The Sci-Fi Webquest:

An Innovative Approach to Teaching and Assessing L2 Reading Comprehension

By Bianca van de Water

Todays EFL/ESL teachers face a formidable challenge: how to engage the Net Generation in
meaningful language learning. The term N-Geners refers to those born after 1985 who think,
perform, learn and communicate qualitatively differently from those born prior to the
ubiquitous adoption of ICT (Thorne & Payne 2005, pp. 379 380). These digital natives have
literally grown up with digital literacies and communicative practices (Presky 2001, cited in
Thorne & Payne 2005, p. 379). Nonetheless, several studies have demonstrated that many
students especially those from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds - interact with
cyber technology only in the most basic ways (Sox & Rubinstein-Avila 2009, p. 39). While the
Net Generation is coming of age, the digital divide is characterised by digital literacy
inequalities: those who can versus those who cannot communicate in meaningful ways using
digital technologies (Lacina 2009, p. 270). Webquests can bridge the gap between traditional
FL learning outcomes and N-Geners needs for relevant, digital communication skills that
prepare them for the world beyond the English language classroom. This paper discusses the
Sci-Fi Webquest, a language learning adventure that aims to promote ELLs reading skills and
digital literacy with the use of authentic texts and tasks. By integrating authentic input and
output, the webquest mirrors real world communicative processes (Guariento & Morley
2001, p. 352), which strengthens students communicative skills in the target language. Before
I can discuss in the webquest in further detail, the learning context needs to be described
first.

Independent EFL speakers

The Sci-Fi Webquest has been developed for EFL learners in the senior years of pre-university
secondary schools in the Netherlands, which are referred to as VWO schools in Dutch. This
type of schooling lasts six years and English Language and Literature is a compulsory subject
throughout. Curriculum outcomes are mapped against the Common European Framework of

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Reference for Languages (CEFR). For the subject English, pre-university students need to
achieve the CEFR B2 level across the various language domains (Meijer & Fasoglio 2007).

ELLs at this level are independent users who are able to comprehend concrete and abstract
issues in complex texts and explain multiple perspectives verbally and orally in near-native
fluency (Meijer & Fasoglio 2007, p. 19). The national curriculum for the subject English
stipulates that pre-university students conduct an extensive reading assignment of literary
novels in the target language. Their reading experience and comprehension is assessed during
a summative oral exam, which is part of the HSC in this subject. Schools determine
independently the reading content and extent as well as the assessment procedures and
weighting. Pre-university students need to read a number of literary works the required
number of novels varies considerably from school to school - without any systematic support.
They can either make a selection from a recommended literature list or embark on an
individual reading trajectory upon approval.

Since students receive no support during the extensive reading assignment, several problems
can arise. First of all, students may lack competent L2 reading strategies to comprehend
English language literature. ELLs especially may be so overwhelmed with comprehension that
they either forget to apply strategies or are unable to transfer strategies from one context to
another (DelliCarpini 2011, p. 109). Secondly, they have no opportunities to discuss English
literature until the high-stakes assessment at the culmination of secondary education. The
Sci-Fi Webquest aims to address these problems by encouraging cognitive and metacognitive
awareness of several reading strategies before, during and after the students first reading
experience of a science fiction novel in the target language. Students need to demonstrate
new comprehensions by creating multimedia posts for a collaborative blog.

Integrative CALL
The Sci-Fi Webquest is form of integrative CALL (Warschauer & Healey 1998) in that language
and technology have been integrated whereby students improve the former by using the
latter. The role of the Internet in this webquest is two-fold. First of all, it is a resources centre
in that it provides easy access to background information and vocabulary definitions. Except
for the links to online dictionaries, the resources consist of authentic materials, which
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demonstrate real-world usage of the English language. Authentic input helps students
connect classroom knowledge with real-world communications in the target language
(Guariento & Morley 2001, p. 347). This information is accessed through hyperlinks, which
are an unobtrusive teaching tool that expands the amount of information available. Since
students can access information independently when needed, the learning process is catered
to each student individually (Derewianka 2003, p. 203).

The second role of the Internet in this webquest relates to authentic output of language
learning. Students need to demonstrate reading comprehension by transforming personal
understandings into new communications in the target language. This is achieved by a series
of tasks, which require that students design multimedia presentations for a collaborative
blogsite. The blog provides the stimulus to execute the tasks with communicative glitz and
digital glamour. Self-publishing encourages students to take ownership and responsibility
based on the awareness that they are communicating with a real-life, authentic audience
(Godwin-Jones 2003, p. 13). The intended student blogs consist of texts, mind maps,
multimedia glossaries and podcasts. This wide diversity of output stimulates students digital
multiliteracy, so that they learn to communicate through the use of a great variety of text
types, intertextual references and multimodalities (Gruba 2004, p. 79).

This webquest is most suitable for a cross-curricular project whereby the English and ICT
subject areas are integrated. The former focusses on language skills and content, whereas the
latter focusses on technical aspects, namely producing the blogsite including multimedia
documents and podcasts. Students need access to either a computer lab or handheld devices
to accomplish the tasks. This webquest has been designed for five double periods of English
literature classes and should be planned so students have adequate time to read the novel,
which should be read out of school hours.

Triadic collaboration
The Sci-fi Webquest is specifically designed for collaborative work, preferably in triadic
groups. Each triad develops a joint blogsite, which focusses on a particular science fiction
novel, which is chosen democratically but read independently by each team member. The
collaborative nature of the project promotes reading skills mastery and metacognitive
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awareness of the reading strategies. In FL reading, readers focus more on solving language
problems than in L1 reading, to the detriment of their use of strategies that focus on building
a model of global text content (Horiba 1990, cited in Stevenson, Schoonen & De Glopper 2003,
p. 767). Collaborative projects encourage languaging, which is the use of language in order
to solve language-related problems. Through languaging, students articulate and transform
their thinking into an artifactual form, and as such it becomes available as a source of further
reflection (Swain 2006, p. 106). This webquest encourages languaging so that students jointly
solve language-related problems in order to progress to comprehension and content-related
problems.

Reading comprehension is promoted by an integrated approach to teaching reading

strategies. These include researching background information; visualising; predicting;
summarising; identifying concepts; and, evaluating and interpreting the novel. Although
training in each strategy separately does improve reading comprehension, an integrated
approach is preferable in that it is much more efficient (Kozminsky & Kozminsky 2001, p.
190), especially in EFL/ESL contexts (Khatib, Rezaei & Derakhshan 2011, p. 206). Furthermore,
research has demonstrated that flexible use of a range of strategies is what differentiates
between proficient readers and weak readers (Kazemi, Hosseini & Kohandani 2013, p. 2333).
Therefore, the webquest teaches a variety of reading strategies to develop proficient and
fluent reading skills in the target language.

L2 multimedia tasks
Each reading strategy should be taught explicitly so that students learn when, where, why
and how to apply each technique. They should be identified and clarified by the teacher,
however, the main emphasis is on learning through doing. Therefore, the strategies are
taught through the use of a series of tasks, which have been sequenced according to
Tomlinsons framework for a text-driven approach to materials development (2003). The
purpose of the activities included in the Sci-Fi webquest is to stimulate engagement with,
mental representations of and cognitive responses to the text. The webquest includes a
readiness and experiential activity, an intake response activity, a development activity and an
input response activity. Two preparation activities have been added at the start to develop

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essential background knowledge. All tasks need to be executed in the target language and
posted on the blog.

The first task is an advance organiser, in addition to Tomlinsons original framework. Science
fiction is not a mainstream genre in Dutch literature, therefore, students will lack essential
background knowledge. According to schema theory, there is a positive correlation between
prior background knowledge and reading comprehension in that improved conceptual
knowledge translates into a higher degree of text comprehension (Kozminsky & Kozminsky
2001, p. 200). This is confirmed by Derewianka who states that the more a reader knows
about the topic and sociocultural assumptions, the more readily the reader can construct
meaning from the text (2003, p. 204). Task 1A is a reading preparation task, whereby students
undertake a guided exploration of the genre with the help of a hyperlinked mind map. The
role of the Internet in this particular task is to function as a resource centre in that the
hyperlinks lead to authentic multimedia representations of certain aspects of the science
fiction genre. These include documentary short videos, speeches, photo galleries and texts.
Students need to assess and evaluate the representations to answer a series of questions. In
addition, the mind map models what is required from students in task 1C. The latter is an
additional advance organiser aimed at developing more specific background knowledge on
the author and his or her era.

The second task teaches four different reading strategies including visualising, predicting,
summarising and identifying concepts. Task 2A is a readiness and experiential activity, which
aims to stimulate mental activity relevant to the content of the text by activating connections,
by arousing attention,[and] by generating relevant mental images (Tomlinson, 2003, p. 113).
As such, students need to imagine they have landed in the novels setting and film a news
bulletin on what they can see, hear, smell and touch. The news footage is concluded with a
prediction of what happens next and a plausible denouement. This task helps students gain
personal experience of the text and continue reading with a purpose.

Task 2B is an intake response activity whereby the students retell and summarise each
chapter during a series of audio podcasts. Oral retellings are a powerful student-centred
means of demonstrating comprehension. They encourage students to structure response[s]
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according to personal and individual interpretations of the text (Morrow 1988, cited in
Sudweeks et al. 2010, p. 66) instead of prompting mere recollection of facts and events.
Collaborative work is essential to accomplish this task successfully. By discussing and
perhaps defending personal understandings, team members help each other in identifying
and clarifying gaps in understanding and comprehension. The collaborative benefit of podcast
creation is argued by Lee, McLoughlin and Chan who state that it stimulates both individual
and collective learning, and supports social processes of perspective-taking and negotiation
of meaning that underpin knowledge creation (2008, p. 501).

Task 2C is a development activity, whereby students explore and transform ideas and
concepts encountered in the text. The transformation of vocabulary into a multimedia
glossary helps students towards development of rich and personal associations (DelliCarpini
2011, p. 110) and broadens understanding of the concepts explored in task 1A and 1C.

The third task is an input response activity which requires students to discuss the novel on
camera for a podcast to be posted on the blog. This encourages critical and creative thinking
skills as well speaking skills in the target language. Before students can start filming the
discussion, they need to evaluate and interpret the novel to make discoveries about the
general themes, the authors intentions as well as the novels relevance to the present. To
demonstrate comprehension and personal understanding of global text content, students
need to engage in a filmed discussion on the novel for fictitious TV episode on English
language and culture. Each student has to adopt a different role, namely presenter, author or
literary critic, and, clarify or defend his or her own viewpoints. This task consolidates the
newly-acquired L2 reading, speaking and digital communication skills. Furthermore, it
provides students with a valuable opportunity to engage in a literary discussion in preparation
of the HSC exams. At the conclusion of the webquest, students have the skills to tackle the
extensive reading task with confidence and engage in the oral exams without apprehension.

Bridging the gap

In conclusion, the Sci-Fi Webquest demonstrates that integrative CALL can bridge the gap
between traditional curricula and N-Geners needs. The webquest provides the necessary
scaffolding, whereas the blog provides the stimulus to transform new comprehensions into
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meaningful communications. Web 2.0 technologies ignite that creative spark, the impetus to
wrestle, struggle and persist with lengthy and complex literary texts which are so alien to
digital natives who are habituated to multimodal representations, quick sound-bites and the
evanescent magic of the moment.

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