CARLA X042 - a6.16: Curating Language in the Wild: Social Media as Classroom Text (3-day synchronous online institute)
Description
- Dates: June 16–18, 2026
- Institute Type: 3-day online—synchronous
- Target Audience: language educators in late elementary through postsecondary levels. It is not suited for teachers of very young children.
This institute has been specifically designed for second language teachers who want to meaningfully incorporate social media resources into their teaching. Participants will explore how platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, and Threads/Bluesky can serve as rich, dynamic repositories of authentic language use and cultural practices. Special attention is given to understanding how platform search and recommendation algorithms work, so that teachers can intentionally curate feeds and content that align with their linguistic, cultural, and pedagogical goals. The institute additionally emphasizes sustainable strategies for tagging, organizing, and archiving materials for long-term curriculum development. Time will then be spent designing learning activities that use real-world social media posts to develop interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational communication skills across proficiency levels. Through demonstrations, guided practice, and collaborative design, participants will leave with practical workflows and classroom-ready tasks that inspire student engagement and deepen linguistic and intercultural awareness.
Instructor
Amanda Dalola is the Director of the Language Center and an Associate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Minnesota. Her research focuses on the production, perception, and digital media representations of sociophonetic variables and speech styles in French, Korean, and Norwegian, as well as on the pedagogical integration of social media in language learning. She is also deeply engaged in open educational practices. She co-authored #OnYGo, a multimodal OER for exploring multicultural French, and is currently developing Bánh Me, an OER for heritage learners of Vietnamese, reflecting her ongoing commitment to accessible and inclusive language education.
See the full course description here.
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