Page 7 - ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ! ΓΙΑΤΙ ΟΧΙ; Βιβλίο Μαθητή

INTRODUCTION
“Greek! Why not?” is a comprehensive communicative course in Greek for young Australians who
would like to learn it as a foreign language. The book aims at equipping students with plenty of lan-
guage and at providing them with numerous opportunities for using it. The communicative,
contextualised and real-life situations the students are exposed to and find themselves in derive from
ones suggested by students during a pilot program.
The multilingual and multicultural Australian perspective and the Greek-Australian presence prevail in
the book, in order to make the students aware of the Greek-Australian reality. This will give them the op-
portunity to familiarize themselves with the language and civilization. Every attempt has been made for
the material to match with the cognitive development of the students and to establish a connection
which would motivate young Australians to explore the multicultural nature of the society they live in.
Similar attempts have been made to motivate young Greek language learners to explore the world be-
yond the Australian borders through the presence of Greek language and culture in their world.
“Greek! Why not?” brings in all of the communicative skills - listening, speaking, reading and writing-
in an interactive way, in a wide variety of activities, supported by the necessary cultural aspects of such
language use. All the elements of the course have been carefully planned to facilitate active and pro-
ductive participation in interactive communicative situations, which derive and reflect the learners'
world and age.
The material consists of:
The Student's textbook, which comprises 10 units, each consisting of the following sections:
Óôü÷ïé - (Aims), which describes in English what the student will learn in each particular unit.
Tá åëëçíéêÜ êé åìåßò - (Greek and us), which provides samples of communicative, contextualised, real-
life language use in its various forms in speaking, listening, reading and/or writing.
ËÝîåéò êáé åêöñÜóåéò-êëåéäéÜ - (Key-words and expressions), with the new lexical items of each unit.
Ìáèáßíïõìå ôçí ãëþóóá - (Learning the language), which comprises the grammar of each unit.
Ðñïöïñéêüò ëüãïò - (Speaking and listening), which encourages the students to perform orally through
individual oral presentations, pair work, role-plays, games, dialogues and other interactive activities
and songs.
Êáôáíüçóç ðñïöïñéêïý êáé ãñáðôïý ëüãïõ - (Reading and listening), which gives students the opportu-
nity (through songs, poems, cards, diaries, letters, notes, etc.) to practice these skills.
ÐáñÜèõñï óôïí êüóìï - (Window to the world), which also aims at motivating the students to get ac-
quainted with the Greek language and culture, and to learn more about the Greek presence in Australia
and the Greek presence in the world.
ÃñáììáôéêÞ - (Grammar), with declination (Nouns) and conjugation (Verbs) tables.
Eëëçíïáããëéêü ëåîéëüãéï - (Greek-English word list).
The Student's workbook, with exercises, fun activities and more opportunities for developing a lin-
guistic competence and a cultural awareness, plus a corpus of self-evaluation records for the student.
I am grateful to the students and the colleagues of Thomastown Secondary College, Fawkner
Secondary College, and the Greek Australian Archives for their contribution in the preparation of this
book.
Salomi Papadima - Sophocleous