Scrolling for Insight: A Qualitative Exploration of Critical Literacy Development Through TikTok in EFL Contexts
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1604.08Keywords:
critical literacy, TikTok, multimodal pedagogy, EFL learners, IndonesiaAbstract
The rapid ascent of TikTok as a ubiquitous short-form video platform has prompted educators to reconsider social-media spaces as potential sites for developing critical literacy in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context. Grounded in multiliteracies and critical pedagogy, this qualitative study explores how twenty-four fifth-semester undergraduates in an English-education programme at a public university in Makassar, Indonesia, cultivated critical literacy while engaging with TikTok. Participants attended a scaffolded workshop, created and publicly shared ≤ 60-second English TikToks on self-selected social issues, interacted through comments and duets, and maintained reflection journals. Data comprised learner-generated videos, 312 comment threads, journals, and two rounds of semi-structured, stimulus-elicited interviews. Reflexive thematic analysis revealed four intersecting trajectories: (1) multimodal decoding, where learners deconstructed how filters, soundtracks, and captions position audiences; (2) agentive authorship, marked by iterative script revision and rising English-language confidence; (3) peer-mediated learning, with duet and comment affordances functioning as a distributed feedback system; and (4) algorithmic and credibility awareness, as students critiqued echo-chamber tendencies and fact-checked instructional content. These findings demonstrate that TikTok, when embedded in a scroll–analyse–create–reflect sequence, can extend EFL learning beyond functional language practice toward critical engagement with digital texts and platforms. The study contributes empirical evidence from an under-researched Southeast Asian context, offering pedagogical guidance for integrating social media into higher-order literacy instruction and informing curriculum policies that foreground digital and critical competencies.
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