The impact of project based learning (pbl) on english majored students essay writing performance

Trang 1 --- ∞0∞--- NGUYEN QUYNH UYEN THE IMPACT OF PROJECT-BASED LEARNING PBL ON ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS’ ESSAY WRITING PERFORMANCE MASTER OF ARTS IN TESOL Trang 2 HO CHI MINH CITY OP

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NGUYEN QUYNH UYEN

THE IMPACT OF PROJECT-BASED LEARNING (PBL)

ON ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS’ ESSAY

WRITING PERFORMANCE

MASTER OF ARTS IN TESOL

HO CHI MINH CITY, 2023

HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY

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NGUYEN QUYNH UYEN

THE IMPACT OF PROJECT-BASED LEARNING (PBL)

ON ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS’ ESSAY

WRITING PERFORMANCE

Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages

Major code: 8 14 01 11 MASTER OF ARTS IN TESOL Supervisor: Dr NGUYEN HUY CUONG

Tôi tên là: NGUYỄN QUỲNH UYÊN

Chuyên ngành: Lý luận và phương pháp dạy học bộ môn Tiếng Anh

Mã học viên: 1981401112046

Tôi đồng ý cung cấp toàn văn thông tin luận văn tốt nghiệp hợp lệ về bản quyền cho Thư viện trường đại học Mở Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh Thư viện trường đại học Mở Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh sẽ kết nối toàn văn thông tin luận văn tốt nghiệp vào hệ thống thông tin khoa học của Sở Khoa học và Công nghệ Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh

Ý KIẾN CHO PHÉP BẢO VỆ LUẬN VĂN THẠC sĩ

CỦA GIẢNG VIÊN HƯỚNG DẴN

Giàng viên hướng dẫn: TS NGUYỄN HUY CƯỜNG

Học viên thực hiện: NguyễnQuỳnh Uyên

Ngàysinh: 28/09/1982

Lóp: MTESOL19B

Nơi sinh: Quảng Ngãi

Tên đề tài: THEIMPACT OF PROJECT-BASED LEARNING (PBL) ON ENGLISH

MAJORED STUDENTS’ ESSAY WRITING PERFORMANCE

Ýkiếncủa giáo viên hướng dẫn về việc cho phép học viên Nguyễn Quỳnh Uyên được bảo vệ

luận văn trước Hội đồng:

Sinh viên Nguyễn Quỳnh Uyên đã làm việc nghiêm túc trong hai năm qua Qua nhiều lần

tháo luận và chỉnh sửa, hoàn thiện, tôi nhận thấy sinh viên Nguyễn Quỳnh Uyên đã sẵn

sàng ra bảo vệ luận vãn trước Hội đồng.

Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh, ngày 25 tháng 04 năm 2023

Ngiròi nhận xét

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I certify that this thesis entitled, “The Impact of Project-based Learning (PBL) on English Major Students’ Essay Writing Performance” is my own work It is conducted under the supervision of Dr Nguyen Huy Cuong, Dean of School of Languages, International University (VNU-HCMC)

Except where reference is made in the text of the thesis, this thesis does not contain material published elsewhere or extracted in whole or in part from a thesis by which

I have qualified for or been awarded another degree or diploma

Ho Chi Minh City, 2023

Nguyen Quynh Uyen

Secondly, I would like to extend my thanks to all lecturers in this M.A program They have provided me with profound knowledge, feedback, and suggestions during the course

Thirdly, my thanks go to the colleague and students who participated in this study I appreciated their contributions and encouragement during the time I did the research Finally, I would like to send my deep love to my family They always encouraged me

to do well and to keep moving forwards to complete what I had started It was they who were with me through difficulties and supported me when I needed help so that

I had enough energy to complete this thesis

TÓM TẮT

Ngày nay tiếng Anh rất cần thiết để thành công tại nơi làm việc và việc học tiếng Anh không chỉ đòi hỏi phải học ngôn ngữ mà còn học các kỹ năng khác sẽ hữu ích cho người học tại nơi làm việc Do đó, học tập dựa trên dự án (PBL) là một trong những cách tiếp cận được cho là có thể phát triển kiến thức chuyên sâu cũng như các kỹ năng trong công việc thông qua việc thực hiện các dự án sau khi đã xem xét các đặc điểm của cách tiếp cận này Nghiên cứu bán thực nghiệm này được thực hiện tại trường Đại học Yersin Đà Lạt với sự tham gia của 40 sinh viên chuyên ngành tiếng Anh được chia thành hai nhóm Nhóm đối chứng học viết bài luận không có dự án và nhóm thử nghiệm học viết bài luận có dự án Nghiên cứu này nhằm mục đích tìm hiểu ảnh hưởng của PBL đối với khả năng viết bài luận của sinh viên, cụ thể là dạng bài luận so sánh và đối chiếu Ngoài ra, nghiên cứu này cũng tìm hiểu quan điểm của sinh viên về phương pháp PBL Sinh viên ở cả hai nhóm đã làm bài kiểm tra trước và sau khi thực nghiệm để đánh giá khả năng viết bài luận so sánh và đối chiếu Sau bài kiểm tra sau, chín (09) sinh viên từ nhóm thử nghiệm đã được phỏng vấn để tìm hiểu thêm về thái độ của họ đối với việc sử dụng PBL trong các bài học viết Dữ liệu từ các bài kiểm tra được thu thập và sau đó được phân tích bằng phần mềm máy tính (SPSS 25) và dữ liệu từ các cuộc phỏng vấn cá nhân được thu thập và sau đó được phân tích bằng phương pháp phân tích tường thuật để diễn giải quan điểm của những người tham gia nghiên cứu Kết quả cho thấy dường như không có sự khác biệt có ý nghĩa thống kê về điểm sau kiểm tra của hai nhóm sau thực nghiệm; tuy nhiên, hầu hết các sinh viên được phỏng vấn đều ủng hộ mạnh mẽ việc sử dụng PBL trong học viết bài luận vì PBL được cho là sẽ nâng cao động lực, hứng thú và cải thiện các kỹ năng làm việc Có thể khuyến nghị rằng PBL có thể được áp dụng thường xuyên hơn trong các khóa học khác nhau của Khoa ngoại ngữ để tăng động lực, hứng thú và kỹ năng làm việc của sinh viên bên cạnh kiến thức môn học

Từ khóa: học tập dựa trên dự án (PBL), khả năng viết bài luận, bài luận so sánh và

đối chiếu, kiến thức môn học, kỹ năng làm việc

ABSTRACT

English is essential for success in the workplace nowadays, and learning English entails not only learning the language but also other skills that will be useful to learners in the workplace Therefore, project-based learning (PBL) is one of the approaches which is believed to be able to develop deep content knowledge as well

as real-world skills through doing projects after its features are considered This quasi-experimental study was conducted at Yersin University of Dalat with the participation of 40 English major students divided into two groups The control group learned writing lessons without projects and the experimental group learned writing lessons with projects The study aims to discover the effect of project-based learning

on the writing performance of the students, with a specific focus on comparison and contrast essays Second, this study also looks to understand students’ perspectives of the PBL approach Students in both groups took a pre-test and a post-test on their ability to write comparison and contrast essays Following the post-test, nine students from the experimental group were interviewed to learn more about their attitudes toward the use of PBL in writing lessons The data from the tests were collected and then analyzed by computer software (SPSS 25) and the data from the individual interviews were collected and then analyzed with the narrative analysis method to interpret research participants’ perspectives The results revealed that there seemed

to be no statistically significant difference in the post-test scores of the two groups after the treatment; however, most of the interviewed students strongly supported the use of PBL in writing lessons because PBL is believed to enhance motivation, interest, and workplace skills It might be recommended that PBL could be applied more frequently in different courses in the foreign language department to increase students’ motivation, interest, and workplace skills in addition to content knowledge

Keywords: project-based learning (PBL), essay writing performance,

compare-and-contrast essays, content knowledge, workplace skills

2.8 PBL previous research in teaching writing (both domestic and

CONTENT PAGE

4.2 Students’ attitudes towards using the PBL approach in learning to

write comparison and contrast essays

Appendix 4: ASSESSMENT CRITERIA FOR COMPARISON AND

CONTRAST ESSAYS

67

Appendix 10: PBL IN YERSIN UNIVERSITY DEVELOPMENT

STRATEGY FROM 2019 TO 2024, VISION TO 2030

75

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.2 The differences in teaching procedures between the two

groups

29

Table 4.4 Results of Independent sample t-test on pre-test scores

of the two groups

37

Table 4.5 Pair sample statistics on the pre-test and post-test scores

of the control group

38

Table 4.6 The paired sample t-test results on the pre-test and

post-test scores of the control group

39

Table 4.7 Paired sample statistics on the pre-test and post-test

scores of the experimental group

39

Table 4.8 The paired sample t-test results on the pre-test and

post-test scores of the experimental group

40

Table 4.9 Results of the Mann-Whitney Test comparing the

post-test scores of the two groups after the treatment

41

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

Many educators in the twenty-first century have experimented with new teaching strategies in addition to traditional methods Traditional education emphasizes the lecturer and deep learning through memorization (Marton, Dall’Alba, & Tse, 1996) while new teaching strategies center on students and active learning This thesis discusses the application of project-based learning in teaching essay writing to English-major students at Yersin University of Dalat (or YU), a multidisciplinary private university, where I am working as a teacher

Writing is an important but difficult skill for English major students at YU because they must know how to write an essay correctly in order to pass the final exam of the Writing 3 course as well as an English Proficiency Test (e.g IELTS) to receive their bachelor's degree Moreover, with writing, students can learn all the rules of the language and how they can better organize their ideas more coherently using the language (Anom et al., 2012) Writing also provides students with the opportunity to learn many other important skills that will help them succeed in their studies, careers, and other aspects of their lives Some of the benefits include improving their communication skills, increasing their confidence, and broadening their knowledge base

In response to workplace demands and challenges in teaching and learning writing, project-based learning (PBL) is advocated by various researchers (Affandi & Sukyadi, 2016; Sadeghi, Biniaz & Soleimani, 2016; Bani-Hamad & Abdullah, 2019; Rangkuti, 2020) as an effective method in teaching writing because of its significant benefits, especially in terms of written communication and teamwork skills It is regarded as an active teaching method in which the learner is the focal point and the teacher serves as a facilitator and motivator (Bell, 2010) PBL involves real-world

activities and engages students in learner-centered learning activities, which may make writing less boring (Thomas, 2000) Furthermore, under the credit-hour system applied at Vietnamese universities, which requires students to spend more time working by themselves in the learning process, and the practical application of academic concepts to the 21st-century workplace, PBL is thought to have a lot of positive effects when used to teach writing Unlike standardized tests, which assess students' achievement at the end of the course, PBL assesses students' performance during the learning process as well as other 21st-century skills (e.g communication, problem-solving, and teamwork skills) through group projects and presentations

1.2 Problem statement

Despite the undeniable value of writing, YU students frequently struggle with grammatical errors and inappropriate writing structures, as well as a lack of vocabulary and the inability to develop and organize ideas Besides, most teachers employ teacher-centered teaching approaches, which causes students to lose motivation and interest We are all aware that teaching writing is a time-consuming activity for teachers because written work takes a long time to correct and evaluate

As a result, a lack of teacher feedback makes students less enthusiastic about writing

In some cases, the teacher corrects and returns students' compositions in red ink, but the students saved the corrected work and never look at it again, which implies that students' writing ability cannot be improved To address these issues, teachers need

to employ an active learning approach that facilitates students in developing their writing, enhances deep learning, and motivates them to be autonomous in order to achieve learning outcomes during the writing process

Apart from the researcher’s observation of writing problems from the English major students at YU, motivation, presentation, and other workplace skills could be enhanced during the Writing 3 course for their future benefits Because of low motivation and interest, some students found excuses not to attend classes or did private things during class time like playing games or using social networks

Moreover, most of the students preferred working on their own to teamwork and had

a fear of public speaking With the hope of supporting students not only in writing skills but also in other soft skills, YU’s English teachers should develop a more effective approach to improving learners’ writing skills and engage them in the learning process with real-life activities, which can enable them to learn from doing Importantly, PBL is believed to contextualize learning by having students work on projects to generate ideas, collect information and discuss together in groups While doing projects, students have opportunities to involve in designing, problem-solving, decision-making, investigating, teamwork, etc As a result, they increase their autonomy, teamwork skills, and long-term memory in addition to their writing competence

1.3 Purpose of the Study

First, this study examines the impacts of the PBL approach (compared to the conventional, lecture-based approach) on the writing performance of Yersin University English-major students, with a specific focus on comparison and contrast essays Second, this study also looks to understand students’ perceptions of the PBL approach

1.4 Research Questions and Objectives

This study looks to address the following research questions:

1 What is the impact of PBL on YU students’ essay writing performance?

2 What are the students’ perspectives on learning writing essays with the PBL approach?

1.5 Research Significance

This study is conducted to attest to the impact of the PBL approach as opposed to the conventional, lecture-based approach on students’ writing performance It is also carried out in the hope that YU teachers and students would excitedly experience a

new strategy for teaching and learning writing which can be more interesting and motivating Moreover, by implementing the PBL strategy in writing class, students may improve their autonomy as well as other soft skills such as problem-solving, decision-making, investigation, and teamwork

Although the PBL approach may not be new to teachers and students in the Vietnamese context, it is not commonly used at YU, especially in the English program and in writing classes This study will hopefully inspire teachers in the Faculty of Foreign Languages to use the PBL approach more frequently in appropriate subjects, as well as enable students to be acquainted with it and find it motivating and helpful

1.6 Overview of thesis chapters

This study is divided into five sections, which are as follows:

Chapter 1 introduces the study It provides context for this study It also includes the problem statement, two research questions and objectives, and the significance of the study

Chapter 2 includes a review of the literature, which shapes the theoretical framework for this research It discusses the differences between the teacher-centered approach and student-centered approach, the common approaches to teaching writing, definitions, features, benefits of PBL, stages for implementing a PBL project, the comparison and contrast essay writing, PBL at Yersin University, and some previous research on using PBL in teaching writing

Chapter 3 shows the methodology of the study This chapter describes the research design, site, participants, materials, teaching procedures, measurement instruments, and data collection procedures and analysis

In Chapter 4, the data collected from the Pre-test, post-test scores, and interviews are analyzed, followed by a discussion of the findings drawn from the analyzed data

Chapter 5 summarizes the main findings of the study It also discusses the study's contributions and limitations before making some recommendations and suggestions for future research

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

In this chapter, the theoretical background of the study is reviewed, which includes some common teaching approaches, definitions, features, benefits, and stages of implementation of the PBL approach The theoretical background is followed by a review of the description of the comparison and contrast essay, the application plan

of PBL at Yersin University, previous studies on the impact of PBL on teaching writing, and the research gap at the end which leads to the current study

2.1 Common teaching approaches

2.1.1 Teacher-centered approach and student-centered approach

The teacher-centered approach was based on behaviorist theory, which proposed that behavior changes are caused by external stimuli (Skinner, 1974) In teacher-centered classrooms, teachers play key roles in the learning process and are information providers and evaluators, so they decide on the content and organize the learning tasks Lectures are commonly used to deliver instruction and textbooks are the sources of class activities while students are viewed as passive recipients of the information

On the other hand, the student-centered approach was based on the constructivist theory in which students learn more by doing and experiencing rather than by observing (Brown, 2008) In student-centered classrooms, the teacher serves as a facilitator and guide, creating an environment in which students are motivated to learn, and facilitating learning activities (Powell & Kalina, 2009) Students can work individually, in pairs, or in groups during the learning activities, which means they have more opportunities to speak English, share ideas, learn from one another, and feel more at ease and less anxious

2.1.2 Product-based and Process-based Writing Approaches

In the long history of language teaching, there have been many approaches to teaching writing although they have changed from one to another over time Of them, the two popular approaches are product-based and process-based and each of them has its own benefits and drawbacks

Researchers of the product-based approach admit that this approach improves learners’ writing performance in terms of grammatical and syntactic forms based on modeled texts (Myles, 2002; Steel, 2004; Richards & Rodgers, 2014) Because of their improved linguistic knowledge, students can effectively organize their writing However, focusing too much on linguistic knowledge and the modeled organization could cause a decrease in learners’ confidence and kill their writing creativity concerning structure, vocabulary, and mechanics (Hyland, 2003)

The application of the process-based approach is based on the proposal of researchers who believe that writing is a dynamic process including common stages such as prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing and can be enhanced through cognitive strategies such as critical thinking and problem-solving (Hyland, 2003; Sun and Feng, 2009; Richards & Rodgers, 2014) In this approach, during the writing process, learners receive a large amount of drafting and feedback from teachers and peers which builds up their writing skills as well as their problem-solving and collaborative skills This approach is student-centered in that the teachers work as facilitators and guides while students are independent in their learning (Richards & Rodgers, 2014)

On the contrary, its drawbacks are as follows: the same process is applied to compose writing texts; students may not be provided with enough efficient input of linguistic knowledge to write, and it is time-consuming

In brief, PBL is focused on both the process and the product Furthermore, in both PBL and teaching writing, teachers serve as facilitators by combining process and product approaches Hence, PBL is an approach that can both improve students'

writing skills and align with the priorities of YU stakeholders and teachers in terms

of learning from doing

in which learners learn how to design their own learning process and decide what and where information can be gathered They analyze and synthesize the information and then use and deliver their new knowledge at the end Throughout the process of learning, teachers play the role of managers and advisors Bell (2010) states that this

is a learner-centered teaching and learning method in that students present their questions and solve the questions under the teacher’s guidance Therefore, in language teaching, teachers can use PBL to integrate multiple language skills and develop them all in one project

According to the definitions and explanations of PBL in language teaching and learning provided above, PBL is an excellent approach to helping students to improve their language, content, and communication skills This method focuses on real-world problems and challenges that engage students in meaningful teamwork activities to produce a final product They can use and incorporate language and factual knowledge in their real lives while performing and creating the project, which conventional classrooms cannot support them in doing Therefore, PBL is implemented with the hope of developing students' English proficiency, learning skills, and other soft skills through their learning procedures

2.3 Features of PBL

Because it is difficult to determine what is and what is not PBL and because there are similarities between PBL and other models, for example, problem-based learning (Gallagher, Stepien, & Rosenthal, 1992) and design experiments (Brown, 1992), it is critical to address the issue of "What must a project have in order to be considered an instance of PBL?" (Thomas, 2000)

To comprehend the uniqueness of PBL, Thomas (2000) suggests the 5 criteria of PBL: centrality, driving question, constructive investigations, autonomy, and realism, presented in detail as follows:

1 PBL projects are central, not peripheral to the curriculum It means that

projects are the curriculum, neither projects that provide illustrations, examples, additional practice, or practical applications for the material taught initially through other means nor projects in which students learn things that are not part of the curriculum

2 PBL projects are focused on questions or problems that "drive" students to

encounter (and struggle with) the central concepts and principles of a discipline This

demonstrates the importance of designing PBL projects to enhance intrinsic conceptual knowledge

3 Projects involve students in a constructive investigation Students'

transformation and construction of knowledge must be central to the project's activities

4 Projects are student-driven to some significant degree PBL projects are not

directed, scheduled, or packaged by the teacher but PBL projects give students a lot

of autonomy, choice, unsupervised work time, and responsibility

5 Projects are realistic, not school-like PBL encompasses real-life challenges

with an emphasis on authentic (rather than simulated) issues in which students have the potential to implement solutions

Simpson (2011) also lists the compatible characteristics of PBL among educators who studied and applied this teaching method: (a) complex explorations over a period of time; (b) a student-centered learning activity whereby students plan, complete and present the task; (c) challenging questions, problems or topics of student interest which become the center of the project and the learning process; (d) the de-emphasis

of teacher-directed activities; (e) frequent feedback from peers and facilitators, and

an opportunity to share resources, ideas and expertise through the whole process in the classroom; (f) hands-on activities and the use of authentic resources and technologies; (g) a collaborative learning environment rather than a competitive one; (h) the use of a variety of skills such as social skills and management skills; (i) the use of effort in connecting ideas and acquiring new skills during different stages of projects; (j) the production of meaningful artifacts that can be shared with peers, teachers, and experts in a public presentation; and (k) assessment in both the process

of working from the first stage to the last stage and the finished project

With the purpose of deepening content knowledge and adding more value to students, the 5 criteria of PBL proposed by Thomas (2000) are used as the foundation of this study To properly incorporate content learning, a project must have clearly defined goals and support and illustrate the content knowledge both in the process and final product For projects to meet the outcomes outlined in the curriculum, project activities should support the goals that students are working toward

Blumenfeld et al (1991) stated PBL increases motivation and facilitates cognitive engagement PBL, in particular, focuses on teaching by involving students in investigations During the investigation process, students seek solutions to major problems “by asking and refining questions, debating ideas, making predictions, designing plans and/or experiments, collecting and analyzing data, drawing conclusions, communicating their ideas and findings to others, asking new questions, and creating artifacts” This process assists students in developing their curricular content and has doing and learning strongly intertwined Moreover, projects have the potential to enhance deep understanding because students must develop plans, track progress, and evaluate solutions, which improves their understanding of key principles and concepts Students are involved in realistic, contextualized problem-solving environments through project-based learning, allowing the approach to bridge the gap between classroom concepts and real-life experiences Project-based learning also fosters connections between content knowledge and provides a broader perspective on the subject matter

Bell (2010) proposes several benefits PBL brings to the classroom First, because students have to go through some phases to have a project done, their learning is self-reliant through planning and organization Moreover, learning responsibility, independence, and discipline are outcomes of PBL under the supervision and guidance of the teacher accompanied by the accountability of the corporation with teammates Second, as students work on projects in teams, social learning is promoted with the 21st-century skills of communication, negotiation, and collaboration PBL also has good impact on students’ motivation Based on students’ differentiation, they use the appropriate resources for their levels, and their favorite tools for their research, and work on their individual ways to get the project done One more highlight is that PBL engages students in real-world tasks When participating in purposeful communication to complete the tasks, their language skills can be improved Real-world projects deepen learning for students as well as boost their motivation and interest Furthermore, the fact that students contribute their strengths

and talents to the project along with their group members is what they need when working in their jobs in the real world

According to Praba’, Artini, and Ramendra (2018), writing is a cognitive skill that involves learning, comprehension, application, and synthesis of new knowledge and can convey the thoughts and feelings of the learner Various researchers (Affandi & Sukyadi, 2016; Sadeghi, Biniaz & Soleimani, 2016; Bani-Hamad & Abdullah, 2019; Rangkuti, 2020) suggested project-based learning (PBL) as an effective method of teaching writing because PBL probably improves students’ communication skills, critical thinking, and creativity through collaborative work which foster writing skills

2.5 Stages for implementing a PBL project

When applying the PBL approach to the classroom setting, the stages from the three following researchers (Fried-Booth, 1986; Svobodová et al., 2010; Stoller, 1997) will

be referred to for the in-class and final projects

The first researcher, Fried-Booth (1986), suggested three stages of PBL:

- Classroom Planning: in collaboration with their teacher, learners discuss the content and the scope of the project

- Carrying out the project: learners move out of the classroom setting to complete the tasks they planned like conducting interviews and collecting data

- Reviewing and monitoring the work: it includes discussion and feedback sessions

to evaluate the project

Other researchers, Svobodová et al (2010), proposed four similar stages of PBL: preparation, realization, presentation, and evaluation It is the fact that teaching writing mainly consists of five stages: brainstorming, planning, researching, writing, and editing, so in order to apply PLB the most effectively in writing classes, the

- Preparation: brainstorming, planning, and researching

- Realization: writing and editing

- Presentation: presenting the process and the product

- Evaluation: evaluating the process and the product

Lastly, Stoller (1997) suggested the ten-step process in doing PBL to magnify the potential benefits of project works, as follows:

Step 1: Students and the instructor agree on a theme for the project

Coming to an agreement on a project theme will help students identify ways in which students can develop some sense of ownership toward the project

Step 2: Students and the instructor determine the outcome of the project

After clarifying the theme and the objectives of the project, the students and the instructor determine the outcome of the project (e.g., bulletin board display, written report, debate, brochure, letter, handbook, oral presentation, video, multimedia presentation, theatrical performance, report) At the same time, the students and the instructor settle on the most appropriate audience for their projects (e.g., classmates, other students, parents, program director, city mayor, and a local business)

Step 3: Students and the instructor structure the project

After the theme and outcome of the project are determined, the students and the instructor design the project plan that directs students from the start to the end of the project In this step, students consider their roles, responsibilities, and collaborative workgroups They also negotiate the deadlines for all the activities to complete the project

Step 4: The instructor prepares students for the demands of information gathering

At this stage, the instructor prepares students for the language, skills, and strategies

to support students to gather information For instance, if students are going to conduct interviews to gather information, the instructor may plan activities in which students have to form questions, ask follow-up questions, request clarification, practice them and take notes If students are expected to write essays, the instructor can introduce the format, transitions, and language of the kind of essay If they intend

to conduct an Internet search, the instructor may review search procedures and introduce useful note-taking strategies

Step 5: Students gather information

At this stage, students are ready to collect information after practicing the skills, strategies, and language needed for gathering information

Step 6: The instructor prepares students to compile and analyze data

From the information that they have collected, students need to master the language, skills, and strategies needed to compile, analyze, and synthesize the information The instructor needs to have tasks/activities to support and facilitate them

Step 7: Students compile and analyze information

After attending preparatory activities guided by the teacher, students start compiling and analyzing the gathered information Working in groups, students identify appropriate information for the completion of their projects

Step 8: The instructor prepares students for the language demands of the final activity

At this stage, the instructor designs language-improvement activities for students to

be ready for presenting the product of the project Those activities may focus on skills for successful oral presentations, effective written revisions and editing, persuasive debates, and so forth

Step 9: Students present the final product

Students present the final product of their projects, as planned in Step 2

Step 10: Students evaluate the project

In this last stage, often neglected stage of project work, the instructor should ask students to reflect on the amount of language they mastered and the content they acquired during the project Moreover, they should be asked to recommend whether similar projects should be conducted in the future or not These reflections will provide teachers and students how much the language and content they acquired and help teachers make changes for future projects

2.6 Comparison and Contrast Essay Writing

Texts contain the writer's goals or objectives, and each type of text has its own structure Meyer (1999) classified expository text structures into five types: description, sequence, causation, problem/solution, and comparison/contrast Each type poses unique writing challenges Among the five text structures, comparison /contrast may be the most difficult type of expository writing for students of various ages because of the intercommunication of content and organization (Englert & Hiebert, 1984) It requires students to categorize information and then make comparisons across those categories, dealing with two dimensions at the same time (Bereiter & Scardamalia, 1987)

Comparison and contrast is a very common pattern in most academic fields Oshima and Hogue (2006) state that a comparison and contrast essay explains the similarities and differences between two items, ideas, animals, or persons The key to writing successful comparison-contrast essays is to use comparison-contrast structures correctly The introduction of the essay starts with a thesis statement that clearly states the two topics being compared, contrasted, or both The body of the essay explains the similarities and differences between the two topics The body of the comparison-contrast essay may be organized in two different ways which are the point-by-point and block-by-block methods The point-by-point is the way of discussing the

similarities and differences between one point of a topic with a point of the other topic The block-by-block method is a way of discussing the similarities and differences of all facts and supporting details about one topic followed by the facts and supporting details about the second topic The conclusion paragraph is the paragraph that wraps up the main points of the whole essay This kind of essay has some language features which imply the characteristics of the essay such as sentence connectors, clause connectors, and some other transition words for comparison-contrast

The compare-and-contrast essay was chosen to collaborate with the PBL approach for some goals First, this kind of essay is easy and interesting to YU students of previous courses more than the others like opinion essays, cause-and-effect essays,

or argumentative essays Students often felt excited when they gathered data to compare and contrast Secondly, PBL introduces learners to some data collection methods required for writing (internet, texts, interviews, field trips, etc.) and they have the right to choose what they like, how to collect the data, etc Finally, PBL develops learners’ ability to compare and contrast the research or collected data

2.7 PBL at Yersin University of Da Lat (YU)

There are several reasons why PBL is preferred at YU First, traditional teaching methods, especially lectures, are prevailing at YU while all curricula of the university are designed to be application-oriented, which needs a lot of practice in connection with reality Therefore, PBL is used to foster students ‘learning from doing” and getting acquainted with real-life situations Secondly, YU has its mission and vision

of preparing students to be global citizens so that they can meet the demands of the changing workplace and society and improve the international integration process of the country Finally, the credit-hour system is being used in all training programs so

YU wants to give students more time to work on themselves during the learning process in order to achieve the desired outcomes

Hence, since the school year of 2019 – 2020, the university has encouraged its teachers of all faculties to apply PBL to teaching and learning because it believed that this approach was learner-centered and could improve students' content knowledge and practical skills to fulfill career demands immediately following graduation In this approach, students have been engaged in meaningful learning experiences with realistic tasks in real life At the same time, students can improve other skills for the future workplace when doing projects The university aims that there will be at least 25% of the subjects using PBL in teaching and learning in 2024 (Appendix 10) Therefore, the university board has held some training conferences about the PBL method for all lectures, and at the beginning of the school-year lecturers have to plan for a number of courses using the PBL teaching method

2.8 PBL previous research in teaching writing (both domestic and international)

Thitivesa (2014) used a semi-structured project to evaluate the academic achievement

of students in basic writing features such as mechanics, usage, and sentence formation

in a content-based class at Rajabhat University The project lasted two months and was carried out in eight steps to investigate students' article review writing The study sample included 38 fourth-year English major students and data was gathered through achievement tests and student writing assignments After analyzing the summative achievement test scores by mean score, standard deviation, and percentage, the results revealed that students performed better in mechanics and usage but less in sentence formation The students profited from their exposure to reading texts and from carrying out the project, but they could marginally increase their ability to combine clauses and phrases into simple or complex sentences According to the researcher, project work could be viewed as a natural language learning context in which language learning, particularly writing, is contextualized and presented in such a way that learning becomes integrated with the task of communicating about some themes With an emphasis on communication, students concentrate on conveying their message while also applying knowledge of conventions to their writing The

conventions are applied at various points throughout the project and practiced in an authentic setting

Sadeghi, Biniaz, and Soleimani (2016) investigated the possible impact of PBL on the comparison and contrast paragraph writing skills of 36 Iranian EFL learners selected from 60 students at language institutes The participants were at the intermediate level in compliance with Oxford Placement Test (OPT) and according

to a simple random sampling divided into two groups the Experimental group and the Comparison group with 18 students in each group A comparison and contrast paragraph writing pre-test was administered to measure their writing skills Then, after 10 weeks of PBL and instruction, a comparison and contrast paragraph writing post-test was administered The scores were then analyzed using a comparison scoring module and a contrast scoring module developed by Soleimani et al (2008) The t-test results revealed that students who were educated through PBL outperformed students who were educated through textbook-based instruction The findings support the positive effects of PBL on students' writing performance The authors recommend that teachers consider this learning approach as an alternative for teaching writing because they believe it can help EFL teachers who are involved in PBL practice or who want to implement PBL in their classrooms to maximize the benefits of PBL

Hasani, Hendrayana & Senjaya (2017) employed qualitative research to give inspiration for further research and to inspire readers to implement writing based-project in their instruction 32 students from the second academic year 2015–2016 in Mathematics participated in the study The researchers described a reflective study

on participants’ articles that were published in the local mass media The results show that the students’ interests were very varied, there are education and history education, education and values, contemporary problems of education and mathematics education As a result of project-based learning, 25% of the students' articles (8 out of 32) were published in the media; the remaining articles (75%) were

still being reviewed The researchers deduced from the findings that project-based learning could improve students' writing skills Additionally, this education can support student learning and include faculty members in their own professional growth

Syarifah & Emiliasari (2018) applied project-based learning to develop students’ abilities and creativity in writing narrative text and find out the students’ perceptions

of this implementation in writing This study was conducted under a qualitative approach using interviews with the participation of second-semester students who took a writing course at a private university in Majalengka, West Java The results of this study indicated some following benefits: (1) students’ ability and creativity in writing narrative text were contributed during the project-based learning implementation in several aspects including their understanding of the topic, their knowledge about the narrative genre, the structure of the text, and language features; (2) their creativity was reflected and enhanced through creating their storylines and designing the illustrations of the story; (3) the students gave positive responses toward the implementation of project-based learning They expressed that they learned networking, collaborative learning, and teamwork through PBL Most students seem to prefer the final test in the form of projects rather than written tests Besides, some students who were not good at writing said that they could share and discuss well during the project Thus, the authors consider that project-based learning

is very useful in teaching and learning writing, and can be an alternative method that fosters the process of teaching and learning writing

Praba̕ et al (2018) conducted a study to investigate the effect of PjBL on EFL learners’ writing skills of grade 9 at SMPN 3 Kuta Selatan The study employed an embedded mixed method design, in which the quantitative data were considered as the main data They used interviews, observation, and writing tests for data collection The findings showed that PjBL has a significant effect on EFL learners’ writing skills based on the promotion of students’ critical thinking, communication, and creativity

through collaborative work In addition, they came to the conclusion that PjBL significantly promoted writing skills in the EFL context

Aghayani & Hajmohammadi (2019) also sought to investigate the effect of based learning on EFL learners’ writing skills with the participation of 28 EFL learners taking EFL courses at a language institute in Iran While the control group with 14 learners was taught through the traditional method, the experimental group consisting of 14 learners received instruction using project-based learning After the treatment lasted for ten sessions and held during two months, the learners in both groups were required to write on the new topic as the writing posttest The results revealed that project-based learning had a significant effect on the learners’ writing ability Moreover, the project-based learning approach did aid learners to enhance and promote their writing ability in a collaborative environment

project-In Vietnam, PBL research has been conducted at various levels and settings, including universities, high schools, and foreign language centers (Tran, 2012;Nguyen, 2014; Pham, 2014; Pham, 2017; Le, 2017; Diem, 2018; Le & Nguyen, 2021) In these studies, the effects of PBL on students' life skills, academic accomplishment, and learning motivation were demonstrated along with the perceptions of both teachers and students on the approach In ‘A literature review of the project-based teaching method in the education of Vietnam’ by Nguyen et al (2022), there are 61 articles on PBL published from 2008 to 2022 However, there may not be much research on the use of PBL in writing teaching Therefore, two following related studies are mentioned to highlight the key features of PBL in the Vietnamese context

Le and Nguyen discussed the PBL program at the University of Foreign Language Studies in Danang (UFLS-UD) in an article that was published in 2021 The most significant contribution made by the paper is how it describes the positioning of PBL

in the local context of teaching English to Vietnamese students who major in English Many courses at UFLS-UD used PBL, including Translation Theory, Translation and Interpreting, English and American Literature, and Business Communication

Teachers who used PBL practices reported that their students evolved into active partners in their learning, sharing learning goals and intentions Students gain multiple benefits from PBL through the collection of PBL experiments conducted with students in the English language program at UFLS-UD in this action research: enriching student learning through retained information, building teamwork, sharpening success skills, encouraging reflection, and providing feedback

In the academic year of 2016-2017, Diem (2018) from the School of Foreign Languages – Thai Nguyen University (SFL-TNU), Vietnam, implemented the PBL

in teaching writing film reviews in the second semester 100 second-year English major students of SFL-TNU were taken randomly among 200 students to be the participants of the study Four steps including preparation, implementation, presentation and evaluation were conducted to examine the efficiency of using the PBL technique in the students’ writing performance The researchers thoroughly described the process of implementing these four stages Despite some drawbacks, such as time consumption and unreliable peer assessment, the PBL technique contributes significantly to motivating students’ self and active learning The researchers concluded that teaching through the project has a positive impact on teaching and learning activities, not only in some PBL subjects but also in others, especially writing

2.9 Implication of the present study

Hence, previous research indicates that PBL is an effective tool for improving not only writing performance but also other soft skills There have been few pieces of research studying the application of this approach in teaching skills, especially writing in the Vietnamese context Diem (2018) applied PBL to teaching writing film reviews with in-class projects using four phases by Svobodová (2010) in the limitation of time and classroom setting On the contrary, in the present study, PBL was conducted in teaching how to write comparison and contrast essays for English major students at YU both in in-class and real-life projects Moreover, Diem (2018)

conducted the research without the control group in order to compare the results before and after the treatment, and the results focused on motivating students’ self and active learning

The four steps including preparation, implementation, presentation and evaluation by Svobodová (2010) were applied to the two in-class projects in group work to enable students to become familiar with how to fulfill writing projects in classroom settings.Meanwhile, for the real-life final project, the benefits of PBL could be maximized when the teachers and students follow the ten-step process by Stoller (1997) of implementing project work

2.10 Chapter Summary

This chapter provided the theoretical background for the current study on using PBL

in the classroom to teach writing essays Following the theoretical background are the benefits and stages of the PBL method in teaching writing essays, as well as some previous studies into its effects The following chapter will describe the current study's research setting, participants, instruments, and procedures, as well as data collection and analysis

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

This chapter describes the current study's design To begin with, it provides all pertinent information about the research site and participants Second, it includes some basic components such as research design, materials, teaching procedures, measurement instruments, and data collection and analysis procedures

3.1 Research design

This is a mixed-method study to collect, analyze, and access both quantitative and qualitative data (Creswell, J W (2014) First, this research was conducted by using the quasi-experimental method with one control group and one experimental group

to find out the effects of applying the PBL approach on the essay writing performance

of Yersin University English-major students, with a specific focus on comparison and contrast essays The quasi-experimental method was used because the participants could not be randomized and the number of participants was small The quantitative data which were the scores from the pre-test and post-test were statistically analyzed

to answer the first research question This study also looked to understand students’ perspectives of the PBL approach through interviews Qualitative data from the words of students in the experimental group offered many different perspectives on the study approach and developed a more in-depth understanding of how the experimental intervention actually worked

Participants in an experimental design are divided into two groups: the control group and the experimental group The two groups shared the same environment and materials and were taught by the same lecturer Students in the control group studied with the conventional or lecture-based approach while students in the experimental group received PBL instruction If there was a significant difference between the Pre-test and post-test scores of the experimental group compared to the scores of the

control group, it could be concluded that it was a result of the intervention of the PBL approach

A pre-test and a post-test were administered to the two groups before and after the treatment A pre-test was given to both groups to identify their writing performance before the treatment During the treatment, the experimental group learned how to write essays using the PBL approach, while the control group learned using the conventional approach for 15 sessions, which lasted about two months Students in the experimental group spent the majority of their time working in groups, identifying their roles, responsibilities, and collaborative efforts to investigate the essay questions, present their findings to the entire class, and then help each other improve their writing Students in the control group, on the other hand, worked individually with the teacher-led method most of the time, so the teacher was the one who helped the students make progress in writing performance, though they were also encouraged

to use the Internet outside of the classroom to plan the content and form the compositions The difference in average scores between the two groups' pre-test and post-test was compared to see if the post-test produced better results than the pre-test Following treatment, nine (9) control-group students were interviewed individually

to investigate students' interest and motivation in the PBL approach, as well as the

approach's contribution to the students' writing achievement

3.2 Research site and participants

The study was conducted at Yersin University of Da Lat (YU) where I am working

as a lecturer As mentioned earlier, lecturers have been encouraged to adopt PBL at

YU to help students learning from practical experience and reduce lectures in class,

so the results of this study are expected to make a real contribution to the university’s efforts in improving student learning performance

Yersin University has had a program for the Bachelor of English since 2005 with the name Faculty of Foreign Languages In earlier years, 30 – 50 students enrolled in the

program a year In recent years, the number of students who have enrolled every year

is from 60 – 80 It means that there are about 200 students each year in the Faculty of Foreign Languages The English program lasts for 3 years with 9 semesters After graduation, most of the English-major students work in the tourism sector and other businesses while some of them work as teachers That is the reason why communication skills and other soft skills are essential for students in their future workplaces In accordance with the university’s aim of PBL in teaching and learning, the Faculty has applied the approach to some courses like English for Tourism and English for Business, Office Skills, English Speaking World, Event Management, and Writing 3 This implementation aims at building working skills and real-life working experiences for students by doing projects along with the subject knowledge English major students at YU study three courses of writing The students study how

to write sentences in Writing 1 and how to write paragraphs in Writing 2 In Writing

3, they study how to write essays, with a focus on comparison and contrast essays at the end of the course

The population of the study was all third-year English major students from K16 at

YU They were chosen because they were willing and available to be studied at the research time The instructor was a 40-year-old female with 15 years of teaching experience The researcher designed the teaching procedures for both groups and discussed them thoroughly with the teacher before, during, and after treatment The teacher instructed both groups and the researcher observed The two groups had three 50-minute periods for each session and two sessions per week However, the length

of time for each session of the experimental group was a little different from that of the control group The students were divided into two groups, with 20 assigned to the control group and the other 20 to the experimental group In the beginning, the researcher had no idea about each student's writing ability and the students did not

know much about the PBL approach

3.3 Materials and teaching procedures

3.3.1 Materials

The Writing 3 coursebook compiled by Faculty staff is based on the book ‘Writing Academic English” - fourth edition by Alice Oshima and Ann Hogue Both groups used the same coursebook during the experiment, which contains the content on how

to write essays (pattern and connectors) and practice exercises The scope and sequence of the coursebook are presented in Table 3.1 below:

Revision Paragraph writing

1 Writing the topic sentence

3 Academic Writing Structure

4 An introduction to Academic Essay

2 The introductory paragraph

and the concluding paragraph

1 The introductory paragraph and the thesis statement

2 The concluding paragraph

1 Writing the outline

2 Write the essay

Module Titles Content

4 Writing essays of contrast

5 Writing essays of comparison and contrast

6 Practice

Table 3.1 The scope and sequence of the Writing 3 coursebook

3.3.2 Teaching procedures

The control group

The students worked individually most of the time and the teacher was the center of the teaching and learning process The product-based approach was the focus, with students beginning with pre-writing and progressing to composing and correcting The approach focused on increasing students' awareness, particularly of grammatical structures The focus of this approach, according to Nunan (1999), is on the final product, which should be a coherent, error-free text, and students initiated, copied, and transformed model texts provided by textbooks or teachers

Daily instruction of the control group included (See Appendix 3 for the detailed teaching procedures):

- Teacher giving lectures on essay patterns and connectors

- Teacher discussing model texts with the whole class (reading the texts and analyzing them)

- Students starting to write (individually)

- Teacher giving collective feedback on students’ randomly selected compositions

- Teacher assigning homework

The experimental group

With the experimental group, the teacher reduced lectures on the theories (essay patterns and connectors) by using guiding questions and model texts to support the students’ understanding, and they worked most of the time in groups Besides, the teacher employed all the steps as proposed by Svobodová (2010), and Stoller (1997)

in the experiment group for the two in-class projects and the final project (See Appendix 3 for the detailed teaching procedures)

For the two in-class projects happening in the classroom, the procedure of teaching included brainstorming, planning, researching, writing, and editing in line with four stages: preparation, implementation, presentation, and evaluation The teacher applied the following phases for the two in-class projects (Project 1 - compare two people; Project 2 – contrast two things):

- Preparation phase: brainstorming, planning, researching

- Implementation phase: writing and editing

- Presentation phase: presentation process and product writing

- Evaluation phase: the implementation process, the presentation, and the written products

For the final project, the teacher followed the ten-step implementation of Stoller (1997) (compare and contrast two places)

The following contrasting table shows the differences in teaching procedures between the two groups:

• Students’ writing practice (individual)

• Teacher’s model texts and guiding questions

• Students’ writing practice (in groups)

• Teacher & students work together to analyze model texts

• Students’ writing practice (individual)

• Students work in groups

to analyze model texts then present the structure

of the essay

• Students’ writing practice (in groups) using 2 stages