Eine untersuchung zur effektivität und dem einfluss von sozialen medien auf den erwerb des Deutschen als fremdsprache – am beispiel Instagram

The development of the internet and the widespread use of social media have had a direct impact on all areas of life, especially education. Although efforts are being made to integrate social media into formal education, the fact that social media provides time- and location-independent learning environments and personalized learning experiences makes it one of the most important tools for informal learning. The relevance of social media is particularly emphasized by researchers in foreign language learning. As one of the most used social media platforms in recent years, Instagram has become a central platform for foreign language teachers and learners to meet with its diverse functions (features). Users can access various language materials by following accounts that produce German content on Instagram. In this context, the aim of this study is to measure the effectiveness and impact of social media on the acquisition of German. For this purpose, the mixed methods research design was applied. An online questionnaire was sent to the participants for the quantitative part of the study and six participants were interviewed online for the qualitative part. The quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed separately, but the results were evaluated together in the discussion section. According to the findings of the study, participants perceive Instagram as an effective platform for learning German.