Ham’avaaz – Polyphonic: Music Pedagogy in Basic Education and Language Learning aims to identify ways in which music-based activities can be integrated into basic education and language teaching. It pursues the following objectives:

▫ Co-creating an appreciative learning environment at the interface of music and language acquisition for educationally disadvantaged adults who have often had discriminatory and negative learning experiences. The activities emphasise existing skills and actively involve the participants in the learning/teaching process.

▫ Strengthening learning skills and memory strategies for learners in different areas of adult education, especially literacy, basic education and second language acquisition. A wide range of music is presented to create conversation starters and teach strategies to help memorise language structures.

▫ Promoting social skills and the ability to articulate feelings, opinions and attitudes. The methods used aim to improve learners’ ability to actively listen and analyse information in a social context.

▫ Promoting resilience by supporting participants in recognising and using their potential resources and skills, such as multilingualism. The specific design of the material builds on the participants’ existing resources and activates them. This aims to promote self-efficacy rather than emphasising deficits in certain areas.

▫ Promoting creativity. Creativity also plays an important role in developing and maintaining resilience, as it involves the ability to imagine and develop alternative scenarios.

▫ Building transcultural and social dialogue through the use of a variety of different linguistic and cultural elements beyond the clichés and stereotypes often associated with music.

▫ Strengthening the competences of adult educators by expanding their repertoire with music-based activities and tools. The learning materials and activities are designed for adult educators who are interested in engaging with the question how music pedagogy can be used to benefit learning processes. The material can be used by trainers who are familiar with music pedagogy as well as by educators with no prior knowledge in this field.

▫ Fostering exchange between adult educators on music pedagogy. Please join our Discord channel to get in touch with trainers, exchange song suggestions and much more.