Sáng kiến kinh nghiệm Using Webquest to Encourage Vo Truong Toan High School Students’ Reading Skill

Using Webquest to Encourage Vo Truong Toan High School Students’ Reading Skill
Abstract
Reading is one of the most important skills for English language learners. I
did try to use many different tools to stimulate learners’ reading skill but the result
was poor. Then, I have conducted a research related to using webquest to
encourage my students’ learning English reading skill. Participants were 50
students learning at Vo Truong Toan High School. It took me 8 weeks to complete
the research. Webquests were used to lead my students to reading activities with
certain themes in English textbooks. The study made use of my students’ free time
at home. Participants had to read and write their own reflection at the end of every
week. The research was divided into two stages. At the end of the first stage,
students had to do presentation in groups. The procedures in the second stage was
the same the first one to measure the advancement of the participants
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Using Webquest to Encourage Vo Truong Toan High School Students’ Reading Skill
Introduction
I have been working as a teacher of English at Vo Truong Toan High School
for 14 years. The current English textbooks are designed to teach students four
skills (i.e. reading, listening, writing, and speaking); however, the officially
working time in class is 4 periods per week. It is too difficult for learners to
practice and to absorb what had been taught in class rooms. The suggested solution
for this issue is to encourage learners’ autonomy. Webquest is my choice because
it meets some teaching requirements. Learners can make use of time at home to
read the instruction from webquest and complete all tasks at home. As we know, to
learn English effectively, learners have to practice using it continually. Learning
process takes time in both short and long term. Webquest can help learners
maintain the English learning. Working on web webquest, learners are required to
study frequently. Once more important thing is that using webquest, students will
know how to work in groups, how to make use internet technology to find out
necessary information for autonomy learning. They will know how to co-operate
with their classmates in working community. A final and equally important point is

that webquest will stimulate learners’ home reading. Reading materials in
webquest are not similar to doing this in textbooks due to the fact that learners are
supplied colorful pictures and vivid clips from the various resources from the
internet. In practical situations, there are some advantages for both teachers and
learners on using webquest to support developing English reading skill. That is the
cause of conducting the study. I would like to measure and define the effect of
doing English tasks designed in webquest on Vo Truong Toan High School
students’ reading skill.
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Using Webquest to Encourage Vo Truong Toan High School Students’ Reading Skill
Literature review
Dudenny, G & Hockly, N (2007) states that webquest is a mini-projects in
which a large percentage of the input and material is supplied from the internet.
According to Dodge (1995) a webquest is an inquiry-oriented activity in which
some or all of the information that learners interact with resources coming from the
internet. So the resources that students can learn are rich and variable. He also
expressed that webquest is suitable for every kinds of students i.e. excellent, good,
average or below average. It belongs to certain classes. Teachers can design
suitable tasks and lead students to recourses which are appropriate to learners’
abilities. Webquest is used as a tool to stimulate learners’ autonomy. Spending
more time at home for further reading activities is always necessary if learners
want to develop English skills. Webstquest contains clear direction to help learners
to find necessary information in solving the issues of the lesson or requirement of
teachers. Harmer (2007, p. 281) claims that it is worth pointing out that the author
of the webquest tell the students that this is more than just an assignment-it will
help them learn. Furthermore he expresses that webquest is a project used to
develop multi skills (i.e. reading, writing, speaking, and listening). Dodge (1995)
shows that webquest will give learners chance to cooperate with others in group
and to confide in his partners. Using webquest, students have chance to improve
self-study. Distance education and library study are leading ways to improve

learners’ autonomy. In the age of modern technology, educators and learners are
able to make use of technology to upgrade learners’ knowledge especially, in
learning English.
Research questions
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Using Webquest to Encourage Vo Truong Toan High School Students’ Reading Skill
1. What is the attitude of Vo Truong Toan High School students towards learning
reading through webquest?
2. What are the effects of using webquest on Vo Truong Toan High School student’s
reading skill?
The study
Research context
The study was conducted at Vo Truong Toan High School, Cẩm Mỹ district, Đồng
Nai province. This is a state school and English is a compulsory subject. Following the
national curriculum, English subject are taught 4 periods every week with 4 skills;
therefore, Students have little time to do further practice, especially spending time
reading in class. This is one of the main causes leading my students’ poor result at
reading skill. The research was conducted on the first of October, 2014. The purpose of
the study is to find out the real effect of webquest and students’ further reading at home.
Students had to complete the project in 2 months. At the end of every week, participants
had to submit 100-word reflections.
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Using Webquest to Encourage Vo Truong Toan High School Students’ Reading Skill
Participants
Two classes, grade 12, were chosen for the experiment. The total students are 96
students in both of classes. They are chosen randomly from classes I am taking in charge.
Some of them are rather good at reading skill but majority of them are poor at this skill.
A half of them with 48 students took part in the experiment and the rest had a role to play
as control group. Most of the participants are at the age of 17 and they have learning
English for 7 years. They come from agrarian families in remote and mountainous area so

most of them have little chance to take other English courses at language centers.
Procedures
At first all participants were required to sit to do a reading comprehensive test.
This activity supplied the first assessment about the participants’ reading skill. Teachers
spent time to give participants guidelines how to organize activities for work and job
delivery. The experimental group will be divided into 4 groups (10 students/group). Each
group will choose for themselves a topic for reading and presenting. It took participants 8
weeks to complete two webquests. There were two stages in the research. At the end of
week 1, 2, 3, every student had to submit a 60-word personal reflection. The content of
the reflection should answer every single question in webquest. At the end of week 4,
students had to do presentation in front of the class. Teacher gave feedback and
assessment. The second webquest would be done at the second stage. At the end of week
5, 6, 7 all participants had to submit a 60-word personal reflection. At the end of week 8,
students presented their project and teachers gave feedback and assessment. Finally, all
participants were required to do a reading comprehensive test. The test result reflected the
real effect of usage webquest to encourage reading English learning skill.
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Using Webquest to Encourage Vo Truong Toan High School Students’ Reading Skill
The first stage: From 1
st
October to 29
th
October, 2014.
At the end of this stage, I conducted the research by using questionnaire to
measure the attraction of using this method in encouraging students’ reading skill.
The second stage: From 1
st
November to 28
th
November, 2014.

At the end of this stage. questionnaire was used to test the attitude of the
participants towards learning English through webquest and interviews were used to find
more issues deriving from learning English through using webquest.
Statistics of the result in the first and the second stage was done together with the
data collected from the questionnaires and the interview at the end of every stage
Data collection and Analysis
Data was collected via three methods: questionnaires, portfolios and teachers’ assessment
record
Questionnaire: This research uses questionnaire as the major instruments to
collect data. The questionnaire aimed at examining the attitude of participants towards
practicing reading skill through using webquest. At the end of the first stage (week 4),
participants would be delivered questionnaire and they had to answer according to their
viewpoints. A statistic was done (see appendix B, C). At the end of the second stage
(week 8) of the research, participants would answer the same questions. The result at the
first and the second stage would reflect exactly the effect of webquest on the participants’
reading skills.
Portfolios: At the end of every week, students had to submit their personal
reflection for several reasons. Firstly, I would like to make sure that every participant had
done the home reading. Secondly, the personal reflection had a role to play as measures
of encouragement participants’ home reading. Thirdly, the reflection could show
participants’ current issues.
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Using Webquest to Encourage Vo Truong Toan High School Students’ Reading Skill
Teachers’ assessment record: I also used the result of the assessment in the first
and the second stage (see appendix D) to measure the improvement of the participants in
reading skill.
Findings and Discussion
There are some significant points I have got from the data collection.
None of participants answered yes for the second question. This stated that
learning English reading through webquest is totally strange form to my students. There

are some advantages and disadvantages when teacher used new methods in teaching
reading skill. The positive one is that learners will be curious so they all are eager to do
the challenging tasks. The negative one is that learners have no much experience when
applying completely new forms to practice reading skill. The answer for question 3
proved that participants, at first, thought this form of learning quite strange but gradually
when they became familiar with this. Students spent for three weeks to be familiar with
this learning activity. In the first stage, there was 43 % students liked learning through
webquest. In the second stage, the number of students who liked this form has been
reaching to 58 %.
In the second stage, the attitude of the learners towards using webquest to learn
English reading has been changing positively. The reason for this can be explained by the
answer for question 4. Students found it easier to comprehend reading texts in webquests.
Half of them used google translation to grasp the content of reading tasks. Thanks to this
online translation tool, students could understand and do the tasks in faster speed. In the
first stage, there was 55 % students used this tool. In the second stage, the rate increased
to 72%.
Webquest might create reading pressure on the learners. It required the learners to
read and read to find information for the reflection and presentation. Participants finally
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Using Webquest to Encourage Vo Truong Toan High School Students’ Reading Skill
recognized the value of using webquest in learning English reading so majority of them
suggested using this form in their learning. The teacher’s result assessment in the first
and second stage made clear that using webquest brought learners improvement in
reading skill. Webquest also helped learners improve sub skills, i.e. how to attract
someone’s attention in publish speaking and how to discoursed on something in public
effectively.
The result of the first test (appendix E) shows that quality of participants in both
experiment group and control group are approximately similar. In experiment group,
there were 6 participants occupying 12,5% obtained scale A(1-4) and these numbers in
control group were 7 participants with 14,7%. To the scale B (5-6), the proportion in the

two groups was 29% and 27% respectively. The rates of participants got scale C(7-8) in
experiment group were 33,4%, 2% more than that in control group. The percentages of
participants having scale C(7-8) in experiment group were 25%, 2% less than that in
control group.
After spending 2 months for the research, the result of the second test (appendix F)
states that there was a fluctuation in both of the groups. The percentages of participants
having scale A (1-4) fell sharply, 6,2% for experiment group and 3,3 % for the another.
This states that learning reading through webquest created positive effect on reading skill
of the learners. The proportion of participants having scale B (5-6) increased in two
groups; The rates reaching scale B in experiment group to control group were 35,4% and
31,3% respectively. Experiment group was 3,9% higher than that in control group. There
was no considerate change in scale C (7-8) and D(9-10).
Overall, making comparison the first and the second result, we see clearly that.
Webquest truly had much effect on learners being at lower grade; however they had little
influence on the participants having higher grade. Learning reading through webquest
exerted positive effect on the weak learners; it helped the learners improve their reading
skill.
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Using Webquest to Encourage Vo Truong Toan High School Students’ Reading Skill
Conclusion
Webquest is considered a new form of learning to my students; however, after two
months using this, I harvested quite good products. I think that I will use this regularly in
my teaching job for long term. The research result stated that Webquest has some
priorities for learning English in modern age. Using webquest means that we have made
use of technology for learning. First, webquest can motivate learners in learning English
with pictures, clips which are supplied from varied resources from the internet. Learning
through webquest, students avoid boring lessons. Secondly, teachers can control learning
activities of their students and lead them to certain reading themes from far distance. I
think it is useful for the learners to increase vocabulary in certain aspects at home.
Thirdly, it is the best way to stimulate the learners’ autonomy. Reading pressure that

webquest created on participants was positive. They had to do this activity frequently
within the time they did the project. Finally, learning through webquest, students will
have chance to cooperate with their classmates. They also have opportunity to express
themselves in front of the class. By the way, some sub skills will be practiced and done
better and better.
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Using Webquest to Encourage Vo Truong Toan High School Students’ Reading Skill
References
Dodge, B. (1995). Some Thoughts About Webquests. Retrieved 13 March 2012, from
Distance-Educator.com
Dudenny, G & Hockly, N. (2007). How to teach English with technology. Edinburg Gate:
Pearson Longman
Harmer, J. (2007). The Practice of English Language Teaching (4
th
ed.). Edinburgh Gate:
Pearson Longman
Ur, P. (2012). English Language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
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Using Webquest to Encourage Vo Truong Toan High School Students’ Reading Skill
Appendix A
Questionnaire
Topic: Using webquest to encourage Vo Truong Toan High School students’ reading
skill
Dear students,
This questionnaire is designed to investigate the attitude of learners towards learning
English reading through webquests. Please answer the following questions. Your
information will be used for designing the English reading programs only and kept
confidential. It will take you only several minutes to complete the questionnaire. Thank
you for your co-operation.
Please circle the appropriate response

Question 1: What is your current English level? (Trình độ tiếng Anh của bạn hiện tại?)
A. excellent (xuất sắc) B. good (giỏi)
C. fair (khá) D. poor (dở)
Question 2: Have you ever learned English through webquest before? (Bạn đã học T.A
bằng webquest trước đây?)
A. Yes (có) B. not yet (chưa)
Question 3: Learning English reading through webquest is _______
A. interesting B. neutral (trung bình)
C. boring
Question 4: Understanding the reading texts in webquest is ______
A. very difficult B. rather difficult C. easy
Question 5: How much time a day do you spend reading English texts in webquest?
A. Half an hour B. an hour
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Using Webquest to Encourage Vo Truong Toan High School Students’ Reading Skill
C. an hour and a half D. 2 hours
Question 6: Should teacher use webquest to encourage reading activities at home? (Giáo
viên nên sử dụng webquest để khuyến khích học sinh đọc ở nhà?)
A. yes B. no idea C. no
Question 7: What are your advantages and disadvantages as learning English reading
through webquest? (Thuận lợi và khó khăn khi học tiếng Anh qua webquest là gì?)
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
Question 8: Do you have any suggestion for strategies of teaching and learning English
reading through webquest? (Bạn có đề nghị gì về cách dạy và học tiếng Anh qua
wenquest?)
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________

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Using Webquest to Encourage Vo Truong Toan High School Students’ Reading Skill
Appendix B
Questionnaire result
Questions A B C D
Question 1 What is your current English level?
Answer Excellence Good Fair Poor
% 45 25 30
Question 2 Have you ever learned English through webquest before?
Answer Yes Not yet
% 100
Question 3 Learning English reading through webquest is
Answer Interesting Neutral boring
% 43 55 12
Question 4 Understanding the reading texts in webquest is______
Answer Very difficult Rather difficult Easy
% 23 54 23
Question 5 How much time a day do you spend reading English texts in
webquest?
Answer Half an hour An hour An hour and a
half
2 hours
% 65 23 12
Question 6 Should teacher use webquest to encourage reading activities at
home?
Answer Yes No idea No
% 44 20 36
Question 7 What are your advantages and disadvantages as learning English
reading through webquest?
Answer Advantages: Using google translation (55%)

Disadvantages: Spending too much time at home for reading
(62%)
Question 8 Do you have any suggestion for strategies of teaching and learning
English reading through webquest?
Answer No idea (100%)
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Using Webquest to Encourage Vo Truong Toan High School Students’ Reading Skill
Appendix C
Questionnaire result
Questions A B C D
Question 1 What is your current English level?
Answer Excellence Good Fair Poor
% 45 25 30
Question 2 Have you ever learned English through webquest before?
Answer Yes Not yet
% 100
Question 3 Learning English reading through webquest is
Answer Interesting Neutral boring
% 58 40 2
Question 4 Understanding the reading texts in webquest is______
Answer Very difficult Rather difficult Easy
% 9 67 24
Question 5 How much time a day do you spend reading English texts in
webquest?
Answer Half an hour An hour An hour and a
half
2 hours
% 66 24 10
Question 6 Should teacher use webquest to encourage reading activities at
home?

Answer Yes No idea No
% 59 12 29
Question 7 What are your advantages and disadvantages as learning English
reading through webquest?
Answer Advantages: Using google translation (72%)
Disadvantages: Spending too much time at home for reading
(63%)
Question 8 Do you have any suggestion for strategies of teaching and learning
English reading through webquest?
Answer No idea (100%)
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Using Webquest to Encourage Vo Truong Toan High School Students’ Reading Skill
Appendix D
The average assessment result of 4 groups in the first stage.
Requirement Scale of
marks
Teacher’s
assessment
Content 4
Answer 5 questions smoothly and fully
2 1.5
Presenters can answer all the questions of the audience
2 1
Performance 3
Slide of presentation is clear, creative and there are no
spelling mistakes.
1
0.5
Spoken language is clear
1

0.5
Non verbal language of the speakers is attractive
1
0.5
Presentation 3
Time management (Every speaker has 5 minutes to present
their sections)
1
0.5
Presentation is coherence, logical
1
0.5
There is little mistakes of pronunciation
1
0.5
Total
10
5.5
The average assessment result of 4 groups in the second stage.
Requirement Scale of
marks
Teacher’s
assessment
Content 4
Answer 5 questions smoothly and fully
2 1
Presenters can answer all the questions of the audience
2 2
Performance 3
Slide of presentation is clear, creative and there are no

spelling mistakes.
1
1
Spoken language is clear
1
0.5
Non verbal language of the speakers is attractive
1
1
Presentation 3
Time management (Every speaker has 5 minutes to present
their sections)
1
1
Presentation is coherence, logical
1
1
There is little mistakes of pronunciation
1
0.5
Total
10
7
Appendix E
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Using Webquest to Encourage Vo Truong Toan High School Students’ Reading Skill
The result of the first reading comprehensive test
Experiment
al group
Control group Experiment

al group
Control
group
Experiment
al group
Control
group
Experiment
al group
Control
group
marks Scale A (1-4) Scale B (5-6) Scale C (7-8) Scale D (9-10)
6 (12,5%) 7
(14,7%)
14
(29%)
13
(27%)
16
(33,3%)
15
(31,3%)
12
(25%)
13
(27%)
Appendix F
The result of the final reading comprehensive test
Experiment
al group

Control group Experiment
al group
Control
group
Experiment
al group
Control
group
Experiment
al group
Control
group
marks Scale A (1-4) Scale B (5-6) Scale C (7-8) Scale C (9-10)
Students/
%
3
(6,3%)
5
(10,4%)
17
(35,4%)
15
(31,3)
16
(33,3%)
13
(27%)
12
(25%)
15

(31,3%)
Appendix G
The webquest was used in the research
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