School and Refugees in Europe

Amidst the current situation in Europe the discussion of education and development of refugee children is more important than ever. As a result the increasing diversity and multilingualism must be considered in this discussion. In connection with the Ersamus+ project CultureShake the aim of this research paper is to show the normality of cultural hybridisation. In terms of language didactics and language psychology the concept focuses on opposing the feeling of foreignness by supporting language reflection and language awareness. Lanuage portraits are used as a tool to make children aware of their linguistic repertoire and to recognise this as a resource. This paper adapts this existing concept to refugee children with a low level of the, for them foreign, language German