Museum visits are an excellent way to combine heritage language teaching and art. But what if no interesting museums are nearby? Here, virtual museums are a good alternative. In this workshop we aim to show how freely available online resources published by museums can be used for a wide variety of art-based learning activities.
With this game, learners not only improve their vocabulary, avoiding lexical pitfalls while also benefitting from existing knowledge of the majority language. They also playfully gain a better understanding of the historical and cultural ties that link their heritage language to the majority language.
In this method, calligrams (or picture poems) serve as an inspiration for exploring word fields centred on common terms, such as the name of animals. Learners are asked to fill a silhouette with words and phrases related to the image, thereby enriching their vocabulary in the heritage language.