O n f e r e n c e

 
Instruments 
Two instruments were utilized in this current study. The first was the Writing 
Performance test consisted of a pretest and a posttest in which participants were asked 
to perform a writing task. The second 
was a questionnaire that examines the students’ 
level of motivation before and after the use of web quests. 
 
Data Analysis 
The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software (SPSS) was used for data 
analysis.

---

-55- 
2014 CALL Conference 
LINGUAPOLIS
www.antwerpcall.be 
Data collected were analyzed and the findings indicated that the Web Quest Writing 
Instruction (WQWI) was more effective than the traditional instruction in that students in 
the WQWI class improved their writing performance significantly more than those in the 
traditional writing instruction class. 
 
Research Procedures 
At the beginning of the research project, a writing performance pretest and a 
questionnaire on motivation towards writing were administered to the subjects in the 
control group and the experimental group. Taught by the same teacher, both groups 
received writing instruction of six hours a week in the English class. The stages of writing 
process (pre-writing, writing, and post-writing), peer editing and revising and teacher 
responses to the drafts were conducted. The Participants in both groups were given three 
writing tasks requiring them to produce paragraph writing. The three writing tasks in 
both groups focused on the same writing modes and grammatical points. A total of 45 
eighth -grade students participated in the study. The control group, which completed 
traditional instructional activities, consisted of 22 students, 13 males and 9 females. The 
experimental group, which completed the web quest activity, consisted of 23 students, 
17 males and 6 females. The two classes were, at the beginning, homogenous in terms 
of academic ability. The control group received traditional classroom instruction and met 
in a traditional classroom the entire time. The lesson plans adopted and modified for the 
traditional classroom writing instruction were originally compiled by the teacher and had 
been used for years. These lesson plans, in the form of printed materials, were handouts 
designed mainly for traditional classroom instruction. The experimental group received 
the WQWI lessons and met in the traditional classroom as well as in the language 
laboratory where pre-writing activities were conducted. The three lesson plans for the 
WQWI lessons were adopted from Dodge's Matrix of web quest Examples at 
http://webquest.sdsu.edu/matrix.html and modified to a large extent by the researcher.
 
The instructor identified the weaknesses and strengths of the sample lessons excerpted 
from the thematic unit titled "Friendship and Honesty". After that, she employed the 
thematic unit rubric in order to enhance the pointed out weaknesses and to fill out the 
deduced gaps. Next, the instructor revised the sample lessons to bridge the gaps with 
supplemental materials posted on the web quest. As such, the instructor assessed the 
structure, content and layout of the sample lessons excerpted from the critiqued 
thematic unit and created an enhanced version for the sample lessons excerpted from 
the critiqued thematic unit. The instructor designed a new unit that integrates web-based 
resources to improve the quality and efficacy of the lesson/unit under discussion. 
As shown by the sample lesson plans of both the WQWI and WI, the traditional writing 
instruction lessons used in the control group provided students with vocabulary, outline 
formats, and sample written passages to familiarize them with the content and 
organization for the writing assignments, whereas the WQWI lessons used in the 
experimental group guided students in completing their writing assignments by leading 
them to surf web quest materials organized in five major sections (introduction, task, 
process, organization, conclusion). 
At the end of the research study, the writing performance post-test and questionnaire 
were administered to the subjects.