Ensino e aprendizagem de escrita em língua inglesa na era digital: explorando caminhos possíveis.

Abstract

The digital age in which we find ourselves has brought news and challenges for most of the sectors that make up our society, one of which is the school. The school has been challenged to incorporate digital devices into its routine and to deal with changes that the use of such resources has brought to traditionally placed relationships, especially that of teachers and students. Therefore, teachers in general, and especially those of foreign languages, have been confronted to review their practices and prepare learners to act and interact in the context of technological innovations in which we find ourselves. For this reason, this research proposes to investigate what is the implication(s) of ICTs articulation in the teaching and learning of writing in English? Our general objective is to investigate the implications of the articulation between ICTs and writing activities in English, as a foreign language, in a language school at Campina Grande. More specifically, we seek in this work (1) to identify how ICTs were linked to the writing activities proposed by the textbooks used; (2) to understand the effects of such articulation on the writing process and practice during the execution of textual production activities; and (3) to analyze possible contributions of the activities carried out in the development of the written skills of the learners. For this, qualitative methodological research (PAIVA, 2019) was developed, regarding the objectives, of an experimental nature (CERVO; BERVIAN, 2002) and classified as action research as to the investigation method (PAIVA, 2019). The data were generated in a language school in the city of Campina Grande, chosen because it is the researcher's work environment, being the investigated teacher herself. As instruments were used a logbook written by the teacher-researcher, prints of interactions via digital media, recordings of dialogues in the two formed discussion groups and a semi-structured questionnaire answered by collaborating students on the experience of using ICTs in teaching and learning, as well the impact on the development of their writing skills. The results point to the use of ICTs in approaches centered on technology (MAYER, 2009), on learning (MAYER, 2009) and on the student (RAMOS, 2013), generating positive impacts such as student autonomy, increased levels of satisfaction and motivation on the part of the learner, the creation of a collaborative learning environment and the development of the student's digital literacies in English. However, it was also possible to verify some side effects of the use of digital resources, such as dependence on digital technology and an increase in the teacher's workload. Thus, it can be concluded that the teacher can use ICTs in the teaching of writing in English by exploring the virtualities (BARTON; LEE, 2016) of digital resources in different approaches (MAYER, 2009; RAMOS, 2013) and in a thoughtful and systematized way (RIBEIRO, 2018), thus generating new meaning in the teaching of writing in the English language.