Don’t tell your kids to, “Put your phone down!”, as TikTok, the short-video social media platform, and Instagram are being harnessed by Australian teachers to teach English, among other subjects.
Young Australians in particular are spending more and more time on social media platforms, so during lockdown, teachers there began to upload bite-size lessons in the form of interactive videos and quizzes that their students can watch and engage with whenever they like in a method being called ‘microlearning’.
The short videos can be part of a student’s scrolling life and research has shown they can be used to improve vocabulary, pronunciation and try simple conversation. It’s not being hailed as the be all and end all of language learning – it can only take a student so far – but as an engaging additional tool that students can use to boost their English language skills.
Now you can say, “Take another scroll.”
