If you’ve been following my summer musings you’ll know that I’m on a tiny island in Greece doing research for my MA. This involves interviewing Greek nationals about how and why they’ve learned English, and to comment on the situation in Greece in general as regards the influence of the English language.
They are asked to describe what Benson (1) calls their ‘language learning career’. I’d read in other research papers that some people can be a bit reticent about telling their life stories, but (at the risk of essentialising again) not the Greeks, it seems. In fact I’ve had quite the opposite problem : disgruntled people saying ‘So when are you going to interview ME?!’
So I’ve ended up with more data than I actually need for the assignment. But all of it valuable and in Holliday’s (2) words ‘rich’.
Some people stay on the island all year round, and others come only for some months, usually in the summer. They are from all over the country, and are of all ages and from all walks of life. As a result I’ve been privileged enough to hear lots of different and fascinating stories.
Participants had to be minimum CEFR B2. Although they were not selected on this basis, all of the people I interviewed had had private English lessons, either at a language school (frontistirio) or one to one. All of them had taken and passed the Cambridge First Certificate exam when they were teenagers.
Below is a random taster of some of the quotes from the interviews:
How were your English lessons different in the private school (frontistirio) from the state school?
– “Like night and day.” (Fay, baker)
What were lessons like in the state school?
– “In Greece, if you don’t do your reading or homework…it’s OK!” (Cassiopeia, student)
– “We did nothing. It was a play hour.” (Dimitris, unemployed)
– “I remember my friend…he used to come out of the desk and start doing push ups in the middle of the class.” (Panagiotis, economist)
– “When I was a girl…there wasn’t an option. They didn’t have English lessons…Nothing.” (Hannah, artisan)
What were lessons like in the frontistirio?
– “There it was very serious.” (Dimitris)
– “We were doing more interesting stuff like music and movies” (Costas, student)
– “I remember the first book we had. There was a character called ‘Tricky Dicky’ haha!- but we didn’t know what that meant then!. It was a nice book…nice pictures.” (Babis, student)
– “I had a very good teacher…He was good at teaching the pronunciation, how to speak with the nose and stuff like this…” (Hannah)
Why do Greek parents send their children to frontistiria?
– “Greek society. You do what your neighbour is doing.” (Babis)
– “The (state) education system in general is problematic.” (Costas)
What else helped you to learn English?
– “Music! Music!” (Eleni, psychologist)
– “Songs! songs!” (Hannah)
– “English girls! English girls!” (George, shopkeeper)
– “Oh yes I had an English girlfriend. I forgot that!” (Panagiotis)
When you speak English do you feel you behave in a different way?
– “Yes of course. It’s not me. I’m Hellenic.” (Vasilis, businessman)
– “I cannot make jokes or be that clever in English…I don’t have that sort of connection as I have in Greek.” (Costas)
– “Yes! My flatmate told me that and for me it was like a shock because I didn’t realise!” (Anna, nursery school teacher)
Who do you use English with now?
– “Just YOU! The interviewer!” (George)
What is ‘Greeklish’?
– “It’s like poison” (Fay)
– “I LOVE Greeklish!” (Costas)
————
Much much more to come. Watch this space…
A big thanks and a big kiss to all my new friends from the island who participated. You are the best!
References:
- Benson, P. (2011). Language Learning Careers as an Object of Narrative Research in TESOL. TESOL Quarterly Vol 45. No. 3 pp545-553
- Holliday, A. (2016). Doing and Writing Qualitative Research. London: Sage
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