VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES  Research Paper THE IMPLEMENTATION OF PROJECT-BASED LEARNING IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASSROOM (DẠY VÀ HỌC TIẾNG ANH DỰA VÀO CÁC ĐỀ ÁN HỌC TẬP) Submitted by: VÕ THỊ NỮ ANH Ho Chi Minh City, August 2008 ABBREVIATIONS EAP : English for Academic Purposes EFL : English as a Foreign Language ESL : English as a Second Language ESOL : English for Speakers of Other Languages ESP : English for Special Purposes OUP : Oxford University Press PBL : Project-based Learning TESOL : Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages USSH : the University of Social Sciences and Humanities TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abbreviations Table of contents Abstract I Introduction II Using project-based learning in the classroom Definition of PBL Benefits of PBL 10 The way of introducing PBL into the English language classroom 20 III Stimulating grammar learning through project-based tasks 24 Grammar teaching and learning 25 The project 29 Student response to the project 33 IV Conclusion 37 References 38 Relevant Web Sites 39 ABSTRACT Project-based learning has the reputation of being important in bettering students’ study A growing body of academic research supports the use of PBL in schools as a way to engage students in learning activities that are student-centered, long-term, interdisciplinary, and integrated with real world issues and practices When students work together on projects, they can solve problems and carry out tasks that are similar to what they will later have to outside the classroom Moreover, they can also acquire many of the skills desired by today's employers, including the ability to work well with others, make thoughtful decisions, and solve complicated problems At the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University – Ho Chi Minh City, PBL has been receiving more and more attention and has been widely put into use in the English language classroom in recent years This paper examines the benefits of PBL, the way of incorporating it into the English language classroom, and describes a project implemented in a grammar course for students majoring in English Linguistics and Literature to show the practical aspects of using PBL ideas in an English grammar classroo I Introduction There is more in the role of education than just teaching the subject matter People go to school above all to learn how to learn, so that when they leave school, they can continue to learn The priority of education is, therefore, to provide citizens with a ‘passport to life’, or to equip learners with the ability to ‘learn to know, learn to do, learn to live together, and learn to be’ These four major pillars of education recommended by the UNESCO International Commission on Education are great challenges for both teachers and students of any major Although ‘project’ is not a new word that has recently ‘knocked for admittance at the door of educational terminology’ (Kilpatrick, 1918) and projectbased learning (PBL) is not a new or revolutionary idea in education, never before has PBL gained such a great foothold in the classroom and such a high reputation in enhancing educational quality and effectiveness as today Schools nowadays are very concerned about encouraging the shift from teacher-centered to learnercentered approach of teaching and learning, and PBL is brought not only into the classroom for students majoring in natural sciences and social sciences but also into the second and foreign language classroom Although in second and foreign language teaching, the application of PBL is a relatively new tendency, compared with the application of this method of teaching in other fields, interest in PBL and its integration into second and foreign language instruction is growing around the world In Vietnam, PBL has been receiving more and more attention in recent years, even in the English language classroom At the Faculty of English Linguistics and Literature of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities (USSH), Vietnam National University – Ho Chi Minh City, the word ‘project’ has become more and more familiar to both teachers and students PBL has been widely used to teach both language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) and specialized subjects (British Studies, American Studies, Literature, Translation, etc.) Students, especially those belonging to the ‘Honors Program’, are strongly encouraged and supported to conduct research projects right from the first year at university However, while most teachers have been using PBL in their language lessons for a long time, a few of them still find it a new way of working and are reluctant or hesitate in making a change The whole situation requires an overall look at PBL so that the benefits of this teaching method can be maximized in the classrooms Therefore, the objectives of this study are: (1) to examine the benefits of PBL and the way of incorporating it into the English language classroom; and (2) to describe an example to illustrate how PBL can be used in a grammar course for students majoring in English Linguistics and Literature II Using project-based learning in the classroom Definition of PBL Of the communicative language teaching approaches, PBL stands as the most student-centered Although the introduction of projects into the classroom has long been investigated, there is no one accepted definition of PBL PBL has been looked at from different perspectives and thus, defined in different ways PBL can be defined as ‘a comprehensive instructional approach to engage students in sustained, cooperative investigation’ (Bransford and Stein, 1993, as quoted in Houghton Mifflin’s), an instructional method which ‘is centered on the learner and affords learners the opportunity for in-depth investigations of worthy topics’ (Grant, 2002), or ‘a teaching and learning model that focuses on the central concepts and principles of a discipline, involves students in problem-solving and other meaningful tasks, allows students to work autonomously to construct their own learning, and culminates in realistic, student-generated products’ (Buck Institute for Education) Railsback, in her booklet entitled ‘Project-based Instruction: Creating Excitement for Learning’, summarizes the ideas of many researchers into quite a detailed definition Project-based instruction is an authentic instructional model or strategy in which students plan, implement, and evaluate projects that have real-world applications beyond the classroom Learning activities that are interdisciplinary, long term, and student centered are emphasized, rather than short, isolated lessons Project-based instructional strategies have their roots in the constructivist approach evolved from the work of psychologists and educators such as Lev Vygotsky, Jerome Bruner, Jean Piaget and John Dewey Constructivism views learning as the result of mental construction; that is, children learn by constructing new ideas or concepts based on their current and previous knowledge Most important, students find projects fun, motivating, and challenging because they play an active role in choosing the project and in the entire planning process (Railsback, 2002:6) Different as the definitions are, PBL is basically ‘a model that organizes learning around projects’ (Thomas, 2000:1) or ‘the use of classroom projects, intended to bring about deep learning, where students use technology and inquiry to engage with issues and questions that are relevant to their lives’ (Wikipedia) Projects can be very simple (Hutchinson, 1991:4) or very complex (Hutchinson, 1991:5; Thomas, 2000:1) Eyring (1997:4) emphasizes that projects ‘must incorporate some form of student input, their content must derive from the real second-language world either through extensive contact with native speakers or native texts; they must integrate language skills; and they must extend over a fairly long period of time (from several weeks to a full term).’ The following two projects were collected by Hutchinson (1991) The project on page 5, which was done by a beginner, is an example of a simple project while the one on page shows what a complex project is Figure 1: A simple project (Hutchinson, 1991:4) Figure 2: A more complex project (Hutchinson, 1991:5) ‘In this project students from the town of Pécs in Hungary visited another town While they were there, they interviewed local people and then wrote about what the people had said Notice in this project that project work is not tied to the classroom nor to the English-speaking world.’ (Hutchinson, 1991:5) Still some other researchers look at explicit grammar instruction from another perspective: They enthusiastically back up the important role of grammar teaching in the classroom provided that it goes hand in hand with communicative activities (Harmer, 1987; Lightbrown and Spada, as quoted in Nunan, 1999) This method of grammar teaching is believed to be more needed by adults (Harmer, 1987) and to be superior to ‘exclusive emphasis on accuracy on the one hand and an exclusive emphasis on fluency on the other’ (Lightbrown and Spada, as quoted in Nunan: 1999:49) Nowadays, this final point of view on explicit grammar teaching seems to persuade a great number of grammar teachers, especially if it is applied to adult classrooms Many teachers believe that ‘judicious attention to grammatical form in the adult classroom is not only helpful, if appropriate techniques are used, but essential to a speedy learning process’ (Brown, 1994:349) The question, then, is why explicit grammar instruction is more effective in adult classrooms than in those for children Among various factors, cognitive abilities, proficiency levels and motivation can be seen as particularly important As university students whose major is English, these learners are no longer children and are at the upper-intermediate and advanced levels of English Thus, they should be treated as adults, whose cognitive abilities and affective characteristics have an advantage over those of children This superiority facilitates the teaching and learning processes of adults in the classroom situations As adults are more intellectually developed, they have greater faculty of managing abstract grammatical concepts, ‘greater memory storage capacity’ and more selfconfidence (Brown, 1994:90, 94; Els, 1984:107) More importantly, most of the learners at this age and at this level are fully aware of their purposes of study They can take ownership in learning by identifying and deciding for themselves relevant learning goals In other words, they have already developed in themselves 27 ‘a strong instrumental motivation’ (Els, 1984:107) All of these factors are found to support grammar learning in the classroom and account for adults’ greater success in learning than children However, as Brown firmly believes, ‘too much abstract generalization about usage and not enough real life language use can be deadly for adults’ (1994:94) In other words, only knowledge about grammar is not sufficient and not useful; the important thing is that learners have to know how to use that grammar for communicative purposes Grammar cannot be disembodied from a context and dealt with in isolated sentences, which are mostly artificial constructs written to exemplify linguistic forms or structures, and learners cannot just learn rules by rote and a sequence of exercises from simple to complex Also, ‘communication cannot take place in the absence of structure, or grammar, a set of shared assumptions about how language works’ either (Savignon, 1991:268) In fact, without grammar, people might get others to understand them in some very simple conversations but they will undoubtedly get stuck in more complicated ones or in writing If a person wants to translate an academic document from a foreign language, without knowing about grammar, how can he hope to comprehend and translate it correctly although he can get access to many large and prestigious dictionaries? Therefore, grammar cannot be ignored in language teaching, but optimal language learning environments in which explicit grammar instruction and communicative activities are combined should be created The proficiency in a language and the ability to communicate should be the goals of grammar teaching, if the true nature of grammar is taken into consideration 28 The project The following project was developed for a class of twenty freshmen whose major is English Linguistics and Literature and who are from the ‘Honors Program’ The project was implemented in a grammar course of 45 class hours (45 minutes / class hour) that I was teaching over a 15 week period from February 2007 to June 2007 in USSH, Vietnam National University – Ho Chi Minh City This was the first grammar course that these students took at university In the academic year 2006-2007, according to the syllabus, first-year students majoring in English Linguistics and Literature had Practical English Grammar (by Nguyen Viet Thu, 2003, Vietnam National University Press, Ho Chi Minh City) as their grammar coursebook Besides, some suggested optional resources were also available such as Oxford Guide to English Grammar (by Eastwood, 1994, OUP, Oxford), Longman English Grammar (by Alexander, 1988, Longman, London and New York), Longman English Grammar Practice for Intermediate Students (by Alexander, 1990, Longman, London and New York), A Practical English Grammar (by Thomson and Martinet, 1989, OUP, Oxford) and A Practical English Grammar: Exercises (by Thomson and Martinet, 1986, OUP, Oxford) The coursebook consists of seven units (Unit 1: Basic Sentence Patterns, Unit 2: Sentence Types, Unit 3: Grammatical Forms, Unit 4: Nouns, Unit 5: Articles, Unit 6: Adjectives, and Unit 7: Pronouns) The course aims to equip students with systematic and thorough knowledge of the English grammar, provide them with opportunities to practise using grammar in context, and train them to speak and write grammatically The objectives of the project were to enhance student motivation through PBL and to encourage the students to discover the problems usually facing students at their level when learning and using grammar for communication The students 29 designed or collected communicative tasks and had them carried out in the classroom to see whether they could help overcome the problems Activities took place both inside and outside the classroom, and students worked in small groups The teacher took a back seat, served as a guide, explained confusing points, clarified questions if they arose, and helped the students at the right time With those objectives, the project hoped to bring a dual benefit: the students could learn grammar communicatively and they would be instructed to carry out the very first steps of doing research, which is of utmost importance, for doing annual research forms an obligatory part of the ‘Honors Program’ at the Faculty of English Linguistics and Literature The project, which was structured following Stoller’s (1997) ten-step sequence presented in Figure on page 23, is described below Step 1: Students and teacher agree on a project Students divide themselves into four groups Through discussion, the students in each group and the teacher agree on a grammar point, either nouns, articles, adjectives or pronouns, as the theme for the project of each group The students will study the grammar point agreed on, quickly going through items that they have already known well and focusing on those that they have not yet mastered, and work together to find out ways to effectively learn them with communicative activities Step 2: Students and teacher determine the final outcome of the project According to Stoller (1997), Whereas the first stage of project work involves establishing a starting point, the second step entails defining an end point, or the final outcome Students and instructor consider the nature of the project, its objectives, and the most appropriate means to culminate 30 the project They can choose from a variety of options including a written report, letter, poster or bulletin board display, debate, oral presentation, information packet, handbook, scrapbook, brochure, newspaper, or video For this project, students and the teacher decide on the final outcome: each group will submit a written report and make an oral presentation to the class in which they briefly talk about difficulties that they think most students at their level usually face with in using a grammar point and the communicative activities that they believe can help to overcome those difficulties The whole class will then take part in the activities with the help of the presenting group to see whether those communicative activities really work Step 3: Students and teacher structure the project The grammar lessons in the coursebook are, in fact, not completely new things to students, especially to those from the ‘Honors Program’ The students have a lot of knowledge about those grammar points through their study at high school and through reading reference books in grammar It brings, thus, little use or even demotivates the students if the teacher goes over all those points, from simple to complex, in the classroom Instead, the students can decide which grammar items need being delved into or practised and, in small groups, make every attempt to find ways to master those items and to be able to use them effectively in oral and written communication They read reference books and surf websites to study the grammar items and to look for communicative activities which can succeed in combining grammar and communication, a relationship which is difficult to blend The students should also consult authentic materials such as English magazines, travel brochures, videos, and television programmes to enhance the project Then, they will bring those activities to the classroom and, together with their classmates, take part in those activities 31 Steps 4, 5, 6, and 7: Teacher prepares students for information gathering – Students gather information – Teacher prepares students for compiling and analyzing data – Students compile and analyze information During the first four weeks of the course, the teacher conducts lessons on units to of the coursebook These lessons, serving as explicit grammar instruction, are designed to introduce students to the grammar course and raise their awareness of grammar learning at the university Besides, the use of communicative activities in the lessons helps students visualize how they can get on with the project Students, at the same time, collect information for their project from different sources, in and out of the classroom, individually, in pairs, or in small groups They also work collaboratively in groups to compile information they have gathered, compare their findings, and decide how to organize them for a convincing paper and for efficient presentation These steps are not linear but make up a recursive process Throughout the process, the teacher monitors students’ progress, making sure that they are on the right track, and providing help when necessary Step 8: Teacher prepares students for the final activity The teacher prepares students for the language and skills necessary for a successful written report and oral presentation, including techniques of giving brief and clear instructions for communicative activities and techniques of controlling the class during those activities Step 9: Students present final product The groups working on nouns, articles, adjectives, and pronouns will present the final outcome of their projects on the sixth, eighth, tenth, and thirteenth week of the course respectively 32 Step 10: Students evaluate the project The teacher provides students with feedback and students themselves reflect on the experience working to complete the project, the content that they have learned, the effectiveness of the communicative activities chosen and collected in grammar learning The teacher and students also identify areas that need paying more attention to and spend time discussing them and exploring them in detail Student response to the project The project, in general, was successful in motivating students to learn grammar The majority of feedback I obtained during and after the project was very positive Students, with high motivation, were actively engaged in completing the project and taking part in the communicative activities in the classroom They found it a stimulating and satisfying learning experience The atmosphere in the grammar classroom was lively; cheerful laughs helped to release the students from the tenseness of hours working with plenty of rules, structures and practice exercises Students’ awareness of their own language needs was encouraged and fostered, and their language needs were satisfied The projects of the students, though still having quite a few shortcomings, were well-done and made a good impression with eye-catching and animated pictures in PowerPoint presentations Students’ marks, then, were also examined, as they would permit overall perceptions of the students’ achievement During the course, two tests (mid-term test and end-of-term test) were given The two tests, which focus more on accuracy than fluency, were designed to meet the evaluation criteria being used in the faculty for the subject The mid-term test was scheduled after the completion of the first three units and a small part of the forth unit It is important to note that PBL was not applied for the units taught before the mid-term test As the students 33 in this class belong to the ‘Honors Program’, they are the best students in the Faculty of English Linguistics and Literature So, it was not surprising that most of them got good results for both the two tests in this course For the mid-term test, 11 out of 20 students got an or above, with students having an 8, student having a 9, and attaining the maximum mark, while students got a lower mark Mark 10 Total students 1 20 Table 2: Students’ marks in the mid-term test Compared with the results of the mid-term test, those of the end-of-term test were a little improved Although no student obtained a 10 in the end-of-term test, the lowest mark that the students got was 7, one mark higher than that in the mid-term test, and the number of students who achieved an or above increased (12 students) Mark 10 Total students 10 20 Table 3: Students’ marks in the end-of-term test The marks of each student in the mid-term test and the end-of-term test were also compared to examine whether there was any improvement The compound bar chart that follows shows that 17 out of 20 students in the class obtained the same or higher marks in the end-of-term test (10 students got the same marks in both the two tests and got higher marks in the second test) These figures reveal that PBL has a positive, though not very strong, effect on the students’ improvements in English grammar tests and that PBL can work in the 34 English language classroom without breaking the evaluation procedures previously adopted by the faculty COMPARISON OF EACH STUDENT'S MARKS IN THE MID-TERM TEST AND THE END-OF-TERM TEST 12 10 Mark Mid-term test End-of-term test 11 13 15 17 19 Student Figure 4: Comparison of each student’s marks in the mid-term test and the end-ofterm test The details of one project designed for an EFL setting have been showcased Although the observations and results are supposed to be subjective, they form an indispensable part in my teaching, as well as in the teaching of any other teacher They provide teachers with many ideas to ponder over in choosing the most suitable and effective method of teaching The paper, however, would have been 35 more persuasive and the picture could have been more comprehensive if the issue had been examined in a larger scale study 36 IV Conclusion This paper has given a general description of PBL and its practicality in the English language classroom, illustrating it with a project incorporated into an English grammar course In order to be effective, PBL involves not only careful preparation and planning but also flexibility on the part of the teacher For the choice of the project and the way to implement it in the classroom largely depends on the specific conditions of each class and each subject Although PBL is not an easy approach to properly implement, it is believed to have many meaningful potential payoffs and to offer many solutions to the problems faced in the Vietnamese universities Hopefully, more research on the implementation of PBL in the English language classroom will be done in the Vietnamese classroom setting so that teachers have the sound basis to be more confident in applying PBL to help students have the ability to manage their own learning and gradually grow into independent language learners in the future 37 References Alan, B., & Stoller, F L (2005) Maximizing the benefits of project work in 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I Introduction II Using project-based learning in the classroom Definition of PBL Benefits of PBL 10 The way of introducing PBL into the English language. .. In the teaching and learning of English, PBL functions as a bridge between using English in the classroom and using English in real world, the world outside the classroom (FriedBooth, 2002) In. .. project-based learning in the classroom Definition of PBL Of the communicative language teaching approaches, PBL stands as the most student-centered Although the introduction of projects into the classroom