Using WebQuest in Teaching and Learning English as a Foreign Language

• Autor(a) principal: Guerreiro, Bruno Jorge Nascimento
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10362/152012
• topic: Ensino de Inglês; Língua estrangeira; WebQuest; Information technologies; Collaborative and cooperative learning; Tecnologias de informação; Ensino colaborativo e cooperativo; Domínio/Área Científica::Humanidades::Línguas e Literaturas; Domínio/Área Científica::Ciências Sociais::Ciências da Educação

WebQuests have become a useful didactic method to explore resources through the use of the Internet, and to guide students in the selection, organization and transformation of information and in the knowledge construction. This study aims at showing the importance of information technologies in the classroom, particularly the use of WebQuests. A case study was carried out between February and June 2020, focusing on 59 students divided in two classes from different grades: - a 7th grade class with 29 students and a 10th grade class with 30 students. The study focused on how these students handled the use of technologies in the classroom and how they interacted during the WebQuest. Particular attention was given to group work organization in a collaborative and cooperative learning environment and to students’ motivation and engagement in their learning and in accomplishing the task. These goals were achieved through class observations, researcher’s notes and self- and hetero-assessments. The findings show that the WebQuest encouraged cooperative and collaborative learning and actively engaged students in the use of technological tools. This was found to be paramount for enhancing students’ motivation to learn English as a foreign language. Additionally, the great majority of students recognized the success of their activity and considered the WebQuest a fun, easy and relevant experience in their learning. All in all, results suggest that WebQuests are an effective methodology to explore the Web’s resources and to guide students to learn collaboratively. Furthermore, they also suggest that WebQuests can be used to work outside the classroom. The singular situation caused by the pandemics showed the potential of using technology and WebQuests to teach English as a Foreign Language.