Luận văn thạc sĩ VNU ULIS using project based teaching to enhance 11th grade students at a high school in hung yen

INTRODUCTION

Rationale of the study

The world has changed dramatically over the last generation – even over the last ten years Our lives have become far more connected through technology, a global economy, and social media Since the emergence of a global movement that calls for a new model of teaching and learning for the 21st century, it has been argued that formal education must be transformed to enable new forms of teaching and learning that are needed to tackle complex global challenges Experts recognize that the “transmission” or lecture model is highly ineffective for teaching 21st century competencies and skills The concern about transforming the goals and daily practice of teaching and learning is characterized as knowledge and technologically driven How teachers and educators can best support learners develop essential skills for the 21st century is a big issue People learn in a variety of ways, so the challenge for teachers is to discover which approaches help them learn most effectively

In the general context of the world, Vietnamese education is not an exception

Providing learners with only good basic numeracy and literacy skills will no longer suffice The labor market increasingly demands a mix of high-quality cognitive, behavioral, and technical skills Therefore, the government should provide better quality schooling that fosters higher-order cognitive and behavioral skills (such as creative and critical thinking) for more young people Accordingly, the Ministry of Education and Training is working on an ambitious reform to optimize learning and promote the competencies needed to master content and apply knowledge To adapt to the development of society, to train human resources according to the needs of the new era, in addition to intensive knowledge, the school needs to equip the 21 st century skills for students

Over the last few years, project-based teaching has been discussed and implemented widely in Vietnam education The phrase “Project-based teaching” has been mentioned in a lot of books on teaching methods and techniques Research has shown that project-based teaching - methods and techniques of teaching based on project-based learning - has been proved positive and effective It is a learner- centered teaching model, through open tasks, encouraging learners to explore, realize the knowledge learned during the implementation process and create their own products Instead of following a rigid lesson plan that instructs learners down a specific path of learning outcomes and objectives, project-based teaching allows students carrying out in-depth investigation of a topic under discussion Through project-based teaching, learners have more autonomy over what they learn, maintaining interest and are motivated to take greater responsibility for their learning Project-based teaching “focuses on the nitty-gritty of how teachers facilitate high-quality learning experiences for students” (Suzie Boss and John

Larmer 2018) Together with the changes of the world, the need for project-based teaching is increasing We see schools and districts working toward more student- centered approaches that include inquiry learning, personalized learning, performance-based assessments and a huge surge of interest in and implementation of project-based learning Project-based learning (PBL) is a teaching method in which students gain knowledge and skills by working for an extended period of time to investigate and respond to an authentic, engaging, and complex question, problem, or challenge PBL is the conversion of project-based teaching PBL and project-based teaching presuppose each other Therefore, in my thesis I will explore project-based teaching through the expedition to the field of PBL

PBL is a learning method based on constructivism (Hmelo-Silver 2004) which was first proposed by John Dewey (1859-1952) at the end of the 1890s (Douglas and Stack 2010) Dewey’s philosophy was child-centred and introduced real-life situations and contexts into the school environment His ideas were further developed by Kilpatrick in the early 1900s in his book “The Project Method”

(1918) Since then, PBL has been elaborated indetail and applied to various school subjects and learning situations As a result of such practical applications, our understanding of PBL has been greatly enriched With the theory of "learning by doing and experiencing", Dewey advocates teaching students how to learn through building a specific project and finding reasonable solutions to bring the project to success According to Thomas (2000), this learning method brings learners a good chance to improve integrated skills such as language competence and other necessary expertise in the 21 st century PBL enables the expression of diversity in learners, such as interest, abilities and learning styles

Having been teaching English at a high school for nearly twenty years, I realize that the students may read and write well in English but they cannot speak it fluently A majority of students show their low motivation in speaking English They are quite passive, not active in speaking lessons However, the importance of speaking is more revealed with the integration of other language skills The mastery of speaking in English is a priority for many second-language or foreign-language learners Our learners often evaluate their success in language learning as well as the effectiveness of their English on the basis of how much they feel they have improved in their spoken language proficiency Oral skills have hardly been neglected in today’s EFL/ ESL courses

To meet the demand of the educational development trend - education in the 21 st century highlights globalization and internationalization - as well as to improve my students’ performance, I have been trying to find out the most suitable and effective methods of teaching English The methods being worked out can be for the four English skills, of which speaking should be paid most attention to Having perceived the benefits of PBL, I am interested in applying it into my teaching job to improve the learners’ speaking skills Therefore, I conducted the research entitled

“ Using project-based teaching to enhance 11th grade students’ speaking skills at a high school in Hung Yen ” My objective is to construct the most effective ways of alleviating the students to overcome the barrier of low self-confidence when studying speaking skills I hope that this innovative approach can foster my students’ motivation and autonomy, and enjoy learning English Furthermore, being good at speaking English will be a gateway leading to opportunities to work with international projects for developing economics or cultures.

Aims of the study

Based on the rationale mentioned above, I would like to investigate the impacts of PBL on students’ English speaking skills and their attitudes towards the new approach in my own teaching environment to see whether it is applicable at my school or not The study is conducted with a view to finding out the answers to the following questions:

1 To what extent does project-based learning enhance the students' speaking skills?

2 What are the students’ attitudes towards project-based learning?

Of these two questions, the first one is the focus of the study.

Significance of the study

Theoretically, this thesis will be a small contribution to the theory of ELT on the impacts of using PBL in promoting students’ language competence of speaking skills at a high school Some researchers have proved that PBL has had positive impacts on students’ language competence of speaking skills Therefore, hopefully this study will achieve rewading results

Practically, this study is firstly expected to be an alternative way to expose students to more student-centered classrooms, and to help them enhance their English competence, cooperation and their motivation in those classes The results of this research are expected to give useful information and experience to English teacher whether or not PBL is an effective way to improve students’ language competence If this method is successful, it may possibly be widely applied at a high school to make the students interested in English and more confident to communicate with each other in the target language

For these reasons, this research is constructed not only to explore previous related theories to get background knowledge of PBL but also to change and improve educational situations.

Scope of the study

Due to time constraints, the research is carried out in sixteen weeks of the first term in the academic year 2018-2019 (from August 20 th to December 8 th ) The study limits itself to the investigation of the impacts of PBL on the students’ speaking skills as well as their attitudes towards the project-based approach The number of participants of the study is quite small – only thirty students of class 11DA1 These participants are fairly good at English Therefore, no generalization is intended in this study.

Methods of the study

The method employed in the study is classroom action research According to Ferrance (2000), action research is regarded as one of the most common research methods applied in current educational circumstances With the choice of this method, data collection instruments including pre-test and post-test, questionnaire and interview are used in order to have a deep investigation into what is being studied.

Structure of the thesis

The study consists of five chapters:

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION, states the reasons for choosing the topic or rationale, the aims to which the study is conducted and the research questions

Then, it is followed by a brief description of its significance, scope and method The fact about how current study is organized will also be provided in this section

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW, provides the definitions of some key terms, and the previous research related to the study Both positive impacts and disadvantages will be exposed in this section

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY, focuses on eliciting research questions, research methods, data collection and data analysis

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION, demonstrates the findings and further discussion

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION, ends the report with the summary of findings

Besides, some limitations of the study and recommendations for further research are also proposed.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Speaking in foreign language learning

Teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) requires learners’ development of four language skills: reading, speaking, writing and listening As far as speaking is concerned, it is said to be at the heart of second language learning and one of the four productive skills Speaking English is priority for any second or foreign language learners and is one of the basic language skills It is a crucial part of second language learning and teaching that aims at improving students communicative skills because only in that way can students express themselves and learn how to follow the social and cultural rules appropriate in each communicative circumstance This section revolves around the nature of speaking

There are many definitions of speaking According to Chaney (1998) speaking is

“the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non- verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts”

In a related study, Bailey (2005) defines speaking is “the productive, oral skill It consists of producing systematic verbal utterances to convey meaning.”

In brief, speaking is the productive skill used to convey information or expressing one’s feeling in speech with its various forms which are dependent on particular contexts

Form and meaning of speaking are dependent on the context in which it occurs, including the participants themselves, their collective experiences, the physical environment, and the purposes for speaking It is often spontaneous, open-ended, and evolving Bartz (1979) described five kinds of speaking components that enhance fluency, understanding, and quality of communication content, quantity of communication content and the exertion in communication Fluency is smooth, constantly and naturally speaking Understanding refers to supply of content or data to make the audience understand Quality of communication refers to the language accuracy to speak Quantity of communication content refers to capacity of content

The exertion in communication refers to the speakers try to be understood by verbal and non-verbal in communication

Speaking is defined operationally in this study as the secondary stage students' ability to express themselves orally, coherently, fluently and appropriately in a given meaningful context to serve both transactional and interactional purposed using correct pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary and adopting the pragmatic and discourse rules of the spoken language In other words, they are required to show mastery of the two sub skills: Micro- and macro skills of oral production

Here are some of the micro- and macroskills involved in speaking which are stated by Brown (2004) as followed:

Microskills include making differences among English phonemes and allophonic variants, producing chunks of language of different lengths, creating English stress patterns, words in stressed and unstressed positions, rhythmic structure, and intonation contours, creating reduced forms of words and phrases, making fluent speech at different rates of delivery, and producing speech in natural constituents: in appropriate phrases, pause group, breathe groups, and sentence constituents

Microskills also mean using an adequate number of lexical units (words) to accomplish pragmatic purpose, exploiting grammatical word classes (nouns, verbs, etc), systems (e.g., tense, agreement, and pluralization), word order, patterns, rules, and elliptical forms, monitoring one’s own oral production and use various strategic devices-pauses, fillers, self-corrections, back tracking - to enhance the clarity of the message, and expressing a particular meaning in different grammatical forms and using cohesive devices in spoken discourse

Macroskills consist of appropriately accomplish communicative functions according to situations, participants, and goals, using appropriate styles, registers, implicature, redundancies, pragmatic conventions, and conversation rules, floor- keeping and –yielding, interrupting, and other sociolinguistic features in face-to- face conversations, conveying links and connections between events and communicate such relations as focal and peripheral ideas, events and feelings, new information and given information, generalization and exemplification Macroskills are also made up of conveying facial features, kinesics, body language, and other nonverbal cues along with verbal language, developing and using a battery of speaking strategies, such as emphasizing key words, rephrasing, providing a context for interpreting the meaning of words, appealing for help, and accurately assessing how well your interlocutor is understanding you

In short, speaking requires that learners not only know how to produce specific points of language such as grammar, pronunciation, or vocabulary, but also that they understand when, why, and in what ways to produce language If the learner of foreign language wants to be able to speak and use the target language orally well in his/ her daily activity, they must know and master a lot of language knowledge: pronunciation, vocabulary and structure as well as they know how to communicate fluently, accurately and appropriately in the different situations

Nunan (2003) considered “teaching speaking” as a way to teach ESL learners to make the English speech sounds and sound patterns It can help learners use word and sentence stress, intonation patterns and the rhythm of the second language; choose appropriate words and sentences according to the proper social setting, audience, situation and subject matter Teaching speaking aims to teach the learners how to arrange their thoughts in a meaningful and logical sequence, how to exploit language as a means of expressing values and judgments, and how to apply the language quickly and confidently with few unnatural pauses, which is called fluency

All things considered, speaking lessons are a kind of bridge for learners between the classroom and the world outside So using the target language or the second language to communicate in real life is one of facilitator for the students for learning new language Many teachers agree that students should learn to speak the second language by interacting with others to master speaking components such as comprehension, pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, and fluency Besides, teaching speaking is to create good atmosphere for students to express their emotions, communicative needs, interact with other people in any situation, and influence the others In conclusion, teaching speaking skills is helping students improve their micro- and macro skills of speaking.

Project-based learning

2.2.1 Definitions of project-based learning

There are many definitions of project-based approach in learning Each definition is the reflection of the underlying theories or perspectives that the authors assume

Carter and Thomas (1986) characterize project work with three features referring to the venue, the inter-disciplined characteristic and student's autonomy: i) it takes place outside the classroom ii) it is cross-curricular iii) it allows learners to set their own targets as they proceed

Moss, D and Duzer, V.C (1998) defines "PBL is an instructional approach that contextualizes learning by presenting learners with problems to solve or products to develop" Accordingly, the essential feature of project-based approach is a tangible and visible result such as a product or a solution to a defined problem

According to Thomas (2000), there are five criteria of PBL They are centralization, existence of a “driving question”, a constructive investigation by the students, incentive to autonomy and realism

In conclusion, PBL is an active learning method, it is an instructional method centered on the learners to engage learners in sustained, cooperative investigation

Project teaching is a form of teaching in which students solve a complex learning task not only theoretically but especially in terms of practice themselves under the control and help of teachers Through projects, they create practical products which can be introduced and published PBL allows in-depth investigation of a topic worth learning more about

2.2.2 Theoretical framing of project-based learning 2.2.2.1 Theoretical basis of project-based learning

Rooted in constructivism with sociocultural theory and constructivist ideology, PBL is cooperative and collaborative learning which has very strong theoretical support for successful achievement The theory of constructivism, derived from the works of Dewey, Piaget, and Vygotsky, explains how a learner acquires knowledge, the underlying belief being that learning best takes place when the learner is actively engaged According to scientific observation and inquiry, constructivism allows individuals to construct their own understanding of the world through real-life experiences Their knowledge is conditioned further on the reflection of these personal experiences In L.Vygotsky’ doctrine, he conceives the development of human cognition based on social background and through social activities, through the use of language, communication and relationships with others

Lev Vygotsky’s studies of description of the circumstances under which students learn best is yet another theoretical framework for PBL Vygotsky defined the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) as "the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance, or in collaboration with more capable peers" (Vygotskiĭ& Cole, 1978) PBL is specifically designed to place the teacher in a facilitator role and students in collaborative groups in problem-solving situations; thus, it is possible to see PBL as the vehicle through whichVygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development is realized

PBL is a student-driven, teacher-facilitated approach to learning Learners pursue knowledge by asking questions that have piqued their natural curiosity The genesis of a project is an inquiry Students develop a question and are guided through research under the teacher’s supervision Discoveries are illustrated by creating a project to share with a select audience Organizers support systematization of the processes that will be implemented throughout the research and project phases of PBL Student choice is a key element of this approach Teachers oversee each step of the process and approve each choice before the student embarks in a direction

Children with similar inquiries may elect to work cooperatively, thereby nurturing twenty-first-century collaboration and communication skills and honoring students’ individual learning styles or preferences Most projects include reading, writing, and mathematics by nature The outcome of PBL is greater understanding of a topic, deeper learning, higher-level reading, and increased motivation to learn PBL is a key strategy for creating independent thinkers and learners Children solve real- world problems by designing their own inquiries, planning their learning, organizing their research, and implementing a multitude of learning strategies

Students flourish under this childdriven, motivating approach to learning and gain valuable skills that will build a strong foundation for their future in our global economy

2.2.2.2 Characteristics of project-based learning

Nowadays, PBL can be found under such names as project method, project approach, project-based instruction, knowledge in action, learning by doing, or experiential learning There are different interpretations of PBL with various overlapping terms, for example, problem-based learning, inquiry-based learning, problem learning and the project method In addition, activity-based learning and discovery learning encompass similar features

To provide synthesis features of PBL on the tasks, the students' activities, the time and the result, Thomas (2000) writes:

"PBL is a model that organizes learning around projects According to the definitions found in PBL handbooks for teachers, projects are complex tasks, based on challenging questions or problems, that involve students in design, problem-solving, decision making, or investigative activities; give students the opportunity to work autonomously over extended periods of time; and culminate in realistic products or presentations"

According to Thomas, “PBL is a model that organizes learning around projects.”

It is a systematic teaching method that engages students in learning knowledge and skills through an extended inquiry process constructed around complex, authentic questions and carefully designed products and tasks It seems to be the most suitable and clearest in the context of this study I also support five features of PBL proposed by Thomas (2000) as follows:

Firstly, “PBL projects are central, not peripheral to the curriculum.” It means that all aspects of learning, such as objectives, teacher, and student activities, time allocation, materials should focus on or aim at fulfilling the project, which contributes to the accomplishment of learning outcomes stated in the curriculum

Secondly, “PBL projects are focused on questions or problems that "drive" students to encounter the central concepts and principles of a discipline.” In other words, the questions or problems here must include the learning objectives or concepts and principles of a subject

Thirdly, “Projects involve students in a constructive investigation.” This emphasizes accumulative progress students make during the completion of the project

Nextly, “Projects are student-driven to some significant degree.” This is characterized in the importance of students' participation during different stages of a project Students should have certain autonomy in doing the task

Last but not least, “Projects are realistic, not school-like.” Projects should offer students real-life problems or situations to deal with rather than a repetition of school drills

The division of stages in a project varies from researcher to researcher Wrigley (1998), for example, proposes some basic phases found in most projects which include selecting a topic, making plans, researching, developing products, and sharing results with others The process in a project can be divided into three steps: Orientation and planning, research and implementation and sharing results in this study

In this step, students identify the topic for the project as well as develop a work plan for completing it Once they have some ideas about what can be done, students decide the topic and their own work plans It is necessary that students are involved in decision-making from the beginning It is suggested by Gallacher (2004) that teachers should help students work out the plan by posing some guidelines in terms of what the project includes, its form, the task division of each group member, the time for producing each part of the project, and the material or resources which might be needed

Some previous studies

As mentioned above, PBL is an effective approach to learning that offers students authentic learning experiences ranging from experimentation to real-world problem solving Thus, there are a large number of studies on PBL carried out in the world and some in Vietnam so far

2.3.1 Advantages of project-based learning

PBL is a dynamic approach to teaching in which students explore real-world problems and challenges, simultaneously developing 21 st century skills while working in small collaborative groups PBL has been reported an effective teaching model that allows all learners to learn According to Harmer Nichola (2014), the main advantages of PBL include: claims of improved academic results, the development of wider skills, increased student motivation and enjoyment, enhanced outreach and engagement beyond academia and advantages for lecturers

Fried-Booth (1997), taking a more practical view of PBL, emphasizes that project work is a bridge between using English in class and using English in real life situations outside of class From a learner-centered perspective, Thomas (2000) claims that the PBL creates a convenient condition for students to have “increased attendance, growth in self-reliance, and improved attitudes toward learning”

Hilton-Jones (1988) carried out a six-week project-based English course and she was satisfied with the significant results Her PBL implementation motivated the students to foster reading, writing, listening and speaking skills in English and enabled them to see their language learning needs through project-based activities

2.3.2 Disadvantages of project-based Learning

Despite advantages, PBL still has several disadvantages and challenges which teachers and students experienced Harmer Nichola (2014) has pointed out that group work was frequently identified as the most significant challenge faced by learners undertaking PBL A study by Meehan and Thomas (2006), for example, found students undertaking environmental management projects in Vietnam reported team work as being the hardest element of their project work

Similarly Stauffacher et al., (2006) found the majority of challenges came from group work processes Difficulties with group work are attributed to lack of prior training and larger group sizes, which created problems in terms of communication and allocation of work (Joyce, 2013)

Next, PBL is time-consuming to students Compared with traditional learning, students following PBL deal with a greater amount of workload They have more difficulties from forming groups, assigning duties and searching for information

The case is similar to teachers Although PBL focuses on students’ activities, it does not mean that teachers will have less preparation

In Thomas’ point of view, there are three kinds of challenges involving students, teachers and school factors However, the author only focuses on the students' problems as it is the centre of discussion in this study The first challenge encountered by learners is the students' failure to work in a team The second is the students' lack of skills to conduct a scientific study such as generating meaningful scientific questions, managing complexity and time, transforming data, and developing a logical argument to support claims

In conclusion, students will face many challenges in doing a project However, being aware of these challenges will help them minimize the intervention of these challenges to the success of a project

2.3.3 PBL in teaching and learning English in Vietnam context

Although books and studies on PBL in the world are in great numbers, the research carried out in Vietnam is limited There is not much material revising the practical application of PBL in Vietnam, just only a few theses, doctoral theses and experience initiatives The reason for this is that we have experienced the traditional model of instruction for a long time and the innovation in education has just been implemented recently However, scrutinizing PBL, we can see that it is one of the effective learning methods It captivates students’ interest and promotes students’ engagement by offering a diverse range of real life working projects The PBL has proved to be advancing learning for the 21 st century

This review of literature highlighted some key terms related to speaking skills It presented a full definition of project-based learning and then examined the conceptual framework of the study It also presented the foundations of PBL, discussed the key features and process of a project A review of research on advantages and disadvantages of PBL was introduced No matter how little the previous studies carried out in Vietnam have been analysed, PBL shows its effectiveness on English students’ academic achievements Chapter 3 will present the methods employed in conducting the study.

METHODOLOGY

Context of the study

3.1.1 The current situation of teaching and learning English at the school

Located in the center of Hung Yen city, the school was a public educational institution with thirty three classes in total Each grade included eleven classes In the school year 2018-2019, there were eleven eleventh-grade classes encompassing five natural science oriented classes (from 11A1 to 11A5), the other two groups of social science major (11C1, 11C2) and the rest belongs to D group (11D1 to 11D4)

The students of group A and C had three periods of English per week while those of group D had four periods each week (including three periods like group A and C and an extra one called optional period)

Although most students had been learning English for quite a long time – since grade three, their speaking skills were not very good They could get high marks in written tests but their communicative skills were poor They were often too shy to speak and it was difficult for them to express their viewpoints or to make themselves understood They hardly had opportunities to use English outside the English classes As a result, they felt scared of speaking English, of making mistakes, and of not conveying their sentiments to listeners They are not confident to use English in speaking class They were not used to expressing their ideas in English They often used mother tongue Thus, most speaking classes were monotonous and unsuccessful In reality, these classes were ineffective ones

The main reason for the above problems was perhaps due to their learning tradition which was mostly grammar-based and mainly prepared students for the university entrance examination, written oriented-assessments The main teaching methods that the teachers applied were “grammar focus” and the expectation of the outcomes was just only the students’ scores in their English written tests According to the policy from MOET, the semester and final examinations only focused on reading, vocabulary and grammar through the multiple-choice format Therefore, the students only paid attention to practising reading skills and grammatical points as well as vocabularies and structures Teachers of English themselves took advantage of the little time they had to provide reading practice and help with solving problems in grammar exercises in order to achieve the short-term goal of passing the final examination In short, learners’ difficulties in getting involved in speaking lessons were posed due to the following reasons:

 Traditional learning or students’ prior learning experiences

 Low level of English language proficiency

 Anxiety or shyness in class and low motivation With the above causes, teachers and learners often paid less attention to speaking skills than to the others Having poor English-speaking skills inhibited the students’ ability to communicate Consequently, they were unable to obtain enough information and knowledge for global integration This situation had raised the needs of a teaching and learning method which could help students to improve their language skills and develop their soft skills as well Hence, a change in teaching method was critically necessary and the applying of technology in English teaching was believed to be one of the solutions to the improvement in the students’ English speaking proficiency

3.1.2 The teaching program and materials

At the chool, English is one of the three core subjects in the curriculum and it is the subject which students have to pass at the national examination by the end of grade

12 th to be qualified for the secondary school diploma The syllabus and the textbooks for English including “Tiếng Anh 10”, “Tiếng Anh 11”, “Tiếng Anh 12” which are prescribed by the Ministry of Education and Training The English textbook “Tiếng Anh 11” (the set of standard textbooks) was written by a group of textbook compilers: Hoang Van Van, Hoang Thi Xuan Hoa, Do Tuan Minh et al and was published in 2006

“Tiếng Anh11” textbook consisted of sixteen units for two terms It was designed under theme-based approach with sixteen topics corresponding with sixteen units

Each unit is about a theme There are five parts in each unit arranging as follows:

Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing and Language Focus in which a variety of exercises and tasks were compiled for practice Also, there existed a “Test yourself” after every three units The objective of these tests was to examine how well the students had achieved in the previous units The “Test yourself” was constructed as follows: Listening, Reading, Pronunciation and Grammar, and Writing

Speaking lesson was the second part in each unit, introduced just after the Reading lesson These speaking lessons were under the tendency theme-based and task- based approaches In general, the textbook provided students with a variety of topics and speaking activities with the aim of helping students improve their speaking skills

The English course lasted thirty-five weeks with one hundred and five periods Each week, teachers of English had three periods of forty five minutes Each period focused on one language skill namely reading, speaking, listening, writing and language focus However, students belonging group D had one extra period every week, the fourth one of the week During these lessons, students could have more time for other activities so as to consolidate and broaden knowledge they had learnt in the textbook.

The participants

The study was conducted on thirty eleventh-grade students, including twenty three females and seven males, of class 11D1 of the school Their current textbook was the the seven-year set “Tiếng Anh 11” textbook (for students who started learning English from Form 6 – 12)

These students were of the same age, same class, but different English proficiency levels In term of their results in the school year 2017-2018, 31% of them were classified as good at English Their final grades ranged from 8.0 to 8.5 Another 60% owned the final from 6.5 to 7.9 and the rest was of average rating None of them was below average It could therefore be assumed that most of them were rather good at English These participants were selected conveniently because I have been teaching them since they were in grade ten I invited them to participate in the study and they were willing to accept

Every week, the students had three English lessons basing on “Tiếng Anh 11” and one extra lesson for other optional topics called “optional periods” The study was carried out in sixteen optional periods.

Design of the study

Firstly, the research was designed as action research because this is more of an approach to problem-solving, rather than a single method for collecting and analyzing data This strategy could be considered a mirror reflecting the teacher’s experience in teaching which serves as a basis for the continuous and on-going process of professional development

Secondly, action research was carried out by practitioners (classroom teachers) rather than outside researchers It was collaborative (researchers + practitioners) and was aimed at changing things

Lastly, action research was practical research to achieve both action (change or improve) and research (understanding) Practical research used to bridge the gap between research and practice Teachers in general and teachers of English in particular actually carried out action research for most of their time Therefore, action research was inevitably a very common practice and the best choice for the study

As illustrated in following table, the study was carried out through four phases in the period of sixteen weeks during the first semester of the 11 th graders at at a local school in Hung Yen province The action plan was done as follows:

Table 3.1 Procedures of the study

Pre-test to evaluate the students’ speaking skills

Three projects were carried out in teaching oral presentation

Project 1: Festivals around the world Project 2: Volunteer Work

Students were asked to express their opinions toward carrying out projects and doing oral presentations over 12 weeks

Teacher observed students’ improvement weekly

Reflecting Post- test for the final assessment

Questionnaire Interview Teacher analyzed data to evaluate the action plan

During this phase, essential materials used in this study were developed including: tests (pre-test and post-test), questionnaire and interview Then, the researcher asked the students to do a pre-test at the second week in order that she could assess the students’ current speaking ability and identify some difficulties or issues which needed changing Besides, the course syllabus and lesson plans were built with a view to helping the students match the expected outcomes In short, I prepared the teaching materials, designed lesson plans, instruments aids, and delivered the pre- test to assess students’ language ability before the intervention

Phase 2 & 3: Acting and Observing (Weeks 3 to 14):

In this phase, I applied PBL in teaching and learning process step by step I used PBL in optional periods during twelve weeks In these lessons, students could practice carrying out the projects as well as giving presentation Students were also asked to write weekly journals on their attitude toward PBT used in class, as well as possible impact of these techniques on their engagement

At the beginning of the first term of the school year, I provided a list of topics based on the themes of the textbook of the school curriculum “Tiếng Anh 11” from Unit 1 to Unit 8: Friendship, Personal experiences, A party, Volunteer work, Illiteracy, Competitions, World population, Celebrations After discussing the themes, I, the teacher, and the students agreed to choose three topics for projects

Three projects are: Theme 1: Festivals around the world

Theme 2: Volunteer work Theme 3: Global issues

The projects were carried out for twelve weeks (also twelve optional periods) of the first semester of the school year 2018-2019 Each project lasted in four weeks.The aim of the intervention was to help the students to enhance their speaking skills thanks to cooperative learning method when doing projects Cooperative learning was considered to be able to increase students’ learning in the way that it can make the students participate more actively By doing research, students can enlarge their vocabulary and apply content knowledge in the field of the study I also hoped that PBT could help develop students’ motivation and self-confidence in using English as a foreign language

The implementation of PBL was nearly the same in three projects Every four weeks, the groups carried out their projects with three stages of PBL

Basing on the characteristics of PBL, the topics for the PBL lessons were not only related to curriculum, “not peripheral” but also realistic The lessons extended and helped the students widen the knowledge they had learn in the syllabus The students worked on projects that were meaningful and relevant to their culture, their lives and their future During the lesson, the students played an active role in constructing their knowledge and the teacher acted as coach, a conductor, the guide on the side, not the sage on the stage Their work was publicly displayed, discussed and critiqued

In the first period, the researcher divided thirty students into six groups of five

They discussed to draw out a plan and split the tasks among themselves During the first week, the groups looked for information and prepared everything for the project at home This was the most important stage of the project and involved a variety of activities such as group work, individual research, teacher consultation, etc Students had to search for information individually, organized group meetings themselves, and had to be in agreement about the outline, organization and content of their project Therefore, to make their project successful, students needed to be active, creative and cooperative

In this phase, I checked students’ work and provided assistance Firstly, it helped me to make sure that my students were really working and they were going in the right direction Secondly, it helped students to make a habit of self-studying and to progress in their study I must be responsible and willing to support students when necessary I devoted time and energy to scaffolding the students by giving comment, suggestions and helping them to get over possible difficulties such as ineffective group work, lack of materials, etc Then students continued fulfilling their task at home They had to make a written assignment to hand in and a PowerPoint presentation to be given before the second period Their final presentation must be informative, creative and persuasive to the teacher and other groups

The last three periods was the time for the six groups to make a presentation on their project in about ten minutes There were two groups presenting each week

While the students in each group were making a presentation, every member of the class had to listen attentively and respectfully and they could take notes if necessary The fifteen minutes rest of each period was spent on asking and answering questions and discussion

This was the last but not least important stage in which groups took turns to give presentation to the whole class Normally, each group had about fifteen minutes for sharing results in which ten minutes was for their oral presentation and the rest (five minutes) was for class discussion and teacher’s feedback and consolidation of the topic Two most important objectives that all members needed to achieve by the end of the project were as follows:

- report what their group had done to the whole class in a creative and persuasive way

- participate in other presentations and gain knowledge and experience from other groups

For the teacher’s part, I was fully aware of their important role and the duties they needed to fulfill, not just playing the role of an audience

- Equip himself/ herself with sufficient knowledge about the project topics in order to give accurate and persuasive comments on the projects Also, with such knowledge, the teacher can confidently lead the follow-up discussions which enable students to gain experience and knowledge effectively

- Design a good and reliable assessment tool so as to make students feel satisfied and more interested in the future projects

In short, if both the teacher and his/her students make every attempt to achieve the objectives above, the success of the projects can surely be guaranteed and both can benefit greatly from this learning activity

This was also the phase of witnessing the effects of PBL activities on the students

In this phase, I had to analyze the students’ participation to see if their attitude had changed over the course of intervention or not

This phase was the time for me to I analyze the data collected to evaluate my action plan

After implementation of the action plan, data were collected during the fourteen weeks to answer the research question “To what extent does project-based learning enhance the students' speaking skills?” During week 15, the post-test was delivered to the students Besides, the last phase involved evaluating the results of the action through data, ensuring that the intervention was truly meaningful In this phase, the collected data were carefully analyzed The data collected during fourteen weeks of action implementation and from the post-test were compared with the results of week 1-2 to evaluate the suggested solution in the plan action and give some recommendations

Data analytic method

In collecting the data, there were a number of research instruments that were used by the researcher in order to know the students’ initial achievement, their achievement after intervention and their attitudes toward the new learning approach, namely pre-test, post-test, questionnaire and semi-structured interview respectively

The quantitative data generated according to the results obtained from the students’ pre-test and post-test The quantitative data in the forms of raw scores were analyzed by computing the average scores or the mean scores of pre-test and post- test The mean was obtained from counting up all the scores and then they were divided by the number of individuals The formula is used to analyze the data adapted from Djiwandono (2008):

M N Where: M: Mean score of the students’ achievement of each English skill ∑X: the sum of the total score

N: The total number of the students

In terms of the data obtained in the questionnaires, they were analysed statistically by means of calculating the numbers of responses and the percentages respectively

Then, these statistics were arranged according to different categories and displayed in charts and table for better illustrations and explanations

As for the students’ Vietnamese responses from the interview, they were both transcribed and translated into English These data were grouped under two areas including the attitude of the students toward PBL and how project-based learning activities help them in their English speaking skills, which served to answer the research questions

In summary, chapter 3 has provided the most basic information about the study which has also been explained and justified properly The background of the study gives impetus to the researcher’s decision of carrying out the study The action research approach was adopted, given the nature of the study The other parts of this chapter helps clarify other aspects of the study such as participants, data collection instruments and procedure and data analysis methods

Chapter 3 also introduced the research method and data instrument The reasons for the methods selected were also discussed The data procedure and the implementation of the intervention were conducted in a strict way The result of survey questionnaires, tests and interviews would be analysed in the next chapter.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

Analysis of the speaking tests

The data from the study were obtained through scores of pre- and post English speaking tests The pre-test and post-test scores were assessed by five criteria, which were calculated statistically of the thirty students Scores were given to the students according to “Rating scale for Speaking test” (See Appendix 4) with the evaluation rubric for oral presentation that was appropriately applied at the school

The students were assessed in term of the five criteria: Criterion 1: Message Content, Criterion 2: Vocabulary and Grammar Range, Criterion 3:

Pronunciation, Criterion 4: Fluency and Coherence, and Criterion 5: Interactive Communication

Table 4.1: The results of pre-test and post-test

Subject Criterion 1 Criterion 2 Criterion 3 Criterion 4 Criterion 5 Mark

Chart 4.1: Students’ mean score of average mark

According to chart 1, the mean scores of the post- test (M= 7.45) was higher than that of the pre-test (M= 6.98) The participants had significant mean scores on post- test higher than the pre-test The results indicated that the 11 th graders developed their speaking skills after participating PBL activities In other words, this proves that the students’ speaking competence has been enhanced

Comparing the results of the post-test and the pre-test by five criteria, it is obvious that all the criteria have been improved dramatically

Chart 4.2: A comparison of mean scores on pre-test and post-test by five criteria

As can be seen from the chart 2, the mean score of Criterion 2 increased the most

(from 6.8 to 7.63), then Criterion 5 (from 7.13 to 7.73) and followed by Criterion 1 (from 6.97 to 7.37), Criterion 3 (from 7.03 to 7.30) and Criterion 4 increased the least (from 6.90 to 7.13) It was also concluded that the students’ vocabulary is enlarged and confidence is improved considerably (Criterion 2 and Criterion 5)

The rest three Criteria’s mean scores also shows that the students can address the test questions better, expand their ideas, and make progress in Fluency and Coherence However, their pronunciation was enhanced a little.

Analysis of the survey questionnaire

The survey questionnaire for students was conducted with thirty students of class 11DA1 at Hung Yen high school The data of the survey questionnaire were

7,73Series1 Series2 analysed according to the three categories as follow: The students’ attitude towards

PBL, the benefits of PBL to students in learning in general and learning speaking skills in particular and the students’ difficulties when carrying out the projects The obtained data showing the percentages for each item in the questionnaire were tabulated as follows:

Table 4.2: Students’ responses to the questionnaire

Question 1: What do you think about the optional lessons using Project-based learning? Choose ONE option that best describe your choice

Percent ages a.Very interesting 11 36.7 b.Somewhat interesting 14 46.6 c.Neutral 5 16.7 d Uninteresting 0 0

Question 2: The benefit(s) of project-based learning applied in English speaking lessons is/are

Put a tick (√) in any option that suits you

Percent ages a Learning is more fun and students are more motivated 20 66.7 b Students can enrich their background knowledge through research work

21 70.0 c Students can develop some soft skills such as group work, presentation, communication, etc

23 76.7 d Students can be exposed to and learn how to deal with real- life situations

Question 3: Which criterion/ criteria of your speaking skills has/ have been improved when you complete the projects?

Put a tick (√) in any option that suits you

Percent ages a.Message content 22 73.3 b.Vocabulary and grammar range 23 76.7 c.Pronunciation 17 56.7 d.Fluency and coherence 18 60.0 e.Interactive communication 21 70.0

Question 4: During the implementation of the project, I myself met some difficulties such as (tick all appropriate boxes that indicate your choice)

Percent ages a Time and energy consumption 17 56.7 b Ineffective group work 16 53.3 c Limited access to necessary materials and technology 8 26.7 d Lack of instructions and guidance from the teacher 2 6.7 e Other (Please specify) 0 0

Chart 4.3: Students attitude towards PBL

As indicated above, all thirty students participating in doing the questionnaire were assessed their attitudes to PBL The first question asked students to indicate degree of enjoyment that students experienced in PBL The result showed that 11 students (approximately 36.7%) found PBL very interesting, 14 students (roughly 47%) thought it was somewhat interesting, and 5 students (about 17%) said that it was

Very interesting Somewhat interesting Neutral Uninteresting

For the next two questions, students were asked to give opinions about benefits of BPL to their studying in general and their learning speaking English in particular

Charts 4 and 5 revealed the findings for each of the two questions Since some individual responses contained more than one theme, they were coded and counted in more than one category Therefore, the percentages shown in the table were based on the number of different responses and not on the number of students completing the questionnaire

Chart 4.4: The benefits of PBL

The benefits of PBL in general are great The biggest of all is that “Students can develop some soft skills such as group work, presentation, communication, etc”

70% of the students claims that they can enrich their background knowledge through research work and 66.7% say that learning is more fun and students are more motivated More than 50% of the students think that they can exposed to and learn how to deal with real-life situations In short, the students’ responses to the questionnaire prove and reaffirm the advantages of PBL in education a, Learning is more fun and students are more motivated b, Students can enrich their background knowledge through research work c, Students can develop some soft skills such as group work, presentation, communication, etc d, Students can be exposed to and learn how to deal with real-life situations

Chart 4.5: The benefits of PBL in learning speaking skills

As can be seen from Chart 5, all the aspects of speaking skills are fostered By undertaking the projects, the students can enlarge their vocabulary and grammar range They are able to convey their ideas to the listeners more clearly and fluently

However, only 56.7% of the students say that their pronunciation can be improved

Chart 4.6: Students’ difficulties when implementing PBL

When asked about the difficulties the students encountered when doing the projects, the majority of the students said that projects took them a lot of time and energy (17 students – 56.7%) 16 students (53.3%) complained that they did not work in groups a Message content b Vocabulary and grammar range c Pronunciation d Fluency and coherence e Interactive communication

70% a Time and energy consumption b Ineffective group work c Limited access to necessary materials and technology d Lack of instructions and guidance from the teacher

Series1 effectively 8 students (26.7%) had limited access to necessary materials and technology Only 2 students (6.7%) pointed out that they need more instructions and guidance from the teacher.

Analysis of the interview

After the teaching action had been implemented, I conducted the interview with the students The interview was done after school time, in order not to disturb the teaching and learning process I took six samples of students to interview The first question I asked was: “Do you like project-based learning activities? Why?/ Or why not?” Then they were asked answer the next question: “Do you think project-based learning activities help you in your English speaking skills? If yes, in what way? If not, please tell me your reasons.”

In accordance with the result from the questionnaire, the majority of the students interviewed agreed that PBL was interesting Student 1 said: “I like PBL because it is quite interesting” while student 2 answered: “Yes, I do because I can go with my friends to many places, have more practical knowledge Learning through PBL is also less stressful.” In addition to captivating students’ interest and promoting students’ engagement, PBL provided them with the opportunities to broaden their knowledge in many other different fields They had chance to go out with their friends to collect data and information for their projects, which was quite funny and wonderful They did not have to stay uncomfortably in traditional classrooms They could go out to acquire more knowledge Especially, this knowledge was related to their real life, not in the book “I like PBL because this approach brings me more knowledge about things around me I know more about the culture, cuisine, and festivals of countries in the world”, said student 3 “I like learning by project because it is quite interesting, it will help me understand more things, have more knowledge about reality This is a new way of learning, we will not be as constrained as the lessons focusing only on grammar, so they are very boring and sleepy Studying on the project will help not only be interesting but also fun and exciting”, student 4 added

In addition, the students could improve other skills and competence Their information technology skills could be improved, which is very necessary in industrial revolution 4.0 They said that not only could they enhance their speaking skills, but they also fostered their capability in team work, group work and reinforced their confidence

On agreeing that PBL could help them to strengthen their speaking skills, all of the six students interviewed claimed that PBL helps them in their English speaking skills When searching for information, they could “learn a lot of new words” they encountered They could look them up in a dictionary and try to learn them by listening and repeating, whereby their pronunciation was also consolidated

Students 2 explained that: “It improves the confidence in front of the crowd, improves the speaking skills, team work and ability of doing Power Point.”

However, student 6 also mentioned the disadvantages of PBL She disliked PBL in that “ I have not practised responding quickly because speaking is just memorization, there is no reflex.” She was the student whose result of the post-test was a bit lower than that of the pre-test She also admitted that: “Learning by project helps me to improve my vocabulary but not create reflection.” It meaned that her speaking skills were not improved much through PBL because he did not find chance to practise response Maybe her unwillingness prevented her from making progress as well

In addition, the student 3 whose test result was not good assumed that “PBL causes me feel stressed because I do not know how I to do to speak well without hesitation while I do not have much time because I have to learn many other subjects.”

Although she did not deny the effectiveness of PBL, she honestly said that “PBL helps me only improve my speaking skills partly” And she claimed that: “PBL causes me feel stressed because I do not know how I do to speak well without hesitation” and PBL is time-consuming Because of this reasons, her lerning was ineffective

In short, the answers to the interview questions showed that most students liked and enjoyed PBL They felt satisfied and excited about speaking English through this activity Despite the progress of almost the participants, few students had the same or lower test results Through the interviews, I realized that these students were not really interested in PBL (like the student 6) or they felt stressful because they did not overcome the difficulties when carrying out projects (like the student 3) Based on these analyses, it can be concluded that motivation plays a crucial role in students’ success Apart from choosing the suitable teaching and learning method, how to motivate and engage students in learning is very important This requires the knowledge, the competence and the dedication of the teachers.

Discussion of the findings

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of PBL on students’ achievement in speaking skills and their attitudes toward this learning technique By triangulating the data, the researcher came to a conclusion about the effectiveness of PBL application in the teaching of English speaking skills Recommendations were also made to facilitate future study on this topic As presented, the results showed that PBL has positive effects on students’ achievement Besides, students’ attitudes toward this technique are overwhelmingly positive

The results indicate that the achievements of students in English speaking skills thanks to PBL are obvious This finding answers the question that whether or not the use of PBL can enhance students’ speaking skills According to the students’ data achieved from the questionnaire and interview, the conclusion is that PBL helps students not only enlarge their vocabulary and foster their confidence when speaking English but also develop various skills as communication and presentation skills They justified that through collecting the information for the projects, students can build up their vocabulary and grammar structures and have more ideas for speaking, all of them induce language development

PBL is also reported to improve students’ results because it makes students more motivated and active during the learning process The frequent reciprocal interaction and interactive learning tasks encourage students to participate more actively and enthusiastically Through such interaction each student’s goals in cooperative situations are determined under the influence of the actions of other students (Johnson & Johnson, 2009) This confirms previous research findings and extrapolations in relevant literature on the effect of PBL learning on students’ achievement

Furthermore, through PBL activities, students can develop their self-confidence, argumentative group communication and group working skills, it helps develop individual and group responsibility Students become more cooperative and supportive to the final success of their group These findings also corresponded with the constructivist learning theory in which learners are in control of constructing their own meaningful knowledge through interaction with their environment (Bruner, 1996) From such constructivist perspective, students improve their achievement because they actively involve in constructing their knowledge It helps create critical, logic and independent thinking which is very essential for successful learning Besides, students learn most from working with others and getting help, and they perceived the instruction as more interactive, cooperative and more student-centred The results of this study are consistent with the findings of previous research (Harmer Niconla, 2014; Hilton-Johns, 1988; Thomas, 2000) which indicate that PBL results in higher academic achievement

The questionnaire about the attitude of students towards applying the new technique – PBL – in classroom has been strongly supported by the results Most of the students showed positive attitudes toward this learning technique as the vast majority of students liked the way they were taught Specifically, students enjoyed exploring the knowledge required for the projects When preparing for the presentation, they had chances to learn more new words and consolidate their pronunciation correctly However, they complained about the ineffectiveness of group work because some students were lazy and irresponsible.

Summary

The findings indicated a significant difference between the pre-test and the post-test and the mean scores at the five levels in the rubric of assessment based on the level B1- CEFR According to the researcher’s data collected, students gradually improved their English speaking abilities as well as doing oral production from the project 1 to project 3 Simultaneously, it was proved that the students could improve their English speaking abilities significantly with the help of PBL and they were provided with necessary speaking skills to produce better oral presentation

From the students’ viewpoints, it was found that they were satisfied with the PBL that the researcher applied in the class The projects helped them improve vocabulary and pronunciation, grammar and structures Among five criteria, criterion 2 (Vocabulary and grammar range) was improved the most significantly

Nextly, the criterion 1 (Message content) was better The students said that they could gain more vocabulary as well as content knowledge in the field of the study

Their motivation and self-confidence in using EFL were also developed (Criterion 5)

Furthermore, it showed that PBL gave the students opportunities to experience more fun in learning They could “go out with their friends”, collect the data together and discuss the work openly They felt their doing oral presentation better because they could speak English more fluently and correctly Especially, the students had a greater confidence to speak and had more chance to practice in the class Since then, they have become more interested in communicative activities during the lessons

The atmosphere was better for teaching and learning In the researcher’s experience, the classroom was different from the traditional classroom, in which teachers totally controlled the students, and the students were more silent whereas in the researcher’s class, the students were more vocal and more active to learn

All in all, the study has shown that PBL is an innovative way to enhance students’ speaking and presentation skills which are not only important for them at school but also in real life Nevertheless, it is not able to expect that students can make a good presentation at the first time or in a short period of time as there are a lot of obstacles for both teachers and students to prepare for a presentation task Teachers, as a facilitator, should always encourage students to study the discussed topics and to eliminate their anxiety when making presentation The basic goal for each presentation task is not to judge the students’ presentation as right or wrong but to let them express themselves as they are

Though most students enjoy project work, whether it can help students and teachers to obtain the objectives set out for each semester is still in question Therefore, it is important that the teachers collaborate and design appropriate projects for different semesters and it should also be noted that however different these objectives might be, the projects must serve the ultimate goal of helping students to practice their language skills and develop the soft skills necessary for their future work

This chapter has demonstrated the data colleted from different sources of data, namely pre-test and post-test, questionnaire and semi-structured interviews as well as the interpretation and discussion in light of the literature The major findings can be summarized as follows

First, results from the tests proved that PBL was recognized as a useful method to enhance and stimulate the students’ speaking competence Second, the analysis between the findings from questionnaires and interview showed the students’ feeling about PBL and the benefits the students got when completing the projects

Additionally, discussion was also conducted by answering two main research questions

In summary, the application of PBL had a positive effect on the development of the students’ speaking skills in particular and EFL proficiency in general The project work brought many benefits to 11 th graders speaking skills and applied the content knowledge in the field of their study The results of this exploratory highlighted the necessity and feasibility of PBL in teaching English speaking skills.

CONCLUSION

Recapitulation of the research

The application of PBL in the teaching is perhaps one of the early research projects of its scope to be realized in the high school This action research focuses on the use of project work in teaching EFL and employs a variety of research instruments such as pre-test and post-test, questionnaires and interviews In general, the study has succeeded in completing the objectives set out at the introductory stage and the research questions have been answered satisfactorily

The study has pointed out the immense benefits of project work to both EFL students The first and foremost benefit is perhaps students’ motivation which results from their personal investment in the project This motivation can be sustained and increased as the project progresses and bring about other benefits

First, it affords students the opportunity to practice both in and out of the classroom the language that they themselves have seen the needs Second, the project enables students to use the target language in real situations and thus develop necessary life skills for their future work Besides, it helps to deepen personal relationship between teachers and students and among the students themselves

Overall, the result of the study proves that PBL can be successfully implemented at Hung Yen high school and the use of project work can make students well-prepared for their future work.

Recommendations of the study

Following are some suggestions for the application of project-based approach in teaching EFL at a high school

The teacher, first of all, should be willing and ready to move their role from knowledge providers to facilitators who guide students in their own learning In other words, there should be a profound change in teacher’s belief from traditional to a more learner-centered approach Then it is vital that the teachers equip themselves with adequate background knowledge about the field of study as well as the PBL approach, more specifically the important issues in PBL such as necessary stages for developing a project in EFL classroom, techniques in assessing the projects, etc

More preparation should be done by the teacher before a project Teacher also should spend more time introducing script sample to students Teacher should give more guidance in writing and reading skills to analyze information Moreover, it is essential that the teacher motivate and engage students in learning

As PBL is a learner-centered approach, students need to change their point of view and their learning habit They should be active learners and be willing to work in groups, willing to take initiative They should also be trained with necessary skills for conducting a scientific study such as initiating inquiry or generating meaningful research questions, managing complexity and time, analyzing data and developing a logical argument to support claims Research skills and teamwork skills should also be taken into consideration

The school board should develop a more flexible attitude towards educational activities, including classroom and out-of-class activities, the teachers’ and students’ roles, etc, so as to encourage and enhance the teaching and learning process under such a leaner-centered approach In addition, library resources and other modern technological resources should be made more accessible to students and teachers should be provided with encouragement by means of spiritual and financial support.

Limitations of the study

Although the study has yielded important results, there undoubtedly existed some limitations due to its scope and weaknesses

Firstly, the sample used was small, only thirty students were involved in the research The results would have been more persuasive if the research had involved more participants In addition, they are students whose English competence is better than that of the students at the same grade Therefore, only my students are eligible to participate in the study, given the nature of an action research Therefore, the question “whether PBL will benefit the students with lower English proficiency or not” is raised

Secondly, due to some subjective factors, this seemingly “big” topic has been generated and developed in the form of only a minor thesis and thus many aspects of the study have been restricted Given more time and space to write, the literature review would have been done more thoroughly, discussions would have been more detailed and as a result, the study would have yielded better reliability and validity

Finally, the deeper and more extensive investigation into the implementation of PBL in teaching and learning English in Vietnam should be conducted to reinforce the success of PBL in our context Due to the limited access to material, this thesis has not analysed carefully and in details the previous studies carried out in Vietnam.

Suggestions for further research

Considering these limitations, the researcher has put forwards some suggestions for future study The aforementioned limitations of the present study have left several gaps for other researchers to fill in

First, further studies should widen the research scale with a larger and more various group of participants especially with weaker students at English Secondly, further studies could expand the scope to other kinds of other language skills such as reading, listening and writing and other life skills of the people in the 21 st century Last but not least, as indicated in the findings, the students have coped up with a number of difficulties in doing projects Therefore, more studies on techniques for improving PBL technique and the effectiveness of PBL lessons should be carried out

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APPENDICES Appendix 1 – A Sample DESCRIPTION OF A PROJECT

By the end of this project, students will be able to:

- understand the common reasons why people do volunteer work

- discuss volunteer work that helps people in need

- talk about problems facing disabled and disadvantaged people and how they can be solved

- be aware of their responsibility to people in the neighborhood

Vocabulary: Words and phrases about work and community development and words and phrases related to people with disabilities and how to support them

Grammar: The present simple expressing facts or the past simple telling about past experience

+Giving a presentation about volunteer work

+ Developing 21 st century skills self–study, problem-solving, time-management, communication, collaboration, language and utilizing high-tech tools

+Experiencing a real life situation in students’ hometown to get real-life understanding

+ Students understand why people do volunteer work, what and how they can do to help people in need

+ Students become better aware of their responsibility for a better community and nurture their compassion to others

4 Books, newspapers, magazines and Internet

C Methods: Project-based learning (students are guided to carry out a project)

LESSON PLAN THEME 2: VOLUNTEER WORK Period 1: Orientation and Planning

T shows the pictures and raises some questions:

-What are people doing in these pictures?

-What is this kind of work called?

-Have you ever participated in volunteer work?

The activities will lead to the lesson naturally

T asks the whole class to look at the

Ss look at the pictures and answer the T’s questions:

Picture 1: A student is teaching a poor child

Picture 2: The students are taking care of the disabled people

This kind of work is called:

The students’ answers may vary picture on page 46 and asks them some questions:

+ Who can you see in the picture?

+What is the old woman doing in the picture?

+What does this mean by “Little Moments Big Magic”?

+What does the picture tell you?

* Reading the saying and explaining its meaning

T asks Ss to work in pairs to read the short saying on page 46 and discuss its meaning

T may give some comments and suggestion

Ss look at the picture and answer the T’s questions:

+ I can see an old woman and a boy

+ She is teaching the boy to read

+The phrase means that your little contribution and help may lead to significant results / may greatly change a person’s life

+The picture tells me that everybody, no matter what they are young or old, can do volunteer work

Ss work in pairs, read the short saying on page 46 and discuss its meaning

-Some Ss present their opinion

Suggestion : If someone gives you

T might elicit or teach the meanings of the following words

- If there is some time left, T may asks some Ss to make sentences with the above words to check their understanding something to eat, you will not feel hungry but it won’t last long If someone gives you an opportunity to work or teaches you how to work, you will earn your own living for a long time

-Volunteer +to volunteer to do sth / volunteer for sth:

+volunteer (n): a person who do volunteer work

+ voluntary (adj): done willingly, not because you are forced; doing a job without waning to be paid for it

+ voluntarily (adv) -The aged = the old: -Orphanage (n): a place where children without parents live -To overcome: to get over

E.g.: She’s overcome the bad habit of talking loudly in public

-To participate in = to take part in -To suffer sth:

*Setting the scene: You are going to read a passage about volunteer work

While you are reading, do the tasks in the textbook

* Instruction: Fill each blank with one part of speech of the word “volunteer”

-T elicits different parts of speech of the word “volunteer” and writes these words on the board: volunteer (v, n) voluntary (adj) voluntarily (adv)

- T asks Ss for their answers and gives the correct answers:

* Instruction: You are to read the passage and choose the best answer from A, B, C or D for each of the following sentences

-T asks Ss how to do this task

Ss work individually, read through the sentences provided in the task to identify the part of speech of the words to fill in each blank Ss should pay attention to the words preceding the blank to fill in the right form of the word

Ss work in pairs, exchange their answers with their peers

Ss work individually to do the task

+First, skim the five sentences to understand them and underline the key

- T calls on some Ss to give their answers and asks other to say whether they agree or disagree

-T gives feedback and the correct answers

*Instruction: You are required to answer the three questions in the book

T asks Ss to do this task words

+ Next, locate the information in each sentence in and the text and read this pert carefully

+Then, read the four choices given to choose the most suitable one

To complete sentence 5, Ss read the passage and try giving it a title Then Ss read through the lists of the titles provided in the task to find the most suitable one Ss should make sure the title chosen covers the entire text and not just one idea within it

Ss work in pairs, discuss their answers with their peers

5 B (A: to general: Cand D: donot cover the whole text)

Ss work individually to do the task:

- T calls on some Ss to give their answers and asks other to say whether they agree or disagree

-T gives feedback and the correct answers

+First, skim the three questions to understand them

+Next, go back to the first question and locate the information for the question by finding the key words in the passage and mark the place

+Read the part carefully to find the answer Ss can use their own words

Continue with the rest of the questions

Ss work in pairs, discuss their answers with their peers

1 They usually visit these places They read books to the people there, play games with them or listen their problems

2 They give care and comfort to them (and help them to overcome their difficulties)

3 During summer vacations, they volunteer to work in remote or mountainous area (to provide education for children)

*Instruction: You are required to work in groups to discuss the question in the textbook

T asks Ss to discuss the question:

Why do people do volunteer work?

T goes around to help Ss when necessary

-T calls on some Ss to report their ideas to the class

T summarizes the main points of the lesson

Ss work in groups of 5 discuss the following questions:

+What kind of volunteer work do people usually do?

+How do they usually do it?

+Why do they do it?

Ss work in groups of 5, carry out a project in a week

1 how many students in your class have taken part in voluntary work

2 what their reasons to volunteer work

4 what do they would like to do in the future if they haven’t taken part in voluntary work so far

Report your findings to your class

Find someone/ a place in your community that needs help What are the problems of this person/ this place?

What do you think you can do to help?

Present your ideas to the whole class

Requirements during developing the project:

- Each group needs one leader to manage and make sure that every member is responsible for their task After that a leader will give an oral presentation about what they have learned

+Week 1: investigate the real- world, collect and synthesize information, do a PowerPoint and prepare a presentation

+ Week 2: Check before reporting in front of class

Teacher gives out the criteria to SS so that SS can know what and how they should do

2 Phase 2–Research and implementation Students work in groups to develop the project at home by:

- Searching for information on the Internet or other mass media

In this phase, the teacher checked students’ work and providedassistancehe teacher made sure that his/her studentswerereally working and they were going in the right direction The teacherneeded to be responsible and willing to support students when necessary The teacher must scaffold the students by giving comment, suggestions and helping them to get over possible difficulties such as ineffective group work, lack of materials, etc Then students continued fulfilling their task

3 Phase 3 -Period 2, 3, 4 - Sharing results and Assessing the project

In this phase, six groups of the students gave a report to class in three periods There were two groups demonstrating their project in each period Each group had about 10 minutes to give their presentation in front of the whole class and

5 minutes for “Question and Answer” While one group was doing their task, the other paid attention, took notes and then raised their questions to the presenters

Students also gave comments to their classmates’ presentation Finally, the teacher remarked and assessed the students’ performance

Student 1: Have you done volunteer work before?

Who has done volunteer work? Raise your hand?

So there are still some people who wonder that what volunteer work is Right? So now I will tell you something

First, in general, volunteering is generally considered an altruistic activity where an individual or group provides services for no financial or social gain "to benefit another person, group or organization" Volunteering is also renowned for skill development and is often intended to promote goodness or to improve human quality of life Volunteering may have positive benefits for the volunteer as well as for the person or community served It is also intended to make contacts for possible employment Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergency rescue Others serve on an as- needed basis, such as in response to a natural disaster That’s all the things you can learn about volunteer work

Student 2: Ok So let’s see some volunteer work So the first thing I will tell you is that one of my favourite activity is HELPING REMOTE CHILDREN WITH LITERACY So in many countries, particularly in Vietnam, a lot of children living in mountainous or faraway areas can’t access to good educational sources So there are many reasons for this issue, but the main reason of this are poverty and terrain condition So many households can’t afford for the children to go to school Also, tottering terrain causes a great problem for them So to solve this problem, we can come to these poor areas to teach the youngsters letters and reading We can do this by joining a voluntary organization or participating in activities for volunteers

Thus, rate of illiteracy in the area will decrease significantly Plus, we can volunteer for building schools, libraries or any related facilities And hence, many kids will be able to have a better education without commute to school which is very far from their home So this is building facilities and teaching voluntarily Ok

Student 3: The second is that DONATING THINGS In our society, besides the rich, there are many poor and disabled people They actually need our help to be motivated, loved and have a better life All of us can express our humanity and compassion by donating things such as: money, clothes or blood In some mountainous area, many poor children don’t have enough warm clothes to wear and money to go to school So we can donate money and clothes to help the disadvantaged a warmer winter and better education Moreover, blood donation is also a meaningful activity Blood donation is a voluntary procedure that can help save the lives of others Besides creating living opportunities for others, blood donation also brings benefits for our emotional and physical health such as: reduce stress, improve our emotional well-being, get rid of negative feelings, lower risk of cancer…

Student 4: Next start with general labour Doing general labor such as clean-up projects or home repair is also a volunteer activity With people whose house were destroyed by natural disasters or low-income people, help them to build new houses is the biggest help or you can donate money for them to build it Beside it you can also join the campaign that protect the environment Voluntary activities to protect living environment such as: Environmental protection activities; creating a green, clean, beautiful environment, natural protection; creating living habits that cause less environmental pollution You can pick up the trash, clean lakes or streets, plant and take care trees, encourage your parents and your friends to recycle glass, paper, or propagate environmental protection for everyone in your place This can reduce pollution and the volunteer will improve their interpersonal communication skill And this is an example for general labour That is picking up trash and encouraging people to protect the environment

Student 5 : Next is the benefit of volunteer work So I will talk about seven benefits by volunteering work Yo can study and earning new skill, bring people in every country closer, have chance to communicate with people from many place, learn to improve the teamwork skills, become more responsible, change the way you see about life, make people happy

Meaning of the volunteer work there are a lot of the poor, the disabled, homeless people that need our help and volunteer is one of the best way to help them, it brings them shelter to live, food to eat and hope to keep living on their life

Group 2 Student 1: We are Team 2 and today we will talk about volunteer work So the first: What is volunteer work?

Volunteering is described as an unpaid activity where someone gives their time to help a not-for-profit organisation or an individual who they are not related to

Unpaid volunteers are often the glue that holds a community together Volunteering allows you to connect to your community and make it a better place

Student 2: Here are BENEFITS OF VOLUNTEERING

Volunteering helps you make new friends and contacts One of the best ways to make new friends is to commit to a shared activity together