Ilha do Desterro (Jan 2020)

Affordances in the online interaction of English language learners in distance education

  • Andreia Turolo da Silva

DOI
https://doi.org/10.5007/2175-8026.2020v73n1p183
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 73, no. 1
pp. 183 – 204

Abstract

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The main objective of this research was to describe the mechanisms for engagement with affordances that help to sustain written interpersonal interactions of students in online discussion forums of a virtual learning environment while they were learning English as a foreign language. The notion of affordance was discussed in this study according to three dimensions: (i) environmental, (ii) technological, and (iii) linguistic, associating a pragmatic theory to the latter (GREENO, 1994; VAN LIER, 2000; LAMY & HAMPEL, 2007). The research findings showed that the environmental and technological affordances contributed to the construction of students’ presence as well as of a learning community. New forms of online interactions afforded new forms of language learning, especially by the movement of relexicalization and gap-filling.

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