Game on: a leitura em jogo na sala de aula de língua estrangeira

Abstract

With the continuous advancement of technology, more and more, smart devices and social media applications are part of different social interaction situations. In this sense, research in Applied Linguistics has been pointing to the presence of Digital Information and Communication Technologies, henceforth TDIC, in the educational context. Students, inserted in this scenario, make use of social practices of reading and writing that involve different languages inside and outside the classroom and, increasingly, work creatively, collaboratively and critically on the internet. The 5th edition of the Portraits of Reading Survey in Brazil (2019) confirms this perspective, which points to a drop in the habit of reading and, on the other hand, an increase in the use of social networks and the internet, including for games among schoolage subjects. These results lead us to infer that, in the digital space, cultural offerings such as online games and streaming platforms compete with reading books. This preference of children and young people reaffirm the need to think of reading and writing practices in new media as a way of teaching/learning through playfulness, moving games from the sphere of entertainment to that of education. Thus, this research takes as its object of study the digital game “What Remains of Edith Finch” (GIANT SPARROW, 2017). Thus, this qualitative, exploratory and interpretive research seeks to answer the following question: “How is the pedagogy of multiliteracies present in digital games, especially in the game What Remains of Edith Finch?”. To answer it, it is assumed as a general objective to understand, from the pedagogy of multiliteracies, the possibility of using the digital game What Remains of Edith Finch for the teaching of reading in the subject of Foreign Language. In order to achieve this objective, the interrelationship between language and technology (BAKHTIN, 1986; PINTO, 2005; VARGAS, 2001), concepts from the Multiliteracies (NEW LONDON GROUP, 1996; COPE & KALANTZIS, 2000, 2009), concepts of digital games (EGENFELDT-NIELSEN, 2005; GEE, 2003, 2007; SALEN & ZIMMERMAN, 2005) and reflections on Foreign Language Teaching (GEE, 2011; OSTENSON, 2013; TOOMEY, 2013) are used as a theoretical contribution. Based on theoretical reflections, the analysis of the game establishes relationships with multiliteracies, with multiliterate practices and with the teaching of reading a foreign language. Finally, with the combination of the theoretical framework and the analysis, it can be noted that not only the aspects of multiliteracies are present in the game in question, but mainly how multimodality and genres are relevant and complex within the game. In addition, the game goes beyond the idea of a tool, and becomes a literary game, which when used, becomes a new mode of expression for literature in the classroom.