An investigation into some difficulties facing first year non english major students in project based learing at ton duc thang university

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE AN INVESTIGATION INTO SOME DIFFICULTIES FACING FIRST-YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS IN PROJECT-BASED LEARNING AT TON DUC THANG UNIVERSITY A thesis submitted to the Faculty of English Linguistics & Literature in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in TESOL By NGUYEN HUU NGOC Supervised by TRAN THI THANH DIEU, Ph.D HO CHI MINH CITY, MARCH 2021 I STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY I hereby declare that this thesis entitled “An investigation into some difficulties facing first-year non-English major students in Project-based learning at Ton Duc Thang university” is my own work This paper does not contain any materials which have been previously submitted, in whole or in part, for another degree in any institutions All the work from other authors, which has been used as references in this study, was cited with acknowledgement Ho Chi Minh, March 2021 NGUYEN HUU NGOC II ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to the following people without whom my thesis would not have been completed First, my deepest gratitude would go to my supervisor, Ms Tran Thi Thanh Dieu, PhD, who has given me valuable advice and constructive feedback for the thesis I am also grateful to Ms Dieu for her encouragement and motivation during the time I struggled to get my thesis back on track Second, I am indebted to all the lecturers in the faculty of English Linguistics and Literature for the useful background knowledge about doing research in the TESOL program The knowledge I got from them was of great importance to the completion of my study Also, I would like to send my sincere thanks to all the participants in the study, including the two English teachers and two classes of 62 first-year non-English major students at TDTU Their wholehearted sharing and support were a great help in my study Finally, my warmest thanks are sent to my family and my close friends who have always been in my company Had it not been for their mental support and encouragement, I would have given up writing the thesis III ABSTRACT This qualitative case study was conducted to (1) explore how PBL is implemented in English courses at TDTU and (2) investigate some difficulties facing first-year nonEnglish students during the execution of PBL in groups There were two intact classes of 62 students and two English teachers participating in the study To achieve the research objectives, three main instruments were employed which are eight in-class observations, four students’ focus groups and semi-structured interviews with two teachers The data collection began with a series of observations in the two classes to look into the current practice of PBL at the chosen research site Then students’ focus group interviews and interviews with teachers were administered one after another to discover certain difficulties that the students encountered during their PBL implementation The study found out that there was a close match between the steps of PBL at TDTU and those advocated by Korkmaz & Kaptan (2000) During the six-step procedure of PBL, the teachers and students had various activities to prepare for the project products In addition, it was revealed that the students met five main difficulties during PBL stages, namely the lack of PBL experience, group work, presentation delivery, deficiency in English competence and failure in receiving timely support from the teachers These findings made a humble contribution to the pedagogical implications for teachers as well as further research on the same field Key words: PBL, students’ difficulties, TDTU IV TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background to the study 1.2 Research problem .3 1.3 Aims of the study 1.4 Research questions 1.5 Significance of the study 1.6 Scope of the study 1.7 Organization of the thesis CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Background to Project-based learning (PBL) 2.1.1 Definitions 2.1.2 Basic features of project-based learning 2.1.3 Rationales for project-based learning 10 2.1.4 Components of project-based learning .11 2.1.5 Types of projects 12 2.2 Project-based learning in EFL context 13 2.2.1 Role of project-based learning in language acquisition 13 2.2.2 The process of PBL in EFL classrooms 15 2.2.3 Suggested English learning projects 19 2.3 Difficulties facing students in the implementation of PBL in EFL contexts 21 2.4 Previous studies 23 2.5 Conceptual framework 25 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 27 3.1 Research design 27 3.2 Research site 28 3.3 English courses at TDTU .29 3.3.1 Background information about English courses at TDTU 29 3.3.2 Textbook use 31 3.3.3 Assessment 32 3.4 PBL implementation at TDTU .33 3.4.1 Background of PBL practice at TDTU 33 3.4.2 Group project procedures 33 3.4.3 Final project products 34 3.4.4 Assessment of group project products 35 3.5 Research participants 35 3.5.1 Student participants 35 3.5.2 Teacher participants 36 3.6 Research instruments 37 3.6.1 Classroom observations 37 3.6.2 Students’ focus groups 38 3.6.3 Semi-structured interviews 41 3.7 Data collection procedures .42 3.8 Data analysis procedures 44 3.9 Reliability and validity 48 V CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 47 4.1 The implementation of PBL in English courses at TDTU .47 4.2 Difficulties facing first-year non-English major students at TDTU 4.3 Summary of main findings .82 4.4 Discussions 84 4.4.1 The implementation of PBL in an English course at TDTU 84 4.4.2 Difficulties facing first-year non-English major students at TDTU during PBL implementation 85 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 89 5.1 Conclusion 89 5.2 Pedagogical implications 90 5.3 Limitations of the study 91 5.4 Recommendations for further research 92 REFERENCES 94 APPENDICES .99 VI LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.5 Conceptual Framework 23 Figure 3.3.3 The scoring assessment for English courses at TDTU 29 Figure 3.4.2 Group project procedure 30 LIST OF TABLES Table 3.3.1 The division of classes between standard and high quality program 27 Table 3.3.2 The unit teaching components in Keynote series 28 Table 3.5.1 Students’ information 32 Table 3.6.1 The schedules for classroom observations 33 Table 3.6.2 The details about students’ focus group interviews 35 Table 3.6.3 The information of teachers’ interviews 37 Table 3.7.1 The summary of the research procedures 38 Table 4.1 The order of presenting groups in two classes 54 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS PBL: Project-based learning TDTU: Ton Duc Thang university CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background to the study Under the effects of globalization and internationalization, English has become “a passport to life” - the major communication tool used in almost all aspects of life Therefore, the ability to communicate in English in both written and oral forms may be considered the core key to employment opportunities and career development of graduates However, the research findings concerning the current situation of English learning and teaching processes in Vietnam reveal that Vietnamese students’ English communicative competence is relatively low and does not meet the requirements of employers (Ngo, 2011; Nguyen & Tran, 2015) The study by Karim (2016) also points out that one of the major reasons attributed to the unemployment of more than 400,000 Vietnamese undergraduates is the poor proficiency of English knowledge and skills In Vietnam, English has been included as a compulsory module in the curriculum for both English majors and non-English major students at the tertiary level However, there is a fact that while English majored students are provided with sufficient opportunities to enhance English skills because of the use of English as the medium of language classroom interactions, their counterparts, non-English major students, are hardly exposed to the proper English environment to boost their English competence Accordingly, it is challenging for curriculum designers and English teachers to design and apply feasible and effective English teaching approaches and techniques to improve non-English major students’ English academic achievements and communicative ability (Nguyen & Tran, 2015) Irrefutably, the process of English teaching and learning at the tertiary levels in Vietnam has been still heavily dependent on traditional teaching methods with a teachercentered approach, consequently leading to poor performance and limited competence in English communication level of students (Park, 2000; Nguyen, 2013) Moreover, it is highlighted that the lack of social communication and interactions in English as the target language is another leading cause resulting in their low English abilities (Krachu, 2005) These challenges in English learning have led to the fact that the majority of Vietnamese non-English graduates are incapable of using English as their communication means in their professional environment (Vu, 2007; Ha, 2018) It was indicated by MOET in 2008 that teachers are encouraged to seek out for innovative teaching techniques and methods which are meaningful and effective in the EFL contexts in Vietnam to enhance the efficiency of English learning and teaching The improvement in teaching pedagogy is an absolute necessity that allows teachers to make a difference in their students’ effectiveness of English learning It is emphasized by Nguyen (2013) that the achievement of English skills requires teachers to offer a motivating and appropriate learning environment that encourages and empowers students to practice English skills In alignment to the aforementioned education policy, TDTU (Ton Duc Thang university) has recently made great attempts to promote the efficiency of English learning for both English majored and non-English major students by integrating various innovative teaching methods and techniques Particularly, Project-based learning (PBL) has been integrated into English modules since the academic school year 2018 - 2019 to promote students’ English knowledge and command and certain life-long development skills through the use of authentic and real-life situations in learning As stated by Petersen and Nassaji (2016), PBL refers to the learning method integrating real world concerns into learning activities Learning through projects, according to them, created a shift in the roles of teachers and learners In other words, in PBL, teachers act as facilitators and motivators whereas students are “independent and self-directed learners” (Krueger, 2014), actively taking their role of learning The shift in teaching and learning roles has been proved significantly beneficial in the EFL context According to Fried-Booth (2012), the direct involvement in project tasks from the preparation to evaluation phase provides EFL students great opportunities to build up and promote their confidence, autonomy and independence, contributing to their increased self-esteem and positive attitudes towards English learning It is also affirmed by Skehan (1998) that the active participation in project activities in which students are responsible for their project tasks and learning enhances their activeness and autonomy in learning Despite certain benefits of PBL in language learning and teaching, there may be a number of challenges facing students during their involvement in the projects In particular, since PBL is a new learning approach at TDTU, it is probably challenging for the first-year students who have had their first-hand experience in PBL Related to the explanations above, the researcher decided to conduct the study entitled “An investigation into some difficulties facing first-year non-English major students in Project-based learning at Ton Duc Thang university” to delve into some difficulties facing non-English major first-year students during the implementation of PBL at TDTU 1.2 Research problem As student-centeredness has become a priority in education in this era, teaching and learning methods are absolutely needed to reform PBL, as a pedagogical approach aiming at maximizing students’ roles in their learning process, has gained its increasing popularity in every educational institution At TDTU, however, the application of PBL has just been integrated in the school curriculum Therefore, there are supposedly certain difficulties facing students in this new learning method Therefore, it is worth fnding out these difficulties so as to make appropriate modifications to the project work as well as to effectively achieve proposed learning outcomes 1.3 Aims of the study This current study aims to examine how PBL is implemented in English classes at the university and explore some difficulties encountered by first-year non-English major students through the implementation of this new learning approach Specifically, following are the overall aims of the research: 1) To examine the current practice of PBL at TDTU; 2) To explore certain difficulties perceived by first-year non-English major students in their experience with PBL 79 The researcher could notice that the students barely used any body language during their presentations Also, they hardly moved when their presentations were in progress They mostly stood still, passively staring at the computer screen, their cell phones or the papers in hands to read Some other students tended to look down at the floor, making efforts to recall what they had prepared beforehand The students, as a consequence, had neither eye contact nor interaction with the audience during their speech delivery, which was a real turn-off to the student listeners As shared by the students in the focus groups, the act of reading without interactive activities during the presentation made it hard for them to follow what was presented as well as resulted in their losing attention to the speakers I could hardly follow my friends’ speeches as they just focused on reading something so long Some of my friends read so fast and their words were unclear and I couldn’t catch what they meant Then, I turned out to lose attention to them (FG2 - Giao) I found it a bit boring when listening to my friends during their presentation They just read and honestly I just understood a little (FG4 - Tai) In the interviews, the responses of the teachers were congruent with the researcher’s observation and the students’ sharing In T1’s opinion, the students merely read and forgot the element of audience involvement in their presentation My students weren’t speaking in their presentation, they were reading instead I had reminded them not to depend much on the prepared notes but they tended to ignore it They just read, read and read without caring about the listeners (T1) T2 also confirmed that her students were just reading in their speech and lacked eye contact as well as body language The possible cause of this, according to her, was their first-time experience in presenting I could see that the students did not really know how to present It could be the first time making presentations There were lots of imperfections in their speech For example, they just read and did not look the audience in the eyes Also, they didn’t use any body language, either (T2) 80 Although most of the presenters failed to employ interaction in their speeches, it was observed that there was one student in class Foundation making efforts to ask the audience a question to lead to the topic of his group presentation: “What you spend money everyday?” However, it was unfortunate that no students listened attentively to him when he raised the question The whole class, as a result, distractedly left it unanswered Teacher orally commented that the question was good and relevant regardless of a minor grammatical mistake but the act of asking this question was a complete failure since no one paid attention to him while he raised it He could have done it better if he had “settled the class down and showed the question on the slide so that the audience could read and understand it more easily” (T1) The teacher’s view is that the students have to be able to draw the audience’s attention to the question they want to ask Moreover, as some listeners may fail to catch the question asked by them, it is advisable to show the question on the screen or write it on the board * Students’ anxiety and low confidence It was found out that the students exerted certain anxiety and low confidence during the presentation delivery From the observational data, the students displayed telltale signs such as frequent hesitations, heavy perspiration, eye-contact avoidance, awkward and uncomfortable postures In the focus groups, the students confided that they were unable to retain their confidence while they were speaking in front of their classmates and the teacher It was discovered that their timidity in public speaking stemmed from their first time experience in making speeches as well as their insufficient preparation for the presentation I was so scared and worried when I had to stand in front of so many people to make a speech It was my first time doing such a presentation (FG3 - Doan) I was too nervous to look the audience in the eye when presenting my part I had not had any presentation experience before, so when I had to it, I was not confident enough (FG4 - Dung) 81 Our group was pressed for time to complete the presentation slides and did not rehearse well enough for the presentation Hence, we were not so confident to present in front of the whole class (FG2 - Hong) To be honest, I was so anxious at the start of the presentation because I thought that my preparation was not enough I did some rehearsal at home but I was still not confident (FG1 - Tam) The anxiety and lack of confidence were perceived to result in the students’ inability to control the speech, which then worsened their performances in the end Typically, Hieu, a student from the focus group 2, admitted that he trembled with fear and worry when he was speaking to the class and that he lost his train of thought during the speech This was the primary cause of his numerous hesitations and dreadful stammers which then led to the fact that his presentation did not go down on well as expected I was so scared and anxious that I didn’t remember what I had prepared beforehand As a result, I dreadfully stammered a lot during the speech I knew that I had done my part so badly (FG2 - Hieu) In the interviews, both of the teachers agreed that their students underwent certain inhibition and diffidence while straining to complete their talk Particularly, T1 added that the students’ shyness and nervousness was understandable and natural I could see that they were nervous and trembling during their speech It was understandable because they might just it for the first time They still need more experience in making presentations at this university (T1) Overall, the students’ low confidence and anxiety had an adverse effect on the oral performances of the student speakers It was shown through the collected data that the students consequently lost for words during their speech, frequently hesitated and inarticulately expressed their train of thought 82 4.3 Summary of main findings From all the research instruments employed, it was found out in the study the overall implementation of PBL at TDTU as well as certain problems facing the students who were supposed to be the dominant implementers of the projects First, it was revealed that the process of PBL conducted at the research site went through seven steps advocated by Korkmaz & Kaptan (2000) as follows  Step Stating the subject and sub-subjects, organizing the groups In this stage, the teacher explained the project components and introduced the topics to the students Then, the groups were formed based on either the students’ preference and convenience or the teacher’s random assignment of members Finally, the teachers created a group on Google classroom platform and Facebook for the purposes of communication  Step Groups create projects The teachers facilitated the process of planning the projects of the students and gave them immediate support and feedback during this stage  Step Application of the project The students gathered the information by conducting the survey outside the classroom The data was then compiled and analyzed before being demonstrated by means of graphic figures  Step Planning of the presentation The teachers helped the students to plan the presentation by supplying them with essential knowledge about a slide design Moreover, the students learned certain presentation skills through the teachers’ demonstration and activities  Step Making the presentation The students presented their presentations in groups  Step Evaluation 83 During the students’ presentation delivery, the teachers conducted marking and feedback provision The students also played a part in evaluating their project products Second, it was discovered during the students’ PBL execution that there were five main difficulties that hindered their process of carrying out the group projects as described below  Students’ unfamiliarity with PBL experience The students participants entirely lacked previous experience in PBL In their prior schooling, they just followed a traditional learning pattern in which they played a less active role in the classroom than the teachers For that reason, they initially exerted certain confusion and anxiety and tended to show their reluctance to PBL  Students’ difficulty in working in groups The students had three problems working in groups First, they found it hard to schedule group meeting as the group members had different learning schedules Second, they had several arguments during group work because some members showed a lack of responsibility for their part, badly affecting the whole group as a consequence Third, the students poorly cooperated with each other They failed to support each other when needed  Students’ deficiency in English competence The students’ poor English language proficiency was shown through their limited range of vocabulary, poor grammar knowledge and frequent unintelligible pronunciation  Students’ difficulties in receiving prompt support from the teachers The students met difficulties getting timely support from the teachers The tardy responses and reply of the teachers at times caused some trouble to the process of the students’ implementation of PBL  Students’ difficulties in delivering their presentation It was disclosed that the students’ lack of presentation skills as well as their failure in retaining confidence put a major hindrance to their completion of the oral presentation 84 4.4 Discussions In this part, the findings presented above will be further discussed in comparison with the relevant literature in chapter The two research questions will be given answers in depth during the discussion 4.4.1The implementation of PBL in an English course at TDTU It was clear that the projects conducted by the students at the research site was survey projects, one of the five types of projects proposed by Legutke & Thomas (1991) This kind of project possessed three primary features of a typical project defined by various authors in the literature review First, it involved a range of integrated skills such as critical thinking, teamwork skills, presentation skills, etc as stated by Johnson & Parrish (2010) In the study, the students had to apply certain skills over a period to finish the project For example, at the stage of creating projects, they were supposed to work in groups to create their survey questions This presumably enhanced the students’ communication and negotiation in groups as well as their critical thinking skills Another example was shown in the presentation stage when the students had to orally present their completed projects as a way of practicing their presentation skills Second, the output of the PBL process in the study, which was tangible products, i.e written reports and oral presentations, was a close match to that of a typical project mentioned by Pimentel (2013) Accordingly, each group of the students in the study was required to submit a written report summarizing the content of their project and an oral group presentation with designed visual slides These two tangible products were jointly used to evaluate the students’ products as a group Third, the projects executed in the study included the feature of authentic issues and real-life problems, which, according to Beckett & Miller (2006), was an absolute necessity in PBL The topics assigned for Foundation and level at TDTU were spending habits, gadgets for learning English, difficulties in life confidence and transport choice These topics for projects were relevant to the students’ real life because the survey participants were all TDTU students who honestly shared their thinking in the survey 85 The implementation of PBL at the research site went through several stages which were similar to those advocated by Korkmaz & Kaptan (2000)  Step Stating the subject and sub-subjects, organizing the groups  Step Groups create projects  Step Application of the project  Step Planning of the presentation  Step Making the presentation  Step Evaluation It could be noticed that there were a variety of activities carried out by the teachers and the students in each step for the purpose of obtaining the sole project purposes It can be seen, however, that the students were the main implementers of the project products In other words, the students played the active roles in their project completion while the teachers just acted as controllers, instructors, evaluators, or facilitators Specifically, throughout the process of PBL implementation, the students were actively involved in Creating the projects, Application of the project, Planning of the presentation and Making the presentation, which are the four main steps in PBL In the mean time, the teachers stepped aside, observing the students’ work and giving necessary support This confirms what Beckett and Slater (2005) and Jezberová et al (2011) stated in their studies about the student-centered learning through the application of PBL 4.4.2 Difficulties facing first-year non-English major students at TDTU during PBL implementation Five main problems regarding PBL encountered by the students were found in the study, including the students’ lack of PBL experience, their problems in working in groups and making the presentations, their deficiency in English language competence and the lack of immediate support from the teachers Although most of the findings were consistent with the relevant literature review, there were some differences which will be specified as follows 86 First, it was acknowledged in previous related studies that PBL is a new instruction in the process of learning for the students Therefore, it is not usual to notice that the students signaled transitory confusion and anxiety with PBL upon the introduction of the projects This finding was relevant to that of Beckett and Slater (2005) to a certain extent It was recognized that it was until the students enrolled in their tertiary education that they experienced PBL This new learning approach made the students uncertain and unsettled when taking on their new roles in the learning process Second, although the problems in group work were widely found in previous studies like those of Grant (2002), Blumenfeld (1991) and so on, the findings about these difficulties in the study were different If the works of the other authors revealed that the students usually encounter problems regarding group work management such as conflict handling, various interests and mindset, group work compromise and communication, the findings in the current disclosed the students’ problems in other aspects Specifically, the students in this research had three main problems related to group work, namely scheduling face-to-face group meetings, having a sense of responsibility in groups and lack of cooperation among group members In fact, as the students were placed into the classes based on the results of their English placement tests they had taken before, most of them came from different departments Therefore, there was a mismatch of learning schedules among members in the same groups As a consequence, the student participants met considerable difficulty making arrangements for offline meetings among members, which then made them resort to online meetings as an alternative This, however, partly caused problems to some of the members who struggled to keep up with what had been discussed in the in online groups due to their lateness in online access Moreover, the students’ lack of accountability in the mutual work of the whole group was also indicated through their avoidance of laborious work and failure to complete their expected parts What is more, the researcher found that the students failed to have group work collaboration which supports the finding of Fragoulis (2009) and many other researchers It was found that the students just worked separately and independently without collaborating as a unit They also failed to support each other when needed These group work - related difficulties may be attributed to the students’ unfamiliarity of group work 87 beforehand because they had not had any experience in any group work activities in their old schools Third, it was understandable that the students faced immense difficulties during their project work because the language they used as a medium during the process of PBL was not their mother tongue This finding was consistent with the idea proposed by Hutchinson (1992) It was shown that the students’ limited range range of English vocabulary, poor grammar and pronunciation were their great burden when carrying out the projects They were overwhelmed by various sources of information written in English available on the Internet and had to heavily rely on Google translate to get the meaning of numerous unfamiliar words They also made plentiful basic mistakes they made in survey questions during the stage of creating projects and frequently mispronounced the words in their oral talks, occasionally causing distortion and breakdown in their communication delivery It can be seen that the students’ low ability in language competence caused a major problem to them during PBL However, such a problem was unavoidable as the target language they got exposed to was not their native language Fourth, one more significant finding in the study was the students’ difficulties in reporting the projects by means of oral presentations As no other studies mentioned the problems of presenting the project outcomes, this finding was unique in the context of the study Oral presentation was one of the two required products of the projects However, it was discovered that the students found it struggling to have smooth and effective delivery because of their inappropriate presenting postures Particularly, they had the tendency to read instead of presenting, which then resulted in the lack of eye contact and other body languages In addition, they failed to remain fluent during the speech and frequently stammered with a lot of fillers because of overmuch nervousness and anxiety The students’ struggle in presentations was also shown through their heavy perspiration and awkward facial expressions when their talks were in progress In conclusion, the answers to the two research questions were discussed in comparison with the relevant literature It is obvious that most of the findings in the study are in line with those of previous studies in the same field However, there are two 88 emerging findings about the problems regarding making oral presentations and seeking teacher’s immediate support As the application of PBL varies from one educational institution to another, the findings of this study are of humble contribution to the picture of PBL as a whole 89 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION This chapter presents the conclusion of the study on the current practice of PBL at TDTU as well as certain difficulties facing the first-year students during the execution of the group projects Additionally, limitations of the study are pointed out before pedagogical implications and recommendations for further research are stipulated 5.1 Conclusion This study was qualitatively conducted with the participation of two teachers and students from two selected classes at different levels so as to discover how PBL practice was being implemented at TDTU as well as investigate into some problems the students participants encountered during the process of conducting the projects To conduct the research, three main instruments were employed, namely observations, students’ focus groups and teachers’ interviews In particular, eight observations were administered in two classes over a two-month period dating from early September in the year 2018 to answer the first research question about the implementation of PBL practice at TDTU Meanwhile, the data collected from four focus groups of students from two classes, individual interviews with the two teachers along side the researcher’s observation was triangulated to shed light on several difficulties facing the students during their PBL implementation The findings of the study shows that PBL was partly integrated into the English course at TDTU as a way to make the most of the students’ centered learning The teachers, therefore, acted as facilitators, instructors, support providers and evaluators during the whole process Regarding the stages of PBL, it was discovered that the projects at TDTU were executed following a six-step procedure proposed by Korkmaz & Kaptan (2000) The tangible products required for the projects were written report forms and oral presentations which were supposed to be completed in groups Besides different in-class activities were carried out by the teachers and the students to finish the projects, there were some steps in which the students had to work outside such as survey administration, statistics compilation and analysis, graphics design, etc 90 However, the students encountered certain difficulties coming from themselves and also their teachers during the implementation of the projects First, the students found it difficult to adapt to the shift in learning through PBL because they simply had no prior experience with this new learning method in advance This caused initial confusion and anxiety to the students when the projects were introduced to them on the very first day of the course Second, working in groups was also perceived to be a challenge for all of the student participants The students struggled to make arrangements for face-to-face group meetings, got into trouble when some group members were irresponsible for their work and failed to work effectively and smoothly because of their absolute independence in group work Third, the students’ limited level of English language was also a problematic issue for the students The inadequacy of English vocabulary, poor grammar knowledge and pronunciation considerably impeded the process of completing their projects Moreover, they could not get support promptly from the teachers when they were facing problems Finally, the students’ poor presentation skills as well as their irresistible diffidence and anxiety negatively affected the effectiveness of their presentation delivery 5.2 Pedagogical implications PBL is a feasible approach in English language teaching to maximize the learning of students through their self-discovery There are, therefore, some important points that teachers should take into consideration First, it is advisable that the teachers be well prepared for the implementation of PBL in their teaching They should be aware of their changing roles in the stages of PBL Accordingly, they no longer serve as the main knowledge dispensers but play a less active role in their teaching instead It is the students who take control over their learning process via the completion of the projects in groups Therefore, the amount of work teachers are supposed to in class should be limited to a great extent They must create the most of learning opportunities for the students to help them with their self-exploration Second, the teachers should make efforts to enhance the effectiveness of PBL on the students’ development of skills and knowledge as well as reduce the problems the students may face during their execution of the projects The teachers are supposed to 91 strictly track the progress of the students’ project implementation so as to identify their problems, give immediate and timely support to them However busy they are, they had better manage their work to respond to the students’ inquiries and give them solutions promptly Third, as PBL is an unfamiliar experience to the students and many may feel uncomfortable and discouraged with this kind of learning, the teachers should invariably give students encouragement and motivation during the stages of PBL to keep them trying hard Students’ intrinsic motivation can be stimulated by bonuses, gifts or compliments paid by the teachers on certain work the students well Fourth, teaching tutorials and extra support from the teachers should be given in order to reduce the problems facing the students during their PBL implementation Accordingly, videos and other multimedia means guiding students on how to collaborate in group work, how to design effective slides, etc can be provided Last but not least, course coordinators and curriculum designers should join hands with teachers so as to modify and design project topics to suit the students’ levels Their interests as well as learning outcomes Only by doing so can the effeciveness of PBL execution be boosted to the greatest extent 5.3 Limitations of the study As the study was merely qualitative, it had certain limitations that could not be avoided First of all, as there were only two classes and two teachers in charge participating in the study, the findings in the study were not used to generalize the whole population Accordingly, the practice of PBL at TDTU found in the study was just a typical example, not the whole picture of how PBL was executed in tertiary education in general Furthermore, there were some stages of PBL wherein the students conducted some parts of the projects outside the classroom Hence, the researcher could not follow them strictly in these steps to observe what and how they did as well as notice some other difficulties that might have arisen For that reason, the researcher had to largely depend on the students’ perceptions of difficulties they faced in theses stages 92 Last but not least, the researcher failed to get the permission to access the documents of the students to strengthen the validity of the study These documents, which included students’ written forms, their visual slides and teachers’ making reports were perceived to be confidential, according to the head of the department; and therefore, could not be released to public 5.4 Recommendations for further research Since the current study was qualitative and the subjectivity of the findings still remain, it is suggested that further research can be done using quantitative approach In other words, a study on the students’ difficulties in PBL can be conducted with a quantitative research design Moreover, the following researchers can implement studies on PBL with the participation of students in their second years, third years or final years instead of focusing only on freshmen Besides that, students’ difficulties in PBL can be studied more extensively in different levels of education, not just at university level It means that primary schools, secondary schools or high schools can be chosen as research sites for further research on related topics 93 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(2006) Project-based second and foreign language education: Past, present, and future USA: Information Age Publishing Bell, J (2010) Doing your research project: A guide for first-time researchers in education, health and social science Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill Open University Press Bereiter, C., & Scardamalia, M (1989) Intentional learning as a goal of instruction In Resnick, L B (ed.), Knowing, learning, and instruction: Essays in honor of Robert Glaser, Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ, pp 361–392 Bernard, H (1988) Research Methods in Cultural Anthropology Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications ... into some difficulties facing first- year non- English major students in Project- based learning at Ton Duc Thang university? ?? to delve into some difficulties facing non- English major first- year students. .. STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY I hereby declare that this thesis entitled ? ?An investigation into some difficulties facing first- year non- English major students in Project- based learning at Ton Duc Thang. .. following research questions are formulated: How is Project- based learning implemented in English courses at Ton Duc Thang university? Do first- year non- English major students face any difficulties