A3 Refereed book chapter or chapter in a compilation book
Digital literacy in academic language learning contexts – Developing information-seeking competence
Subtitle: Developing information-seeking competence
Authors: Maarit Mutta, Sanna Pelttari, Leena Salmi, Aline Chevalier, Marjut Johansson
Editors: Janes Pettes Guikema & Lawrence Williams
Publishing place: United States of America
Publication year: 2014
Book title : Digital literacies in foreign and second language education
Series title: CALICO Monograph Series
Volume: 11
First page : 227
Last page: 244
Number of pages: 18
ISBN: 978-0-9891208-9-0
Web address : https://calico.org/bookfiles/pdfs/DigitalLiteracies.pdf
This chapter reports on two studies. The first study (Study A) concentrates on information seeking in one’s first language (L1, French and Finnish university students) and in a foreign language (French as L2; Finnish university students). The second study (Study B) concentrates on the effects of raising awareness in information seeking in L2 (French and Spanish). The chapter analyzes the use of sources, keywords, search strategies, and the development of information-seeking competence as a part of digital literacy in the academic context. Digital literacy refers to the critical assessment and use of digital technologies and the competencies in digital communication and discourse. The results from the first study indicate that the native speakers of French needed less time than L2 learners of French when searching for information. However, the L2 learners searching for information in Finnish (L1) formulated more queries and used more keywords than the native speakers or those searching in L2 (French). When the two sets of data were compared, searching for information using online search engines was evidently the most widely used information-seeking strategy. However, the students developed several individual seeking paths and strategies to complete the tasks. For example, the students used different languages to find the appropriate answer or translation equivalent. The chapter provides concrete examples to illustrate different information-seeking paths.
Key words: academic language learning, digital literacy