Plenary Speakers
Plenary Speakers included:
• Bessie Dendrinos, Professor in the Department of Language and Linguistics, Faculty of English, University of Athens
• Marina Matthaioudaki, Assoc. Professor in the Department of Applied and Theoretical Linguistics, School of English, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
• Roula Tsokalidou, Assoc. Professor in the Department of Early Childhood Education, School of Pedagogy, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
• Kia Karava, Asst. Professor in the Department of Language and Linguistics, Faculty of English, University of Athens
• Thomai Alexiou, Lecturer in the Department of Applied and Theoretical Linguistics, School of English, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
• Keti Zouganeli, Teacher and Teacher Trainer, associate of the PEAP project.
Overview
The Ministry of Education, wishing to reform education and adopting recommendations by the European Commission that regard Early Language Learning (ELL) as a factor contributing to multilingualism, introduced, in 2010-11, English to 1st grade primary school pupils, on an experimental basis, in 800 of the largest state primary schools in the country.
The project expanded in 2011-12 to include 161 more schools operating as ‘all-day’ schools. As a result 40% of 1st and 2nd grade pupils in Greece had their first experience in English language learning from an early age.
The English for Young Learners programme was very successful and, as of this school year, it will be implemented in all primary schools.
Early Language Learning has long been debated in the academic circles. As Marianne Nikolov stated, there are the pros and the cons.
The pros are that children who learn to speak another language early in life have an easier time grasping the vocabulary, grammar, and nuances of both languages.
It has also been shown that these same students will be able to move on to learning a third and a fourth language just as easily.
Also as the world shrinks and everything becomes more global in nature, it is going to become ever more important to be able to communicate in more than one language.
