Learning English through Tasks--WebQuests

Do you like co-op games? Do you enjoy winning the game through cooperation? I suppose 'WebQuest' gives you the same thrill of working together to accomplish a task.

What is 'WebQuest'? 

Well, it is a platform where learners improve their cognitive thinking in the various fields through diverse interesting tasks as well as sub-tasks and making use of the web. 

Thus, 'WebQuest' can be utilized in EFL learning, specifically Task-based learning when learners focus on the meaning and outcome of the task and acquire linguistic knowledge after completing the task successfully. 

Today I would like to show my favourite 'WebQuest' to explore how it works in the English classroom. 👇👇

Weddings Around the World

http://questgarden.com/21/62/2/060406105822/index.htm

Practice English by building up wedding plans. 💑💒Surprising idea, huh? 

How does it activate the cognitive process? 

💕In process of Student Page, students are assigned to multiple roles with corresponding resources and asked to compare and contrast handy information. 

E.g. They have to think of:

• 'What role does religion play?'
• 'After all of the plans have been presented, the groups will reconvene to compare and contrast wedding customs here and new wedding customs we have just learned about'

Students in this case are able to discover new about the assigned countries by comparing them with their previous experiences.

💕Some steps require a combination and development of their knowledge. 

💕In post-task, students need to write a paper to answer a few questions, which include:

• 'why do similarities/differences exist?'  
• 'What kind of wedding would you like to have?  Why?'
• ... 

In this step, they have to evaluate other plans and consider the work done by the person who has the same responsibility. The answer to these questions also presents their judgement with clues to support their ideas and they can examine personal options at the same time.

How are these relevant to language learning?

💕Although students mainly focus on tasks, their language ability will also be tested. This is demonstrated in the evaluation of the Student Page, where you can see part of the assessment is for writing.

💕 On Teacher Page, the potential purposes become clear: 

The tasks are designed for students to apply linguistic knowledge.

How do teachers use it in ELF teaching? 

If teachers take full advantage of the Student Page and Teacher Page, it will greatly help with English teaching. 

💕Student Page

We can learn from this Wedding WebQuest that an attractive introduction, natural flow between parts, distinct division of process, clear rubric and overtness of tasks in conclusion are significant. 

More importantly, this WebQuest explains the process detailly and clearly. What does it do?

1. Draw attention to relevant knowledge and provide resources

2. Different roles are easy to understand what they are responsible for in this task

The design of the Student Page is significant for lesson operation, so teachers should better describe tasks, processes and assessments as clear as possible. 

💕Teacher Page

I think this page is basically for teachers to make a plan. In this WebQuest, a general process is shown in 'introduction'; target learners and teacher's focus during the lesson are respectively put in the 'learners' and 'standards' page. 

Limitations

1. The assessment tells us what would be the best performance to get 5 points, but how to tell the differences among 1,2, 3 and 4? 😮😵The rubric can be more specific. 

2. Tasks are time-consuming, whether teachers and students are able to experience the whole task within a limited time. If not, the effort of making this WebQuest would probably be in vain, wouldn't it? 😩