Travel Agent WebQuest

A WebQuest task which can be used with English language learners.

1. Designed by: Noor Said Al- Maashani Sultan Qaboos University Masters’ Student/ 2014 53573 Travel Agent WebQuest

2. Introduction Task Process Evaluation Conclusion Teacher’s Page Content

3. Do you like planning trips for others? Have you ever done that? If you have, did they like your plan? If you have not, would you like to try it? Here, in this web quest we provide you with a chance to show us your planning skills and persuasive skills by working as a team member in a travel agency. Show us how creative and convincing you are! Introduction

4. A family consisting of a father, a mother and their 3 children, a 17- years old girl, a 12- years old boy and a 5- years old girl, has come to your travel agency company and asked it to plan their one week summer vacation. Your company’s manager divided you into 5 teams of 5 members and asked each team to present the family with a proposal. To do the task, you should : think about each member in the family. choose a suitable destination for them. provide them with enough information about their destination, its culture and history, places to visit, things to do, famous restaurants and hotels. plan carefully each day of their vacation. It should be an enjoyable schedule. present them with an attractive proposal using a presentation, brochures and any other interesting things. c onvince them with your proposal. The winner team will be given a very high bonus and tickets to travel to the same destination they have chosen for the family. Task

5. Step 1: Sit together, look at these websites about different destinations, think about the family, listen to each other and agree on one destination. The websites are: Process France: 1 & 2 Malaysia: 1 & 2 Egypt: 1 & 2 England 1 & 2 Japan: 1 & 2 Oman: 1 & 2 Italy: 1 & 2 South Africa: 1 & 2 Dubai: 1 & 2 Spain: 1 & 2 New York: 1 & 2 Lebanon: 1 & 2 Turkey: 1 & 2 Morocco: 1 & 2

6. Step 2: Assign each member of your team to one of these roles: A researcher about places to visit A researcher about activities to do A researcher about famous places to eat in A researcher about famous hotels and resorts A researcher about the destination’s history and culture Now, each member of the team go through the websites and find information about her topic. Process

7. Step 3: Sit together and present to each other the information you have gathered. Discuss which information you should include in your proposal. Now, plan together each day of the family’s vacation. Remember, it is one week long. Note: again think about each member of the family and be creative. Process

8. Step 4: 1. Assign your team members to these roles: a. Two writers b. Two designers c. One presenter Note : you can change the roles and have more than one presenter. 2. Now, each member should do her task carefully. The writers should write the presentation. The designers should design the brochures, the trip schedule and any other materials you will use. The presenter should practise well what she will say in front of the clients. She should be confident and persuasive enough. Process

9. Step 5: Today is the big day. Your clients are waiting for you. Do your best to convince them with your proposal. Note: remember to look at the evaluation rubric. Process

10. Evaluation Excellent (4) Good (3) Satisfactory (2) Poor (1) The area Enough, accurate and interesting information Enough and accurate information Hardly enough information but some inaccurate Little and inaccurate information about the destination Content Well- organized information , very accurate language, attractive and relevant visuals Organized information , accurate language, relevant and enough visuals Acceptable organization, acceptable accuracy level and some irrelevant visuals Poor organization , grammatical errors and few or irrelevant visuals Brochure Creative way of presenting, confident and accurate presenter Interesting way of presenting, to some extent confident and accurate presenter Acceptable way of presenting, hesitant and barely accurate presenter Poor way of presenting, confused and unconfident and inaccurate presenter Presentation Excellent use of persuasive language Good use of persuasive language Acceptable use of persuasive language No use of persuasive language Persuasive speech Excellent level of cooperation between the team members Good cooperation between the team members The team cooperate with each o ther to some extent No cooperation between the team Working as a team Deep thinking and analysis, no grammatical mistakes Good level of thinking and few grammatical mistakes Acceptable level of thinking and some grammatical mistakes Poor level of thinking and too many grammatical mistakes Reflection papers

11. Well done to all teams and congratulations to the winner team . Now, all of you have got some good experience about being a travel agent and about being a team member. Reflect on these two questions in two separate essay papers. Did you like being a travel agent? Will you consider it as your future career? Why? Some jobs require you to work in a team. Having experienced that, how do you evaluate yourself as a team member? W ould you like to have a job in which you work in a team? Why? Conclusion

12. This web quest is designed for grades 12. It should be used with theme 5, A warm Welcome, in the course book Engage with English A. The main objectives are Improving students’ oral speech and writing Developing students’ persuasive skills, research skills and planning skills Exposing students to different cultures Offering students with a career they may add to their future job list This web quest should be taught in 5 lessons. Teacher’s Page