Abstract
AbstractThis paper presents data from two studies—a nationwide quantitative research and an ethnographic study—on immigrant parents’ perspectives about heritage language maintenance and education in Greek state schools. The quantitative data come from a large-scale questionnaire survey, which aimed at the investigation of the needs and requirements for the implementation of a pilot programme teaching immigrant languages in Greek state schools. The findings regarding immigrant parents’ perspectives provide an updated, comprehensive view on how they perceive and respond to the issue of the support and teaching of their heritage languages within the Greek context. Complementing and enhancing those findings, the qualitative data from the ethnographic study, through the analysis of immigrant parents’ semi-structured interviews, provides important insights into aspects of the parents’ complex sociolinguistic reality, thus offering an in-depth understanding and interpretation of their language views.
Highlights
In the last decades of the twentieth century, Greece has become a migrant-receiving country, with flows of immigrants coming from former socialist countries of central and eastern Europe and, most recently, from Asia (China, Pakistan, Afghanistan, etc.) and African countries
The study The present study presents a synthesis of quantitative data, which come from a large-scale questionnaire survey, investigating immigrant parents’ views towards the teaching of heritage languages in Greek state schools, with qualitative data on parents’ language views
The underlying belief could be that the inclusion of their heritage languages in the state school curriculum would attribute prestige to their languages, a belief that could be deduced from the qualitative data drawn from the ethnographic study, which will be presented later
Summary
In the last decades of the twentieth century, Greece has become a migrant-receiving country, with flows of immigrants coming from former socialist countries of central and eastern Europe and, most recently, from Asia (China, Pakistan, Afghanistan, etc.) and African countries. Research data reveal that Albanian immigrant parents express positive attitudes towards language maintenance and literacy development, they do not engage in specific language management practices, revealing a degree of ambivalence with regard to the further encouragement and support of the heritage language (Chatzidaki & Maligkoudi, 2013). The research aimed at investigating the main question, which was placed by the Ministry, with regard to the needs and conditions for teaching the heritage languages of foreign and repatriate students, who attend Greek state schools in Primary and Secondary Education. The needs and wishes of foreign and repatriate students and their families were investigated, concerning the support of their heritage languages through courses in the Greek state school, as well as the views and attitudes of Greek teachers in Primary and Secondary Education. Most participant parents (85.2%) were 26– 45 years old and the majority of them (56. 3%) were women
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
