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.