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The Role of Web Quests in Learning a Foreign/Second Language

        A web quest is a lesson format in which all the information the students will learn comes from the web. It can be created using different programs, including a simple word document includes links to websites where they can find the information they need to learn. A web quest is used for different learning purposes and different levels.  The learners who are involves on the web-quest task has the opportunity to learn, search, read, rewrite, reflect and provide a valid information about whatever they need to learn.

            Web quest are designed to guide the students and show them the way on how they can take out information they need from different resources which are giving to them by the teacher. Web quest can contains activates and tasks which helps the students to be self-educated with the help of the teacher, on other words the learners are learning independently.

               Teachers can make a web quest for cooperative purposes.       For example: the teacher provides a task with a chosen topic then the teacher asks the students to find out more about that topic by surfing the sources that the teacher has provide them with, to come up with the information’s needed. Also The teacher can provide a complex tasks based on challenging questions or problems that involve the students' problem solving, decision making, investigative skills. The students according to this need to find answers, evidences, materials, solutions, recommendations, ideas and hypothesizes that are not available in the sources they have been given to improve their critical thinking skills. And this can be considered as Anther sample of web-quest cooperative work that is called project-Based learning (PBL).

             Finally, as a future EFL teacher, I will use Web quests with  my future EFL students in Saudi Arabia. Because it is a very helpful tool to be used in the learning process for both students and teachers. For the teachers it’s going to save their time so they can spend that time helping the students and guide them. Students will be improved in different areas like: reading, writing and even their critical thinking skills. They will learn how to take out information they need with out copying from the net.

Web Site Evaluation

 

 

 

 

 

Website URL 

 

            It is an activity website for ESL/EFL (English students). The website URL is http://a4esl.org/. This web site includes a variety of quizzes, tests, exercises and puzzles with different levels to help students learn English whether as second or foreign language. It provides a huge number of languages, which makes it helpful all around the world not only in a specific country or continent and it can help people to learn not only English but other languages too.  

 

        It's easy to use this web site because it has many sections and every section presents a skill, exercise type, which begins from easy level till it, reaches the difficult level. This web site is effective for vocabulary and grammar. Having different levels of language exercises makes it very useful. It gives feedback while taking the quiz. If one answer is wrong it tells you what is the right one and then before you finish the quiz you will be asked the questions, which you answered them wrong. At the end of every quiz the student will be given a percentage out of 100 of their performance. 

          

          The things that make this web site very helpful are, it is easy to use, and it’s free, the way quizzes are presented. It can be opened on the iPhone or iPod. It provides the students with different kinds of online dictionary to help them improve and search for the words meaning in an easy way. To improve this web site the quizzes should be corrected at the end not while the students are answering. Then they can see the right answers and they can be graded to know their level.

As a future  English language teacher if i want it to provide my students with a website like this or even a sources, I will taking into account that:-

 

1- web is real.

2- web is valid.

3-web is based on my students need.

4- web is attractive and written with highly Professional ways.

5- web is authentic.

6- web which can assess them with a feedback.

7- web for all the skills.

8- web for students special needs.

9-web with quizzes.

 

 

Written By : Ala’a Al-abbadi & Reham Hossan.