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Teaching Greek as a Second Language to Adults of Refugee and Immigrant Backgrounds: The Case of the ‘Basic Communication Skills’ Program

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This paper presents data on Greek as a second language teaching and learning practices designed, implemented and evaluated in the ‘beginners’ Greek’ workshop for adult refugees and immigrants, which was run by the intra-university group for bilingualism and multiculturalism in education and society ‘Polydromo’, during the 2016-2017 academic year, in Greece. After introducing the theoretical principles and the fundamental target-setting, the paper focuses on the ‘Basic Communication Skills’ language-teaching program which was implemented using the action-research methodology within the framework of the ‘Create for Refugees’ project, and presents an analysis of a single teaching unit on Health. The description of teaching practices unfolding in this particular community framework is followed by the reflections of both the educator and the learners on these practices, in order to show their translanguagistic nature and particular interactive characteristics that collectively developed through the participation of all those involved. The paper concludes with an evaluation of the total teaching and research experience by highlighting the contribution of the second language literacy practices of the program in promoting not merely the learning of new language and communication skills for the learners, but also new ways of co-existence, collaboration and empowerment for all the participants in this particular learning community.
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In-Text Citation: (Kekia, 2022)
To Cite this Article: Kekia, A. M. (2022). Teaching Greek as a Second Language to Adults of Refugee and Immigrant Backgrounds: The Case of the ‘Basic Communication Skills’ Program. Multilingual Academic Journal of Education and Social Sciences, 10(1), 69–80.