Over the past few years, perceptions about disability Á at least at the theoretical level Á have been shifted toward a more progressive approach, which stresses the social aspects of the construction of disability (social model) rather than personal limitations, as supported by the traditional disability approach (medicalÁ individual model). Drawing upon the sociosemiotic approach as developed by Kress and van Leeuwen, the present study examines from a comparative perspective the representations about disability and people with disabilities, as emerging from the drawings produced by 4th grade Greek primary school children. The sample consists of two groups of children. Group A does not share the same school environment with schoolchildren with special education needs, while group B shares the same school surroundings with students attending a special education needs School. The comparative analysis of their drawings indicates that children of both groups reproduce the dominant meanings they receive from their direct social environment.

This study identified and recorded students' learning skills and strategies in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and a Language Other than English (LOTE) in a multilingual learning context, the Department of Balkan Studies at the University of Western Macedonia, in Greece. A self-report questionnaire was employed investigating the students' language learning needs in the receptive and productive skills along with their language learning strategies. The findings indicated a considerable degree of awareness on multilingual learning along with a certain degree of flexibility in strategy use. Also, bilingual learners showed more strategic knowledge and a greater degree of metacognition in language skills. In result, it is suggested that the students should be provided with multilingual instruction to enhance their awareness and metacognitive strategic use in as many foreign languages (FLs) as possible.

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