TY - JOUR

T1 - Language skills in Greek-English bilingual children attending Greek supplementary schools in England

AU - Papastergiou, Athanasia

AU - Sanoudaki, Eirini

PY - 2022/9/14

Y1 - 2022/9/14

N2 - Many parents in the U.K. enrol their children in Greek supplementary schools so the children can learn and maintain the Greek language and culture in parallel with English mainstream education. Despite fears about the effects of this heritage language (Greek) use on children’s skills in the majority language (English), research on these somewhat hidden schools to date is limited and qualitative in nature. The current study is the first quantitative study which examines the effect of attending a Greek supplementary school on the vocabulary and grammar scores of Greek-English bilingual children. We administered a battery of language tests in both languages to 31 Greek-English bilingual children, aged 5-13 years, and closely looked at the participants’ language history using parental questionnaires. Using multiple regression analyses we examine the relationship between relevant variables, such as language use and years in supplementary school and we find that the higher the use of Greek, the higher the scores in the Greek language tasks, although no significant relationship was detected between years in supplementary school and the development of language skills. Crucially, use of Greek does not negatively predict scores in the English language tasks. Implications of our results and future directions are discussed.

AB - Many parents in the U.K. enrol their children in Greek supplementary schools so the children can learn and maintain the Greek language and culture in parallel with English mainstream education. Despite fears about the effects of this heritage language (Greek) use on children’s skills in the majority language (English), research on these somewhat hidden schools to date is limited and qualitative in nature. The current study is the first quantitative study which examines the effect of attending a Greek supplementary school on the vocabulary and grammar scores of Greek-English bilingual children. We administered a battery of language tests in both languages to 31 Greek-English bilingual children, aged 5-13 years, and closely looked at the participants’ language history using parental questionnaires. Using multiple regression analyses we examine the relationship between relevant variables, such as language use and years in supplementary school and we find that the higher the use of Greek, the higher the scores in the Greek language tasks, although no significant relationship was detected between years in supplementary school and the development of language skills. Crucially, use of Greek does not negatively predict scores in the English language tasks. Implications of our results and future directions are discussed.

KW - Greek

KW - Heritage language

KW - bilingualism

KW - language skills

KW - language use

KW - supplementary school

U2 - https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2021.1980496

DO - https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2021.1980496

M3 - Article

VL - 25

SP - 2834

EP - 2852

JO - International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism

JF - International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism

SN - 1367-0050

IS - 8

ER -