efl digital natives: a study into personal and educational digital engagement and learning outcomes

Digital native generation is born during the digital era and knows how to use technology such as smartphones and tablets at an early age (hasmawati, samiha, razzaq, & anshari, 2020). scholars believed that the advanced technologies have been creating profound improvements for education (prensky, 2001; raine, 2006). with regard to the iranian efl context, few studies have been conducted on the use of technology by specifically digital natives. moreover, according to the recent studies (e.g., marandi, 2014; janfeshan, 2018), there is an essential requirement to investigate different aspects of digital natives in iranian efl context. therefore, the aim of this study was to find out the relationship between personal and educational digital engagement and learning outcomes among iranian efl learners. to this aim,40 iranian efl intermediate female students at the age range of 15 to 18 years old were enrolled in the study and were selected based on convenience sampling. they took a proficiency test (oxford placement test) and a student’s belief’s questionnaire (gurung, 2014). then the gathered data were analysed by using spss, version 22. the results of spearman correlation test showed that there was a statistically significant relationship between efl digital natives’ personal and educational engagement and their learning outcomes among iranian efl learners. additionally, this study has some implications and suggestions for iranian efl teachers, scholars and stakeholders.