Abstract
College students in Saudi Arabia engaged in various English activities in digital spaces during the COVID-19 crisis, despite it being their second language. Drawing on the concept of digital literacies proposed by Jones and Hafner (2012), this paper identifies the digital literacy practices that occurred in the English language during COVID-19 crisis. Focus group interviews and individual interviews were conducted via WhatsApp with ten college students who had recently attended an intensive English course at a university in Saudi Arabia. Thematic analysis, assisted by ATLAS.ti, revealed that the college students engaged in complex digital literacy practices in English during the COVID-19 crisis to improve their competency in English, educating the community and oneself about COVID-19 as well as to cope with the boredom of remaining indoors. College students mainly used smartphone apps in their literacies, and their usage was guided by their feelings, commitment and the contextual events around them. The literacies these students drew on reflected their metacognitive awareness of the value of English to their everyday life experience. This paper concludes by encouraging college students to exploit the potential of smartphone apps to improve their capacity in English and incorporate apps into their everyday lives.
Highlights
COVID-19 was named in February 2020, and refers to the novel coronavirus that first affected people in Wuhan China before spreading around the world, leading international authorities to respond by taking action to contain its spread (World Health Organisation, 2020)
Drawing on the concept of digital literacies proposed by Jones and Hafner (2012), this paper identifies the digital literacy practices that occurred in the English language during COVID-19 crisis
The interviews were conducted in an online setting, because the data was collected during the spread of COVID-19, when participants in the physical world were required to wear face-masks and meeting other people were limited due to the two-meter social distancing rule imposed in Saudi Arabia
Summary
COVID-19 was named in February 2020, and refers to the novel coronavirus that first affected people in Wuhan China before spreading around the world, leading international authorities to respond by taking action to contain its spread (World Health Organisation, 2020). Explorations of students’ use of English outside the classroom in Saudi Arabia have mainly been conducted with a pedagogical orientation, to determine the value of blogs, WhatsApp and Twitter in the English language learning and teaching context. Blogs are usually used and their value assessed in settings where students are required to improve their writing skills (Aljumah, 2012). Twitter use has been trialed in settings where English writing courses were being delivered, to improve student’s grammatical structures and vocabulary choices (Ali Said, 2015). These studies drew on experimental designs, whereby interactions on digital platforms had a particular pedagogic goal. The studies did not report on situations where English was being used outside a formal educational context, and so did not identify instances ijel.ccsenet.org
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
