The Pharos Alliance held its third Parent Seminar on Sunday, June 8, facilitated by Professor Emeritus Joe Lo Bianco at the Greek Centre on Lonsdale St, Melbourne.
Titled “Language in the Home: Raising Greek English Bilinguals in Melbourne,” about 20 people attended and learned about ways to increase children’s use of Greek in the home environment.
It is not enough for students to learn to read and write Greek at school, even though this is fundamentally important, of course. The future vitality of the language, however, depends on its active use in the community and this can be supported, initially, at home.
Pharos committee members met parents and grandparents who were eager to hear about the objectives of the Pharos Alliance. Participants shared their concerns and received invaluable advice, drawn from evidence-based research, to overcome obstacles. They were provided with a variety of resources for the acquisition of vocabulary to help create confident users of the language.
Vasso Zangalis, Treasurer of the Pharos Alliance, shared her family’s story. In a mixed marriage, Vasso insists on speaking Greek with her children. Her approach is that if they don’t explain to her in Greek what it is that they want, they will not get it.
“It’s as simple as that!” she said.
A couple in the audience explained that they also are trying to follow the one parent-one language approach.
“We are learning Greek with Lucia and the Wiggles,” noted another couple, “and we’ve recently discovered Bluey in Greek on YouTube.”
Participants completed a language portrait exercise, aligning the various languages in their lives with specific parts of their body, associating one or more with their heart, head, stomach, hands and feet, as a way of exploring what role languages play in the formation of their identities. The exercise highlights the interplay between psychology and language use.
Finding ways to foster the desire for children to identify as speakers of Greek was a central goal of the seminar. Professor Lo Bianco emphasised the need to develop enjoyable activities making use of relevant vocabulary to give children the tools they require to speak Greek. The need to communicate with a relative who doesn’t understand English could be utilised for this purpose.
Participants were also guided to create a language policy for the home along with their children and were encouraged by the numerous examples of successful language revitalisation projects around the world, including those of the Welsh and Hawaiian languages.
“With persistence, it is possible for us to reverse the decline of Greek language use in Melbourne and Australia. The Pharos Alliance looks forward to this challenge and we invite all interested members of the public to join our efforts,” Professor Lo Bianco said.
