| Subject: Re: Seminário: WebQuest |
Author:
Junia Braga
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Date Posted: 11:32:25 02/09/03 Sun
In reply to:
Cibele e Miriam
's message, "Seminário: Web Quest" on 09:47:31 02/09/03 Sun
Miriam e Cibele,
Parabéns pelo tema escolhido e pela apresentação do seminário. Um dos meus temas favoritos. A proposta da WebQuest de Dodge (1995) é bastante interessante e gostaria de disponibilizar para o grupo uma parte do ‘paper’ que fiz como parte do mini curso do Prof Dr Mike Levy minitrado na conferencia da ALAB, UFMG . Escolhi trechos que podem auxiliar em nossas discussões e contribuírem como respostas para algumas perguntas postadas por vocês. Elaborei uma WebQuest para o programa de Tandem que coordenei e caso alguém tenha interesse posso disponibilizar também.Outros colegas deste curso participaram do mini curso o que enriquecerá mais ainda nossas discussões.
INTEGRATING THE WORLD WIDE WEB AND LANGUAGE LEARNING
Junia de Carvalho Fidelis Braga
Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brasil
The Internet and Language Learning
The impact of the World Wide Web on TESL and TEFL has made researchers aware of the needs of integrating the power of the Web with language teaching. Many studies (Paiva, 2001; March 1998; Warschauer, 1995) have pointed out the potentiality of the Web for language learning. Levy (1997) has emphasized the need to correlate theory and practice in CALL and provide educators with a framework for teaching and learning with technology.
The Internet offers us teachers the opportunity of centering teaching on the student, and learners the opportunity of acquiring the target language by engaging in activities that are similar to the ones they will experience in the real world outside the classroom.
However, Warschauer (1997) makes some recommendations for educators using the Internet:
• Consider carefully your goals: little is gained by adding episodic Internet activities to the class;
• Think integration: use learning activities that create sufficient linguistic and cognitive demand on the student in order to get maximum benefit from Internet exchanges.
• Don’t underestimate Complexity: using the Internet has its difficulties;
• Provide necessary support: by building technologically training sessions into the class schedule and by assigning students to work in pairs or groups, so that they can provide assistance to each other.
• Involve students in decision making: it is especially important to balance the interests of students and teachers.
The role of the teacher in the Web environment
Despite common suppositions, teachers can have a very active participation in the learners’ process of acquiring a second or foreign language in the Web environment.
One of the most relevant roles of the teacher in the learners’ process of developing skills in L2 is to make the linkage between the Web and language learning. Teachers take on the responsibility for guiding learners to the most appropriate tasks for acquiring the target language.
In evaluating the kind of tasks, some questions should be raised: Which tasks lead to the development of language skills? Where can teachers find guidelines or models for designing such tasks?
Web Tasks and Language Learning
Instructional web tasks can be the key features that integrate the Web and language learning. One of the critical factors is setting objectives and stimulating students’ thinking whilst involving them in decision making, as found in Warschauer’s recommendations.
Another critical factor is the ‘negotiating of meaning’ Salaberry (1996) reminds us that the ‘negotiation of meaning’ that occurs in normal conversations is the key to the learning process for a second or foreign language.
Chapelle (1999) also forwards our efforts in bringing theory into practice when she states:
A communicative task requires learners to accomplish something through the construction and interpretation of linguistic meaning. […] the topic of a communicative task is some content other than the linguistic forms of the target language, because communicative goals require learners to use language to do something other than learn language.
Dodge, the creator of the WebQuest model argues that students have to be oriented when it comes to using the Web as a source of information.
Chao and Harson-Smith (1999) point out that, although the language of technology is important, what is crucial is the understanding of pedagogy and the relationship among teaching, learning and technology.
When using strategies to bring the WWW into the classroom, Chao and Harson-Smith state that one has to consider the eight conditions for optimal language learning:
1-Learners have opportunities to interact and negotiate meaning.
2- Learners interact in the target language with an authentic audience.
3-Learners are involved in authentic tasks.
4-Learners are exposed to and encouraged to produce varied and creative
language.
5- Learners have enough time and feedback.
6-Learners are guided to attend mindfully to the learning process.
7-Learners work in an atmosphere with an ideal stress/anxiety level.
8-Learner autonomy is supported.
Again, the teacher needs to become an active participant in the learners’ process of learning by analyzing the critical factors for effective language learning tasks and devising the means of merging these factors with the eight conditions in the language classroom.
The WebQuest Model and Language Learning
According to Dodge (1995), a WebQuest is ‘an inquiry-oriented activity in which some or all the information that learners interact with comes from resources on the internet’. The rationale behind the WebQuest created by Dodge is to motivate students to develop their thinking skills. March (1998) argues that built into the WebQuest process are the strategies of cognitive psychology and constructivism:
First, the question posed to students cannot be answered simply by collecting and spitting back information. A WebQuest forces students to transform information into something else: a cluster that maps out the main issues, a comparison, a hypothesis, a solution, and etc
March also asserts that in order to engage students in high-level cognition, WebQuests use scaffolding or prompting which has been shown to facilitate more advanced thinking. By breaking up task into meaningful ‘chunks’ and asking students to undertake specific subtasks, a WebQuest can walk them through the kind of thinking process that more expert learners would typically use.
Dodge, suggests that WebQuests should have at least the following parts:
• Introduction in which stages and background information should be set.
• A task which should be doable and interesting.
• A set of information sources.
• A description of the process the learners should go through in accomplishing the task.
• Some guidance on how to organize the information acquired.
• A conclusion that brings closure to the quest.
Dodge considers at least two levels of WebQuests that should be distinguished from one another: a short term WebQuest which is usually designed to be completed in one to three classes; and a long term WebQuest which can be completed between one week to a month. The instructional goals of the two kinds of activities are different. A short term WebQuest aims at knowledge acquisition and interaction as in Dimension 2 in Marzano’s (1992) Dimension of Thinking model:
When students are learning new information, they must be guided in relating the new knowledge to what they already know, organizing information, and then making it part of their long term memory. When students are acquiring new skills and processes, they must learn a model (or step of steps), then shape the skill or process to make it efficient and effective for them, and finally internalize or practice the skill so that they can perform it easily.
The instructional goal of a long WebQuest is what Marzano calls Dimension 3: Extend and Refine Knowledge:
Learning does not stop with acquiring and integrating knowledge. Learners develop in depth understanding through the process of extending and refining their knowledge (e.g., by making new distinctions, clearing up misconceptions, and reaching conclusions.) they rigorously analyze what they have learned by applying reasoning process that will help them extend and refine the information.
Dodge proposes that after completing a long WebQuest, a learner will have analyzed a body of knowledge deeply, transformed it in some way, and demonstrated an understanding of the material by creating something that others can respond to, on-line or off-line.
In designing a WebQuest, the task is the most important part. The task should be insightful that is, it should lead learners to the understanding of its steps and the understanding of the task as a whole. Also, it should be interesting enough to motivate learners to the accomplishment of the various steps towards its ultimate objective.
Conclusion:
Bringing strategies into the classroom can contribute substantially to integrate teaching, learning, and technology. Using Web tasks as an arena for these strategies can be significant for the learners’ development. Nevertheless, it’s part of the teacher’s role to design these tasks around an instructional goal.
The WebQuest model, its goals, and its organization can surely be considered a way of engaging our students in challenging, interesting tasks aiming at the development of thinking skills as well as language skills. In the process, teachers can participate very actively in the learners’ acquisition of a second or foreign language in the Web environment.
References:
Choa & Harson-Smith (1999). Smith.CALL Environments: Computer-Enhanced Language Learning Environments: An Overview. In J.Egbert & E.Harson (eds), TESOL, pp.1-13.
Chapelle, C. (1999).CALL Environments: Theory and Research:Investigation of “Authentic” Language Learning Tasks In J. Egbert & E. Harson (eds), TESOL,pp101-115.
Dodge,B.(1995) Some Thoughts About WebQuests.
http://www.edweb.sdus.edu/webquests/material.htm
Levy, M.(1997).Computer –Assisted Language Learning. Oxford:Claredon.
March,T.(1998) Why WebQuests?, an introduction.
http://www.ozline.com/webquests/info.html
Marzano,(1992) What is Dimensions of Learning and How is it Used?
http://www.mcrel.org/products/dimensions/whathow.asp
Paiva,V.(2001). A WWW e o Ensino de Inglês. In :Revista brasileira de linguistica aplicada.vol 1,pp.93-116 .
Salaberry,M.R.(1996).A Theoretical Foundation for Development of Pedagogical Tasks in Computer Mediated Communication. CALISCO Journal,vol.14. no1.
Warschauer, M. (1995).E-mail For English Teaching. Alexandria, VA: TESOL Publications.
Warschauer,M. The Internet for English Teaching: Guidelines for Teachers. The Internet TESL Journal,Vol III, no10, October 1997.
http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/
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