View Content #24101

By Isabelle Sackville-West 

Description: This activity targets intermediate language learners and challenges them to use social media to find and incorporate colloquialisms into their personal lexicon so that they may emulate the day-to-day language use patterns of expert speakers. Using social media as a language learning device not only has the potential to improve learner autonomy, but it also gives students an improved understanding of the intersection between language and culture and the dynamism of language.

Learning Objectives: Students will be able to…

• Navigate a social media site in the target language
• Identify and acquire new colloquialisms
• Utilize newly acquired colloquialisms in synchronous chat with a classmate
• Reflect, in either one’s native or target language, on the effectiveness of social media and text messaging for language acquisition.

Modes: Presentational, Interpretive, Interpersonal Communication

Materials Needed: Access to a social media site, a synchronous chat application or text messenger, handout.

Procedure:

1. Explain that students will be exploring a social media site with the purpose of identifying, understanding, and learning colloquialisms.
2. If necessary, provide students with time to create an account for a selected social media site  and messaging app.
   1. Potential social media sights include Twitter, Facebook, Weibo (微博). Ideally the site should be primarily text-based. Image-based social media sites such as Instagram may not provide enough text.
   2. Messaging apps include Facebook Messenger, Slack, WeChat, and Google Hangouts.
3. Following the handout, students will first access the selected social media site and explore, reading the feed that is automatically provided (this is usually filled with either the most recent or most popular posts).
   1. If using a site from another country, such as Weibo, posts will automatically be written in the target language.
   2. If using a site, like Twitter, which is primarily based in English, then students will need to go to settings and select the target language from the drop-down menu.
4. On the worksheet, have students write down any unfamiliar words or phrases they come across that they find interesting.
5. Then, have students specifically go to the profiles of several political figures, actors, and other iconic individuals. These names should be written on the worksheet or otherwise provided beforehand.
6. Once again, have them write down any interesting words or phrases that are new or unfamiliar.
7. Once a list of unfamiliar words and phrases have been compiled, instruct students to decipher the meaning based on context. Afterwards, discuss in groups or as a class in order to improve the negotiation of meaning. Use dictionaries to support this conversation as a last resort. Additionally, the message boards on sites like wordreference.com may provide additional support.
8. Once students are familiar with the new terms, instruct them to conduct a synchronous chat (via Slack, G-Chat, or some other platform) with another student in which they focus on incorporating the new phrases and terms. Instructors may want provide a topic for students to discuss that is related to classroom topics.
9. This conversation should be recorded either via copying and pasting the chat into a word document, taking screen shots, or some other means.
10. Teachers should collect the conversations and worksheets and verify that the new terms were understood and implemented correctly. This evaluation should inform ongoing feedback to the class.
11.  The following class period, teachers may want to engage learners in a live discussion or debate about the use of social media as a language learning strategy.
12. Finally, after the activity, allow students to write a brief reflection about the effectiveness of social media for finding and deciphering new vocabulary.

Notes:

• If one were to deliver this activity in Chinese, they might have students surf Weibo(微博) to find posts made by famous or political figures and then use WeChat(微信), the most popular Chinese messaging App, to talk to another classmate (or native speaker if they are available).
• Given the time constraints of the classroom, teachers may want to have students engage in certain steps, such as the exploration of the social media site and vocabulary collection, at home and then complete the negotiation of meaning and discussion in class.
• Many school districts have filters that block access to certain social media sites. Check your district’s policy and seek to gather the necessary technology permissions before implementation. If you are unable to get these permissions, you could still implement the activity by providing students with a series of screen shots from the sites.