Language education in a multilingual city: The case of Limassol

ThispaperaimstoprovideanoverviewofthecurrentsituationofmultilingualismandlanguageeducationinthecityofLimassol,Cyprus.ThemulticulturalcharacterofLimassolisreflectedineveryaspectofcitylife,andisnotablyreflectedinthesectorofeducation.Therefore,thereisaneedtodelveintothesituationoflanguageeducation,asthisismanifestedinaffordancesandpolicies,andindailyencounters,withintheeducationalcontext.Drawingbothfromprimaryandsecondarydata,thestudyexaminesissuessuchasgoodpracticesinlanguagelearningfor immigrantsandtheroleoflinguisticsupport.


Introduction
There has been a massive increase in immigration throughout Europe over the last decades. Europeanenlargementsin2004and2007,contemporaryglobalization,aswellasvariousworld events,haveacceleratedmigrationmovementsbothintermsofspeedandmagnitude.Global mobilityhasledtothedevelopmentofnewsocialcontextsasmoreandmorepeopleofdiverse origins are relocating, changing thus the demographic character of formerly homogeneous societies. Increased transmigration and, consequently, the development of culturally diverse societieshasbeenaturningpointineducationalsystems,whichhavebeencalledupontorespond to the rapid changes in the cultural make-up of school bodies and to develop mechanisms to cater for the heterogeneous student populations. Language education has always been at thecoreofmulticulturaleducationand,sincetheearlymigrationmovements,variouslanguage policiesandeducationsystemshaveevolved.
Cyprus has experienced increased inward migration over the decades with Limassol, its secondlargestcity,developingintoamigrationlocusinhabitedbypeoplehailingfromvarious culturalbackgrounds.ThemulticulturalcharacterofLimassolisreflectedineveryaspectofcity life, most notably in the sector of education. Current policies and practices employed in the fieldofeducationfaceanumberofmajorchallenges,whichrelateinparticulartosomeultimate changestakingplaceintheglobalsocietyofthetwenty-firstcentury-forinstance,therapidly developing information and communications technologies, the high levels of mobility, and the dramatic change of workforce skills and demands.Within this dynamic environment, one key dilemma is to understand the challenges that both instructors and learners are confronted with,andtotakeactionforthefutureofeducationalsystems (Nicolaouet al.,2016).Therefore, there is a need to delve into the sector of education in order to evaluate the situation of languageeducationandmultilingualism,becausethesearemanifestedinaffordancesandpolicies, aswellasinday-to-dayencountersandexperiences,withintheeducationalcontext.Thispaper examinesissuespertainingtomultilingualismandplurilingualismwithintheeducationalsystem ofLimassol,includinggoodpracticesinlanguagelearningforimmigrants,theroleoflinguistic support at schools and in the wider community, and the promotion of intercultural dialogue and communication.The research also addresses more specific questions, such as educators' perceptionsofmultilingualism,languagebarriersintheeducationalcontext,andcurrentefforts thathelpdeveloptheeducationalsystemwithinaninterculturalperspective.
While intercultural education is an official aim of the Ministry of Education in Cyprus, measures to implement it are unfavourable, with limited possibilities to adapt curricula in practice. Provisions that are made for migrant children include their legal right to access compulsoryeducationandgeneralsupport;however,undocumentedmigrantchildrenmayhave difficulties to do so. Migrant children benefit from some targeted, but limited, measures that includestandardizedlanguagesupportthatisalsoprovidedtomigrantpupils'parents. Yet,littleis donetoencouragemigrantchildren'scontributiontosocietyasothercountriesdo;forexample, byteachingmigrantlanguages,integratinginterculturalelementsintothecurricula,orreaching outtoparents.ThesearepracticesthatareappliedinmanyotherEuropeancountries;however, theyaremetwithresistanceintheCyprioteducationalsystem (Mipex,2010:53).
The interviewer attempted to avoid expressing any bias, or guiding the answers, of each intervieweeandinsteadallowedfortheintervieweetoexpresshis/herviewindepth.Anattempt wasmadetomeetJohnson's(2002:109)idealgoalforthe'informant[interviewee]tobecome acollaborativepartnerwiththeresearcherintheintellectualadventureathand'.Apilotwas run for the interview to confirm that the questions were clearly stated and set in a logical order.Aspects of trustworthiness were also taken into consideration, such as credibility and dependability.AccordingtoGraneheimandLundman (2004),credibilityispertinenttothefocus of the research and whether the data and processes of analysis address the intended focus. In this study, selection of participants was made with an eye to include various experiences and thus strengthen the possibility of shedding light on the research question from a variety of aspects. Another aspect connected to trustworthiness is dependability, which relates to 'thedegreetowhichdatachangeovertimeandalterationsmadeintheresearcher'sdecisions duringtheanalysisprocess '(ibid.:110).Tothisend,thesamequestionsinthesameorderwere posedtoallparticipants.Interviewswereadministeredinavarietyofmodes:face-to-face,over thetelephone/Skype,andviaemail.Inthecaseofface-to-faceandtelephoneinterviews,these wererecordedandtranscribed.Inthecaseofemailadministration,follow-upquestionswere senttoparticipants,whereverdeemednecessary.InterviewswereconductedinEnglishinthe caseswherebyrespondents'competenceinEnglishwasathighlevel,andinGreekinthecases wherebyrespondents'competenceinEnglishwasatmediumtolowlevel.
Inordertofamiliarizeourselveswiththedata,wefirstreadthroughallthedatasetthoroughly. Thisenabledustoacquireaholisticviewoftheprimaryandsecondarydataduringtheanalysis andtotakethecontextintoaccount.Theanalysisofthesecondarydatawasperformedwith the use of the qualitative research software NVivo.When exploring the data we adopted a somewhatbroad,ratherthananarrow,approach,capturingandreportingthemesyieldingfrom thedata.Whenwehadacollectionofthemesthatdescribedthedata,wesortedandgrouped the codes and used them to formulate patterns that describe the data set. In the following section,themajorthemesthatemergedfromtheprimarydataarepresented.
Theissueofmultilingualismisperceivedasasensitivematterbyallinterviewedparticipants. Theubiquityofmultilingualismwashighlightedinmanyaspectsoflife,includingtheeducational sector,owingtothepresenceofmanybilingualandmultilingualprivateschools,colleges,and universities. Participants referred to the policy followed with regard to language learning for immigrant students.The policy was criticized, especially because immigrant students mainly attendGreeklanguagelessonsandarenotprovidedwithopportunitiestomaintaintheirnative languageaswell: In schools, more emphasis should be given on fostering language development of all students. Unfortunately the Ministry of Education has not taken into consideration the importance of nativelanguagedevelopment.ImmigrantstudentsmainlyattendGreeklanguagelessonsandnot lessonsintheirnativelanguage.
Intheeducationsectorinparticular,cityofficialsmightconsiderrecruitingmigrantteachers and non-teaching staff in schools.This way, the ethnic background of teachers and school administrators will mirror the ethnic background of students. Schools might also decide to involve migrant students' parents to a greater extent by inviting them more often to school activitiesandmeetings.Providinginterpretingservicesforthemwouldbeagreathelpforparents ofnon-nationals.Similarly,thetranslationofimportantschooldocumentsinthestudents'native languageswouldfacilitatecommunicationandunderstanding.
Limassol is progressing towards becoming a multilingual city that makes an effort to accommodate its diverse citizens.The actions and initiatives taken serve as a stepping stone toenhancingplurilingualism;however,moreneedstobedonetoovercomethechallengesthat emerge, especially in a country where the diversity of languages has been appreciated both officiallyandunofficiallyforalongtimenow. Viewinglinguisticdiversityasaproblemratherthanas anassetwillonlyleadtothereinforcementofsocialexclusion (Taylor-LeechandLiddicoat,2014: 353).Finally,multilingualeducationshouldbeperceivedwithamoreholisticview,encompassing twenty-firstcenturyskills-suchaslearnerautonomy,responsibility,accountability,andlearnercentredness -instead of being confined to the teaching of the local language and/or culture. Limassol,togetherwithmanyothermultilingualsocieties,ischallengedtomakethenecessary provisionsinordertosupportsocialinclusionandsocialcoherence.

Notes on the contributors
Anna Nicolaou is an English language instructor at the Language Centre of the Cyprus University of Technology (CUT). She is a PhD candidate at the School of Linguistics, Speech, and Communication at TrinityCollege,Dublin.SheholdsanMAinEnglishLanguageStudiesandMethodsfromtheUniversityof WarwickandaBAinEnglishLanguageandLiteraturefromtheUniversityofAthens.