Multicultural awareness through English: An opportunity for repositioning TESOL in Greek schools

Maria Ntavaliagkou, Richard J. Fay, Vally Lytra

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

Greek society is rapidly becoming more culturally diverse and complex, a dynamic process with inherent challenges and opportunities especially for compulsory education. A newly-articulated discourse of multicultural awareness is evident in the recently reformed Cross-Thematic Curriculum Framework (CTCF). In our area of the curriculum, Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), direction is also provided through the disciplinary discussion of new teaching paradigm possibilities reflecting varied purposes for the teaching of English. In Greece, TESOL is typically seen in terms of the Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) paradigm. However, the rapidly increasing multicultural character of Greek society may be better addressed if the TEFL practice were to be repositioned towards what we term Multicultural Awareness Through English (MATE). In this paper, having briefly outlined the TESOL context in Greek state schools, we first outline what is involved in the MATE paradigm and then illustrate how some existing TEFL materials can be repositioned towards this newer paradigm.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationCLIE 2008 (1st Conference on Linguistic and Intercultural Education): Multilingualism and Plurilingualism, Migrants’ languages, Minority Languages, 27- 29 November 2008, Alba Iulia, Romania
Pages362-374
Number of pages13
Publication statusPublished - 28 Nov 2008
EventCLIE 2008 (1st Conference on Linguistic and Intercultural Education): Multilingualism and Plurilingualism, Migrants’ languages, Minority Languages - Alba Iulia, Romania
Duration: 26 Nov 200828 Nov 2008

Conference

ConferenceCLIE 2008 (1st Conference on Linguistic and Intercultural Education): Multilingualism and Plurilingualism, Migrants’ languages, Minority Languages
CityAlba Iulia, Romania
Period26/11/0828/11/08

Keywords

  • TESOL paradigms, multicultural awareness through English

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Multicultural awareness through English: An opportunity for repositioning TESOL in Greek schools'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this