Language Tools and Computer Assisted Second Language Learning: Teaching Greek in the Primary Schools of the Turkish- speaking Minority of Thrace Anna Iordanidou Maria Tzevelekou

Aim of the paper: Overview of the process of introducing educational technology for teaching Greek as a second language to Muslim Minority children in Thrace (Greece), within the framework of the project “Education for the Muslim Minority Children”.

Turkish speaking children  Enter bilingual minority schools at the age of 5 and remain there till the age of 12, where half of the courses are taught in Turkish and the other half in Greek.  Are exposed to Greek lesser in villages, more in cities.

Computer Assisted Education  arguments against:  Incongruity of introduction of “advanced” device in an area with high degree of illiteracy, poverty and isolation.  Computer inhibits socialization and puts aside the relation between teacher and student.  arguments for:  Social conflicts are temporarily suspended and children can work at their own rhythm, receiving immediate feedback.  Children can play with the data and learn to navigate.

Design of the system  In order to draw children’s attention and help them conceive the idea that words are systematically modified according to their function in a particular context, author E. Trivizas created:  story of quest  a knight, in order to decipher the messages of his beloved princess, has to gain a certain number of letters and words. Letters and words come to his possession after he has undergone certain “ordeals” (grammar, phonetic and vocabulary exercises).  episodes  each episode is based on certain specific phenomena of Greek, predetermined by a syllabus. For instance, a certain episode is designed in order to present the inflection of neuter nouns. Each episode is also articulated, at the phonetic level, on minimal pairs of neighboring phonemes, like /θ/ and /t/.

Modules of the system Text Translation Exercises Grammar Dictionary

Monolingual (Greek) dictionary for Turkish-speaking students 1. different grammatical category – different entries L1: αγαπάω/ώ L2 : αγάπη 2. different use – different entries  Adjectives used as nouns: L1 (ADJ) άγιος, άγια, άγιο, L2 (NOUN) ο άγιος, η αγία  Participles used as adjectives: L1 (VERB) λυπάμαι, L2 (ADJ) λυπημένος, L1 (VERB) θλίβομαι, L2 (ADJ) θλιμμένος 3. different style – different entries  oμιλώ (FORMAL) – μιλώ (INFORMAL)

Entry Lemma Basic unit of each entry is the Entry Lemma (EL):  Single word unit  Multiword unit ( παιδική χαρά, μακριά γαϊδούρα, ιπτάμενο δελφίνι, ηλεκτρονικός υπολογιστής, το γλεντάω, ρίχνω άδεια να πιάσω γεμάτα, φάε τη γλώσσα σου, βγαίνω από τα ρούχα μου, μου τη δίνει, στα γρήγορα, ψιλά γράμματα, βρέξει χιονίσει )

Entry Lemma: Informations 1. Morphological  Grammatical category  Gender [ο άνθρωπος – the man, ο καλός, η καλή, το καλό – the (masculine) good, the (feminine) good, the (neuter) good]  Inflection [grammatical comment pointing to inflectional irregularities – reference to inflectional paradigm] 2. Pragmatic 3. Domain [scientific terms]

Sense (1) Sublemma form = a given sense is not applied to the whole paradigm of the EL, but it is limited to certain forms: αποδοχή [acceptance]  αποδοχές [wages], κουτί  του κουτιού, βρέχω  βρέχει, αγαπάω/ώ  αγαπιόμαστε Definition Each definition presents the situation in which a sense is normally used, placing the word in a typical syntactic and pragmatic structure: Αποκλείουμε κάποιον από ένα διαγωνισμό, έναν αγώνα κτλ. όταν δεν τον αφήνουμε να πάρει μέρος σε αυτόν [we exclude someone from a competition, a game etc. when we prevent them from taking part to it]

Sense (2) Syntax Explicit information on the syntactic structure of a sense is complementary to the definition. Pragmatics At the level of the sense encoding, pragmatic information labels refer to the main distinction Formal / Informal.

Sense (3) Examples They obligatorily accompany each sense and illustrate its most typical syntactic structures. Syntax Explicit information on the syntactic structure of a sense is complementary to the definition. The model has provided for the assignment of synonyms and antonyms to the examples and not to the sense as a whole.

αρρωσταίνωΛΜπΛΤρ όταν αρρωσταίνουμε,, η κατάσταση της υγείας μας δεν είναι καλή, και συνήθως έχουμε πυρετό ή πονάμε προσβάλλομαι από νόσο, παθαίνω κάποια ασθένεια όπου αρρώστια: η ασθένεια (για άνθρωπο ή ζώο) προσβάλλομαι από αρρώστια, είμαι άρρωστος, ασθενής όπου αρρώστια: η ασθένεια· νόσος αθωότηταΛΜπΛΤρ όταν κάποιος αποδεικνύει την αθωότητά του, δείχνει με στοιχεία ότι δεν έκανε αυτό για το οποίο τον κατηγορούν η ιδιότητα του αθώου η ιδιότητα του αθώου ανθρώπου Definitions

Concluding remarks The above-presented CALL systems are used experimentally. The situation does not allow a proper and objective evaluation with respect to the target group. The integration of language tools to a multimedia educational system should be supported both by a technical infrastructure and by a continuing professional development of the teachers.