Sprachbiografien als didaktisches Instrument schulischer Reflexion über Spracherwerb und Mehrsprachigkeit. Interdisziplinäre Perspektiven auf autobiografisches Schreiben in Sprachlernklassen

In this article the subject of discussion will be the use of language portraits and biographies (Krumm/Jenkins 2001; Busch 2013) as a stimulus for autobiographical writing in German classes in schools and foreign language learning. A corpus of texts produced by students with a migration background will be described and analysed; these texts are based on language portraits and were collected in different classes. As part of the analysis, already existing concepts of creative writing will be discussed, particularly from the point of view of their application to writing skills at school. In particular, it will be argued that the concept of language biography has potential as a methodology for the learning and teaching processes, as well as offering students the opportunity to reflect on their language repertoire. In addition to the analysis of the texts, an example of a language portrait will be described, and the possible use of language portraits as an input to creative writing will be discussed. The article is addressed to researchers and teachers of German and modern languages in general, and will seek to develop greater awareness of the potential of creative writing and language biographies in the school curriculum.