Investigating Students’ Perceived Digital Literacy Skills and Attitudes towards ICT Use in a Blended Learning Environment

Abstract

With the wide use of technology, teaching and learning English has changed in recent years. Students are required to possess the necessary digital literacy skills to keep up with the usage of technology in language education as technology has become a part of foreign language education. The present study aims to find out university students’ digital literacy skills and their attitudes of using ICT while learning English. Adopting a quantitative research design, 116 EFL university students attending the preparatory program of a public university in Bursa, Turkey participated in the study. Data was gathered via two instruments and analysed using descriptive statistics, t-test and correlation. The results showed that university students experienced an average level of DL and positive attitudes towards using ICT while learning English. No significant difference was observed across gender. Furthermore, a strong positive correlation was identified. This means that, the more students are capable of using DL, the more positive they feel about using ICT while learning English. Considering the new emerging learning modes like Blended Learning and Distance learning, the study highlighted the importance of getting students prepared to use technology effectively while learning English in technology integrated learning modes.