This research reports on the success of an online oral task developed for English for Academic Purposes learners in a Brazilian university context, which required recording and submitting a short video pitch about the students’ own research. We discuss the contributions the task brought to improving oral academic skills, focusing on the videos and comments posted in the online forum, and the students’ self-evaluations. Our results indicate that issues such as identity, agency, and autonomy play an important role in the teaching and learning of EAP and deserve attention when designing materials for students in this specific context.
Advances in Cognitive Linguistics have focused on the centrality of meaning and conceptual structure in human language (Evans & Green, 2006; Geeraerts, 2006), placing phenomena such as metaphor as central to human cognition (Lakoff, 2006; Lakoff & Johnson, 1980). This paper analyzes the process of meaning construction of a metaphorical print advertisement in which cognitive operations of conceptual integration (cf. Fauconnier & Turner, 2002) can be mapped through the interplay between verbal and nonverbal language. Seeing that adverts can provide learners with real-life communicative opportunities for language development due to theirup-to-date language, cultural-bound content, and creative discourse techniques (Mishan, 2005; Picken, 2000; 1999), this paper additionally provides four pedagogical applications of the chosen advertisement in English Language Teaching, drawing on the principles of the theoreticalframework presented.
Nosso principal pressuposto é que simplesmente aprender a ler e escrever não resulta necessariamente na aquisição de conhecimentos e/ou estratégias para participar da sociedade de forma crítica. Portanto, o letramento é o resultado de estar imerso nas práticas da língua(gem) (SOARES, 1998), centrada, mas não restritas ao código escrito, isto é, outros modos semióticos, como a fala e (outras) formas multimodais de expressão (KRESS, 2003; 2010) devem ser considerados. Assim, ser letrado significa usar a língua(gem) efetivamente para entender e transformar a realidade, o que implica uma visão de língua(gem) como processo/produto sócio-histórico (BAKHTIN/VOLOSHINOV, 2006). A noção de letramento preconizada neste artigo também dialoga com os letramentos digitais (DUDENEY; HOCKLY; PEGRUM, 2014), dada a predominância das tecnologias digitais na comunicação contemporânea. Nosso objetivo final com este artigo é oferecer aos professores um plano didático para desenvolver a leitura crítica e promover a inclusão digital. Dessa forma, o plano ancora-se em uma visão da leitura engajada, com foco em aprender a ler e ler para aprender (ALEXANDER, FOX, 2013).
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