Academic social activity in online English language teaching: what do learners tell us about it?

In this article we seek to understand, through the participants’ discourse, the impact of the planning (ALMEIDA FILHO, 2012) of an online English language course in a university context, based on Social Activities (LIBERALI, 2012). To do so, we briefly explain the Socio-Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (ENGESTRÖM, 1999) and the notion of Social Activities in English teaching as a way to enable the social repositioning of learners, even through an environment of online teaching and learning. We show how the course was planned and also analyze aspects related to learners’ performances and difficulties, the quality of their participation and their perceptions of the course. As a result, we verified that the learners in general have difficulties with Social Activities of an academic nature and that these difficulties led to limited participation in the didactic activities proposed in the course. However, positive aspects were observed by the teacher-researcher and cited by the students in their testimonies.

KEYWORDS:
English language teaching; distance learning; Social Activities; SCHAT; planning