The growing trend of globalisation drives China to pursue educational internationalisation particularly in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields as the forefront of technological advancements. In order to equip STEM students with better English skills in the digital area, it is crucial to understand to what extent and how Chinese STEM university students effectively adopt digital technologies in their investment of English learning. As such, this study aimed to investigate the current levels of language investment and digital competence among Chinese university students in the STEM area and explore the correlations between these two factors. Dauzón-Ledesma’s (2023) scale on language investment and Rodríguez-de-Dios’s (2016) scale on digital competence were utilised in this research to collect survey-based data among 55 university-level students studying STEM at universities in Beijing. Pearson correlation revealed a significant correlation (r = .655, p < .001) between the participants’ language investment with their digital competence. Separately evaluating digital competence in terms of digital skills and technical literacy, significant correlations were still found between the participants’ language investment and digital skills (r = .636, p < .001) and technical literacy (r = .612, p < .001). The results indicated that the STEM students who invest more in language development may have higher ability and better understanding to use digital tools. The implication of this study suggested that future interventions aimed at improving STEM university students’ overall digital competence could incorporate language-focused components.

Authors:
Jiaqi Xu, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

About the Presenter(s)
Miss Jiaqi Xu is currently a Senior Research Assistant at the Faculty of Education, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.

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