Introduction : comprehensive sexuality education in ELT

The aim of this article is to introduce the Special Issue on comprehensive sexuality education in ELT. In this brief introduction gender and sexuality are conceptualised in relation to language education. The main issues and implications found in the articles for this special issue are presented and discussed

Turkish Cypriots’ Language Attitudes: The Case of Cypriot Turkish and Standard Turkish in Cyprus

People’s views about language varieties or dialects become critical when some would insist that such language varieties, by nature, are ‘inferior’ or ‘inexpressive’ linguistic entities or systems of communication, especially when compared to their corresponding versions of standard or official languages. Previously, views and opinions on ‘inequality’ of language varieties and dialects did not use to receive much scientific support for various political and ideological reasons. Research has shown that negative views about languages and dialects are neither innocent nor harmless and can have an impact on speakers’ self-esteem, educational attainment, status and employment opportunities (Hopper & Williams 1973, Edwards 1989); worst still they may even encourage some to think that such speakers are ignorant and intellectually inferior by the accident of which variety they happen to know or use (Bereiter & Engleman 1966). However, most researchers bring forth evidence in support of the equality of all languages and dialects with their corresponding standard or official one (Honey 1983, Anderson & Trudgill 1990, Herrnstein & Murray 1994). Additionally, it would be generally difficult to distinguish attitudes to language varieties from attitudes to the perceived groups and community members who use them since they are not simply characteristics of a community, but in actuality enshrine what is distinctive in the community itself and what constitutes it (Garrett 2010). This study investigates Turkish Cypriots’ attitudes towards their native language variety, Cypriot Turkish (henceforth CT), and Standard Turkish (henceforth ST) and how they perceive their own linguistic abilities in the aforementioned varieties. It is hoped that this study may serve as a starting point in Turkish Cypriots’ language attitudes, which may help in understanding the projections of such attitudes towards CT speakers of an internationally isolated (Kyris 2012) part of an island

Coherence ‘in the mix’? Coherence in the face of language shift in Cypriot Greek

Cypriot Greek presents an interesting case of what may appear to be an ‘incoherent’ variety. The Cypriot Greek koine displays patterns that could be seen as dense code-mixing between Cypriot and Standard Greek; moreover, local subvarieties are being levelled out, the result being a shift from a geographical to a register continuum, with remnants of local variants indexing ‘lower’ registers. This invites the hypothesis that the range of variants that speakers have at their disposal is used for various indexical purposes and that one ought not to expect consistency in rates of occurrence of particular variants. In this paper we test this hypothesis by examining four phonological, morphological and syntactic variables with variants at the Cypriot and the Standard-like end of the continuum. The data provide a rather complex picture: while there is overall coherence across variables in the sense that the higher the use of the more Cypriot phonological forms, the higher the use of the more Cypriot morphological and syntactic variants, the behaviour of different variants also depends on particular configurations of extralinguistic factors such as sex, age and education. The data therefore attest to the complexity of the notion of ‘coherence’ but do not suggest its abandonment as an analytical construct

English Language Teachers’ Attitudes Towards the Incorporation of Gay- and Lesbian-Related Topics in the Classroom: the Case of Greek Cypriot EFL Teachers

The English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom is composed of a mixture of people with various backgrounds and identities. Sexuality is increasingly recognised as a form of identity similar to other categorical forms such as class, gender and ethnicity. Based on the idea that ‘otherness’ related issues should be treated in the foreign language classroom as a means to achieve existential competence, the present study investigates the attitudes of Greek Cypriot EFL teachers towards the inclusion of gay- and lesbian-related topics in the EFL classroom. A 15-item questionnaire was designed and data was collected from 58 English language teachers in Cyprus. The results indicated that EFL teachers tended to have positive attitudes towards the use of gay- and lesbian related topics in the classroom. Positive attitudes seemed to be caused by the belief that students would find such topics interesting and on the condition that they are part of the course-book. Negative attitudes seem to be formed because EFL teachers believe that they were ill-equipped to deal with the use of such topics and homophobia in the classroom. As it is generally teachers who play a large part in determining what constitutes allowable discourses in the classroom, their role becomes even more significant in evoking insights, enriching students’ educational experiences and creating an accepting classroom environment towards the discussion of gay- and lesbian-related topics