Promoting efl learner autonomy through project based learning a case study at a state high school in long an provice ma

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE PROMOTING EFL LEARNER AUTONOMY THROUGH PROJECT-BASED LEARNING - A CASE STUDY AT A STATE HIGH SCHOOL IN LONG AN PROVINCE A thesis submitted to the Faculty of English Linguistics & Literature in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in TESOL By LE THI HONG THUY Supervised by DANG TAN TIN, Ph.D HO CHI MINH CITY, April 2022 1|Page STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY I certify that this thesis titled “Promoting EFL learner autonomy through projectbased learning, a case study at a state high school in Long An province” is my work Except where reference is made in the text of this thesis, this paper does not contain any materials published elsewhere or extracted on whole or in part from a thesis by which I have qualified for or been awarded another degree or diploma No other author’s work has been used without acknowledgement in the main text of this thesis The thesis has not been submitted for any degree in any other tertiary institution Ho Chi Minh, April 2022 LE THI HONG THUY 2|Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to express my appreciation and deepest thanks to all who have supported, motivated and stood by me during the long time I conducted this thesis Firstly, I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Mr Dang Tan Tin, Ph.D., who are always kind and devoted to me He gave me great encouragement and inspiration when I had many troubles in my life, as well as when I got stuck in finding solutions for my thesis Undoubtedly, without his valuable supports, this thesis is far from being successfully completed Words are not enough to express my gratitude towards his kindness, encouragement and support to me Next, I would like to send my deepest thanks to all the lectures at the Faculty of English Linguistics and Literature, who are always devoted and enthusiastic in transmitting knowledge to students This knowledge equips me with intensive knowledge in scientific area and necessary skills to carry out this thesis Then, my particular gratitude is sent to the school board, the students and the colleague teachers at Rach Kien high school, who always create the most favorable conditions for me to complete this thesis successfully, and always eager to participate in the implementation of PBL Last but not least, my words of appreciation are sent to my family for their endless love, care, and support so that I could get my thesis done 3|Page ABSTRACT Though project-based learning (PBL) has been believed to be a promising model to have great influence on students’ skill integration development, awareness towards this approach is still limited Therefore, this case study was conducted on an intact class of 40 grade 11th students at Rach Kien high school It aimed at exploring the procedure of employing PBL in a high school classroom, and how this student-centered approach has impacts on three universal principles of promoting learner autonomy, namely learner involvement, appropriate use of target language, and learner reflection The study employed semi-structured interviews with the teacher and ten students, eight classroom observations, document analysis basing on students’ end-products, such as posters, presentations, both the instructor’s and students’ peer evaluation forms to collect data The findings of the study showed that the implementation of PBL into the curriculum was conducted successfully following 10-step procedure and main features of PBL With the success of PBL application into the curriculum, three universal learner autonomy promoting principles are enhanced significantly In comparison with teachercentered approach which students are passive receivers of knowledge, PBL lets students free to express their true selves by making them join all the activities relating to learning By making rooms for working in groups, time for using target language is maximized In addition, completing all steps in the procedure requires the integration of skills Undoubtedly, students’ use of target language is boosted greatly Moreover, in PBL, building students’ awareness of reflection is on the top priority as the fact that learning will not be meaningful enough if students are not be able to transform the experience they went through into real practice for better learning Therefore, the practice of reflecting happens not only at the end but also during the conduction of the projects to foster deeper understanding Then, students are asked to join in evaluating other classmates’ products for more experience This approach is then concluded to be a fruitful method that provides students with benefits to improve their autonomy Therefore, it is suggested that projects should be widely corporated in curriculum 4|Page STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ABSTRACT LIST OF FIGURES LIST OF TABLES LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background to the study 1.2 Context of the study 10 1.2.1 The general context of the study 10 1.2.2 The specific context of the study 13 1.3 Aims of the study 15 1.4 Research Questions 15 1.5 Scope of the study 16 1.6 Significance of the study 16 1.7 Organization of the study 18 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 19 2.1 Project-based learning in language education 19 2.1.1 Definitions of project-based learning 19 2.1.2 Key features of project-based learning 21 2.1.3 The benefits of PBL in teaching English as a foreign language 25 2.1.4 Challenges in implementing PBL 26 5|Page 2.2 Learner autonomy (LA) 27 2.2.1 Definitions of learner autonomy 27 2.2.2 Versions of learner autonomy 29 2.2.3 Learner autonomy promoting principles in the current study 31 2.3 Review of previous studies 32 2.4 Conceptual framework of the study 35 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 40 Research methodology 41 Research settings and participants 42 3.1 Methods of data collection 47 3.1.1 Observations 47 3.1.2 Document Analysis 49 3.1.3 Semi-structured interviews 49 3.2 Data collection procedure 50 3.3 Data analysis procedure 55 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 59 4.1 The implementation of PBL in an EFL high school class 59 4.2 How PBL promoted three conceptualized principles of LA in an EFL class 75 4.2.1 PBL and Learner Involvement 75 4.2.2 PBL and Learners’ Target Language Use 81 4.2.3 PBL and Learner Reflection 86 4.3 Summary of the main findings 92 4.4 Discussions of the findings 93 6|Page CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 98 5.1 Summary of the study 98 5.2 Pedagogical implications 101 5.3 Limitations of the study 102 5.4 Suggestions for further research 103 REFERENCES APPENDICES 7|Page LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1: Key features of PBL ……………………………………………………… 25 Figure 2.2: Three pedagogical principles to promote learner autonomy ……………… 33 Figure 2.3: Conceptual framework of the study ……………………………………… 38 Figure 3.1: 10 steps to implement a project, advocated by Stoller (1997) …………… 45 Figure 3.2: Thematic network for data analysis ………………………………… ……58 LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1: Summary of the research methodology …………… ……………………… 41 Table 3.2: The procedure of data collection of the study …………… ……………… 52 Table 3.3: Data coding ……………………………………………….………………… 56 LIST OF ABBREVIATION PBL: Project-based learning LA: Learner autonomy MOET: Ministry of Education and Training CEFR: The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages DOET: Department of Education and Training EFL: English as a Foreign Language CHC: Confucian Heritage Culture 8|Page CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION This chapter introduces the background to the study, its general and specific contexts which lead to the research gaps, and the need to conduct this study It is also concerned with the research aims, the research questions, the significance of the study on how the study will contribute, the scope of the study, and the organization of this thesis 1.1 Background to the study The role of English is becoming more and more important As claimed by Kirkpatrick (2012, p.131), English is accepted as the official working language of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) It is also a “visa” for Vietnamese people to integrate into the world (H D Le, 2015) Thus, mastering the English language is unquestionably a must for Vietnamese students Many efforts have been made to improve Vietnamese students’ English language proficiency Typically, in 2008, The Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam (MOET) launched the project, so-called “the National Foreign Languages Project 2020” with the aims of enhancing foreign language proficiency of Vietnamese human resources and making graduates of intermediate schools, colleges, and universities more independent, autonomous and confident in communication Being one of the most prominent parts of the project, a lot of training sessions and courses have been provided to heighten the quality of teachers throughout the country This project is a great encouragement for educators to renovate curriculum and teaching approaches (T Nguyen, 2017) By the same token, many Vietnamese researchers have agreed that it is required to shift from the traditional teacher-centered to student-centered teaching approach By doing so, Vietnamese learners’ English language competence as well as their autonomy, a lifelong learning goal in education by MOET, can be developed properly and effectively (T N A Le, 2018) In recent years, there has been a growing interest in project-based learning (PBL), a student-centered approach, claimed to focus on students while teachers act mainly as facilitators and motivators (Gubacs, 2004; Dale, 2019) Regarding its learning activities, 9|Page they are student-centered and real-life, which makes learning experiences more interesting and meaningful to students (T V L Nguyen, 2011) This approach with its benefits has enormous potential to boost students’ Critical thinking, Creativity, Collaboration, and Communication skills (Beckett & Miller, 2006) In addition, the improvement in students’ ability to work collaboratively, resolve conflicts properly, and communicate effectively by the implementation of the PBL approach has also been explored (Beckett & Miller, 2006; ChanLin, 2008; Saenab et al., 2018) Hence, it is believed to be a promising model for promoting learner autonomy (LA) (A S et al., 2013; Isabekov & Sadyrova, 2018) Nevertheless, the implementation of PBL in teaching English as a foreign language in Vietnam is still unpopular (T T Dang, 2010; T V L Nguyen, 2011) Furthermore, being strongly influenced by the teacher-centered approach, referring to direct and explicit teaching techniques with its focus on academic tasks and high expectations for students, employing PBL in teaching English is considered time-consuming by teachers (Cao, 2018) For a better understanding of the research gaps and the need for this pedagogical attempt, it is fundamental to discuss the contexts of the study in terms of the PBL approach and LA 1.2 Context of the study 1.2.1 The general context of the study Vietnamese students are viewed as obedient and passive learners (Littlewood, 2000; T T, Dang, 2010; Tran, 2013; Truong, 2017) Having been presented in many papers, the cultural background is one of the main causes for this obedience and passiveness Specifically, Vietnamese students are affected by the Confucian Heritage Culture (CHC), which appreciates obedience and respect to those who have higher ranks (Tran, 2013; Ngo, 2015) In addition, Confucian ethics dominates the mindsets of both teachers and students Thus, students are taught to be obedient from a very young age As a result, rote learning has become increasingly prevalent among students from primary to university (Tran, 2013) This dependent learning style, characterized by learning by listening, note-taking, and reproducing memorized knowledge in exams, has contributed to the formation of students’ passiveness and obedience (Tran, 2013; V.V, Hoang, 2016) Another cause lies in the exam-oriented education system in Vietnam, focusing on test scores more than students’ 10 | P a g e Appendix CLASSROOM OBSERVATION FORM Group Project: ; Date: _ GROUP 126 | P a g e Ss’ activities T’s activities Strengths Weaknesses Appendix Questions to interview the students Thank you so much for joining me with this interview You have already had some experience in doing projects, so today, I hope we will have discussion about the projects Q1 What you like about doing the projects? Q2 Are there any differences between the class with projects and the class without projects that you usually participate in? Q3 What you usually to find the answers to finish your projects? Could you explain in detail? Q4 Do you think doing projects can help you to get involved in class activities? If yes, in what ways? Q5 Do you think doing projects can boost your use of target language? If yes, in what ways? Q6 After finishing projects, you self-reflect on your process? If yes, what aspects of your learning process you usually self-reflect on? If no, why not? Q7 Are there any difficulties during conducting the projects? If yes, what are they? Q8 Do you have any suggestions for the implementation of PBL better? Do you think PBL should be incorporated in the curriculum? Q9 Generally, how you feel about doing projects while studying? Q10 Is there anything else I haven’t mentioned that you would like to discuss? Appendix Questions to interview the instructor Q1 Have you ever use PBL in your teaching before? If yes, how did you use it? If no, will you use it in the future? Q2 Are you satisfied with your students’ performance in the two projects? What are your comments? Q3 Do you think doing projects can get students involved in the learning process? If yes, in what ways? If no, why not? Q4 Do you think doing projects can get students use target language appropriately? If yes, in what ways? If no, why not? 127 | P a g e Q5 Do you think doing projects can provide students more opportunities to self-reflect on their own learning? If yes, in what ways? If no, why not? Q5 Are there any challenges during the implementation of PBL in your class? If yes, what are they? Q6 In your opinion, what should be improved for better implementation of PBL in the future? Q7 Generally, how you feel about this approach? Q8 Is there anything else I haven’t mentioned that you would like to discuss? Appendix Extract from the interviews The interviewer: Thanks for joining me in this interview Your answer will be an important source of information for this study I hope to receive your cooperation The interviewee: Yes, of course I'll try my best The interviewer: So, let start the first question What you like about doing the projects? The interviewee: Oh, the thing I enjoy most about these projects is that it helps me expand my communication skills When students are allowed to work together, it improves our cooperation as well as our bonds in class Besides social interaction, projects help us to learn in a real-world context By doing that, we have the possibility to dive more into the problems we are investigating, which can be absolutely interesting for some individuals like me The interviewer: Thanks for your informative answer I would like to know more about your feelings about the differences between the class with projects and the class without projects that you usually participate in, are there any differences? The interviewee: The biggest difference might be the attitude of students Students who learn with projects have a tendency to be more creative and engaged in the lessons, whereas learning without projects can easily lead to boredom and dissipation Without project working, students don’t really find themselves hooked in the lesson 128 | P a g e The interviewer: You seem to like doing projects In order to complete these projects, what you usually to find the answers? The interviewee: Firstly, I try my best to think of as many possibilities as possible, all by myself So that I can have my own answers and then I can contribute it to my teamwork I have always done it in every project to find the most genuine opinion and then expand it to find more solutions Sometimes, there are problems which I find too difficult to handle myself I will discuss with my teammates and teachers, in order to bring out the best answers The interviewer: That's great You're very professional in doing projects The interviewee: Thanks a lot I just try my best The interviewer: Next, I would like to know more about its impacts on your participation Do you think doing projects can help you to get involved in class activities? If yes, in what ways? The interviewee: I think doing projects is the most effective way for the class to get together Projects working usually required pair-work or teamwork, which helps me a lot in getting to know my friends when we first met in grade 11 Moreover, working together gets me to know more about my classmate’s strengths and weaknesses, which I can help them develop or restrict, and they can the same for me, too 129 | P a g e Appendix Sky group’s poster Winners group’s poster 130 | P a g e Tangible products of project BTS group’s poster 131 | P a g e Mechanical Cats group’s poster Sea Seal group's poster 132 | P a g e Appendix 10 Tangible products of project Sky group (Phuoc Loc Tho Ancient House) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MCVozwJkmY Sky group's leaflet 133 | P a g e Mechanical Cats (Can Gio Beach) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6w_uQxGv_8 Mechanical Cats group's leaflet 134 | P a g e BTS (Long An International Port) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srO-duwNb3Q BTS group's leaflet 135 | P a g e Sea Seal (Lang Sen Wetland Reserve) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srO-duwNb3Q Sea Seal group's leaflet 136 | P a g e Winners (Dong Thap Muoi) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srO-duwNb3Q Winners group's leaflet 137 | P a g e 138 | P a g e Appendix 10 139 | P a g e Units from the textbook 140 | P a g e