The social art of language acquisition: A theatre approach in language learning for migrants and its digitization in the Corona lockdown

Abstract

Today's challenges and developments − migration flows, globalization, diversification of educational pathways – clearly indicate that language teaching can no longer only take place within the framework of school and vocational training. Outside the context of schools, approaches which combine language learning with other goals of development or that are linked to concrete objectives appear most promising. A particularly challenging field is teaching languages to adult refugees, since language courses can seldom address the learning culture, the different learning speeds and key competencies adequately. In the wake of the current Corona crisis, the problem is becoming more pressing. By digitalization of language courses, there is the danger that people with better prerequisites benefit more from the offered courses than those more in need, and the gap between people with higher or lower learning success will widen further. The article uses the practical example JobAct Sprachkultur, which is a German programme for job placement, based on a combination of theatre methods, language learning and social work, to investigate the extent to which theatre methods can contribute to reducing educational inequality in the language acquisition of adult refugees/migrants. Based on a document analysis and qualitative spotlight surveys with the trainers of the program, the potentials and limitations of the theatre approach and its digital implementation can be shown.