Translanguaging instances in the Greek linguistic landscape in times of crisis

In this article we discuss the concept of translanguaging in relation to the theory of linguistic landscape in the Greek context in times of economic and political crisis. In particular, we look at instances in Greek public spaces where there is a combination of linguistic resources. The instances used in this paper have a political and ideological meaning that is strongly related with the current economic and political situation in Greece, while these instances also show a creative dimension of different linguistic forms and resources. Public translanguaging instances in today’s multilingual Greece is a research area that has not been examined yet in the relevant literature. Thus, the aim of the present paper is to show the dynamics that translanguaging has taken over the past years in the multilingual context of the Greek society

Greek teachers’ views on linguistic and cultural diversity

Τhis paper reports on a questionnaire study investigating primary school teachers’ (N=85) attitudes and practices with regard to bilingualism in their classes. The study was conducted in three major Greek cities in 2013-14 as part of a large European Union funded project (‘Thalis’) on bilingualism and bilingual education, run by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Our findings demonstrate that teachers are divided between those who are more aware of the benefits of bilingualism and adopt related practices and those who are more conservative in their views and practices. The need for continuing professional development aiming to enhance teachers’ awareness on issues connected to bilingualism cannot be overestimated

“It is not bilingualism. There is no communication”: Examining Greek teachers’ views towards refugee children’s bilingualism: A case study

Τα τελευταία χρόνια, λόγω της μαζικής έλευσης προσφύγων στην Ελλάδα, οι εκπαιδευτικοί αντιμετωπίζουν νέες προκλήσεις, καθώς δημιουργούνται, όχι για πρώτη φορά, σε πολλά σχολεία της χώρας συνθήκες πολυπολιτισμικότητας και επαφής διαφόρων γλωσσών και πολιτισμών. Γίνεται αντιληπτό πως δημιουργείται η ανάγκη της όσο το δυνατόν αποτελεσματικότερης ανταπόκρισης των εκπαιδευτικών στις νέες απαιτήσεις μιας πολυπολιτισμικής σχολικής τάξης. Το παρόν άρθρο αναφέρεται σε μια μελέτη των απόψεων και των πρακτικών των εκπαιδευτικών σχετικά με τη γλωσσική ανάπτυξη των παιδιών προσφύγων. Οι εκπαιδευτικοί, αν και αναγνωρίζουν τα οφέλη της διγλωσσίας γενικά ή υποστηρίζουν το δικαίωμα των οικογενειών να μιλούν τη δική τους γλώσσα στο σπίτι, εξακολουθούν να εκφράζουν την ανησυχία τους ότι τέτοιες πρακτικές ενδέχεται να εμποδίσουν την κατάκτηση της γλώσσας της πλειοψηφίας και συχνά απαγορεύουν τις άλλες γλώσσες στο σχολείο (Chatzidaki & Maligkoudi, 2017∙ Gkaintartzi, Kiliari, & Tsokalidou, 2015∙ Young, 2014). Η μελέτη μας επικεντρώνεται στις απόψεις και τις πρακτικές εκπαιδευτικών πρωτοβάθμιας εκπαίδευσης, όπως καταγράφηκαν σε συνεντεύξεις που διεξήχθησαν σε Δημοτικό σχολείο της κεντρικής Μακεδονίας στην Ελλάδα κατά την περίοδο Ιανουαρίου-Μαρτίου 2017. Το εν λόγω σχολείο είχε έξι πρόσφυγες μαθητές και μαθήτριες από τη Συρία. Τα ευρήματα που παρουσιάζονται εδώ σχετίζονται με τις απόψεις των εκπαιδευτικών σχετικά με τους/τις πρόσφυγες μαθητές/τριες και τη διγλωσσία τους καθώς και με τις διδακτικές πρακτικές που ακολουθούν στην τάξη για να διαχειριστούν αυτή τη διγλωσσία στη σχολική τάξη.Due to the massive influx of refugees to Greece in the last few years, educators are faced with new educational challenges. The present paper reports on a study of educators’ views and practices with regard to the language development of refugee children. While acknowledging the benefits of bilingualism in general, or supporting the families’ right to speak their own language at home, teachers still express concern that such practices may hinder the acquisition of the majority language and often ban the ‘other’ languages from school (Chatzidaki & Maligkoudi, 2017; Gkaintartzi, Kiliari, & Tsokalidou, 2015; Young, 2014). Our study focuses on primary teachers’ views and practices as reported in interviews conducted in a school of central Macedonia in Greece during the time period January-March 2017. The school in question had six refugee students from Syria. The findings presented and discussed here relate to the teachers’ views towards refugee students and their bilingualism as well as to their reported practices in the classroom with regard to their students’ multilingual background

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

The language education of Albanian pupils in Greece: Governmental policies and parental strategies

The present PhD-thesis focuses mainly on the governmental policies towards (mother)-language education of Albanian pupils in Greece. The thesis further examines the various ways, used by Albanian parents, in order to achieve language socialization of their children in the family environment. Between these two main poles one may observe a number of variables, which became the object of this study as well. More precisely, we examine in which way institutional persons in the field of education (directors, teachers etc.) perceive the official policies pertaining to the education of foreign pupils as well as to the issue of maintenance of their mother-tongue. This thesis, further, examines the issue of maintenance of the Albanian language and, more specifically, the measures taken by Albanian parents, in order to maintain the use of their mother-tongue within the family environment and, simultaneously, to introduce Greek language into the same level, individually as well as collectively. The research is based, on one side, on the presentation and the analysis of institutional texts, referring to the education of foreign pupils in Greece and, on the other side, on interviews which were conducted with Greek education officials, Albanian parents but also with representatives of Albanian language education in Greece. The research was conducted in 12 elementary schools (situated in urban, semi-rural and rural regions in three prefectures (Thessaloniki, Serres and Pieria) within the administrative unity of Central Macedonia. The basic results of the research show that one may speak about a variety of family typologies of children's language socialization. More generally, though, it can be argued that the results showed tendencies of language maintenance but also tendencies of language loss. The phenomenon of Albanian language maintenance was more thoroughly examined, as we also tried to describe and analyse the emerging collectiveness of Albanian immigrants and the community classes of Albanian language to the next generation. Additionally, the results of the research also showed that the parental strategies, as well as the collective efforts of the Albanian immigrants of our sample, were highly connected with the governmental policies and with the way that they are perceived and implicated by the institutional persons of education. This last factor seems to influence the procedure of language maintenance or loss of the Albanian language and the familial parental strategies.Αντικείμενο της παρούσας διδακτορικής διατριβής αποτελούν οι κυβερνητικές πολιτικές οι σχετικές με τη γλωσσική εκπαίδευση των Αλβανών μαθητών στην Ελλάδα καθώς και οι στρατηγικές γλωσσικής κοινωνικοποίησης που ακολουθούν οι Αλβανοί γονείς για τα παιδιά τους στο οικογενειακό περιβάλλον. Μεταξύ των δύο αυτών πόλων προκύπτουν πολλές μεταβλητές, που αποτέλεσαν και το αντικείμενο της έρευνας μας. Συγκεκριμένα, ερευνήθηκε ο τρόπος που προσλαμβάνουν και ερμηνεύουν τα θεσμικά πρόσωπα της εκπαίδευσης (διευθυντές, δάσκαλοι, περιφερειακοί διευθυντές εκπαίδευσης κ.λπ.) τις σχετικές με την εκπαίδευση των αλλοδαπών μαθητών κυβερνητικές πολιτικές αλλά και το ζήτημα της διατήρησης της μητρικής γλώσσας των αλλοδαπών μαθητών. Εξετάστηκε, επίσης, το θέμα της διατήρησης της αλβανικής γλώσσας και, ιδιαίτερα, οι στρατηγικές και οι πρακτικές που ακολουθούν οι Αλβανοί γονείς σχετικά με τη διατήρησή της ή με την καλλιέργεια της ελληνικής γλώσσας στο οικογενειακό περιβάλλον σε ατομικό και σε συλλογικό επίπεδο. Ο τρόπος, τέλος, που προσλαμβάνουν οι ίδιοι οι γονείς τις εξεταζόμενες κυβερνητικές πολιτικές αποτέλεσε, επίσης, αντικείμενο έρευνας. Η έρευνα βασίστηκε αφενός στην παρουσίαση και ανάλυση των θεσμικών κειμένων, που αναφέρονται στην εκπαίδευση των αλλοδαπών μαθητών στην Ελλάδα, και αφετέρου σε συνεντεύξεις, που πραγματοποιήθηκαν με θεσμικά πρόσωπα της εκπαίδευσης, με Αλβανούς γονείς και με φορείς αλβανόγλωσσης εκπαίδευσης. Η έρευνα πραγματοποιήθηκε σε 12 δημοτικά σχολεία αστικών, ημιαστικών και αγροτικών περιοχών τριών νομών της περιφέρειας της Κεντρικής Μακεδονίας (Θεσσαλονίκη, Σέρρες, Πιερία). Από την έρευνα προέκυψαν διάφορες τυπολογίες γλωσσικής κοινωνικοποίησης στις εξεταζόμενες οικογένειες. Σε γενικές γραμμές μπορεί όμως να υποστηριχτεί ότι στις αλβανικές κοινότητες, που εξετάσαμε, παρατηρήθηκαν τόσο τάσεις μετατόπισης αλλά και η διάθεση διατήρησης της αλβανικής γλώσσας. Το φαινόμενο της διατήρησης της αλβανικής αποκτά περισσότερο ενδιαφέρον, καθώς παράλληλα επιχειρήσαμε να περιγράψουμε και να αναλύσουμε τις αναδυόμενες συλλογικότητες των Αλβανών μεταναστών και τα Τμήματα Διδασκαλίας της Αλβανικής Γλώσσας στην Κεντρική Μακεδονία, που ως βασικό σκοπό έχουν την καλλιέργεια της αλβανικής γλώσσας στις επόμενες γενιές. Από την έρευνα, επίσης, προέκυψε ότι οι οικογενειακές στρατηγικές καθώς και οι συλλογικές προσπάθειες των Αλβανών μεταναστών του ερευνητικού μας δείγματος συνδέονται στενά με τις κυβερνητικές πολιτικές αλλά και με τον τρόπο που αυτές προσλαμβάνονται και, τελικά, εφαρμόζονται από τα θεσμικά πρόσωπα της εκπαίδευσης. Αυτός ο τελευταίος παράγοντας φαίνεται πως επηρεάζει τη διαδικασία της γλωσσικής διατήρησης ή μετατόπισης της αλβανικής και τις οικογενειακές γλωσσικές στρατηγικές

Language needs analysis of adult refugees and migrants through the CoE - LIAM Toolkit: The context of language use in tailor-made L2 material design

The Council of Europe (CoE) has developed a toolkit to support member states in their efforts to respond to the challenges posed by unprecedented migration flows, as part of the project Linguistic Integration of Adult Migrants (LIAM). The main purpose of this study is to assess language needs of adult refugees and migrants through the implementation of the aforementioned CoE Toolkit relevant needs analysis tools and to present tailor-made thematic units, that would cater for the language needs traced. More specifically, domains, language use situations and communication themes were identified so as to become eventually L2 learning materials. The findings show high diversity in terms of language competence, literacy, and linguistic backgrounds among the students and interestingly necessities prevailed the wants (see Nation Macalister 2010) as the thematic units designed by the teachers were not all based on the subjective needs but on the objective needs of the learners (as perceived by the teachers)

Examining Indian students’ bilingual profiles in Greece

This study investigates the bilingual profiles of Indian students in the Greek context. Indian students comprise a minority group that is highly underexamined in the Greek literature, in contrast to other minority groups in Greece (e.g., Albanians, see Chatzidaki Maligkoudi, 2013; Mattheoudakis et al., 2020). In particular, this article examines the bilingual profiles and the language behavior of sixteen (16) Indian students in the Greek educational context, namely in two schools in Attica. Content analysis of their interviews was applied, with the aim of exploring their bilingual profiles, their patterns of language choice and use as well as their attitude towards their home languages. Our findings reveal that the main language of communication adopted in the school environment (outside and inside the classroom) is Greek. On the other hand, Hindi or Punjabi are mostly used in the home environment, mainly due to the fact that mothers have a low proficiency in Greek. The results of our study also highlight how our participants perceive the role of host classes in their integration into the educational process

Investigating teacher beliefs, attitudes and practices regarding the inclusion of refugee and immigrant students in Greek state schools

This paper presents data on the beliefs, attitudes, and reported practices of state school teachers concerning the education of immigrant/refugee children. Teachers’ beliefs are generally considered to exert an important influence on their professional practices, while relevant findings in recent research appear contradictory. The 56 informants participated in online seminars organized by the information service “Me 2 Glosses” and the Prefectural Directorate of Education of Epirus in 2020–2021. Upon completion of the seminars, an online questionnaire was administered which included questions on the use and maintenance of heritage languages, bilingual profile, academic differences between monolingual and bilingual students and teaching practices supporting bilingualism. Teachers’ answers indicate that their efforts to support immigrant/refugee students focus on the development of their linguistic skills in Greek. However, the results also indicate a lack of awareness regarding the importance of acknowledging those students’ heritage language and culture; such practices would be clear indicators of teachers’ accepting their students’ diversity