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Role-play and the TikTok platform have been implemented in various educational contexts as strategies to enhance oral competence in English. In Panama, this study aimed to analyze the pedagogical relevance of their use among university students. The research adopted a mixed approach, exploratory-descriptive, field-based, and non-experimental design. Semi-structured interviews were conducted via Zoom with 15 third-year students of the bachelor’s degree in English at the Regional University Center of Coclé, Aguadulce Extension. The interviews, carried out via Zoom, assessed phoneme pronunciation, vocabulary selection, conversational fluency, and listening comprehension. The findings revealed recurrent difficulties in the pronunciation of specific phonemes, limited use of fillers in English, and a tendency to maintain overly formal registers in informal contexts. Listening comprehension showed acceptable performance, although it requires closer integration with oral production. The discussion aligns these results with previous studies that highlight the positive impact of digital platforms on student motivation and interaction, while also noting the lack of systematic incorporation of such strategies into Institutional Educational Projects (PEI) and the need for integrated educational policies. In conclusion, incorporating TikTok and role-play proved to be relevant strategies to overcome phonological and pragmatic limitations, strengthen motivation, and address student dissatisfaction. Finally, we recommend providing teacher training in the pedagogical use of these methodologies and to expand research with more diverse samples, thereby ensuring the relevance and sustainability of higher education in Panama.
