Journal of Applied Linguistics 32 (2019), published by the Greek Applied Linguistics Association (GALA)

doi: https://doi.org/10.26262/jal.v0i32.7515, eISSN: 2408-025X

WORDS DON’T COME EASY:

LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS OF VOCABULARY
IN MAGIC BOOKS

Thomaï Alexiou, Marina Mattheoudakis, Dionysia Saratsli

and Alexandros Vagenas

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Abstract
The present study focuses on the English as a Foreign Language (EFL)
coursebooks Magic Book 1 and Magic Book 2 that have been designed and
developed for third graders in the Greek state primary schools under the
PEAP project. It aims to examine the lexical items selected for those
coursebooks and set out the criteria that render them a useful tool for
teaching EFL to young learners. More specifically, this paper aims to: (a)
examine the frequency of the vocabulary included in the two books by
using the frequency data of the British National Corpus (BNC), (b)
compare the vocabulary of the books with the English Vocabulary Profile
(EVP) issued by Cambridge University Press, and (c) examine the
thematic areas covered in these books in order to investigate the extent of
their continuity with the interests and needs of the target age group.

1. English as a foreign language instruction in Greek primary schools

In Greece, English has been gradually established as the compulsory foreign language
that is taught in schools, at the primary and secondary educational sectors (Alexiou
and Konstantakis 2009, Mattheoudakis and Nicolaidis 2005). There have been
substantial milestones through the years that led to the prevalence of English as a
Foreign Language instruction (EFL) in the primary sector. In 1987, EFL was
introduced as a compulsory subject to the 4th grade of most primary schools and in
1991 it became a mandatory subject in all schools. Almost a decade later, in 2003,
EFL was expanded to the third and the last two grades of primary education and in
2010 it was introduced on a pilot basis in the first grade of 800 state primary schools
(Alexiou and Mattheoudakis 2013a). As of 2016, all learners have been required to
take English language classes starting from the first grade at Greek primary schools.
Magic Books 1 and 2 were designed within the framework of the National Strategic
Reference Frameworks (NSRF) Programme, Act “New Policies of Foreign Language

© 2019 The Authors

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons
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26 Thomaï Alexiou, Marina Mattheoudakis, Dionysia Saratsli, Alexandros Vagenas

Education at Schools: English for Young Learners”. The books were created under the
English for Young Learners –EYL project, commonly known in Greece as the „PEAP
programme‟ (http://rcel.enl.uoa.gr/peap/en) (Alexiou and Mattheoudakis 2015). The
particular project proposed the introduction of EFL instruction at the first grade of
primary schools (6-7 year-olds), reflecting the contemporary views regarding the
importance of early foreign language education, promotion of multilingualism and
multicultural education. The early introduction of EFL teaching had important
implications for the design of teaching material as well as for the training of EFL
teachers who would teach these very young learners. With respect to the material, the
PEAP project aimed to design and produce appropriate teaching materials for young
language learners as well as organise the EFL curriculum for the first 3 grades of
primary school taking into consideration the transition from one grade to the next.

2. Magic Books: Content and design

Despite the fact that originally the program aimed at developing educational materials
for the first two grades of the primary sector, the need to establish continuity in terms
of the curriculum and the learning process led to the development of materials for the
teaching of English in the third grade as well. The authoring team for this grade
comprised academics from the Aristotle Thessaloniki of Thessaloniki as well as EFL
teacher practitioners.
Two books were designed for the 3rd grade of primary schools, namely Magic
Book 1 (Alexiou and Mattheoudakis 2014) and Magic Book 2 (Alexiou and
Mattheoudakis 2013b)1. Magic Book 1 (MB1) was intended for learners who are
complete beginners and have not had any EFL classes in the previous two grades,
whereas Magic Book 2 (MB2) is intended for learners who started learning English in
Grade 1 and followed the PEAP curriculum. At this point, however, it is important to
mention that as stated above, as of 2016 all Greek learners have been attending EFL
classes in the first grade of primary school but only for one hour weekly.
Both books were designed under the same principles and philosophy and include
many innovations (for a detailed account of these innovations, see Alexiou and
Mattheoudakis 2015). They follow a story-based framework where each unit revolves

1
Magic Book 2 was shortlisted for the 2014 ELTons awards:
http://englishagenda.britishcouncil.org/eltons
Words don’t come easy: Linguistic analysis of vocabulary in Magic Books 27

around a different story, has a plot and usually a moral at the end therefore offering a
more holistic development of the child. The books are child-centred, process-based
and meaning-focused and have a solid pedagogic orientation. They also aim to
familiarize young learners with literacy while providing exposure to a variety of
reading materials of different topics that are relevant to them. It has been found that
the vocabulary intake rates tend to increase when the topics are familiar to the learners
and derive from their everyday life experiences (Slabakova 2016).
The books also emphasize the importance of contextualized learning, prioritise the
teaching of receptive skills over the productive ones and encourage learners to
experiment with the language. The activities engage learners in the language learning
process by involving them in interactive and motivating activities (in groups or pairs),
such as crossword puzzles, board game-like tasks, etc. but also cognitive tasks that
facilitate EFL acquisition and are related to aptitude (Alexiou 2009) e.g. memory
games, inductive learning, spatial ability etc. The activities do not only promote the
importance of meaning over structure, but they also incorporate a holistic and
experiential approach of learning (Fahim and Vaezi 2011).
All these allow leaners to acquire L2 vocabulary in a more natural way while
caring for various learning styles and different intelligences (Gardner 1983, 2007
cited in Mirzaei, Rahimi and Rahimi 2016, Mattheoudakis and Alexiou 2015). Taking
into consideration the dynamicity of a person‟s learning styles (Oxford 2011) and the
learners‟ individual differences, language learning is facilitated and becomes an
enjoyable process (Charalambous 2011 cited in Mattheoudakis and Alexiou 2015,
Oxford 2011, Peacock 2001).
The books adhere to the principles of communicative language, by activating the
child‟s physiology, emotions and cognition, while they link language to their „world‟
meaningfully, encouraging experiential, hands-on learning (Goswami 2011,
Mattheoudakis and Alexiou 2010).
Interestingly, a recent study has indicated that both books are characterized by a
prevalence of visual modality activities. This may be attributed to the “effectiveness
of visual stimuli within the foreign language teaching context, but also to constraints
imposed both by coursebooks and actual teaching time” (Mattheoudakis and Alexiou
2015: 13), while a similar finding was noted by Šímová (2011) in the EFL
coursebooks for Czech 3rd graders. However, it is stressed that there is also a rich
28 Thomaï Alexiou, Marina Mattheoudakis, Dionysia Saratsli, Alexandros Vagenas

array of auditory and kinaesthetic input included in the activity books, which
compensate for the particular imbalance.
The two books also incorporate features of the Lexical Approach (Lewis 1993), as
they place emphasis on the use of lexical chunks and phrases, which are
contextualized and implicitly taught through meaningful activities rather than through
drilling. Language teachers are faced with the challenge to view language as
consisting of phrasal units rather than single words and this is also noted in the
growing lexicalisation of teaching materials over the last decades (Granger 2011).
Recent studies suggest that emphasis should be placed on the processing and storage
of lexical phrases and collocations rather than on the openly constructed language
(Ellis, Simpson-Vlach and Maynard 2008) while both Milton (2007) and Lewis
(2008) claim that these chunks are also easier to learn because it is easier to
deconstruct a chunk than to construct it and therefore are more memorable for
learners.
Using the lexical approach means ceasing to deal with the word as a single fragile
unit and handle language learning as a holistic, multi-dimensional phenomenon. This
way the significance of co-text and context is highlighted by integrating the word in
meaningful chunks and consequently in larger fixed expressions, which are closely
intertwined with the communicative role of language (Conklin and Schmitt 2008). In
a similar vein, Schmitt (2008) suggests that it is central for teachers and material
designers to make these relationships directly observable and explicit, by shifting
from individual lexical items to multi-word units. Moreover, Davis and Kryszewska
(2012) as well as Boers (2018) point out the need for the lexical phrase as the
pedagogically applicable unit of prefabricated language as it contributes drastically to
fluent and natural L2 use. Since the rationale of the books clearly rejects drilling, rote
learning and decontextualized memorization, the Lexical Approach that promotes
incidental learning was adopted throughout the books. An ideal framework to include
lexical chunks and repetitive patterns and also one of the most appropriate
frameworks in teaching young learners is the story-based framework (Alexiou,
Roghani and Milton in print) and this is one of the reasons that stories were
consciously selected as the main focus of each unit.
However, as yet there is no good method for analysing and describing the content
of course books in chunks. Thankfully, there are methods of analysing the lexical
content of single words being used in coursebooks and it is a very useful way of
Words don’t come easy: Linguistic analysis of vocabulary in Magic Books 29

establishing the suitability of the content for teaching and for learners. For this reason,
this study methodically and systematically provides a vocabulary analysis of the two
course books.

3. Vocabulary size and selection

There are two questions that are at the basis of vocabulary selection for the purposes
of EFL teaching and learning: (a) how many words EFL learners need to learn at each
level, and (b) what kind of words these will be. These questions correspond to the
issues of vocabulary size and vocabulary selection respectively, and they comprise a
highly controversial issue in the field of vocabulary research (Nation 1990, Nation
and Waring 1997, Sinclair and Renouf 1988).
Starting from the aspect of vocabulary size, language proficiency has proved to be
highly correlated with the number of words learners seem to know (Milton 2009,
Schmitt 2010). The more words second language learners know, the better they can
respond to different linguistic contexts and in a variety of social communicative
settings (Schmitt, Jiang and Grabe 2011 cited in Hummel 2014). Efforts have recently
been directed towards relating young learners‟ vocabulary size with their level of
general proficiency in English. Actually research has indicated that 2000 to 2500 most
frequent English words can be set as a threshold for young learners of A2 to proceed
to B1 (according to CEFR, Council of Europe 2001) (Milton and Alexiou 2009). The
implication of this finding is that at least one of the criteria for the vocabulary
selection targeting young learners should be based on frequency criteria and that
coursebook writers and language teachers should give priority to the first 2500 most
frequent words in the English language. As text coverage is important to
comprehension, incorporating highly frequent words in the language learning
coursebooks is essential to learners‟ ability to comprehend different texts. Vocabulary
research confirms that the frequency factor should be regarded as the „shaping force
of the vocabulary content of teaching materials‟ (Nation 1990 cited in González-
Fernández and Schmitt 2017: 282). The reason behind the particular argument is that
frequency of occurrence seems to be an indicator of which words are more likely to be
encountered by learners and consequently, to be more useful to them (Chen and
Truscott 2010, Milton 2009, Nan 2018, Webb 2007). This aspect of usefulness is
particularly important as it is related with the motivational part of the learning
30 Thomaï Alexiou, Marina Mattheoudakis, Dionysia Saratsli, Alexandros Vagenas

process, especially for young learners. Young learners need to see that what they learn
can be frequently met and utilized in the target language. What is more, frequently
encountered vocabulary items are more likely to be learned due to stronger memory
traces (Gor and Long 2009, Milton 2009). This interrelation of frequency and
learnability has been a recurring idea in vocabulary studies and it has repeatedly been
proven in frequency profile studies (Milton 2009, Wesche and Paribakht 1996).
However, it is essential to note that this regularity needs to be combined with
thematic content (Milton 2009). Especially in the case of young learners, it is essential
for the selected vocabulary to be relevant to their world and to be within the scope of
their interests so as to lead to effective learning (Alexiou and Konstantakis 2009).
Consequently, an amount of highly infrequent words is expected in young learners‟
coursebooks (Milton 2009).

4. Our research study

4.1 Aim and research questions

The aim of this paper is to examine the vocabulary included in the books that have
been designed for the third grade of state primary schools in Greece, namely Magic
Book 1 and Magic Book 2. The questions of the particular study are as follows:

(a) How many words are introduced in the two books?

(b) How frequent are the lexical items included in the two books according to the first
three frequency lists?
(c) Is there an overlap between the vocabulary of the books and English Vocabulary
Profile?
(d) What are the main thematic areas around which the books are designed? Are they
appropriate to learners‟ age and language level?

4.2 Research materials and tools

In order to address the above research questions, a corpus for each one of the two
books Magic Book 1 and Magic Book 2 was created. Each corpus was then compared
(a) to the baseword lists created by Nation based on the British National Corpus, and
(b) to the English Vocabulary Profile words and lists provided by Cambridge
University Press.
Words don’t come easy: Linguistic analysis of vocabulary in Magic Books 31

Nation‟s base-word bands are lists of lexical items, which were based on the
British National Corpus. They are placed in an alphabetical order, and classified
according to the grammatical phenomenon they are associated with. The English
Vocabulary Profile (EVP) contains lexical information on headwords and
phraseological entities such as collocations and idioms, based on learners‟ knowledge
at each level of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR, Council of
Europe 2001). EVP actually indicates not what learners are expected to know at each
level, but rather what they actually know by the time they reach any of the CEFR
levels. Consequently, the aim underlying the comparison between the vocabulary of
Magic Book 1and2 and EVP is to observe whether the lexical items to which third
graders are exposed to, are, actually the items that EFL learners know at those levels -
A1 up to A2.

4.3 Research design and procedure

The research analysis took place in three broadly divided stages: firstly, the two books
were compared against each other; subsequently, each book was individually
compared to the first three 1000-word frequency lists and, finally, the Corpus of MB1
and the Corpus of MB2 were compared to the EVP wordlist in which the lexical
content corresponds to the levels A1 and A2 of the CEFR.
The main software tool that has been used due to the comparative nature of the
analysis is the AntWordProfiler 1.4.0.0 freeware programme as it enables a plain way
of comparing level lists and corpora. The second software programme used was the
AntConc 3.2.4 freeware corpus analysis toolkit. The particular software allowed us to
generate wordlists from corpora files.

5. Results and discussion

Τhe present study aimed to examine the vocabulary included in the books that have
been developed for the third grade of state primary schools in Greece, namely Magic
Book 1 and Magic Book 2. According to our results, research questions are now
revisited and answered.
32 Thomaï Alexiou, Marina Mattheoudakis, Dionysia Saratsli, Alexandros Vagenas

(a) How many words are introduced in the two books?

The quantitative analysis of the corpora compiled provided us with useful information
regarding the vocabulary input of each coursebook. More specifically, in Magic Book
1, there are 637 types and 5.698 tokens, while in Magic Book 2, there are 779 types
and 7.352 tokens. The amount of words is larger and therefore the input richer than
what is usually provided in coursebooks at this age and level-usually 350-500 types
(Alexiou and Konstantakis 2009, Konstantakis and Alexiou 2012). This is important
as it is essential to provide vocabulary that is sufficient in quantity to allow language
targets of CEFR levels to be met, and generally it seems that coursebooks do not
provide this volume (Milton and Alexiou 2012).

(b) How frequent are the lexical items included in the two books according to
Nation’s first three frequency lists?
The corpus of the two books was compared against the first three 1000-baseword
frequency lists produced by Nation based on data from the British National Corpus
(BNC). The percentages follow a descending order starting with a high percentage of
correlation between the books and the first list and decreasing in the second and third
list as can be seen in Table 1.

1k types/tokens % 2k types/tokens % 3k types/tokens %

Magic Book 1 57.77 / 77.45 17.11 / 9.42 7.06 / 4.39
Magic Book 2 57.12 / 78.76 17.84 / 7.51 6.16 / 3.67

Table 1: Overlap between Magic Books 1and2 and Nation's frequency wordlists

Comparing Magic Book 1 with the first 1000 most frequent words in English
(henceforth, 1k), it was found that more than half of all the words found in the book
belong to the 1k list. The common tokens reached up to 77.45% while the remaining
22.55% indicated the percentage of words found in the book but were not identified in
the wordlist. Moving on with the comparison of the second 1000 word list
(henceforth, 2k), the change is quite noticeable as there is a considerable drop in the
type and token percentages (17.11% and 9.42% respectively) compared to the ones in
the previous comparison with the 1k wordlist. What is interesting to note here is that
the percentage of common tokens is lower than the percentage of common types and
Words don’t come easy: Linguistic analysis of vocabulary in Magic Books 33

this indicates that although there are some words in MB1 that are found in the 2k,
some of them at least are not recycled but presented only once. When compared to the
third 1000 frequency word list (henceforth, 3k), it is obvious that a very low
percentage of vocabulary items from MB 1 belong to this list. In particular, the
common types reach 7.06 % and the common tokens is 4.39%; this is perhaps to be
expected because the coursebook addresses complete beginners of English. The
results actually indicate that two thirds of all the running words found in the book are
also found in the 1k wordlist. This is an important finding as it shows that the vast
majority of the most highly frequent words introduced in the book are frequently
recycled and this implies that the book provides repeated exposure to these words so
as to ensure that young learners will learn them and memorize them.
A closer look at these highly frequent words found in MB1 reveals that the
commonest of those words are function words and highly frequent, often polysemous,
lexical words. This is an expected finding, as we know that some of the most frequent
words in the language are function words. At the same time the recycling of those
function words increases learners‟ exposure to them and promotes incidental learning
of various grammatical structures. As the book places no emphasis on explicit
grammar instruction, this is an important feature of the book because learners manage
to acquire various structures while placing emphasis on meaning.
Moving to MB2, results indicate here as well a very high percentage of common
types and tokens (57.12% and 78.76% respectively) with the 1k wordlist, whereas
much lower percentages of common words between the vocabulary items in the book
and the second and third lists (see Table 1). Lower percentages of common types and
tokens in the 2k wordlist are also found here; the implication of this finding is that the
book provides exposure to less common words – not found in the first 2k wordlist –
and that there is considerably less recycling as the percentage of running words or
tokens indicates. Even lower percentages are yielded compared to the comparison
with the 3k wordlist, with common types reaching only 6.16% and common tokens at
3.67% of the words. Once again, the token percentage is lower than that of type and
therefore, we know that at least some of these words are not recycled.
These percentages indicate that Magic Book 1 and Magic Book 2 share similar
percentages of different words within the frequency lists. The fact that there appears
to be a slightly increased percentage of common tokens between MB2 and the 1k
wordlist compared to the corresponding results of MB1 indicates that recycling in
34 Thomaï Alexiou, Marina Mattheoudakis, Dionysia Saratsli, Alexandros Vagenas

MB2 is more extensive. In general, the similar percentages obtained from the
comparison between the two books and the first three frequency lists indicate that
both books include a large number of the most highly frequent words in English; the
most highly frequent words (1k) are extensively recycled in both books, while highly
frequent words of the next two thousand word lists (2k and 3k), also included in the
book, are much less regularly recycled; this is to be expected as both coursebooks
address beginner EFL learners.
It is important at this point to stress that because of the thematic areas chosen for
this age, an amount of infrequent words is also noted. Themes such as fairytales,
animals, school and environment require the use of particular vocabulary that is not
expected to be frequent in the language of adults and, therefore, in the adult corpora
employed in this study (Alexiou and Konstantakis 2009). What follows are examples
of words related to the themes found in the two coursebooks. Most of them are
encountered only in the 3k wordlist and some of them are even less frequent but this
is actually expected:

 Fairytales: magic, emperor, captain, treasure, beast, pirate

 Animals: feathers, shell, penguin, hare, mouse, monkey, parrot
 School: school, lesson, pencil
 Environment: sea, planet, recycle

(c) Is there an overlap between the vocabulary of the books and EVP?
Interesting results emerge from the comparison between the vocabulary found in MB1
and the EVP (see Table 2) as an impressive percentage of common types and tokens
were found (61.85% and 81.34% respectively). With respect to MB2, similar results
were obtained. In particular, the comparison between the vocabulary of MB2 and
EVP yielded a high percentage of common types and tokens (60.21% and 80.31%
respectively).
These findings demonstrate that both books expose young learners to the majority
of the vocabulary items they are expected to learn and know at this level (A1). What
is more, the token result indicates that several of those words are recycled throughout
the book. Perhaps we should note here that in the respective comparison between EVP
and MB 1, the corresponding results for types and tokens were slightly higher than
Words don’t come easy: Linguistic analysis of vocabulary in Magic Books 35

those concerning the comparison between EVP and MB2. This difference can be
possibly attributed to the fact that different stories are included in the two
coursebooks, and, therefore, differences in vocabulary choices can be reasonably
expected.

types/tokens %
Magic Book 1 61.85 / 81.34
Magic Book 2 60.21 / 80.31

Table 2: Comparison between Magic Books 1and2 and English Vocabulary Profile

(d) What are the main thematic areas included in the books? Are they appropriate to
learners’ age and language level?
Magic Book 1 and Magic Book 2 cover particular thematic areas (see Table 3) and the
majority of them are in common.

Magic Book 1 Magic Book 2

School Family and friends
Animals Animals
Toys Places
Places Colours and numbers
Weather and seasons Environment
Environment Home
Colours and numbers Food and drink
Family and friends Clothes
Food and drink Body and Face
Home School
Daily routines Sports and Daily routines
Body and Face Weather and seasons

Table 3: Thematic areas of Magic Book 1 and 2

The vocabulary content of the two books reflects the thematic areas that run through
the different units. In the results section, the themes of the books were identified and
36 Thomaï Alexiou, Marina Mattheoudakis, Dionysia Saratsli, Alexandros Vagenas

the majority of them are common (see Table 3). MB1, also included the themes of
toys while MB2 also included the themes clothes and sports. These thematic areas
seem to be largely in accordance with the list of themes identified in five different
coursebooks intended for the particular level of young learners (Alexiou and
Konstantakis 2009).
Moreover, it is important that the thematic areas found in the two books are
compatible with young learners‟ age and interests as learners can be further motivated
to participate in class when they deal with relevant and engaging materials (Csizér
2017). At this young age, learners need content that will ignite their imagination and
fantasy and at the same time this content has to be familiar to them so they can relate
to it (Dörnyei and Ushioda 2011). The particular content relates to familiar concepts
and therefore, their schemata and background knowledge are activated; this, in turn,
facilitates the process of building a network of associations and establishing memory
connections (Bruce 2011, Nattinger 1988, Pound 2013, Zareva and Wolter 2012 cited
in Men 2018). Finally, this thematic organization is attuned with Milton‟s proposal for
combination of frequent vocabulary and appropriate themes that can appeal to young
learners (Milton 2009).

6. Concluding remarks

This paper investigated the vocabulary coverage in the two EFL books designed for
Grade 3 learners in Greece. The analysis of the two books showed that the lexical
loading is considerably larger compared to other books for the same age and level and
therefore the input provided is much richer; this is actually quite remarkable. The
comparison of the books with the first three frequency lists has shown that highly
frequent vocabulary is incorporated in both. This inclusion of highly frequent lexical
items as part of the vocabulary to which young learners are exposed is considered to
be greatly beneficial for their language acquisition process. A minimum threshold for
effective comprehension at the onset of learning is around 2000 to 2500 most frequent
words (Ma 2009, Milton 2009, Nation 2001). Both books assist in the construction of
this initial threshold as they incorporate highly frequent vocabulary and therefore,
learners have the opportunity to be exposed to frequent vocabulary and start building
their network of associations that will later enable them to attain higher levels of
comprehension.
Words don’t come easy: Linguistic analysis of vocabulary in Magic Books 37

Furthermore, high frequency words have been interrelated with the factor of utility
as learning these words results in better comprehension and consequently, in arousing
the feeling of satisfaction (Csizér 2017, Dörnyei and Ryan 2015, Milton 2009, Nation
1990). On the basis of this, the factor of utility will work as a motivational factor for
these young learners as they will start realizing that the vocabulary to which they are
exposed can be applicable and useful in a variety of contexts, ranging from the school
and classroom setting to the long-term goal of reading and comprehending a text
written in English.
The vocabulary introduced through the books largely overlaps with the A1 level of
proficiency according to the EVP that proves the appropriateness of the words
selected. The thematic areas are also considered and agree with topics from previous
studies (Alexiou and Konstantakis 2009).
Finally, there is considerable recycling of some of the vocabulary items included in
the two books; in other words, at least some of the words introduced in one unit, are
repeated in one or more other units of the book. This facilitates learners‟ vocabulary
development due to the fact that multiple exposures create strong memory traces that
subsequently facilitate consolidation and recalling of vocabulary (Gor and Long 2009,
Milton 2009, Nation 1990, Schmitt 2010). Along the same lines, repeated exposures
to vocabulary items can enhance the already established network of associations and
enable learners to build a large sight vocabulary (Webb 2007).

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Dr Thomai Alexiou is an Assistant Professor in Applied Linguistics at the School of

English, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She holds an MA in TEFL from
Canterbury Christ Church University and a PhD in Applied Linguistics from Swansea
Words don’t come easy: Linguistic analysis of vocabulary in Magic Books 41

Universιty, UK (full scholarship). Her expertise is in early foreign language teaching

and learning and material development for young learners. She has participated in
research projects such as PEAP (English for young learners educational project),
ELTons awarded DysTEFL2 , CLIL-Prime etc. She has been invited as a speaker and
teacher trainer in Greece, Europe, Australia, Russia and the UAE. She is the co-author
of Magic Book 1&2, Teaching packages for the teaching of English at Grade 3 in
Greek state schools. Magic Book 2 has been shortlisted for the MacMillan Education
Award for New Talent in Writing (ELTons 2014).
[email protected]

Dr Marina Mattheoudakis is a Professor in Applied Linguistics at the School of

English, Faculty of Philosophy, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She is a graduate
of the School of English and holds an MA in Teaching English as a Second/Foreign
Language (University of Birmingham, U.K.) and a Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics from
the School of English, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Her research interests lie
in the areas of second language acquisition, bilingualism and bilingual education,
language teaching methodology and corpus linguistics. She has participated in various
research projects (one of them being the teaching of foreign languages to learners with
dyslexia, DysTEFL2, which was awarded the ELTons Awards, 2014).
[email protected]

Dionysia Saratsli is a PhD student in Linguistics and Cognitive Science at the

University of Delaware. She is a graduate of the School of English and she holds an
MA in Theoretical and Applied Linguistics from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
She is interested in exploring the pragmatic factors involved in language using
behavioural and neuro imaging techniques.
[email protected]

Alexandros Vagenas is a PhD student at the Department of Theoretical and Applied

Linguistics, School of English, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He is a graduate
of the School of English and he holds an MA in Theoretical and Applied Linguistics
from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. His research interests concern linguistic
development in early language learning as well as the interrelation of language and
thought, psychology and individual differences in foreign language teaching.
[email protected]