Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:07:09Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 LorenaAS_DISSERT.pdf: 3138552 bytes, checksum: 529fbc35b1f1cc2aefc225fcbb9d86d4 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-02-17 / VoiceThread (VT) is a collaborative and asynchronous web 2.0 tool, which permits the creation of oral presentations with the help of images, documents, texts and voice, allowing groups of people to browse and contribute with comments using several options: voice (microphone or cell phone), text and audio-file or video (webcam) (BOTTENTUIT JUNIOR, LISB?A E COUTINHO, 2009). The hybrid experience with VoiceThread allows learners to plan their speech before recording it, without the pressure often existent in the classroom. Furthermore, the presentations can be recorded several times, enabling students to listen to them, notice the gaps in their oral production (noticing) and edit innumerous times before publishing them online. In this perspective, oral production is seen as a process of L2 acquisition, not only as practice of already existent knowledge, because it can stimulate the learner to process the language syntactically (SWAIN, 1985; 1995). In this context, this study aims to verify if there is a relation between the oral production of the learners more specifically the grammatical accuracy and the global oral grade and their noticing capacity, how the systematic practice with VoiceThread, in a hybrid approach, can impact the learners global oral development, their oral production in terms of fluency (number of words per minute), accuracy (number of errors in hundred words), and complexity (number of dependent clauses per minute), and on their noticing capacity (SCHMIDT, 1990; 1995; 2001), that is, the learner s capacity of noticing the gaps existent in their oral production. In order to answer these research questions, 49 L2 learners of English were divided into an experimental group (25 students) and a control group (24 students). The experimental group was exposed to the hybrid approach with VT during two months and, through a pre- and post-test, we verified if this systematic practice would positively influence these participants oral production and noticing capacity. These results were compared to the pre- and post-test scores from the control group, which was not exposed to VT. Finally, learners impressions in relation to the use of this tool were also sought through a questionnaire applied after the post-test. The results indicate that there is a statistically significant correlation between the learners speech production (accuracy and global oral grade) and their noticing capacity. Besides, it was verified a positive impact of VoiceThread on the learners speech production variables and on their noticing capacity. They also reveal a positive reaction by the learners in relation to the hybrid experience with this web tool / O VoiceThread ? uma ferramenta da web 2.0, colaborativa e ass?ncrona, que permite a cria??o de apresenta??es orais com aux?lio de imagens, documentos, textos e voz, possibilitando que grupos de pessoas naveguem e contribuam com coment?rios de v?rias maneiras: utilizando a voz (com microfone ou telefone), texto e arquivo de ?udio ou v?deo (webcam) (BOTTENTUIT JUNIOR, LISB?A E COUTINHO, 2009). A experi?ncia h?brida com o VoiceThread permite que o aprendiz planeje sua fala antes de grav?-la, sem a press?o geralmente existente em sala de aula. Al?m disso, as apresenta??es podem ser gravadas e regravadas v?rias vezes, possibilitando que ele se ou?a, perceba as lacunas em sua produ??o oral (noticing) e a edite in?meras vezes antes de public?-la online. Nesta perspectiva, a produ??o oral ? vista como um processo de aquisi??o de L2, e n?o apenas como pr?tica do conhecimento j? existente, por estimular o aprendiz a processar a l?ngua sintaticamente (SWAIN, 1985; 1995). Neste contexto, o presente estudo visa verificar se existe uma rela??o entre as medidas de produ??o oral dos aprendizes - mais especificamente a acur?cia gramatical e a nota global - e sua habilidade de noticing, de que forma a pr?tica sistem?tica com a ferramenta VoiceThread, em uma abordagem h?brida, impacta o desenvolvimento oral global dos aprendizes, sua produ??o oral em termos de flu?ncia (n?mero de palavras por minuto), acur?cia (quantidade de erros gramaticais a cada 100 palavras) e complexidade (n?mero de ora??es subordinadas por minuto), e a sua habilidade de noticing (SCHMIDT, 1990; 1995; 2001), ou seja, a capacidade de o aprendiz perceber as lacunas existentes na sua produ??o oral. A fim de responder a essas quest?es, 49 aprendizes de ingl?s como L2 participaram da pesquisa, divididos em grupo experimental (25 alunos) e grupo controle (24 alunos). O grupo experimental foi exposto a uma experi?ncia h?brida com o VT durante dois meses e, por meio de um pr? e um p?s-teste, verificamos se essa pr?tica sistem?tica influenciaria positivamente a produ??o oral e a habilidade de noticing destes participantes. Esses resultados foram comparados aos escores do pr? e do p?s-teste de um grupo controle, que n?o foi exposto ao VT. Por fim, as impress?es dos aprendizes a respeito da experi?ncia com a ferramenta foram analisadas por meio de question?rios aplicados ap?s o p?s-teste. Os resultados apontam que h? uma correla??o estatisticamente significativa entre as medidas de produ??o oral dos aprendizes (acur?cia gramatical e a nota global) e sua habilidade de noticing. Al?m disso, verificou-se que h? um impacto positivo da ferramenta VoiceThread sobre as vari?veis da produ??o oral dos aprendizes e sua habilidade de noticing. Por fim, a parte qualitativa desse estudo revela uma rea??o positiva dos aprendizes em rela??o ? experi?ncia h?brida com esta ferramenta

Abstract  The present work is a quantitative and qualitative analysis of pragmatic strategies for delivering critique, and types of politeness, used by undergraduate L2 students of English at different stages of peer-review discussion. The material examined consists of four corpora of authentic conversations between students, the main purpose of which was to give feedback on each other’s contributions during an English A-level course, at Mid-Sweden University. The conversations explored were carried out electronically, and represent four different online environments, or modes of computer-mediated communication (CMC). The material from the two asynchronous modes of CMC is comprised of L2 students’ written discussion board messages and spoken posts recorded using online software. The two synchronous environments under investigation are text-based and voice-based chat. Taking Brown and Levinson’s (1987) framework of politeness as a point of departure, the present study uses a combination of corpus and conversation analytical methods. The basic unit of analysis has been defined as the shortest message of peer-review critique that constitutes a thematic unit: these have been examined in terms of their content and politeness features associated with them, and analyzed in terms of the pragmatic strategy and type of politeness adopted. The types of pragmatic strategies or message organization patterns at different stages, i.e. initial versus subsequent feedback, of the peer-review discussion have also been analyzed. The results of the study show that the pragmatic strategies aimed at praise and agreement prevail in the corpus data produced by predominantly native speakers of Swedish. Even though the pragmatic strategies used for disagreement and negative evaluation are rich in propositional content, their occurrences and distribution vary across the four modes of CMC examined. These results seem to have wider implications in the context of online L2 learning activities, providing insights about the language of peer-review critique in a Swedish academic setting.   Keywords: computer-mediated communication (CMC), Conversation Analysis (CA), conversation management, discussion boards, feedback category, mode of CMC, peer-review discussion, politeness theory, pragmatic strategy, speech act of critique, text-based chat, type of politeness, voice-based chat, VoiceThread