Participating in a school internship abroad, understood as a student teaching placement in a foreign school system with mentor teacher support, may enhance preservice teachers’ language awareness, capacity for language-sensitive pedagogy, and intercultural competence (Malmberg et al., 2025; Cheng & Huang, 2023; Marcus & Moss, 2015; Habron, 2007). However, studies on how music teachers overcome language barriers— particularly through nonverbal and musical-gestural communication—remain scarce, as do studies on the particular possibilities offered by the music classroom for linguistically diverse settings, especially in contexts shaped by migration. Against this backdrop, we ask: How do preservice music teachers use nonverbal strategies when facing language barriers in the classroom, and how do they and their mentors reflect on these experiences?Instrumental pedagogy provides frameworks for understanding nonverbal communication in music pedagogical settings, such as paraverbal utterances (Herbst, 2023) and pedagogical gestures that convey expression rather than prompting reproduction (Simones et al., 2015). Bremmer and Nijs (2020) further distinguish physical modeling and touch as forms of nonverbal communication. In general music pedagogy, Gruhn (2014) highlights the auditory-motor loop as foundational to musical learning, while Battersby and Bolton (2013) emphasize developing shared nonverbal systems between teachers and pupils, drawing on the categories of conducting, acting, and wielding (Grant & Hennings, 1971).Within a widespread three-year pan-European research project, empirically grounded formats for school internships abroad were developed for ten student teachers (STs) through design-based research in seven cycles (Bakker, 2018; McKenney & Reeves, 2019), alongside mentoring tools for quality supervision. Data were collected through initial mentor-student conversations, voice memos recorded during placement, and reflective interviews. STs all taught in English for the first time; pupils and mentors varied in English proficiency.Use of nonverbal communication frequently appeared in ST reflections, either implicitly or explicitly, with differing levels of self-reflection and ranging from practical strategies (“do more, talk less less) to broader comments (“music is the language we talk together”). Gesture was the most represented form of nonverbal communication, but other forms were also present—or notably absent.In this paper presentation, findings will be discussed using frameworks for nonverbal communication from communication studies (Burgoon, Manusov, & Guerrero, 2021), global classroom pedagogy (Battersby & Bolton, 2013), and instrumental pedagogy (Bremmer & Nijs, 2020). Furthermore, a tool developed within the study to support STs facing language barriers will be introduced, aiming to strengthen school internships abroad and other linguistically diverse music education contexts.