MA ELTAM Professional Practice Week 3 The World Wide Web as a language teaching and learning resource

Stage1980s–1990s: Communicative CALL 21st century: Integrative CALL TechnologyPCsMultimedia and Internet English-teaching Paradigm Communicative Language Teaching Content-based, ESP / EAP View of languageCognitive (a mentally- constructed system) Socio-cognitive (developed in social interaction) View of learningLearners have different learning styles Constructivism Principal Use of Computers Communicative exercisesAuthentic Discourse Principal objective And fluencyAnd agency Computer RoleTOOLMESSENGER Based on the Three Stages of CALL + Benson’s Role of the Computer

Learning Types (Bloom et al.)  Cognitive  Knowledge  Affective  Feelings and emotions  Psychomotor  Manual and physical

Cognitive Domain - lower levels of thinking skills  KNOWLEDGE  drawing out factual answers, testing recall and recognition  COMPREHENSION  translating, interpreting and extrapolating  APPLICATION  to situations that are new, unfamiliar or have a new slant for students

Cognitive Domain - higher levels of thinking skills  ANALYSIS  breaking down into parts, forms  SYNTHESIS  combining elements into a pattern not clearly there before  EVALUATION  according to some set of criteria, and state why

Constructivism  Schema Theory  existing background knowledge  determines interpretation of new experiences  enables us to make predictions  Knowledge is organised  We recognise patterns  The learner constructs knowledge making use of what s/he already knows  The learner is not an ‘empty vessel’  Collaboration, negotiation of meaning and reflection are key for learning

History of WebQuests  Started 1995 (now ten years old!)  San Diego State University  Bernie Dodge and Tom March  Part of teacher training course  Now a large and growing site with many examples for all areas of education Now a large and growing site with many examples for all areas of education

Definition of WebQuests  “A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented activity in which most or all of the information used by learners is drawn from the Web. WebQuests are designed to use learners' time well, to focus on using information rather than looking for it, and to support learners' thinking at the levels of analysis, synthesis and evaluation.” Dodge

WebQuests and constructivism  “ Built into the WebQuest process are the strategies of cognitive psychology and constructivism. First, the question posed to students can not 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, etc. ” March 1998

Scaffolding  “ In order to engage students in higher level cognition, WebQuests use scaffolding or prompting which has been shown to facilitate more advanced thinking…  By breaking the task into meaningful "chunks" and asking students to undertake specific sub- tasks, a WebQuest can step them through the kind of thinking process that more expert learners would typically use..” March 1998

WebQuest essentials 1.Introduction 2.Task 3.Sources 4.Description of Process Steps 5.Guidance 6.Conclusion

WebQuest Taskonomy Retelling Compilation Mystery Journalistic Design Creative Product  Consensus Building  Persuasion  Self-Knowledge  Analytical  Judgement  Scientific

WebQuest scaffolding Reception Scaffolding –to help the students get started Transformation Scaffolding – to help the students transform the information Production Scaffolding –to help the students show what they have gained

WebQuest Training  T-spider T-spider  WebQuest page WebQuest page  How to write Great WebQuests How to write Great WebQuests

TalenQuests  Dutch initiative to include language aspects to WebQuests  st/english/index.html?mnndx=13 st/english/index.html?mnndx=13

Example of a WebQuest  Get into groups of 4  Go to uest-hs.html uest-hs.html  Read the Introduction  Complete the task  Think about:  Pedagogical Approach  Level of Technology  Role of the Computer  Negotiation of Meaning

Discussion Papers  Philip Benz - WebQuests for Language Learning  grenoble.fr/english/tice/en-webquests.htm grenoble.fr/english/tice/en-webquests.htm

Evaluation Critieria  Validity of source (author/ publisher/sponsor..)  Purpose  Accuracy  General appearance  Ease of use  Interest  Pedagogical potential

Validity of source (author/ publisher/sponsor..) Was the site made by an individual or a company? If a company, how well-known are they? Is it likely that the site has been checked for quality by anyone? Is it possible to see the source of the ideas and the activities on the site? Is the content of the site likely to be original?

Purpose Is this site designedto prepare students for a particular exam? Is this site designedto advertise commercial materials? Is this site designed to promote a particular method of teaching? Is this site targeted at a particular group of learners?

Accuracy Is the spelling on this site correct? Are there any grammar mistakes on this site? Are there any grammar ‘rules’ given and if so do I agree with them? Are the facts and figures generally correct?

General appearance Is the site pleasant to look at? Are the graphics in harmony with the topic or ‘just for show’? Are the fonts easy to read? Do the colours go well together? Does the screen seem clear or cluttered?

Ease of use Is it easy to see what the site is about? Is it easy to see what I have to do? If I move to different pages is it easy to get back to where I started? Is it possible to contact the authors and if so how easy is it?

Interest Is the level appropriate for my students? Are the topics suitable for my students? Are the activities interesting / motivating for my students? How much choice of activity does the student get?

Pedagogical potential Is this a site for teaching or revising language? What skills are taught or practised? What knowledge (grammar rules / vocabulary / cultural information) is taught or practised? What seem to be the assumptions about language and learning behind the activities on the site? Can the students work alone or does the teacher need to facilitate the use of the site?