A Town of Many: Drama and Urban Heritage Landscapes as Mediums for Second Language Acquisition and Social Inclusion

If the global and multicultural social environments in which we find ourselves nowadays define who we are, then “we,” as social beings, are embedded in various relevant social communities in which we are acting, interacting, affecting, and being affected through our communications. In our case, teachers and learners change and coproduce cultural assets through their daily practices, while they explore, interact, and embrace the already existing local Cultural Heritage of their new settings. This paper moves beyond text-oriented approaches and towards cutting-edge trends in education and second language learning. A new global application is presented which utilizes the recording of urban heritage landscapes as mediums for second language acquisition and social inclusion. The methodology is based on the case study of a coproduced (between teachers and learners) Historical Area Assessment in a diverse area of Cardiff city. It shows the benefits brought to the refugee and asylum seeker learners regarding their second language competence levels and the social inclusion they achieved in their local community. Through this innovative application, which combines heritage recording with drama in education, learners take the lead in the recording of the urban heritage landscapes, and the teachers focus on the creative and experiential aspect of the learning process through drama. The ultimate aims are to present a new heritage and drama-based way for second language acquisition and social inclusion in the multicultural classroom.