With the rapid rise of short-form content platforms such as TikTok, the traditional role of the “teacher” has undergone unprecedented transformations in digital contexts. Focusing on popular French-language teaching creators, this study analyzes linguistic, paralinguistic, bodily, and media modalities in TikTok short videos. Drawing on the Motivation Model of Pragmatics, it examines how 14 creators negotiate between transactional and interactional intentions, balancing “teaching” with “attracting views” and “authority” with “affinity”. Our finding reveals that while TikTok’s multimodal affordances facilitate the construction of professional identity, its entertainment-driven mechanisms also intensify audience participation and interaction. This dual dynamic gives rise to three typical identity types: the authoritative knowledge teacher, the friendly guide, and the performative entertainer.