Short videos on the “TikTok” platform as a means of developing sociocultural skills in English language learners

Abstract

The tense epidemiological situation caused by the extremely rapid spread of COVID-19 has accelerated the transition of educational institutions to distance learning, which, in turn, has entailed colossal changes in the choice of teaching tools and made pedagogical innovations an integral part of the educational process. However, the importance of online communities in learning was noted even before the transition to distance learning, since many teachers used social networks as an effective channel of communication with their students. In addition to communication, social platforms can be used to achieve other goals, including solving educational problems. Despite the fact that social platforms were initially created for group communication and creativity and were not associated with education, every year they are becoming an increasingly common means of exchanging information and organizing the educational process. Social platforms may help managing a wide variety of educational tasks and solve the problem of organizing a productive learning process. The study considers the role of videos in foreign language teaching and the educational potential of short videos from TikTok, their advantages and possibility of integration into the educational process in order to increase the efficiency and quality of education, and the role of the teacher in organization of such activities.