YouTube como ferramenta de apoio no ensino não-formal do inglês

Abstract

In a time when YouTube evolved from a simple video repository to a platform with interaction features similar to those of social networks, it is pertinent to ask how useful can this platform be for learning English as a foreign language. Starting from a qualitative content analysis of videos and comment sections of five YouTube channels, an attempt was made to understand in what way YouTube can be useful for the informal learning of English. To that end, data corpus available in the several channels of the platform dedicated to English teaching was used. After treating the data in WebQDA and analyzing the data, conclusions suggest that YouTube is, in fact, an English learning tool appreciated by people from initial levels of English proficiency. Some items that need improvement were also identified, as suggestions to the producers/creators of the channels, in order to make them more useful tools to learn English.