Università degli Studi di Messina

E-WARP: English – WebAccess and Reading Pathways

Unità di Ricerca: Anthony Baldry, Mariavita Cambria, Ivana Marenzi, Rosalba Rizzo, Maria Grazia Sindoni____________________________________________________Udine, 20 dicembre 2012

GOALS

• ANALYSIS OF YOUNG SICILIAN COMMUNITY IN ORDER TO:– construct a website Italian and English– create a web browser for children and young

communities incorporating audiovisual/multimodal supports

– facilitate online web access and reading practices

THE RESEARCH : 4 PHASES

WP1 A SURVEY

WP2 CORPUS OF WEBSITES: ANNOTATION AND ANALYSIS

WP3 A MOCK-UP OF A WEB BROWSER

WP4 DISSEMINATION

WP1: DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH

• Collecting data in order to test hypotheses • Type of research: survey method• Cross-sectional Survey: information collected in a

single time period to make inferences about a population of interest

• Self-report survey: participants respond to a series of statements or questions about themselves

• Instrument: Questionnaires

WP1 A SURVEY: WHY?

• Foundation for a children’s web browser• Relationship between textual barriers and

sociocultural barriers– Children/young people’s access to website– Specific textual barriers vs websites in English– Multimodal web texts analysis – Socio-cultural analysis– Corpus for specific group ages

QUESTIONNAIRE STUDY ...

• Define the topic and the starting point: the hypothesis

• Selected participants: young people (6-11; 11-15; 15-18)

• Cover letter to Presidi• Questionnaire• Results

SELECTED PARTICIPANTS• Group 1: young people (6-11) approximately 150

– «Istituto Comprensivo n. 14 S. Francesco di Paola»– «Scuola Statale n. 16 Bordonaro»

• Group 2: young people (11-15) approximately 200– «Istituto Comprensivo n. 14 S. Francesco di Paola»– «Scuola Statale n. 16 Bordonaro»

• Group 3: young people (15-18) approximately 200– «Istituto Superiore Minutoli»– «Istituto d’Istruzione Superiore Antonello»

QUESTIONNAIRE FORMAT

• 3 questionnaires• 2 parts:

– 10 closed-ended questions – 5 social cultural background

• Different format for the young community of 6-11 age

COVER LETTER

• Brief explanation of the study• What is being asked of the respondent and

why• Guarantee anonymity and confidentiality

PRETEST QUESTIONNAIRE

• A Pilot Study has been conducted to gather information of deficiencies and suggestions for improving the questionnaires

FURTHER STEPS: DATA ANALYSIS

•Correlation Study•Relationship among independent variables: gender, age, socio-cultural-economic status, interests•Statistical analysis•Report findings

WP2 CORPUS OF WEBSITES: ANNOTATION AND ANALYSIS

• ANNOTATED CORPUS OF WEBSITES IN RELATION TO:– AWARENESS EASE OF TEXTUAL ACCESS TOSPECIFIC

TEXTS– AWARENESS OF SOCIOCULTURAL AND GENRE –

RELATED BARRIERS TO TEXTS– LINGUISTIC DIFFICULTIES

• 50 WEBSITES FOR EACH OF THE AGE GROUPS:– VIRTUAL MUSEUMS (6-11)– ONLINE CLUBS (11-15)– NEW TRAVELLERS WEBSITES (15-18)

ANNOTATED CORPUS OF WEBSITES:YOUNG PEOPLE (6-11)

• VIRTUAL MUSEUMS ANALYSIS – VIRTUAL OR ONLINE GUIDES TO REAL MUSEUMS– ACCESS TO TEXTS– WRITTEN AND VISUAL TEXTS– INDEX OF DIFFICULTY OF SPECIFIC WEBSITES– COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS

VIRTUAL MUSEUMS

ANNOTATED CORPUS OF WEBSITES:YOUNG PEOPLE (11-15)

• ONLINE CLUBS ANALYSIS:– FAN CLUBS– CHILD PROTECTION MINI GENRES– INFORMATION: EXPECTATIONS AND RESULTS– SPECIALIST DOCUMENTS– COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS

ONLINE CLUBS

ANNOTATED CORPUS OF WEBSITES:YOUNG PEOPLE (15-18)

• NEW TRAVELLERS WEBSITES ANALYSIS– ECONOMIC CHANGES AND NEW SISTEMS OF

COMMUNICATION– BLOGS AND FORUMS USED BY COMMUNITIES OF

TRAVELLERS– YOUNG PEOPLE’S ACTUAL AND POTENTIAL

PARTICIPATION– ISOLATION OF SOCIOLINGUISTIC AND CULTURAL

BARRIERS– COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS

NEW TRAVELLERS WEBSITES

WP3 A MOCK-UP OF A WEB BROWSER

• 1° STEP: A WORKING MODEL FOR YOUNG PEOPLE– SIMULATION FOR YOUNG SICILIAN

COMMUNITIES IN EACH OF THE AGE

• 2° STEP: ANALYSIS OF ASSESSMENTS CARRIED OUT BY TEACHERS AND PARENTS

• 3° STEP: REVIEW OF THE VARIOUS ASSESSMENTS RESOUCES

WP4 DISSEMINATION

• FINDINGS IN VOLUMES, INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL AND CONGRESSES

• M.G. Sindoni (2011). Systemic-Functional Grammar and Multimodal Studies. An introduction with text analysis. Como-Pavia: Ibis Editore

• M. Cambria, C. Arizzi, F. Coccetta, Eds (2012). Web Genres aand Web Tools. Como-Pavia: Ibis Editore

• M.G. Sindoni (2012). Speech and Writing in English. A cultural and Linguistic Debate. Firenze: Casa Editrice Le Lettere.