Pre-service English teachers’ digital literacy: Views, use, and types of digital technology

Conventional teaching involving paper books and boards no longer seems to successfully fulfill the function of educating English learners in the Generation Z era. This realization came to a sharp focus during the COVID-19 pandemic and reinforced the need for greater integration and utilization of digital tools. To this end, this study aims to identify pre-service English teachers’ digital literacy and to investigate whether their teachers’ use of digital technologies for teaching affects their digital literacy as learners. A total of 121 pre-service English teachers from Northeast, Central, and Southeast Asia (Korean, Uzbek, and Vietnamese pre- service teachers) participated in a questionnaire on Digital Literacy comprising three domains (views, use, and types of digital technology). The ANOVA results indicate that ‘Ethics' in digital literacy scored highest, while ‘Need for Teacher Training' was the lowest. Pearson correlation analysis shows that teachers' use of digital tools positively influenced pre-service teachers' usage.