DeTalks: Taking Words out of Communication
The Synergy of Music Theatre from Larissa (SMouTh: Greece), a partner of the Crossroads
project, created in 2018 the project “DeTalks: Creative and Inclusive Non Verbal Education”
which was finally implemented (2018-2020) by an international Erasmus+ consortium of
seven organisations of the international network ROOTS&ROUTES International
(https://www.rootsnroutes.eu/).
The DeTalks project has succeeded in supporting the linguistic education of newly arrived young
immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers by removing the talk from communication.
For the newcomers in Europe, learning the host societies’ languages instead of being
restricted only in grammar and vocabulary, needs to incorporate other crucial aspects of
communication. The DeTalks project aimed not to replace the traditional linguistic
education but to complete it with nonverbal communication: body language, facial
expressions, volume and tone of voice as well as the newcomer’s own image and behaviour
can convey information effectively and can make a real difference in the communication
with natives.
This collaboration has supported the newly arrived young immigrants, refugees and asylum
seekers in two ways:
– by developing an innovative methodology for linguistic education through non
verbal communication, focusing on the attractiveness and effectiveness of non
formal training methods and tools of the performing arts and media,
– by including the local youth in this training, especially young people with fewer
opportunities who, while acting as linguistic peer coaches, have been familiarised
with the cultures of their newly arrived peers and minimised xenophobic feelings
and attitudes.
In the link below you can watch one of the communication development methods
developed by SMouTh (Broken Phone) based on the participants’ inherent representational
skills.
https://youtu.be/RjBI9faHEYI
In the video description, you can also find the link to download the full project guide which
contains 18 corresponding methods to facilitate the language learning of young refugees,
migrants and asylum seekers through performing and visual arts.
