Am 28. April 2009 überreichten Repräsentanten der deutschen Archive und Bibliotheken Bundespräsident Horst Köhler eine Denkschrift der Allianz Schriftliches Kulturgut erhalten. Barbara Schneider-Kempf (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin), Thomas Bürger (Sächsische Landesbibliothek – Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden), Bernd Kappelhoff (Landesarchiv Hannover) und Michael Knoche (Herzogin Anna Amalia-Bibliothek Weimar) hatten im Jahr 2008 diese Denkschrift erarbeitet, die nun gedruckt vorliegt und im Schloss Bellevue vorgestellt wurde.

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Architecture

Le monde du divertissement numérique connaît depuis plusieurs années une évolution majeure avec la démocratisation des technologies vidéo 3D. Il est désormais commun de visualiser des vidéos stéréoscopiques sur différents supports : au cinéma, à la télévision, dans les jeux vidéos, etc. L'image 3D a considérablement évolué mais qu'en est-il des technologies de restitution sonore associées ? La plupart du temps, le son qui accompagne la vidéo 3D est basé sur des effets de latéralisation, plus au moins étendus (stéréophonie, systèmes 5.1). Il est pourtant naturel de s'interroger sur le besoin d'introduire des événements sonores en lien avec l'ajout de cette nouvelle dimension visuelle : la profondeur. Plusieurs technologies semblent pouvoir offrir une description sonore 3D de l'espace (technologies binaurales, Ambisonics, Wave Field Synthesis). Le recours à ces technologies pourrait potentiellement améliorer la qualité d'expérience de l'utilisateur, en termes de réalisme tout d'abord grâce à l'amélioration de la cohérence spatiale audio-visuelle, mais aussi en termes de sensation d'immersion. Afin de vérifier cette hypothèse, nous avons mis en place un système de restitution audio-visuelle 3D proposant une présentation visuelle stéréoscopique associée à un rendu sonore spatialisé par Wave Field Synthesis. Trois axes de recherche ont alors été étudiés : 1 / Perception de la distance en présentation unimodale ou bimodale. Dans quelle mesure le système audio-visuel est-il capable de restituer des informations spatiales relatives à la distance, dans le cas d'objets sonores, visuels, ou audio-visuels ? Les expériences menées montrent que la Wave Field Synthesis permet de restituer la distance de sources sonores virtuelles. D'autre part, les objets visuels et audio-visuels sont localisés avec plus de précisions que les objets uniquement sonores. 2 / Intégration multimodale suivant la distance. Comment garantir une perception spatiale audio-visuelle cohérente de stimuli simples ? Nous avons mesuré l'évolution de la fenêtre d'intégration spatiale audio-visuelle suivant la distance, c'est-à-dire les positions des stimuli audio et visuels pour lesquelles la fusion des percepts a lieu. 3 / Qualité d'expérience audio-visuelle 3D. Quel est l'apport du rendu de la profondeur sonore sur la qualité d'expérience audio-visuelle 3D ? Nous avons tout d'abord évalué la qualité d'expérience actuelle, lorsque la présentation de contenus vidéo 3D est associée à une bande son 5.1, diffusée par des systèmes grand public (système 5.1, casque, et barre de son). Nous avons ensuite étudié l'apport du rendu de la profondeur sonore grâce au système audio-visuel proposé (vidéo 3D associée à la Wave Field Synthesis). / The digital entertainment industry is undergoing a major evolution due to the recent spread of stereoscopic-3D videos. It is now possible to experience 3D by watching movies, playing video games, and so on. In this context, video catches most of the attention but what about the accompanying audio rendering? Today, the most often used sound reproduction technologies are based on lateralization effects (stereophony, 5.1 surround systems). Nevertheless, it is quite natural to wonder about the need of introducing a new audio technology adapted to this new visual dimension: the depth. Many alternative technologies seem to be able to render 3D sound environments (binaural technologies, ambisonics, Wave Field Synthesis). Using these technologies could potentially improve users' quality of experience. It could impact the feeling of realism by adding audio-visual spatial congruence, but also the immersion sensation. In order to validate this hypothesis, a 3D audio-visual rendering system is set-up. The visual rendering provides stereoscopic-3D images and is coupled with a Wave Field Synthesis sound rendering. Three research axes are then studied: 1/ Depth perception using unimodal or bimodal presentations. How the audio-visual system is able to render the depth of visual, sound, and audio-visual objects? The conducted experiments show that Wave Field Synthesis can render virtual sound sources perceived at different distances. Moreover, visual and audio-visual objects can be localized with a higher accuracy in comparison to sound objects. 2/ Crossmodal integration in the depth dimension. How to guarantee the perception of congruence when audio-visual stimuli are spatially misaligned? The extent of the integration window was studied at different visual object distances. In other words, according to the visual stimulus position, we studied where sound objects should be placed to provide the perception of a single unified audio-visual stimulus. 3/ 3D audio-visual quality of experience. What is the contribution of sound depth rendering on the 3D audio-visual quality of experience? We first assessed today's quality of experience using sound systems dedicated to the playback of 5.1 soundtracks (5.1 surround system, headphones, soundbar) in combination with 3D videos. Then, we studied the impact of sound depth rendering using the set-up audio-visual system (3D videos and Wave Field Synthesis).

本文的研究問題有三：一是了解現今華語綜合性教材語素教學的內容與編排方式；二是提出關於本文分析之華語綜合性教材以語素為基礎的詞彙教學建議；三是教師面對不同教材時，應該如何因應與落實以語素為基礎的詞彙教學。 本文首先從海峽兩岸的專家、學者們對於詞彙教學領域的相關研究和詞彙教學的現狀著手，發現詞彙教學理論研究成果與教學應用脫節，因此如何有效利用漢語詞彙語義特徵和結構特徵進行詞彙教學，值得深入研究。本文將焦點集中於語素教學的理論與教學實施原則，分析在臺灣與中國使用率極高的兩套華語綜合性教材---《新版實用視聽華語》和《新實用漢語課本》，以了解目前教材中語素教學內容的現況。 分析結果發現，兩套教材皆呈現語素教學設計，但是《新版實用視聽華語》的語素分析出現瑕疵，且缺乏詞彙結構分析；而《新實用漢語課本》不論是語素分析或詞彙結構分析，都能以學習者已知的詞彙為基礎而設計。本文參考前人的研究和教材的分析，提出對於這兩套教材中以語素為基礎的詞彙教學建議。最後，本文綜合語素教學研究、教材分析和教學應用，提出一套更完整的語素教學實施原則，以利於教師面對不同教材時得以參考依循。 關鍵字：語素、語素教學、詞彙教學、新版實用視聽華語、新實用漢語課本 / There are three research aspects in this paper: (1) To understand the content and structure of two main current Mandarin pedagogical materials in the context of morpheme-based vocabulary teaching. (2) To provide some teaching suggestions for the design of morpheme-based vocabulary teaching of those two materials. (3) To propose vocabulary teaching strategies on employing morpheme-based vocabulary teaching when teachers are facing different textbooks. In vocabulary teaching, this paper makes an overview of research literature by cross strait scholars, and finds that there is a missing link between theory study and teaching application. It’s promising to explore semantic and morphology of Chinese vocabulary to facilitate vocabulary teaching; thus, morpheme-based vocabulary teaching is proposed. We evaluate two most popular textbooks Practical Audio-visual Chinese 2nd edition and New Practical Chinese Reader to get a picture of how morpheme-based vocabulary teaching is presented. Both textbooks do have morpheme-based vocabulary teaching design. Practical Audio-visual Chinese 2nd edition is faulty in morpheme analysis, and short of analysis of morphology of Chinese vocabulary. New Practical Chinese Reader deserves praising by editing the content of morpheme-based vocabulary teaching at the basis of learned vocabulary, and it excels in the analysis of both morpheme and morphology. Referring to previous studies in this area, we propose recommendations for morpheme-based vocabulary teaching with these two materials. To assist teachers in dealing with various textbooks, we provide practical teaching operation principles, through a comprehensive study of morpheme-based vocabulary teaching, textbook analysis, and teaching application research. Wish this study will help Mandarin teachers teach vocabulary more efficiently. Keywords: morpheme, morpheme teaching, vocabulary teaching, Practical Audio-visual Chinese 2nd Edition, New Practical Chinese Reader

This thesis presents an investigation into the effect of Liberated Learning Technology (LLP) on academic listening comprehension, notetaking and listening strategies in an English as a foreign language context (L2). Two studies are reported: an exploratory study and subsequent main study. The exploratory study was undertaken to determine L2 and native speaker (L1) students' perceptions on the effectiveness of the technology on academic listening and notetaking. The main study took a more focused approach and as a result, extended the exploratory study that was done in an authentic lecture context in order to gather data to measure listening comprehension and notetaking quality. The participants in the main study comprised six L2 students: five of whom intended to go to university. The methodology was a multimethod one: data was gathered from notetaking samples, protocol analysis, email responses and a questionnaire. Results indicated that continuous speech recognition (CSR) has the potential to support the listening comprehension and notetaking abilities of L2 students as well as facilitate metacognitive listening strategy use and enhance affective factors in academic listening. However, it is important to note that as CSR is an innovative technology, it first needs to meet a number of challenges before its full potential can be realized. Consequently, recommendations for future research and potential innovative uses for the technology are discussed. This thesis contributes to L2 academic listening and notetaking measurement in two areas: 1. the measurement of LLP-supported notetaking; and, 2. the measurement of LLP-supported academic listening comprehension.

Le présent travail de thèse s’inscrit dans le domaine de recherche sur la perception audio-visuelle (AV) de la parole. Son objectif est de répondre aux questions suivantes : (i) Quelle est la nature du traitement de l’input visuel (holistique vs analytique) dans la perception AV de la parole ? (ii) Quelle est l’implication des régions faciales extra-buccales dans la perception AV de la parole ? (iii) Quel est le comportement oculaire des sujets lors de la perception AV de la parole ? (iv) Quelle est l’évolution de la perception AV de la parole dans les aspects (i), (ii) et (iii) au cours du développement. Le paradigme de dégradation de l’information auditive par le bruit a été utilisé dans deux expériences qui ont été menées avec des participants de quatre groupes d’âge, enfants, préadolescents, adolescents, adultes (16 participants par groupe). La tâche des participants consistait à répéter les syllabes de type consonne-voyelle /a/, faiblement et fortement dégradées par le bruit rose, présentées dans quatre conditions différentes. Ces conditions étaient les suivantes : une auditive (AU) et trois audio-visuelles (AV) (AV visage (AVV)), AV « bouche extraction » (AVB-E) (format bouche sans contrastes lumineux), AV « bouche-masquage » (AVB-M) (format bouche avec contrastes lumineux) pour l’expérience 1, et AVV, AV « bouche active » (AVV-BA) (format « visage » avec un contexte facial statique), AV « régions extra-buccales actives » (AVV-EBA) (format « visage » sans bouche) pour l’expérience 2. Le nombre total des répétitions correctes par condition (performance totale), la différence dans ce score entre chaque condition AV et la condition auditive (gain AV) et la durée totale des fixations oculaires dans la région buccale et les autres régions faciales (pour les formats AVV) ont été analysés. Les principaux résultats montrent que les mécanismes de traitement AV de la parole atteignent leur maturité avant l’enfance tardive. La vision du visage entier de l’orateur n’est pas avantageuse pour ce type de traitement. Elle semble même désavantageuse pour les adultes possiblement car elle déclenche le traitement d’autres aspects du visage (identité, expressions faciales) qui pourrait interférer avec le traitement des indices acoustiques relatifs à la parole. Pour les quatre groupes d’âge, la contribution des mouvements articulatoires dans les régions extra-buccales à la perception AV de la parole s’est avérée faible et limitée aux conditions de haute incertitude quant à l’information auditive. Pour les stimuli respectant les caractéristiques écologiques de l’information faciale, les patterns du comportement oculaire dans la perception bimodale de la parole varient en fonction du degré de dégradation de l’information auditive, mais semblent relativement stables durant la période allant de l’enfance à l’âge adulte. Finalement, les modalités de présentation de l’information visuelle localisée à la bouche ont affecté le comportement oculaire chez les adultes, les pré-adolescents et les enfants. Ceci suggère que le traitement visuo-attentionnel dans le cadre de la perception AV de la parle est sensible aux caractéristiques de bas niveau des stimuli visuels chez ces populations. Les variations au niveau du traitement visuo-attentionnel s’accompagnent, dans une certaine mesure, de variations dans la perception AV de la parole. / The present thesis work fits into the domain/is incorporated within the framework of research on audio-visual (AV) speech perception. Its objective is to answer the following questions: (i) What is the nature of visual input processing (holistic vs analytic) in AV speech perception? (ii) What is the implication of extra-oral facial movement in AV speech perception? (iii) What are the oculomotor patterns in AV speech perception? (iv) What are the developmental changes in the above-mentioned aspects (i), (ii) and (iii)? The classic noise degradation paradigm was applied in two experiments conducted in the framework of the present thesis. Each experiment were conducted on participants of 4 age groups, adults, adolescents, pre-adolescents and children. Each group consisted of 16 participants. Participants’ task was to repeat consonant-vowel (/a/) syllables. The syllables were both mildly and strongly degraded by pink noise and were presented in four audio(-visual) conditions, one purely auditory (AO) and three audio-visual conditions. The AV conditions were the following: (i) AV face (AVF), (ii) AV « mouth extraction » (AVM-E ; mouth format without visual contrasts), (iii) AV « mouth window » (AVM-W ; mouth format with high visual contrasts) in experiment 1, and (i) AVF, (ii) AVF « mouth active (and facial frame static) » (AVF-MA), (iii) AVF « extra-oral regions active (and mouth absent) » (AVF-EOA) in experiment 2. The data relative to (i) the total number of correct repetitions (total performance), (ii) the difference in the correct repetitions score between each AV and the AO condition (AV gain), and (iii) the total fixations duration in the oral area and other facial areas (for the AV formats) were analyzed. The main results showed that the mechanisms involved in AV speech perception reach their maturity before late childhood. The vision of the talker’s full face does not seem to be advantageous in this context. It seems that the vision of the talker’s full face might perturb AV speech processing in adults, possibly because it triggers processing of other types of information (identity, facial expressions) which could in terms interfere with the processing of acoustic aspects of speech. The contribution of the extra-oral articulatory movement to AV speech perception was poor and limited to the condition of highly degraded auditory information. For ecologically presented facial information, the oculomotor patterns in AV speech perception varied as a function of the level of auditory information degradation, but appeared rather stable across the 4 groups. Finally, the modalities of the featural (mouth) facial information presentation affected the oculomotor behavior patterns in adults, pre-adolescents and children, thus suggesting a certain sensitivity of visuo-attentional processing to low-level visual stimuli characteristics in AV speech perception. The variations in visuo-attentional processing seemed to be associated to a certain extent with variations in AV speech perception.

Se distinguant des expressions émotionnelles qui sont innées et déclenchées par un contrôle involontaire du locuteur au sein d'une communication face-à-face, les affects sociaux émergent plutôt de manière volontaire et intentionnelle, et sont largement véhiculés par la prosodie audio-visuelle. Ils mettent en circulation, entre les interactants, des informations sur la dynamique du dialogue, la situation d'énonciation et leur relation sociale. Ces spécificités culturelles et linguistiques de la prosodie socio-affective dans la communication orale constituent une difficulté, même un risque de malentendu, pour les apprenants en langue étrangère (LE) et en langue seconde (L2). La présente thèse se consacre à des études intra- et interculturelles sur la perception de la prosodie de 19 affects sociaux en chinois mandarin et en français, ainsi que sur leurs représentations cognitives. Son but applicatif vise l'apprentissage de la prosodie des affects sociaux en chinois mandarin et en français LE ou L2. Le premier travail de la thèse consiste en la construction d'un large corpus audio-visuel des affects sociaux chinois. 152 énoncés variés dans leur longueur, leur morpho-syntaxe et leur représentation tonale sont respectivement produits dans les 19 affects sociaux. Sur la base de ce corpus, sont examinées l'identification et les confusions perceptives de ces affects sociaux chinois par des natifs, des français et des vietnamiens (comme groupe de référence), ainsi que l'effet du ton lexical sur l'identification auditive des sujets non natifs. Les résultats montrent que la majorité des affects sociaux chinois est perçue de manière similaire par les sujets natifs et les sujets non natifs, cependant certains décalages perceptifs sont également observés. Les tons chinois engendrent des problèmes perceptifs des affects sociaux autant pour les vietnamiens (d'une langue tonale) que pour les français (d'une langue non tonale). En parallèle, une analyse acoustique permet de mettre en évidence les caractéristiques principales de la prosodie socio-affective en chinois et d'étayer les résultats perceptifs. Ensuite, une étude sur les distances conceptuelles d'une part, et psycho-acoustiques d'autre part, entre les affects sociaux est menée auprès de sujets chinois et de sujets français. Les résultats montrent que la plupart des connaissances sur les affects sociaux sont partagées par les sujets, quels que soient leur langue maternelle, leur genre ou la manière de présenter les affects sociaux (concepts ou entrées acoustiques). Enfin, le dernier chapitre de la thèse est consacré à une étude contrastive sur la perception multimodale des affects sociaux en chinois et en français LE ou L2. Il est constaté que la reconnaissance des affects sociaux est étroitement liée aux expressions elles-mêmes et à la modalité de présentation de ces expressions. Le degré d'acquisition de la langue cible du sujet (débutant ou intermédiaire) n'a pas d'impact significatif à la reconnaissance, dans le cadre restreint des niveaux étudiés. / In human face-to-face interaction, social affects should be distinguished from emotional expressions, triggered by innate and involuntary controls of the speaker, by their nature of voluntary controls expressed within the audiovisual prosody and by their important role in the realization of speech acts. They also put into circulation between the interlocutors the social context and social relationship information. The prosody is a main vector of social affects and its cross-language variability is a challenge for language description as well as for foreign language teaching. Thus, cultural and linguistic specificities of the socio-affective prosody in oral communication could be a difficulty, even a risk of misunderstanding, for foreign language and second language learners. This thesis is dedicated to intra- and intercultural studies on perception of the prosody of 19 social affects in Mandarin Chinese and in French, on their cognitive representations, as well as on Chinese and French socio-affective prosody learning for foreign and second language learners. The first task of this thesis concerns the construction of a large audio-visual corpus of Chinese social affects. 152 sentences with the variation of length, tone location and syntactic structures of utterances, have been incorporated with 19 social affects. This corpus is served to examine the identification and perceptual confusion of these Chinese social affects by native and non-native listeners, as well as the tonal effect on non-native subjects' identification. Experimental results reveal that the majority of social affects are similarly perceived by native and non-native subjects, otherwise, some differences are also observed. Lexical tones lead to certain perceptual problems also for Vietnamese listeners (of a tonal language) and for French listeners (of a non-tonal language). In parallel, an acoustic analysis investigates the production side of prosodic socio-affects in Mandarin Chinese, and allows highlighting the more prominent patterns of acoustical variations as well as supporting the perceptual resultants obtained on the same expressions. Then, a study on conceptual and psycho-acoustic distances between social affects is carried out with Chinese and French subjects. The main results indicate that all subjects share to a very large extent the knowledge about these 19 social affects, regardless of their mother language, gender or how to present social affects (concept or acoustic realization). Finally, the last chapter of thesis is dedicated to the differences in the perception of 11 Chinese social affects expressed in different modalities (audio only, video only and audio-visual) for French learners and native subjects, as well as in the perception of the same French socio-affects for Chinese learners and native subjects. According to the results, the identification of affective expressions depends more on their affective values and on their presentation modality. Subject's learning level (beginner or intermediate) does not have a significant effect on their identification.

The purpose of this study was to develop information and understanding concerning the use of instructional resources, including library materials, by community junior college vocational-technical instructors. The study sought to determine whether the kinds and amounts of instructional resources used by vocational technical instructors in their courses were related to their: (a) level of formal education, (b) number of courses in Higher Education completed, (c) years of teaching experience, and (d) teaching status (full or part-time). Further, the study sought to determine whether the attitudes toward use or non-use of the library were related to such instructor characteristics. The analyses of the data revealed that vocational technical instructors at Tarrant County Junior College utilized a wide variety of instructional resources in their courses. Instructional resources used in at least 50 percent of vocational-technical courses were: audio-visual materials, 88 percent; departmental books, 73 percent; personally owned books, 72 percent; manufacturers' literature other than service manuals, 63 percent; information from notes of previously taken courses, 63 percent; departmentally prepared syllabi, 58 percent; personally owned journals, 56 percent; self-prepared syllabi, 53 percent; manufacturers' service manuals, 52 percent; and association publications, 50 percent.

This research project addresses the problem of scoring non-narrative film work. Deprived of a narrative content to follow, the composer faces the fundamental problem of deciding what other elements should be considered for establishing a meaningful relationship between the screened events and the music soundtrack. In order to mitigate the problem, this research project investigates the possibility of applying cross-modal principles to soundtrack composition, and systematically exploits the human ability to experience or interpret the information channeled through one sense modality in terms of another. After the Introduction which explains the research aims and methods, the thesis is structured into subsequent chapters. Chapter two considers cross-modal relationships in music and other expressive arts along with a brief consideration of Reception Theory and its relation to my work. Chapter three provides a set of four case studies of contemporary compositional approaches to non-narrative film. Chapter four demonstrates a new and systematic approach to soundtrack composition through a specially devised Table of Audio-Visual Correspondences, mapping parameters from one domain to another. This method is then applied in Chapter five in relation to a portfolio of original composed soundtracks. A detailed analysis is provided of each piece and the application of crossmodal logic to the scoring of non-narrative video is discussed and evaluated. Finally, Chapter six offers conclusions, recommendations, and outlines the scope for further research. An explanation is given of how work on this thesis has affected my own practice and compositional voice. A suggestion is also provided on how this thesis can benefit the wider film music academic and practitioner community.

A utilização de tecnologias em sala de aula tem despertado, cada vez mais, o interesse de estudiosos no desenvolvimento de ferramentas que auxiliem no ensino aprendizagem, particularmente naquele de língua estrangeira. Este trabalho teve como objetivo principal analisar se a tecnologia, quando aliada às aulas presenciais, pode auxiliar alunos adultos, com mais de 40 anos, a obterem um melhor resultado na aprendizagem. Para isso, a questão central de pesquisa proposta foi descobrir que efeito o uso de ferramentas da internet tem na aprendizagem de uma língua estrangeira por um indivíduo adulto, maior de 40 anos. O estudo analisa, comparativamente, dois grupos de alunos adultos de língua inglesa, com um mesmo professor, os mesmos livros e conteúdos programáticos, sendo que um grupo usava recursos oferecidos pela tecnologia da internet para expandir sua prática na línguaalvo e o outro usava livros paradidáticos para este mesmo fim. O trabalho encontrou suporte teórico nos estudos de Educação à distância (EAD) e nas teorias de atividades sócio-construtivistas, que se fundamentam, principalmente, na teoria de desenvolvimento e aprendizagem de Vygotsky, particularmente no que tange ao aprendizado e aos papéis de professor e de aluno via rede, e no conceito de abordagem comunicativa no ensino de línguas estrangeiras. O trabalho foi realizado em cinco meses de aulas presenciais, em contexto de sala de aula, em curso livre particular de inglês, tendo como participantes, além da pesquisadora, um professor e 20 alunos, distribuídos em duas turmas. Os resultados obtidos confirmam a relevância da motivação para a aprendizagem e revelaram também que, apesar do curto tempo de exposição à metodologia utilizada, os alunos puderam beneficiar-se, principalmente em seu desenvolvimento oral na língua inglesa, do potencial oferecido pela internet para a prática autêntica de fala e escrita com indivíduos nativos no idioma alvo. O trabalho destaca, ainda, o uso de recursos tecnológicos que o computador pode oferecer no processo de aprendizagem de um novo idioma pelo adulto. A utilização de ferramentas como aulas chat (o chat educacional), emails educacionais (aulas virtuais por e-mails), exercícios em portais virtuais para o ensino de línguas na internet, entrevistas virtuais com convidado através do Skype, entre outros, proporciona ao aprendiz não só a oportunidade de maior exposição e motivação para as atividades didáticas, bem como autenticidade em sua prática discursiva. Por outro lado, pode, também, proporcionar novos recursos nas áreas pedagógica, tecnológica e psicológica, enriquecendo o processo de ensino aprendizagem de uma nova língua / Interest in the use of technology in language classrooms has grown considerably. In the field of language education, in particular, several studies on the use of technological tools to enhance foreign language learning have already been conducted. The main objective of this research is to analyze whether technology can bring better learning results when it is used to help adult pupils over forty years of age learn a new language. The main research question asked in this study is: what effect does the use of internet technologies have on the learning process of a foreign language for students who are over forty? The central hypothesis of this study reflects the main curiosity of the researcher in analyzing comparatively the performance of two groups of adult students that studied English with the same teacher, used the same books, and experienced same content: Group 1, who was exposed to internet technology in language learning, and Group 2, who used readers (story books) for the same goal. For this purpose, this work is theoretically based on: (1) studies of E-learning (EAD), (2)socio-constructivist activities, which are supported by Vygotskys learning and development theories, especially as regards the learning process and the pupils and teachers role on the net, and (3) the concept of Communicative Approach in language learning. Five months of classroom lessons were involved in this research, at a private English school in Recife. The participants included in this project were the researcher, the teacher and 20 students, divided into two groups. The analysis provided relevant information that will help the teachers work with adult pupils learning a new language. The results of this research suggest a strong relationship between motivation and learning. They have also revealed that, despite the short period of exposure to the new language, the pupils have been able to benefit from the process of language learning with the aid of the Internet, especially their oral development. The results also suggest that the use of technological resources can offer several benefits to adult students throughout the process of learning a foreign language. By using such tools as: educational chats, educational e-mails, learning tasks on language education websites, and virtual interviews with guests through the Skype, this study brings authenticity to the classroom, more extensive exposure to the language and increased motivation, in order to benefit the adult student in the pedagogical, technological, and psychological dimensions when acquiring and learning a new language