VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HO CHI MINH CITY AN GIANG UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES UNDERGRADUATE THESIS TEACHERS’ AND STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF IMPLEMENTING PROJECT- BASED LEARNING IN TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH AT HIGH SCHOOL LE THI MY THUAN AN GIANG, 6-2022 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HO CHI MINH CITY AN GIANG UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES UNDERGRADUATE THESIS TEACHERS’ AND STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF IMPLEMENTING PROJECT- BASED LEARNING IN TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH AT HIGH SCHOOL LE THI MY THUAN ID No.: DAV187052 ADVISER: Dr. TRAN THI THANH HUE AN GIANG, 6-2022 The thesis entitled ‘TEACHERS’ AND STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF IMPLEMENTING PROJECT-BASED LEARNING IN TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH AT HIGH SCHOOL’ by Le Thi My Thuan has been approved by the adviser an examiners on 08 June 2022. Examiner 1 Examiner 2 Adviser Dr. TRAN THI THANH HUE TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE TABLE OF CONTENTS.
i LIST OF TABLE. Rationale of the study. Significance of the study. Structure of the thesis.
Definitions of Project-based learning (PBL). Advantages of applying PBL. Disadvantages of applying PBL. The perceptions of the teachers and students of PBL.
Student’s perceptions definition and its importance. Previous studies on using PBL in ELT. The teachers’ perspectives on PBL. The achievements of students learning.
Data Collection Procedures. Validity and reliability. 22 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION. Students’ and teachers’ perceptions of PBL.
Students’ perceptions of PBL. Teachers’ perceptions of PBL. Students’ and teachers’ perceptions of the advantages of learning through PBL. Questionnaire results about students’ perceptions of the advantages of PBL.
Interview results about students’ perceptions of the advantages of PBL. Interview results about teachers’ perceptions of the advantages of PBL. Students’ and teachers’ perceptions of the disadvantages of learning through PBL. Questionnaire results about students’ perceptions of the disadvantages of PBL.
Interview results about students’ perceptions of the disadvantages of PBL. Interview results about teachers’ perceptions of the disadvantages of PBL. Students’ and teachers’ perceptions of the solutions to address the challenges of PBL. Questionnaire results about students’ perceptions of the solutions to address the challenges of PBL.
Interview results about students’ perceptions of the solutions to address the challenges of PBL. Interview results about teachers’ perceptions of the solutions to address the challenges of PBL. The differences between students’ grades and their proficiency in term of applying PBL. Summary of the results.
Implications of the research. For high school teachers. For high school students. Limitations of the research.
Recommendations for further study. 66 iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AGU: An Giang University EFL: English as Foreign Language ELT: English Language Teaching CALL: Computer Assisted Language Learning PBL: Project based learning PPS: Pedagogical Practice School STEM: Science Technology Engineering Maths TOEFL: Test Of English as a Foreign Language iv LIST OF TABLE Table 1. Distribution of students by gender, grade, and their proficiency. Description of participants of focus group.
Cronbach’s Alpha for the questionnaire. Student’s perception of advantages of PBL. Result of One-sample Test of the advantages of PBL. Questionnaire results about students’ perceptions of the advantages of PBL.
Student’s perception of the disadvantages of PBL. Result of the questionnaire of the difficulties of PBL. Student’s perception of the solutions of PBL. Result of One-sample Test of the solutions of PBL.
Error! Bookmark not defined. Result of the questionnaire of the solutions of PBL. Independent Samples Test for grade difference in case of using PBL. ANOVA test one students’ proficiency of implementing PBL.
39 v ABSTRACT One of the innovative ways of foreign language teaching and learning is the use of PBL, which has become popular in foreign language teaching and learning in many countries in the world. PBL is an approach that is significantly different from the conventional English Language Teaching method. Therefore, the main areas of research related to teachers’ and students' perceptions involve in PBL’s definitions associated with the benefits resulting from student participation in project work as well as the challenges teachers perceiveed they faced when applying PBL. Then, the ways they countered to these challenges which has been implied in the new English textbooks.
With an aim to shed light on the perspectives those teachers and leaners perceive, this paper focused on providing an accurate description of how projects are being implemented in high schools. The research participants included four high school teachers and eighty high school students at high school in Long Xuyen city. A mixed-method approach was designed to make the authentic interpretation of gained results. Quantitative and qualitative instruments were utilized to probe the high school teachers’ and students’ definitions of PBL and the ways they implied project work on the new English textbooks in Pedagogical Practice School.
The findings from questionnaires and interviews showed that most high school teachers have general understanding of PBL and reveal a positive support to applying teaching project in language learning for students. From these results, some improvements were suggested to reinforce the advantages and the success of PBL in the language teaching and learning in general and in the new English textbooks in particular. Key words: project based learning, teachers’ and students’ perceptions, high school, the new English textbook. vi DECLARATION I hereby declare that the thesis entitled “teachers’ and students’ perceptions of implementing project-based learning in teaching and learning English at high school” represents my own work and that it has not been previously submitted to any other university or institute in application for admission to degrees or other qualifications.
An Giang, June 2022 Le Thi My Thuan vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Form my deep heart, I gratefully thank a number of people who gives me the support during the production to study my degree of English Language Teacher Education in Faculty of Foreign Languages. I acknowledgement that none of this thesis would be possible without the generous assistance and contributions from all of them. First, I am indebted to my beloved supervisor, Dr. Tran Thi Thanh Hue for her encouragement and enthusiastic guidance as well as her constructive comments she gave me through this long process.
I am so fortunate to have an opportunity to have her as my instructor who always inspires me and give me new cognitions along with valuable pieces of lessons and advice. Furthermore, my deepest thanks goes to An Giang University, the Faculty of Foreign Languages and the instructors for teaching and supporting me throughout my four years for creating a chance for me to conduct the study. Also, I would like to send my thankfulness to all the volunteer teachers and students in class 10, 11 at Pedagogical Practice School, who passionately joined in the online survey for helping me in collecting the data during the quarantine period against Covid-19 pandemic. Finally, special thanks are given to my family and my friends who are always by my side, continuously sharing and supporting my confidence whenever I need.
They are the biggest motivation that helps me thrive on all challenges to complete this thesis and try my best in life. viii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION The introduction of the thesis contains the rationale, the study aims, the research questions, the significance of the research and the thesis outline. The primary contents of all sections are demonstrated as follows. Rationale of the study Over the past few decades, life has been substantially changed especially in terms of communication.
This is because the world has been more globalized and digitized (Brown, Lauder & Ashton, 2008). It is obvious that English language is known to be the most widely spoken around the world. In many schools, English is the primary language. This international language makes it possible for people to connect easily.
In fact, knowledge of English is an important for enabling communications between different people around the globe and is seen as a vital key to success in a number of different fields. The relevance of English teaching and learning in schools has become more apparent in Vietnam due to the globalization tendency. Educators have emphasized the teaching of English as a foreign language by continuing to make it an obligatory subject at all levels of school, from elementary to secondary to university. It is essential for The Educational Department to reform textbooks as they provide the means for achieving educational aims.
Textbooks aid in the acquisition of various levels and types of information. Textbooks are the most important resources in achieving goals in English Language Teaching (ELT) programs (Litz, 2001).According to Riazi (2003), textbooks are the second most significant aspect in a foreign language classroom after the teacher, and they play a major role in language teaching and learning. As a result of the perceived importance of renovation of English textbooks, The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), has issued the legislation: Decision 5209/ QĐ - BGDT on November 23rd 2012 for “Approval of Pilot English Curriculum for Vietnamese high schools” - in which three new English texts English 10, English 11, and English 12 were designed for teaching in high schools by MOET. The aim of the improvement is enhancing language abilities and competence in communications in English through the four basic skills- reading, speaking, listening, and writing which should be learn if individuals desire to capable of activating the language (Mariani, 2020).
English language textbooks include significant changes regarding the materials, methods, and teaching principles, specially, they replaced by 1 focusing on task-based approaches. Project work and reflective learning were an imperative part of each learning unit - which was new to both teacher and student alike. PBL was an instructional method that allows students to actively participate in an authentic inquiry of real-world and open-ended problems (Barak & Yuan, 2021). In Project-based learning (PBL), a project is a collection of tasks that integrate linguistic skills in different activities (Fauziati, 2014).
Projects in PBL require students to engage in inquiry, solution building, and collaboration to help address real-world issues or challenges. In brief, the project-based learning is an approach based on students’ working alone or in small groups with the aim of producing concrete products (Gültekin, 2007). Once completed the project, students are required to present their results as reports or presentations, which could well involve the use of presentation software such as PowerPoint, Prezi, Canva, Google Slides,. To find out if the PBL is going to be effective in the classroom, it is essential to carry out a study into the perceptions of the teachers into this new PBL approach.
This is vital because these views may have a significant impact on how these classes are taught in the future. Therefore, to consider whether applying the project is effective in the classroom or not, it is essential to carry out a study into the perceptions of the teachers and students into this new PBL approach because these perceptions may have an effect on teaching and learning. In fact, many studies on PBL have been conducted; however, it is worth noting that most of the findings regarding the implementation of PBL focused on just one side, either teachers or learners. The research literature on the subject of PBL and its’ implementation and challenges is limited.
As a result, this study is an attempt to fill this gap by investigating both students’ and teachers’ perceptions toward the use of PBL in high school classes to better pinpoint and examine the obstacles, and find relevant solutions eventually. Research aims The research mainly aims (1) to investigate the high school teachers’ and student’s perception towards the effects of PBL, (2) to find out challenges facing the high school teachers and students when applying PBL, (3) to suggest solutions to improve the effectiveness of PBL in teaching and learning English at high school.