The role of WebQuests in learning a foreign/second language

WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented activity that uses resources on the World Wide Web. WebQuests pull together the most effective instructional practices into one integrated student activity. WebQuests are interesting and motivating to teachers and students. An effective WebQuest develops critical thinking skills and often includes a cooperative learning component. WebQuest is “an inquiry-oriented lesson format in which most or all of the information that learners work with comes from the Web”.

By using WebQuest students will engage in higher-order thinking and develop authentic learning products and problem solving skill that they can share with the real world. WebQuests can help students meet standards focused on critical-thinking and analysis skills, and may be particularly useful for social studies and science. By using multimedia, WebQuests also help with multiple intelligence work. Alternative kinds of assessment can be used to judge the results of WebQuest projects. And, obviously, WebQuests are one way to use the Internet in education. WebQuests are promoted as meaningful because they allow higher-order thinking skills to be applied to real world tasks. WebQuest enhanced problem-solving skills, higher order thinking, motivation, creativity, critical thinking, active learning, connection to authentic contexts and assisted in bridging the theory to practice gap.

Webquest tend to be student-oriented and collaborative, with students engaged in constructivist activities resulting in shared learning experiences and new knowledge based on enquiry oriented language use and Web research skills.

WebQuests also incorporate cooperative and collaborative learning, since students work on projects in groups. These concepts can play a role in teaching with WebQuests. WebQuests can also help students meet standards focused on critical-thinking and analysis skills, and may be particularly useful for social studies and science. By using multimedia, WebQuests also help with multiple intelligence work. Alternative kinds of assessment can be used to judge the results of WebQuest projects. And, obviously, WebQuests are one way to use the Internet in education. WebQuests are tools, not educational theories, so they can be used in virtually any classroom with appropriate computer access.

WebQuest and Project-based Learning: Project Based Learning is an instructional approach built upon authentic learning activities that engage student interest and motivation. These tasks are designed to: answer a question or solve a problem and generally reflect the types of learning and work people do in the everyday world outside the classroom. It engages students in learning essential knowledge through an extended, student-influenced inquiry process structured around complex, authentic questions and carefully designed products and tasks.