Dimitrios Sarris

Panagoula Papadimitropoulou

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether symbolic play function as a means of educational and cognitive mediator for children aged 5-9 years with mild learning disabilities. The research question that guided this study was: Do symbolic play affect the acquisition of symbolic thought of preschoolers and primary school children with mild learning difficulties when used consistently and presented through a correct methodology? Forty children aged 5-9 years with mild learning difficulties participated in this study. The results show that the systematic instruction and implementation of symbolic play have positive effects on the improvement of representational thinking, deferred imitation and symbolic language of children with mild learning difficulties, which contribute to the development of metacognition and the child's understanding of reality.

Smaragda Papadopoulou

Classical fairy tales narratives are constantly modernized through new books, movies and TV Series that experiment with fairy themes in a modern setting. In contrast, role playing games based on classical fairy tales call for modern audiences to wrestle with the tale and choose for themselves what elements to keep and modernize. In this capacity, fairy tales based role playing games are a tool that allows us to examine first-hand how fairy tales resonate with today’s audiences. Seeing how modern audiences respond to the classical fairy mythos when given such freedom to mould the classic narratives, what elements of fairy tales they choose to reenact and how they apply the fairy tale morals, ethos and themes in modern day situations and struggles brings out the dynamic of fairy tales narratives and highlights what their actual attraction and usefulness is in a modern world. The very format of the game allows, as we have seen, for a deeper exploration of identity and self.

Charilaos K. Zaragas

Anna Aggelaki

Nikoletta Tsitsanoudis-Mallidi

The purpose of this research was to study the language learning or the promotion of vocabulary and mainly of idioms through the game, specifically through the collective traditional motor activities of preschoolers. Traditional games that were played occasionally in the continent of Epirus were studied regarding both the promotion of language learning and the promotion of motor performance. The sample consisted of twenty children in early childhood (56-65 months old) who were enrolled in a public kindergarten of Ioannina. The children were divided in the control group and the experimental group, in which it was applied an interventional program with ten traditional games that were played in the past in the continent of Epirus. The duration of the intervention was one month with a daily frequency of twenty minute children’s engagement in the experimental group. Along with the games, local words and idioms relevant to the game were implemented. The results of the survey showed that initially there were no differences in both groups with the children appearing not to know the idioms. According to the final measurements though, the children in the experimental group were well aware of idioms and they used them, applied them in their game while the children of the control group didn’t know some of the idioms. This was even ascertained by the retention tests that were made a month after the end of the intervention.

Michalis Athanassios

This paper concerns the relevance between the native speakers’ language errors and the process of the language change. The examination of the sources of the language change and the mechanisms which it is caused through and the research of the language acquisition factors resulting in the language errors lead to the following conclusion: language change mechanisms and language error factors are identified. Namely, analogy and its dimensions (reanalysis, overgeneralization, contamination, hypercorrection, and syntactic pattern expansion) is a common feature in language change and in language error production. Finally, the issue of the acceptance of the frequently occurred language error as a variety in language use and the connection between language error and language standardization is discussed and analyzed in the last chapter of this paper.

UI Research Center

The 3rd Untested Ideas International Research E-Conference
Identifying Untested PracticesJune 26 – 28, 2015

UI Research Center

The 3rd Untested Ideas International Research E-Conference
Identifying Untested PracticesJune 26 – 28, 2015