The effects of information literact on students' information management skills an english for specific purposes course

Abstract

Information management skills have been proved to be one of the factors that help university learners increase their study performance in higher education institutions around the world. Through an information literacy program, academic librarians make sure that undergraduate students can receive all the necessary information management skills for their study. However, there is still a lack of information literacy curricula for learners who speak English as a foreign language (EFL) in an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course, which is of critical concern for academic librarians and EFL educators in colleges or universities around the world. This paper therefore fills a gap in the research, as it tries to investigate the effects of information literacy on students' information competence in an ESP course. In this research, the findings of the experimental classes on the information literacy training outside the library environment for university students in a private learning center in Can Tho, Vietnam have been reported. The research was conducted using a quantitative method approach, through experimental research on 103 university students. The participants were divided into two groups, the control one was taught with a traditional ESP curriculum borrowed from a local university while the experimental one was taught with an integrating information literacy into the ESP curriculum which highly focuses on the development of students’ information competence. The data was the results of a series of assignments they had to complete during the course, including individual and group tasks as well as mid-term and final assessments. The findings show that there is a statistically significant difference between the experimental group and the control one between the study performances at the end of the experiment as the learners who had information management skills performed greatly in these tests. Key issues about training provision in this area were examined, and options of developing information literacy support for university students were also discussed.