A needs analysis approach to ESP syllabus design in Greek tertiary education: A descriptive account of students’ needs

AbstractThis paper describes the initial phase of a needs analysis project which was developed in the context of Greek tertiary education with the aim to identify the needs of a target group of learners and introduce needs-based course design. The findings of the study revealed the need for the development of a highly specific ESP language course with a clear focus on the target discipline, accountancy. There was also a call for the provision of ESP training which addresses the learners’ immediate needs as students and their long-term needs as professionals in the accountancy business

E portfolio as an alternative assessment tool for students with learning differences: a case study.

The unprecedented technological and social changes, caused by the Fourth Industrial Revolution, demand that nobody be left behind and all learners be catered for equally, respecting the principles of inclusion (Collins & Halverson, 2018). However, worldwide, more than 700 million people with dyslexia and learning differences experience failure and marginalization due to standardized testing, which tends to devalue their out-of-the-box mindset (Washburn et al., 2011). According to the National Research Council (2001), an effective way to promote equity in education and optimize learning, as well as equip students for their future challenges, is to reflect on and restructure the assessment methods. In this vein, the purpose of the present research is to explore the impact of alternative assessment in the provision of holistic learning conditions. Therefore, e-portfolio was introduced as a research tool in an afternoon EFL class for students with learning differences (n=20 students) in Greece. The learners’ active engagement in the self-evaluation processes, the ongoing conferences between the teacher and each student gave insight into the learning progress and the in-time, constructive feedback comprise the strategies followed in this pilot study, aiming at investigating the learners’ emotional reinforcement, change of attitude towards learning English, as well as their improvement in the target language. Given the research findings, the e-portfolio enabled the students to employ both cognition and metacognition to prove their level of knowledge, adopt self-regulation strategies to boost their learning curves and enhance their self-development, indicating the efficiency of the tool

Language awareness issues and teachers’ beliefs about language learning in a Greek EFL context

The present study aimed at investigating the role of language awareness from the teachers’ perspective as well as its relationship with other aspects of EFL teacher knowledge. The study was designed and conducted with the aim of providing an account of the issues related to EFL teachers’ language awareness and their beliefs about how students learn a foreign language. Questionnaires were distributed to a total of 150 EFL teachers employed in public primary and secondary schools in Northern Greece. The findings indicated that the participants were conscious to a certain degree of the need for raising language awareness in the EFL classroom and developing students’ language learning strategies

A Record of the training needs of ESP Practitioners in Vocational Education

Acknowledging the fact that teacher training can be indispensable in delivering effective and efficient ESP courses, the present study set itself the purpose of identifying and recording the training needs of ESP teachers operating in the context of State Vocational Institutes in Greece. For conducting the study, a questionnaire, which was responded by seventy six ESP teachers, was used as the basic instrument; in addition, semi-structured interviews were conducted with a number of ESP teachers in order to gain more meaningful insights into the situation. The findings of the study provide a wealth of data and highlight the immediate need for the development and organisation of training courses for ESP practitioners

Multilingual Learning for Specific Purposes: Identifying Language Strategies, Awareness and Preferences

AbstractInterest in multilingual learning provided the stimulus for conducting the study with the aim to provide an account of LSP students’ awareness in strategy employment in English as a first foreign language (FL1) and German as a second foreign language (FL2). The findings revealed a satisfactory degree of students’ strategic awareness both in FL1 and FL2. It is suggested that the students could benefit from multilingual instruction to enhance their awareness in multilingual competence and metacognitive strategic use in as many foreign languages as possible

Ιnsider Views of CLIL in Primary Education: Challenges and Experiences of EFL Teachers

The present study attempted a comparative exploration of EFL teachers’ views in relation to integrating the CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) approach in the context of Greek and Cypriot primary education. It is considered that the provision of curriculum content in a second/foreign language (L2/FL) can be advantageous in terms of enhancing both subject knowledge and target language competence, and improving motivation for learning. In total, 248 Greek and 100 Cypriot Teachers of primary education filled in the questionnaire, which comprised five sections: a) the teachers’ CLIL experience, b) characteristics of CLIL, c) competences needed by CLIL teachers, d) integrating CLIL into the curriculum, e) training provision. The findings indicated that the teachers in both contexts acknowledged the challenge of integrating CLIL and its beneficial role in promoting mastery of both the FL and content, however, the data highly supported the teachers’ need for training in CLIL teaching

Writing skills and strategies of bilingual immigrant students learning Greek as a second language and English as a foreign language

The present study was concerned with eliciting information about the problems that bilingual or immigrant students’ encounter and the strategies that they employ whilst writing in Greek as a second language (GL2) and in English as a foreign language (EFL). The sample consisted of a total of 32 bilingual students, aged between 10 and 12 from Albanian, Russian and Georgian families. The study followed a qualitative and quantitative method of data collection and analysis: (1) a screening writing test was used for student selection and their categorisation into skilled and less skilled writers; (2) student think-aloud reports and retrospective interviews were used to collect data whilst students were writing in GL2 and EFL. The findings indicated that the skilled bilingual writers held a much broader and complex view of their own writing process and showed more strategic knowledge compared to less-skilled writers. In particular, they were more flexible in using both cognitive and metacognitive strategies and employed a wider range of more ‘elaborated’ strategies. In contrast, the less-skilled writers had a more limited knowledge of the writing task, and they adopted lower-level processes and strategies. However, they had adequate awareness of their own writing problems related to word level, and they employed certain compensation strategies to overcome writing weaknesses. Some suggestions are made about the creation of educational and teaching conditions for developing bilingual students’ linguistic cognitive and metacognitive skills and expanding opportunities for them to become autonomous writers