In this chapter, the authors propose to use the WebQuest tool in order to improve the motivation and communicative competence in the English language of 5-year-old students. WebQuest is a research activity in which students work with information taken from the internet, which is based on learning by discovery and can be used at any stage and subject of education. Its use in early childhood education has multiple advantages. Among them, it increases the motivation, interest, and attention of the students to the subject, improving the understanding and acquisition of contents. Therefore, the authors present a WebQuest to bring P5 students closer to learn English in a fun, interesting, and motivating way. The goal of this WebQuest is for students to learn vocabulary related to the physical and natural environment so as to create a dictionary. This improvement in motivation will lead them to face the learning of the English language with a more positive attitude and to a better learning of it.
TopIntroduction
Currently, the Spanish population has little more than a rough pass mark in the knowledge of the English language, with 44% of Spaniards having a poor English level. In addition, according to the Education First English Level Index (2016), Spaniards have a medium level of proficiency in the English language, which means that they are not capable of using a varied and appropriate language in social situations, to understand television programs, or to read the newspaper. These data are quite alarming if one takes into account that, in today’s globalized society, having a good level of English has become an essential requirement.
The English language has become the lingua franca worldwide, being the main instrument of international communication present in many instruction guides, congresses, scientific publications, documentaries, etc., as well as on the Internet, where 72% of all content is in English (Martínez, 2019). So, mastering this language is essential to be able to communicate with people from anywhere in the world and to have access to more information. But it is not only necessary for this reason, also knowing English is an almost essential requirement to succeed professionally since 80% of Spaniards consider that knowing this language helps a lot to find a job (Álvarez, 2010). Therefore, if what we want to improve the English level of Spaniards and train people with high English language skills, capable of communicating fluently in different contexts and situations, one of the things that can be done is to teach the said language from the Early Childhood Education stage. According to Fleta (2006), it is easier and faster to achieve bilingualism the sooner the learning of the second language begins.
On the other hand, if we consider that the final function of the school is to prepare students so that they can function adequately in the society in which they live, the need to educate children from the infant stage in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) is unquestionable so that they develop their digital competence and can function satisfactorily in today’s society. Nowadays, we live in a society dominated by new technologies and the Internet, where according to Romero (2016) it is essential to know how to use the information provided by the Internet so as to solve one’s own needs.
Likewise, the need to educate pre-school students with ICTs is unquestionable if we take into account that they improve the teaching-learning process by giving it an innovative and creative character. We should also bear in mind that they increase the motivation and interest of the students for the subject in which they are included (Rodríguez, 2019) and that, as a consequence, the understanding and acquisition of contents is improved (Martínez, 2010). Therefore, starting from the idea that the English language competence of the Spanish population must be improved, this can be achieved through the early teaching of the said language through the application of ICTs in the classroom, which brings numerous benefits to the educational process, among them that favours motivation and content acquisition.
In this chapter we propose to use ICTs, specifically the WebQuest tool to increase the motivation and interest of 5-year-old students in Early Childhood Education towards the English language. This improvement will lead them to face the learning of English with a more positive attitude and, therefore, to a better learning, resulting in an improvement in the competence of the said language. This theory is based on the idea of Rubio and Martínez (2012), who consider that the students’ attitude towards the target language and the methodology used to teach it are factors that have a great influence on learning a second language. Henceforth, the objective is to elaborate a proposal that consists of designing a WebQuest to improve the motivation and communicative competence in the English language of 5-year-old students.