TIKTOK’S ROLE IN LEARNING ENGLISH VOCABULARY FOR ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE (EFL) LEARNERS

Vocabulary is one of the basic competencies for English students in their field. In able to be successful in the four skills of English, listening, speaking, reading, and writing, students need to have vocabulary mastery (Rahman, 2021). Richard and Renandya (2002), as cited in Asyiah (2017), also noted that learning vocabulary as a foreign language learner is a crucial part of the process of learners enhancing their language proficiency. Without learning vocabulary, students will experience difficulty improving their English skills, directly impacting their English language achievement. A lack of vocabulary will lead to communication difficulty, and it will interfere with students’ learning other skills in the English language.

Students’ vocabulary level and understanding could be affected by various factors in the learning process, such as the learning strategies used, learning media, and students’ internal factors. Lutfiyah et al. (2022) noted in their research on students’ perception of the obstacles in learning vocabulary that those factors can be solved by some strategies, one of them is learning vocabulary through listening to music and watching videos.  However, in some situations, the existing strategies of watching videos lead students to boredom due to the lack of engaging content provided by the educators. Using the same platform continuously causes its attractiveness to decrease, impacting students’ learning interests. According to (Rahman, 2021), it also noted that the issue is that the learning media or process itself is a bit dull. When students are presented with lengthy text or videos, they tend to lose interest and get bored with the lesson. The students showed a lack of motivation to learn new vocabulary when presented with unfamiliar words from the texts.

Technology has significantly improved and created new discoveries with useful functions in this modern era. Technology has been significantly impacted by the ongoing process of modernization. One of the fields experiencing the most rapid growth is social media. In this era, social media is used in almost every activity, including long-distance communication, exchange of information, school learning, and so on. Many social media platforms are now expanding rapidly and being used extensively in various contexts, with the TikTok platform being a recent example. Released in 2016, the TikTok application by ByteDance enables users to create and share short videos, which are currently becoming increasingly popular in the digital age (Bernard, 2021; Nguyen & Tran, 2024). Indonesia has become the second-most TikTok user since 202, which has reached 109.9 million people based on the World Population Review ranking. It is possible that in 2024, more people will use the platform to get wider (worldpopulationreview.com, 2024).

TikTok’s educational potential has been highlighted in various studies. Bernard (2021) found that many teachers have used TikTok platforms to establish their own videos to explain complicated material, explain rules, and share students’ task instructions.  Teachers will have no difficulty downloading and sharing the video with their students, thus facilitating the learning process. This approach has the beneficial effect of improving students' ability to learn in an accessible manner. The variety of engaging content on TikTok contributes to an enhanced learning experience using unique features that facilitate students' access to information (Choo and Khalid, 2024). In Indonesia, many users, including EFL students, have used TikTok for many purposes, especially to learn a language, focusing on vocabulary learning (Usman, 2024). The use of technology, such as TikTok, facilitates English Vocabulary learning mastery through a natural learning process. The (Alghameeti, 2022) research confirmed that using TikTok helps learners remember new vocabulary and understand how to use it. In learning vocabulary, TikTok is a great tool for students to help them understand the meaning of vocabulary and become enthusiastic about the process of learning new words. The illustrations and voice-overs in TikTok learning videos are effective in helping students’ ability to convey the meaning of vocabulary with greater ease (Usman, 2024). Moreover, learners have the option of reopening saved videos to assist in recalling words. They may choose to pause or mute the sound when necessary. Some TikTok videos feature English songs with lyrics or movie scenes with original and translated subtitles, facilitating the acquisition of new vocabulary through listening, reading, or even mimicking the videos. This facilitates the effective memorization of new words and the discovery of new vocabulary (Alghameeti, 2022; Choo and Khalid, 2024; Bernard, 2021). According to Usman (2024), it can be reasonably concluded that students who utilize TikTok videos may experience a greater level of enthusiasm for the learning process, particularly when it comes to understanding and using English vocabulary. This is due to the fact that the English-language content available on TikTok can be accessed at the user's own convenience, in a flexible way that suits their needs, and at a pace that's comfortable for them.

In the context of the technological era, TikTok has been identified as a valuable tool for advancing educational initiatives when employed as a social media platform, as an avenue for online learning, and as a means of enhancing communication and technological abilities (Nor Eleyana Abdullah et al., 2023).  It is anticipated that educators will be able to utilize technology platforms, such as TikTok, in a constructive manner to enhance students' English proficiency, particularly in vocabulary. Vocabulary is an essential aspect of the English language that enables effective communication in practical settings (Usman, 2024). 

According to the positive impact of TikTok as an educational tool from the existing research, it can be concluded that TikTok has good potential as a new learning medium to be the solution for students who lack interest in long-duration videos and the same platform. Students can access social media platforms like TikTok to exchange information and entertainment. Additionally, TikTok spends a significant portion of its time entertaining itself.