I attended the 22nd Malaysian English Language
Teaching Association (MELTA) International
Conference from 28th to 30th May 2013 at Persada Johor Convention
Centre, Johor Bahru. The
theme of the conference was “Innovations in English Language Education: Evolving Policy, Envisioning
Curriculum, Empowering Practitioners.”
I presented my paper titled “Language
Learning through Literature via WebQuest” in the afternoon session on the first
day of the conference. WebQuests
are a form of PBL (project-based learning) that include collaborative task,
task-specific searches, rubric for self evaluation and an end product. The
drive for the paper came with the idea that we as English teachers should
always remind ourselves to incorporate critical thinking skills in
teaching-learning situation so that our students become independent thinkers to
fit themselves in the ever-changing modern world. My paper exemplified how
combining a classic literary text and a web-based tool – WebQuest in teaching can
make learners become more confident users of English by critically thinking and
creatively producing. I implemented the project with my tertiary level
literature students and found them taking interest in the task as it offered
them a chance - of getting out of the typical way of passively studying a
literary text, of using the language creatively and of videocasting. The
WebQuest example showed how learners became autonomous and produced content for
the web through the process of self-evaluation. At the end of my presentation I
showed a video clip of my students’ performance.
The paper germinated
through a project
aimed at bringing a technology-related change in my classroom as part of the
“Building Teaching Skills Through the Interactive Web” course which I undertook
with the Department of Linguistics of the University of Oregon.
My presentation was well-received and I got two responses - one from a Malay school teacher who asked me about WebQuest and another was a Srilankan teacher who asked me about the students' level. I answered their queries and made friends! The conference was an enriching experience foe me. I want to thank my students who undertook this project and made it possible for me to take their work to Malaysia.
