This was a study about the fluency, or proficiency, level of Minority pupils of Primary schools that was completed in the 2002-2004 phase. 

The design of this language research project was shaped in order to deal mainly with three matters:

• to develop methods for measuring, on the basis of an objective proficiency scale, children’s knowledge of Greek.
• to provide a basis for a more focused language teaching activity
• to collect in a systematic way linguistic and sociolinguistic data of the process of acquiring Greek as a second language.

Those matters eventually crystallized in a language assessment testing procedure. Tests were set up in order:

• to assess language proficiency according to the guidelines set up by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEF),
• to diagnose weaknesses in student’s language competence on the basis of various linguistic components – such as grammar, phonology, vocabulary etc - and across different skills, and
• to see whether children of the sixth grade of elementary school have the necessary language proficiency to attend secondary schools.

The assessment of children’s language proficiency was based on CEF. The descriptions (“Can do statements”), nevertheless, contained in this particular proficiency scale pertain to adults and not to young learners. Hence, the CEF scale was revised with respect to communicative activities and to cognitive development of children. 

Details about the methodology and the results of the particular research project are presented in: 

Tzevelekou, M., V. Lytra, V. Kantzou, S. Stamouli, M. Iakovou, S. Varlokosta, Y. Papageorgakopoulos, V. Chondroyanni (2005) “Proficiency in Greek of the children of Turkish speaking minority residing in Western Thrace”. Paper presented at the ALTE (Association of Language Testers in Europe) 2nd International Conference “Language Assessment in a Multilingual Context – Attaining standards, sustaining diversity”. Berlin, May 2005. (http://www.museduc.gr/docs/ALTE-Berlin05.pdf) 

Furthermore, research papers on the acquisition of specific language phenomena have been elaborated within the language research project, based on the quantitative and qualitative analysis of the data collected. These papers are the following: 

These other research papers written as part of this second leg are the following: Gabrielidou, Z. "Vocabulary Statistics: The Study of the Narrative Written Speech Production at the Minority in the Noun Phrase."
Markantonatou, S. "Semantic-Syntactic Word Structures in the Discourse of Children at the Minority Schools in Schools of Thrace."
Terzi, A. "The Clitic Pronouns in the Discourse of Children at the Minority Schools in Thrace". Thrace".
Varlokosta, V. "Greek as a Second Language at the Minority Schools of Thrace: The Gender, Number, and Case 

The collection of data, both for the quantitative and the qualitative examination of learning Greek, was done through interviews and a series of tests named “Let’s Talk in Greek”, I, II, and III.