Author(s)

Hua Liu

Affiliation(s)

School of Foreign Studies, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, Guangdong, China.

Corresponding Author

Hua Liu

ABSTRACT

This research aims to explore the degree and traits which university students perceive themselves as digital natives, and how these technological proficiency influence the learning and teaching of English as a foreign language. We employed the Digital Native Assessment Scale (DNAS) developed by Teo (2013) to do the research among 305 participants. It measures four variants relating to accepted characteristics of a digital native. The findings indicate that these university students actively used the Internet, computers and smartphones. They are strongly characterized by the features of “growing up with technology” and “thriving on instant gratifications and rewards”, whereas they have a medium-level of digital nativity in the dimension of “being comfortable with multi-tasking” in learning, or “reliant much on graphics for communication”. Based on the statistical results, we believe it’s significant for language teachers to optimize teaching methods and strategies at the levels of language input and output, and meanwhile guide the students to promote their English learning via wise use of their technological advantages.

KEYWORDS

Digital native; Bialystok' language model; Traits; Teaching strategies

CITE THIS PAPER

Hua Liu. The influence of university students' digital native traits on EFL teaching strategies. World Journal of Educational Studies. 2025, 3(7): 12-17. DOI: https://doi.org/10.61784/wjes3094.

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