Dr. Bernie Dodge, says that a WebQuest is .".. an inquiry-oriented activity in which some or all of the information that learners interact with comes from resources on the Internet...". Webquests have been used in one form or another since the Web began to become popular and to be used in instruction with the arrival of the Mosaic browser in 1993. According to what I have read about it, I discovered that it has a major role in many important areas in TEFL/TESL field like activating critical thinking, student-oriented activities, enquiry-oriented language use, cooperative and collaborative learning and Project-based learning.
WebQuest activates the critical thinking of language learners. The way the task is presented in WebQuest and how it is divided into different parts to make students learn how to connect their ideas to find a certain requirement show this clearly. Also, the questions that students have to answer in order to complete the task requires them usually to do certain missions that requires higher level of thinking like information transformation, comparison and brainstorming. Answers of these questions don’t only rely on collecting information but also how to play with it in a way that suits the task’s requirement.
Using WebQuest as a teaching tool in with language learners will make the students the main focus of the learning process and make their learning needs the first priority. Though, it is considered as a student-oriented activity in which the tasks are designed to suit their needs.
The knowledge required in WebQuest activities is based on enquiry-oriented language use. Producing autonomous learners can be achieved by using WebQuest where involvement of students in achieving the required task and giving them the whole responsibility of their learning are main characteristics that can be noticed.
Due to the complexity of WebQuest tasks, group work is required where each member can have a role and mission to do. Thus, it encourages the cooperative and collaborative learning in which learner learns that his/her knowledge has to be shared with others in order to achieve.
Project-based learning (PBL) is a teaching method which provides students with complex tasks based on challenging questions or problems that involve the students' problem solving, decision making and investigative skills. As has already been mentioned, WebQuest tends to be a student-oriented teaching tool, supports inquiry-oriented learning and requires group work which all considered as the basis of project-based learning (PBL).
All and all, WebQuest is a great tool to be used in TEFL/TESL field. It has many wonderful characteristics that make teaching language more interesting which consequently motivates students to learn and explore more.
