Exployting TikTok in teaching English: SWOT analysis of application

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Foreign Languages Department of the Sumy State University

Exployting TikTok in teaching English: SWOT analysis of application

Otroshchenko Larisa, Associate Professor

Medvedovska Darja, Teaching Assistant

Отрощенко Л. С., Медведовська Д.О.

Використання TikTok у викладанні англійської мови: SWOT-аналіз

Додатки соціальних мереж зараз стають все більш популярними в освітньому процесі. Ця стаття має на меті дослідити потенціал використання нового додатка для соціальних мереж TikTok у викладанні англійської мови в Сумському державному університеті. TikTok -- це і навчальна платформа, і соціальна мережа. Цей метод активного навчання має різні унікальні особливості, які приваблюють студентів. Успіх TikTok значною мірою пояснюється інтерактивним та надзвичайно привабливим характером аудіовізуального контенту, який домінує на його платформі. Метою цієї роботи є дослідження доцільності використання платформи TikTok у процесі вивчення англійської мови. Для цього авторами було використано SWOT-аналіз із оцінкою сильних сторін, слабких сторін, можливостей, загроз використання TikTok у навчальному процесі. У цій роботі розглянуто переваги інтеграції TikTok в навчальний процес у класі та поза ним. Дослідження показують, що це ефективний інструмент як для студентів, так і для вчителів. В статті представлені різні способи впровадження TikTok під час навчання англійської мови, оскільки все більше і більше викладачів англійської мови використовують платформи соціальних мереж.

Ключові слова: навчання англійській мові, TikTok, студенти, соціальна мережа.

social network teaching english

Social media applications are fast becoming more and more popular in the educational process nowadays. This paper aims to explore the potential of the newly emerging social media application TikTok utilization in teaching English. TikTok is both a learning platform and a social network. This active learning method has unique features that attract students to use it. TikTok's success is primarily due to the interactive and highly engaging nature of the audiovisual content that dominates its platform. Users often spend hours scrolling through their feeds, and popular channels boast millions of followers. The advantages of integrating TikTok into the educational process inside and outside of the classroom have been examined in this paper. It has many benefits and is effective in helping students and teachers in teaching and learning activities. Research indicates that this is an effective tool for students and teachers alike. It breaks the lessons down so users can absorb it as part of an “everyday scroll”. Different ways of TikTok implementation while teaching English have been presented. In addition, the experience of TikTok usage for educational purposes during English lessons at Sumy State University has been described. How one can harness social media in that journey will depend on his individual goals. Furthermore, more and more language teachers take to social media platforms. However, some threats and concerns about TikTok usage have been mentioned in the paper.

Key words: teaching English, TikTok, students, social media platform.

Social media platforms (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Telegram, etc.) play an important role in the educational process as they incorporate something students are familiar and skilled with to something they are studying. Obviously, TikTok as a modern way to reach and engage students is on the rise due to its ability to add variety and interest to both in-class lessons and remote learning. As a result of the widespread Covid-19 pandemic, during which universities were constrained to carrying out their activity with students exclusively online, the TikTok application has become a valuable interactive medium in the educational process. With the various features of the Tik Tok application, it can be implicated in learning English so that students can use the application in a positive direction. The TikTok application can also make it easier for teachers and students to get information, and students feel happy learning because they have new experiences in learning English in an unconventional way (Zaitun, 2021, p. 93). Being launched in China by the company ByteDance in the autumn of 2016, by July 2021, it has already become the seventh most popular social media network in the world. Tik Tok is one of the most downloaded applications among teenagers. Though its main users are below 30 years old, it has attracted both teachers and students. The utilization of TikTok in teaching and learning activities among youngsters could help improve these cohorts of students' learning motivations (Xiuwen & Razali, 2021, p. 1441). This app allows creating and editing videos of three to fifteen seconds or stringing together videos of up to sixty seconds, using music and captions. There is a big plus in such a format of TikTok as it allows highlighting the main idea and presenting it shortly. Short educational TikTok videos designed for teaching can be adapted to fulfill learning objectives and facilitate student learning; this approach could help learners understand complex concepts and acquire new creative skills and knowledge (Khlaif & Salha, 2021, p. 215). In our opinion, the advantages of integrating TikTok into educational process while teaching English are:

* This learning method promotes autonomous learning.

* TikTok is a modern way to engage students.

* This learning class activity can be used in remote teaching to support language learners to enhance their language skills.

* While creating TikTok videos, students express themselves and their creativity.

* It is an excellent opportunity to create your own content.

* Students form and develop their critical thinking skills and personal initiative.

* Students develop their speaking, listening, and writing skills.

* TikTok application is significant in learning English pronunciation, as it is a great resource for listening to natural speech and hearing accents.

* Students enhance their vocabulary and grammar.

* Students develop their presentation skills.

* TikTok makes learning less formal.

* TikTok increases students' confidence and willingness to speak English.

* TikTok stimulates students' curiosity.

* It is of a humorous character, which engages students.

* TikTok is free and easily accessible for students.

* Students feel socially involved and supported.

* The studying process is blended with entertainment.

* It is a way to interact with teachers and groupmates and the whole world, building a sense of community, acquiring their social culture knowledge and getting a multicultural experience.

* TikTok encourages students to experiment with different media, developing their media competence.

Based on the unique features of TikTok and its popularity among Z- generations, the researchers believe that TikTok could be regarded as an assessment language tool to assess students' learning outcomes and could be used as an out-of-class language-learning tool to motivate students to focus on their communicative English language learning (Xiuwen & Razali, 2021, p. 1443). We have studied numerous scientific works concerning TikTok usage in the educational process and we would like to present different ways of its application in foreign languages learning and teaching:

* Getting acquainted with TikTok videos, shared by English teachers as well as English educators or some English native-speakers or even role models.

* As a warm-up activity.

* Explaining new material with TokTok.

* Making videos as a part of presentations.

* Creating final project, either individually or as a group (project-based learning).

* Creating a 15-second video clips that succinctly summarize what they have learned on a topic.

* Storytelling activity.

* Revising material.

Thus, it is an engaging way to liven up a lesson. While teaching English at Sumy State University, teachers of the Foreign Languages Department propose that students post their own short videos on the given subject on the TikTok social media platform. For example, the first-course students create videos about their future professions within the topic “Jobs”, promoting their specialties. Thus, they practice their own oral English. Furtherly, they get comments from their teachers, groupmates, or other TikTokers via TikTok. This practice serves as a perfect source of engagement and motivation for them. These TikTok videos are created by individuals or as group-based tasks. Students discuss TikTok videos of their groupmates during the lessons and even choose the best ones at the end of the term. This class activity masters their speaking skills and contributes to their motivation. Students who are in the top list of the best TikTok video-makers get additional rewarding 5 points to their term grade. One more way teachers of the department implement TikTok videos at the lessons is by watching videos shared by English teachers and English educators or some English native-speakers or even role models. Among them are the following ones: letsspeakenglish, teacherluke, 15secondenglish, eslvideo, etc. The most common procedure for using TikTok materials in teaching English may consist of the following steps: pick a particular video to provide the content or illustrate a concept; prepare specific guidelines or discussion questions for students, so they have directions on what to see, hear or look for; introduce the TikTok video; set a time for reflection on what was the scene; assign an active learning activity to interact on specific questions, issues, concepts in the video; structure a discussion around the questions.

Undoubtedly, there are positive and negative implications to the use of TikTok in educational environments. Among threats and disadvantages that brings TikTok utilization in the educational process one should mention addiction, privacy, offensive, harmful or inadequate content, hate comments, time wastage, cyberbullying, harassment tool, bad Internet connection, etc. Let's look at short SWOT analysis of the social net TikTok.

Strengths of TikTok:

- Leading Place. According to the last survey, more than 1.1 billion people worldwide use TikTok. Approximately 60% of them are young people who can be characterized as generation Gen Z. The social net leads its business in over 154 countries across the globe.

- Teamwork Culture. The most important thing to know about TikTok, it popularizes and promotes group activities and teamwork tasks. Such activities include different challenges, comedy, dancing, funny videos, etc. and involve friends, family, and acquaintances into environment of solitude and monotony.

- Safety and Privacy. The policy of TikTok says, that if you are not a follower of a content creator, you could not send a private message.

- Free tools. In the past, when you created video, you needed special equipment and professional programs. Sometimes such programs cost a lot. TikTok provides you with necessary professional software for free. Moreover, such software convenient, user friendly and simple to use.

- Content creators. Platform created hug database of loyal users and content creators. A lot of them are so called influencers. They provide word- of-mouth marketing which is very attractive to different companies. On the other hand, it attracts more users to join the platform.

- User-friendly. TikTok is simply, easy and comfortable social net. You don't need any special equipment or skills to use it or make your own videos. It is also not necessary to filter the video which you want to see in your account. The platform uses your likes and chooses relevant videos.

Weaknesses of TikTok.

- Time Consuming. Statistics shows that nearly 83% of young people, who use TikTok, start to create their own videos. It is rather big amount to make the conclusion that the platform encourages young people to get involved in video-making activities. But we can say that they spend their time, efforts and enthusiasm in such activity. There are very few of them who would earn a living out of it. Maybe it is better to spend this time on self-development or education?

- Addiction. Different surveys show that ordinary TikTok user spends from 52 to 80 minutes a day on the platform, depending on the user' age. Younger users log to the platform approximately 8 times daily. Such figures show that the platform is a sort of addiction and a thief of time and attention.

- Improper audio content. The platform doesn't censor audio background for videos. Sometimes such music contains promoting the trend of nudity, drugs, crude humor, and cruel values that are unacceptable for any civilized society. It may be dangerous for young minds.

- Editing difficulties. Previously it was mentioned that platform is user- friendly, but for those users who wants to became more advanced it is not so. They have to spend a lot of time watching different tutorials and educating videos. Those users who hasn't enough time and skills for video editing may feel disappointment about their videos.

Opportunities for TikTok.

- Technical Skills. TikTok users have wide range of professional editing tools. Young generation is common with the usage of new technologies and video sharing. It is very helpful for young people to be technically educated in modern world of high technology. Moreover, some of them could earn money on this skills in future.

- Cooperation. Due to the platform creators could keep in touch all over the world. If a young person is an active user of TikTok, his or her videos go viral, then he or she will be noticeable in this society. He or she could get a chance of making the platform your source of livelihood.

- Marketing. TikTok replaces common ways of promotion and marketing in financial market. Many top-ranking users of TikTok become influencers and promoters for new goods and services. More and more companies, organizations and establishments start to use the platform.

- Charity. TikTok helps to raise money for different charity issues. The platform makes the process faster and easier due to large auditory and different challenges.

Threats to TikTok.

- Privacy. When user creates an account at the platform he gives the private information. So TikTok has the access to the private information of its users and could influence or manipulate the minds of people. It is not good when something or someone has such beg database. TikTok gained an edge through its ability to collect sensitive data about users, even when those users neither saved nor shared their content. This presents a security threat for users due to the 2017 Chinese National Intelligence Law, which states that “any organization or citizen shall support, assist and cooperate with the state intelligence work in accordance with the law”.

- The origin of TikTok. The platform has Chines origin. However, Chinese government has not good reputation. It is famous for violating many international human rights standards. That's why many countries and western people don't feel comfortable trusting the Chinese platform. It is forbidden in some countries (India, for example).

- Competition. TikTok has a wide list of competitors (Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc.) in the same field.

In conclusion, we would like to say that the TikTok application is an effective, concise learning media to assist the learning and teaching process as it makes learning easy and fun. It is a very creative way to keep learners engaged inside and outside of the classroom. This active learning method has different unique features that attract students to use it.

Список використаної літератури

1. Zaitun Z., Hadi M. S., Emma Dwi Indriani. TikTok as a Media to Enhancing the Speaking Skills of EFL Student's. Jurnal Studi Guru Dan Pembelajaran. 2021. № 4 (1). Pp. 89-94. URL: https://e-

journal.my.id/jsgp/article/view/525. 2. Zhai Xiuwen, Abu Bakar Razali. An Overview of the Utilization of TikTok to Improve Oral English Communication Competence among EFL Undergraduate Students. Universal Journal of Educational Research. 2021. № 9 (7). Pp. 1439-1451. DOI: https://doi.org/10.13189/ujer.2021.090710. URL: https://www.hrpub.org/

download/20210630/UJER10-19523501.pdf 3. Khlaif Z., Salha S. Using TikTok in Education: A Form of Micro-learning or Nano-learning? Interdisciplinary Journal of Virtual Learning in Medical Sciences. 2021. № 12 (3). Pp. 213-218. DOI: https://doi.org/10.30476/ijvlms.

2021.90211.1087. URL: https://ijvlms.sums.ac.ir/article_47678.htm.

References

1. Zaitun, Z., Hadi, M. S., & Emma Dwi Indriani. (2021). TikTok as a Media to Enhancing the Speaking Skills of EFL Student's. Jurnal Studi Guru Dan Pembelajaran, 4 (1), 89-94. Retrieved from https://e-

journal.my.id/jsgp/article/view/525. 2. Zhai, Xiuwen, & Abu Bakar, Razali. (2021). An Overview of the Utilization of TikTok to Improve Oral English Communication Competence among EFL Undergraduate Students. Universal Journal of Educational Research, 9 (7), 1439-1451. DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13189/ujer.2021.090710. Retrieved from

https://www.hrpub.org/download/20210630/UJER10-19523501.pdf.

3. Khlaif, Z., & Salha, S. (2021). Using TikTok in Education: A Form of Micro-learning or Nano-learning? Interdisciplinary Journal of Virtual Learning in Medical Sciences, 12 (3), 213-218. DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30476/ijvlms.2021.90211.1087. Retrieved from https://ijvlms.sums.ac.ir/article_47678.htm [in English].

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