DIGITALDEVELOPMENT OF MULTILITERACIES AND USE OF AFFORDANCES ON WHATSAPP – A BRAZILIAN EXPERIENCE OF PRODUCING A PERSONAL PROFILE IN ENGLISH IN AUDIO OR VIDEO FORMAT
Federal Center of Technological Education of Minas Gerais (BRAZIL)
About this paper:
Appears in: EDULEARN16 Proceedings
Publication year: 2016
Pages: 3004-3014
ISBN: 978-84-608-8860-4
ISSN: 2340-1117
doi: 10.21125/edulearn.2016.1657
Publication year: 2016
Pages: 3004-3014
ISBN: 978-84-608-8860-4
ISSN: 2340-1117
doi: 10.21125/edulearn.2016.1657
Conference name: 8th International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies
Dates: 4-6 July, 2016
Location: Barcelona, Spain
Dates: 4-6 July, 2016
Location: Barcelona, Spain
Abstract:
The massive use of digital technologies nowadays has influenced a growing number of Brazilian teachers of English as an additional language to try their best to integrate them to their pedagogical practices. This study focuses on the development of multiliteracies (Kalantzis and Cope, 2012) and on the use of affordances (van Lier, 2004) in the process of creating a personal profile by five students of English at a private course in Brazil.The whole process took place on WhatsApp, probably the most popular social networking application among Brazilians, in three phases:
(1) learning about the resources offered by WhatsApp and the characteristics of the target textual genre;
(2) producing a written draft, receiving feedback and writing a final version of the profile; and
(3) producing a first version of the profile in audio or video format, uploading it to WhatsApp, receiving feedback and producing a last version to share with the group.
The process was mediated by one of the researchers, focusing on multiliteracies development. By means of a comparative analysis between the first and the final versions, both written and oral, of the profile made by each student, it was possible to verify the development of their levels of digital, linguistic, visual, gestural, audio, spatial and critical literacies. Also, data from a semi-structured interview were used to find out which affordances these students used throughout the process and how. The results indicate that WhatsApp has the potential to serve as a virtual arena for mediating students’ learning and foster collaboration and autonomy development. The students feel at ease with it and interact fluently, both in their mother tongue and sometimes in English. We believe that these results may support teachers of English as an additional language in their decisions related to the use of WhatsApp as a resource capable of reinforcing outside the classroom, the learning that takes place inside of it.