Greek Language Policy, Curriculum and sign language skills

• Autor(a) principal: Mertzani, Maria
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por; eng
• Título da fonte: Signo (Santa Cruz do Sul. Online)
• Texto Completo: https://online.unisc.br/seer/index.php/signo/article/view/18896
• topic: Língua de sinais grega; Educação de surdos; Programas bilíngues; Currículo; Habilidades linguísticas; Greek Sign Language; Deaf education; Bilingual programs; Curriculum; Linguistic skills

There are many bilingual programs (strong and weak), which, usually, are not discussed in relation to the teaching and learning of signed languages, as certain categorization is employed. The study aimed at fulfilling this gap, by taking a historical-structural analysis of government policy texts in post-dictatorial Greece (from 1980 to the present). The focus is on early childhood education and on the two first years of elementary education. Hence, the study presents and discusses formal language learning choices and programs in Greece, in strong relation to the 2004 Greek Sign Language (GSL) Curriculum for the bilingual education of young deaf children in the kindergarten and the two first literacy years in primary education. In this examination, the GSL skills are analyzed, next to the linguistic objectives of the national curriculum for Greek (as an L1 and L2) and the other spoken languages (majority and minority), considering the contemporary landscape of the deaf students’ population in Greece. The focus is on the foundation and comprehension skills, which cross the national language curriculum. As linguistic policies are top-down imposed, following EU directives and global financial changes, the study calls for careful language planning and policy making for GSL as an L1 and L2 minority language, addressing the need for deaf constructing bilingual learners in a multilingual curriculum and through dual language programs.