Me manda um whats?!: a aprendizagem de inglês como língua adicional por WhatsApp

Abstract

In a complex perspective (LARSEN-FREEMAN and CAMERON, 2008; ELLIS and LARSEN-FREEMAN, 2009) and perceiving a group in a virtual learning environment (VLE) as a Complex Adaptive System (CAS), Vetromille-castro (2007, 2011) presented the role of the teacher as a disturber one, which can provide favorable conditions for interaction and, therefore, for the maintenance of a system, when taking into account concepts such as dynamic/systemic balance and edge of chaos. In this work, we study an autonomous and collaborative English learning group in WhatsApp application and question how it is constituted and remains cohesive without course and lesson plans and without a teacher as a disturber as well as what elements could be pointed out as affordances of the interaction. The study is guided by an ecological view (KRAMSCH, 2002, 2008; KRAMSCH and STEFFENSEN, 2008; TUDOR, 2003; VAN LIER 1988, 1996, 2002, 2004, 2007), which suggests that the use of technologies should not be seen as an end in itself, but as a tool that allows a broader and more complex understanding of the learning process, especially language learning. It also perceives language learning as a contextualized activity, marked by multimodal and multisensory experiences, fostered through the emergence of affordances. The methodology adopted is ethnography for the Internet, according to Hine (2000, 2005, 2008 and 2015) as well as Fragoso, Recuero and Amaral (2009); Amaral (2009) and Poliavnov (2013). Based on data analysis, it was noticed that the group remained active and cohesive through the engagement among its members, either by system order disturbance performed by some participants and/or by collaboration and, from this, by the systemic emergence of affordances, especially linguistic ones. The autonomy in an ecological perspective was also fundamental for the cohesion of this space. In addition, WhatsApp has also proved to be a conducive space for new online learning practices, especially for its fluid multimodality.