(a) Modern Greek language

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Dimitris Koutsogiannis,

Associated Professor in Applied Linguistics,

Department of Linguistics,

Aristotle’s University of Thessaloniki,

Thessaloniki, Greece

dkoutsog@lit.auth.gr

Vasilis Vasileiadis,

Researcher,

Division of Language and Literature,

Centre for the Greek Language,

Thessaloniki, Greece

vasvasilid@gmail.com

Recontextualization: removing a fable from its natural context and converting it into pedagogical material (Bernstein 1996)

(a) recontextualization of fables in printed textbooks of Greek primary and secondary education

(b) analysis of how diverse ideological traditions concerning the teaching of different subjects may lead to equally diverse pedagogical ways of fable recontextulization

(c) the recontextualization of fables in their digital context

School

Subject - Textbook

Aesop’s fables

(Perry’s Index to the Aesopica)

The fox and the crow (124)

The fox and the stork

The shepherd who cried “Wolf!” in jest (210)

Language 3rd

Primary School 4th

(6 years) 5th

1st + 2nd The ant and the dove (235)

Literature 3rd + 4th The lion and the boar (338)

Compulsory 5th + 6th The fisherman (13)

The crab and his mother

Education 1st

Language 2nd

Gymnasium 1st

(3 years) Literature 2nd

Junior High School 3rd

The stag at the fountain (74)

The lion, Prometheus and the elephant (259)

Hermes and the woodcutter (173)

Ancient Greek 2nd

Mapping out the Aesopian fables in language and literature textbooks

School

Subject - Textbook

Aesop’s fables

Language 3rd

Primary School 4th

(6 years) 5th

Education 1st

Language 2nd

Gymnasium 1st

Ancient Greek 2nd

School

Subject - Textbook

Aesop’s fables

Language 3rd

Primary School 4th

(6 years) 5th

Education 1st

Language 2nd

Gymnasium 1st

Ancient Greek 2nd

School

Subject - Textbook

Aesop’s fables

Language 3rd

Primary School 4th

(6 years) 5th

Education 1st

Language 2nd

Gymnasium 1st

Ancient Greek 2nd

Pedagogical recontextualization of fables in textbooks

Didactic scheme : the deepest pedagogical structure that characterizes every unit of the fable-containing textbooks

The basic structure realized by the act of speaking “is an exchange in which giving implies receiving, and demanding implies giving in response”.

(Van Leeuwen, 2005: 118)

(offering information)

Demand (demanding information)

Didactic scheme

(a) Modern Greek language

2nd grade of primary school

The shepherd who cried “Wolf!” in jest

[Perry 210]

in order to narrate a fairy tale you have to…

[Perry 210]

Let all of us in the classroom invent a fairy

Offer (fairy tale or/and fable as examples)

Demand (write a fairy tale)

(b) Ancient Greek

1st grade of Gymnasium (Junior High School)

[7th grade of compulsory education]

The stag at the fountain [Perry 74]

(b) Ancient Greek

1st grade of Gymnasium (Junior High School)

[7th grade of compulsory education]

The stag at the fountain [Perry 74]

Introductory informative note

Fable text

commentary commentary

Vocabulary Commentary

Comprehension questions on the meaning of the fable

Ancient Greek grammar

Etymology of Modern Greek words originating from Ancient Greek

(c) Modern Greek literature

3th and 4th grades of Primary School

The lion and the boar [Perry 338]

(c) Modern Greek literature

The fisherman [Perry 13]

Introductory note

Fable text

3th and 4th grades of Primary School, The lion and the boar [Perry 338] (c) Modern Greek literature

Aesop’s biographical note

Biographical note of Modern Greek Writer

Demand (questions and activities)

Proposals for extensive reading

Digital School

dschool.edu.gr digitalschool.gr ebooks.edu.gr

Digital School

dschool.edu.gr digitalschool.gr ebooks.edu.gr

Digital School

Data bases contain a variety of learning resources

Digitized textbooks of the 6th grade of Primary school

Modern Greek literature

The digitized version enriched with

multimodal digital material [hypertext]

Digital recontextualization of fables

Hypertext is organized on the rhetoric of departures and arrivals (Landow 1992)

The rhetoric of departures prepares readers to guess where a certain link might take them

The rhetoric of arrivals guides readers towards a specific site, after they have chosen and clicked on a link

Modern Greek literature 5th and 6th grades of Primary School, The fisherman [Perry 13]

3th and 4th grades of Primary School, The lion and the boar [Perry 338] Modern Greek literature

Most departures are based on informative texts about Aesop, the fable genre or thematic approaches to the fable content. There are sites on the Greek Internet about Aesop and his fables which are confined to choosing such informative texts.

Some of the departures are dictated by the fact that there are a lot of sites with visual material. Thus, there are plenty of links to photographs, digital galleries, drawings, comics, etc. that transform the digital recontextualization of fables into a highly visualized and multimodal one.

Some of the departures are dictated by the fact that there are a lot of sites with visual material. Thus, there are plenty of links to photographs, digital galleries, drawings, comics, etc. that tranform the digital recontextualization of fables into a highly visualized and multimodal one.

Finally, new technologies give the possibility to make self-referential links, links that directs the users to other texts of the same or other textbooks. Thus, the distance between printed pages is minimized and the selected texts can be re-organized in various ways (not only in the one of the printed textbook).

What emerges from our brief analysis is that the digitalization of the textbooks empowered informative and illustrative aspects of the printed textbooks. In other words, the Offer of information referring to the fable, its genre and its writer is enhanced. Demand, though, is mainly limited to presenting comparable texts. The ideology already enhanced in the printed textbooks and the affordances of the Greek Internet played a decisive role in the digital / second recontextualization.

Conclusions

The ideology running through the teaching of each subject determines, to a great extent, the manner in which fables are pedagogically exploited.

Conclusions

The subject of Modern Greek language Fables are transformed into parts of a purely technical approach, where the emphasis is placed on knowledge about language and, in our example, on textual structure.

Conclusions

The subject of ancient Greek language Fables provide an opportunity for highlighting the appreciated values and meanings of the ancient Greek world and the continuity of Greek language in history. They, also, provide a referential text for teaching the structures of ancient Greek language.

Conclusions

The subject of Modern Greek literature Moral aspects, in conjunction with the importance of folk culture, are overstressed.

Conclusions

The subject of Modern Greek literature Moral aspects, in conjunction with the importance of folk culture, are overstressed.

Textbooks’ digitization places fables in a more pleasant environment, more familiar to the children’s every day literacy practices. However, this is also an environment that favours centrifugal tendencies away from a focus on the Aesopian text itself.

The Triple (!) Recontextualization of Aesopian Fables in Modern Greek language Textbooks

This second recontextualization of fables in their new digital environment, like the first one in printed textbooks, imposes limits on another one, a third recontextualization ready to be realized daily by teachers and pupils in heterogeneous classrooms. It is obvious that the digital recontextualization imposes limits on teaching practices, but does not ensure the actual realization of the third recontextualization. The digital version of textbooks is even more challenging for teachers, as nowadays there are many more pedagogical routes available. Besides, if teachers are not careful enough, there might be a centrifugal function, which may make lessons more enjoyable but be far less relevant to the texts themselves.

Thank you for your attention

(a) Modern Greek language

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