Bringing multilingualism to life with the Japanese paper theater Kamishibai

As part of Faculty I's Rent-a-Prof project, a cooperation project between the Didactics of French and Spanish Language and Culture and a regional comprehensive school took place from May to July 2025. Under the direction of Prof. Dr. Dagmar Abendroth-Timmer and two teachers (including a former teacher graduate from Siegen), 31 pupils from a year 7 class in the subject "Performing and Designing" were instructed by a group of 18 students to use their multilingualism in the retelling, performative design and presentation of a story in the form of a kamishibai, thus making it visible and tangible.

The multilingual Kamishibai

The kamishibai is an A3 wooden box (butai) with which stories are told using picture panels and in interaction with the audience. In the project, two reciprocal visits took place and the teachers worked in the meantime with the materials provided for multilingual storytelling. The aim was for the pupils to continue, illustrate and perform a story using their multilingual repertoire. They were presented with certificates for the skills they had acquired.

Data collection

The comprehensive project data consists of interviews on the potential of the project to promote multilingualism and teacher professionalization (master's thesis in the project). In addition, language learning biographies of the students and pupils, reflection sheets of the students and the team, audio recordings and observation sheets of the group work phases as well as video recordings of the presentation of results are available. This data will be analyzed with regard to the role of aesthetics, the multilingual design processes and the effect on the experience of competence and multilingualism.

Initial research results

Initial results show positive awareness-raising processes, which are evaluated by one of the teachers as follows: "The pupils perceived the inclusion of their language of origin as appreciative. Many showed pride in being able to use their language. [...] Multilingual Kamishibai is a creative and inclusive method of combining storytelling skills, cultural diversity and expressiveness." This sounds like this in the words of one pupil: "German and Kurdish was really cool" / "really powerful and I was also happy because I could speak in my language."