LEARNINGMULTILINGUALISM

Coming together along the theme of “multilingual learning”, the Working Group consists of civil society representatives, social workers, psychologists, independent artists and educators from Turkey and Germany.

Multilingual Memo Game Working Group aims to design a board game that will promote social cohesion, cultural exchange, multilingualism and fun in diverse learning environments that bring children with and without refugee backgrounds together.

During the first working meeting in Freising, Germany in October 2017, the Working Group resolved to design not one, but two games to promote multilingualism and social cohesion, namely MAXI Game and Multilingual Memory Game. Thus the working group splitted into two sub-groups accordingly, to work on their prospective projects for the next one and half years.

With a firm belief in the power of game-based learning, the participants have started their work on devising easily applicable games that will be used both in schools and in child-friendly areas of social centers and community houses.

Multilingual Memory Game claims that all the languages spoken in a children group tantamount to the same value. Children will more easily identify with an education material that acknowledges this principle.

Participants of this working group decided to develop a game, which will be used both in Germany and Turkey, around the common theme of "daily life in my neighborhood." Accordingly, the game will consist of game cards that feature a hand-drawn element from the neighbourhood, surrounded by corresponding words to that image in different relevant languages.

The game is predominantly based on drawings and images and the ability to match the card pairs. However, by adding several multilingual components in the game, the Working Group aims to draw attention to the fact that we are living in multilingual and multicultural societies. There is a growing need to translate this asset into our learning environments in a creative way in order to foster inclusion.

Thus, the game aspires to bolster creative communication and peer learning among children, welcome multilingualism in learning spaces, and develop curiosity for new languages.

The Game Box will include:

Game Cards: Each card will feature a hand-drawn element from the neighbourhood, surrounded by corresponding words to that image in different relevant languages. The deck will consist of 25 pairs of cards. The players can always create more cards and add them to the deck.

Trainer Booklet: The booklet will be available under the TOOLS headline of this website. It will be in Turkish, English, Arabic, Kurdish and German and open access for anyone.

Language Stickers: The game box will feature language tags, which will allow the trainers to customise the deck to cover family languages in a specific classroom.

Our Neighborhood Map:The game box will also contain a neighbourhood map that will feature the images on the cards. It can be used for some game options suggested in the booklet.

Language List:  A list of languages that can be included in the game and most widely spoken in the region will be created.

Additional Activities: Apart from serving as a memory game, the same material will be used to play different games. In the trainer booklet, a few alternative game options will be offered.

Downloadable Version: The game will primarily be designed as a box game and distributed free of charge. However, in order to make it more accessible for common use, it will also be available for downloading from the TOOLS segment of this website.

The game is suitable for formal as well as for non-formal education.

Coming together along the theme of “multilingual learning”, the Working Group consists of civil society representatives, social workers, psychologists, independent artists and educators from Turkey and Germany.

MAXI GAME Working Group aims to design a game that will bring children with and without refugee background together on a GIANT Game format and encourage discovering the commonalities while having fun. The game will welcome multilingualism and provide an opportunity to work on minimizing discrimination in the learning environments.

The designing process of the game will involve game design experts who have working experience with multicultural target groups.

During the first working meeting in Freising, Germany in October 2017, the Working Group resolved to design not one but two games to promote multilingualism and foster social cohesion and thus, splited into two sub-groups to work on their prospective projects, namely MAXI Game and Multilingual Memory Game, for the next one and a half years.

With a firm belief in the power of game-based learning, the project participants aspire to bring a freshness into the field by designing a physical game that will let practicing coexistence in a game format that is especially suitable to be played outdoors.

Thus, the working group participants have started to design a user-friendly and low-threshold game, so that teachers, psychologists, child-friendly space workers and youth workers can comfortably use it in their work with children.

Making different languages visible and promoting their use in the learning spaces has utmost importance for the project participants. Therefore the game will include a language category that will promote the use of plural languages, including children’s family languages.

The game will include an immense colourful game carpet, big-size task cards and a colourful wheel and it will be suitable to be played both in and outdoors. The children will be cooperating in order to accomplish different playful tasks. They will be getting in touch with their feelings, listening to each other and reaching joint decisions. Due to the MAXI Game, children will practice team play and develop their sense of solidarity.

What will the Game include?

Big Game Carpet: A carpet that is big enough to allow children to move comfortably in groups on the game track.

Big Game Cards: A set of game cards in various categories that contain fun tasks and guide children to team play. Few blank cards will be available to be filled by the trainers so that the game can be customized for special needs of their classes.

Wheel: A colourful wheel to be used to decide how many steps to move forward each round.

Trainer Booklet: A booklet for trainers that will cover the rules of the game and a few tips for being more inclusive. The booklet will also be uploaded to the TOOLS section of this website in five languages, namely Turkish, English, Arabic, Kurdish and German.

Downloadable Tabletop Version: The working group will also design a tabletop version of the game. To make the game more widely used and sustainable, all the game materials will be adapted for a printable table top version.