated teachers‟ perceptions on reading skills and behaviour of learners with dyslexia that proved to be very interesting. The results of the particular research are expected to contribute to the field of LDs towards further development of suitable practices in order to cater for readers with dyslexia.