Storytelling and digital art as a means to improve multilingual skills

The use of storytelling and digital art as tools to understand a migrant family’s life path will be in the center of an innovative methodology that will ensure the acquisition of multilingual skills and the development of plurilingual awareness, reinforcing the various dimensions of language (aesthetic and emotional, in addition to cognitive), in a creative, collaborative and interdisciplinary work environment. This is especially important among students who are not likely to receive further language training. It is not yet clear how teachers can explore multilingual experiences of learners, both in terms of language learning dimensions but also related with the multiple cognitive connections and representations, as well as to the awareness of language diversity. The JASM (Open window onto the world: foreign languages, multimodal creativity and pedagogical innovation in higher education) project involves a group of students of the 1st cycle in Media Studies, from the School of Education of Viseu, who will work using photography, digital art and cultural communication, collecting information pertaining to diversified cultural and linguistic contexts of the city of Viseu (Beira Alta, Portugal), both in French and English, centered on a tradition or ritual of a migrant family. Based on an interview, students write the story (in French and English) of the life of migrants and use photography to highlight the most relevant aspect of the migrant’s family life. Using as a starting point an object associated with religion, tradition or a ritual, students create an animated film, in both languages. This approach will allow the exploration of culture and digital scenography, integrating in an innovative interdisciplinary pathway, digital art, multilingual skills and multicultural awareness. Students’ learning progress and teacher roles are assessed during this process, using tests from the beginning to the end of the project.