CARLA SUMMER INSTITUTE: TeachTok: Social Media Hacks to Level Up Your Language Teaching Game

This institute has been specifically designed for second language teachers who want to familiarize themselves with the implementation and creation of authentic social media activities in the language classroom.

During this institute, participants will take a functional approach to understanding social media and how it can be used in the language classroom. They will begin by familiarizing themselves with each platform’s navigation and features, and see step-by-step demonstrations of how each has been used in language classrooms to raise learners’ linguistic and intercultural awareness. Next, participants will explore current popular social platforms (Twitter/X/Threads, Instagram, TikTok) and identify which aspects of their target language(s) and culture(s) are represented in each one’s ecosystem. Finally, participants will design an authentic social media activity in each platform that targets a relevant aspect of language and/or culture in their target community. Participants will leave the course with three authentic social media activities, a list of online resources containing others, and the confidence to navigate social platforms expertly and independently in search of high-quality target-language content.

This is a 3-day, online-synchronous summer institute. Participants must be able to attend from 9 a.m.–4 p.m. (Central Time).