On The Use Of WebQuests And E-Learning In The English As A Foreign Language Classroom

Seminar paper from the year 2018 in the subject Communications - Multimedia, Internet, New Technologies, grade: 2,3, University of Trier, language: English, abstract: In the following, an internet based activity, namely the WebQuest, is going to be observed by analyzing possible risks and benefits and its importance on the very relevant teaching aim of media literacy and competences referring to that. Then, a concrete example of such a task will be shown and an overall conclusion will be drawn in order to answer the initial question of this paper of whether the method of WebQuests is a useful one or not. Additionally, this paper justifies its relevance by the fact that WebQuests were not originally designed for language learning, so that creating one possibly is a challenge but the outcome will hopefully be supporting with regards to developing future WebQuests for the actual usage concerning me being a teacher. Being a modern (English) language teacher means to include the various forms of information technology (IT) available in the 21st century such as computers or even interactive whiteboards. IT can now add valuable extra dimensions to teaching English as a foreign language. Consequently, the usage of IT can definitely improve English language teaching for various reasons. Besides providing teachers with current material for every topic and easily overcoming geographical distance in order to observe relevant cultural aspects of the target language or to interact with native speakers, it is fun and therefore motivating for the students. The main goal of foreign language teaching is the mediation of competences which enable the students to communicate and overcome the language barrier. Concerning possible problems and risks, the time consuming aspect of WebQuests cannot be disregarded. They demand time beforehand and even though they can save teacher s time in the long term, WebQuests need to be nurtured when they are expected to perform over a longer period of time. The hyperlinks providing the learners with the sources need to be checked from time to time which means that WebQuests also need time in the long term.