Abstract

Promoting students’ digital literacy has become a significant challenge for educational authorities and course designers. However, very limited attention has been directed toward junior high school students’ digital literacy in the literature of computer-assisted language learning (CALL). Thus, this mixed-methods study explored junior high school teachers’ and students’ perspectives on the students’ digital literacy level and issues pertaining to it. A total of 364 junior high school students, 20 junior high school teachers, and three Directors of the Ministry of Education of Iran participated in the study. Exploratory factor analysis was run to ensure the construct validity of the questionnaire. The results of the Mann–Whitney U test showed significant differences between the perceptions of the teachers and students. While the students and teachers reported that students had an acceptable level of digital literacy in the interviews, the questionnaire results showed that the students had a low to moderate level of digital literacy. The teachers and students believed that the junior high school students used technology for recreational and non-educational purposes. The junior high school students did not use a wide range of computer applications and software tools. The interview with the Directors of the Ministry of Education depicted that they did not have consensus on the issues related to junior high school students’ digital literacy and that the Ministry did not have clear plans for promoting students’ digital literacy levels. The study proposes implications for the renewal of the English as a foreign language (EFL) curriculum of junior high schools and the integration of CALL in EFL programs in Iran and other similar contexts.

摘要

提升学生的数字素养已成为教育当局和课程设计者面临的重大挑战。然而，计算机辅助语言学习 (CALL) 文献中对初中学生的数字素养的关注非常有限。因此，本项混合方法研究探讨了初中教师和学生对学生数字素养水平及其相关问题的看法。共有364名初中生、20名初中教师、3名伊朗教育部主任参加了学习。进行探索性因素分析以确保问卷的结构效度。Mann-Whitney U 检验结果显示，教师和学生的感知存在显着差异。虽然学生和教师在访谈中报告学生的数字素养水平可以接受，但问卷结果显示学生的数字素养水平处于低到中等水平。师生认为，初中生将科技用于娱乐和非教育目的。初中生没有使用广泛的计算机应用程序和软件工具。与教育部主任的访谈表明，他们对初中生数字素养相关问题没有达成共识，教育部没有明确的提升学生数字素养水平的计划。