The Language Training of over 100 TCNs was composed as follows: The participants of the levels A2, B1 and B2 received competent language instruction from our language teachers respective to their competence level within 4 weeks. Depending on the course, there were about 3 hours of intensive language instructions given daily from Monday to Friday. All students had previous language class experience and had already been taught in other courses at the GFBM gGmbH. The teachers used existing educational material and selected class suitable text passages and tasks with the aim of intensifying the language acquisition. In addition to main goal of language acquisition, it was important to us to win over a majority of the participants to the MINGLE project. Therefore, the following areas of the project were repeatedly discussed, such as workshops, cultural visits or upcoming mingling experiences with subsequent mentoring. This aroused the interest of participants and led to a good willingness to participate in the language training. In total we offered six courses in the period of October 2018 to June 2019. A few courses were afternoon courses because a group of our students went to public schools in the morning hours or were busy with work or other obligations. We decided to shift the courses to a later point during the day to meet their constrained timetables.
Aim of the best practice: The goal of the language training was to intensify language acquisition and to secure already acquired language skills. This was especially true for the groups with language level A2. For the advanced learners of the B1 and B2 levels, the main aim was to ensure their language comprehension or to accelerate their learning progress. The language lessons in the B2 courses could also be used as exam preparation to obtain an international language certificate. Especially for the B2 learners, the computer training was needed, as they were all about to gain a professional foothold or enter the training market. In Germany, most TCNs require a B2 level to gain a foothold in the job market or to start an apprenticeship.
Objectives of the best practice
Acquiring the legal documentation to stay in a country is only the first step for integration into the local society. Language is still seen as the key to successful integration and gives the TCN a feeling of security coupled with success, which is very important in the new environment after leaving their home countries. Furthermore, the language certificate is the entry requirement to access the German job-market.
The computer training should give participants confidence in the use of digital media, show them ways to learn from the comfort of their own home and how they can use the training for more successful integration, for example, to write applications or update their CVs. Also the use of printers and scanners was appreciated.
Mr. Olaf Melchior – Constructing group compositions from the TCN database
Mrs. Ewa Golabek-Alberth – Constructing group compositions from the TCN database
Mr. Paul Panknin – Coordination of the class schedule
Mrs. Marisa von Wysocki – Language Assessment of the TCNs before the courses
The teachers: Mrs. Sabrina Ellenberger, Mr. Olaf Melchior, Mrs. Heinrich Merle
101 Students
The language training took place over a longer period of time. On the one hand, there was a change in the staffing structure. As a result, the new employees first had to be integrated into the project and this cost some time and the planning was somewhat slowed down. On the other hand, we had to try to coordinate the courses as well as possible, because many of our accredited TCN are also busy with many other topics and often also attend another school or university, are in work or training. Nevertheless, we managed to start up to 6 courses in the period from 2018/2019 , which were also well attended with 101 participants. The teachers were intensively prepared in a workshop in the months before the language training and were thus able to offer not only grammar and phonetics, but also regional studies and media competence. Despite planning difficulties, we were able to successfully implement the trainings and received a lot of positive feedback on that.
The language Trainings took place with 4 teachers and over 100 TCN. Most of our participants are between 20 and 30 years old and the majority of them is male and coming from Afghanistan. The trainings took place in our school at GFBM gGmbH in good equipped class rooms, for the media trainings as part of the language trainings we used also a beamer and laptops. The basic learning materials have been copies from language books which our teachers selected before.
The strengths of the training were above all that the participants were not only able to work on their smartphones, but now had more opportunities to work on laptops. This was important in perspective, as there are many TCNs who are looking for a career as an office clerk, secretary or office and administration staff. They were also able to write and revise their resumes and application efforts. Each participant received a good CV at the end of the courses, which they can use in the future. This is very important for social participation, as it is an absolute must in Germany when applying for a job. The vocabulary in the context of media competence was also new for many participants and could be successfully taught.
That language training was a very good starting point for the further MINGLE steps and was ideally suited to introduce the students to the project in terms of language and to help them to secure their language, which is a huge plus point for successful participation in German society. However, the pupils and also the teachers would have liked to learn more than the 100 hours spread over 4 weeks. We were lucky that all the students had sufficient language experience. The Mingle project would not be suitable for pupils with a low level of language, but it would require more and longer training of this kind. In the framework of our possibilities, however, it was successful.
Some participants would like more of the training and would like to continue using the laptops, as they have recognized the advantages compared to the smartphones. They were also able to print or scan during the courses.
Good. More hours of training needed. For students with a low level of language skills, more extensive training would be necessary. Especially for interested students without course experience, more lessons would have to be offered within Mingle.