A comunicação escrita em Inglês como língua estrangeira: uma experiência de pen pal eletrônico entre alunos brasileiros e estrangeiros / Written communication in English as a foreign language: a experience of electronic pen pal from Brazilian students and foreign

AUTOR(ES)
FONTE

IBICT - Instituto Brasileiro de Informação em Ciência e Tecnologia

DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

22/06/2010

RESUMO

This study addresses a digital pen pal experiment in May-June 2009 involving six Brazilian students and their foreign peers living in Canada. This is an exploratory study involving real communication situations under a teaching activity where the researcher was also the class teacher. The experiment took place during an English course in the Federal, Education, Science and Technology Institute (IFCE) and involved 14 students of the Higher Education Course of Hotel Technology with an intermediate level of English knowledge, and 14 students of English as a second language in Niagara College, Canada. As a way to contribute to foreign language learning and its applicability to day-to-day life, a weekly class and an extra-classroom period were scheduled for the exchange of electronic mails between both groups. Each Brazilian student selected his/her pen pal to exchange emails with freedom of speech and contents. Among the 14 participating pairs, the 6 most productive pairs (12 students) were selected. The experience comprised one hundred and fifteen (115) messages focused on two types of analysis: 1. written communication considered under language functions, communication purposes of emails, and the students skills to use email-type tools; 2. cultural information included in messages, identified by type. Analysis was supplemented by free testimonies made by the students about their experience in pen pal activity in terms of recognition, feeling and activity. Results of studies suggested that: 1) dominant language functions were referential and expressive, either emphasizing tourist sites, places of origin and behaviors in different countries, or expressing opinions and feelings; 2) messages had variable communication purposes (introduce oneself, describe, report, comment, apologize, etc.); 3) in emails, students did not give the field Subject a significant value or the function to summarize the focal point of message, but they rather used openings/closings and attachments to better interact and disclose aspects of their respective regions or families; 4) cultural references most present in messages included informative and behavioral aspects; 5) students acquired new words and structures of the English language, which in part reflected the text written by foreigners; 6) the experiment was considered valid by the participants, who highlighted a greater motivation for the study and the importance of having a real public with whom they could exchange messages; 7) the lack of immediate feedback caused some insatisfaction and impaired the pace of correspondence. This study has some pedagogical implications for teaching, by revealing that keeping virtual friends may be an incentive for learning the target language, as extra-classroom projects of this nature are attractive for a best practice by the students. Cultural and even affective interchanges become important in the teaching of a foreign language, as they allow the students to know the culture and behaviors of other countries and expand their relationship network.

ASSUNTO(S)

linguistica aplicada ensino inglês comunicação escrita pen pal eletrônico e-mail informações culturais english- teaching written communication electronic pen pal email cultural information

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