Διαδρομές στη διδασκαλία της νέας ελληνικής: Courses

The aim of the course you attend is to help you understand the characteristics of teaching, so that you can fully realize the ways in which you can teach Modern Greek abroad in the most effective way. Apart from the subject matter of the subject they teach, teachers must also be aware of the ways in which they can transfer their knowledge to their students, so that teaching will always be appropriate and effective.

The aim of this unit is to provide a concise and complete presentation of the issues that are related to course design and syllabuses. The unit begins with general issues and proceeds to more specific ones. First of all, it defines the term syllabus and, then, deals with the parameters that are taken into account in the designing of syllabuses. The unit briefly refers to the fact that every syllabus reflects the designer’s viewpoints about the teaching procedure and allows the teacher to decide whether he/she wants to adopt them and apply them in the classroom. Next, there is a section about the importance of syllabuses and the help they can offer the teacher. After the discussion of these theoretical issues, there is a brief presentation of the most important syllabuses that have been used in teaching. The last section of this unit refers to the relationship syllabuses have to course books and the realization of the lesson.

A successful learning environment supports the learner’s wish to reach the expected level of language learning. This unit focuses on how this aim can be achieved. Should we accept only one kind of learning environment as appropriate for all learners and teachers or should we accept various choices that may function at different levels but can be equally correct and effective? To what extent is a teacher responsible for the creation and formation of these choices?

This unit will answer these questions by focusing on a series of issues. The first part of the unit deals with possible ways of setting the roles of both teachers and learners in the classroom as well as with the connection of these ways with various kinds of teaching and teacher-learner interaction. The second part deals in detail with the language teachers should use in the classroom in various communicative circumstances, e.g. when they give instructions or explanations. The third part examines the factors that teachers must take into consideration when they assign group projects to learners and the fourth part touches upon learners’ discipline problems and possible solutions. The final part concerns the necessity of analyzing learners’ needs so that the teacher can plan a successful lesson.

Comprehension of language input consists of two skills: comprehension of spoken language (or listening comprehension) and comprehension of written language (or reading comprehension). These skills are referred to as receptive skills since the learner receives messages from a spoken or written text. However, the fact that they are receptive skills does not mean that learners have a passive role towards the texts they read or listen to. On the contrary, they are asked to comprehend and process these texts interacting with them through a series of activities.

This unit begins by referring to the features of reading and listening comprehension with a special emphasis on the similarities and differences one can trace between the two skills. The unit then deals with the difficulties learners face when they are involved in these skills and suggests solutions teachers can apply to face these problems effectively. Finally, the unit presents the aims of teaching comprehension skills, the learning strategies learners must employ to cope with the requirements of these skills, and the activities teachers can design to achieve the aims of the lesson.

Production of language consists of production of spoken language and production of written language (speaking and writing skills). Cultivating and developing speaking and writing skills is one of the most important aims in the foreign language classroom. In this unit we will attempt to define the features of these skills, the difficulties learners face when using them and the solutions teachers can offer in the classroom. The first part of the unit deals with the features of the two productive skills. Our aim is, through these features, to trace the similarities and differences between spoken and written language so that teachers of Modern Greek can focus on teaching these features. The second part presents the difficulties faced by learners when using these skills and the ways in which these difficulties can be overcome. The next part refers to the aim of teaching productive skills in the foreign language classroom as well as to the strategies and activities a teacher can use in the classroom in order to help learners cope with difficulties they may face and develop these communicative skills as fully as possible.

Evaluation