Standard Modern Greek and Greek-Cypriot dialect in kindergarten classroom interaction: teachers' and learners' language attitudes and language use

Abstract

Abstract This study investigates language use and language attitudes in state kindergarten education in Cyprus. Kindergarten education is the primary setting where Greek-Cypriots learn to employ the standard variety on a systematic basis. Consequently, the context of kindergarten education is a principal setting for examining language attitudes and language variation. Specifically, this study examines whether teachers' ambiguities regarding language use exist in kindergarten education as in other levels of formal education and whether at the age of kindergarten education children's language attitudes towards the standard and non-standard varieties begin to develop. The data gathered via class observations and teacher interviews suggest that teacher ambiguities do seem to exist in relation to the use of the two varieties in the classroom and children do distinguish between the two language varieties, as they employ these on different speaking occasions in the classroom with their peers and teachers. Keywords: language attitudeslanguage minoritieslanguage varietiespolicy issues Acknowledgements We are indebted to Meropi Plakitis, a kindergarten teacher working in a public school in Lefkosia, for her valuable help during data collection and for introducing us to the teachers who participated in this study. Notes Ten school principals were originally approached to obtain their permission to enter a class in their schools for data collection. Five principals refused to allow the researcher access to their schools. One explanation that two principals provided was that the school was getting ready for a performance and children were spending most of their time reciting their poems or acting in plays. Therefore, as they stated, a visit to their schools would not serve the purpose of our study. Kindergartens B and D are both state and community schools. However, the two classrooms we visited in these schools are registered as 'state classrooms'. Voice or video recording was not possible due to the reluctance of participating teachers to approach parents for the necessary written permission. Italics in transcriptions signify use of various levels of the Greek-Cypriot dialect which bear marked differences from Standard Modern Greek in phonology, lexis, syntax, and morphology. Since the scope of this study is not to look at code-switching or features of the Greek-Cypriot dialect independently, speakers' entire utterances are marked in italics, signifying employment of the dialect. Transcripts which are not in italics or underlined signify use of language that is the same in both Standard Modern Greek and the Greek-Cypriot dialect.