Enhancing Speaking Skills and Vocabulary in the EAL Classroom Through TikTok: A Literature Review

The widespread adoption of TikTok globally has positively impacted its application in education, particularly in language teaching and learning. English, being widely spoken as a lingua franca, is extensively used for content dissemination through TikTok worldwide. However, a preliminary search on the internet revealed a need for more research syntheses on the use of this platform in the English as an Additional Language (EAL) classroom. This scarcity prompted the research discussed in this article. The study took the form of a literature review and followed the principles of Systematic Literature Review, aiming to explore how TikTok has been used in the EAL classroom and what learning benefits it offers. An adapted version of the research protocol model developed by Sarah Visintini was employed for searching, selecting, and extracting written productions from web-based databases to compose the research sample. Eight peer-reviewed articles constituted the final sample based on retention and discard criteria. The retained texts were analyzed using the thematic analysis method proposed by Virginia Braun and Victoria Clarke. The findings indicate that TikTok can effectively enhance speaking skills and expand the vocabulary repertoire of EAL students. Moreover, its usage can aid in maintaining student focus on classroom activities. Further comprehensive searches in online databases, using diverse mechanisms, can yield substantial corpora, facilitating broader and more in-depth analyses and discussions on the pedagogical applications and benefits of TikTok in the EAL classroom.