Investigating the Interplay of Technology and Plagiarism: A Study of English Language Learners’ Beliefs

Presently, the relationship between technology and plagiarism has developed differently and entered into a new phase. We find not only articles on plagiarism in academic journals but also observe this issue in everyday academic life of students too. One of the issues is the complex relationship between technology and plagiarism. This study uses the mixed model approach for conducting the research which analyzes whether there exists a direct relation between technology and plagiarism, so far as the issue of plagiarism is concerned. This correlational analysis takes into account the student’s beliefs and aims to shed light on the reciprocal relationships between technology and plagiarism in that how technology can both cause and prevent plagiarism including the factors which ensures the prevalence of plagiarism. Research has been conducted using the technological determinism approach by Thorstein Veblen (1992) which is based on the notion that technology plays a deterministic role in shaping students’ behavior, so the occurrence of plagiarism as well and this lens analyzes the intertwined world of technology and plagiarism. With the help of questionnaire survey, using the data from the technological determinism approach, the data were collected from English Language learners at a university and were analyzed through SPSS 23.0. The findings indicate that that there do not exist a direct and linear relationship between technology and plagiarism so far as the educational setting is concerned. Considering all these facts this paper is useful for understanding how technology indirectly affects the ways in which plagiarism is committed and detected and understanding technology as one of the factors contributing in the occurrence of plagiarism.