Using Web Quest Technology to Develop Communication Skills in Hands-on English Practice

The paper examines the use of web quest technology as an effective method of teaching a foreign language. Taking into account modern conditions of teaching without internships in the country of the studied language, multimedia tools of the Internet could be used to simulate immersion in the language environment. The article presents the advantages of introducing Web-Quest technology methods into the learning process: providing quick access to a wide range of authentic information from the virtual high-tech interactive environment of the Internet: increasing the student’s cognitive motivation and personal involvement in the process of acquiring knowledge, developing various communicative and linguistic competencies, which taken together provide both professional and intercultural communication in a multicultural professional environment. The contribution of B. Dodge and T. March to the creation and application of Web-Quests for educational purposes is considered. The paper describes the Web-Quest “Holidays in Great Britain” and the Web-Quest with the basic theme “Mental Disorders of Disney Princesses”, which were developed as part of the students’ project activities in hands-on English classes in groups at the Faculty of Management and the Institute of Psychology of Russian State University for the Humanities. The following goals were set: to study authentic materials about holidays in the UK and the mental disorders of characters from famous cartoons and TV series, use authentic materials when completing tasks. The following tasks were solved: development of communication skills in English, formation of linguistic competences, use of professional terminology on the topic of the project work, preparation of final tests with verification of the answers by the QR code.