Exploring WebQuest: Off to Oz

http://www.xtec.cat/cirel/02/webquests/english/3index2.html

What is it about?                                                                    

It’s a WebQuest introducing Australia to the learners. By using the WebQuest, learners learn through tasks. Instead of looking for the information without appropriate direction, students use the information provided or selected by the WebQuest designers to complete the tasks. In this WebQuest, learners can find out more about the culture and lifestyle in Australia. There are also tasks for practicing English reading, speaking, and writing.  

Why is it good to language learning?                                     

1. The questions in the task connect students’ background knowledge with the new information they are going to learn, lead students to use reading skills including skimming and scanning, and cultivate students ability of comparing and transforming information.
2. With tasks relating to students’ real life, this WebQuest raises students’ learning motivation.
3. The tasks include group work, which gives students a chance to learn through collaboration and negotiation meanings.
4. Various types of writing tasks are provided, including writing a postcard and creating a brochure.
5. The patterns that can be used in an interview are provided to scaffold students’ interviewing skills.
6. Authentic reading materials are provided.

How can it be used?                                                               

1. There are a number of tasks in this WebQuest, and we can choose some of them according to our time and students’ English level.
2. We can also assign different tasks for students at different levels.

What are the limitations?                                                      

1. The authentic reading material from the websites provided by this WebQuest might be still too hard for intermediate students.
2. Students’ ability of paraphrasing and transforming information needs to be trained or they might just copy and paste words from the Internet.

Here are more WebQuest resources:                                                

http://www.fi.muni.cz/ICT4ELT/websites/intermediate/webquests.html