The purpose of the activity is for the pupils to develop their oral language and become comfortable and confident in speaking the language, using for example Instagram or Snapchat. 

In this activity, the students/class must create a joint Instagram or /Snapchat account together. This account can be for the class only, or it can be open so that other young people can also see, learn the language and become interested in or inspired by the language. Teachers and parents can decide on this together.  

We suggest that the account is initially only for the class, so that the students can become safe and comfortable making oral posts on social media, before it eventually is made public. It is important that students and teachers jointly make rules for what can be written about, commented on, etc. This is an arena that young people know well. By creating an Instagram account where the minority language is the main language, students see a need to learn the language. By opening the Instagram account for others as well, the pupils in the class can become good language models and inspire others to become curious about the language.  

It is important that there is room for humor in this activity. Therefore, you don’t necessarily need to initially focus so much on grammar, since the goal is for the students to have a good time and overcome any language barriers. 

It is possible to carry out this activity in one lesson, but we recommend spending some more time, over a longer period. There are many ways to set this up. It depends, among other things, on how many pupils there are in the class. If the class is rather big, two posts can be published weekly over a longer period, but if it is a small class, one post can be published every week or every other week.  

The important thing about this activity is that the students may see the need to learn the language and become more confident orally. 

Step 1: Preparation  

 Prepare pupils for creating the account, and for the expectations and rules that apply when they do this.

Before the lesson, the teacher must create an Instagram/Snapchat account, check the practicality of the account and, if necessary, ask students and parents for permission to use an account in a teaching context. 

Step 2. Class with planning of Instagram posts and presentation 

Basic level: 

In this lesson, the teacher discusses with the pupils what kind of post they should make and publish. We would suggest that the teacher involves the pupils in choosing the topic, so that this becomes a fun and interesting account.  

In the first post, it might be advisable that each individual student makes a small presentation of themselves: Who they are, age, place of residence, hobbies, and a bit about what they want with this Instagram/Snapchat account. Alternatively, pairs can make a presentation together where they interview one another. This option may be preferable if the students are not very comfortable with the presentation.

Work on the presentation, find words, expressions and translate sentences into the learner’s language.  They must then practice the oral presentation and possibly take pictures and record videos. Once this is ready, they can publish their posts on the account. 

 Advanced level: 

The pupils can also work in pairs or threes and threes and create a post in the form of an interview, where they get practice asking and answering questions.
Each pupil can present a secret object, where the student gives some key words about the object, big or small, shape, smell, etc.

Based on this description, the others are supposed to guess what kind of object this is. The other students write in the comment field what this is, or what they think it could be. At the end of the week, the correct answer is published, and a picture is posted. 

This activity may be a small project in class and last for a longer period, in order to get continuous training in pronunciation and tone of voice, in learning to describe, listen, understanding descriptions, and in writing. At the same time, it is an activity within social media, which young people spend a lot of time on.