Abstracts Language, Literature, and Linguistic

Negociações de sentido em inglês como língua franca em um intercâmbio virtual na área educacional: Negotiations of meaning in English as a Lingua Franca in a virtual exchange in the educational field

by José Ricardo Bueno da [UNESP] Silva

Due to the emergence and expansion of access to Digital Information and Communication Technologies (DICTs), various projects and collaborative initiatives have propelled practices in technologically mediated environments. The availability of diverse technological learning resources through the internet has facilitated entry into a multicultural and plurilingual universe, connecting people from different linguistic, social, and cultural backgrounds. Situated within this context, the 3 Continents Intercultural Telecollaboration (3CIT) is a virtual exchange project located within the Brazilian Virtual Exchange Program (BRaVE-UNESP), aiming to promote the construction of an intercultural environment for teaching, learning, and research among students from three different continents, providing participants with the opportunity to experience intercultural communication through the use of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF). The general aim of this research was to investigate how participants negotiated and constructed meaning through ELF, exploring the communicative strategies employed to establish communication during activities, as well as their perceptions of the experience. To achieve this objective, the study drew theoretical insights from three pillars: Virtual Exchange (O’Dowd, 2009, 2016, 2018; Salomão, 2018, 2020, 2022), English as a Lingua Franca (Cogo, 2012, 2015; Cogo; Dewey, 2012; Jenkins, 2000, 2009, 2016; Seidlhofer, 2004, 2011), and Negotiation of Meaning (Varonis; Gass, 1985; Smith, 2003). The research methodology and data collection instruments, including an initial questionnaire, recordings of interactions, and a final interview, are qualitative in nature. Data analysis reveals that participants, as users of ELF, engaged proactively in conversations during negotiation moments, seeking understanding and ensuring mutual intelligibility. Instances of collaboration in the construction and negotiation of meanings demonstrate participants’ ability to make use of linguistic and technological resources at their disposal to overcome misunderstandings. It is expected that the findings of this study will contribute to the field of linguistic studies, highlighting the essential role of ELF in multicultural contexts to facilitate communication among speakers with different linguistic and cultural repertoires