Innovation in Language Learning

The problem of students’ motivation continues to be one of the central tasks in language learning and academic discussions in the area despite its constant development. As they have become an integral part of the daily life and routine, new technologies, mobile devices and the Internet are often seen as a means to increase students’ interest in the subject as well as involve them in it. However, their usage is not the actual solution. What is, according to the recent studies, is the creativity and actual involvement of the students through appeal to it. Mobile devices and Internet is then just a tool.

Web Quest is seen as a convenient method of activating the creative potential of the students and increasing their involvement and through that motivation by making them part of the teaching and learning process. While maintaining control over the structure, resources and the contents such methodology allows certain flexibility particularly in terms of adjusting the material to the students’ needs and abilities as well as the nature of the content. That helps to create a dialogue between an instructor and the audience, them and the content and, so, brings it closer to a student and turns it to a something real and alive. 

While Web Quests are quite well studied in the context of the English language learning, they are still not well explored in the context of Russian language teaching and learning. For my presentation, I will analyse the potential and opportunities of the usage of “long” Web Quests as well as “short” ones in the Russian language classroom. I will look at several examples of Web Quests that can be used in a Russian conversation class.