Aquisição de léxico em inglês como língua adicional através da mesclagem conceptual em videogames de RPG

Abstract

This research is developed over the subjects introspection and aims to analyze lexical knowledge in English as an additional language developed through the formation and expansion of idealized cognitive models and frames in players schemata during the extensive reading catered by RPG video game, a genre rich in multimodal input. For this, the participants introspection during the game was the main source of data collection, triangulated with data from semi-structured interviews and lexical tests. The participants in this research are beginners in English as an additional language learning. As results, it is presented a proposition of representation of the idealized cognitive models and frames (FAUCONNIER, 1994) developed by the participants during the cognitive processing of the English vocabulary displayed during the phase played, as well as discussions about the processes that led to their developments. This way, we intend to understand how the idealized cognitive models and frames in English are formed and expanded by learners during the act of playing RPG games. In this sense, the cognitive processes of English as an additional language triggered by RPG video games were analyzed, as well as the learning strategies (OXFORD, 1999; 2017; CARDOSO, 2016) applied by the subjects, the conceptual blending (FAUCONNIER, 1997) between idealized cognitive models in the mother tongue and English as an additional language during the game, and the level of contribution of multimodality (KREES; VAN LEEUWEN, 1996; HEMAIS, 2015) in the conceptual blending of these idealized cognitive models. The premise in this research was that the redundancy of information provided by the multimodality present in RPG video games would allow the formulation of hypotheses of idealized cognitive models in the additional language from models already existing in the learner s mother tongue. Such premise was corroborated by the data analyzed, through which it was possible to conclude that the hypotheses elaborated by the apprentices are raised through learning strategies related to the use of multimodality, tested by the learners through the process of conceptual blending and, consequently, proved or reformulated, triggering English as an additional language learning. This study is based on the precepts of Cognitive Linguistics and, specially, of Mental Space Theory and the process of conceptual blending, as well as the state of the art in incidental lexical acquisition, multimodality, teaching and learning through cyberculture and digital technologies, learning strategies and RPG video games