Exploring affordances in digital tools: interaction and technology in a reading course

Resumo

English language teaching has advanced rapidly with the use of digital tools. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many teachers employed apps, websites, and platforms to create learning opportunities for their students. However, there are discussions about the real effectiveness of these teaching technologies. For this reason, this research seeks to reveal and analyze how students in an online instrumental reading course for high-schoolers interacted with the digital platforms used throughout the lessons. This research was developed based on the concept of affordances. For Gibson (1986), this theory aims to explain the contact that an animal has with its environment. Later, in applied linguistics, Van Lier (2002) stated that affordances are the relationship established between the user and the object. This interaction can provide opportunities for action and interaction to the subject (TUROLO, 2020). For data collection, two questionnaires were applied to the course students, in order to discover the affordances perceived by each of them during their interaction with the platforms. The results revealed categories of perceived action opportunities: practicality and playfulness; content review and language development; identification of students' difficulties. In addition, some reports of limitations with the platforms were raised. The findings of this research show that digital platforms can bring favorable moments for learning, moments of reflection in students about their own studying performance, and questions about access exclusion to technology.