Greek Immigration Education: In Greece, as a compulsory subject, the primary school English curriculum guidelines emphasize that children should read English literature from an early age. In English tests taken by primary school students in Greece, children are assessed on their ability to understand an English poem of about 20 lines. In Greece, English is a separate subject that requires dedicated training.
Benefits of English Literature for Children
1.Children can observe how English expresses various ideas and concepts beyond their native language. For example, how to express character traits, daily activities, inner thoughts, and descriptions of landscapes in English. As children read more English, they naturally learn how to express themselves.
2.Reading English literature is a process of thinking and imagination for children. In English literary works, any psychological description, emotional buildup, atmospheric setting, or landscape depiction is constructed through words. During the reading process, these are visualized through the text. Through these imagined scenes, children develop an interest in continuing to read English books, which is when they are closest to the English-speaking world.
Highlighter Teaching Method
Many primary school students in Greece have one hour of after-school activities. During this time, children gather around their teacher, each with an original English book to read, and their reading method is the highlighter teaching method.
The so-called highlighter teaching method involves using a highlighter while reading to mark adverbial conjunctions, coordinating conjunctions, relative pronouns in attributive clauses, and participle structures used as post-modifiers. These four areas are where English and the native language differ the most.
The significance of the highlighter lies in bypassing the grammatical meanings that intimidate children, and utilizing their natural sensitivity to color to imprint the most important English structures in their minds, making it much easier for them to learn grammar later on.