Zoe Gavriilidou & Lydia Mitits
Democritus University of Thrace

The purpose of the study was to develop an adaptation protocol for Oxford‟s Strategy Inventory for Language learning (SILL) from English into Greek to be administered to monolingual/multilingual students aged 12-15 in secondary schools in Thrace, Greece. This study focuses on following the appropriate adaptation protocol in order to maximize the questionnaire reliability and validity, both when used with the particular learners and when used to compare scores across cultures and languages. The original scale was translated into Greek, back-translated and reviewed. Cross-cultural adaptation included the experts‟ revision, followed by the instrument administration to 50 participants. Its internal consistency was .91. Test-retest reliability ranged from fair to good for the total scale and its six-subscales.

Lydia Mitits*, Thomaϊ Alexiou** and James Milton***
Democritus University of Thrace, GR*
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, GR**
Department of Applied Linguistics, Swansea University, UK*

Language learning strategies are not confined to the classroom but can be extended to cover the whole context of learning. Where learners are part of a minority language group within a much larger national language environment, this context can include the language used for everyday life in the home. It might be thought that enhanced exposure through speaking the L2 in the home would advantage these L2 learners. However, research suggests this may not be the case and in expatriate communities, the promotion of the L1 is a factor that appears to help learners in the development of the L2. The study reported in this paper examines the effect of the language of the home among a group of Muslim minority Turkish language speakers living in Greece and receiving education through the medium of Greek and Turkish. The results of this study suggest that these learners are likely to integrate poorly into their Greek national language environment because of the low level of Greek they attain. However, even here the benefits of promoting the growth and development of the Turkish L1 are apparent since the best developed L1 Turkish vocabularies also grow the largest L2 Greek vocabularies. There are statistically significant gender effects visible in the data where the girls in the study out-perform the boys and, while this appears to be related to the use of Turkish in the home, it is not fully understood.

Lydia Mitits and Zoe Gavriilidou
Democritus University of Thrace

Building upon previous research, the present large-scale study looks into the relationship between multilingualism and factors influencing language learning strategies by comparing 932 monolingual and 307 multilingual learners’ strategy use. The participants completed the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) Version 7.0 (Oxford 1990). The collected data were computed and analyzed via t-test, oneway and two-way ANOVA with respect to overall strategy use and the six categories by monolingual and multilingual learners and the independent variables. Interactions tested among the independent variables were not statistically significant pointing to the variables’ discreteness. However, the main effect of each independent variable, without the interference of the other variables, was statistically significant for certain strategy categories.

Lydia Mitits and Zoe Gavriilidou
Democritus University of Thrace

Lydia Mitits
Democritus University of Thrace

The present study investigates possible differences in language learning strategy (LLS) use between monolingual (L1 Greek) and multilingual (L1 non-Greek) early adolescent learners. The participants were junior high school learners (932 monolinguals and 307 multilinguals) who completed an adapted self-report questionnaire. Both groups responded to the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) Version 7.0 (Oxford, 1990) about their language learning strategies when learning English1. The multilingual group then completed another SILL reporting on the strategies they used when learning/using Greek. The data were analyzed via descriptive statistics and t-tests. The findings showed statistically significant differences between monolinguals and multilinguals concerning individual strategies and strategy categories in favor of multilinguals as well as multilinguals‟ transfer of strategies from Greek to English and vice versa.

Lydia Mitits
Democritus University of Thrace

The purpose of the study was to investigate the views held by teachers in Thrace, Greece with respect to their multilingual students and the teaching practices. A questionnaire (De Angelis, 2011) was used to assess teachers' beliefs about the role of prior linguistic knowledge, the teacher, the school and the family in the education of multilingual learners, as well as about their teaching practices. The effect of variables (gender, age, subject taught, teaching experience, intercultural education, and contact with languages) on teachers‟ attitudes and beliefs were examined. 60 primary and secondary school teachers, who mainly taught languages but also other school subjects, participated. They worked in an area comprising a significant number of multilingual learners with a non-Greek L1 belonging to the minority or immigrant families. Overall results suggest that teachers tend to share similar views and that the tested variables significantly affected their responses on a number of questions.