Ensinar a aprender, aprender a aprender: preferências de aprendizagem e affordances no desenvolvimento de inglês como língua adicional à luz da abordagem ecológica

Abstract

This work investigates how learners of English as an additional language perceive and react to affordances in relation to their learning preferences in the light of the Ecological Approach (VAN LIER, 2002, 2004). The research data were generated from narratives produced by learners in response to a self-reflective questionnaire on learning preferences, in which they should reflect on their preferences and their trajectories as English learners; and a semistructured interview via WhatsApp in which they had the option to respond orally or in writing, in Portuguese or English. In addition to perceiving and reflecting on their preferences, the participants were also able to think about affordances, a concept from the ecological perspective which explains the notion of perception and action taken by individuals in their environment. In this work we try to see how this concept relates to Applied Linguistics and to the teaching and learning of additional languages and how it can benefit this process. We also analyze how preferences and affordances can emerge in learning and how they relate to each other. In addition to the questionnaire and the interview, a questionnaire was applied, at first, to outline a profile of the participants, and the researcher teacher also kept a journal throughout the classes taught along the research in order to record comments and impressions of the learners about data generation, as well as their own impressions of the participants' involvement in the research. We chose the Ecological Approach as the theoretical basis of this work because we believe that its main concepts, including affordances, can explain in a contextualized way the learning process and students' perception of their preferences. In the generated data, we significantly found the following relationships: affordances and online teaching; affordances, emergence and linearity; and affordances and learning preferences, in which we establish relationships and observe what types of affordances emerged and which students perceived, in addition to ascertaining what actions they took based on these perceptions. We hope, with this work, to contribute to research that deals with learning preferences in order to give learners the opportunity to reflect on relevant aspects of their learning, in addition to providing subsidies so that they can think of strategies to improve and better live this process.