Informal language learning through social media platform TikTok

Abstract

TikTok is currently one of the biggest social media platforms in the world with over 2 billion downloads worldwide. The users can film and share videos from 15 seconds up to 10 minutes, and also comment on or like other’s videos. The app includes genres such as tricks, jokes, dance, and other entertainment. It can also be used for educational purposes. Concerning the educational dimension of TikTok, this study focuses on informal learning via TikTok and the ways in which children learn by watching TikTok videos. Earlier research has been conducted about informal learning in social media, but there are only few studies focusing especially on TikTok. The data is collected from the app by narrowing down the search with two hashtags #languagelearning and #teachinglanguage. Since the data is openly accessible, the videos are public, and since I am not presenting any individuals in a poor light, there are not any ethical issues surrounding the data collection. The four TikTok videos include Ms Rachel teaching English language and singing nursery rhymes, and four different children reacting to them and therefore creating a duet. The study introduces different terms, such as informal learning and social media. The focus is on studying if the learning is informal or not, and how can we spot if the learning is effective. The research approach of this qualitative study makes use of applied multimodal conversation analysis to examine language learning in social media. For the analysis, I have transcribed four different TikTok videos and analyse them. The analysis confirms that learning by using these TikTok videos are a form of informal learning even though Ms Rachel can be considered as a teacher. By examining the speech and musical elements of the videos, many consistent features can be noticed in the Ms Rachel’s teaching practices. For example, her use of higher tone and singing in the videos show a successful way of keeping the children focused and therefore learning. Studying the nonverbal communication of the videos, she manages to create an impression of eye contact with the viewers and combine dance routines with the words she is teaching, which seems to help the children to join in more easily, and also to understand. Despite the good results, some critical issues rise. For example, larger amount of data would result in more reliable results. In addition, the data does not allow the researcher to study the quality of the learning. Indeed, further studies could include a larger amount of multiple data that would enable a comparison between TikTok videos and YouTube videos, for example, as tools for language learning.