The Role of Digital Literacy and Digital Competence in Relation to Speaking Performance in the PBSI Speaking Course
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36312/jolls.v6i3.4990Keywords:
Digital literacy, Digital competence, Speaking skills, Quantitative correlationalAbstract
This study examines the associations between digital literacy, digital competence, and speaking performance among students enrolled in the Speaking Skills Course within the Indonesian Language and Literature Education (PBSI) program at the University of Muhammadiyah Pringsewu Lampung, even semester 2025/2026. Although digital technology use in higher education continues to expand, its association with students’ oral communicative performance remains underexplored, particularly in regional university contexts. Using a quantitative correlational design with total sampling, the study involved 60 participants from two classes (Class A and Class B, n = 30 each). Digital literacy, digital competence, and speaking performance were measured using a Digital Literacy Questionnaire adapted from Gilster (1997) and Hague and Payton (2010), a DigComp 2.1-based questionnaire (Carretero et al., 2017), and an oral performance rubric assessing pronunciation, fluency, accuracy, vocabulary, and discourse organization. Pearson correlation analysis showed that digital literacy (r = 0.621, p < 0.05) and digital competence (r = 0.583, p < 0.05) were each significantly and positively associated with speaking performance. In a combined multiple regression model, the two variables jointly accounted for 48.1% of the variance in speaking performance (R² = 0.481, F = 26.847, p < 0.05). These results indicate that digital literacy and digital competence are distinct yet complementary correlates of speaking performance among the participating students. A specific implication is that speaking-course design in PBSI programs may benefit from deliberately incorporating structured digital literacy and digital competence activities alongside conventional oral-skill instruction.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Amy Sabila, Farida Ariyani, Muhammad Fuad

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