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- Title
Introducing a foreign language at primary level: Benefits or lost opportunities? The case of Greece.
- Authors
ALEXIOU, Thomaï; MATTHEOUDAKIS, Marina
- Abstract
English language was introduced as a compulsory subject of the Greek state school curriculum in the last three grades of primary education in 1987. In 2003 English was extended to the last four grades while at present, pilot programmes introduce English at the first grade of primary school in 800 state schools around the country. A thriving private sector of foreign language institutes in Greece also provides intensive foreign language tuition and targets learners from very early age. Although Greek children's early start with foreign languages may be considered an advantage, this seems to be lost in their transition to secondary school. Learners in their first grade of secondary education are taught what they have already learned and are required to repeat work covered in previous years; therefore, issues of problematic transition and discontinuity emerge. As a result, they often lose interest in English classes within the state school and feel the need to continue to attend private language classes outside the curriculum. This paper aims to investigate (a) teachers' views with respect to problems related to the lack of continuity and progression in foreign language education between the primary and secondary sector in Greece, and (b) their suggestions for teaching and learning which take into consideration the idiosyncrasies of the Greek educational context so that learners' transition from primary to secondary education will correspond to the development of their language level.
- Subjects
GREECE; ENGLISH language education in primary schools; PRIMARY education; TEACHING methods; EFFECTIVE teaching
- Publication
Research Papers in Language Teaching & Learning, 2013, Vol 4, Issue 1, p99
- ISSN
1792-1244
- Publication type
Article