TESOL Macedonia-Thrace, Northern Greece

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Summer Event 2014 In Retrospect

On June 22^nd, TESOL MTh, Northern Greece closed the academic year with an interesting, educational and fun event at one of the most beautiful venues- the Macedonia-Thrace Folklore and Ethnological Museum. The event began- after a very long delay due to technical issues- with a presentation by Dr Mattheoudakis and Ms Elena Sofroniadou and was followed by a tour of the Museum by its curator, Mr. Zisis Skambalis.

TesolMTh was honored to have Dr. Marina Mattheoudakis and Ms Elena Sofroniadou presenting “Training the Early Bird to Catch the Worm: Wishful Thinking or Reality?” Through this most interesting presentation, we delved into the new policies surrounding English Language Learning at the experimental school as well as the ‘why’s and the how’s’ of early language learning. Dr. Mattheoudakis took the stand first and explained how language learning serves not only as a purpose in itself but also as a medium for raising intercultural awareness and tolerance to linguistic and cultural diversity. She then gave us a breakdown of the eclectic approach which the teachers of the experimental school chose to follow, i.e. choosing those fun and engaging activities from a range of approaches (Lexical, Suggestopeadia, Task based, Multisensory, Discovery etc.). The reason being that young learners learn through senses, experientially, they’re imaginative and brave and good at guessing; they need to move and they learn through movement; grammar is meaningless to them, so there is no need for explicit teaching. On the other hand, young learners have very short attention spans; they have good memories but also tend to forget quickly. As Dr. Mattheoudakis pointed out, young learners are alleged to be better language learners and this is true as far as pronunciation and listening is concerned. Hence, her advice is to use L2 in the classroom even if learners don’t understand.

Ms Elena Sofroniadou then took over and showed the attendees via video how this eclectic approach is implemented at grade 1. Ms Sofroniadou introduced the thematic areas which were covered, such as colours, animals, Halloween, etc. and how these were built and extended through various stories. For example, the story "Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?" was used to introduce animals, extended with more animal vocabulary and then extended even further to include adjectives. A personal favourite was the fruit party, where young learners were actually having a fruit party in class! Choral work, songs and choreography were also shown as well as arts and crafts, all bringing together the eclectic approach as was explained by Dr. Mattheoudakis at the beginning.

Our event continued with an interesting and informative tour of the Folklore and Ethnological Museum for all participants. What struck most of us was the passion and fervor with which our guide and Manager of the museum, Mr. Zisis Skambalis, spoke of the exhibits, his own personal involvement in recovering these but also, the necessity of such museums which preserve a country’s history. And for those English teachers who might have designers, mechanics, architects and engineers, this museum would be definitely worth a tripfew drinks.

To finish off the event the board and members took their time in enjoying the beautiful garden, with a cold drink and a few delicious snacks. And what better way could we find to end the year?

By Natasha Loukeri

Video credits: Margarita Kosior

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Summer Event 2014

Training the early bird to catch the worm: wishful thinking or reality?

Elena Sofroniadou¹ and Marina Mattheoudakis²

3^rd Model Experimental Primary School of Evosmos, Thessaloniki¹

School of English, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki²

The recent introduction of foreign language instruction to the early grades of primary school in Greece is in tune with the widespread tendency in Europe for an earlier start in L2 learning (PEAP, 2010). The 3^rd Model Experimental Primary School of Evosmos, Thessaloniki, was the first state school in Greece which introduced English language teaching to first graders in 2008. Following the latest research in early foreign language education (Edelenbos, Johnstone & Kubanek, 2006), the syllabus and methodology adopted at school take into consideration and build upon young learners’ needs, skills and abilities. In particular, the L2 instruction at school (a) places emphasis on the development of oracy, (b) takes into consideration young learners’ learning styles and kinaesthetic characteristics, and (c) provides them with rich L2 input both in class but also in extra-curricular activities. In this experimental school, language classes are held 5 hours a week but further L2 input is provided through the CLIL method in Physical Education and Arts classes. The particular school has adopted and implemented a different L2 curriculum from that promoted in the rest of the Greek state schools and our presentation aims to analyse the rationale of our choices and their practical implementations in class.

Bios:

Elena Sofroniadou teaches English at primary schools but she has been working as an English teacher ever since she was an undergraduate. She holds an M.A. in Theoretical and Applied Linguistics from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the Cambridge RSA Diploma for Overseas Teachers of English (DOTE). From very early, she became a TESOL Macedonia-Thrace, Northern Greece member and later she was elected on the Board as a PR officer (1999-2001) and as a Chair in the years 2001-2003. She participated as a teacher trainer in several seminars in Northern Greece. She is very keen on doing research for the teaching of English in the primary schools in Greece. Her main interests lie in teaching young learners, in using literature and drama in the EFL classroom and in doing project work. She’s been an English teacher at the 3rd Experimental School of Evosmos for 6 years.

Marina Mattheoudakis is an Associate Professor at the Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, School of English, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She holds an M.A. in TEFL from the University of Birmingham, U.K. and a Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She teaches courses in second language acquisition and language teaching methodology at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. She participated for two years in a European project aiming at the social and educational inclusion of immigrants in Europe (2001-2003) and she was also the coordinator of a European Research Project for teachers of modern languages (2003-2007). She is currently participating in four European projects on issues related to foreign language learning and teaching. She is one of the designers and compilers of the Greek International Corpus of Learner English (GRICLE, University of Louvain, Belgium). Her main research interests lie in the areas of second language learning and teaching, corpora and their applications. She has presented her research work at several national and international conferences and has published in international journals, books and conference proceedings.

Contact details:

Marina Mattheoudakis,

Associate Professor

Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics

School of English

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

541 24 THESSALONIKI,

GREECE

e-mail: marmat@enl.auth.gr

tel. no.: +302310997455

fax no: +302310997432

Elena Sofroniadou