Lecture 1: General problems of Foreign Language teaching

LECTURE 20: Project-based learning language teaching
Plan:
1. Project-based learning
2. Benefits of project works in teaching process
3. A sample of project work of students

Successful language learning can be achieved when students have the opportunity to receive instruction, and at the same time experience real-life situations in which they can acquire the language. Expressing yourself in a language other than the mother tongue is a path towards intercultural development. In schools CLIL approach is quite a new idea, but it is very motivating for both teachers and students.

Project work is not a new methodology. Its benefits have been widely recognized for many years in the teaching of subjects like science, geography, and history. So some teachers have been doing project work in their language lessons for a long time.
A project is an extended task which usually integrates language skills work through a number of activities. These activities involve working towards an agreed goal and may include planning, the gathering of information through reading, listening, interviewing, etc., discussion and processing of the information, problem solving, and oral or written reporting, and display. Project-based learning has been promoted within ELT for a number of reasons. Learners' use of language as they negotiate plans, analyze, and discuss information and ideas is determined by genuine communicative needs. At the school level, project work encourages imagination and creativity, self-discipline and responsibility, collaboration, research and study skills, and cross-curricular work through exploitation of knowledge gained in other subjects.
Pupils do not feel that English is a chore, but it is a means of communication and enjoyment. They can experiment with the language as something real, not as something that only appears in books. Project work captures better than any other activity the three principal elements of the communicative approach. These are:

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  concern for motivation, that is, how the learners relate to the task;
  

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  concern for relevance, that is, how the learners relate to the language.
  
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  concern for educational values, that is, how the language curriculum relates to the general educational development of the learner.
  

Firstly, project work is very personal. Secondly, project work is a very active medium. It is a kind of structured playing. Students do not just receive and produce words, but they also learn through doing.
Project work creates connections between the foreign language and the learner’s own world. It encourages the use of a wide range of communicative skills, enables learners to exploit other fields of knowledge, and provides opportunities for them to write about the things that are important in their own lives. It is widely recognized that one of the most important benefits of learning a foreign language is the opportunity to learn about other cultures. However, it is important, particularly with an international language like English, that this is not a one-way flow.
The purpose of learning a foreign language is to make communication between two cultures possible. English, as an international language, should not be just for talking about the ways of the English speaking world. It should also be a means of telling the world about your own culture. Project work helps to create this approach.
Cross-curricular approaches to learning languages are encouraged. For language teaching this means that students should have the opportunity to use the knowledge they gain in other subjects in the English class. Project work clearly encourages this and promotes a sense of achievement. Finally, project work gives a clear sense of achievement in different fields of studying. It enables all students to produce a worthwhile product.
In a classroom of one of group students have done a great deal of projects from mini-project to big projects which were presented at English Week 2012. As cross cultural mini-projects, group projects called “Images of the UK and Uzbekistan”, “London Sightseeing Tour”, “A successful person“ were carried out. These projects involved:

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  collecting information,
  
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  drawing pictures, maps, diagrams, and charts,
  
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  cutting out pictures,
  
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  arranging texts and visuals,
  
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  coloring,
  
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  presenting information in poster format,
  
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  preparing Power Point presentations,
  
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  giving presentations.
  

In these projects students had the opportunity to use the knowledge they had gained about other subjects in the English class. Project work clearly encourages this. So, the cross-curricular approach was used as CLIL with a dual focus: content (on another subject) and the language, which is relevant to that content. The projects required the knowledge of the history and traditions, culture and politics of Russia and others countries. Projects called “Educational Systems at the Crossroads: UK and Uzbekistan in the 21^st century” and “British and Uzbek / Karakalpak Values the Crossroads were carried out by students.
The main aim of the projects was to study and understand how the traditional values of the UK and Uzbekistan have developed and affect various aspects of life in these countries. The other subject of the project research is the need of new national values for both countries in the 21^st century. As the 21^st century begins, the nations of the world are caught up in a whirlwind of change. Should the UK and Uzbekistan adopt new values in the new world?
They chose these subjects because people are naturally curious about each other, about life and lifestyle in different countries. The most interesting and hard to answer questions are:

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  What do the people believe in?
  
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  What do they value most in life?
  
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  What motivates them?
  
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  Why do they behave the way they do?
  

In the project they tried to find answers to the questions. In the project students studied and found significant factors influencing Uzbek and British history, life and tradition values and beliefs in both countries; the contrast of values developed in completely different cultures has been shown.
The main aim of the research was to show the people’s point of view on the subject of Uzbek and British values, the need for the emergence and adoption of new ones. The project covered such issues as:

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  Traditional values.
  
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  Government and politics in these countries.
  
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  Education in these countries.
  
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  Leisure time: organized sport and television.
  
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  Family and the role of the family in society.
  
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  The need for new values in the new 21^st century world.
  

The method of the research was a sociological poll among different groups of people in Uzbekistan. Several questionnaires for different issues to be studied were prepared and asked. Then the results of the poll were analyzed. The outcome was presented in the form of tables and diagrams as part of the project.
In the final part of the project the students arrived at the conclusion that as world moves into the 21^st century the British and Uzbek people and their values have reached another historic crossroads. We can be certain of only one thing, namely that the rapid pace of change will continue. The demands of the 21^st century may compel us to create and adopt new great values to respond to these changes as the events of the 21^st century unfold.
This work included some translation work. A lot of the source material for projects (magazine articles, interviews, texts from reference books, etc.) was in Karakalpak, Uzbek and Russian. The material in the project provided useful translation activities. In the project the students had to interview people in their native language but report their findings in English. Then writing followed, finally there were plenty of opportunities in different stages of work on the projects for learners to practice oral skills. Project work should be seen as a chance to practice the most difficult of all skills – writing, collecting information, analyzing and systematizing the findings.
Using the results of the projects, Power Point presentations on the projects were prepared and the projects were presented at closing ceremony of English Week – 2012. The sub skill which was acquired by the students during the projects work was development of presentation skills.
Projects based learning has a lot of advantages. Working on projects, mentioned above, students had an opportunity to practice and learn English language and at the same time they gained a lot of new information and developed various important skills. For example, while preparing group projects called “Images of our Motherland”, students develop such sub skills as creating posters, presenting information in different visual forms and self assessing. Also students learn how to present Uzbekistan and its culture and traditions to people from different countries and in addition they gained such important skills as being cross-cultural mediators and tour guides for foreign tourists. Project works will be based on integration of studying different subjects: history, literature, social studies, and languages. Students clearly understood their relation and interdependence. During creative work on projects students earn valuable sub skills in collecting information from various sources, analyzing and systematizing their findings. As well students learn how to present the results of their research effectively in the form of tables and diagrams.