O papel da leitura nas aulas de inglês: uma análise segundo a percepção dos professores do ensino médio de escolas públicas estaduais de Natal

This dissertation aims at investigating the teachers beliefs about the role of the reading ability in English at public state high schools in Natal and identifying the social value of the process of learning English for students of a foreign language. From the understanding of studies on reading, both in the field of Cognitive Psychology, as in Gibson & Levin (1975), as in the area of Psycholinguistics, as in Goodman (1970) and Del Re (2006), We researched the teachers perceptions about the skills and competencies that should permeate their educational practices, through their knowledge about theories of language acquisition as Cognitivism (Piaget, 1961) and Social Interactionism (Vygotsky, 1979) and the official documents (PCNEM, 1999; PCN+, 2002 ) that are the parameters for teaching a foreign language. We took into consideration other factors that influence the choice of the goals and the objectives to be worked out, such as: intensity of teachers workload, number of classes and students per class for each teacher, materials and technologies available, among other factors that will play an important role in the choice of the appropriate methodologies. To conduct a case study, two questionnaires were used in the construction of direct interviews with fourteen English teachers in twenty schools. According to data on the teachers beliefs we could find that for them the reading ability does not seem to have an special treatment in the teaching of a foreign language due to factors that undermine this process and therefore make teachers do not realize the real objectives of teaching English at public state high schools in Natal. As a consequence, the current process of education complicates the formation of autonomous learners capable of fighting for a social transformation

Representações discentes sobre a afetividade nas aulas de inglês de uma escola técnica

This work has risen from the researcher s pedagogical practice at a technical school in Natal, and it aims to observ how affectiveness is noticed by the students in their English classes, since we can have an idea of technicist teaching, which foccus on the acquisition of technical abilities. As cognition and affectiveness are considered indivisible elements in this research, we tried to identify the linguistic signs that express the students representations about affectiveness in their English classes. We used the Systemic Functional Linguistics approach to study the Ideational metafunction of Halliday (1994), by means of the transitivity system, to show how the clauses are used to illustrate these representations, and the interpersonal metafunction, that deals with the relationship between the teacher and the students. We tried to identify the most common processes (HALLIDAY, 1994) mentioned by the 68 students who participated in this work. We used learning narratives (BARCELOS, 2006) submitted to Wordsmith Tools computing program (SCOTT, 2009), whose results indicate the most frequent lexical items found in their narratives. The lexical choices seem to indicate that affectiveness is noticed as a composing element of the English classes in that school. There are representations of interacting classes, where the students needs are considered. These representations are built in the relationship of the students and the teacher, and they are grammatically realized by means of the polarity adjunct no , the intensity adjunct very , and the nominal group the teacher . The relational and mental processes (be) and (like) are the most used in their narratives, and we also observe that affectiveness and disponibility to help the students are considered the most important attitudes in their representations. The Appraisal system is used to analise the choices related to the attitudes and judgement of the students, that show appreciation for interacting classes, but there is still authorithary berhavior from the teacher in the English classes

O portfólio na formação inicial do professor reflexivo de inglês como língua estrangeira: uma análise sistêmico-funcional

This research deals with the insertion of the portfolio as a resource to the development of the reflective action in training teachers of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Its goal is to characterize linguistic marks that show the reflective process in learning narratives collected in portfolios following the considerations of the ideational metafunction of the Systemic-Functional Grammar (SFG) by Halliday (1994). Within the scope of analysis offered by SFG, the system of transitivity was chosen attempting to observe and study the lexicogrammatical choices made by participants to produce their learning narratives. The corpus was composed of twenty-six learning narratives produced by thirteen participants into two distinct modules, designated here as "First Assessment" and "Final Assessment. The analysis were performed using procedures related to Corpus Linguistics, with the aid of the computer resource WordSmith Tools 5.0 (Scott, 1999). The results seems to indicate that preservice teachers, when asked to reflect on activities written on the classroom, use in their narratives a significant majority of mental processes instead of material processes that are common in narratives from other nature. Meanwhile, the use of a portfolio in teacher training in EFL, can be considered as a trigger reflection tool, which allows future teachers' effective monitoring of all their learning process

A complexidade do ser fictício: a construção da personagem Marcela no romance A ostra e o vento

It is possible to notice that the modern narrative increasingly seeks to invest its characters with a broad and complex nature, away from the well-defined beings of the traditional narrative. Through this work, we aim to make a study of Marcela, a character of the novel A ostra e o vento, by Moacir Costa Lopes, taking into account the way the complexity of the fictitious being is constituted through an analysis of structural, semantic, and thematic elements. We first will bring up a brief theoretical discussion about the character in a novel, and we also will carefully analyze the diagetic universe, presenting the complex path of the character further. Subsequently, we will focus on the structure of the narrative which creates a complex picture of the character, using the technique of crossed points of view as well as the technique of temporal fragmentation. Finally, we will investigate conflicting social relations that portray Marcela s disturbed inner side, as well as the metaphoric symbolic language, which furnishes a number of different representation of this character, impeding the creation of a well-structured coherent character. Studies of scholars such as Antonio Candido, Anatol Rosenfeld, Vitor Manuel de Aguiar e Silva, Fernando Segolin, Gerard Genette, Michel Zéraffa, among others, will guide our analysis

Análise de necessidades de inglês para fins específicos em um curso de graduação em turismo

This study presents the results of a survey conducted in the area of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) in order to identify (1) the learning needs of students in a course in Tourism, their desires and lacks, at a federal university, with respect to use of English; (2) the needs of the present situation of teachers and the coordinator of that course as to the language; (3) the needs of the target situation of professionals (graduates) and companies with respect to this language. This research is a case study (STAKE, 1998; YIN, 2009) and was used for data collection, instruments such as questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, and document on the Tourism Course. To this end, it was adopted the theoretical basis for the constructs of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) Inglês para Fins Específicos (IFE) in Brazil, also known as Inglês Instrumental, whose foundation is based on the work by Hutchinson and Waters (1987), Robinson (1991), Dudley-Evans and St. John (1998), Celani, Deyes, Holmes, Scott (2006), among others, since this work is devoted to a specific area, Tourism. Results show that students opined the ability to prioritize reading and speaking into the classroom. Professionals reported that the latter is an indispensable tool for entering the labor market, yet they feel unprepared and need to attend English language courses in private language schools. The testimony of company executives also point to this deficiency. Finally, the present situation of teachers reveals that, while advocating the use of English in the classroom, this is not because students prefer their mother tongue. There is also an evident lack of needs analysis. Eventually, the coordinator said that there is some uncertainty as to the methodology, content and language skills worked, and the lack of interaction among teachers of English. It was concluded, therefore, it is important to conduct a needs analysis so that one can redesign a course that meets the different contextual needs: students, teachers, coordination, represented by the institutional needs, and the labor market

"Eu pensei que ia sair daqui falando inglês": um estudo sistêmico-funcional sobre papéis sociais atribuídos por alunos de um curso de Letras/Inglês

Research in the area of teacher training in English as a Foreign Language (CELANI, 2003, 2004, 2010; PAIVA, 2000, 2003, 2005; VIEIRA-ABRAHÃO, 2010) articulates the complexity of beginning teachers classroom contexts aligned with teaching language as a social and professional practice of the teacher in training. To better understand this relationship, the present study is based on a corpus of transcribed interviews and questionnaires applied to 28 undergraduate students majoring in Letters/English emphasis, at a public university located in the interior of the Western Amazon region, soliciting their opinions about the reforms made in the curriculum of this Major. Interviews and questionnaires were used as data collection instruments to trace a profile of the students organized in Group 1, with freshmen and sophomore undergraduates who are following the 2009 curriculum, and Group 2, with junior and senior undergraduates who are following the 2006 curriculum. The objectives are to identify, to characterize and to analyze the types of pronouns, roles and social actors represented in the opinions of these students in relation to their teacher training curriculum. The theoretical support focuses on the challenge of historical and contemporary routes from English teachers initial education programs (MAGALHÃES; LIBERALLI, 2009; PAVAN; SILVA, 2010; ALVAREZ, 2010; VIANA, 2011; PAVAN, 2012). Our theoretical perspective is based on the Systemic Functional Grammar of Halliday (1994), Halliday and Hasan (1989), Halliday and Matthiessen (2004), Eggins (1994; 2004) and Thompson (2004). We focus on the concept of the Interpersonal meaning, specifically regarding the roles articulated in the studies by Delu (1991), Thompson and Thetela (1995), and in the Portuguese language such as Ramos (1997), Silva (2006) and Cabral (2009). Moreover, we ascribe van Leeuwen s (1997; 2003) theory of Representation of Social Actors as a theoretical framework in order to identify the sociological aspect of social actors represented in the students discourse. Within this scenario, the analysis unfolds on three levels: grammatical (pronouns), semantic (roles), and discursive (social actors). For the analysis of interpersonal realizations present in the students opinions, we use the computational program WordSmith Tools (SCOTT, 2010) and its applications Wordlist and Concord to quantify the occurrences of the pronouns I, You and They, which characterize the roles and social actors of the corpus. The results show that the students assigned the following roles to themselves: (i) apprentice to express their initial process of English language learning; (ii) freshman to reveal their choice of Major in Letters/English emphasis; (iii) future teacher to relate their expectations towards a practicing professional. To assign the roles to professors in the major, the students used the metaphor of modality (I think) to indicate the relationship of teacher training, while they are in the role of a student and as a future teacher. From these evidences the representation of the students as social actors emerges in roles such as: (i) active roles; (ii) passive roles and (iii) personalized roles. The social actors represented in the opinions of the students reflect the inclusion of these roles assigned to the actions expressed about their experiences and expectations derived from their teacher training classroom

A aprendizagem de inglês mediada por jogos eletrônicos do tipo MMORPG

Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) are role-playing games that, through the Internet, can integrate thousands of players interacting at the same time in at least one virtual world. This way, these games can provide, further than fun, a greater familiarity with the additional language and opportunity to improve the linguistic proficiency in a real context. Hence, what is proposed in this study is extended knowledge about the learning of an additional language mediated by MMORPGs for teachers to know how, if relevant, to present, use or encourage this practice to their students. Based on this major purpose, we seek to answer the following research questions: (a) what distinguishes the learning profile of the gamers and non-gamers; (b) if MMORPGs can, through a hybrid and systematic approach, assist the development of proficiency of the additional language and (c) what the think-aloud protocols show about the learning mediated by the MMORPG Allods Online. Following an experimental method (NUNAN, 1997), 16 students of the curricular component Reading and Writing Practices in English Language have comprised the control group and 17 students of the same class formed the experimental group and were submitted to a pre and post-test adapted from the Key English Test (KET) by the Cambridge University (2008). The tests were conducted before and after a period of 5 weeks of 3 hours of practice with Allods Online a week (experimental group), and classes of the curricular component (both groups). A quantitative analysis of the questionnaires about the exposure to English profiles of the participants, a quantitative analysis of the tests scores and a qualitative analysis of the thinkaloud protocols collected during the experiment were conducted based on the theories of (a) motivation (GARDNER, 1985, WILLIAMS & BURDEN, 1997, BROWN, 2007, HERCULANO-HOUZEL, 2005); (b) active learning (GASS, 1997, GEE, 2008, MATTAR, 2010); (c) interaction and collaborative learning (KRASHEN, 1991, GASS, 1997, VYGOTSKY, 1978); (d) situated learning (DAMASIO, 1994; 1999; 2003, BROWN, 2007, GEE, 2003) and (e), tangential learning (PORTNOW, 2008; MATTAR, 2010). The results indicate that the participants of the experimental group (gamers) seem to be more engaged in tangential English learning activities, such as playing games, listening to music in English, communicating with foreigners and reading in English. We also deduced that the period of experiment possibly generated positive results on the gamers proficiency scores, mainly in the parts related to orthographic development, reading and comprehension, writing with focus on content and orthographic accuracy. Lastly, the think-aloud protocols presented evidences that the gamers have engaged in active English language learning, they have interacted in English with other players, and learned linguistic aspects through the experience with the MMORPG Allods Online

O desenvolvimento da interlíngua na aprendizagem da escrita em inglês em uma escola bilíngue: um estudo exploratório

The aim of this study is to investigate the development of written Interlanguage in English as an Additional Language (AL) by students in the 2nd grade of Ensino Fundamental I in a bilingual school in the city of Natal-RN. For this purpose two research questions guided this study: (a) which hypotheses could be inferred from the writing development of the bilingual learners of English as AL? and, (b) what is the impact of the type of input monomodal or multimodal in the Interlanguage development in the AL of bilingual learners? The 38 learners were divided into a control group, with 21 learners exposed to monomodal input, and an experimental group, with 17 learners exposed to multimodal input, and pre and post-tests were applied to both groups. A mixed methods research design was conducted (DÖRNYEI, 2007) to involve both qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis. The qualitative aspect comprehended descriptive characteristics that interpreted the central cognitive processes in the acquisition of writing in AL by the learners. Through these interpretations, it was possible to understand the constitution of written Interlanguage (SELINKER, 1972) according to the data generated by the learners. The quantitative data were presented as the results generated from the experimental design. Thus, they narrowed the relations between the dependent variable the writing development, that is, how close it is to the target form which was modified throughout the process by the independent variable the quality of input (VAN PATTEN, 2002, GASS, 1997, SCHMIDT, 1986, PARADIS, 2009; 2010, ELLIS, 1995), which, being monomodal or multimodal, its function was possibly to alter the route of acquisition. The quantitative results pointed towards significant gains by the experimental group, which had multimodality present, suggesting that the learners in this group seem to have been more able to cognitively register (SCHIMDT, 1990) aspects of learning than the learners in the control group

O gênero joke em atividades de inglês: uma proposta intercultural de ensino-aprendizagem para o ensino médio

Our research has arisen from the interest of aligning English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom practice to current discussions in the ambit of learning and teaching Foreign Languages (FLs). Because of the need to integrate the linguistic development to the development of notions clung to the practice of citizenship, we have adopted a cultural perspective. We have noticed jokes as a fertile ground for discussing cultural aspects in classroom. Considering such factors, our research question is: how to explore cultural aspects in jokes for the elaboration of EFL activities which aim for the development of intercultural competence and interaction? Therefore, our general goal is to explore cultural aspects in jokes for the elaboration of EFL teaching and learning activities and our specific goals are: (I) to study official suggestions (LDB, 1996; PCNEM, 2000; PCN+EM, 2002; OCEM, 2006) regarding culture at foreign languages teaching and learning, (II) to select 05 (five) jokes and analyze them focusing on their cultural aspects, (III) to identify possible interpretations for jokes; (IV) to elaborate EFL activities which grant a privilege to jokes cultural aspects. This investigation is descriptive and documental and relies on qualitative paradigm (CHIZZOTTI, 2010; FLICK, 2009; CHAROUX, 2006; BOGDAN; BIKLEN, 1994; 1992). The corpus is constituted by jokes taken from Internet sites and by official documents (LDB, 1996; PCNEM, 1998; PCN+EM, 2000; OCEM, 2006). For the elaboration of activities we have chosen a weaker version of Content-based instruction (CBI), in which contents are cultural aspects in jokes and we have undertaken a reflection on methods, approaches and perspectives, among which there are notions about post-method and CBI, which talk to EFL learning and teaching. For theoretical support we have some discussions about FL methods and approaches (BELL, 2003; KUMARAVADIVELU, 2003; WESCHE; SKEHAN, 2002; PRABHU, 1990), a cultural perspective (KRAMSCH, 1998, 1996, 1993; BYRAM; FENG, 2004), some works in Linguistics about jokes (POSSENTI, 2010, 1998; CHIARO, 1992); notions about implicit (MAINGUENEAU, 2004, 1996; CHARAUDEAU; MAINGUENEAU, 2012) and about ambiguity (KEMPSON, 1977; CHARAUDEAU; MAINGUENEAU, 2012; TRASK, 2011), having the adoption of such categories emerged from the analyzes of some jokes

A letra escarlate como romance histórico: uma história de fragilidade humana e tristeza

The objective of this paper is to analyze the work of the American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804 - 1864), The Scarlet Letter (1850), in the light of the contributions of Literature and History of the American people in the context of New England. Accordingly, we highlight aspects that justify the inclusion of the work as a historical novel, especially based on the reading of The Historical Novel (1936-37) written by Georg Lukács. The diversity of voices and social interrelationships that come out of the main characters of the plot of the novel, as well as their contextual buildings, constituted as important traces to understanding the novel as being of historical value. During our study, we found out that it is in the plots of the novels that the characters reflect, at the same time, the specific conditions of their singularities, the general trends of the historical process and the social conditions from which they arise. We also could see that it is in their singularities that lie special tendencies of human beings. Our references to this study came from scholars as Howard (1964), Bakhtin (1998), Eagleton (2006), Todorov (2009), Zabel (1947), Sellers (1985), Cunlife (1986), Candido (1993) and Schwarz (1981)

Apreciações de alunos de inglês sobre sua produção oral: um estudo com base no sistema de avaliatividade

O vasto número de pesquisas sobre produção oral no ensino de Inglês como Língua Estrangeira (ILE) ao redor do mundo (p. ex. LITTLEWOOD, 1981; BROWN; YULE, 1983; BROWN, 1994; UR, 1996; CARTER; MCCARTHY, 1997; BROWN, 1994; 2004; ELLIS, 2008), assim como estudos sobre aspectos cognitivos e de aquisição da produção oral (SWAIN, 1985; 1995; LEVELT, 1989; SWAIN; LAPKIN, 1995; SKEHAN; FOSTER, 1997; 1999; ROBINSON, 2001; BYGATE, 2001; D‟ELY;WEISSHEIMER, 2004; GUARÁ-TAVARES, 2007; WEISSHEIMER, 2007; BERGSLEITHNER, 2009; dentre outros) têm revelado aspectos para um ensino de ILE mais eficaz e motivador. Com a proposta de contribuir para esse avanço, o presente estudo está inserido no paradigma qualiquantitativo de pesquisa no campo da Linguística Aplicada (LA), primordialmente com base nos estudos de Moita Lopes (1996; 2006), para quem a LA está centrada na resolução de problemas de uso da linguagem, cujo foco está na linguagem de natureza processual. O estudo tem como objetivo verificar as percepções de 34 alunos, de quatro turmas distintas de um curso de ILE, em uma escola privada de línguas, acerca de sua produção oral, ao participarem de atividades orais. O corpus da pesquisa foi gerado pelas respostas dos alunos a questionamentos sobre sua produção oral, em duas fases, no início e no meio do curso, além de uma entrevista semiestruturada realizada com dez dos alunos, ao final do curso, com o intuito de verificar suas percepções sobre sua produção oral. As discussões relacionadas à produção oral em sala de aula de ILE têm respaldo teórico nos trabalhos de Littlewood (1981), Brown e Yule (1983), Almeida Filho (1993), Brown (1994), Ur (1996), Carter e McCarthy (1997), Nunan (1999), Brown (2004) e Ellis (2008), que explicam fenômenos que exercem influência na produção oral, tais como afeto, interação, características de atividades orais, dentre outras variáveis em relação a aspectos cognitivos da produção oral analisadas pelos estudos de Swain (1985; 1995), Levelt (1989), Swain e Lapkin (1995), Skehan e Foster (1997; 1999), Robinson (2001) e Bygate (2001). A análise e discussão dos dados tem como base a Gramática Sistêmico-Funcional proposta por Halliday (1985; 1994) e posteriormente desenvolvida por Halliday e Hasan (1989), Halliday e Mathiessen (2004) e Eggins (2004), dentre outros. O foco desta pesquisa são os mecanismos de Apreciação, um dos domínios avaliativos do subsistema de Atitude, que por sua vez, é parte integrante do Sistema de Avaliatividade, desenvolvido por Martin (2000), Martin e Rose (2003) e Martin e White (2005). Para análise das escolhas linguísticas feitas pelos alunos, utilizamos a ferramenta computacional WordSmith Tools 6.0 (SCOTT, 2010), cuja função Wordlist (lista de palavras) foi utilizada na busca pelos tipos de processos, assim como epítetos, entre outras marcas linguísticas mais recorrentes que caracterizassem suas percepções. Os resultados revelam que nas percepções dos alunos acerca de sua produção oral, ao longo das três fases da geração dos dados para a pesquisa, eles gradativamente deixaram de mencionar aspectos afetivos quanto ao desenvolvimento de sua produção oral e passaram a perceber aspectos mais estruturais de composição da língua

Cartografias do desejo em asfalto selvagem - engraçadinha, seus amores e seus pecados: humor, erotismo e o pornógrafo no romance rodrigueano

Trata-se nesta dissertação de estabelecer, partindo do pensamento contemporâneo francês da linha deleuziana e guattariana, sobretudo, uma analítica do desejo capaz de reconfigurar o romance de Nelson Rodrigues, Asfalto selvagem: Engraçadinha, seus amores e seus pecados, desterritorializá-lo em relação à tradição crítica e estética, fundada no paradigma realista-naturalista enraizado no pensamento literário brasileiro, especificamente no século XX. Movemo-nos por discussões sobre o autor e sobre o romance, empreendidas por Rolnik, interlocutora de Guattari, o qual está ligado aos novos paradigmas estéticos, à questão da produção de subjetividades, à micropolítica, às multiplicidades e às minorias. Buscamos contribuir para esse redimensionamento, colocando-nos na perspectiva cartográfica e rizomática para surpreender, em Asfalto, seus processos de subjetivação, incidindo sobre as singularidades selvagens, considerando os conceitos de Foucault, aplicados à construção literária enquanto espaço heterotópico, configurando a experiência do fora, como princípios estéticos. Veremos que as personagens, com foco em Engraçadinha, funcionam, como pequenas máquinas desejantes, Corpos sem Órgãos, moléculas desestabilizando as formações molares. Destarte, Nelson Rodrigues, na perspectiva da produção autoral, torna-se o pornógrafo, o literato iterador, como agenciador de uma palavra perversa, para além dos dogmas, da cena romantizada, originando, em sua poética, a revelação da obs-cena, a obscenidade, como crítica às instituições falidas. Trazemos, nesse sentido, referências de Bataille, quanto ao que na atividade estética se relaciona com o excedente da visão, relacionados ao espaço tático-ótico, concepção deleuziana referentes ao corpo-linguagem, pornografia, pornógrafo, narrativas abomináveis. Acompanhamo-nos, pois, dos conceitos da problemática da diferença e da alteridade, repercutindo na larvaridade, nas afecções, que abrem vias comunicantes com fenômenos extremos, atuantes em torno do mesmo e do outro, trazendo a rizomaticidade do mal e da monstruosidade para a construção estética de Asfalto selvagem, vistos sob a ótica de Bataille, Deleuze, Baudrillard, em ensaios que rompem o olhar estrutural em torno da obra e oferecem subsídios para a construção de uma cartografia outra, o território do ficcional, habitado por um povo por vir, na perspectiva tratada por Deleuze e por Blanchot

O exílio no romance primavera com una esquina rota de Mario Benedetti

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior

O impacto das tarefas de aprendizagem mediadas pela lousa digital interativa na motivação situacional de aprendizes de inglês

Some authors have suggested that learning tasks conducted in L2 classes can motivate learners in different ways. Similarly, Interactive Whiteboards (IWB) have already been linked as drivers to engagement and enthusiasm in L2 classes, which may cause some impact on affective variables that influence learning (e.g. motivation). This crosssectional mixed-methods study aims to understand how situational motivation caused by learning tasks mediated by the IWB impact participants. We seek to answer the following research questions: (1) How does motivation as a personality trait of the learner relate to his/her additional language learning performance?, (2) How does the type of learning task mediated by the IWB impact the learner s motivation?, (3) How does motivation vary along the learning task mediated by the IWB? and (4) What is the relation between the learning task motivation and the learners perception about the task mediated by the IWB? Data collection lasted four months with 29 learners from a private language school. The instruments used were the following: (a) an initial questionnaire (adapted from the Attitudes/Motivation Test Battery by GARDNER, 2004), (b) situation-specific on-line scales to assess learners motivation in three moments: before, during and after the task, and analyze how motivation varies along the task; (c) class observations and field notes resulting from these observations, (d) participants end-of-course grades to understand the connection between academic success and their motivational profiles and (e) a final questionnaire with the qualitative purpose to know learners perceptions about the tasks mediated by the IWB. Our theoretical framework is based on Task-Based Learning and cognitive aspects present in tasks (WILLIS, 1996; SKEHAN, 1996), theories on motivation and second language learning (GARDNER, 2001; DÖRNYEI e OTTÓ, 1998; DÖRNYEI, 2000; 2002) and conceptions about L2 learning mediated by technology (GIBSON, 2001; OLIVEIRA, 2001; MILLER et al, 2005). Our results do not point out to a significative correlation between learners end-of-course grades and their motivational profiles. However, they indicate that there is some variability in situational motivation along the tasks, even among learning tasks from the same type. Furthermore, they show that learners report different perceptions for each learning task and that the impact of the IWB on participants did not have a large proportion

A ferramenta VoiceThread em uma abordagem hibrida: o desenvolvimento da produção oral e da habilidade de noticing na aprendizagem de inglês como L2

VoiceThread (VT) is a collaborative and asynchronous web 2.0 tool, which permits the creation of oral presentations with the help of images, documents, texts and voice, allowing groups of people to browse and contribute with comments using several options: voice (microphone or cell phone), text and audio-file or video (webcam) (BOTTENTUIT JUNIOR, LISBÔA E COUTINHO, 2009). The hybrid experience with VoiceThread allows learners to plan their speech before recording it, without the pressure often existent in the classroom. Furthermore, the presentations can be recorded several times, enabling students to listen to them, notice the gaps in their oral production (noticing) and edit innumerous times before publishing them online. In this perspective, oral production is seen as a process of L2 acquisition, not only as practice of already existent knowledge, because it can stimulate the learner to process the language syntactically (SWAIN, 1985; 1995). In this context, this study aims to verify if there is a relation between the oral production of the learners more specifically the grammatical accuracy and the global oral grade and their noticing capacity, how the systematic practice with VoiceThread, in a hybrid approach, can impact the learners global oral development, their oral production in terms of fluency (number of words per minute), accuracy (number of errors in hundred words), and complexity (number of dependent clauses per minute), and on their noticing capacity (SCHMIDT, 1990; 1995; 2001), that is, the learner s capacity of noticing the gaps existent in their oral production. In order to answer these research questions, 49 L2 learners of English were divided into an experimental group (25 students) and a control group (24 students). The experimental group was exposed to the hybrid approach with VT during two months and, through a pre- and post-test, we verified if this systematic practice would positively influence these participants oral production and noticing capacity. These results were compared to the pre- and post-test scores from the control group, which was not exposed to VT. Finally, learners impressions in relation to the use of this tool were also sought through a questionnaire applied after the post-test. The results indicate that there is a statistically significant correlation between the learners speech production (accuracy and global oral grade) and their noticing capacity. Besides, it was verified a positive impact of VoiceThread on the learners speech production variables and on their noticing capacity. They also reveal a positive reaction by the learners in relation to the hybrid experience with this web tool