Reflexõs sobre a linguagem do ambiente chat no Teletandem sob a perspectiva da natureza heterogênea da escrita

This paper aims at discussing the characteristics of computer mediated language within a foreign language teaching and learning environment enabled by the use of synchronic writing resources – chat. The present research is based on (i) theoretical principles about the use of technologies and the teaching-learning of foreign languages in the scope of the Teletandem Brazil Project: Foreign languages for all – Projeto Teletandem Brasil: línguas estrangeiras para todos (TELLES, 2005); (ii) studies on the characteristics of the language within chat interactions; (iii) different theoretical perspectives on the relationship between spoken and written language, emphasizing the constitutive heterogeneity of writing perspective (CORRÊA, 1997, 1998, 2001); and (iv) some relevant concepts related to Prosodic Phonology field (NESPOR; VOGEL, 1986). Is being taken as research data, the written production of a Brazilian student (finishing a Licentiate in Literature) interacting with an American student (in Religious Studies) through Windows Live Messenger. The data were collected during a five-month period, during which the participants interacted through chat, totalizing 12 interactions in English and in Portuguese. During the analysis, a particular attention was given to the messages’ fragmentation, the use (or not) of punctuation signs and abbreviations within the Brazilian participant’s production, in order to discuss the representations she built of her writing, her interlocutor, herself and on the teaching-learning process of a foreign language.