Speakers
Description
It is believed that attention spans are a crucial factor which can contribute to high band scores in IELTS. However, due to the overuse of TikTok, one of the most popular social networks these days, IELTS learners cannot focus on taking the test for a long time, leading to worse preparation and failure regarding IELTS desired scores. Our study aims to investigate how TikTok can negatively affect students’ attention spans. The authors of this research project have decided to employ qualitative methods to explore the insightful perceptions of both IELTS learners and teachers towards the mentioned concern. This study includes online interviews via Zoom with 5 IELTS trainers with at least 2 years of teaching experience and reflection papers of 30 students who are currently studying for IELTS. The findings give several meaningful and pedagogical insights into this topic. In particular, most of the study participants indicate that surfing TikTok too much during the day makes them easily distracted when studying for the test. This kind of social media is quite harmful to their attention ability due to the effects of short-video watching habits. Despite its interesting content and conveniences, TikTok is causing various adverse impacts on users, especially students. Thus, the study also suggests some viable approaches to mitigate the issue as well as enable IELTS learners to get back on their tracks.
Biography
Do Ngoc Nhu Thuyen is currently working online as an independent IELTS trainer and researcher living in South Korea. She holds a Master's degree in TESOL from Edith Cowan University and specializes in teaching adults with 6 years of work experience. She has three conference papers published in VIC 2023, OpenTESOL 2024, and one accepted paper in AsiaTEFL 2025. She has huge research interests in distance learning and the application of technology in teaching.
Dang Vu Minh Thu is a full-time lecturer at Saigon University, HCMC. With more than 8 years of teaching experience at many universities, her specialization is teaching courses in English for Academic Purposes and English-language certificates including IELTS and VSTEP. Moreover, she is interested in the research of technological applications in English teaching contexts and teacher professional development.
