Writing in Greek - Level A

It is important to stress that this online program cannot replace the lessons of Greek in a classroom environment, which the learner has undoubtedly attended at some point in his learning path before being involved in this type of online education. The program refers exclusively to the Writing Skill, since all teaching units lead the learner, as noted, to produce more efficient and complete texts according to his language level. In this sense, the "Writing in Greek from A to C through B" is addressed to:

• Learners of Greek as a Second or Foreign Language who attend language courses in parallel or preceding the time of enrollment in the program and based on the ranking test or on their personal preference choose one of the three course cycles

• Expatriates who at some point have attended a Greek language school, have been taught Greek in a classroom environment and are keen to improve their skill of producing written speech.

This program is a first attempt to put in practice theoretical references about planning and organizing curricula for second language teaching, especially for Greek as a Second Language, as noted in the new curriculum models (Center of Greek Language, 2015). In particular, "the thematic framework remains consistent from the first (A1) to the last level of language proficiency (C2) and [...] becomes the vehicle that allows to all the material (skills - speech acts - linguistic elements - tasks) to constitute a single whole that can be graded from the lowest to the highest performance within the same or different language proficiency levels "(Iakovou 2015: 149).

In this sense, the selection of 11 topics that form “the backbone” of the program was strictly adhered to for all three levels (A, B, C) and became the common organizational principle for the design and development of the teaching material. However, this choice follows the specifications of each language level, both in terms of amount of information, presentation form, linguistic elements to be tested, as well as final output and type of tasks with which learners are required to activate all the information to which they have been exposed in the preceding unit.

Therefore, each module is not a general lesson of Greek as a foreign language and the program «Writing in Greek from A to C through B" is not a series of distance learning courses at three different levels like those that already exist on the Internet. Each teaching unit is a targeted collection of material to practice all the necessary language tools (grammar, vocabulary, textual conventions, organizational structure), and all necessary input is graded according to each level in order to support the production of linguistic output.

Each level consists of 12 teaching units which follow the main specifications of the CEFR (CEF, 2001) regarding the communication needs of learners in written language skills (comprehension and production), but also the linguistic tools for implementation (grammar, vocabulary, speech acts, textual conventions, organization of textual structures).

Each teaching unit (except for the last of each level which is the evaluation of the respective program) corresponds to one of the 14 communication subjects included in the CEFR (CEF 2001: 52) and is adapted to this program as follows:

Each teaching unit consists of three parts:

• In the first part, the learner has the possibility to work on the language tools at the time most convenient to him (for the duration of a week). These are presented either in the form of instructions/theory through authentic texts appropriately modified depending on the level of general knowledge of the language, or lexical items lists. In any case, all the necessary components of each unit are given in the form of necessary steps/actions directly accessible from the beginning. Then, the learner has the possibility to review the information and study them through guided exercises, which are in the form of list matching, multiple-choice (pick one) or right-wrong (boolean). For these exercises the program provides to the learner direct assessment and the opportunity to refer to the first part of the theory whenever he feels there are gaps in the initial contact with it.
• In the second part, the learner is asked, in a time predetermined by the program, to perform a writing task which is the final product of each module. In fact, the learner practices the material of the first part in order to complete the task of the second part. Hence, the 12 teaching units of each level end in 12 written productions (11 productions based on subjects + 1 written output as a final evaluation of the entire program of each level).
• In the third part, the learner receives personalized feedback on his own linguistic output. The feedback includes error annotation, metalinguistic explanation for each error type and the error free text.

The structure of the material entails two things:

1. The learner may not proceed with the second part of the task, if he has not previously followed the instructions and have not been familiar with the material that is presented in the first part. Each task targets the comprehension of the language tools preceding.
2. The learner cannot stay in the first part of the linguistic input, and not perform the task provided in the second part. This way he "breaks" the chain of consecutive language productions and participation in the program is insufficient. 

The content of teaching units is summarized as follows:

The main focus and innovation of the whole program lies in the second and third parts of each module. There the learner receives personalized feedback for his own language output and enhances his productive skills in writing according to his own capacity. The program coordinators provide ongoing support in the language production process with error annotation, explicit correction modes and transcription of the original text in an error free version.

This way, participation in the program allows for a targeted inspection of each learner’s written production and “pushes” the learner to test and verify his knowledge to the fullest extent possible. In fact, this is the only way to "force" the learner to activate part of the knowledge to which he has already been exposed  by pushing  him to produce his own language material. In this way, the learner's output is converted into a new learner's auto-input on which the necessary corrective feedback will be given.

This role is undertaken by the program support team "Writing in Greek from A to C through B" by commenting, analyzing, interpreting and transcribing the language production of each learner separately and thus creating a new personalized input. It is exactly what helps each learner to notice the gap between his own output and the unit’s input. The learner is therefore reassessing his own material and is exposed to a new language input that does not result from the design and the expectations of the authors of the task, but from the needs, the level and ability of the learner himself.

The prerequisites for participation in the program on the learner’s part are:

- Internet access
- Basic computer knowledge
- Certificate of attendance in Greek language courses (if applicable) (eg. in case of attending Greek language courses at the University/school or institute/language school in another country or in Greece).

When will I receive the Certificate?

The Certificate will be sent to you electronically 30 working days upon completion, if you have no remaining academic or financial obligations. The Certificate will be also sent to you through traditional post services. Upon request the Certificate can be sent with the use of courier services. In this case, the relative cost should be covered by your side.