Scroll Smarter: How to Use TikTok, Twitch & Social Media to Learn a Language

The truth is: social media isn’t just for distractions. If you’re intentional, platforms like TikTok and Twitch can become powerful tools for language exposure, vocabulary building, and even speaking practice. This post breaks down how to make the most of each platform and includes strategies supported by recent research.

How TikTok Can Support Language Learning

TikTok’s algorithm is scarily good—so why not use it to your advantage?

One of the easiest hacks: change your phone's language settings to your target language. TikTok will start showing you content in that language—songs, memes, cooking videos, skits—letting you hear the language as it’s actually spoken. You’ll also see slang, common phrases, and jokes that rarely make it into textbooks.

Bonus: reading the comment sections gives you natural language in context and everyday grammar in action. This is a perfect way to passively boost your listening and reading comprehension—even if you’re just chilling on your couch.

TikTok brings diverse, authentic voices to language classrooms

At the University of Minnesota, Professor Amanda Dalola and master’s student Chimène Dupuis wanted to solve a problem many language teachers face: textbooks are often dry, outdated, and only show one version of how a language is used. In their case, they were teaching French, but everything felt super Paris-centric—nothing reflected how French is spoken in Senegal, Quebec, Belgium, or the Ivory Coast.

So they got creative.

They used TikTok to build a database of over 300 real videos made by French speakers around the world. And they didn’t just collect random content—they used a VPN to “travel” to different countries and created fake personas with specific interests (like fashion or food). This tricked the algorithm into showing them videos from a wide range of regions, accents, and communities.

The result? A searchable collection of TikToks categorized by topic, region, speed of speech, and accent—plus lesson activities that teachers can use to go along with the videos.

“The language that’s almost exclusively used on TikTok is the spoken vernacular. It’s a kind of language that students don’t get a lot of exposure to in conventionally made published materials.”

In other words, TikTok gives learners something that no textbook ever could: the language as it’s actually spoken today, in different voices, in different places.

Twitch: Real-Time Language Practice & Support

You might think Twitch is just for watching people play video games—but it's also become a surprising space for language learning, especially for people who study on their own. A recent 2025 study by Akay and Ferronato looked at how learners use Twitch to practice languages in a live, interactive setting, and the results were seriously cool.

The researchers followed a Twitch stream called "English Café", where learners from around the world met regularly to practice speaking English. What they found wasn’t just passive watching—viewers were deeply involved in the learning process. They asked questions in chat, gave each other feedback, shared personal learning tips, and even reflected on their progress.

The study focused on self-regulated learning, which basically means you’re managing your own study goals, strategies, and progress. On Twitch, learners were doing this live—they’d come in with the goal of practicing English, interact with others in the chat, correct their own mistakes, and reflect on how they were doing.

“Commenters practiced and gave feedback (performance phase), shared their past learning experiences (forethought), and reflected on what they knew (evaluation),” the researchers wrote.

What’s powerful here is that Twitch creates a kind of low-pressure immersion—you’re not in a classroom, but you’re surrounded by the language, engaging with native speakers or other learners, and participating in real conversations in real time.

Takeaway

Platforms like TikTok and Twitch, when used with intention, can turn your daily screen time into real exposure, authentic input, and even meaningful practice. Whether you're picking up slang through viral videos or practicing conversation in a Twitch chat, you're engaging with the language as it's actually used—something traditional materials often fail to capture. So don’t feel guilty for scrolling. Just scroll smarter.