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This contribution presents the findings of a holistic, interdisciplinary approach integrating music and second language acquisition. Grounded in the Italian educational context, this research aligns with the European perspective on policies for the inclusion of newly arrived students (CoE, 2022).

It examines the potential benefits of music, song, creative and playful activities to second language acquisition, emotional well-being, and motivation (Sun, Yang, & Liang, 2024; Caon, 2023; Crawford, 2019; Denzine & Brown, 2015).

Central to this approach is the perspective of language as a cultural tool and mediator, where music acts as a bridge to overcome linguistic barriers and foster dialogic inquiry. Through a series of cooperative activities and layered processes, students collaboratively negotiated and composed new lyrical sections for the proposed songs, which they also performed. This process turned the classroom into a space for collaborative meaning-making, where the author’s original teaching materials were adapted to students' characteristics, learning objectives, and guiding themes. The methodology emphasizes the teacher-student relationship (Wentzel, 2016), the role of emotions (Swain, 2013), and the use of cooperative learning strategies (Munoz-Martinez, Monge-Lopez, Torrego Sejo, 2020) to enhance student agency.

This study primarily uses a design-based research approach. Four case studies were conducted with lower secondary school students (ages 12–14), including groups of newly arrived students and multicultural/multilingual classes (15–22 students per group).

Data collection involved audio-video recordings, participant observation, questionnaires, and interviews. Analysis, including transcription, coding, and thematic analysis, revealed the positive impact of music and creative activities on L2 development, emotional well-being, and motivation

In a social context where migration is both a present and future phenomenon, continuously evolving, the promising results of this study underscore the importance of further research into how music education can contribute, through innovative strategies, to the development of a democratic and inclusive education.