Hello everyone! I am happy to share that the Nordic Journal of Comparative and International Education has just published a new article that I co-authored with Ulrika Jepson Wigg, Anna Ehrlin, and Lara Hoffmann. The article is titled “The pedagogical potential of arts-based approaches in second language education for adults“.

In this study, we set out to explore how increasing mobility and linguistic diversity challenge traditional language teaching, highlighting the growing need for pedagogies that actively promote learner agency and participation. Using a comparative case study approach, we examined teachers’ and adult students’ experiences with arts-based and multiliteracies-informed methods, specifically looking at the use of music in Sweden and drama in Iceland.

Drawing on a multiliteracies framework, our findings demonstrate that arts-based approaches offer wide pedagogical potential:

• They provide low-stakes, multimodal entry points that reduce language anxiety and encourage playful, joyful engagement.
• They help connect learning directly to students’ lived experiences and everyday lives.
• They foster supportive micro-communities that alleviate social isolation, build peer solidarity, and empower adult learners as active knowledge producers rather than passive recipients.

The study also highlights that successfully implementing these approaches depends heavily on teacher preparedness, institutional conditions, and adequate professional training, as arts-based methods remain largely absent from formal education policy in both countries.

The article is published open access.

You can sing whole phrases; you can sing without knowing the language. Remembering sounds and rhythms as a part of the whole. You can break down the prosody.

Teacher 1 (Sweden)

It led to us practicing pronouns and other things, there was so much talk and laughter and a good atmosphere, but it took a while to get there.

Student 1 (Iceland)

Jepson Wigg, U., Benediktsson, A. I., Ehrlin, A., & Hoffmann, L. (2026). The pedagogical potential of arts-based approaches in second language education for adults. Nordic journal of comparative and international education (NJCIE), 10(5), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.7577/njcie.6682