Histórias de aprendizagem da língua inglesa através de videogames: uma experiência em pesquisa narrativa

Abstract

This study in Applied Linguistics investigated the interactions that high school students from a federal public school from Alagoas, Brazil, made with videogames. With this research, I aim to identify (the nature of) the contribuitions of the act of playing videogames in the English language learning process of high schoolers. To justify this study, I defend that the increasing relevance of the videogames among so-called new technologies, as well as preconceived views developed around them, invite a closer look by the academia. I defend that this kind of learning is either contextualized and situated, as Gee (2007) posits, or tangential, as defended by Portnow (2008). This study follows a methodology of narrative inquiry, due to the lack of research in videogames in comparison with other media and technologies. Research data was collected in the form of interviews, questionnaires, class observation and, especially, recorded gameplay sessions, in which the videogame footage is captured via specialized software, along with reactions from students-participants, via the think aloud protocol. Analyzing excerts from eleven students-participants, I pinpoint some traits regarding learning through videogames, via four thematic axes: problematizing genres and preconceptions about games; experimentation and hypothesising in videogames; identity and psychosocial moratorium in videogames; and the role the linguistic material plays in game. Results show that it is possible to regard the videogame as a multimodal vehicle for authentic texts, in which the participants’ learning took place contextually or tangentially. I also reiterate the importance of analyzing videogames in academia, in order to dispel the possible myths (still) surrounding them.