Energy Sources WebQuest

19
© RPinner 2010 Energy Sources WebQuest Student Worksheet 1 Energy Sources WebQuest In this lesson you will: Learn specific vocabulary relating to energy production Conduct web-based research to learn more about types of energy production Give a 10-20 minute presentation about how a certain type of energy is produced. Practice explaining a process and listening to understand a process Have a debate about renewable and non-renewable energy sources Write a 1,500 word essay about sustainable energy Pre-Task What ways of producing electrical energy can you think of? How many ways are there to produce energy? What are the names of the different types? Work with a partner to brainstorm as much information as you can. You have 5 minutes. Use the space below. Energy types Nuclear energy

description

A WebQuest for English Language Learners to find out more about alternative energy sources, complete with detailed teacher's notes and a rationale. Submitted as part of an MA in Applied Linguistics and ELT from Kings' College London.

Transcript of Energy Sources WebQuest

Page 1: Energy Sources WebQuest

© RPinner 2010 Energy Sources WebQuest Student Worksheet 1

Energy Sources WebQuest In this lesson you will:

Learn specific vocabulary relating to energy production Conduct web-based research to learn more about types of energy production Give a 10-20 minute presentation about how a certain type of energy is produced. Practice explaining a process and listening to understand a process Have a debate about renewable and non-renewable energy sources Write a 1,500 word essay about sustainable energy

Pre-Task

What ways of producing electrical energy can you think of? How many ways are there to produce energy? What are the names of the different types? Work with a partner to brainstorm as much information as you can. You have 5 minutes. Use the space below.

Energy types

Nuclear energy

Page 2: Energy Sources WebQuest

© RPinner 2010 Energy Sources WebQuest Student Worksheet 2

Vocabulary matching

Match the pictures to the type of energy from the box. The first one has been done for you. Write a brief description of each type of energy production

Energy Type Description Nuclear power

Geothermal power

Solar power

Hydro power

Fossil fuel

Wind power

Use the space in the table to add any other types you hear about during the discussion. Your teacher will now give you a card which details the type of energy production you will research and produce a presentation about

Picture 2

Picture 3

Picture 1

Picture 4

Picture 5

5 fossil fuel nuclear geothermal solar hydro wind

Picture 6

Page 3: Energy Sources WebQuest

© RPinner 2010 Energy Sources WebQuest Student Worksheet 3

WebQuest

You are now going to use the internet to research about energy sources Write the name of your teams’ energy production method here: _______________________ You only have one session in which to use the computer to research. After that you will prepare the presentation to give to your classmates. If you need to find any other information you will have to use your own time outside of class. Your presentation must include the following information about your energy type:

You need to explain in accurate detail how it works. What is the process of producing energy in this way?

You need to explain the advantages of producing energy in this way You also need to explain the disadvantages of this method If there is any new vocabulary specific to this method you will need to explain it for the class

Is it renewable or non-renewable? Additional – you should also attempt to learn in your research how efficient this source of energy is. Does it produce a lot of energy from a small amount of effort? Is it expensive or cheap? What are the dangers involved? Which countries are using this type of energy? Where are the power stations located? Here are some useful links: http://www.darvill.clara.net/altenerg/index.htm http://www.edfenergy.com/sustainability/index.shtml http://www.re-energy.ca/ http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/ http://www.energy.gov/energysources/index.htm http://www.ifpaenergyconference.com/ http://www.culturechange.org/alt_energy.htm Be sure to make a note of any other useful sites that you use so that you can reference1 them correctly. Before you can go into the computer room to begin researching you should complete the project timeline below to make sure you use your time effectively.

1 Use the Harvard Referencing System. For more information see http://libweb.anglia.ac.uk/referencing/harvard.htm

Page 4: Energy Sources WebQuest

© RPinner 2010 Energy Sources WebQuest Student Worksheet 4

Project timeline

This timeline is very basic and only outlines the main stages. With your partner use the back of this sheet to add more detail to the timeline and decide who will be responsible for what in your group. Use the questions below to help structure your project plan. You do not need to include the items from day 3 in the plan.

Who will research the procedure? Who will research the advantages and disadvantages? What other information will you include in your presentation and who is responsible for each bit?

How long do you need to prepare a presentation? Will you be including a handout? Who will present which sections? How will you summarise your findings so that your classmates can easily understand them? How will you structure the presentation to ensure you have all the required information?

How long will you spend researching, how long will you need to create the presentation on PowerPoint, how long will you need to rehearse and prepare the presentation. How much time will you need to spend outside of class?

Once you have completed the Project timeline ask your teacher to check it before going into the computer lab to begin researching the project.

•Prepare for project

•Begin research online

Day 1

•Give presentation to class

•Discuss and give feedback

Day 2

•Participate in a debate

•Compose an essay

Day 3

Page 5: Energy Sources WebQuest

© RPinner 2010 Energy Sources WebQuest Student Worksheet 5

Presentation Task

Use this sheet to help structure your presentation. Your presentation should be between 10 and 20 minutes in length.

Give an overview of your presentation Explain any new vocabulary Explain the process of producing electricity from this type of energy Explain the advantages of producing energy in this way Explain the disadvantages of this method Is it renewable or non-renewable?

Use as many visual aids on your presentation as possible. Think about giving a handout to your audience Think about who will present what information Think about the timing of your presentation. Be careful, even if you know the concepts well, make sure you have thought about how you will explain them in English. Write a prompt card for yourself and be sure to do at least one rehearsal before the lesson. Use the space below to add any notes.

Page 6: Energy Sources WebQuest

© RPinner 2010 Energy Sources WebQuest Student Worksheet 6

During Presentation task – listening

Use the sheet here to make notes as your classmates give their presentations. Make notes of the following:

Type of energy How it works (process) Advantages Disadvantages Any new vocabulary Is it renewable?

Organise your notes carefully, you will need this information for the next task. Use this space for your notes. If you need more space use the back of this sheet.

Page 7: Energy Sources WebQuest

© RPinner 2010 Energy Sources WebQuest Teachers’ Notes 7

Teacher’s Notes and Answer Key

Energy Sources WebQuest

Lesson plan by Richard Pinner

OVERVIEW

Level: Upper-Intermediate +

Students: EAP students, young Adults

Time: 3 x 3 hour classes + students independent work

Aim:

Conduct web-based research to understand and practise explaining a complex process (energy production), Give a 10-20 minute presentation, Write a 1,500 word essay about sustainable energy, negotiate and express opinion within the context of environmental issues while learning some specific vocabulary

Materials: Worksheets2, computer lab, internet access and presentation materials, projector& laptop/IWB, PowerPoint or other presentation software installed

PROCEDURE

Day 1 1. Presentation: Setup the project and explain to the students that they are starting a project which they will work on

for the next three days. Explain each of the main steps involved. It might be useful at this point to use the diagram from the Project Timeline worksheet to ensure the students know exactly what is required of them.

2. Pre-task: energy types brainstorm : Give the students no more than 5 minutes to brainstorm as many different types of energy as they can and confer with a partner. Encourage them to engage their partner in a discussion about what they already know and the types of energy common in their country.

3. Vocabulary matching: Have the students work through the first activity either individually or in pairs. This should take no more than 1 minute. After they have checked with a partner go through the answers

picture 1 –

solar power

picture 2 –

nuclear power

picture 3 –

geothermal power

picture 4 –

hydro power

picture 5 –

fossil fuel

Picture 6 –

wind power

At this stage, students should be pre-taught some of the vocabulary they will need to write the descriptions. Useful words are:

Combust Turbine Dam Release (energy)

(energy) reserves Convert (energy) Photovoltaic cells Uranium

2 Worksheets consist of both Student Worksheets and Teacher Handouts. Worksheets are given to students to work

through on their own or in groups; Teacher Handouts are for Lock Step class-wide procedures or possible expansions.

• Prepare for project

• Begin research online

Day 1

• Give presentation to class

• Discuss and give feedback

Day 2

• Participate in a debate

• Compose an essay

Day 3

Page 8: Energy Sources WebQuest

© RPinner 2010 Energy Sources WebQuest Teachers’ Notes 8

To increase the chances of students learning the words you could have them look them up in a dictionary. Ensure they are comfortable with the pronunciation of each word as well. Alternatively you could give one word to each pair of students and have them teach it to the rest of the class after checking in a dictionary.

Now allow the students 5-10 minutes to complete the table with the descriptions. Each student will have slightly different answers.

Suggested answers:

Energy Type Description

Nuclear power Uranium atoms are split to produce large amounts of energy

Geothermal power Deep holes are dug in the earth’s crust where it is hot enough to turn water into steam

Solar power There are many ways to get electricity from the sun. The picture shows photovoltaic cells which convert solar energy (energy from the sun) into electricity directly

Hydro power Dams are built to harness natural power from the flow of water, which turns a turbine as it flows through the dam.

Fossil fuel Oil, coal and gas are the product of geological pressures over millions of years on organic matter. Huge energy reserves are contained in them and they can be easily refined and combusted to turn turbines.

Wind power Using propellers to catch the power of the wind and use it to turn a turbine to generate power

Other possible energy types might be:

Biomass, wave power and tidal power. At this early stage, do not worry too much about the level of detail that the students know about each energy type as they will develop this knowledge throughout the project, but it is important to identify any problems and ensure the students have a reasonable knowledge to begin with.

Go through the answers with the class together.

4. Setting up the project – assigning groups: Put the students into groups of two, three or four depending on numbers and resources. Assign each group one of the energy types from above.

For the project to go well it is important to cover the major types of energy. A minimum of four groups is best, one covering fossil fuels, another covering nuclear, another covering solar and the final one covering perhaps hydro or wind. There could be up to 9 groups giving presentations about any of the following:

Fossil Fuels

Nuclear Power

Solar power

Wind Power

Tidal Power

Hydro-electric Power

Wave Power

Geothermal Power

Biomass

5. Project timeline: For this step it is advisable to first give out the WebQuest instruction sheet, so that students have a clear idea of what is expected of them throughout the project. After the students have read the WebQuest sheet, give them the Project timeline sheet and tell them to create a thorough plan. Once the students have completed this they should be allowed to go to the computer lab and begin researching. You may want to check the students’ plans before allowing them to leave class to go to the computer lab.

6. WebQuest: As noted above, the students will have read the WebQuest instructions before making a project timeline. Now they should go to the computer lab and work independently with their group. The students should have clear

instructions and a clear idea of what they need to know and how long to spend researching.

The students should finish off the day’s classes in the computer lab, being aware that they will not have much time the next day to finish preparing before giving their presentation. Ensure students are aware that they should finish things off in their own time.

Note: You may want to give students the Presentation task worksheet at the end of the first day of class or the beginning of the second day, depending on how familiar the students are already with creating a presentation.

7. Evaluation: Conduct a quick evaluation of the lesson aims and summarise the learning process with the students at the end of the days’ classes. You may choose to use the Mid-Project Evaluation Teacher Handout for this.

Page 9: Energy Sources WebQuest

© RPinner 2010 Energy Sources WebQuest Teachers’ Notes 9

Day 2 8. Presentation task: At the start of the class give the students perhaps 30 minutes to finish off their presentations.

At least this way the students who did nothing in their own time can quickly create a presentation so that they can still participate. Students who have finished their presentations will have a chance to rehearse and ask questions. They may also need time to print out any handouts they intend to give.

Students can use the worksheet to structure their presentations. Before students begin giving the presentations the teacher should go through some tips about presenting. Things to cover might include:

Eye contact Voice projection Visual aids Clear language Explaining important vocabulary.

9. During Presentation task: As the students give their presentations ensure the other class members are completing the During Presentation task worksheet. Encourage classmates to ask questions and clarify points. Presentations should involve the whole class, not just those giving a presentation.

Presentations for each group should last between 10 and 20 minutes each.

10. Post presentation task: Give the students each one copy of the Energy Sources Chart worksheet and have them complete it based on their notes from the other presentations. The chart contains enough space for very large classes where up to 9 groups have presented, however the first four on the first page may be used if only a small number of groups were presenting.

Alternatively, students could complete the chart for all 9 energy types in their own time, again using the internet to research energy types not covered in class.

11. Evaluation: Ask the students to reflect on what they have learned so far and ask if they were able to stick to their project timeline. You may choose to use the Mid-Project Evaluation Teacher Handout for this.You could also have a general discussion about energy sources in preparation for the debate in the next class.

Day 3 12. Debate: Use the role cards3 in the teachers’ handouts to help structure the debate. Each group will be debating in

order to win funding for the energy type they presented on. The idea is that one person or group takes the role of a government official who has money to invest in one type of energy production. Each group must argue for their energy type.

Explain the task and give the students a few minutes to prepare and make notes after the role cards have been given out. For large numbers of students you could split the class to make the debate more manageable.

After the structured debate you could allow the students to continue in a more informal manner if they are keen to continue the discussion.

13. Essay: Give the students the Essay worksheet. The essay should be around 1,500 words although this can be altered. Take the students through each of the steps in order to compose their essays.

Ensure the students know that a thesis statement should include all the information that the reader should expect from the rest of the essay. It is a good idea to monitor the students’ as they complete the preparation steps before they begin writing. For more information on structuring essays refer the students to http://www.uefap.com/writing/writfram.htm

Students could either compose the essays in class or in their own time. Students should be encouraged to help each other to improve their essays before completing the final piece.

The steps on the essay worksheet will take the students roughly 1.5 to 2 hours to complete, although this could easily take even more time if you ask your students to type their essays up on the computer.

Alternatively, the essay could be done in exam style conditions, in which case 1.5 hours should be set as the time limit.

14. Evaluation: Conduct a more in-depth final evaluation. You may want to use the End of Project Evaluation Teacher Handout for this.

3 The debate is actually more like a role-play in that it uses role-cards and features a scenario which students act out. However, it is referred to as a

debate to emphasise that the main focus is about sharing ideas and expressing opinions than playing a character

Page 10: Energy Sources WebQuest

© RPinner 2010 Energy Sources WebQuest Teachers’ Notes 10

Alternatives

For non EAP classes the essay could be submitted for a letter to a government official about concerns regarding

sustainable energy sources.

Follow up

A good video to follow this lesson could be ‘The End of Suburbia’ which is available in full on YouTube (http://videobomb.com/posts/show/19899) and is a documentary about peak oil and the future of the current economical climate. This lesson would also feed in well to another project about the environment, in which case ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ is another possible follow up video and comes with lesson activities http://oneplanetfundraising.com/teacherresources.aspx.

Page 11: Energy Sources WebQuest

© RPinner 2010 Energy Sources WebQuest Teachers’ Handouts 11

Role Cards

Government Official

You work for the British Energy funding department. You have been told to give £10 billion to an energy company to provide more power for the future. You need to consider:

The cost of the stations

The amount of power each station will produce

The environmental impact

The sustainability of the new station

Energy Company Representative

You work for an energy company. You have to persuade British Energy to give you £10 billion to build new power stations and provide more power for the future. You need to explain:

The cost of the stations

The amount of power each station will produce

The environmental impact

The sustainability of the new station

Energy Company Representative

You work for an energy company. You have to persuade British Energy to give you £10 billion to build new power stations and provide more power for the future. You need to explain:

The cost of the stations

The amount of power each station will produce

The environmental impact

The sustainability of the new station

Energy Company Representative

You work for an energy company. You have to persuade British Energy to give you £10 billion to build new power stations and provide more power for the future. You need to explain:

The cost of the stations

The amount of power each station will produce

The environmental impact

The sustainability of the new station

Energy Company Representative

You work for an energy company. You have to persuade British Energy to give you £10 billion to build new power stations and provide more power for the future. You need to explain:

The cost of the stations

The amount of power each station will produce

The environmental impact

The sustainability of the new station

Energy Company Representative

You work for an energy company. You have to persuade British Energy to give you £10 billion to build new power stations and provide more power for the future. You need to explain:

The cost of the stations

The amount of power each station will produce

The environmental impact

The sustainability of the new station

Page 12: Energy Sources WebQuest

© RPinner 2010 Energy Sources WebQuest Teachers’ Handouts 12

Essay Worksheet

You will write a 1,500 word essay in answer to the following question:

To what extent do you feel renewable energy sources can provide a sustainable future? Will society need to change in order to accommodate renewable energy? How important do you feel it is to move towards renewable energy sources?

Steps:

1. First brainstorm your ideas

2. Now create an essay plan or outline

3. Now write your thesis statement

4. Now write your essay on separate sheets of paper. Once you have composed the first draft, check your essay for spelling, punctuation and language. Exchange essays with your partner. Can you understand their main line of thought? Are the ideas clearly presented? Is the essay structured in a logical way? Does the essay answer the question? Provide feedback for your partner. Give them comments using the above questions as a guide. Make the changes to your own essay based on your partners’ feedback and then proof read it one final time. Now submit the essay to your teacher.

Page 13: Energy Sources WebQuest

© RPinner 2010 Energy Sources WebQuest Teachers’ Handouts 13

Mid-Project Evaluation

Review the lesson aims:

Lesson aims: Learn specific vocabulary relating to energy production Conduct web-based research to learn more about types of energy production Give a 10-20 minute presentation about how a certain type of energy is produced. Practice explaining a process and listening to understand a process Have a debate about renewable and non-renewable energy sources Write a 1,500 word essay about sustainable energy

What are your personal aims for this lesson?

____________________________________

____________________________________

____________________________________

____________________________________ To what extent have you achieved these aims so far? What have you found easy to accomplish so far? What difficulties have you overcome? What would you do differently next time? What do you feel you need to improve on in order to achieve these aims more effectively? How do you plan to review what you have learned so far?

End of Project Evaluation

Review the lesson aims:

Lesson aims: Learn specific vocabulary relating to energy production Conduct web-based research to learn more about types of energy production Give a 10-20 minute presentation about how a certain type of energy is produced. Practice explaining a process and listening to understand a process Have a debate about renewable and non-renewable energy sources Write a 1,500 word essay about sustainable energy

To what extent have you achieved the aims of the lesson and your own personal aims? What did you find easy to accomplish? What did you find difficult? What would you do differently next time? What do you feel you need to improve on in order to achieve your aims more effectively next time? How do you plan to review what you have learned so far? How will what you have learned or achieved be useful to you in the future? What have you learned or improved that you can apply in the future?

Page 14: Energy Sources WebQuest

© RPinner 2010 Energy Sources WebQuest Teachers’ Handouts 14

ENERGY SOURCES -CHART4.. NAME________________ DATE ___/___/____

How it works Advantages Disadvantages Renewable? [yes/no]

Fossil Fuels (coal, oil, gas)

Nuclear Power (uranium)

Solar power

Wind Power

4 Adapted from http://www.darvill.clara.net/altenerg/

Page 15: Energy Sources WebQuest

© RPinner 2010 Energy Sources WebQuest Teachers’ Handouts 15

How it works Advantages Disadvantages Renewable? [yes/no]

Tidal Power

Hydro-electric Power

Wave Power

Geothermal Power

Biomass

Page 16: Energy Sources WebQuest

Richard S Pinner MA ELT & Applied Linguistics Materials Development Assignment 8 09 Jul. 10

Page 16

Energy Sources WebQuest Justification and Rationale

Aims The aims of this lesson5 are to prepare students on English for Academic Purposes (EAP) courses to embark on a research task and to prepare a ten to fifteen minute presentation and 1,500 word essay on a topic requiring quite specific knowledge and vocabulary, yet also relevant and present in current affairs discussions. The students work in groups and at times individually. The project is designed to be similar to what would be expected of them on many university degree programs. A WebQuest is described as “an inquiry-oriented lesson format in which most or all the information that learners work with comes from the web.” (Dodge, 1995) By doing a WebQuest it is hoped that the students would have greater freedom and autonomy when conducting the research thus helping them to improve their digital literacy while simultaneously allowing them to develop other skills (such as researching, presenting and essay writing) which they will need in the future as they continue their studies. An additional aim of this lesson is to improve the students’ awareness of the issues surrounding sustainable and renewable energy sources. Not only is this an important theme in many debates surrounding current affairs, but also an ethical issue which I believe is important for people to know about. It is also my intention that due to the subject being important to current affairs it would be more engaging for students and also broad enough for the whole class to find relevant and interesting. The project begins with reasonably easy tasks such as vocabulary matching and brainstorming, before building up to more cognitively demanding tasks such as presenting and essay writing. This is intended to increase retention and is based on findings which support the Involvement Load Hypothesis (Laufer & Hulstijn, 2001; Hulstijn& Laufer, 2001) Another reason behind choosing a project based lesson in the form of a WebQuest is that it allows for greater autonomy because the students are working more independently with the teacher merely operating as a facilitator, which Tomlinson (2003) lists amongst one of the positive trends in materials development. A major factor in the choice of the lesson format is that by doing a WebQuest, students will be exposed to authentic language in context, which again has been linked to increased motivation and autonomy. WebQuests are understood to expose students to authentic material (Barahona Durán 2006). Siekmann states that “WebQuests are sources of linguistically and culturally authentic materials” (2008:144). Peacock (1997) found that authentic materials are more motivating for students, and thus it is hoped that the students would be more engaged in the lesson. Dörnyei (2001) lists autonomy as an important factor in motivation, and again the lesson is designed to foster autonomy with the students by allowing them to manage the project and choose much of the content from within a clear framework provided by the lesson aims.

Context This lesson was designed to be taught as part of an EAP course taking place in a school in Britain, although this project could be adapted or used as it is in a broader range of contexts. I have

5 I have chosen to refer to this WebQuest project as one lesson even though it spans three days of

classes. The reason for this is that I believe, since the aims are the same throughout the project, the term lesson is appropriate.

Page 17: Energy Sources WebQuest

Richard S Pinner MA ELT & Applied Linguistics Materials Development Assignment 8 09 Jul. 10

Page 17

attempted in the teachers’ notes to account for varying class sizes in particular, as this can have a big influence on lessons where a number of groups are presenting, both in this context and wider contexts. The course for which this lesson was designed runs for a ten week term period, and students are continually assessed as part of the course. All of the final marks are from summative assessment, and as such, due to the short length of the course and large number of assessments, motivation and task engagement are perceived as problematic by many of the teachers on the course. This is something I found in my own experience when teaching on the course. It is very hard to fit in longer projects which are not directly related to the assessments as there is a syllabus which covers pages from course books that need to be completed each session. However, when teaching on the course I found that working purely through the syllabus was not engaging for the students and as such meant that students were often not satisfactorily prepared for their assessments, especially as they have very little time to practice for their assessments in an authentic way. For this reason I began ‘cherry picking’ the most important features of the course and designing tasks and projects which I felt would better enable the students the opportunity to learn and practise the skills needed for their assessments and, more importantly, their future studies at university. Although I have never formally quantified this, I strongly believe these projects to be of great benefit to the students. In contexts where the syllabus is more rigid, this may not always be possible however. Another feature of this context is the availability of computer labs and projectors for in-class use. There are a lot of technical requirements for such a project, so again this lesson would need to be adapted for use in a wider context. Another issue here would be the teachers’ own efficacy when using web or computer based applications for teaching, not to mention the students’ level of digital literacy. For this reason I have tried to keep the focus on the tasks themselves and not on the technology used to facilitate them. The classes consist of roughly fifteen students of mixed nationality and sex, between the ages of 17 – 35. They are expected to have a good level of English already (Upper-Intermediate to Advanced, Council of Europe (2001) B2-C2) and to be already quite familiar with the use of computers. In addition, from earlier in the course they would have been introduced to many academic conventions, such as referencing, avoiding plagiarism and structuring an academic essay or presentation. However, the aim of this lesson would be to strengthen and build on this knowledge, although the lesson is not designed to present this information for the first time.

Choice of materials As this is a lesson designed for an EAP course, it can be assumed that the teachers using it would be reasonably well experienced already, thus the procedure is not too prescriptive. Teachers who work on the EAP course for which this lesson was designed are usually required to be TEFL-Q or DELTA qualified. However, I have tried to keep the teachers’ notes as simple as possible for such a long project and accessible to less experienced teachers. Throughout the stages of the lesson the students are engaged in Evaluations which are designed to increase their self-assessment and autonomous thinking while also focusing them back on the task.

Presentation

The students are given the lesson aims at the beginning of the lesson so that they know exactly why they are doing this project. I believe it is important to include the students as much as possible in the decisions behind undertaking a certain task in order to facilitate independent and autonomous thinking. It also helps the students to prepare for the lesson. By showing the students the project timeline diagram they are aware that more is expected of them as they have longer to work on it than perhaps a usual stand-alone lesson.

Pre-task: energy types brainstorm

Page 18: Energy Sources WebQuest

Richard S Pinner MA ELT & Applied Linguistics Materials Development Assignment 8 09 Jul. 10

Page 18

The purpose of this task is to activate the students’ existing schematic knowledge and also to allow the teacher time to gauge the students’ current level of vocabulary knowledge and competence with the subject.

Vocabulary matching

This task is designed to enable concept checking and to ensure that the students already know enough to begin the more in-depth research task. Project timeline: The decision to feature a project timeline comes from the fact that one of the aims of this lesson is to allow the students to experience a sense of responsibility and to understand the stages involved in preparing a presentation and doing research. This is an integral part of EAP courses and as such I believe project work such as this is very useful in preparing students and giving them practice in this area.

WebQuest:

The WebQuest section features quite structured sets of questions which the students need to find answers to, but it also features additional and more detailed questions for more motivated or capable students who would quickly work through the initial questions. This was an attempt at allowing the students more freedom and control over the content of their research task, while still providing enough structure to have coherent and achievable outcomes.

Presentation task:

The presentation task is supposed to happen on the 2nd day of the project, thus allowing students the opportunity to use their own time to finish preparing. Again, this is what happens at university level. In addition, it is hoped that this extra time would give students the opportunity to work more autonomously.

During Presentation task:

The purpose of this task is to ensure that the full class is engaged in the activity and not just those presenting. It is also to encourage a sense of collaboration and community.

Post presentation task:

This is a consolidation task which could be done either as homework or part of the class. Debate The purpose here is to begin thinking about the issues surrounding energy use and electricity production.

Essay

This is the main EAP focus of the lesson and would hopefully involve the most cognitive effort. It is intended to be both consolidation and EAP literacy development. As this lesson is intended to be taught in the middle of an EAP course it is designed to allow students to put what they have previously learned about essay writing into practise.

Rationale The main reasons behind choosing to prepare a WebQuest are the opportunity to expose students to authentic materials, foster greater student autonomy and allow students to work together in a way which is student centred and not too dependent on the teacher. It is also hoped that the lesson would help the students to improve both their academic literacy and digital literacy. In addition, by making the task a project length set of goals it is hoped that the students would have more ownership and thus task engagement, thereby facilitating greater motivation and learning.

Page 19: Energy Sources WebQuest

Richard S Pinner MA ELT & Applied Linguistics Materials Development Assignment 8 09 Jul. 10

Page 19

1,749 words

Bibliography Barahona Durán, M.A. (2006) ‘Why WebQuests can be useful in EFL’ proceedings from TESOL Chile

2006 ‘Changing our ways: Making classroom innovation and assessment count’

http://www.slideshare.net/malba08/why-webquests-can-be-useful-in-efl (accessed 7/07/2010)

Council of Europe (2001) European Language Portfolio http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/portfolio/

Dodge, B. (1995). ‘What is a WebQuest?’ http://webquest.org/index.php (accessed 18/04/2010)

Dörnyei, Z. (2001) ‘Teaching and Researching Motivation’ Longman: Pierson

Hulstijn, J. H., & Laufer, B. (2001). Some empirical evidence for the Involvement-Load Hypothesis in

vocabulary acquisition. Language Learning, 51, 539–558. (accessed 18/04/2009)

Laufer, B., & Hulstijn, J. H. (2001). Incidental vocabulary acquisition in a second language: The

construct of task-induced involvement. Applied Linguistics, 22, 1–26. (accessed 18/04/2009)

Little, D. (1991) Learner Autonomy. 1: Definitions, Issues and Problems. Dublin: Authentik.

Peacock, M. (1997) ‘The effect of authentic materials on the motivation of EFL learners’ ELT Journal,

5 (12)144-156: Oxford University Press (accessed 10/05/2010)

Siekmann, S. (2008) ‘Peer scaffolding and orientation towards the task during collaborative

WebQuests’ in Eckerth, J. and Siekmann, S. (eds.) Task-Based Language Learning and Teaching:

Theoretical, Methodological, and Pedagogical Perspectives. (143 – 172) Frankfurt: Peter Lang

Tomlinson, B. 2003) ‘Introduction: Are materials developing?’ in Tomlinson, B. (ed.)(2003)

‘Developing Materials for Language Teaching’ Continuum: London