Tecnologias e metodologias na ensinagem de inglês no século XXI : elaboração e análise de webquests

Abstract

This paper aims to propose mechanisms for analysis and validation proposals of educational materials in the form of WebQuests and, based on them, elaborate and validate three didactic materials for teaching English as an additional language critically situated, namely, WebQuests, which prioritize the development of critical digital literacy and communicative competence in the target language. The WebQuest is included in the perspective of a methodology that has the same name and is the proposal of an oriented research organized in stages in which all or much of the content to be accessed and required to perform the task(s) is available online (DODGE, 1995). The methodology of this study is qualitative and subscribes to the perspective of the development methodology. Themethodological design of the study was organized in three stages, namely, a needs analysis, the elaboration of three WebQuests and the analysis of the WebQuests developed based on a rubric. The review of literature, which was part of the needs analysis, suggests that the demands of the XXI century require more attention and investment in the development of multiple and critical literacies, communicative and interactional skills and citizenship. The analysis of the WebQuests available for teaching and learning English in the main Brazilian site for that purpose, which was the second part of the needs analysis of the study, found a lack WebQuests that foster critical digital literacy and the development of communicative competence in the additional language. The needs analysis provided relevant subsidies to the elaboration of the WebQuests proposed in this study, which was also based on the guidelines and principles of the WebQuest model and its theoretical foundation. In the final phase of this study, the three WebQuests developed were subjected to analysis from a rubric created especially for this purpose. Results of the analyses of the three WebQuests developed suggest that the proposal of these materials is theoretically valid since the material created meets Dodge’s (1995, 2001) proposal model and the recommendations of quality suggested by Bottentuit Junior and Coutinho (2008a, 2012) and are anchored in social constructivist theory and the theory of situated learning as well as in principles of the Task Based Approach and the Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) approach. . We conclude that the three WebQuests proposed and analyzed represent relevant teaching and learning materials insomuch as they expand the traditional and historical content oriented approach of teaching vocabulary and grammar in the target language and go beyond linguistic objectives to achieve social and cultural objectives once they foster the development of communicative competence and critical digital literacies of the individual together (and intentionally since it is our belief these two complement each other), thus contributing to citizenship education through the inclusion of the learner in the social and digital world.