La correction dans les environnements informels d’apprentissage. Une enquête sur les portails de Questions/Réponses

Web 2.0 tools and social networks nowadays constitute important assets for autonomous language learning. This essay investigates corrective feedback in Question and Answers portals in order to explore how correction occurs in an informal environment. An analysis of a corpus of about 600 answers shows that the shift from a formal to an informal environment implies a clash between the practice of correction, generally associated with a teacher's authority, and the informal nature of social networks. Such a clash, further enhanced by the scarce interactivity of the Q&A format, seems to be at the origin of an array of strategies developed by members to mitigate the distance between questioners and respondents. The research concludes that the ability to interact in informal online environments should constitute a focus of learner training for autonomy.