The role of WeQuests in learning a foreign/second language

WebQuest defined as "an inquiry-oriented activity in which some or all of the information that learners interact with comes from resources on the internet. WebQuests motivate both teachers and students to be engaged in the learning process and they also help teachers to cater for students’ different learning styles as they provide different tasks for students to choose from. The teacher works as a facilitator by providing students enough information for them to work on their own. Teacher can upload everything at one time and the students can complete the project by the given deadline. There is no requirement for the teacher to monitor the students all the time, as in a regular class setting.  WebQuests are student-centered as they encourage students’ critical thinking without occupying them by searching for information but to develop and create the task and transform what they already got into something else. WebQuests have changed the way students learn a foreign language in many ways. It has improved the language learning experience, by allowing students to communicate and interact in new ways. This is very beneficial for the learner, as well as the teacher, which takes them out of the traditional learning environment.

The assignments are project-based, so the students have to work towards the completion of the project. The students have access to many resources online and can work together and share ideas. The WebQuest technique involves cooperative learning and forces students to work on projects in groups. The results of its impact in the classroom proved that WebQuest is an important source of inspiration for the teachers, a suitable teaching and learning method and a way for integrating Internet in learning. One of the greatest gains of the WebQuest implementation was obtained in pupils’ motivation and cooperative work. Due to all these advantages most of the teachers decided to extend the use of WebQuest in the future.

As an English language teacher, I will use the WebQuest with my students because WebQuests contribute to increase students' motivation. When students are motivated, they are likely to work in more effort way. In addition, this will help them to be collaborative learners because they will divide the works between them, and will keep working together. Moreover, because they are student-oriented and they motivate students for critical thinking. In my opinion, WebQuest is a new useful teaching method and will attract the students to the course. 

Evaluating Lanternfish Website

One of the websites dedicated to ESL and TEFL is LANTERNFISH, http://bogglesworldesl.com/. The website was created by Chris Gunn; who’s a web and materials designer currently teaching at a university in Korea, Stephen Gordon; an editor and a content creator specialized in business English resource materials and currently teaching at a university in Korea, Cam Lirette; an editor and content creator currently teaching at a university in Korea, and Thomas Lavelle; a writer and content director currently teaching at a university in the United States. The website and its content is maintained and created by a group of ESL teachers in Asia and North America. They do offer contact information for users to email them and ask questions and content contact and the content is owned by the website and it prohibits anyone from redistributing them electronically or otherwise.

LANTERFISH’S aim is to bring free printable ESL material resources to teachers and parents for educational usage. The website offers advertisement that is very distracting and annoying. The website’s content does not expand the imagination or the experience of the user, but it does not promote any bias to gender, race, religion, etc.

The website’s design and information is very confusing and it’s difficult to find specific materials, you need to choose an activity to access the glossary from it which is a hassle and there is no search bar to quickly access material. The text’s font differs and not spaced appropriately, the graphics are not distracting but the whole website feels outdated. The topics and links have the same color which is very confusing and not appealing to young people or children, but the website does load very quickly without any problems and does not require any plug-ins and users do not have to pay any type of fee or offer any personal information.

The website’s title is not appropriate to its purpose, and its content is not easy to read because it’s all blue and feels like it’s melting together. The website includes a good amount of materials that makes visiting it worthwhile, but the content is not presented in an attractive way and there is no search tool to help users find topics easily. Some aspects of the website are updated and some aren't but the spelling and grammar are correct. Links to more information are not provided and the graphics are related but outdated. The websites is dedicated to ESL but there are Spanish and French exercises which aren't relevant to the intended audience, the skills required to use the site’s features and structure aren't easy and a bit challenging, but the viewpoint presented is comprehensible. The content is educational and appropriate for all ages.

The website offers a huge diverse content material for all ages and levels and their needs, but it isn't interactive or engaging and there isn't one book that can include all the content on the website to be compared to.