The WebQuests and their importance in online English classes: multiliteracies in action

Abstract

The organization of a learning space with the use of the internet brought about a new order, which includes the challenges of searching, analyzing and using information available there, with the use of electronic devices, not only by teachers but also by students. For English language classes, the exercise of conducting research requested by teachers may represent the construction, by students, of their own discourses, using the foreign language. WebQuests are reflective and critical activities, based on informational searches on the web, guided by the teacher, and they enable the use of knowledge, co-created and applied to solving instigating but possible problems and tasks. This article will describe research carried out with the use of WebQuests in English classes, with a private student and also groups of a regular class in a public professional school, showing the particularities of planning such activities, carrying them out and evaluating processes and results. Intrinsically, this article also deals with the need for students to develop multiliteracies, which are essential for grasping the meaning arising from multimodal texts, since in a WebQuest, students will need to understand the arrangement and synesthesia of linguistic signs of various modes, so that, based on their conceptualizations and analyses, they can create appropriate and creative language.