Ações de aprendizagem empregadas pelo nativo digital para interagir em redes hipermidiáticas tendo o inglês como língua franca

Abstract

The main purpose of this research was to identify learning actions employed by digital native youngsters on their interaction with hypermediatic environments, especially computer games available on the Internet, which have English as the language used for communication amongst all users featuring what Crystal (1997) and Graddol (2006) have described as a lingua franca. The study carried out a qualitative research which was based on data collected during 3 sessions of non-participant observation, followed by semi-structured interviews of self-confrontation. Subjects selected for the research were 3 (three) 21-year-old college students, on the third semester of their major programs, and whose proficiency level in English, at the time, corresponded to the intermediate level or to the B1 descriptor of the Common European Framework of Reference. Observation sessions were individual recorded sessions of the subject´s interaction while playing a game online. Later, segments of that session were shown to each subject during the interview and the researcher would then ask the subject questions about his/her actions and choices during the game. The corpus was analyzed at the light of a theoretical framework that included concepts regarding hypermedia, hypertext and electronic games, based on Lévy (2000a, 2000b, 2003, and 2006), Santaella (2004 and 2009) and Johnson (1997, 2005), as well as some characteristics that describe the profile of the generation of the interaction technologies, the digital natives as Marc Prensky (2001a, 2001b e 2006) calls them. The subjects´ actions and their interactions were analyzed from the Vygotskian point of view, and concepts related to a lingua franca were associated to the interpretation. The procedures adopted video recording and self-confrontation enabled the researcher to catch a glimpse of how these youngsters use actions such as cooperation and exploration with the purpose of learning and building knowledge. It was possible, for instance, to observe how digital natives can learn while they explore, which is described as learning on the fly; i.e. they learn how to use digital resources while using them. In their interviews, it was also possible to identify how they use resources such as forums, discussions lists, instant message tools, as means to interact collaboratively and cooperatively, aiming at solutions for problems they might have in common and at the improvement of their performance in the games. Analyzing that at the light of theory it is thought that the relationships that digitals natives establish in their social networks may contribute towards how they learn. It is the researcher´s opinion that parents and educators need to start looking beyond the computer screen of these kids and understand the influence this way of interacting may have on their learning in order to be able to rethink and modify a few teaching practices.