Teacher's page
We have chosen this particular topic for two reasons. The first one is that we wanted to suggest an interesting and stimulating subject to the eyes of our pupils. Motivation is in fact essential for the success of any given activity. Secondly, we wanted our pupils to investigate a cultural topic. In fact, all languages live in historical, geographical and cultural contexts that are worth being introduced to the learners.
This webquest has been designed for beginners, who have nearly completed their first year of English. As stated in the Secondary School Programme, at the end of the school year the pupils should have reached the A2 level of the European Portfolio of Languages. However, this webquest can be easily used for and adapted to higher levels.
As stated in "Process", the pupils have 180 minutes to complete the tasks. However, certain factors such as the pupils' ability to surf the Internet and their level of understanding can influence the exact amount of time requested to finish the webquest.
This webquest has been designed to achieve the following goals*:
To improve the pupils' abilities to visit different websites and improve their computer skills in general.
To improve the pupils' reading skills, in particular the ability of skimming and scanning.
To organise the work in groups efficiently, in order to achieve the task as fast as possible.
To improve the pupils' organisational skills by creating a brochure.
To improve their ability to structure an oral presentation.
*the goals are in chronological order and not in order of importance.
Here is some useful advice:
Pre-activities are of great help:they raise the students' interest and challenge them with difficult words.
Make sure your pupils are familiar with authentic material; this is very important for the webquest's successful outcome.
It's a good idea to keep up a competition game, with prizes to be won; this will ensure the pupils' undivided attention without a drop in their motivational flow. You can decide whether to involve your pupils in the final evaluation or whether to do it yourself.
Considering
that computers are becoming a useful tool for language learning, here are some
web sites that you can visit for extra activities.
http://www.macmillanitalia.it/giochi/giochi.html
http://www.onestopenglish.com/Culture/Web-Quest/webquest.htm
http://www.coralquest.com/anagramarama/
You can find the keys to the various activities through the following link: Keys (pdf)
You can download the pdf version of this webquest through the following link: Webquest (pdf)
Any comments are strongly appreciated to improve our webquest. Please, e-mail your impressions:
Teachers (pontir@yahoo.com, helen.bang@bluewin.ch, gabriellaherold@bluemail.ch)
