It is a priority objective of intercultural, integrative or inclusive pedagogy that people be able to orient themselves in a multicultural context and be able to successfully interact with people from other cultures without prejudice. In doing so, they should also be able to retain and develop their own identity, naturally, and without pressure to assimilate.
The linguistic side of multicultural societies is multilingualism, which is the reality in every school and in every class in the immigration countries. Meeting this multilingualism with interest and openness while, at the same time, valuing and cultivating one’s own language(s) and dialects, ranks among the most important and indispensable intercultural competences.
Heritage language education can and should make a contribution in this regard. Its focus, naturally, is on the first language. However, this should not mean that the students‘ other potentials and resources be neglected or ignored. (Similarly, this must not occur in regular mainstream education classes either, which should acknowledge and make use of these potentials as part of their teacher and living environment orientation.)
The following seven proposals demonstrate simple ways of how bilingualism and multilingualism of students and society can lead to exciting teaching sequences. These projects are all the more motivating, as they revert to immediately retrievable and available potentials and experiences. Many times, they can be combined with creative activity options. Last, but not least, the comparison with other languages often demonstrates particulary well the characteristics and peculiarities of one’s own language. Which partial competencies are prioritized in which unit (perception competence, reflection competence, competence to act) is evident from the overview at the end of the book. The assignments to classes and levels are broadly defined; most of the suggestions can be implemented on the upper or lower level as well, with only minor modifications.
Finally, an important hint: in terms of the first language, HLT prioritizes the promotion of literal competences (the mediation of the standard language, including reading and writing competence). This is plausible, as many students practice their first language at home only in dialect and sometimes with very limited vocabulary. The language projects in this chapter, however, absolutely include dialects (in the first language, as well as in the language of the host country), hence the group-specific codes or forms of language usage.