” The role of WeQuests in learning a foreign/second language”

Really, I feel like I live in another world after each class for this course(EDU 401). Every week I learn a new thing and a smart thing. I really enjoy in this class.

I learned this class a new technology that I can use it with my student when I become a teacher. It is Web Quest. The term Web Quest has been defined as “Inquiry-oriented activities in which most or all of the information used by learners is drawn from the Web”(Mosaic 1993). The use of Web Quest in language teaching is better than using the traditional ways of language learning and teaching.

 It has several advantages. One of these advantages could be that the use of Web Quest improves the students’ critical thinking. They will be encountered with lots of issues that they have to analyze and solve. They have to gather information, analyze, decide the suitable one, ask questions and summarize what they find.

Using Web Quest as a teaching tool in with language learners will make the students the main focus of the learning process and make their learning needs the first priority. Though, it is considered as a student-oriented activity in which the tasks are designed to suit their needs.

The knowledge required in Web Quest activities is based on enquiry-oriented language use. Producing autonomous learners can be achieved by using Web Quest where involvement of students in achieving the required task and giving them the whole responsibility of their learning are main characteristics that can be noticed.

Web Quests promote collaboration when students learn how to collaborate with their classmates, with students in other classrooms, or with students halfway around the world. They can also contact area experts by using e-mail, the Internet, and video conferencing.

Project-based learning (PBL), one of the enduring approaches to education that supports the use of web quests, is focused on the learner constructing meaning and knowledge from an assigned activity. PBL gives a variety of learning styles and multiple forms of intelligence have a real world authentic orientation. It allows students to choice, encourages higher-order thinking, and uses hand-on experiences and various modes of communication. It makes Students responsible for their own learning and the teacher's role is that of a facilitator.

Finally, I will use web quest with my students to let them feel what I am feeling now. To let them depend on their selves. To let them collaborate with each other. To let them more improvement. To explore the hobbies that they may have. To let them know how they search about anything that they really need. To let them know how they can choose the right informations from the web.