32.1312, Review: Greek, Modern; Applied Linguistics; Discourse Analysis; Sociolinguistics: Skourtou, Kourtis-Kazoullis, Aravossitas, Trifonas (2020)

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-32-1312. Wed Apr 14 2021. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 32.1312, Review: Greek, Modern; Applied Linguistics; Discourse Analysis; Sociolinguistics: Skourtou, Kourtis-Kazoullis, Aravossitas, Trifonas (2020)

Moderator: Malgorzata E. Cavar (linguist at linguistlist.org)
Student Moderator: Jeremy Coburn, Lauren Perkins
Managing Editor: Becca Morris
Team: Helen Aristar-Dry, Everett Green, Sarah Robinson, Nils Hjortnaes, Joshua Sims, Billy Dickson
Jobs: jobs at linguistlist.org | Conferences: callconf at linguistlist.org | Pubs: pubs at linguistlist.org

Homepage: http://linguistlist.org

Please support the LL editors and operation with a donation at:
           https://funddrive.linguistlist.org/donate/

Editor for this issue: Jeremy Coburn <jecoburn at linguistlist.org>
================================================================


Date: Wed, 14 Apr 2021 14:26:54
From: Achilleas Kostoulas [achilleas at kostoulas.com]
Subject: Language Diversity in Greece

 
Discuss this message:
http://linguistlist.org/pubs/reviews/get-review.cfm?subid=36631557


Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/31/31-923.html

EDITOR: E.  Skourtou
EDITOR: V.  Kourtis-Kazoullis
EDITOR: T.  Aravossitas
EDITOR: P. P.  Trifonas
TITLE: Language Diversity in Greece
SUBTITLE: Local Challenges with International Implications
SERIES TITLE: Multilingual Education
PUBLISHER: Springer
YEAR: 2020

REVIEWER: Achilleas I. Kostoulas

“Linguistic Diversity in Greece: Local Challenges with International
Implications” is an edited collection consisting of 18 chapters (including an
introduction) that describe various aspects of minority and heritage language
education in Greece. The volume comprises theoretical and empirical
contributions, which cover a timespan from 1997 onwards, and focus on four
linguistic groups: (a) people with refugee and migrant background, (b) the
officially recognised minority in the North-eastern Greek region of Thrace,
(c) Roma communities, and (d) Greek-speaking communities outside the Greece
and Cyprus area (the Greek Diaspora). 

SUMMARY

The book is prefaced with a foreword by Jim Cummins (pp. vii–xiii), who aptly
remarks on the timeliness of this publication as a counterpoint to
increasingly extreme anti-minority rhetoric. Cummins introduces the volume by
teasing out four recurring themes: the interdependence of languages, the
interaction between theory and pedagogical practice, the hybrid identities
that language learners construct, and the textual representation of these
identities. This is followed by an introductory chapter by the editors (pp.
1–7), which contextualises and presents the 17 contributions that follow. 

The rest of the volume is divided into four parts, each dealing with a
different minority group. The first part, which consists of six chapters, is
the most extended one, and it focuses on people with migrant and / or refugee
background. Part I begins with a chapter entitled “Bilingual Infants and their
Treatment in the Greek Kindergarten”, by Dionysia Kontogianni and Vassilios
Oikonomidis (pp. 11–22). This chapter reports on a small-scale
questionnaire-based empirical investigation that examined language practices
in Greek kindergartens. Space considerations in this review preclude
discussion of methodological details, but the chapter provides interesting
insights about how young children gradually increase the use of Modern Greek
in communicative situations (at the expense of their first language(s)). The
chapter also presents useful self-report comments by the teachers, which
document how they support bilingual students in their efforts to learn Modern
Greek. 

In the second chapter, “Bilingual Students in the Public Primary Education
Context in Greece: A Deterrent for the Greek Educational Landscape or a Chance
for Improvement?” (pp. 23–37), Evangelia Papalexatou and Vasilios Zorbas focus
on primary school learners whose first language is Albanian. To provide
context, one should note that migrants from Albania have been present in
Greece since the 00s, and their children usually attend mainstream education,
where no provision is made to accommodate to their linguistic background. What
this chapter does, then, is highlight the particular challenges that are faced
in the acquisition of English as a third language by children who are already
using Albanian as a first language and Modern Greek as a second one. The
chapter contains interesting visual data (e.g., handwritten notes and
illustrations) that document the language learning experiences of two
fourth-grade pupils. 

In the third chapter, “Interviewing as Understanding: Principles and
Modalities for Transforming a Qualitative Research Instrument into a Stage of
the Integration Process for Immigrants” (pp. 39–74), George Androulakis,
Anastasia Gkaintartzi, Roula Kitsiou, Zoi Liverianou and Evi Markou report on
an empirical study that was conducted in the context of a multi-site Greek
language learning initiative for immigrants. Using data from 12
semi-structured interviews and skilfully conducted qualitative analysis, the
authors describe how the programme participants developed hybrid identities
that fused their background culture and the culture and values that the
participants embraced in Greece. The rich qualitative data presented also
highlight how these fluid identities were negotiated in the context of power
asymmetries, in which the research participants were often placed in the role
of the disenfranchised.

The following chapter, by Christina Takouda and Dimitrios Koutsogiannis, is
entitled “Identities under Negotiation in a Second Language Academic
Literacies Course” (pp. 48–60). This chapter presents an
ethnographically-informed Action Research project that examines how
international students who were enrolled in a Modern Greek academic literacy
course constructed their academic identities. The study also explores how
these emergent identities influenced the co-construction of the teaching
process in the course. The chapter contains a multitude of useful pedagogical
insights, which are particularly relevant to pedagogical practice, as teachers
are increasingly expected to be “teachers of meaning beyond teachers of a
plain language” (p. 59).

The following chapter, “School and Family Cooperation: Strengthening Parents’
Knowledge of Greek” by Eleni Karantzola and Ioannis Galantomos (pp. 61–75),
reports on an intervention that aimed to improve linguistic proficiency in
Modern Greek among immigrant parents, with a view to increasing parental
involvement in education. The authors present a selection of views expressed
by the teachers who participated in the programme, as elicited from their
evaluation reports, and synthesize them with information from a focus-group
discussion with participating teachers. Building on this data, they conclude
that approaches towards immigration and parental involvement in Greek
education have been inconsistent. They also document the prevalence of
essentialist views among some Greek teachers, as well as disillusionment by
the limitations of the programme, all of which may have impacted the teaching
process.   

The final chapter of Part I is entitled “Greek-Spanish Community: The
Maintenance of the Spanish Language in Mixed Families” (pp. 77–92), and is
authored by Anastasia-Olga Tzirides. The chapter reports on a carefully
conducted study that examined the family language policies in Greece-based
households, where at least one member was a speaker of Spanish. This chapter
contains an extensive theoretical discussion of bilingualism and language
maintenance practices, as well as comprehensive data on multiple facets of
attitudes and practices connected to the maintenance of Spanish among the
younger generation.  

Part II of the volume focuses on the education of linguistic minorities in
Thrace, the North-eastern region of Greece. The target group comprises Roma,
Pomak and Turkish ethnic communities, which are collectively recognised by the
Greek state as the ‘Muslim’ minority. Though linguistically diverse, this
minority is served by bilingual schools where instruction is provided in
Modern Greek and Turkish, while other languages (i.e., Romani and Pomak) are
invisibilised. The first chapter of in this part, “The Project on the
Education of Muslim Minority Children in Thrace, Greece: Stimulating the
Educational Process and Enhancing Collaborative Practices” (pp. 95–115) is
authored by Thalia Dragonas and Anna Frangoudaki, who have extensive
experience co-ordinating interventions aiming to raise the educational
standards of the Muslim minority. This authoritative chapter presents the
readers with key facts about the minority, and succinctly describes the
long-running interventions, which cumulatively span more than two decades.
Using robust statistical evidence and striking vignettes, the authors describe
the production of new textbooks (some of which are presented in fuller detail
in the following chapters), in-service training initiatives for educators, and
the operation of extracurricular community outreach centres. 

The following three chapters describe the development, piloting and use of
learning materials for minority schools. This set of presentations begins with
a chapter by Vassilis Tsafos, entitled “Reforming History for School and
History for Education: A Pilot Study for History-Teaching for the Muslim
Minority in Thrace” (pp. 117–130). Building on data from the teachers who
piloted the materials, the author concludes that the innovative materials and
the teaching methodology that underpinned them were particularly useful both
for the minority students and the teachers who used them.

The next chapter focuses on the teaching of literature. In “Pilot Literature
Teaching in Thrace Muslim Minority” (pp. 131-141), the authors, Venetia
Apostolidou, Christos Daniil and Eleni Hodolidou, describe how new materials
for the teaching of literature were used to address the limited literacy of
minority students. Some of the key innovations that are described in the
chapters include the shift from teaching disembodied texts to engaging with
genre- and thematically-focused units, the inclusion of a variety of genres in
the materials corpus, and the use of a clearly defined pre-, during-, and
post-reading lesson macro-structure.

Part II concludes with a chapter that describes the development of learning
materials for the sciences, which cater to the needs of the Muslim minority.
In the chapter entitled “A Pilot Application of Educational Materials for the
Natural Sciences in the Project for the Education of Muslim Minority Children
in Thrace” (pp. 143–153), Vasilis Tselfes describes the pedagogical principles
that underpinned the new materials and presents details about their piloting.
In addition to appraising the materials, the chapter also ventures a number of
cogent remarks about the time-frame of curricular innovation and the
conditions that render it successful. 

Part III comprises three chapters that look into the education of Roma
students in Greece. This discussion begins with a framing chapter by Eleni
Skourtou, “Investigating Literacy Issues on Roma Education” (pp. 157–167). In
her authorial contribution to the volume, Skourtou presents information about
the Roma communities and the attempts that have been made, from the 1980s
onwards, to integrate them into the education system. Following that, the
author presents three indicative literacy activities developed in schools with
Roma students, and shows how the students’ existing linguistic capital can be
exploited in collaborative activities that have the potential to generate
biliteracy. In doing so, she demonstrates the potential of an educational
interventions that go beyond deficit perspectives.

The next chapter, “Expanded Pedagogical Spaces: Enhancing Roma Students
Involvement in School”, by Eleni Gana, Charoula Stathopoulou and Christos
Govaris (pp. 169–181), reports partial findings from a large-scale
intervention that involved Roma pre-school age children, whose attendance is
described as “low and inconsistent” (p. 170). Using an innovative
methodological approach, collaborative ethnographic inquiry, the authors show
how children from six communities, who were native speakers of Romani and had
fairly limited ability to communicate in Modern Greek, transformed their
classrooms into ‘third spaces’, or meeting spaces where the mainstream
culture, the culture of the teachers and the culture of the students were
fused. 

The final chapter of Part III is a theoretical treatise that attempts to
explain the underachievement of Roma students in Greece. In “Underachievement
of Roma Children in Greece” (pp. 183–192), Dimitrios Kassis presents readers
with an overview of the current educational conditions of the Roma children.
This is followed by an expansive discussion of factors that might be relevant
to the underachievement of this group, drawing on a wide range of literature
sources published up to 2009. The chapter concludes with a number of
pedagogical recommendations, some of which may help to overcome challenges
that children in the Roma community face. 

The last four chapters of the volume (Part IV) describe aspects of language
education for Greeks living outside Greece (the Diaspora). The first of these
chapters, “Narratives of Greekness in the Diaspora” (pp. 195–208), by Efthymia
Papalexopoulou, synthesises empirical and archival data to explore the
cultural identity of diasporic Greeks. The analysis focuses on three groups
with distinct characteristics: Greek Americans, Greeks in Germany, and Greeks
in the former Soviet Republics. These groups tend to construct their Greekness
using historically and by evoking synchronic criteria (e.g., connections to
Greece, shared language etc.). However, Greekness appears to be constructed
differently in each of the target groups: for instance, Greeks in the former
USSR, who are members of long-established historical communities, tend to
emphasise ancestral depth, Greeks in Germany (typically first-generation
immigrants) valorise synchronic features, and Greek-Americans stress the
hybridity of their identities. 

The following chapter “The Future of the Bilingual Greek Orthodox Minority in
Istanbul: New Data” (pp. 209–231) by Eleni Sella-Mazi and Maria Rompopoulou
presents data from Rompopoulou’s doctoral thesis, which examined the language
maintenance practices of the Greek-speaking community in Istanbul (NB. like
the Muslim minority in Greece that was described in Part I, this is formally
recognised as a religious, rather than a linguistic minority, although it has
historically been Greek-speaking). The chapter begins by helpfully outlining
sociolinguistic information about the community, and goes on to present data
about the domains where Modern Greek is used by young members of the minority,
the frequency of usage, and their linguistic proficiency. The authors note
that the language seems to be in decline, and urge for reforming bilingual
education, by redefining Modern Greek as a foreign language in the minority
schools’ curriculum. 

The penultimate chapter of the collection, “Family Language Policies Among
Greek Migrants in Luxemburg: Results from a Comparative Study” (pp. 223–233),
by Nikos Gogonas, looks into the family language policies of Greek diasporic
families. In his study, Gogonas juxtaposes the linguistic ideologies,
linguistic practices and language management of two Greek families who are
resident in Luxembourg: one who have been in the country for 9 years, and one
who have been there for 15 months and thus represent a ‘new wave’ of
internationally mobile Greeks prompted by recent austerity policies. He notes
that “with three languages of instruction at school [i.e., French, German and
Luxembourgish] and one or more other languages spoken at home, many children
of ethnic minority background face considerable difficulties” (p. 226).
However, families are found to have a positive attitude towards bilingualism,
prompted by pragmatic and utilitarian outlooks. 

The volume concludes with “New Directions for Greek Education in the Diaspora:
Teaching Heritage Language Learners in Canada” (pp. 235–253), by Themistoklis
Aravossitas and Marianthi Oikonomakou. In this chapter, which looks into Greek
language education in Canada, Greek is framed as a heritage language, and it
is noted that its role is useful in facilitating participation in ethnically
defined community networks. Using data elicited from school administrators,
students, and teachers in primary, secondary and tertiary education, the
authors tease out a number of useful insights regarding the needs of teachers
and the challenges of teaching mixed-ability language classes. In addition to
making recommendations for increasing the learners’ motivation and addressing
professional development, the authors also intriguingly recommend considering
the needs of non-heritage language course participants.  

EVALUATION

This edited collection makes a noteworthy addition to the scholarship about
minority language education in Greece. This is a particularly valuable
contribution, since the Greek experience with linguistic diversity is not well
documented in the literature, particularly outside the Greek borders. As Jim
Cummins notes in the preface, this contribution is even more timely, in that
it shows how sound educational practice can challenge xenophobic ideologies
and policies. 

A key strength of the volume is its thematic diversity and the balance it
achieves between theoretical and empirical contributions. The four parts,
which correspond to the education of people with refugee and migrant
background, the Muslim minority in Thrace, the Roma communities and the Greek
Diaspora, present readers with a wealth of information about the particular
challenges that each community faces. They also invite comparisons between the
ways in which the Greek state has addressed the needs of these four
populations. Some of the more theoretical contributions, like the chapters
that frame the discussion about the Muslim minority (Dragonas & Frangoudaki),
and the Roma communities (Skourtou), are particularly useful as primers to
their respective settings, and will likely prove indispensable introductions
to any newcomers in this field. In addition, the volume contains a number of
empirical chapters that report on educational initiatives (e.g., Androulakis
et al., Gana et al.), which serve as excellent examples of curricular reform
and minority language education interventions. The contributions that focus on
the Greek Diaspora also do very valuable work in documenting the realities of
populations that have been relatively under-researched. One last chapter that
stands out is Gogonas’ study into family language policies, an area of
research that is receiving increasing attention due to international mobility.
It is likely that this chapter will inspire similar work with other
populations, and serves as a useful methodological template.

While it is clear that the editors have carefully put together a collection
that does justice to the diversity and quality of research in linguistic
minority education in Greece, one way in which the volume could have been
further improved would have been if the editorial voice were less discreet.
The introductory chapter contains some brief contextualising comments about
the linguistic landscape in Greece and about Greek education (pp. 1–2), but
international readers who are not familiar with the context would perhaps
benefit from more background information. In the same vein, the somewhat
esoteric information that is occasionally encountered in individual chapters
(e.g., references to Greek government agencies on p. 144, ‘project ODYSSEAS’
on p. 66, the ‘New School’ reform on p. 132) assumes more knowledge than most
international readers would reasonably have, so it might have been helpful if
it had been annotated or glossed. Finally, a concluding chapter that would
help to bring together all the emerging themes that recur in the volume would
have been particularly interesting to read, given the authoritative status of
the editors.

Sadly, one cannot avoid commenting on the mismatch between the editors’ and
the authors’ typically meticulous work and the disappointing production
quality of the volume. In addition to the problems usually associated with
hasty copyediting and typesetting, like the inconsistent use of headings
(e.g., pp. 118 & 120), avoidable typos (e.g., the footnote in p. 137), and
irregularities in referencing, one is also frustrated to see frequent mistakes
and inconsistencies in the Latin translation/transliteration of Greek
publications. This is rather unfortunate, as it hinders access to the many
valuable publications that the volume introduces to an international audience
of readers. The lack of an index is also a regrettable omission, which limits
the functionality of the volume as a work of reference.     

Overall, this is a volume that will likely appeal to readers with a scholarly
interest in the linguistic ecology of Greece, and / or in minority language
education. Although not explicitly framed in these terms, the themes of the
volume often connect to the discourses about linguistic human rights
(Skutnabb-Kangas 2006). Whether describing sustained effort that spans decades
(Dragonas & Frangoudaki) or cutting-edge initiatives (Androulakis et al.), the
chapters that make up the volume show that linguistic diversity is an asset
not just for the speakers of minority languages but also for the broader
communities in which these minorities are embedded. More than anything else,
however, this is a volume that shows how educational practice and linguistics
can work in synergy to generate counter-discourses of hope that challenge
social injustices. 

REFERENCES

Skutnabb-Kangas, Tove. 2006. Language policy and linguistic human rights. In
Thomas Ricento, ed. An Introduction to Language Policy: Theory and Method.
Oxford, Blackwell. 273–291.


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Achilleas Kostoulas, PhD, is an applied linguist currently working at the
University of Thessaly, Greece. Previous academic appointments have taken him
to the Universities of Manchester (UK) and Graz (Austria). You can read more
about his work at www.achilleaskostoulas.com





------------------------------------------------------------------------------

***************************    LINGUIST List Support    ***************************
 The 2020 Fund Drive is under way! Please visit https://funddrive.linguistlist.org
  to find out how to donate and check how your university, country or discipline
     ranks in the fund drive challenges. Or go directly to the donation site:
                   https://crowdfunding.iu.edu/the-linguist-list

                        Let's make this a short fund drive!
                Please feel free to share the link to our campaign:
                    https://funddrive.linguistlist.org/donate/
 


----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-32-1312	
----------------------------------------------------------