Communication opportunities should be created in which German language skills are helpful. A museum flyer in German, labelling of objects in German, but also impulses for storytelling and imagination through works of art, In this way, German language skills can be expanded and practised, while at the same time a cultural institution can be supported in offering information about art and culture in a foreign language or in implementing creative activities. Priorities such as shared values, innovation in teaching and learning and the preservation of cultural heritage were realised in the project. The project focusses on culture and language and offers innovations for all partners involved. Already in the second year of the project, it was possible to design a training course based on newly designed working materials. Aspects such as ‘picture stories’, ‘museum diary’ or ‘museum visit with friends from Germany’ are potential lesson contents that make it possible to move away from the textbook and offer pupils the museum as a ‘different place of learning’. This promotes the learning and teaching of language, students see episodes that they can analyse, compare and evaluate as case studies.
The Westf. Forum has partners in the three Baltic countries and has been able to observe in recent years that the curriculum has changed as a result of the war between Ukraine <=> Russia: Russian is no longer offered as a foreign language, which is why the need for German teachers has increased enormously. And among our partners in Finland and Bulgaria, the number of students enrolling for German as a foreign language has fallen noticeably in recent years. Interest in strengthening ‘German’ was to be positively influenced by current impulses in order to motivate learners to engage with a foreign language and to encourage teachers to integrate everyday references into lessons and provide them with easily adaptable material. At the same time, accompanying research was planned in order to develop and evaluate the pedagogical impulses. The RTU Liepaja's Department of Education has expanded the project team. The chairwoman of the Westf. Forum has a guest professorship there, which enables her to deal with the contents of the project in parallel in the seminar. Finally, a museum has joined as a project partner to facilitate the ‘Culture <=> Education’ exchange. The museum offers good access to cultural heritage.