WebQuests - a historical but useful tool for your classroom

Task-based language teaching (TBLT) is a popular pedagogic approach and used by many teachers nowadays. It allows students to build up their ideas without restrictions and expressing their point of views with their unique style of expressions and wordings regardless of the accuracy in grammar, vocabulary or other lexical features in writing.

However, I know it's quite challenging for a novice teacher - maybe like you, to design a TBLT lesson as you need to think of class contents in different task stages. If you still have no ideas, you may get your inspiration from a number of WebQuests in The QuestGarden. Although WebQuests is a kind of technology that seldom be used nowadays, still, the inquiry-orientated activity in each WebQuests can bring you idea on the development of your lesson plan.

Recently, I have an Intermediate ESL class with my students with the aid of this WebQuests - An English Holiday and my students enjoy it a lot!😎 - So now I want to share it to all of you.

The task in this WebQuests is that you need to plan your trip with creating a travel brochure and a detailed city map with two other friends and a parent, based on different interests of them. In the Introduction part, it gives the basic information of England.

Introduction

In the Task part, it gives the context and what students need to do in the task. Also, it mentioned several areas that students should focus on when working on the travel brochure and maps.

Task

In the Process part, it provides a guideline on finishing the travel brochure and maps. It divides into three parts so students can follow the instructions step-by-step. Also, some references, for example, information of the tourist spots, transports etc. are provided in this part as well. It will help students' a lot on choosing suitable information for their tasks if they have limited knowledge on England.

Process

In the Evaluation part, it gives clear instructions on what aspects will be assessed and the requirement of the work, so students can have a clear understanding on what is expected from teacher.

Evaluation

Finally, in the Conclusion part, there is a link that provides extra information about England. I like this feature as it can let students have a thorough understanding on England if they have a strong interest on knowing more about England after the tasks.

Conclusion

Although WebQuests is a historical tools and it can rarely be found in ICT context, still, it is useful in language class. With an interesting and relaxing topic (just like my example - the topic is related to travelling), students will be more engaged in class. Also, the funny group tasks can arouse their creativity and encourage sharing idea with each other. It may help you to save time in the material preparation, since you can choose to use the content inside the WebQuests, or modify it based on your students' English level.

This time I will recommend this tool to teachers working in senior secondary schools or adult English institutions, since the interface of WebQuests is quite formal and not really eye-catching. It will be quite dull and boring if it is applied in junior students' classroom. Also, it requires a relatively high level of computer literacy, compared with teaching tools I introduced in previous posts. If your computer skill is fundamental, then I will advise you to choose another tools with user-friendly interfaces and functions.
Lastly, here is a video about how you can make your own WebQuests. You can take a look and be more familiar with WebQuests. Enjoy!😊