Germanic Intercomprehension: How to Teach 6 Germanic Languages Together.

For the first time six Germanic languages (Danish, Dutch, German, English, Norwegian and Swedish) are being taught together, multilingually and plurilingually, in 30-hour courses and in seminars. This paper provides a description of the course's structure and of its methodological underpinnings, as well as a walkthrough of two didactic units, with their relative exercises, so that readers can do IC lessons with their own students. During the course, students reach an A2 level in each language in receptive skills, as well as vocabulary and grammar. As no materials existed to teach these languages together, all activities were created by the authors. Each day focuses on a different language, with plurilingual follow-up exercises. Lessons are scaffolded by applying concepts from diverse methodological fields; from among these, the authors have identified eight elements as essential for creating effective Germanic IC courses. We provide a module of activities related to Art and one based around National anthems & European values for readers to implement. Participants also learn to manage plurilingual conversations: interactions wherein each participant speaks their own tongue. Termed Interproduction, these activities involve multilingual games and role plays in different settings; students acquire new strategies to successfully communicate and solve problems with speakers of languages they do not know. The role plays are enacted in the native languages of the participants, which are commonly not Germanic languages; past sessions have included speakers of such diverse languages as Bulgarian, French, Hungarian, Hebrew and Bengali. IC broadens learners' fields of action. In these courses, languages which they had previously thought of as distant or inaccessible became approachable, learnable and doable. Thus, countries which they had previously not taken into consideration, after the IC course became viable: for Erasmus, for travel, and for work. Furthermore, the Germanic IC courses promote Europe's linguistic diversity. As all language systems are equally prized, English becomes no longer students' lingua franca, but one communicative tool among many at their disposal. Finally, throughout the course, participants break down their biases and misconceptions about other languacultures, jointly forging a future that is inclusive for all people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]