VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES LÊ THỊ CẨM VÂN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF PROJECT-BASED LEARNING IN THE NEW ENGLISH TEXTBOOK TO DEVELOP HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILL (Sử dụng phương pháp học dự án trong sách giáo khoa tiếng Anh thí điểm để phát triển kĩ năng nói của học sinh trung học phổ thông) MA. MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01 Hanoi – 2020 [ LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES LÊ THỊ CẨM VÂN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF PROJECT-BASED LEARNING IN THE NEW ENGLISH TEXTBOOK TO DEVELOP HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILL (Sử dụng phương pháp học dự án trong sách giáo khoa tiếng Anh thí điểm để phát triển kĩ năng nói của học sinh trung học phổ thông) MA. MINOR THESIS Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 8140231. Vũ Thị Thanh Nhã Hanoi – 2020 [ LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby certify that the minor thesis entitled “The implementation of project-based learning in the new English textbook to improve high school students‟ speaking” is the result of my own work in fulfillment of the requirement for the Degree of Master of Arts at Faculty at Post-graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University of Hanoi.
I confirm that I cited all references in the study. This research has not been submitted partially or wholly for a degree or any other qualifications at other universities. I am fully aware that should this declaration be found to be dishonest, disciplinary action and penalties in accordance with University policies and rules can be imposed. i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The completion of my MA thesis is an arduous but rewarding process in which I am fortunate to receive invaluable supports and encouragements from the family, supervisor, lecturers, friends, colleagues, students.
I would like to take this opportunity to express my immense gratitude to their time and assistance. In particular, I am profoundly indebted to my thesis advisor, Dr. Vu Thi Thanh Nha, who offered me the right orientation, constant advice to develop the thesis, the elaborate edition of my thesis, and ultimately a good role model of an effective instructor. Her wit, confidence, knowledge, professional working style enable me to be mindful of priceless lessons which I can apply to my prospective teaching career.
Secondly, I am grateful to all lecturers in my postgraduate course who equipped me with the necessary research background knowledge as well as inspirations to complete this research. Thanks to the learning opportunity in Vietnamese National University, I can approach many conferences and teaching forums to refresh myself, in one of which I had the chance to meet an expert in project-based learning, professor Fredricka Louise Stoller. I am grateful to her timely assistance, constant responses to my inquiries coupled with precious reading materials and references. Her act of kindness to an acquaintance like me makes the research road less challenging and more meaningful.
Besides, I want to express gratefulness to the colleagues and students in my school for their cooperation and their enthusiasm towards project-based activities. Finally, but not least, immense gratitude goes to my whole family for their care, understanding and spiritual encouragement. ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT In an effort to involve teachers in high school in applying project-based teaching and improve students‟ learning speaking through the project-based learning, this study aims at evaluating the impacts of the approach on high school students‟ speaking performance, their attitudes towards the approach. An action research was conducted in a high school in a mountainous area in a semester.
Participants were 36 students from a non- English majored class. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected through observations, questionnaires before the intervention, open-ended questionnaires, observations during the intervention, the close-ended questionnaire after the intervention. The results of the data analysis indicated that students‟ speaking skills especially students‟ organization of ideas, delivery of information and fluency made significant improvement. Over 60% of students had positive attitudes towards project-based learning.
Project-based learning was beneficial to students‟ accumulation of soft skills, content and character development. Besides, there was a strong correlation between students‟ attitudes and students‟ performance. For an effective implementation of project- learning in the textbook, teachers can apply Stoller‟s five-stage project framework, set clear project requirements as well as cooperate with other English teachers or teachers of other subjects to optimize projects‟ effectiveness. iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP.
iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .Rationale for the research .Aims and research questions .Scope of the research .Methods of the research. Significance of the research………………………….Organisation of the thesis. 3 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .Project-Based Learning .Definition of PBL.Stages of PBL .Core principles of PBL .Features of high-quality project-based learning .Benefits of PBL .Challenges of PBL .Definition of speaking .Approaches to teaching speaking .Classroom-speaking assessment .Context of the study .Report of Cycle 1.
35 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.Report of cycle 2 and 3 .Data collection instruments. 43 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION .Summary of three cycles .Students‟ speaking performance .The teacher‟s evaluation of students‟ speaking performance .Students‟ self-evaluation of their speaking performance.Comparison of teacher‟s evaluation and students‟ self-evaluation of speaking performance .Students‟ attitudes towards PBL .Students‟ attitudes drawn from the teacher‟s reflection .Students‟ attitudes drawn from questionnaires .Comparison of students‟ attitudes drawn from teacher‟s reflections and from students‟ responses in questionnaires .Limitations of the study .Suggestions for further study. I v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Figure 1: Stoller‟s five stage PBL framework (Stoller, 2020, p. 9 Figure 2: Gold Standard PBL (Larmer, Mergendollar, and Boss, 2015).
13 Figure 3: A methodological framework for a holistic approach to teaching speaking (Goh & Burns, 2012, p. 25 Table 1: The research procedure for the implementation of PBL .1: Group statistics of project 1 and 3 .2: Independent samples test of project 1 and 3 .1: The number of students in delivery, content, fluency in three projects .2: The number of students in vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation in three projects .1: Students‟ self-evaluation of speaking performance after three cycles …51 Table 4.2: Students‟ speaking involvement and affective factors .1: Students‟ opinions on PBL‟s benefits .2: Students‟ favorite activities in three projects .3: Students‟ dislikes in three projects .4: Students‟ difficulties in three projects .5: Students‟ expectations of the teacher‟s help in three projects. 63 vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AR Action research EFL English as a foreign language PBL Project-based learning P1 Project 1 P2 Project 2 P3 Project 3 SA Strongly agree SD Strongly disagree vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.Rationale for the research In Vietnamese high school context, a vast amount of in-class speaking time is generally consumed by lecturing vocabulary, grammar rules, focusing on the accuracy of forms to prepare students for the exams rather than providing them meaningful tasks to stimulate their creation of meaning. Moreover, the stress on forms breeds students‟ unwanted psychological impacts including the fear of mistake, the lack of confidence and demotivation.
Whenever uttering a word, students are worried about being subject to peers‟ humiliation. Students, especially the one of low ability are even not confident to express themselves for fear of failing to make themselves understood, so they resort to silence in speaking period. For those of higher ability, the repetition of form drills over years of learning English demotivates them, gives them no practical purpose of learning English. However long and grueling their English learning process is, students‟ inability to use the language freely in the real life is a common sight.
Evidently, speaking incompetence is a disadvantage which hinders learners from expressing themselves, partaking in communication, widening the social networks, becoming global citizens, pursuing success. In quest of an effective formula for teaching speaking, the emergence of the project period in the New English textbook as a different component compared to the old English textbook offers teachers a guiding tool to change that vexed issue. However, few teachers in the author‟s school take time and efforts to facilitate PBL. Project lessons are even eliminated from the curriculum unofficially due to the inadequate understanding of project-based learning, the lack of feasible lesson plans with specific solutions to lessons in the textbook.
As a result, the topic of the implementation of PBL in teaching speaking was chosen with the aim of persuading the teachers like colleagues in the author‟s school to use PBL in their lessons by showing them the impact of this approach on specific aspects of speaking, students‟ attitudes towards project activities as well as providing the 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com specific activities, implementation stages that may work to students. In terms of the theory, various studies of PBL such as Blumenfeld, P. (2019), Stoller (2006, 2012, 2020) offer definitions, frameworks, key features, benefits of this teaching instruction. However, little research focuses on describing the implementation of such model in real teaching context.
What students do in specific stages and how teachers offer scaffolding are not explained thoroughly, so teachers lack practical support to realise PBL. As a result, despite achieving popular acclaim, PBL is not treated as an alternative but a complementary instruction to conventional teaching methods. Owing to insufficient guidances for the practical implementation of PBL together with inadequate evidence to support the positive effect of PBL in the field of English language teaching, especially speaking ability as well as a large proportion of teachers‟ indifference to PBL, the study was done in the hope of tackling those issues.Aims and research questions The study aims at improving high school students‟ speaking skill through the implementation of project-based activities in the new textbook by answering two research questions. To what extent does the use of project-based learning in the new textbook influence high school students‟ speaking skill? 2.
What are high school students‟ attitudes towards project-based learning? 1.Scope of the research This study was carried out in a non-English majored class 10 at a high school in Yen Bai province in eleven weeks. The participants of the study included 36 students in that class. Project-based learning covers many aspects of research. However, this minor thesis only focuses on measuring students‟ speaking performance during the implementation of the project-based learning and their attitudes towards PBL.
2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.Methods of the research The study was conducted in the form of an action research as the author wanted to answer the question of students‟ failure to speak English by implementing different project-based activities herself to measure their effects on students‟ speaking skill. The features of action research allow the author to plan, act, observe, reflect, then draw practical conclusions to her own questions, lesson plans, which promotes her professional growth in the upcoming years.Significance of the research In terms of theory, the review of project-based learning research indicates that previous studies focus on investigating students and teachers‟ attitudes towards project-based learning, the roles of teachers and students and their difficulties in this approach. Few studies offer specific evidence on PBL‟s impacts. Therefore, this study covers both evaluative and intervention research which focus on measuring the specific impacts of project-based learning on speaking skill, learners‟ attitudes towards PBL.
The findings of the study are expected to provide high school teachers and students with specific, not general solutions to improve their learning and teaching quality.Organisation of the thesis The study is divided into five chapters. Chapter 1: Introduction covers the rationale, the significance, the aims, the research questions, the scope, method of the study.