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On Thursday, February 10 and Friday, February 11, 2022, an online conference on: "The Teaching of Greek Language in the Modern School". The Conference was organized online by the Cyprus Pedagogical Institute of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports and Youth.
The Conference focused on issues related to the teaching and learning of the Greek language in the modern educational environment. The ultimate aim of the Conference was to discuss relevant perspectives and applications, in the wider Greek-speaking world, for the teaching of the Greek language. For this purpose, academics from different university contexts in Cyprus and Greece with relevant work were invited and appointed.
At the opening of the Conference, the participants were welcomed by the Director of the Cyprus Pedagogical Institute, Dr Athina Michaelidou, who expressed her great pleasure at the great interest shown in the Conference by teachers, students, academics, researchers, policy makers and representatives of institutions with an interest in the Greek language from Cyprus, Greece and many other countries. Dr Michaelidou, in her welcome address, added that the Conference will provide important information and documentation for ongoing awareness-raising efforts, contributing to efforts to substantially improve the language learning of students at all levels of schooling.
The Minister of Education, Culture, Sports and Youth, Mr Prodromos Prodromou, in his address to the Conference, stressed that the upgrading and strengthening of the Greek language, both in education and in society at large, is an objective of the highest priority. Mr Prodromou noted that the findings of the Conference will be an important milestone in the broader course of continuous modernization of the teaching of the Greek language in the school context and the promotion of coordinated and systematic actions and activities of all stakeholders involved in language education.
In the first session of the Conference, Dr. Dionysios Goutsos, Professor of Textual Linguistics at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Dr. Athanasios Michalis participated with presentations, Associate Professor of Theory and Practice of Language Teaching in Education, also of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and Dr Marina Rodosthenous-Balafa, Associate Professor of Modern Greek Philology at the University of Nicosia.
Dr. Goutsos, after a historical review of the development of language curricula in Greek and Cypriot schools, critically evaluated the relevant theoretical frameworks and the problems encountered in their implementation, proposing the formulation of a synthetic approach to the language teaching of the Greek language.
Dr Michalis, in his presentation, examined the main aspects of cultivating literacy practices in secondary education and discussed the role of philologists and other disciplines in Gymnasiums and Lyceums in terms of achieving the objectives of the language course.
Dr. Rodosthenous-Balafa, in her presentation, showed, through specific examples of picture books and strategies, ways to combine the cultivation of both language and cultural literacy, showing in the meantime the degree of their complementarity.
The discussion of the first section of presentations of the Conference was moderated by the Director of Secondary General Education, Dr. Kyprian D. Louis.
In the second session of the presentations of the first day of the Conference, Dr. Anna Iordanidou, Professor Emeritus of the Department of Education and Social Work of the University of Patras, Dr. Anna Fterniatis, Professor of Language Teaching at the Department of Education and Social Work, University of Patras and Dr Stavroula Kontovourki, Assistant Professor of Language Teaching at the Department of Education, University of Cyprus.
Dr. Iordanidou, in her presentation, examined the principles of language teaching in primary school and the ways of their implementation through teaching scenarios. She then highlighted the necessity of a change in pedagogical attitude towards the replacement of static books with the dynamic material of teaching scenarios.
Dr. Fterniatis presented teaching practices of multimodal texts and teaching material for the teaching of the language course, based on the Pedagogy of Literacy and Multiliteracies. At the same time, she stressed the value of these practices in cultivating literacy skills, multilingualism and critical linguistic awareness in students, with the ultimate goal of developing their social literacy.
Dr. Kondovourki, in her presentation, highlighted the material dimension of language teaching, discussing how artefacts and physical-material spaces become key protagonists in the realization of language learning.
Dr. Irini Hadjilouska-Mavris, First Officer of Education, moderated the discussion of this section of the conference's presentations.
The second day of the Conference started with a presentation session, in which Dr Marianthi Ikonomakou, Assistant Professor of Modern Greek Language and Dr Eugenia Magoula, Teacher of Modern Greek Language in Primary Education of the University of the Aegean, participated, Professor of Linguistics and Educational Applications at the Department of Primary Education of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, the Emeritus Professor of Linguistics of the University of Thessaly, Napoleon Spyridon Mitsis and Dr. Nikoletta Tsitsanoudi-Malliidi, Associate Professor of Linguistics and Greek Language at the University of Ioannina.
Dr. Magoula and Dr. Ikonomakou, in their joint presentation, focused on the importance of adopting a combination of approaches for the teaching of language in primary school, aiming at the cultivation of various skills, which are necessary for students to understand the world that surrounds them and to actively participate in social reality, approaching it with a critical eye.
Dr. Mitsis, discussing the findings of linguistic science, which gradually began to influence language teaching, noted the important effort to upgrade vocabulary and restore its important role. In this very direction, he attempted a scientific analysis of the vocabulary domain and suggested ways for its effective integration and effective treatment within the language course.
In her presentation, Dr. Tsitsanoudi-Malliidi focused on linguistic and spelling errors and how they need to be addressed in contemporary educational everyday life, with references to the multimodal language of the media and social media.
The discussion of this section of presentations was moderated by Dr. Elena Hadjikakou, First Officer of the Pedagogical Institute of Cyprus.
The Conference closed with a presentation session, during which Dr. Zoe Gavriilidou, Professor of Linguistics at the Democritus University of Thessaloniki, Dr. Aspasia Hadjidaki, Professor at the Department of Primary Education of the University of Crete and Dr. Maria Mitsiaki, Assistant Professor of Teaching Greek as a Second Language at the Democritus University of Thrace, gave presentations.
In her presentation, Dr. Gavriilidou, after approaching the concept of strategic dictionary use on a theoretical level, presented a specific educational program, which aims to familiarize students with the use of a dictionary and its strategic use for the development of soft skills.
Dr. Hadjidaki highlighted points of interest and reflection on the recent Curriculum developed by the Pedagogical Institute of Cyprus for children with a migrant background in Primary Education in Cyprus. Dr. Hadjidaki also made reference to similar efforts on a smaller scale that have been developed in Greece.
Finally, Dr Mitsiaki, after presenting teachers' perceptions in relation to the diagnostic essay recently applied to children with an immigrant background in the remedial classes of primary education in Cyprus, concluded that diagnostic assessment, aligned with a curriculum sensitive to the socio-cultural context, can lead to a positive reactive effect.
Dr Pavlina Hadjitheodoulou, Head of the Training Section of the Cyprus Pedagogical Institute, moderated the discussion of the fourth and final presentation section of the Conference.
The Conference "The Teaching of Greek Language in the Modern School" was attended by more than 1500 participants from Cyprus, Greece, Europe and various other parts of the world. The participants expressed their satisfaction with the organization and the realization of the Conference, evaluating its quality with a high degree of appreciation. The participants considered the Conference as an important platform, where the perspectives of Greek language teaching and learning in a dynamic modern school environment were discussed.
For more information, those interested can visit the Conference website: https:/bit.ly/didaskalia_ellinikis_glossas
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