Profiling Prospective EFL Teachers' Digital Literacies: Insights from Hague & Payton's Framework and Martin's Levels

Abstract

As digital technologies become increasingly embedded in language education, digital literacy is now considered a fundamental competence for teachers. Nevertheless, evidence suggests that many prospective EFL teachers remain limited to functional uses of digital tools, highlighting concerns about their preparedness for transformative technology integration in the classroom. This study profiles the digital literacy of prospective EFL teachers by applying Hague and Payton’s eight dimensions alongside Martin’s three levels of digital competence. The participants were 26 sixth-semester students enrolled in the English Education Department of a private university in West Java, Indonesia. Data were collected through a structured questionnaire, a digital literacy test, and semi-structured interviews, enabling triangulation of self-reported practices, demonstrated skills, and lived experiences. The findings reveal that most participants were situated at Level 2 (Digital Usage), demonstrating confidence in functional applications such as Microsoft Word, Canva, and PowerPoint. Evidence of Level 3 (Digital Transformation) emerged most clearly in creativity and information search, where some students used Canva and CapCut for entrepreneurial projects or applied academic databases systematically. However, collaboration, communication, cultural awareness, and e-safety remained largely functional, reflecting transactional rather than transformative practices. These results highlight the uneven development of digital literacy, with student’s adept at using digital tools but less prepared to employ them critically and innovatively in pedagogical contexts. The study underscores the need for teacher education programmes to integrate reflective pedagogy, project-based tasks, and explicit training in evaluation, intercultural engagement, and online safety. Such interventions would support pre-service teachers in progressing from functional usage to transformative practice. Future research should expand the scope to larger and more diverse cohorts, as well as adopt longitudinal approaches to examine how digital literacy evolves as pre-service teachers transition into professional practice.