Am kürzeren Ende der Sonnenallee in 140 Characters or Less: Using Twitter as a Creative Approach to Literature in the Intermediate German Classroom

The advent of new and social media, and Twitter in particular, has not only revolutionized how we communicate with each other, but also how we learn and teach. Twitter is increasingly incorporated across the disciplines as a tool to engage with content. In the foreign-language classroom, for instance, Twitter has been used to facilitate language learning, communicate with native speakers, and build community. This article describes how Twitter was initially introduced into an intermediate German classroom to improve communicative competence and foster student engagement. Yet its main focus is on how Twitter was used as the only method of instruction as part of the discussion of Thomas Brussig’s 1999 novel Am kürzeren Ende der Sonnenallee. The first section explains the methodology behind using Twitter, and briefly charts the advantages and disadvantages of the social networking tool for honing communicative skills and building community. The second section outlines the classroom unit during which the students and the instructor communicated solely via Twitter. After a discussion of the session, and sample student assignments and reactions, the article concludes by highlighting the educational benefits of Twitter as a playful and motivating approach to teaching literature in the intermediate foreign-language classroom.