The use of webquest to enhance the reading skill of EFL students at the University of Cuenca Institute of Languages

Abstract

Over the years, the use of technology in the EFL classroom has demonstrated to be beneficial and has become increasingly prominent in literature. The goal of the present mixed-method study was to determine whether the use of two researcher designed WebQuests enhanced the reading competence in a class of 21 A2 EFL level students at the University Language Institute at the University of Cuenca in Ecuador. The participants received two WebQuests based on the principles of task-based instruction to provide them with more reading opportunities within an integrated-skill syllabus. A pre-test and a post-test were used to determine the students’ reading comprehension level. Later, a Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test was used to analyze this data. In addition, three Likert scale questionnaires were applied at different phases of the intervention, and two focus groups were conducted which made it possible to explore students’ perceptions about the effectiveness of the intervention. In order to triangulate the data, a teacher's journal was kept to obtain information from the teacher's perceptions about the students’ attitude towards the use of WebQuests in the EFL classroom. Despite the fact that the reading comprehension test did not demonstrate a statistical enhancement of the reading skill, the analysis of the questionnaires with the Mann-Whitney U Test indicated there was significant potential to promote reading comprehension in the EFL classroom. Thus, a WebQuest gives the teacher the possibility to prepare EFL students for a competitive and challenging world.