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Greek teachers’ views on linguistic and cultural diversity

This study explores Greek teachers' attitudes, beliefs, and practices concerning linguistic diversity in bilingual students. It investigates their views on students' ethnic language use at home, interest in school, and performance compared to native students, as well as their reported classroom practices. The research is part of a larger project funded by the EU and Greek State and conducted at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. The findings reveal common myths about bilingualism and the challenges faced in promoting Greek language learning. Similar views and practices are observed in other countries like France, the UK, and the USA.

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Greek teachers’ views on linguistic and cultural diversity

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  1. Greek teachers’ views on linguistic and cultural diversity A.Chatzidaki1, C. Maligkoudi2, and M. Mattheoudakis2 1 University of Crete, 2 Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

  2. Background of the study • Part of a large research project on bilingualism (BALED) funded by the European Union and the Greek State and run by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. • The study focuses on primary teachers’ (N=85) attitudes, beliefs and practices as reported in a questionnaire survey conducted in 3 large Greek cities in 2013-2014.

  3. Aims of the study To investigate 1. the informants’ views on • their students’ use of ethnic languages at home and at school, • their bilingual students’ interest in school and performance in comparison to native students 2. the informants’ reported practices in the classroom with regard to their students’ multicultural background.

  4. Teachers and bilingualism in Greek schools • Similar studies have been carried out by Mitakidou & Daniilidou (2007), Stamou & Dinas (2009), Ζaga, Kesidou & Mattheoudakis (2014), Gkaintartzi,Kiliari, & Tsokalidou (2014) , Gkaintartzi & Tsokalidou (2011, 2014), among others. • Large homogeneity in their views regarding bilingualism; they adopt common views and ‘myths’ about bilingualism (Stamou & Dinas, 2009) • Pupils’ heritage languages are a hindrance to the learning of Greek (Stamou & Dinas, 2009; Gkaintartzi, Kiliari & Tsokalidou, 2014; Ζaga, Kesidou & Mattheoudakis , 2014) • Legitimisation of the Greek language as the only school language (Gkaintartzi, Kiliari & Tsokalidou, 2014). • Vast majority of teachers: Greek should be exclusively used at bilingual learners’ homes (Mitakidou & Daniilidou, 2007)

  5. Teachers and bilingualism in other countries • Similar views and practices observed in other parts of the world, e.g. France (Υoung 2014), the UK (Biggs & Edwards 1991; Foley et al. 2013), the USA (Lee & Oxelson 2006) • Although positive towards maintenance of their pupils’ heritage languages, it is the immigrant communities’ responsibility • Discrepancy between that their positive views on a theoretical level and their less positive teaching practices (Ramos 2001; Mora 1999)

  6. Research questions (1) • What are the participating teachers’ attitudes towards the use of learners’ ethnic languageat home? • What are theirattitudestowardsthe use of learners’ ethnic language in class? • What are their beliefs about learners’ interest in school? • What are their beliefs regarding learners’ school performance? • Do teachers modify their teaching practices to accommodate for their bilingual learners? • Do they try to include elements of their learners’ culture and language in their lesson?

  7. Research questions (2) • Is there any relation between teachers’ beliefs about their learners’ interest or performance at school and • their attitudes towards the use of L1 at home or at school? • their attitudes towards language maintenance? • theirteaching practices?

  8. Research instrument & methodology • Questionnaire : the full questionnaire included 19 basic questions • Aimed to investigate: • teachers’ profile (e.g. educational background, years of teaching experience), • their students’ profile (e.g. country of origin), • teachers’ attitudes and classrooms practices • Three researchers in the respective cities • Over the period October 2013-May 2014.

  9. Teachers’ profile

  10. Participants (N=85) • They all work in Greek state schools in • Thessaloniki (60 teachers), • Ioannina (16 teachers) • Athens (9 teachers) • 50 women and 26 men (the rest did not provide a response) • 60% of participants: 45+ years old 30.5%: 36-45 9.41%: 25-35

  11. Educational background and teaching experience • 50% of teachers: 20+ years of teaching experience • 35%: 11-20 years • 14%: 1-10 years • All participants hold a relevant University degree • 15participants: postgraduate degree

  12. Participants (N=85) • 39 of them have some sort of specialization in issues of intercultural education (IE) or teaching Greek as a second or foreign language.

  13. RESULTS PART I.Teachers’ attitudes

  14. Teachers’ attitudes towards ethnic language use at home [A] I don’t think it is bad for them to use the other language at home. Acquisition of Greek is not negatively affected. [B] I don’t mind which language my students and their families use at home. It is a different issue, however, whether this situation affects the acquisition process of one or both languages [C] Every family can choose freely to speak any language they want at home. However, I think that it would be best for children if parents used more frequently or exclusively Greekat home. [D] I believe that foreign families should speak only Greek at home, otherwise their children will not learn Greek well enough.

  15. Most informants chose the most ‘open-minded’ answer, However, 38,6%of the sample expressed doubts as to the positive outcome of bilingual development and 10.8% of them would prefer their students to speak Greek at home .

  16. Do bilingual students use their ethnic language during class?

  17. Teachers’ attitudes towards ethnic languageuse in class

  18. What do you do when this happens?

  19. Teachers’ attitudes towards the use of other languages in class (n=12)

  20. Teachers’ attitudes towards ethnic language maintenance among immigrant families A. Ι think it’s goodthat immigrant or repatriated families want to maintain their language. The Greek state should support their efforts by offering, for instance, courses on their native language for interested students B. Ι think it’s good that immigrant or repatriated families want to maintain their language. However, it is not the responsibility of the Greek state to help them but rather of their countries of origin C. I don’t’ understand why someone would insist on maintaining their language, since they have decided to live in another country. These families should primarily promote the acquisition of Greek among their children, any other choice will cause problems

  21. (N=82) Nearly everyone is positive about language maintenance but they disagree about the involvement of the Greek state

  22. Teachers’ beliefs about differences between monolingual and bilingual students with regard to their interest in school A. No, there are no differences. Any differences are probably due to personal or other factors. Β. No differences between bilingual students who were born here or came to Greece before elementary school and their Greek peers. The majority of late-comers, however, show reduced interestcompared with their monolingual peers. C. Yes, generally bilingual students show reduced interest compared with their monolingual peers of the same social class.

  23. Beliefs about bilingual students’ interest (N=84)

  24. Teachers’ beliefs about differences between monolingual and bilingual students with regard to their school performance A. No, there are nodifferences. Any differences are probably due to personal or other factors B. Bilingual students who were born or came to Greece before elementary school have no differences in their performance compared with their peers. The majority of late-comers, however, show reduced performance compared with their monolingual peers C. Yes, generally bilingual students show reduced performance compared with their monolingual peers of the same social class

  25. Beliefs about bilingual students’ school performance (N=84)

  26. RESULTS PART II. Teachers’ practices

  27. Teaching modifications in order to help bilingual students who are not fluent in Greek (N= 83) • Α. No, mybilingualstudentscanspeakGreekquitewellandtheydon’tneedspecialtreatment. • Β. No, I don’thavetimetodealwithspecificcases. I havetogoonwithmylessons; otherwisetherestoftheclasswillfallbehind. • C. Yes, I do everything I can.

  28. Teachers who claimed to modify their practices (n=40) chose various of the following actions: • I give them shorter texts to learn and easier exercises. 55% • In History or Social Studies class, I explain the basic vocabulary of the unit up front or ask them to use a dictionary. 27.5% • I ask them to learn only the basic points of the lesson. 55% • I give them more/ different grammar exercises so they can train on the parts they have difficulty in. 45% • When I deliver the content, I use many hands-on materials and advanced organizers to help them understand the lesson as well. 37.5% • I pay attention to the language I use so that bilingual students can understand me as well. I paraphrase words or use synonyms. 95%

  29. Use of elements of the language and culture of bilingual students during the lesson (N=79) • Α. Yes, often. I try to integrate elements of their cultural background in several aspects of their school life. • B. Rarely. I may ask them to tell me a word or a poem in their language • C. No, I don’t think it is necessary. Besides, I can’t speak their language.

  30. Results regarding correlations

  31. Teachers’ beliefs about learners’ interest in school: an influential factor (1) • Significant relations were found between teachers’ beliefs about bilingual learners’ interest in school and theirattitudes towards the use of ethnic language and home • Those who believe that bilingual learners show reduced interest in school had significantly more negative attitudes towards the use of ethnic languages at home (p=0.014) • Significant relations were found between teachers’ beliefs about bilingual learners’ interest in school and their attitudes towards language maintenance • Those who believe that bilingual learners show reduced interest in school had significantly more negative attitudes towards maintenance of ethnic languages (p=0.024)

  32. Teachers’ beliefs about learners’ interest in school: an influential factor (2) • Significant relations were found between teachers’ beliefs regarding bilingual learners’ interest in school and their efforts to modify their teaching to accommodate for bilingual learners • Those who believe that bilingual learners show reduced interest in school make significantly fewer efforts to modify their teaching practices (p=0.002)

  33. Teachers’ beliefs about learners’ performance: no statistically significant results • No statistically significant results were found between teachers’ beliefs about learners’ performance a school and • their attitudes towards language maintenance • their attitudes towards the use of L1 at home or at school • their teaching practices

  34. Discussion (1/5) Discussion RQ1: Regarding the participants’ attitudes towards the use of learners’ ethnic languageat home the sample is divided neatly in two: • nearly half the teachers claim to see no harm in families’ using their ethnic languages at home; • the rest acknowledge the immigrants’ right to maintain their languages but fear the potentially harmful effect on the acquisition of Greek (more than one third even suggest that Greek should be used most of the time) • Bilingual learners’ language: a potential hindrance to the acquisition of Greek (Stamou & Dinas, 2009; Gkaintartzi, Kiliari & Tsokalidou, 2014)

  35. Discussion (2/5) RQ2: Regarding the participants’ attitudes towards the use of learners’ ethnic languageat school? Few teachers (n=12) claim to have observed such behaviour in class. • Six encourage it because they believe in it as a good practice, • three use it as a strategy for newcomers’ sake and • three claim they are indifferent to it. Not really promising results regarding the acceptance and use of plurilingualism

  36. Discussion (3/5) RQ 3: Regarding the participants’ beliefs about learners’ interest in school • Seven out of ten participants (70%) do not see any differences between indigenous and bilingual students on account of their background. • One quarter of the participants consider most newly arrived students less involved RQ 4: Regarding the participants’ beliefs about learners’ performance in school • Six out of ten participants (59%) do not see any differences between indigenous and bilingual students on account of their background • One quarter of the participants consider most newly arrived students less successful in general

  37. Discussion (4/5) • RQ 5: Regarding their efforts to modify their teaching practices • About half of them claim that they do everything in their capacity to accommodate for their bilingual students • About half of them believe that they don’t do anything because their bilingual learners do not need it. • A very low percentage (1.1%) state that they don’t do anything because of lack of time. • Most popular teaching practices: paraphrasing words or use of synonyms , shorter texts, focus on basic points

  38. Discussion (5/5) • RQ 6: Regarding their efforts to integrate elements of learners’ cultural background in the lesson • The majority (48.1%) replied negatively but a large number (41.8%) said that they often try to; The rest of them do not find it necessary • RQ 7: Teachers’ beliefs about learners’ interest in school: the most important variable as it is the only one which gave statistically significant results with relation to • their attitudes towards the use of ethnic language and home, • their attitudes towards language maintenance, and • their efforts to modify their teaching to accommodate for bilinguals

  39. Conclusion • Teachers’ attitudes towards learners’ use of ethnic language at home and at school are not particularly encouraging; they point towards the need for further training • Creese & Blackledge (2008) used the term ‘separate bilingualism’ to describe lg classrooms where teachers insist on the use of the majority language only • Teachers’ claims regarding their efforts to modify their practices for the bilingual learners’ benefit sound promising; however, we are not sure whether this holds true in real practice (cf. Ramos 2001 and Mora 1999) • What teachers believe about learners’ interest at school seems to be quite important as they seem to affect their teaching practices in relation to those learners.

  40. Thank you!

  41. REFERENCES • Biggs, A.P. and Edwards, Viv. 1991. ‘I treat them all the same’: teacher-pupil talk in multiethnic classrooms. Language and Education, vol.5, No.3, pp.? • Castro, A. (2010). Themes in the research on pre-service teachers’ views of cultural diversity: Implications for researching millennial pre-service teachers. Educational Researcher, 39(3), 198-210. •  Gkaintartzi, A., Kiliari, A., & Tsokalidou, R. (2014). “Invisible” bilingualism—“invisible” language ideologies: Greek teachers’ attitudes towards immigrant students’ heritage languages. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 17(3), 111–123. • Gkaintartzi, A., & Tsokalidou, R. (2011). “She is a very good child but she doesn’t speak”: The invisibility of children’s bilingualism and teacher ideology. Journal of Pragmatics, 43, 588–601.

  42. Foley, Yvonne , Sangster, Pauline & Charles Anderson (2013) Examining EAL policy and practice in mainstream schools, Language and Education, 27:3, 191-206. DOI: 10.1080/09500782/2012/687747 • Lee, S.J. & E. Oxelson (2006) ‘’It’s not my job’’: K-12 teacher attitudes toward students’ heritage language maintenance. Bilingual Research Journal, 30(2): 453-477 • Llurda, E. & D. Lasagabaster (2010). Factors affecting teachers’ beliefs about interculturalism. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 20(3): 327-353.7363jal_0 • Young, Andrea. 2014. ‘’Unpacking teachers’ language ideologies: attitudes, beliefs, and practiced language policies in schools in Alsace, France’’. Language Awareness, 23 (1-2): 157-171. DOI: 10.1080/09658416.2013.863902

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