Researching University Students’ Perceptions about How Digital Tools Help Them Achieve Holistic Comprehension of English Academic Texts

Abstract

Reading is a relevant and complex skill used by students to achieve their academic, research and professional goals. The main research objective of this study is to explore the perceptions of university students using digital tools (DT) to comprehend English texts, overall, when they take online classes. The participants study in different BA programs and hold basic or intermediate English level. They are 15 students; some of them are in the process of graduating. Some studies claim that University students prefer to read more on their devices, such as laptops, tablets or mobile phone, and it will make them more autonomous. This research uses the Observation Method; therefore, it is grounded on observed experiences during face-to-face or online classes, which allows one to have some perceptions about the phenomenon. The results reveal that education is going towards a digitalized environment where both, students and teachers need to improve online teaching.