o uso de games como input para a aprendizagem de línguas

Abstract

Today people spend several hours in front of a television or a computer, for work or just for entertainment. One of the most popular forms of entertainment is the video game. Game themes are varied and gamers need different abilities to be successful from basic skills to more complex abilities. A considerable part of these games are in English and the players need to be familiar with the vocabulary and the language used in the game to go forward. Apparently, the gamers do not see the language as a barrier that will stop them from playing and many players claim that they have learned the English language with the games they play. However, how did this learning process occur? Are they going to be able to use the language in other contexts? Or will it only be useful to achieve the games objectives? From these questions, this research aims at investigating if a group of people from different ages that claim they learned English playing video games and that have never studied English outside regular school are able to use the language in contexts other than the games. The research will be based on the Connectivist Theory of Learning by Siemens and Downes among other authors. It is a qualitative study, conducted with subjects who agreed to participate voluntarily in an interview in English and in Portuguese. From the data collected, it was possible to identify that the subjects were able to communicate in an extragame context, in variable proficiency levels that can be influenced by the players interest on the language, world of games and the connections that are established and maintained, concerning between the areas involved