TikTok and Its Influence on the English Competence of Vietnamese Students

• Author / Creator

  Le, Anh Tuan

• The COVID-19 epidemic forced schools all around the globe to switch quickly to online learning. Teachers had to swiftly find, modify, adopt, and adapt digital educational approaches that suited students' demands. It has presented unforeseen difficulties for EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students learning English language communication skills such as motivation, equipment, tech issues, …. As a result, in recent years, the pressure for instructors and academics to use cutting-edge ICTs, such as mobile devices, gaming, and social media, to teach second and foreign languages has increased.
  Despite spending a lot of time studying how social media affects individuals, experts keep finding conflicting results. While social media usage in EFL teaching offers students special chances to improve their English language proficiency, researchers also routinely cite its negative impacts, including sadness, anxiety, and social difficulties. Thus, an integral part of this thesis is a discussion of the two opposing views on using TikTok in education including the advantages and the disadvantages of TikTok in English education. Especially in Vietnam - one of the countries with the most TikTok users worldwide - these conflict sides illustrate essential questions in contemporary communications and pedagogy scholarship:

  1. How is TikTok perceived by English teachers and students in Vietnam?
  2. Within the selected group of participants, how do they use TikTok to teach and study English? a. What motivates them to use TikTok in the English acquisition process? b. Do they perceive TikTok as beneficial or detrimental to teaching and learning English? c. How can we make TikTok a better place to teach and learn English? Semi-structured interviews were conducted with Vietnamese English teachers and students in Hanoi to investigate my research questions. Instead of pre-made coding categories, this study used an inductive coding strategy that lets themes and codes surface during the analysis process. This research suggests that instructors and students in the chosen group see TikTok as a possible instructional tool, but not for everyone. TikTok is used in and out of class. Overall, the motivation behind using TikTok as an educational tool is to make the English acquisition process more accessible, digestible and enjoyable. In addition, every coin has two sides, and so does TikTok. On the one hand, most participants spoke about TikTok positively as a “fun and engaging” and “effective way to engage and motivate learners,” a unique way to learn English through short videos, catchy music, and relatable content. On the other hand, there are also difficulties when using TikTok, including lack of context due to short-form videos, the use of informal language and the inaccuracy of knowledge, and the distractive and addictive characteristics. Because there are always two sides of the coin, there is no specific time when the advantages or disadvantages of TikTok outweigh the other. It highly depends on the way users utilize the platform and the design of the platform.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Social media
  • TikTok
  • English Education
  • ICTs

• Graduation date

  Fall 2023

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Arts

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-b3cw-rw42

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.