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
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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; 1115; 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.