Internet, agency and online digital games in the English language learning: a study in information technology higher education courses

• Autor(a) principal: Garbuio, Luciene Maria
• Data de Publicação: 2018
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Domínios de Lingu@gem
• Texto Completo: https://seer.ufu.br/index.php/dominiosdelinguagem/article/view/40643
• topic: Jogos Digitais; Comunicação; Aprendizagem de inglês; Digital Games; Informal learning; English learning

This article aims to discuss the way undergraduate students from Information Technology higher education courses use Internet as a means of interaction and digital communication to learn English, and presents some English learning possibilities in such informal context, especially regarding digital games. The theorical basis adopted are Wenger (1998) concept of communities of practice, Gee (2006) studies about affinity spaces and Krashen (1982) languages acquisition hypotheses. The results analysed in the questionnaire and interview conducted in this study demonstrated that films, series, songs and online games are the most accessed virtual contents and contribute to English language learning. In such context, participants highlighted the role of strategy, adventure, action and MMOGs games (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) as learning tools, due to the wide interaction possibility among participants, agency and challenges. As learning strategies, the respondents use dictionaries and online translation tools, they communicate with other players or with more experienced people that might help them in the game interaction and they associate the words or try to understand them in the game context.