Heraus mit der Sprache! Sprachsensible Kunstvermittlung in Museum und Schule

<< Background >>The experience of the Covid19 pandemic has once again highlighted the importance of language development, social interaction and cultural participation for the youngest in our society. Art offers a variety of opportunities to speak and to develop linguistic, cultural and social skills. The project „Heraus mit der Sprache!“ (‘Speak Your Mind!’) therefore combined language didactics and art education. It specifically adressed classes from Viennese schools in socio-spatially challenging locations and meant to empower the students in two ways: They were invited to discover the museum as an extracurricular place of learning and to express their thoughts on works of art and topics adressed by them in order to experience the museum as a setting for social negotiation processes. To further diversity, the multilingualism of the students was actively included in the education process. As an extracurricular place of learning, the museum offers the opportunity to break through set dynamics of the classroom. Through intensive engagement with selected works of art, cultural participation was enabled and empowerment processes were set in motion.<< Objectives >>The goal of the project was to develop a program for students that combines language teaching and art education. The partnership therefore focused on the transfer of knowledge between experts from the university and museum sector. The jointly developed learning and teaching materials are language and culturally sensitive and adapted to the objects in the diverse collections of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien. The project presented the museum with the opportunity to develop such materials and methods in close exchange with experts in the field of language education and German as a second language. This meant filling a gap in the museum's educational program, which contributes to a more inclusive and diversity-oriented museum. For the University of Duisburg-Essen, the project offered the opportunity to further develop approaches of aesthetic learning, gain insights into the Austrian education system, and collect scientific data.<< Implementation >>Among others, the following activities were implemented during the one-year project (May 2022 – April 2023): - conceptual design of the learning materials- series of workshops with students, in order to test the materials at the museum- scientific supervision of the workshops; gathering of data- scientific evaluation of the learning materials- training of art educators at the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien- creation of a website to publish the results of the project as Open Educational Resources- hosting a conference to disseminate the results of the project- publication of a scientific paper on the findings- as well as a number of preparatory activities<< Results >>In the project „Heraus mit der Sprache!“ (‘Speak Your Mind!’), evaluated learning and teaching materials were developed that promote language improvement of young visitors to the museum following the principles of aesthetic learning. The materials were tested at the museum in several workshops with four classes (secondary level I) from Viennese middle schools. Following the motto ‘Speak Your Mind!‘, the students were able to discover the museum as an extracurricular place of learning and articulate their experiences and opinions, which furthered their linguistic development and set processes of empowerment in motion. At the end of the workshops, the materials were scientifically evaluated and adapted accordingly. They are now available on the project’s website (http://herausmitdersprache.khm.at/). They form the basis for a new educational program of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien. For art educators, trainers of German as a foreign and second language and all interested parties, the learning and teaching materials provide suggestions and tools for language-sensitive learning through art. The scientific data collected in the course of the project helps to further the approaches of aesthetic learning.