10.6092/issn.1974-4382/15555
application/pdf
1974-4382
15555
en
Tania Zulli
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
mediAzioni
social media
ELT and Social Media:  Integrating TikTok into Class Practice
Text.Serial.Journal
https://mediazioni.unibo.it/
34
Articles
2022-09-22
2022-09-21
2022-09-22
2022-09-22
A165-A183
M
Tania Zulli
2022/09/22
10.6092/issn.1974-4382/15555
A165
Università degli Studi “G. d'Annunzio” Chieti-Pescara
1974-4382
social media
en
A183
ELT and Social Media:  Integrating TikTok into Class Practice
https://mediazioni.unibo.it/article/download/15555/14725
34
Updating Discourse/s on Method/s                                             mediAzioni 34 (2022)
                                                                                   ISSN   1974-4382


                   ELT AND SOCIAL MEDIA:
           INTEGRATING TIKTOK INTO CLASS PRACTICE1
                              MARCO CANANI, TANIA ZULLI
                 UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI “G. D’ANNUNZIO” CHIETI-PESCARA

marco.canani@unich.it, tania.zulli@unich.it



Citation: Canani, Marco and Tania Zulli (2022) “ELT and Social Media: Integrating
TikTok into Class Practice”, in Lucia Abbamonte and Flavia Cavaliere (eds.) Updating
Discourse/s       on        Method/s,       mediAzioni       34:        A165-A183,
https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1974-4382/15555, ISSN 1974-4382.



Abstract: This paper analyses the impact of social media (SM) applications on English
Language Teaching (ELT) by focusing on their integration into classroom practice. By
drawing on a survey conducted among the students of the “G. d’Annunzio” University
of Chieti-Pescara, two accounts recently set up on TikTok – the SM app based on the
creation and sharing of short videos – are considered as tools to improve class practice
for the teaching of English vocabulary, pronunciation, and idioms. The quantitative
analysis adopted in the survey provides the notional ground for two sample lesson plans
in which the integration of these TikTok videos into a Presentation-Practice-Production
(PPP) approach is proposed. The motivation aroused by the short videos and the
students’ perceived usefulness of these profiles prove instrumental in devising teaching
strategies that may be successfully implemented in the EFL/ESL classroom.

Keywords: ELT; TikTok; foreign language learning; social media.




1
  The research presented here was conceived jointly by the two authors; individual contributions
in writing this article, however, may be identified as follows: Tania Zulli authored the following
sections: Introduction; Theoretical Background, Method, and Data Collection; Data Analysis.
Marco Canani authored the following sections: The Rationale for Integrating TikTok into the EFL
Class; Introducing “Real-Life Vocabulary”: TikTok as a Tool for Intentional Vocabulary Teaching;
Duetting is the New Listen and Repeat; Winding Down: A Few (Preliminary) Conclusions.

Copyright © 2022
The text in this work is licensed under CC-BY 4.0.                                            A165
A166                                                                     CANANI, ZULLI


1. Introduction

Social media (SM) has deeply changed the way we socialize, communicate, and
learn. In recent times, the spread of mobile apps all over the world has grown
enormously, and the ways to use them have increased accordingly. Among their
many functions, these apps have also been considered as tools for learning new
languages. In such a context, mobile phones have introduced new possibilities for
language learning, making it a more spontaneous and personal process. In 2006,
George Chinnery’s famous article “Going to the MALL: Mobile Assisted Language
Learning” paved the way for the academic discussion on MALL applications by
examining their advantages and challenges. Subsequently, the years 2012 and
2013 marked a crucial moment in the exploration of the educational potential of
portable devices such as smartphones. Since then, an enormous number of
applications has been created for language teaching, and from 2013 onwards, the
use of mobile phones as teaching tools has acquired increasing importance
becoming the object of studies, conferences, articles, and books. Despite the fact
that M-learning (mobile learning) shares much with e-learning (electronic
learning), dedicated conferences (mLearn), associations and professional
organizations (IADIS and IAmLearn), books and journals (International Journal of
Mobile Learning and Organisation, International Journal of Mobile and Blended
Learning) have widely dealt with the subject of M-learning by focusing on its
specific features (Pegrum 2014). One of the main strengths frequently highlighted
is the fact that M-learning technology can be employed both in and out of the
classroom (Yang 2013). Also, it provides sources of real language which work as
important motivators for the students, allowing them “to produce more language
than they otherwise might have done” (Stanley 2013: 2).
     The use of mobile devices for language learning has fostered newly
integrated mobile technologies which show a great potential for the acquisition
and strengthening of vocabulary, pronunciation, and idiomatic expressions.
Some platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter have attracted the attention of
scholars and researchers in the past few years (Chug and Ruhi 2018; Adams et
al. 2018), while others, such as Instagram or Tik Tok, have not yet received the
attention they deserve. In fact, their rapid spread and increasing popularity,
especially among young people, call for a serious consideration of their potential
in educational purposes. In addition to this, very recent studies (Pratiwi, Ufairah,
and Sopiah 2021; Literat 2021) have demonstrated that in the present context of
the COVID-19 pandemic, the transition to exclusive online learning has benefited
from additional chances and positive effects supplied by language apps.
     The aim of this article is to analyse the impact of TikTok – the SM app based
on the creation and sharing of short videos – on ELT and to define its contribution
to the students’ learning. The study follows a double methodological perspective.
Firstly, the didactic potential of two TikTok accounts featuring videos on English
vocabulary, pronunciation and idioms is considered by drawing from a
quantitative survey conducted among the students of the “Gabriele d’Annunzio”
University of Chieti-Pescara. Secondly, two lesson plans are proposed so as to
examine the integration of such videos into a Presentation-Practice-Production
(PPP) teaching model. In terms of method, the quantitative analysis adopted for
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the survey has provided a notional ground for the lesson plans. The motivation
aroused by the TikTok videos and the students’ perceived usefulness of the
TikTokers’ profiles have proved instrumental in devising teaching strategies that
may be successfully implemented in the classroom.


2. Theoretical Background, Method, and Data Collection

Launched in China in September 2016 as “Douyin” by parent company ByteDance,
TikTok is one of the fastest growing SM platforms in the world. With 600 million
daily users in China in 2020 (Iqbal 2021), and 1 billion global monthly active
users (DataReportal, September 2021), its implementation has accelerated to
reach 205.4 million first-time download users in 2021. As of April 2020, the
number of downloads on Google Play and the Apple App Store has exceeded two
billion (Sensor Tower 2020), doubling in just one year. This incredible growth in
popularity was already evident in 2019, when TikTok reached 33 million
downloads in a single quarter (Sensor Tower 2019), outdoing YouTube, Instagram,
WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger (Mohsin 2021). Today, it is available in 154
countries and in 75 different languages.2 The popularity of TikTok, especially
among teenagers, is partly due to its unique feature of allowing anyone to create
their own video, by choosing topics, styles, and themes, by adding music and
creating “challenges” among different users who can compare notes on a specific
subject. When considered as instruments for learning and/or teaching a foreign
language, these videos have shown different interesting aspects, among which the
fact that their length (from 15 seconds to a maximum of 5 minutes) keeps pace
with today’s needs of acquiring small bits of information in a short time.
     Davide Patron and Norma Cerletti are two young Italian TikTokers who have
used their accounts to share videos on English language, pronunciation,
vocabulary and idioms. Short clips on the correct pronunciation of a word, on the
right way to translate a specific expression and to use it in its proper context – all
delivered in flawless English – have made their popularity increase in an
incredibly short amount of time. Davide Patron’s 30 seconds’ micro-lessons have
earned him almost 600k followers on TikTok and 300k followers on Instagram in
one year. Similarly, Norma Cerletti’s TikTok and Instagram accounts have reached
about 372k and 700k followers, respectively, in the same amount of time. The
success of both partly relies on a central, winning idea, that of using a SM such as
TikTok with a didactic purpose, making it not only amusing but also useful.3
Faultless pronunciation, direct connection to real life, and a good amount of
lightness are the main elements young users point out when they are asked what
makes these videos appealing.


2
  The growth of TikTok has encountered some obstacles in its way. In 2020, the American
President Donald Trump issued an executive order banning the use of the platform in the US
(Brinkmann, Hall, Mitchell 2020), but the ban was blocked by a Pennsylvania federal Court
issuing a preliminary injunction against the order (Court Listener 2020). Also, India’s government
banned the app in June 2020 together with other Chinese apps over illegal data use, and in
January 2021 Bytedance decided to leave the Indian market (Hayakawa 2021).
3
  One of Norma’s Teaching hashtags is, in fact, #ImparaConTikTok (#LearnWithTikTok).
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      The pilot study conducted among 110 students at the “G. d’Annunzio”
University of Chieti-Pescara aimed to investigate the learning strategies offered by
the two TikTok accounts. Despite coming from different undergraduate and
graduate programmes (Letters, Psychology, Dentistry and Speech Therapy) all
students shared B1/B2 English language course attendance and most of them
declared having used SM to study a foreign language. They were invited to watch
four short videos from the accounts of Norma Cerletti and Davide Patron and to
fill in a short Office Forms questionnaire which they could access by using their
University Teams account.
      The two accounts were chosen out of a larger number of similar profiles for
two reasons. First, they focus on the language skills that were later selected for the
lesson      plans,    i.e.   lexis/vocabulary,    phonology/pronunciation,        and
discourse/idioms. Second, they are specifically addressed to Italian students, and
often point out typical mistakes made by Italian speakers. This did not affect the
purpose of the present research but has certainly had a significant impact in terms
of interest and motivation on the part of the students who were interviewed.
      A closer look at some of the videos shown to the students clarifies the methods
of verbal and non-verbal expression adopted by the TikTokers to deliver their
messages. In one of the videos shown to the interviewees, Davide Patron explains
how to say “Svitare un tappo” in English. The video starts by introducing the
idiomatic sentence to be dealt with, “Mi sviteresti il tappo, per piacere? Svitare un
tappo. Come lo dici in inglese?” The first question presents the topic by
contextualizing it in a real-life situation: what would you say in English if you
needed help when opening a bottle? Such a method is instrumental in raising
motivation and interest in the listener. Also, familiarity and closeness are
established by asking the question every participant would recognize as familiar,
“Come lo dici in inglese?”. Subsequently, the translation is given: “Could you twist
the lid off, please?”, and “Don’t forget to screw the lid back on”. These two
sentences are followed by a quick recap of the main linguistic structures (“Quindi
‘avvitare’ si dice ‘to twist or screw on’ mentre ‘svitare’ si dirà ‘to twist or screw
off’”).4 Visual support and contextualization are also given. Davide Patron holds a
small plastic bottle which he opens and closes when explaining the meaning of the
phrasal verb, while the recap is accompanied by the addition of overlay text.




    Figure 1. Davide Patron’s TikTok clip on phrasal verbs: twist/screw on/off, @davidepatron.

4
  It is to be noted, however, that the verb “unscrew” is generally used instead of “screw off” in
standard English.
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Also Norma Cerletti’s videos rely on visual details such as pop-ups and funny
pictures which make her micro-lessons entertaining and dynamic. Moreover,
overlay text is a fundamental part of Cerletti’s TikToks as it often supplies
unspoken details. As far as pronunciation is concerned, a mix of words of common
use and popular brand names (i.e., PayPal, LinkedIn, Instagram, Nutella Biscuits)
feature in her videos. For example, in a second TikTok presented to the students,
Norma Cerletti explains how to pronounce the name of the famous Wimbledon
Stadium correctly, the word Wimbledon is first shown on the screen, then
pronounced incorrectly (ˈwɪmblɛdon) and finally given in its right pronunciation
(ˈwɪmbəldən), together with both written and spoken phonetic spelling.




    Figure 2. Norma Celetti’s TikTok clip showing the right pronunciation of “Wimbledon”,
                                      @normasteaching.

Both Davide Patron and Norma Cerletti further propose videos on words that are
easily misunderstood by Italian native speakers. For example, on the different use
of “forgot” and “left”, Patron clarifies that the verb “left” should be used instead
of “forgot” when you do not take something with you either intentionally or by
accident (“I left my keys at home” and not “I forgot my keys at home”), and Cerletti
explains that the word “china”, when it is not written with a capital letter, means
“servizio di porcellana”.5

2.1. Data Analysis

The data shown below is based on the answers given by the “G. d’Annunzio”
University students to a set of questions on the use of TikTok as a tool for language
acquisition, the understanding of its effectiveness as an alternative/complementary
method, and on its didactic potential in EFL teaching. The pie charts below illustrate
the survey results. As reported in Figure 1, most of the students affirmed they use
TikTok regularly (83%) and half of them confirmed they had used it to learn a new
language (52%). According to the figures in Question #4, a high percentage of the
interviewees believe that SM is helpful for self-study (75%), while only a small
number of them finds the supervision of a teacher necessary (18%).

5
 Both accounts are enriched by videos on pronunciation challenges, and both TikTokers have
personal pages in which they promote English courses and books.
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    Figure 3. EFL on Social Media: Results of the Survey conducted at the “G. d’Annunzio”
                                    University in 2021 (I)

    The results of Questions #5 and # 6provide further details on two important
issues. First of all, most students seem to be aware of the actual role played by
the TikTok videos, which cannot be used to learn English as such, but should
instead be considered as a support to the much more complex process of the
learning experience. In fact, 66% of them affirm they would still prefer learning
English in a traditional way. However, the remaining 34% claim they would
choose this method instead of a traditional class, which suggests the lack of a
thorough knowledge of the process of language acquisition, as well as an
overestimation of SM didactic efficacy. Nonetheless, a casual relation can be seen
between this answer and the missing experience in language learning on SM
shown in Question #3.
    Question# 6 aimed at investigating specific areas of linguistic interest on the
part of the interviewee. According to the data, improving pronunciation and
expanding vocabulary were the most appreciated features of the videos. At the
same time, the link to everyday language was an appealing characteristic for
22% of the students.

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    Figure 4. EFL on Social Media: Results of the Survey conducted at the “G. d’Annunzio”
                                    University in 2021 (II)



3. The Rationale for Integrating TikTok into the EFL Class

The quantitative analysis of the answers given by the students who took part in
the English and SM survey illustrated above suggests a number of relevant
considerations with reference to EFL class practice. At the end of a pilot study
on mobile phones and vocabulary development published in 2005, at a time
when MALL was still very much a pioneering teaching resource, Yamaguchi
argued that computers provide a more efficient learning tool in comparison with
mobile phones in that they allow the simultaneous management of different
information, enabling students to be exposed to textual, visual, and sound
stimuli. However, as Yamaguchi rightly pointed out, mobile phones offer the
advantages of size and portability. These two features make them a more
accessible alternative to computers, bringing to light the need for a thorough
examination of the educational potential of cell phones (Yamaguchi 2005: 57).
     The advent of smartphones and tablets has arguably combined the
advantages of both computers and mobile phones, introducing a portable device
that simultaneously manages a wealth of multimedia input and information. In
addition, young adults such as university students are overall confident with
using SM platforms. As already mentioned, 83% of the students interviewed in
our survey admitted to using TikTok regularly, and 52% – that is, more than half
of the statistic sample – stated that they have visited TikTok profiles for language
practice at least once. EFL students belonging to this age group – the so-called
“digital natives” – are therefore likely to feel engaged when presented with



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language tasks and activities based on these platforms, and such engagement
may be expected to enhance their learning motivation.
     As several studies demonstrate, motivation is a crucial factor in the learning
process across disciplines and age groups. In particular, Ciampa highlights that SM
provides valuable tool in raising two key elements of intrinsic motivation, that is
the students’ sensory and cognitive curiosity. Sensory curiosity depends on “the
attention-attracting value of variations and changes in the light, sound or other
sensory stimuli of an environment”. Cognitive curiosity, instead, is usually
activated by the learners’ awareness of inconsistent or incomplete knowledge, a
discovery that encourages them to actively “attain new information and
competence” (Ciampa 2014: 84). More specifically, SM has proved especially
effective to trigger sensory and cognitive curiosity due to its ability to
simultaneously present sound, visual, and verbal stimuli. This aspect is relevant in
pedagogical contexts insofar as it makes SM a possible attention-getter for class
activities regardless of the students’ learning methods. Moreover, existing research
indicates that these platforms might be successful in raising learners’ awareness of
potential knowledge gaps, that is, areas that require further practice.
     When integrated into lesson plans, Patron’s and Cerletti’s TikTok clips can
provide useful attention-getters in that they enable teachers to interrupt class
routine with multimedia content. As existing research shows, this is crucial to
limit attention lapses and keep students engaged in the language class (cf.
Cummings et al. 2019: 117-18). Inasmuch as they specifically target Italian
native-speakers and address their most common mistakes in English through
recurring formulas such as “Pronunciation Challenge” and “Don’t say…”,
Patron’s and Cerletti’s short videos represent useful hooks to raise the students’
awareness of the language areas that they need to consolidate or improve.6
Pedagogical research has suggested that nowadays SM “affects all student
environment areas,” and as such their classroom use “can transform teaching
and learning practices by making them more social, open, and collaborative”
(Escamilla-Fajardo, Alguacil and López-Carril 2021: 2-3).
     The question, then, is whether, and to what extent, clips such as Davide
Patron’s and Norma Cerletti’s may be effectively integrated into EFL daily class
practice. To this end, the results of the survey illustrated above provide an
interesting starting point. On the one hand, the majority of the participants felt
that they would prefer social media-based activities to a traditional English class
(cf. Question #4). On the other hand, they suggested that the integration of these
TikTok clips into class activities is particularly instrumental in the acquisition of
pronunciation and vocabulary (cf. Question #5). More to the point, Patron’s and
Cerletti’s clips are perceived as useful resources to acquire real-life words and
expressions in contrast with the lexical items presented in General English
coursebooks, which tend to be selected on the basis of their frequency in standard
English usage.7

6
  Moreover, both TikTokers rely on the repetition of a few expressions at the beginning and at
the end of each video – “Come lo dici in inglese?” and “Bella lì” for Davide Patron, and “How do
you pronounce this word?”, “Ok, let’s do this”, and “Amazing” for Norma Cerletti.
7
  On the main factors determining the compilation of word lists in EFL/ESL teaching and testing
materials see Nation 2016, esp. chapter 1, 3-13.
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     In their study of vocabulary tasks for English Language Learners (ELLs), Graves,
August and Mancilla-Martinez remark that English lexis consists of a large corpus
of infrequent words and a relatively small number of recurring words. As they state,
the 100 most frequent English words “account for about 50% of the words in a
typical text; the 1,000 most typical words for about 70%; and the 5,000 most
frequent words for about 80%” (Graves, Augus and Mancilla-Martinez 2012: 13). A
key principle in devising language curricula is the use of high-frequency words,
which help students refine their comprehension skills and facilitate their output
even at low proficiency levels. However, insofar as one of the pillars of wordlists
used for devising teaching and testing materials is the distinction between receptive
and productive knowledge, one of the drawbacks of this selection criterion is the
potential neglect of everyday words and expressions, which students are likely to
be exposed to in more colloquial, informal, or familiar contexts. In examining the
role of language input in second language acquisition (SLA), for example, Nava and
Pedrazzini emphasise the importance of “natural” or “authentic” input in order to
arouse the students’ attention and motivation, and remark that materials specifically
designed for language teaching might fail to train learners in “coping with the
language used in the ‘real world’” (Nava and Pedrazzini 2018: 30).8
     By taking into consideration the results of the pilot study conducted at the “G.
d’Annunzio” University of Chieti-Pescara and the methodological and theoretical
context highlighted above, the following sections examine the educational potential
of Patron’s and Cerletti’s TikTok ‘stories’ as comprehensible and meaningful input.
Their possible integration into the ELT classroom is discussed with reference to
sample lesson plans targeting young adult learners possessing B1/B2 skills in
English and modelled on the Presentation-Practice-Production (PPP) approach.
Classes based on these principles aim “to develop learner language by establishing
a context and clear model sentence”, followed by drills or teacher-led practice tasks
“before learners are given the opportunity to ‘produce’ language” (Hall 2011: 65).
In this pedagogical context, TikTok clips seem particularly fit as prompts to
introduce the target language and foster innovative controlled-practice activities.


4. Introducing “Real-Life Vocabulary”: TikTok for Intentional Vocabulary
Teaching

According to Krashen and Terrell’s seminal studies, second language acquisition
is based on four pillars, which may be summarized as follows:

         a.   comprehension precedes production;
         b.   output is produced gradually;
         c.   the teaching syllabus should be based on communication objectives;
         d.   class tasks and activities should be aimed at lowering the students’
              “affective filter” – that is, the emotional variables that interfere with the
              learning/acquisition process – so as to encourage production. (Krashen
              and Terrell 1983: 20-21)9

8
    On the role of input in SLA theories also see Hall (2011: 65-66).
9
    In Krashen’s theory, the “affective filter” consists of the affective and environmental variables
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     As already mentioned, Patron’s and Cerletti’s TikTok clips involve the use of
L1 and specifically address recurring mistakes made by Italian students. Krashen
and Terrel’s approach to SLA, it should be pointed out, does not involve the use
of L1 in class. However, when limited to short and highly specific input, L1 may
enhance language acquisition as long as it is used in a functional way, which
includes “enabling contrasts between languages and the ‘noticing’ of language to
take place” (Hall 2011: 73). At the same time, these TikTok clips fulfill the other
three pillars formulated by Krashen and Terrell, and as such they might prove
fruitful when used within a lesson plan based on a deductive approach. The
contents of both TikTok profiles are created by young adults who are aware of
the difficulties of Italian native speakers, and the use of SM and the exposition
to peers lowers the students’ “affective filter”. Moreover, both profiles provide
learners with relevant and comprehensible input, which they can also use for
output production, and therefore with a focus on communication.
     As far as vocabulary acquisition is concerned, one of the most common
strategies consists in intentional (as opposed to incidental) vocabulary
learning/teaching:

       Incidental vocabulary learning refers to acquiring new words from context
       without intending to do so, such as when engaging in a conversation or
       reading a text for meaning and processing new words as input and inferring
       their meanings. Intentional vocabulary learning, on the other hand, refers to
       learning new words while consciously attempting to do so, such as when
       studying a list of new words, trying to learn new words while viewing word-
       picture pairs, or consciously attempting to learn new words from context
       while reading a text. (Barcroft 2015: 26)

     In intentional vocabulary teaching, learners are presented with individual
words, that is, a set of items selected by the teacher and based on the lexical
domains that the learners should expand or consolidate. One such example is real-
life or colloquial English, which is not always adequately covered in intermediate
level coursebooks but can be introduced by resorting to TikTok clips.
     Using an interactive board or a PowerPoint presentation, the teacher
introduces the concept of “Real-Life English”. The goal is to encourage students
to reflect on the difference between various degrees of formality with a focus on
vocabulary. One simple but effective way is to show students the word
“RETURN” and prompt them to use it in a few sample sentences. At this level,
they will most likely use it as a synonym for the verb “to come back”.
Subsequently, the teacher will use an interactive board or a deck of slides to
show the following two sentences:

       -   Sean returned the faulty item to the retailer
       -   The manager returned Susan’s call to enquire about the issues she had
           experienced

that have a direct impact on second language acquisition, determining “the degree to which the
[language] acquirer is ‘open’ to the input” provided in class (Krashen 2009: 9). Moreover,
Krashen and Terrell (1983: 18-19) suggest that language acquisition is different, and may be more
effective, than language learning.
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    In order to check the students’ comprehension, teachers might find it useful
to ask the class to rephrase the two sentences. Learners will most probably come
up with sentences such as “Sean took the broken object back to the shop” and
“The manager phoned/called Susan back to ask about the problems she had”, all
of which provide various hooks to expand on the difference between
colloquial/informal and formal English. In this way, the context has been set for
the teacher to elicit the polysemy of the verb return, but also the difference
between degrees of formality, which should be further concept-checked by
asking the class in which contexts they would use each sentence.10 To follow up,
learners should be invited to provide additional examples before moving on to
the controlled practice stage.
    At this point, the teacher will introduce TikTok by asking learners whether
they use this SM networking site. Subsequently, they will be shown Davide
Patron’s profile and, should individual devices such as smartphones and tablets
be available, teachers may want to allow learners to browse it for a few minutes
before they report their impressions to the class. Once the students’ curiosity has
been stimulated, they will be informed that they will be using Patron’s TikTok
profile to learn words and expressions that can help them speak “like a native”
in simple, every-day contexts. To this end, the teacher will use the interactive
board or PPT slides to show them this short dialogue, which can also be
distributed as a handout:

                                         Handout
                                   (Controlled Practice)
                                  “A Phone Conversation”

 Hello, Pete. So, you’re still coming tonight, right?
                                Hey, Simon. I am going to stay home. I don’t really feel well.
 You’re not serious, are you?
                                 My nose is congested, and I don’t feel like going out tonight.
 Oh, no. That’s bad!
                  I know. I hope you’ll have fun. I have to go now, my battery is really low.
 Okay. Have some good food and go to bed early. I’ll call you tomorrow!
                                                                                          Bye!


    Depending on the duration of the class and the teacher’s needs, the handout
may be replaced with visuals in order to encourage students to produce their
own version of the dialogue. After the learners have read the handout, the
teacher will draw their attention to the register of the conversation and


10
  Concept-check questions should foreground everyday situations, such as “Jane doesn’t like the
present that her grandma gave her, what can she do?” as opposed to more formal but still
plausible/familiar communicative contexts, such as “Jane has emailed the online store
OnLineShopping.Com because she doesn’t like the jumper her grandma bought for her on that
website. What is their answer?”.
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encourage them to reflect on whether it is suitable to the context. Students will
then be allotted enough time to browse among a number of clips from Patron’s
profile previously selected by the teacher. In so doing, the learners will have to
search for up to six possible alternatives to change the dialogue and make the
conversation between Pete and Simon sound less formal.11 By working alone or
in small groups, they should browse through the clips and identify the following
expressions:

       -   You’re not serious Come on / Tell me another one
       -   My nose is congested My nose is stuffy / I’m all bunged up
       -   That’s bad That’s pants
       -   My battery is really low I’m on one percent
       -   Have some good food Have some good nosh12
       -   Go to bed early Hit the sack early

     As Wheeler suggests, in order to successfully learn the difference between
formal and informal English, and to discriminate between contexts and situations
so as to produce the appropriate language output, students should “learn to
actively code-switch” (Wheeler 2010: 138). Although the concept usually refers
to the use of different languages (such as L1/FL), Wheeler intends code-switching
as a metacognitive skill that enables learners to profitably turn to different
language registers according to the needs of the communicative context. Due to
its implications, the concept may arguably be extended to encompass the
simultaneous use of verbal/non-verbal elements as well as teacher-produced vs.
digital output. Insofar as they provide comprehensible and relevant language
input by conflating visual, sound, and text elements, and they specifically target
Italian native speakers, Patron’s clips can be used to stimulate code-switching at
all these levels. In so doing, this activity will prompt students to acquire new
words, but it will also enable them to develop metacognitive and pragmatic skills
that are key to addressing the needs and the peculiarities of different
communicative settings – namely, formal vs. informal/colloquial.
     Because of young adults’ familiarity with TikTok, and the curiosity and
metacognitive skills activated during the presentation and controlled practice
stages, in the production phase learners should be encouraged to browse through
a set of Patron’s TikTok clips selected by the teacher to make a list of additional
colloquial/informal expressions and practice them. For example, students can
work in pairs or small groups to come up with short dialogues where they
incorporate some of the informal words introduced in the videos, and then
practice them in front of the class. At the end of the lesson, the new vocabulary
can be revised in a quick teacher-led activity based on quiz questions (“What’s
another word for…?”) or drills (“I caught a bad cold last week, how did I feel?”).




11
   Alternatively, expressions that need to be changed during the task might be highlighted or
underlined in the handout.
12
   The OED defines the word “nosh” as a colloquial and chiefly British expression. This word is
not recognized as common by English native speakers.
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                                     Lesson Plan
                            EVERY-DAY ENGLISH ON TIK-TOK

 Duration: one hour of class practice. Extension might include homework and related
 correction/practice in the next lesson (e.g. students record their own clips)
 Level: lower intermediate / intermediate
 Target language: colloquial expressions to be used in informal contexts, such as a
 phone conversation between friends/peers
 Equipment: Computer; PPT presentation or IWB to be used by the teacher for
 introducing target language; students’ own smartphones or tablets to visit Davide
 Patron’s TikTok profile (@davidepatron) for individual (or group) tasks
 Expected learning outcomes: vocabulary practice; pronunciation practice; oral
 interaction, peer-to-peer included (Ss > T and Ss – Ss)

 Stage and time           Task and objective                         Interaction

 1. Warm-up               Introducing the concept of “Every-day T > Ss
 (ca. 10 mins)            English”                                     S>T
                             - The students reflect on the difference
                                between various degrees of formality,
                                with a focus on vocabulary
                             - Students are guided by the teacher, but
                                are invited to resort to their own
                                vocabulary knowledge to supply
                                relevant examples

 2. Controlled         Students     acquire    colloquial/informal T > Ss
 Practice: “A Phone    expressions                                   Ss > Ss
 Conversation”            - Vocabulary development                   Ss > T
 (controlled practice,    - Activation of metacognitive skills, such
 20 mins)                   as code-switching (informal vs. formal
                            language)

 3. Production            Students     acquire    colloquial/informal Ss > Ss
 (15 mins)                expressions and practice them in relevant
                          output
                             - Vocabulary practice
                             - Production

 4. Winding down          Language revision prompted by the teacher T > Ss
 (5-10 mins)              (e.g., through quiz questions / drills)   Ss > T



5. Duetting is the New Listen and Repeat

Because of their short duration and their conflation of sound and text, TikTok
clips can also be exploited by teachers wishing to insert interactive pronunciation
activities into their syllabus. Although digital technologies offer a wealth of input
for such tasks, existing research documents that pronunciation practice is often
marginalized, delegated to self-practice tasks, or indirectly fostered via listening

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(cf. Turcsan 2021). Even in this case, Patron’s and Cerletti’s TikTok profiles
feature a number of short videos that can be implemented into ELT classes
targeting Italian native speakers. In that they address recurring mistakes, and
combine text and sound, these videos can be used to activate code-switching
both as a linguistic and as a metacognitive skill, and in so doing they can also be
exploited to target L1 interference on L2 pronunciation (Turcsan 2021).
     An ideal PPP lesson plan on pronunciation might be modelled on the one
illustrated above for vocabulary practice. Accordingly, teachers may want to
start with a warm-up activity that elicits recurring mistakes and tricky words.
This may be done, for example, by presenting students – either via the interactive
board/slides, or with a handout – an extract from one of the most common
pronunciation poems, Gerard Nolst Trenite’s “The Chaos” (1922):

                                     Handout
                                    (Warm-Up)
             An extract from Gerard Nolst Trenite’s “The Chaos” (1922)

                               Dearest creature in creation
                             Studying English pronunciation,
                               I will teach you in my verse
                        Sounds like corpse, corps, horse and worse.

                               I will keep you, Susy, busy,
                           Make your head with heat grow dizzy;
                            Tear in eye, your dress you'll tear;
                             Queer, fair seer, hear my prayer.


     The extract is short enough to be suitable for (lower) intermediate students.
Nevertheless, the teacher might want to pre-teach some of the words (such as
corpse/dizzy) to facilitate the students’ comprehension, even though the focus
of this warm-up activity is pronunciation. The handout will enable teachers to
draw the students’ attention to frequently mispronounced words and explore
language issues such as non-homophone homographs. To this end, learners
might be asked to read the poem out loud, and teachers might find it useful to
elicit self-correction instead of directly providing them with the right sound. This
technique might be presented as “duetting”, that is, a flipped listen and repeat
activity that is largely employed by TikTokers such as Cerletti and Patron. By
reversing the order usually proposed by listen and repeat tasks, “duetting” can
be exploited to lower the learners’ affective filter because of its ludic potential,
and therefore to facilitate the acquisition of the right pronunciation. After this
icebreaker, students should be encouraged to quickly browse through Cerletti’s
profile, whose “Pronunciation Challenges” are particularly enticing because of
Norma’s use of body language, from gestures to facial expressions.13 Moreover,
Cerletti draws the viewers’ attention to their common mistakes, which is a


13
  Even in this case, the teacher might find it useful to draw up a list of videos according to the
specific learning objectives he/she has set for the lesson taking into account the students’ more
general needs and specificities.
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further aid to enhance the students’ memory. Here are a few words from one of
Cerletti’s most viewed challenges on TikTok:

      -   All inclusive
      -   Hollywood
      -   Stage
      -   Funny
      -   Amazing

    Teachers might want to follow up through controlled practice and
production activities that are prompted by duetting but activate different skills
at the same time. For example, students might work in small groups and resort
to their own experience to create a similar list of easily mispronounced words,
and then use an online monolingual dictionary to check the correct
pronunciation. Subsequently, they can use their lists to “challenge” the rest of
the class in duetting activities as if they were TikTokers. Finally, the teacher can
challenge the whole class to come up with sample sentences using one or more
of the words introduced during the lesson. This final activity will keep the
learners’ affective filter down and help them consolidate what they have learned
– namely pronunciation and meaning in context.

                                         Lesson Plan
                       PROUNCIATION CHALLENGE ON TIK-TOK

 Duration: one hour of class practice. Extension might include homework and related
 correction/practice in the next lesson (e.g., students record their own clips)
 Level: lower intermediate / intermediate
 Target language: colloquial expressions to be used in informal contexts, such as a
 phone conversation between friends/peers
 Equipment: Computer; PPT presentation or IWB to be used by the teacher; students’
 own smartphones or tablets to visit Norma Cerletti’s TikTok profile
 (“@normasteaching”) for group tasks
 Expected learning outcomes: pronunciation practice; oral interaction, peer-to-peer
 included (Ss > T and Ss – Ss); metacognitive skills (namely, using a monolingual
 dictionary)

 Stage and time           Task and objective                        Interaction

 1. Warm-up:                 Drawing the students’ attention to some S > T
 “Pronunciation                recurring pronunciation mistakes for
 Chaos”                        Italian native speakers
 (ca. 15 mins)               - The students reflect on easily
                               mispronounced      words,    and    are
                               introduced to pronunciation issues such
                               as non-homophone homographs




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A180                                                                            CANANI, ZULLI


                             - Students are guided by the teacher; self-
                               correction should be favoured over T’s
                               correction

 2. Controlled            Learners practice duetting via TikTok            Ss > Ss
 Practice: “A                - Pronunciation practice                      Ss > T
 Pronunciation               - Lowering of Ss’ affective filter
 Challenge”
 (controlled practice,
 5-10 mins)

 3. Production:           Leaners create their own list of words, which Ss > Ss
 “Duetting                they will use to challenge the rest of the class
 Challenge”               in a “Duetting Context”
 (15 mins)                   - Pronunciation practice
                             - Vocabulary development
                             - Activation of metacognitive skills:
                                using a monolingual dictionary to
                                check pronunciation

 4. Winding down          The teachers challenge students to come up T > Ss
 (5-10 mins)              with sample sentences using the words Ss > T
                          introduced during the lesson
                             - Consolidation
                             - Revision



6. Winding Down: A Few (Preliminary) Conclusions

The quantitative analysis conducted in this research has defined the role that SM
may have in ELT, and especially during classes directed at young adults. Data
shows that TikTok is perceived as a valid method to enrich and support
traditional language teaching by providing students with the relaxed and natural
environment of peer-to-peer micro-lessons, which is instrumental in lowering the
learners’ affective filter. Moreover, the use of smartphones and SM may enhance
the learners’ proactive participation in the learning process insofar as it arouses
their curiosity and keeps their attention alive.
    Even if they cannot be regarded as teaching methods in themselves, these
educational videos can be integrated into a number of teaching approaches. For
example, they can provide short but effective prompts for classes that are based
on guided-discovery approaches, such as the Presentation-Practice-Production
(PPP) one. The rationale for this criterion is that TikTok clips appear particularly
suitable for lessons where the target language is introduced before encouraging
controlled practice and more spontaneous output production. Accordingly, they
provide an innovative and appealing alternative to the audio-visual material
traditionally employed in PPP coursebooks and classes.
    In addition, the results of the survey indicate the need for further
investigation of the educational potential of TikTok with specific focus on
vocabulary, pronunciation, and idioms. The use of clips based on challenges and
“duetting” provide an innovative resource to prompt students with relevant and
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engaging input. However, one major drawback in using SM in the classroom is
related to the learners’ perception of these websites as a primary source of
entertainment, which may paradoxically be a cause for attention lapses (Yunus,
Salehi and Chenzi 2012: 45). Even though TikTok is one of the most recent SM
platforms, existing research on the impact of Facebook and Twitter on ELT has
foregrounded the need for careful lesson planning when teachers intend to
exploit these websites for pedagogical purposes.
     The importance of tailoring teaching materials on the target language, the
expected learning outcomes, and the learners’ proficiency level is no doubt
imperative regardless of the methods and techniques employed by teachers.
However, these aspects require even more attention when teachers intend to
implement SM activities in the ELT classroom. Yunus, Salehi and Chenzi (2012),
for example, have examined the strengths and weaknesses of SM as a tool to train
English language learners’ writing skills, and their conclusions may be
reasonably extended to TikTok. EFL instructors should therefore be competent
with the peculiarities of the website they intend to use, as improvisation may be
counterproductive. A certain degree of familiarity with TikTok is therefore
recommended so as to determine where and how to introduce tasks based on
SM. This attention is imperative for the teacher to manage the class activity in a
fruitful way, to minimize distraction, and to guide students towards the goals set
for the lesson.


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