Abstract
This study investigates how digital literacy in a foreign language (FL) may be supported by the use of a digital resource that can aid the processes of reading and writing. Thus, this research is based on studies by Feldman and Sanger (2006) about text mining, and on research by Black (2007; 2009) about the incorporation of a text genre typical from the Internet, the fanfiction (text based on existing media), in language learning. Through the use of the text mining resource Sobek , which promotes the extraction of frequent terms present in a text, the participants of this study created digital media narratives in English as a foreign language (FL). The undergraduate Brazilian students who participated in the research used the tool Sobek to mediate the production of fanfictions. In the proposed task, each student read a fanfiction and used the mining tool to develop graphs with recurrent terms found in the story. From the data analysis, it was observed that the use of a digital tool supported text production in the FL, and its following practice of digital literacy, as the authors relied on the mining resource to create new fanfictions.
Highlights
Digital tools that may be effective in the process of literacy development in a foreign language (FL) can act as mediating resources for pedagogical tasks
After the creation of fanfictions, a questionnaire was delivered to students with the following questions: (1) What do you think was positive and/ or negative about the task you performed? (2) How did you deal with text mining tool (Sobek)? How was that experience? (3) When using the tool, how did you build the relations between concepts? What rationale did you use? (4) How do you think the tool can be used in the process of text production? (5) Do you have any other comments? The questionnaire was answered
From the analysis of this reading and writing task, we observed that the graphs generated by the text mining tool and edited by students played an important role in the analysis and subsequent production of fanfictions
Summary
Digital tools that may be effective in the process of literacy development in a foreign language (FL) can act as mediating resources for pedagogical tasks. It is important that teachers working in these converging areas make use of electronic resources in a meaningful way, in order to create tasks that may provide opportunities for literacy and language development in an FL. Literacy is considered a process through which language learning can occur based on the development of socially meaningful reading and writing practices (BARTON; HAMILTON, 2000). Taking as a starting point the reading and analysis of the text genre fanfiction (story published on the internet, produced by fans of media symbols, represented by movies and TV, for instance), the process of literacy in an FL is examined, bearing in mind the relationship between technology and language learning. We present in this study a discussion about cognitive and social processes related to literacy in an FL, supported by digital means
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