• "Introduction to the Column" by María Jose Luzon Marco
• "Information Collection and Analysis Activities:
  The Treasure Hunt" by María Jose Luzon Marco

by María Jose Luzon Marco

Universidad de Zaragoza, Centro Politecnico Superior

Zaragoza, Spain

mjluzon@posta.unizar.es

The purpose of this new column is to describe some pedagogical applications of the Internet to teach ESP at university level. In order to help ESP practitioners integrate the Internet into their classes and find the most appropriate activity for their purposes, this column will describe some Internet activities which are already being used by ESP teachers or which could be used in the ESP classroom. The column will, therefore, analyse learning environments available on the Internet that are appropriate for ESP.

The main objective of ESP courses is to help students learn the language and communicative skills that they will need in the future target situation (e.g. industry or business settings). This can be achieved with a content-based curriculum, where students learn the language by focusing on the subject matter with the help of authentic materials. The Internet can be used to provide authentic content-based materials and activities which fit the students' needs. As Kimball (1998) points out, "Internet-generated materials can be flexibly arrayed to engage students with topics and cognitive tasks relevant to students' professional futures".

In this column I will describe activities belonging to the following four groups:

1. Information collection and analysis

2. Interpersonal exchanges

3. Problem solving activities

4. Collaborative writing, peer editing and publishing

The activities that will be described in this column foster constructivist learning. Rather than being based on the transmission of knowledge from teacher to learner, they provide learners with the motivation, resources and guidance to help them construct knowledge.

When using the models described here to create their own activities on the Web the ESP teacher needs to take into account the criteria that both ESP activities and Internet activities should meet. ESP teaching should use the methodology and activities of the disciplines it serves and focus on the language, skills, discourse types and genres suitable for these activities (Dudley-Evans and St. Johns, 1998). The tasks set for the students should be meaningful to them, i.e. related to their special purpose, and should involve the use of authentic language.

REFERENCES

• Dudley-Evans, T. and St. Johns, M.J. (1998). Developments in English for Specific Purposes: A multi-disciplinary approach. Cambridge University Press.
• Kimball, J. (1998). "Task-based medical English: elements for Internet-assisted language learning." Call Journal, vol. 11, no. 4, pp. 411-418, http://www.fauxpress.com/kimball/res/task.htm

INFORMATION COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS ACTIVITIES:

THE TREASURE HUNT

by María Jose Luzon Marco

Universidad de Zaragoza, Centro Politecnico Superior

Zaragoza, Spain

mjluzon@posta.unizar.es

The first type of activities that I will describe in the column are those involving "Information Collection and Analysis." These are activities where students have to collect, analyse and compare information. They can be telecollaborative activities, which involve the interaction among students at different locations, or teleresearch activities, where students get information by surfing the Web. I will begin with one of the most widely used activities: the treasure hunt.

The treasure hunt (also called knowledge hunt or scavenger hunt) is an inquiry-based activity where students use the Internet to find answers to a variety of questions, usually related to a single topic. Teachers select ten to fifteen Web pages with information on a topic and pose one key question for each Web site. Teachers should design questions which deal with the most important aspects of the topic and which force the students to analyse the topic. A good idea is to pose a final "big question" which asks students to synthesise and reflect on what they have learned and to construct their own view of the topic.

The great variety of information and text types available online represent a valuable resource that can be exploited with activities such as treasure hunts, which help ESP students get in touch with different genres and texts associated with their disciplines. Internet treasure hunts allow students to gain knowledge on a topic, develop web searching skills and improve their reading and comprehension skills. The treasure hunt is, therefore, an appropriate activity for a content-based ESP course: it requires the students’ exposure to authentic language related to their discipline, it encourages reading for a specific purpose, it increases knowledge of vocabulary and consolidates previously learned language, it helps students develop the ability of drawing inferences and predicting the content of a text. Additionally, the hypertext capabilities of the Internet enable the students to follow their own paths and to explore related sites where further information can be found.

TYPES OF TREASURE HUNTS

Treasure hunts can vary in complexity and in the degree of guidance provided by the creator/ teacher. The teacher should control the difficulty of the task and decide whether the students can engage in an involved hunt or need a more simple one. We can distinguish three types:

1. FULLY-GUIDED TREASURE HUNT

This hunt consists of several questions, usually theme-related, each one associated with a website URL. The reading skills focused on in this type of hunt are, among others, the following: skimming to get the gist, scanning to locate specifically required information, identifying key words.

2. HALF-GUIDED TREASURE HUNT

Students are asked some questions and are provided with a number of sites where they can find the answers, but they are not told on which site to look for each answer. This type of hunt can be used to help students develop the ability of making inferences and predicting the content of a document. An example is the treasure hunt Future science, future engineering
(http://www-personal.umich.edu/~gregm/springboard/Monday/ Treasure.html).

3. OPEN HUNT

The last type of hunt is that where students have to find their own sources for obtaining the required information. This is a very complex type of hunt where students have to use search tools and strategies to locate the sites necessary to answer the questions. The focus is, thus, on developing searching skills rather than reading skills. This does not seem to be an appropriate type of hunt to be used with ESP students, since, unless they are quite computer literate, they could feel overwhelmed by the difficulties. One example of this type of hunt is Technology designed treasure hunt
(http://gpss.wrdsb.edu.on.ca/academics/tech/enghunt.htm). Although the URLs of the sites where the "pieces of treasure" can be found are not given, students may be given other clues, such as the name of the site.

There are a number of online treasure hunts ready-made and freely available on the Web. Most of them are designed for primary, middle or high school students, although some are intended for ESL students. Many treasure hunts designed for school students can be used with ESP students, since there are hunts for different levels and for virtually any curriculum area.

EXAMPLES OF TREASURE HUNTS

Some examples of treasure hunts useful for ESP students are the following:

- Biology:

Environmental Scavenger hunt, http://homepage.mac.com/cohora/ext/environment.html

The green life scavenger hunt, http://www.iss.k12.nc.us/schools/sharon/lundyplanthunt.htm

Fruit scavenger hunt, http://www.iss.k12.nc.us/schools/scavenger/fruit/practice.htm

- Medicine:

Online Pedagogy, http://www.coh.uq.edu.au/COH/Filamentality/FrontPage.html. This site includes treasure hunts on topics such as water safety, sun safety, alcohol use and abuse, nutrition, body image, childhood obesity.

Genetics Internet scavenger Hunt, http://www.bend.k12.or.us/cascadems2/library/genscavhunt.htm

Alternative medicine scavenger hunt, http://www.iss.k12.nc.us/schools/nihs/science/mcdowell/altmed.htm

Fitness hunt, http://www.iss.k12.nc.us/schools/scavenger/fitnesshunt/fitness.htm

- Geology:

Rocks and minerals, http://www.iss.k12.nc.us/schools/coolspring/rocks.htm

- Maths:

Maths on the Web, http://www.cyberbee.com/mathws/mathactivity.html

A Scavenger hunt for geometry, http://www.iss.k12.nc.us/schools/scavenger/mathhunt/geohunt.htm

- Computer Science:

Computer scavenger hunt, http://homepage.mac.com/cohora/ext/Computersearch.html

Technology scavenger hunt, http://www.pearland.isd.esc4.net/carlesto/scavengerhunt/scavengerhunt.htm

The Machine That Changed the World, http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/scavenger.hunt.html

- Engineering and Physics:

Learning about the industrial revolution,

http://www.web-and-flow.com/members/nnardull3/industry/hunt.htm

Mysteries of space, http://www.iss.k12.nc.us/schools/scavenger/goldrick/solar.htm

- Business:

The Great Economics Internet Scavenger Hunt, http://mps2.mps.net/goetz/BasicEconomics/scavenger.htm

Foundation for teaching economics scavenger hunt, http://www.fte.org/teachers/lessons/efl/thurs/eflthurs2.htm

Miscellaneous Treasures hunts which focus on several disciplines:

Future science, future engineering,

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~gregm/springboard/Monday/Treasure.html

Wonders of science, http://www.cyberbee.com/science/scihunt.html

Inventors and inventions,

Way cool science scavenger hunt, http://www.ced.appstate.edu/whs/goals2000/projects/97/karla/karla.htm. A fun hunt where students visit some cool sites with information about scary things and strange occurrences. At each site they have to answer five questions or perform some tasks.

Science scavenger hunt, http://www.coe.ufl.edu/Courses/EdTech/Vault/SCE4310/SciHunt/SciHunt.html

INFORMATION ON TREASURE HUNTS

More information on treasure hunts can be found on the following sites:

- Working the Web for education, http://www.ozline.com/learning/theory.html.

- Activity Formats (Web and Flow),
http://www.web-and-flow.com/help/formats.html.

- A scavenger hunt about scavenger hunts,
http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/curr113.shtml. An online scavenger hunt that enables you to create your own online hunts. It also lists some of the best scavenger hunt sites on the Web.

- Knowledge Hunts,
http://www.cybercom.net/~jham/beyond/pages/knowledge_hunt.htm. Points to consider when designing treasure hunts.

- A Treasure Hunt Template,
http://www.qesn.meq.gouv.qc.ca/project/inclass/treasure.htm.

- Create a scavenger hunt,
http://www.qesn.meq.gouv.qc.ca/project/inclass/scavenge.htm

- "Internet treasure hunts- a treasure of an activity for students learning English,"
http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/Lessons/Brown-TreasureHunts.html. An interesting article dealing with the use of treasure hunts to learn language.

- How to Make Online Scavenger Hunts,
http://k-6educators.about.com/education/k-6educators/library/howto/htscav.htm. Simple steps for designing an Internet Scavenger Hunt.

- Using scavenger hunts,
http://www.spa3.k12.sc.us/Scavenger.html.

RELATED SITES

- Xcursions,
http://www.xcursioncentral.com/. Each Xcursion links to a series of annotated websites that are relevant to a specific subject or topic. There is a Start Page with questions and tasks to complete during the Xcursion.

- Cyberguides,
http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/cyberguide.html.