Teaching German in the Age of Social Media: Integrating TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube Into the Foreign Language Curriculum

ABSTRACT

This article presents three lesson plans that demonstrate how TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube can be integrated into German language instruction through authentic, multimodal, and communicative classroom activities. It begins by reviewing the journal's archives to trace how these three platforms have been addressed in past issues. The article then examines current research on the pedagogical benefits of SNSs in the foreign language classroom, situating the three lesson plans within a broader context that encompasses computer‐mediated communication, authentic materials, and intercultural learning. The third section explains the rationale behind the selection of the specific platforms and instructional strategies in the lesson plans. Building on this foundation, the article outlines three lesson plans that illustrate how authentic media content can support instruction and enhance interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational learning strategies, as well as diverse modes of communication. Finally, the article concludes with the Appendix, which provides a curated database of German‐language social media accounts organized by platform and instructional topic.