the implementation of project based learning in efl classrooms a case study at hoa binh junior high school

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY - HA QUYEN QUYEN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF PROJECT-BASED LEARNING IN EFL CLASSROOMS: A CASE STUDY AT HOA BINH JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL MASTER OF ARTS IN TESOL Ho Chi Minh City, 2019 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY HA QUYEN QUYEN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF PROJECT-BASED LEARNING IN EFL CLASSROOMS: A CASE STUDY AT HOA BINH JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL Major: TEACHING ENGLISH TO SPEAKERS OF OTHER LANGUAGES Major code: 60140111 MASTER OF ARTS IN TESOL Supervisor: NGUYEN THI HONG THAM, Ph.D Ho Chi Minh City, 2019 i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I declare that this study is my own work and has not been submitted, in whole or in part, for another degree in any institution I declare that any information cited from the published or unpublished work written by others has been acknowledged in the text and a bibliography has been provided Date: September 18, 2019 Student’s signature: Ha Quyen Quyen ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Completing this dissertation is one of the greatest desires in my life It was made possible thanks to the encouragement, assistance, and support of many people and institutions Above all, I am very much grateful to my supervisor, Dr Nguyen Thi Hong Tham, who provided me with valuable advice from my first few days in the course and through the duration of my thesis to completion Her untiring supervision not only encouraged me to complete my thesis, but it also helped me effectively improve my research skills Also, my sincere gratitude sends to the participants at Hoa Binh Junior High School who supported me by all their hearts It was such a great honor to cooperate with you during my time of doing research Thank you for helping me making this thesis To all my great lecturers at Ho Chi Minh City Open University, thank you for taking your valuable time to instruct me during the course All experiences and knowledge sharing by all of you have encouraged me in widening my horizon Finally, my eternal love and thanks go to my friends and my family who always have faith in me and encourage me since I participated in the course Without all of you, I could not finish my course properly September 18, 2019 iii ABSTRACT This qualitative case study aimed to investigate the implementation of ProjectBased Learning (PBL) approach in EFL classrooms at Hoa Binh Junior High school This study explored the implementation of PBL in four aspects: (1) the teachers and students’ experience in implementing PBL which four EFL teachers had done in their classrooms; (2) the teachers’ and students’ perceptions towards PBL; (3) the challenges both teachers and students face when implementing PBL and (4) some suggestions to improve the implementation in the future In the study, the researcher used four instruments: eight classroom observations, four semistructured interviews to EFL teachers, four student focus groups and documents Notably, four teachers and 195 students from four classes were involved in the study The data collection was conducted within two phases In the first phase, the researcher did eight classroom observations, including two observations per class In the second phase, the researcher conducted semi-structured interviews for four lecturers, and four focus groups with six students per group All the data were analyzed and categorized in light of main themes and sub-themes The findings of this study indicated that the PBL approach was partly implemented in the context as a supplemental teaching and learning approach Also, from the teachers’ and students’ perceptions, the benefits of PBL in teaching and learning English like the improvement in integrated language skills, presentation skills, interdisciplinary knowledge were confirmed Then, some challenges the implementers face were pointed out such as limited time, teamwork challenge, parents’ support as well as assessment Finally, some suggestions were given to improve the situation, including preparing well for the projects, grouping, meeting parents face-to-face and assessing the process rather than the product Keywords: PBL, implementation, EFL, English speaking skills, generic skills, benefits, challenges iv TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii ABSTRACT iii LIST OF FIGURES vi LIST OF TABLES vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS viii CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the study 1.2 Statement of the problem 1.3 Aims of the study 1.4 Research questions 1.5 Significance of the study 1.6 Organization of the study CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Speaking skills 2.1.1 Speaking skills 2.1.2 Characteristics of speaking skills 2.1.3 Presentation skills 10 2.1.4 Teaching speaking skills 11 2.2 Generic skills 13 2.2.1 Definitions of generic skills 13 2.2.2 The nature of generic skills 14 2.3 Communicative Language Teaching Approach (CLT) 16 2.4 Project-Based Learning (PBL) 18 2.4.1 History of PBL 18 2.4.2 Definitions of Project-Based Learning 19 2.4.3 The characteristics of PBL 19 2.4.4 The teachers’ and students’ perceptions of PBL in education 22 2.5 The Implementation of PBL in the Vietnamese context 30 2.6 Conceptual framework 33 CHAPTER METHODOLOGY 35 3.1 Research Design 36 3.2 Setting of the study 37 3.3 Participants 37 v 3.3.1 The teachers 37 3.3.2 The students 39 3.4 Instruments 40 3.4.1 Classroom observations 40 3.4.2 Semi-structured interviews to EFL teachers 42 3.4.3 Student focus groups 43 3.4.4 Document analysis 45 3.5 Data collection procedures 45 3.6 Data analysis procedures 46 3.7 Validity and reliability 48 3.7.1 Validity 48 3.7.2 Reliability 49 CHAPTER FINDINGS 50 4.1 The implementation of PBL in EFL classrooms 51 4.2 Teachers’ and students’ perceptions towards PBL 66 4.2.1 The benefits of PBL in teaching and learning English 66 4.2.2 The challenges and solutions to overcome the challenges 97 4.3 Summary of the main findings 115 CHAPTER DISCUSSION 117 5.1 The implementation of PBL in EFL classrooms 117 5.2 Teachers’ and students’ perceptions towards the benefits of PBL 119 5.2.1 The improvement in students’ speaking and other language skills 119 5.2.2 The formation of students’ generic skills 120 5.2.3 The enhancement of students’ interdisciplinary knowledge and positive attitude 121 5.3 The challenges and solutions 123 5.4 Suggestions for PBL improvement 126 CHAPTER CONCLUSION 129 6.1 Summary of the study 129 6.2 Limitations 131 6.3 Pedagogical implications 132 6.4 Recommendations for further research 133 REFERENCES 135 APPENDICES 142 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1.3 Model of Presentation as an Interactive Process ……… …… Figure 2.6 The Conceptual Framework of the study …… ……………… 35 Figure Thematic Network of PBL approach ………………………… 53 Figure 4.2.2 Products of the project work ………….……………………… 61 Figure 4.1.4 (a) Self, Peer Evaluation Form ……… ………………………… 67 Figure 4.1.4 (b) Group Evaluation Form ……………………………………… 68 Figure 4.2.1 11 The Poster of Recycling ……………………………………… 89 vii LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1 Summary of the methodology chapter 37 Table 3.3.1 Summary of teachers’ characteristics 40 Table 3.4.1 The information of observations 44 Table 3.4.2 The information of the interviews 45 Table 3.4.3 The information of focus groups 47 Table 3.7 Codes of data from different instruments 50 Table 4.1 The Phases of a PBL lesson 55 Table 4.1.1 Activities in the starting the project phase 56 Table 4.1.3 The activities in the reporting periods 64 viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CLT : Communicative Language Teaching PBL : Project-Based Learning EFL : English as a Foreign Language MOET : Ministry of Education and Training PP : Power Point 145 Appendix Questions for Students’ Focus Group Interviews A Students’ PBL experience Which class are you in? How long have you been learning English? Have you ever done any projects in your English lessons? Do you like them? How you feel like them? B Students’ perspectives of PBL’s benefits Which language skills of English you think you and your friends can attain from your PBL classrooms? How are your speaking skills (pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar) after a project? Are they better or worse? How are your friendship, Teamwork, leadership, communication skills (self-confidence), problem-solving skills, creative and enterprise skills, planning and organizing skills, self-management skills, learning skill? How are your technological skills? C Students’ perspectives of the challenges in PBL What you think are the most difficulties in implementing PBL? Time, money, disagreement, etc.? What are the problems in each phase? (1) choosing a topic, (2) planning, (3) solving the topic, (4) presenting of results, (5) evaluating (inattentive enough…) 10 What you to overcome the difficulties? 11 Do you want to projects next time? Why/ why not? 12 If you have any suggestion to your teachers, what will your suggestions be to make your PBL classrooms more effective? 146 Appendix An observation at Hoa Binh junior high school 147 148 154 Appendix Students’ common PBL products Observation 2-class 81- the life in the countryside - 3D model – January 20, 2018 Observation - class 71 - Vietnamese traditional food – February 26, 2018 Observation 5-class 91- Old folktales – video – April 23, 2018 155 Observation 7- class 61- recycling – posters - April 23, 2018 Appendix A lesson plan of the topic RECYCLING I Objectives: 1.1 Knowledge: 156 - Topic: Recycling Vocabulary: Words and phrases related to 3Rs Grammar: imperatives and advice 1.2 Skills: - Problem-solving, critical thinking, creative, teamwork, etc - Listening: listen and make questions to the presenters - Speaking: present how to reuse or recycle used things 1.3 Attitudes: - Aware of how to protect our environment II Guiding questions: What are 3Rs? Why must people recycle? What should students to “go green”? III Teaching aids: Screen monitor, recycled objects, etc IV Procedures Teacher’s activities Students’ activities I/ Warm up (3’) chatting To motivate ss and get ss involved in the topic - Show some products from recycled materials and ask the question: - Look at the pictures and answer the question Q: What are the things made of? A: used paper, plastic bottles, etc 157 - Present the topic II/ Ss’ presentations (25’) To have ss improve their listening and speaking skills - Deliver the self, peer evaluations to the audience - Introduce group 1, and then group - Monitor the presentations Group 1: Make a PowerPoint presentation on how to reuse and recycle things, using computer, make questions to the audience They should follow the guiding questions Group 2: Make a poster of how to reuse and recycle things (use some reused products to make the presentation lively) III/ Defending the project (5’) They should follow the guiding questions To have ss improve their soft skills Group 3, 4: IV/ Assessing the project (5’) Listen to the presentations and take notes - Give feedback on the presentations, grade the products Make questions to the V/ Conclusions (3’) - Give feedback on the presentations, grade the products To consolidate what ss have learned - Ask ss what they can with used things Qs: Should we throw used things away? What should we with them? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edXimuzIVhk - Ask ss to watch a clip of littering in streets and ask them to solve the problem in the clip Q: What would you in this situation? - Watch the clip and solve the problem ... qualitative case study aimed to investigate the implementation of ProjectBased Learning (PBL) approach in EFL classrooms at Hoa Binh Junior High school This study explored the implementation of. ..MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY HA QUYEN QUYEN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF PROJECT- BASED LEARNING IN EFL CLASSROOMS: A CASE STUDY AT HOA BINH JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL. .. can answer the certain questions in qualitative research No more accurate indication is watching what they actually every day while the activities were taking place In order to gain insight into