Transnational experiences, language competences and worldviews: contrasting language policies in two recently migrated Greek families in Luxembourg

Kirsch, Claudine; Gogonas, Nikolaos

doi:10.1515/multi-2017-0017

Cited by 13 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Nevertheless, this study is important because it is the first one that regroups the perspectives of several actors on learning Greek in Luxembourg and that includes newly migrated families. As such, it contributes to the literature on Greek families in Luxembourg (Gogonas and Kirsch 2016;Gogonas 2019 in this volume; Kirsch and Gogonas 2018;Tsagkogeorga 2016) and gives tribute to the teachers, the parents and the children who engage in developing language skills and an understanding of Greek culture. Although a case study like this one is never representative, the present study encourages reflection on children's motives to attend complementary school, dominant language policies, and teaching approaches and, as such, it may open up new perspectives.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…They are among the 47,87% of the non-Luxembourgish citizens in 2018, with a total population of 602,005 on 1st January 2018 (STATEC 2018). The Greeks hope to find work on the wider job market and possibly to improve their children's educational opportunities (Kirsch and Gogonas 2018). Finding a new job may require language skills in two or even three of the country's official languages, Luxembourgish, French and German, sometimes in addition to English.…”

Section: The Greek Complementary School In Luxembourgmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Tsagkogeorga 2016). Furthermore, like parents in other studies, they invested in their children's learning of Greek by speaking Greek at home and sending them to a complementary school(Chatzidaki and Maligkoudi 2013;Kirsch and Gogonas 2018). While all mothers mentioned the development of Greek as a main reason for enrolling their children in the complementary school, only one mother referred to Greek culture.…”

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confidence: 90%

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Teachers’, Parents’ and Children’s Perspectives of Teaching and Learning Greek in a Complementary School in Luxembourg

Kirsch

2019

Inklusion Und Bildung in Migrationsgesellschaften

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Many scholars have been interested in studying patterns of language shift or language maintenance of migrants during their diaspora. One way of sustaining the development of a home language can be the attendance of a complementary school. This paper explores the differing perspectives on teaching and learning Greek in a complementary school in multilingual Luxembourg. The participants include the two teachers of this school, the mothers of three newly migrated families, and their children. The children are multilingual and attend the Greek complementary school once a week. The data, which stem from interviews with all participants, have been analysed thematically. The findings show that the children's understanding of the purpose of attending the school and their experiences within the school, varied with age and school friendships. The teachers were aware of the children's different levels of motivation, which they associated with language competence and opportunities for socialisation. Although they valued the children's multilingualism, they did not build on this their lessons which were underpinned by a monolingual policy. While the parents had high expectations regarding competence in Greek, and enrolled their children to develop this competence, they nevertheless did not seem to perceive Greek as an educational priority. The findings of this paper encourage teachers to reflect on their language policies and teaching approaches and encourage them to capitalise on their students' heterogeneity.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Section: The Greek Complementary School In Luxembourgmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 90%

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Teachers’, Parents’ and Children’s Perspectives of Teaching and Learning Greek in a Complementary School in Luxembourg

Kirsch

2019

Inklusion Und Bildung in Migrationsgesellschaften

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“…See alsoGogonas and Kirsch (2016) andKirsch and Gogonas (2018).4 Greek State Schools in Germany and the Impact of 'New' Migration…”

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confidence: 99%

Greek State Schools in Germany and the Impact of ‘New’ Migration

Chatzidaki

2022

IMISCOE Research Series

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This chapter reports on a qualitative study investigating a particular type of Greek-language education abroad, namely non-mixed or Greek state schools in Germany, and the impact ‘new’ migration has had on their operation. These schools (K-12) follow the Greek curricula and employ teachers seconded from the Greek Ministry of Education. They were originally set up in the 1970s as an educational setting which would help immigrant students in Germany to develop Greek language skills and a Greek ethnocultural identity, eventually facilitating transition in the case of repatriation. Their graduates have the additional benefit of gaining access to Greek universities with relatively low grades, and, as a result, such schools have been a popular option for Greek immigrant families for the last forty years. Following the decision of Greek authorities to start abolishing them in 2011, Greek non-mixed schools saw their students’ numbers wane. ‘New’ migration to Germany (post 2010), however, has led to an important rise in enrolments and a change in the student population profile. According to the findings of a small-scale exploratory study presented in this chapter, teachers in these schools perceive new arrivals as young people traumatised by the migration experience and in need of a familiar physical and symbolic setting. As a result, non-mixed schools are once again considered as important institutions in the current circumstances on the grounds that they offer their students a number of advantages.

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“…Palviainen and Boyd (2013) represented the first major attempt at using nexus analysis for this purpose, and have explicitly documented the potential for using nexus analysis as an analytical tool of metamethodology with the ability to reveal "the co-construction of FLP by the family members at a certain point in time and space" (p. 228). Kirsch and Gogonas (2018) also noted how nexus analysis proved helpful to "unpack the different layers and complexity of the parental discourse" (p. 160) in a study on the FLPs of Greek families in Luxembourg. Hult (2015) stated that nexus analysis is an inherently multiscalar approach.…”

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confidence: 99%

Parents’ and grandparents’ views on home language regimes: Language ideologies and trajectories of two multilingual families in Sweden

Soler

Roberts

2019

Critical Inquiry in Language Studies

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The authors investigate the sociolinguistic dynamics in multilingual families from the point of view of speakers' linguistic trajectories, ideologies, and repertoires. Drawing on interview data from intermarried couples of different generational and linguistic profiles of two families in Sweden, the authors examine how speakers' lived experience with different languages shapes their stance toward bi-and multilingualism and how that particular stance in turn produces a series of effects and helps constructing specific language ideological frameworks from where speakers in that given context operate. From our analysis, it appears that an ideology of the native speaker as the legitimate and authoritative type of speaker is strongly present; the native speaker is in turn the one responsible for transmitting his or her language to the children. This is problematized by the reported language mixing that occurs in the home environment and the resulting nonobservance of the one person-one language strategy. More important than that, we argue that speakers' ideological viewpoint in a social environment takes place dialogically and discursively. This has important consequences individually, for the speakers involved in that context, and collectively, for the type of framework that emerges.

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Transnational experiences, language competences and worldviews: contrasting language policies in two recently migrated Greek families in Luxembourg

Cited by 13 publications

References 34 publications

Teachers’, Parents’ and Children’s Perspectives of Teaching and Learning Greek in a Complementary School in Luxembourg

Teachers’, Parents’ and Children’s Perspectives of Teaching and Learning Greek in a Complementary School in Luxembourg

Greek State Schools in Germany and the Impact of ‘New’ Migration

Parents’ and grandparents’ views on home language regimes: Language ideologies and trajectories of two multilingual families in Sweden

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