“AD in the CITY” project is here! Aligning with EPiCUR and the Sustainable Development Goals, this interdisciplinary project of the School of English Language and Philology, AUTH, brings Audio Description in the city! Through the use of the English Language, Thessaloniki’s Venizelou Station—a unique underground archaeological site — is transformed into an inclusive cultural space. The project team aims to create Audio Descriptions for the blind and low vision community and beyond! The project’s activities are supported by 14 undergraduate students from the School of English, 2 interns from the University of Alabama, and the School’s instructors—professors Marina Mattheoudakis and Louisa Desilla, as well as experts in the field of Accessible Cultural Tourism. Follow EPICUR for more information. Read more about this project at the FLT Lab.
Within the context of our participation in the European project PLOUTOS – Cooperation for achieving third country nationals’ financial independence through financial literacy tools and entrepreneurship bootcamps, the School of English will hold a 13-week training seminar for Community Interpreters (interpreters working in public service settings, including courts, health care services, asylum services, etc.). Community interpreting bridges the communication gap for people who do not speak the language of the host community, thus linking language and culture with social justice and equality. As Marjory A. Bancroft states in her entry for Community interpreting in the Routledge Handbook of Interpreting, entitled “Community interpreting: A profession rooted in social justice”, “although we may all have a human right to community services, adequate access to those services is fundamentally impractical or impossible without professional interpreters: that is, trained, qualified interpreters – and not family, friends, a cafeteria worker or someone in the waiting room who happens to speak the language”. Therefore, the training of community interpreters, which is rarely provided in many countries, is a necessary condition for enabling adequate access to public services in host countries.
The seminar will be held remotely with participating from 7 EU member states. For the purposes of this training, a trainee handbook was prepared (you can find it here).
Seminar organiser: Foteini Apostolou, Associate Professor
On Thursday September 10th 2020, the Minister of Education and Religious Affairs, Mrs Niki Kerameos visited the 3rd Experimental Primary School of Evosmos (supervised by the School of English, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki). Mrs Kerameos was accompanied by the Regional Director of Primary and Secondary Education in Central Macedonia, Mr Alexandros Koptsis, the Director of Primary Education of Western Thessaloniki, Mr Athanasios Frosinis, the Mayor of Kordelio-Evosmos, Mr Kleanthis Mandalianos, and two Parliament members (Ms Elena Rapti and Mr Stratos Simopoulos). Mrs Niki Kerameos was welcomed by the Head of School, Mr Evangelos Drossos, the faculty, Professor Marina Mattheoudakis, President of the Board of the school, the Coordinator of Education, Mr Yiannis Trikaliotis, and members of Parents’ Association. Mrs Niki Kerameos praised the educational achievements and innovations of the school. She also talked extensively about the precaution measures that need to be in place before the opening of the schools this year and answered questions raised by the audience. Before leaving, Mrs Kerameos was given a tour in the school classrooms and facilities and expressed her intention to support the expansion of the 3rd Experimental Primary School to the secondary sector.
Foreign Language in Kindergartens?
12/6/2020: Interview of Assoc. Professor Thomai Alexiou.
2014-present day: Organization of workshops on a volunteering
basis in collaboration with Schools in Primary and Secondary Education
in the framework of the activities of the School of English, AUTh,
“Multimodal Research and Reading Group.” These workshops focus on the
use of multimodality as an educational tool for the exploration of
diverse themes as well as the development of digital skills in
conjunction with English language teaching.
Research Coordinator: Assoc. Professor Ôatiani Rapatzikou
The School of English recycles paper on a weekly basis. Besides using the special battery collectors in the Faculty of Philosophy building, the School is in contact with the main Battery Recycling Company "Afis" for the recycling of the big UPS batteries. Furthermore, the School provides other university units, schools, etc. with no-longer needed but still functional equipment with the aim of reducing waste while supporting material reuse.
19/01/2021
On 19/01/21, senior secondary school students from schools in Germany, Italy, Poland, Turkey and Greece joined the online lecture "Teaching the Pronunciation of English", taught by Professor Katerina Nicolaidis, as part of their eTwinning project: DigiTale of Life. School students and their teachers presented their project, Prof Nicolaidis introduced them to the course, and university students presented their projects on pronunciation teaching.
