Are the More Digitally Literate the Better Researching? The Case of English Department Students
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15642/ijet2.2025.14.2.207-217Keywords:
academic article writing, correlation study, digital literacy, literature mining, research literacy instructionAbstract
Digital literacy has been seen as a key skill in academic research by university students in terms of recognizing, evaluating, and using credible scholarly resources. While previous studies have focused on digital literacy in the context of e-learning and information search, little research has been done on the connection between digital literacy and literature mining skills for academic research purposes. This study attempted to investigate the link between digital literacy and literature mining skills among university students studying in an English Language Education Department. Quantitative correlational research methodology was applied involving 34 students who were taking the Academic Article Writing course. Data were gathered through two structured questionnaires assessing digital literacy and literature mining skills of the participants. The tools used to collect data were found to be valid and reliable after item validity tests and calculation of Cronbach's Alpha scores. Pearson correlation test was conducted in SPSS version 25. The finding showed that there was a significant positive correlation between the digital literacy and literature mining skills of the participants (r = 0.583, p < .001). The findings show that those who have higher digital literacy skills also have high literature mining skills in conducting research in academic work. But from the fact that the relationship between the two variables is moderate, one can conclude that having high digital literacy skills alone cannot help one develop good research skills. This implies that critical thinking, evaluation of sources, information synthesis, and literature search should be done effectively.
Downloads
References
Allahyari, M., Pouriyeh, S., Kochut, K., Safaei, S., Ariafar, K., Ruiz, C., & Arabnia, H. R. (2017). A brief survey of text mining: Classification, clustering and extraction techniques. arXiv Preprint arXiv:1707.02919.
Ardhiani, O., Hadjam, M. N. R., & Fitriani, D. R. (2023). Digital literacy and student academic performance in universities: A meta-analysis. Journal of Psychology and Instruction, 7(3). https://ejournal.undiksha.ac.id/index.php/JoPaI/article/view/68191
Atoy, M. B., Garcia, F. R. O., Cadungog, R. R., Cua, J. D. O., Mangunay, S. C., & de Guzman, A. B. (2020). Linking digital literacy and online information searching strategies of Philippine university students. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 52(4), 1015–1030. https://doi.org/10.1177/0961000619871618
Evans, J. D. (1996). Straightforward statistics for the behavioral sciences. Brooks/Cole Publishing.
Fraenkel, J. R., Wallen, N. E., & Hyun, H. H. (2019). How to design and evaluate research in education (10th ed.). McGraw-Hill Education.
Gilster, P. (1997). Digital literacy. John Wiley & Sons.
Gupta, V., & Lehal, G. S. (2009). A survey of text mining techniques and applications. Journal of Emerging Technologies in Web Intelligence, 1(1), 60–76. https://doi.org/10.4304/jetwi.1.1.60-76
Haryanto, E., Widiastuti, I., & Sulistyo, G. H. (2022). Digital literacy and critical thinking among Indonesian university students. International Journal of Instruction, 15(2), 789–806.
Liu, J. (2025). Investigating EFL undergraduates’ processes of source evaluation during web search: Behaviours and criteria. SAGE Open, 15(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440251334873
Mudra, H. (2020). Digital literacy among young learners: How do EFL teachers and learners view its benefits and barriers? Teaching English with Technology, 20(3), 3–24.
Muhammadiah, M., Salija, K., & Jabu, B. (2021). Digital literacy and students' academic achievement in higher education. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 12(6), 1004–1012.
Ng, W. (2012). Can we teach digital natives digital literacy? Computers & Education, 59(3), 1065–1078. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2012.04.016
Nuryadi, Astuti, T. D., Utami, E. S., & Budiantara, M. (2017). Dasar-dasar statistik penelitian. Sibuku Media.
OECD. (2021). 21st-century readers: Developing literacy skills in a digital world. OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/a83d84cb-en
Sanova, S., Syafryadin, S., & Nurkamto, J. (2022). Digital literacy in English language learning: Challenges and opportunities in Indonesian higher education. Studies in English Language and Education, 9(2), 851–867.
Tachie-Donkor, G., & Ezema, I. J. (2023). Effect of information literacy skills on university students’ information seeking behaviour and lifelong learning. Heliyon, 9(8), Article e18427. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e18427
Tao, D., Wang, T., Wang, T., Zhang, T., & Qu, X. (2020). A systematic review of literature mining techniques for evidence synthesis. Journal of Informetrics, 14(4), 101091.
UNESCO. (2023). Global education monitoring report 2023: Technology in education—A tool on whose terms? UNESCO Publishing.
Vuorikari, R., Kluzer, S., & Punie, Y. (2022). DigComp 2.2: The Digital Competence Framework for Citizens. Publications Office of the European Union. https://doi.org/10.2760/115376
Xie, Y., Zhang, Y., & Cheng, G. (2020). Literature mining techniques for scientific knowledge discovery: A review. Information Processing & Management, 57(6), 102367.
