Académique Documents
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Belo Horizonte:
Faculdade de Letras/UFMG, 2001. (Estudos Lingüísticos; I) p. 270- 305
Para: rwufmg@eGroups.com
Hi,
The exercises of the ninth task were very, very interesting. Maybe
they were the most amazing of all. I use to print the tasks that are
suggested and this one I have not only printed but also recommended to
many of my friends that study English too. One of them even asked me
if he could take part on our Internet classes. But unfortunately, he
is not an UFMG student. Anyway, I will keep on making good suggestions
to him.
There's one more thing: I've got in touch with a new pen friend from
Australia and it seems that the experience will be a good one. It is
already being.
Para: rwufmg@eGroups.com
Dear Leandro,
Your friend can receive our messages if he wants to. The only thing he
cannot do is to send messages to our group. If he wants to be only a
lurker, just give me his address and I will include him in our group.
I am glad there are other persons interested in our list.
Cheers,
Vera
E-Groups
Figura 1
Do lado esquerdo da tela, podem ser vistos os recursos disponiblizados pelo
eGroups a seus usuários. Reproduzo abaixo algumas informações sobre os
vários recursos do software retiradas da página principal do e-Groups
Chat
You can schedule a group chat in your private chat room.
Polls
You can learn more about your members by polling them quickly and
easily.
Figura 2
2.1. Pending: lista as mensagens que não foram distribuídas por algum
motivo. Ex. Quem enviou o email não pertence ao grupo de discussão.
2.2. Bouncing: lista os endereços dos membros cujas mensagens não estão
sendo entregues por algum motivo tecnológico. Isto acontece, freqüentemente,
com endereços gratuitos tipo hotmail.
Figura 3
Figura 4
Referencial teórico
Para Howatt, a versão fraca pode ser descrita como ‘aprender a usar o
inglês’ e a versão forte como ‘usar o inglês para aprendê-lo’. Ao optar por
usar a versão forte, ou seja, usar a língua para adquiri-la, os seguintes
aspectos são enfatizados: ensino centrado no aluno, tendo o professor como
mediador; foco no conteúdo com ênfase na interação; concepção de língua
como instrumento de comunicação e não como sistema formal; uso de
material autêntico; e total tolerância aos erros.
Essa atmosfera é em grande parte atingida pela total tolerância aos erros e pela
valorização das contribuições individuais através de constante feedback
positivo. Apesar de uma imensa preocupação de alguns alunos, no início do
curso, em terem todos os seus erros corrigidos, aos poucos os mais ansiosos
acabam se adaptando à nova realidade de um ambiente voltado para a troca de
experiências e a interação espontânea. Essa acomodação a um novo modelo de
aprendizagem é muitas vezes incentivada pelos próprios colegas, como
podemos comprovar na mensagem reproduzida abaixo.
>Ricardo. Subject: [rwatufmg] Hello everybody !
From: Eduarda
Don't worry with the mistakes. When we are doing something wrong, it's
good because we can learn with the mistakes. And I am sure that we'll
never forget what we did wrong again.
I hope we enjoy this course.
Bye,
Eduarda
The conversations that students have during CMCs become the source of the
language environment. CMCs create a natural language environment in that
the conversations focus almost entirely on content. (p.21) e acrescenta, [T]he
fact that the student has gained enough confidence to express these thoughts
to other peers in Portuguese is far more important, as related to the language
acquisition, than the mere accuracy to the grammar. (p.24)
Descrição do curso
Dear students,
Thank you for choosing "Reading and Writing through the Internet" as one of the courses you will be
taking this term!
"Reading and Writing through the Internet" is guided by the insights of a language learning theory that
proposes that languages are best learned when they are used for real communication. As its name says,
this is an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) course aimed at encouraging students to find out how
much they can practice and learn by taking advantage of the technology that has made our world even
smaller: the internet.
At least in two respects this course will be somewhat different from others: Firstly, you will have two
teachers: Vera Menezes and Ricardo Augusto. You can contact us at vlmop@net.em.com.br (Vera
Menezes) and ricardod@gold.com.br (Ricardo Augusto). Secondly, this will be a distance education
course. As to the second point, there are a few implications. There will be no specific location for our
classes to take place -- our place will be the virtual "space" of the internet. Also there will be no specific
time when all of us should be getting together. This means that students will be able to choose the most
comfortable hours to dedicate to our activities, being also able to work from any place where a computer
with an internet connection is available: FALE's computer facilities, their workplace or even the
convinience of their own home.
Below you will find some important information about the organization of this course. Please read them
carefully, and send us a message in case of doubt.
***COLLABORATIVE WORK***
Even though you will probably be working on your own most of the time, collaborative work will be an
important component of this course. To make this possible we will work with a discussion list. A
discussion list is an internet system similar to a club. It allows members of this "club" to send e-mail
messages to a system that then sends copies of this message to all the other members of the list. In our
case, this will be our "on-line classroom". What you say (through your e-mail messages) will be read by
the
teachers and your classmates. You will be sending the list weekly reports of what you do (see below),
thus sharing part of your work with everybody else. Because of that the e-mails you receive from our
discussion list will also be a learning opportunity.
So please, send your messages related to this course to the following address:
http://www.egroups.com/list/rwufmg There you will find all the messages sent to the list
neatly organized by month.
***ATTENDANCE***
If this were a regular course, you would be expected to be busy with four weekly hours of coursework at
FALE. Even though this is a distance course, we still expect you to dedicate at least four hours of your
week to our activities. We expect to receive weekly e-mails where you will be reporting the results of
your work. This means each of you should be sending at least one message a week to our discussion list.
Failure to report your weekly work will represent absence to 4 of the total 60 hours of our course!
***ASSESSMENT***
Four activities will be directly evaluated for your final grade in this course:
1)- "An Essay": This will be the final paper. You will use the internet to
2)- "Activities Report": You are supposed to send a weekly email to the list
telling us what you did on the Internet during the week. (15 marks)
3)- "Making Contact": Exchanging e-mails with keypals and/or internet chat
4)- "I found on the net": Finding interesting websites and writing about them. Further details coming
soon. (15 marks)
Please keep in mind that the process rather than the product will be analyzed for assessment. So, don't be
afraid of making mistakes when working with those activities.
***BIBLIOGRAPHY***
Internet resources (WWW) will be the bibliography of this course. Part of this bibliography will be
suggested by the teachers, and part of it will be generated by you (further details coming soon).
To start with, you will be receiving a suggestion of a website almost every week. We'd like you to visit
these websites and use them as learning tools.
We hope you enjoy your term and discover the usefulness of the internet for language learning!
Cheers,
Aluna 1:
----- Original Message -----
From: Juliane
To: rwufmg@egroups.com
Í'm really enthusiastic about this course. I know I'll learn a lot and
also that it can be a resourse to my professional improvement.
As we are going to work cooperatively, as Vera told us, I'd like to
say that you can count on me.
Juliane
Aluna 2:
De: Izabela
Para: rwufmg@eGroups.com
Hi !
still on the 2nd period) and I am really excited to attend to this on-
line course.
PS.: I felt more confortable when Profa. Vera said that we don't need
to worry about committing mistakes, and I would like to tell everyone
that I am receptive for corrections and I would be grateful if you all
help me.
Take care,
Izabela
3. Monitor:
De: Ricardo Augusto de Souza [ricardod@gold.com.br]
Hi everybody!
Wow, it really feels great to see your messages pouring in! First of
all I'd like to welcome all of you to "Reading and Writing through the
Internet". I do believe we will have a great term working together.
Well, let join you and talk a bit about myself. I'm a 29-year-old
native of Belo Horizonte, where I live with my family in a house in
Alípio de Melo, a pleasant neighborhood not too far from our campus.
I'm
This is the third time I have the chance to work with Vera in this
course, and I'm really excited about it! I just love "reading and
Writing thru the Internet", and I hope you all soon get to know why!
I hope to hear from all you very often from now on!
Cheers,
Ricardo
As atividades
Passada a fase das apresentações, são enviadas atividades semanais aos alunos
e espera-se que cada um faça um diário online falando sobre as atividades
desenvolvidas, fazendo críticas ao curso e refletindo sobre seu progresso e
suas ansiedades. Vejamos alguns exemplos de atividades:
Algumas atividades dependem de escolhas dos próprios alunos que são mais
tarde compartilhadas com os colegas. O professor fica de espectador e
moderador enquanto os alunos trocam endereços e enviam sugestões uns aos
outros. Veja exemplo na mensagem abaixo:
De: Edite
Para: rwufmg@egroups.com
Dear Classmates,
Today I had visited many online english sites where I could select
special ones for you:
This site is specific for students and teachers and can offer you many
interestings things about English like FORUM FOR STUDENTS, FORUM FOR
TEACHERS, good exercises that can make possible to you test yourself:
ONLINE TESTS, GRAMMAR, QUIZZES. There, you can also change english
informations and make new friends.
Visiting this one you can find almost everything you need from
grammar. It is a specific site for grammar by Anthony hughes.
Hugs,
Edite
(1)I also visited the site on eletronic tarot. I didn't find very good
because I am not a mystic person.
(2)I like very much the site eletronic Tarot, You know, nobody belives
in it but everyone like to read about predictions , things like it.
(3)I'm not familiar with tarot and others guessing arts, but I found it
nice. The cards are very gorgeous, but their comments and explanations
are too general. They could fit anyone, couldn't they.
Para: rwufmg@egroups.com
>In relation to task B, I visited and read about. However, >I didn't
like it. I don't enjoy anything navigating on >site about esotericism.
>I don't believe it. But I think it is interesting if you >are only
visiting to give an idea. Generally we have some >doubts about our
future. Many people are interested in the >wheel of fortune. I respect
the opinion of them. On the >other hand, I just fun with it.
>
Cheers,
Ricardo.
(7)I would like to say that I loved to take Reading & Writing through
Internet.We had a nice time together and, for sure, I learned lot of
things.
To: <rwatufmg@egroups.com>
> At CNN, I had a great idea. I'll get some copies of the >news and
I'll give to my students at CENEX. They will
Hi Elaine,
I'm so glad you're enjoying the course! Your idea is great. I also use
a lot of stuff I find on the net as classroom material, and usually my
students enjoy them a lot. Thanks for sharing this idea. I'm sure
other people will like it too. You're perfectly right in what you said
about the mistakes, I mean, you shouldn't worry about them. Later on
we'll give you chances to revise them, and we'll also suggest sites
where you can work directly on language improvement.
Cheers,
Ricardo
From: Silvia
To: rwatufmg@egroups.com
Hi Fabio,
My name is Maria Celia and I read one message that you wrote the word
"dunno" what does it mean?
Thanks
Silvia.
From: Fabio
Dear Silvia,
Happiness,
Fábio
From: Raimundo
To: rwatufmg@egroups.com
Bye, because I'm tired of staying in front of this computer for about
2 hours.
To: Raimundo
That's it Raimundo!
You see? This is the collaborative work component we talked about. Now
after resting a bit (long hours in front of a computer can be really
tiring), don't forget to visit DAVE'S ESL CAFE, VIRTUAL LANGUAGE
CENTER and CNN from module 2. Specifications of what exactly you
should send us about them will be found in module 2, Ok?
Cheers,
Ricardo.
From: Katia
To: rwatufmg@egroups.com
CC: ricardod@unix.horizontes.com.br
Fábio is really good working with INTERNET isn´t he? I Would like to
learn how to attach fotos in my answers as he did. So Fábio, what
about a free lesson to those students that are starting their
experiences at virtual space?
That´s it for now, I´ll be back after lunch and CENEX class, and will
try to visit these sites.
Cheers,
Kátia.
>
>I was wondering if somebody could send me the links to >visit "Dave´s
ESL center","Virtual language center" and >"CNN".
Hi Kátia,
http://mofetsrv.mofet.macam98.ac.il/~elaine//eti/
> So Fábio, what about a free lesson to those students that > are
starting their experiences at virtual space?
Cheers,
Ricardo.
To: <rwatufmg@egroups.com>,
Dear Ricardo,
How's everything?
That's about your proposal.I think I can cope with those students that
are starting their experiences at virtual space. I'd say it's OK for
me. I think we could fix up a time for the free lesson. Perhaps, One
Monday at night (FALE's computer facilities).
With a taste for adventure and the outdoors, we all would plunge into
the web sea. Okey-dokey!
I'll talk to you later. I'm in a hurry cause it's getting late and
it's time to go to bed now. Drop me a line anytime you want.
Regards,
Flavio
Dentro dessa nova modalidade de ensino/aprendizagem, alunos e professores
assumem novos papéis. Segundo Azevedo (2000),
From: Raimundo
To: rwatufmg@egroups.com
Hi there, people,
(…) reading lots of text on the net, in my opinion is quite tyring and
boring; so, I only read what is really necessary and interesting. On
the other hand, the activities which make me think and work give me a
lot of fun (I fortunatelly found them in Module 2). When I say I don't
like reading text on the screen it is especially true as far as
waiting for the new page to load is concerned. Even when I am at a
very fast computer I don't have the nerve to wait for the pages to
load. That's why I give up sometimes.
I don't what you to think I'm a grouch, I'm just telling the truth
about what I think of the net. However, I know I'll get used to it and
enjoy surfing on the net a little bit more. I think the activities are
interesting and we do learn from them. I also find this activity of
exchanging e-mail in English very interesting.
I'm sorry if I sounded so rude but I'm really pissed off today (sorry
for the cursing). To be quite frank, I've been enjoying the activities
suggested; the only problem is the time some pages take to be loaded
and the downloading of some pictures and programs just take forever.
Raimundo
Para: rwufmg@egroups.com
Mércia,
There might have been a problem with the server. Try it again.
Hugs,
Vera
> Mércia
Conclusão
Apesar dos obstáculos, as avaliações dos alunos têm sido muito positivas.
Reproduzo alguns comentários abaixo como ilustração:
1. I visited the site suggested by Vera and I thougth it was great.
These exercises are improving my English and helping me to improve my
vocabulary more and more. I didn't think that the tests weren't so
easy but my score wasn't so bad. They really needed us to pay
attention to do them.
internet).
2. I guess all kind of exercises are great, and this 9th task wasn't
different. it's a little hard work but it's great.
Hugs,
Afonso
Os alunos não aprendem apenas com o grupo, mas se relacionam com nativos
através de email e chat. As tarefas realizadas focam apenas o significado e
nossos dados revelam que, apesar de uma imensa preocupação com os erros
no início do curso, os alunos se sentem capazes de interagir em inglês e isto,
com certeza contribuiu para aumentar sua auto-estima e sua motivação.
As tarefas variam entre atividades de leitura (visita a vários sites com textos e
exercícios de compreensão, leitura de jornais e revistas de todo o mundo) e de
escrita (características da escrita eletrônica, como redigir um curriculum vitae,
como fazer um pequeno poema, uma modesta homepage, etc).
REFERÊNCIAS BIBLIOGRÁFICAS
FREIRE, Paulo. Pedagogia do Oprimido. 17ª ed. Rio de Janeiro: Paz e Terra,
1987. HOWATT, A. P. R. A history of English language teaching. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1984.
LÉVY, Pierre. A inteligência coletiva. Trad. Luiz Paulo Rouanet. São Paulo:
Edições Loyola, 1998.
SILVA, Renato C. Teaching and learning English through Internet. In: XIV
ENPULI (Encontro Nacional de Professores Universitários de Língua Inglesa.
Belo Horizonte: UFMG, 1990. p.284-292
VOLTAR
http://www.veramenezes.com/ciberespaco.htm