Abstract
Over the past few decades, technologies grew rapidly, transforming traditional instructions to be more digitalized and stimulating many researchers to study digital literacy practices in a school-educational context. However, studies exploring digital literacy practices in the context of tertiary education are still scarce. Within the qualitative approach, this study investigated digital literacy practices by EFL (English as a Foreign Language) postgraduate students. Moreover, it intensively discusses the kinds of digital tools used by the participants and the purposes of using them. Additionally, the way the participants conceptualized digital literacy was also elaborated. Thirty-four EFL Master students of a public university in Bandung, Indonesia, participated in this study. An online open-ended questionnaire and semi-structured interviews were applied in data collection. Meanwhile, eight dimensions of digital literacy in the Hague and Payton’s frameworks were used as the basis of the thematical analysis of the interview data. Results showed that the participants conceptualized digital literacy as soft skills for managing digital information covering the acts of searching, comprehending, evaluating, creating, and sharing. The prominent result of this study relates to how the participants used digital tools for academic/research and general purposes. Subsequently, this study recommends that tertiary education institutions provide more training on maximizing digital tools for academic writing and broader access to prepaid journal articles. Further exploration of lecturers’ digital literacy practices is highly recommended.
Highlights
Numerous studies have explored digital literacy practices in the context of school-education and English language teaching both from the students’ side (Black, 2005, 2009; John, 2014; Meurant, 2008) and teachers’ side (Colton, 2020; Tour, 2019; Weaver, 2012)
This study deals with the exploration of digital literacy practices among English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Master students
Digital literacy was conceptualized as soft skills for managing digital information covering the acts of searching, comprehending, evaluating, creating, and sharing
Summary
Numerous studies have explored digital literacy practices in the context of school-education and English language teaching both from the students’ side (Black, 2005, 2009; John, 2014; Meurant, 2008) and teachers’ side (Colton, 2020; Tour, 2019; Weaver, 2012). Studies focusing on digital literacy practices in tertiary education, especially in the postgraduate program of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) education, are still scarce. Digital literacy is one of the essential components of teaching English in tertiary education as EFL postgraduate students are expected to be pioneers for serving high-quality English language teaching and research. The present study explored digital literacy practices in tertiary education context – postgraduate program, in the Master program of EFL education. The study sought empirical evidence on how EFL Master students perceive digital literacy. The results of this study are beneficial for future research in navigating other related issues of digital literacy practices in the boundary context of English language teaching and tertiary education. 4. What are the purposes of using digital tools among the EFL Master students?
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