Search and Report: Short Research Projects for EFL Students
Bill Pellowe (billp@gol.com)
The three projects in this cycle have recently been published in Recipes for Wired Teachers (2000), a 157-page collection of 77 ideas written by teachers, for teachers.

In courses combining English language and Internet use, one common project involves students in searching for information on a topic in order to provide the raw data for a subsequent discussions, process writing, written reports or oral reports. However, for many EFL students, this can be overwhelming due to a lack of experience and skills in searching for information, summarizing information and/or writing reports. (For some, this is further exacerbated by low levels of English proficiency.) The three activities below are intended to gradually provide the author's first year college students with the skills needed for more independent and autonomous research and writing projects in their second year. Even though the three build upon each other within the author's first year syllabus, the reader could use these ideas independently of each other if so desired.

Below you'll find three links which bring you to pages describing each project. Beneath these three links is a table which outlines various aspects of each project.

1. Beanie Babies
2. Pets
3. Holidays

By the way, if you'd like to see the on-line training materials I used for teaching the technical aspects of web browsing, see the course outline's contents page at <www2.gol.com/users/billp/course/contents.html>.

-Table The first three projects in the first year (There are additional projects later in the first year.) 2nd Year Graduation Thesis Beanie Babies Pets Holidays Students work... alone in random groups of 3 or 4 per group in pairs or groups of 3; they choose their own partners. alone Topics are... assigned by the teacher, and are the same for every student assigned by the teacher, but are different for each group. are chosen by students within a theme chosen by the teacher chosen by the students The report is... short answers to questions a few pages long, and includes images from the Internet not required written Presentation... (not applicable) done orally, roles chosen by students. Awritten outline is given to the audience; visual aids are done on Word and shown via a computer projector. done orally, roles chosen by students. Awritten outline is given to the audience; visual aids are done on Word and shown via a computer projector. done orally as a formal speech. Visual aids are created as Internet pages and shown via a computer projector. Oral practice for presentation... (not applicable) minimal minimal extensive

Contact Information Bill Pellowe 092-883-3688 e-mail: billp@gol.com http://www2.gol.com/users/billp http://kyushu.com/jalt