| dc.description.abstract | A smartphone or a tablet allows us to spread up the borders of the school and
dissolve the concrete walls of the classroom. It has been in this environment that had
arisen the necessity to analyze and come up with improvements related to the
language of the applications related to language teaching, once the applications
could have been widely benefited by the semiotic resources (SR). The research
problem has aimed to answer the question: how does the Compositional Analysis
(CA) about the multimodality of signs help us to identify facilitator semiotic resources
for ubiquitous learning of English in small screen devices? For such, there have been
used the premises of Kress, Leeuwen, Eco, Peirce, Mayer among others. Therefore,
during the survey of the state of the art, it was observed the necessity to design a
pedagogical app which supports the intended research. The objective of this study
has been to analyse semiotic resources which intensify the interest, motivation and
engagement of ubiquitous learning of English through pedagogical apps used in
small screen mobile devices. We have searched to list potential semiotic resources to
be investigated to the purpose of teaching and learning English with the help of small
screen devices. In addition, the objects of the study have also been selected among
the aforementioned semiotic resources and it has been examined throughout the use
of an app made up of two different versions of semiotic modes if there were or not
contributions to English teaching. After that, a list of guidelines has been prepared to
be followed, with a view to app production based on an evaluation of the
aforementioned application. The study has been characterised as an applied
research and it has been mainly qualitative. The study counted on the participation of
12 students of the Philosophy Major who were taking the Instrumental English class
at The Catholic University of Pernambuco (UNICAP). Two versions with different
semioses were presented in the application named The Maze: a word hunt, which is
a product of the study. Version A: considering the selected semiotic resources
complying with the Compositional Analisis (CA) in The Grammar of Visual Design
(GVD). Version B: not taking into account the selected semiotic resources complying
with the CA in The GVD. By the end, the subjects indicated that, among the semiosis
which were studied in still and moving images, the SR related to angle, plane,
diagonal lines, neutral background, eye direction, framework, above all spatial
arrangement, salience and framing intensify the interest, motivation and engagement
in learning. The result has given support to the designing of the guidelines to be
followed with a view to app production in order to help the teaching of English. | eng |
