This document discusses the use of social media, specifically Instagram and Facebook, in German language classrooms. It begins by defining social presence as the degree to which users perceive others as real people during mediated communication. The document then provides examples of how Instagram and Facebook have been used in classes, such as having students create Instagram accounts focused on topics related to their textbooks. Students found that Instagram helped them feel more connected to the outside world and to German speakers compared to alternatives like PowerPoint. The document advocates training students in various digital literacies to make effective use of social media for language learning. It also describes a study where students used Instagram to give class presentations and reflected on their experiences in interviews and essays.

1. Social media and social presence in the
German language classroom
Vera Leier

2. • The concept of social presence,
- Definitions
- Attempts to measure it
• Examples of social networking used in L2 teaching:
- Facebook group
- Instagram
• Make your own Instagram and present
Overview

3. • A sense of being ‘real’ and belonging to a group.
• Closely related to social presence are the
concepts of intimacy and immediacy.
What is Social Presence (SP)?

4. Social presence is “the degree of salience of the other
person in a mediated communication and the consequent
salience of their interpersonal interactions” (Short, Williams
& Christie, 1976, p.65).
The degree of salience = the quality of the medium: some
media have higher social presence (e.g. face to face, video)
than other media (e.g. audio)
What is Social Presence (SP)?
Early Definition

5. • Social presence is the degree to which a person is perceived as a
‘real person’ in mediated communication (Gunawardena, 1995).
• The ability of participants in a community of inquiry to project
themselves socially and emotionally as ‘real’ people through the
medium of communication being used (Rourke et al., 1999).
• Social presence as a measure of the feeling of community that a
learner experiences in an online environment (Tu & McIsaac,
2002; Picciano, 2009).
What is Social Presence (SP)?
Definitions

6. • Intimacy= joint function of eye contact, physical proximity,
smiling, etc. (Argyle & Dean, 1965, p.293)
• Immediacy= the relationship between the speaker and the
objects he communicates about, the addressee of this
communication, or the communication itself (Wiener &
Mehrabian, 1968)
Intimacy and Immediacy

7. • Phase 1: 1970s, Short et al. (1976) - focused on
telecommunications
• Phase 2: 1990s, Gunawardena (1995), Tu (2000),
- focused on CMC
• Phase 3: 2000 onwards , Rourke et al. (1999),
Swan (2002), Kehrwald (2010) – focusing on
online learning
Phases of SP-research

8. • Gunawardena & Zittle (1997): Self-report questionnaire
• Garrison et al. (2000): Social presence categories through
analyzing online discussions
=> three different categories/dimensions of SP:
affective, interactive, cohesive responses
• Tu & McIsaac (2002): Social presence and privacy
questionnaire (SPPQ)
=> four factors/dimensions emerged through factor analysis:
social context, online communication, interactivity, privacy
Attempts to measure SP

9. • Dimension I: Social Context
Familiarity with recipient
Informal/formal relationship
Psychological attitude towards technology
Access and location
User’s characteristics
• Dimesion II: Online communication
Language skills
Keyboard and accuracy skills
Use of emoticons and paralanguage
Characteritics of tool
• Dimension III: Interactivity
Timely response
type of tasks
size of group
• Dimension IV: Privacy
Formats of CMC
Social presence variables
identified in qualitative data
(Tu & McIsaac, 2002)

10. Community of Inquiry
framework (CoI)
The Community of Inquiry framework (Garrison et al., 2000)

11. The ability of participants in a community of enquiry to project socially
and emotionally, as real people (i.e. their full personality), through the
medium of communication being used’.
Accommodate perspective, diversity of choice, respect, encourage
reflection, explore assumptions, critical thinking and social discourse.
Social presence defined in
the CoI framework

12. Development of the CoI
Community of Inquiry framework adapted by Armellini & DeStefano, 2015

13. • How do individuals represent themselves in the community and perceive
others (Kehrwald, 2010; Oztok et al., 2015; Rourke et al., 1999)
• How do learners interact both socially and emotionally in the learning
environment (Gunawardena, 1995; Gunawardena & Zittle, 1997; Ko, 2016;
Swan & Shih, 2005; Tu & McIsaac, 2002; Rourke et al., 1999)
• How the learners perceive the instructor presence in the mediated
classroom, including the level of learner and teacher satisfaction (Rchardson
et al, 2015; Richards & Swan, 2003; Swan, 2002)
• How social presence influences the students’ learning (Hostetter & Busch,
2013; Swan & Shih, 2005)
Research perspectives

14. • No clear and agreed definition of social presence
(Lowenthal & Dennen, 2017)
• Researchers continue to redefine social presence
(Picciano, 2009; Armellini & DeStefano, 2015)
• Problematic how to measure social presence, very
reliant on questionnaires (Hostetter & Busch, 2013)
Problems of research

15. • Text goes here
Example of social media use (1)

16. • Text goes here
Examples of social media used in
L2 teaching: Facebook group

17. What are the practices and perspectives of the teacher and students
when Facebook is introduced as part of the curriculum in tertiary
foreign language education?
Facebook group project
Research question

18. Design of FB-study
Pilot study
6 month (one semester)
Main study
6 month (one semester)
11 participants
8 artefacts
Topics: general
German speaking friends part of group
5 artefacts
Topics: related to textbook
No German speaking friends on FB-group
5% of overall mark 10% of overall mark

19. Methodology
Questionnaires Pre-questionnaire
Post-questionnaire
Interviews Pre-interviews
Interim-interviews
Post-interviews
Participant observation Research diary
Fieldnotes
Facebook logs

20. Results of main study
Students’ use of Facebook used in educational setting
Non-spontaneous
Sporadic participation
Passivity
Anxiety
Students’ perception of teacher participation and feedback
Feedback to give corrections
Feedback as acknowledgement

21. Discussion

22. • Text goes here
Example of social media use (2)

23. • Concept of literacy: students have to be familiar
with electronic and digital literacies (Blattner &
Fiori, 2009).
• Educators need to help to acquire digital
literacies (Pegrum, 2011).
Social media and the
language learner

24. • 400 million daily users
• 80% outside the US
• 90% younger than 35
• 75% of Instagram users take action, such as
visiting a website, after looking at an Instagram
post
• Posts with at least one hashtag average 12.6%
more engagement.
(from: https://www.statista.com)
Why Instagram?

25. Assignment

26. Assignment: Components
60% Presentation
40% Reflective essay

27. Literacies
Search literacy (Lankshear & Knobel, 2011)
Visual literacy Burmark (2002)
(#)tagging literacy (Dudeney, Hockney & Pegrum, 2014; Blattner, Dalola & Lomicka, 2016)
Filtering or network literacy (Rheingold, 2011)
Ethical literacy (Mehdi, 2014)
Remixing literacy (Pegrum, 2011; Kern, 2014)

28. Assignment: Set -up

29. • How does Instagram help your learning of
German?
• What are the affordances and constraints of
Instagram and Facebook to make meaning?
• Does Instagram lead to enhanced feeling of
community in the classroom?
Research questions

30. Multiliteracies framework
Multiliteracies framework adpated from New London Group, 1996; Cope & Kalantzis, 2009;
Paesani et al, 2016

31. Meaning making cycle
WHATto present
HOW to prepare the presentation
HOW and WHAT
the presentation of the individual designs

32. Pilot study: March to June 2017 (12 weeks)
•9 students in class (7 participated): 2 male, 5
female
•Intermediate level, B1
•Pre- and post questionnaire
•Semi-structured interviews
•Reflective essays
•Ethnographic methods: Research diary
Methodology

33. Main study: July to October 2017 (12 weeks)
•19 students in class (12 participated): 7 male, 5
female
•Advanced beginner level, A2
•Pre-questionnaire
•Semi-structured interviews
•Ethnographic methods: Research diary
Methodology

34. Example

35. Example

36. Results: Questionnaires

37. • I liked Instagram for my presentation, it
somehow connects me more to the outside
world than Powerpoint. (student 2)
• Easy to click to the next picture. (student 2)
• It was on my mobile and I could use it
everywhere. (student 4)
• I never used hashtags. I received follower
invites with a hashtag, that was exciting.
(student 6)
Results: Interviews

38. • Instagram was the preferred tool for class
presentations.
• Instagram was seen as more community
building than Facebook.
• Students felt more connected to Germans
through the ‘following’ on Instagram.
Outcome

39. Instagram and Facebook group
community shaping
5 artefacts related to
textbook
No German speaking
friends on FB-group

40. Instagram and Facebook group
community shaping
Search literacy
Visual literacy
Tagging literacy
Filtering literacy
Ethical literacy
Remixing literacy

41. • Instagram was the preferred tool for class
presentations.
• Students felt more connected to Germans
through the ‘following’ on Instagram.
Outcomes

42. Thank you!
I hope you it!
#Germanteaching
Vera.leier@canterbury.ac.nz
Instagram: verachristchurch

43. Make an Instagram (6 artefacts) and apply the five
literacies:
•Topic: Stockholm for tourists
- 2 sights,
- 2 restaurants
- 2 entertaining
•Who is your tourist?
- female or male tourist
- family or single tourist
- young or old tourist
Task

44. Step One:
Set up Instagram
account: gmail.com
(Computer)
Task: four steps

45. Step Two:
Add account
(Smartphone)

46. Step Three:
Unique name
(Smartphone)

47. Step Four:
control settings
(Smartphone)