There is no official language policy document in Greece at the present time. The issue of regional, minority and immigrant languages is politically sensitive (Kiliari, 2009) as it intersects with discussions about immigration flow and control. Although there are examples of schools offering education in Turkish in the Thrace area this is presented as provision for the Muslim minority with no reference explicitly made to the language of this community in a policy document. Greece did not sign the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in 1992 and appears to be among several EU countries unable to sign according to restrictions in the constitution governing their country. There is an indication that a language policy may be developed soon governing foreign languages and a survey has been set up by the Ministry of Education which addresses the need for ‘promoting heritage languages of foreign and repatriated students’ (www.diapolis.auth.gr, 2011).

Languages offered in pre-primary education

Languages offered in primary education

There is no compulsory state provision in foreign languages at pre-primary level, although foreign languages are introduced at the primary stage and taken very seriously. There is considerable investment from the state sector and through extra private provision. The results do not adequately reflect the amount of investment at this stage in either the Greek language or foreign languages. It is also at primary level that Turkish is offered in schools in the Thrace region for the established population from the various population exchanges between Greece and Turkey. There are more than 200 schools offering Turkish at primary level although that has decreased in recent years. By secondary level this reduces to less than ten (Συντονιστικό Γραφείο Μειονοτικών Σχολείων - Coordination Office of Minority Schools, 2011). English remains dominant as the default foreign language offered. We found that there is a wish to provide more languages beyond English, French and German (the latter two also being available). There is limited teacher training provision in Italian, Spanish, some Balkan languages and Turkish though little provision in state schools. Immigrant languages remain unrepresented in this sector and we found evidence that many are taught within the communities themselves.

Languages offered in secondary education

A significant number of hours are devoted to the learning of foreign languages in secondary education with great emphasis on passing language examinations, often with extra provision being financed by families. English is the compulsory language with other foreign languages (French, German, Italian and Spanish) being optional. There is some evidence of experimental CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) in a state school in Thessaloniki with English as the language of instruction. Additionally, multimedia applications (such as ''Xenios'') and new technologies are being implemented as part of a cross-curricular approach to foreign language teaching (Tangas, 2006). Immigrant languages remain unrepresented in this sector.

Languages offered across 3 VET institutions in Greece

Languages offered across 3 higher education institutions in Greece

Vocational Education and Training (VET) institutions appear to function primarily in Greek and where there is language provision it is largely focused on English. The VET institution surveyed in Athens implemented a large number of training programmes in the Greek language for refugees, immigrants, and repatriates offered by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security. In total 15 programmes of 300 hours each were implemented for 323 refugees, immigrants and repatriates who then took an examination for the certificate of attainment in Greek organised by the Centre of Greek Language. We experienced significant problems accessing data on VET institutions which appeared to be in transition and were going through an inspection by the Department of Education at the time. 

Universities demonstrate much wider diversity of languages which is likely influenced by programmes like Erasmus. There are initiatives to cater for students coming from different countries but also offering learning opportunities to Greek students in different languages, both European and non-European. There is evidence of experimental practice in schools which is generated by university departments (e.g. the CLIL project in Thessaloniki is headed by Aristotle University of Thessaloniki).

Languages offered in audiovisual media and press across 3 cities in Greece

New language communities are not given official airtime on television and radio although they are not prevented from utilising the airwaves. Films are streamed using subtitles and dubbing is extremely rare other than in children’s provision. Additionally, a small number of hours of news are accompanied by sign language (as required by Greek Law N. 2328/1995 (ΦΕΚ Α' 159/3-8-1995). We found a wide array of newspapers sold in different languages demonstrating slippage between real populations and those officially recognised. The variation was greatest in the capital city of Athens. 

Languages offered in public services and spaces across 3 cities in Greece (N ≥ 2)

We had significant difficulty obtaining the data for this set at a time of political and economic upheaval. There appears to be a lack of systematic policy for dealing with other languages in relation to seeking and provision of public services. Where provision is available, we found that it is ad hoc. English appears to be dominant in these settings. There is an expectation on public service users that they are both conversant and literate in Greek. 

Languages other than English offered in business across 24 companies in Greece (N ≥ 2)

Foreign languages are highly sought after in the business sector and are considered essential rather than desirable. However, in the businesses surveyed, little attention seems to be paid to the value of recruiting employees with knowledge of immigrant languages although the pragmatic use of most Balkan languages can be seen in communication due to strong business and commerce links with neighbouring countries. Where these languages are not present in the workplace, English is used as a default lingua franca and the highest value appears to be attached to a fluent working knowledge of English as a result. Few businesses have a policy to explicitly reward knowledge of languages or structures to support multilingualism. This may exist more widely than captured by the data but is not perceived in terms of multilingualism.

There is significant and long term investment in the learning of foreign languages in Greece. A diversity of other languages is also spoken deriving from the Balkans and other parts of the world but there is little discussion of this as it is tied to debates about immigration. We experienced an overall reluctance to provide data in most domains which we believe to be partly due to unfamiliarity with research of this kind but also due to our intervention at the peak of the economic crisis with the country in a state of alert. The issue of multilingualism was not perceived by many potential data providers as a priority. There is clearly a need to address Greek monolingualism in state and public services and the dominance of English is of concern throughout all domains. The lack of key agencies working on multilingualism either in the state or NGO sector may be a barrier to this as the responsibility currently falls to individual academics and researchers and other community organizations. Such organisations might ordinarily focus on widening participation and representation of different linguistic communities - we found no evidence of these kinds of initiatives during the data collection. 

Regarding regional and minority languages in primary education we found evidence of two programmes at Aristotle University in Thessaloniki which offer help to schools with repatriates, immigrants and Roma students. This was the only time the Roma community was represented in our data set. The survey to promote heritage languages is also a very promising initiative. Ministry of Education/university partnerships offer one month Modern Greek language and culture courses for foreign students, teachers of Greek and Greek scholars. Scholarships are available for Greek students to study in the EU and other countries and attend undergraduate, postgraduate and foreign language seminars. The State Scholarship Foundation (IKY) awards mobility scholarships to students and teaching staff encouraging their contact with other education systems and their familiarization with the culture and language of another European country (Eurydice 2009/10: 222-223). This is as of 2010 and may have changed with the onset of the economic crisis.

Coordination Office of Minority Schools 

http://syntonistiko.compulaw.gr/ [Accessed 2nd December 2011]

Eurostat 

http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/tgm/table.do?tab=table&language=en&pcode=tps00001&tableSelection=1&footnotes=yes&labeling=labels&plugin=1 [Accessed 2nd December 2011]

Hannam, S. and Papathanasiou, E. (2011) Current Issues and Trends in Language Education in Greece: A Brief Overview. In Towards a Language Rich Europe - Multilingual essays on language policies and practices, British Council.

Kiliari, A. (2009) Language Practice in Greece: The Effects of European Policy on Multilingualism. In European Journal of Language Policy. 1/1. pp. 21-28.

Tangas, P. (2006) Multimedia and Foreign Language Teaching: the Case of Greece. In Grabe, D. & Zimmemann, L. (eds), Multimedia Applications in Education Conference Proceedings 2006, FH JOANNEUM, Graz, Austria, pp.139-48. Available from: http://pek-patras.ach.sch.gr/docs/yliko0910/Multimedia_and_Foreign_Language_Teaching_the_Case_of_Greece_Tagkas.pdf [Accessed 5th December 2011]