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1.3 Organizing Project Work
Although recommendations as to the best way to develop projects in the classroom vary, most are consistent with the eight fundamental steps. Though the focus is upon the collaborative task, the various steps offer opportunities to build on the students’ heightened awareness of the utility of the language by working directly on language in class. In short, language work arises naturally from the project itself, ‘developing cumulatively in response to a basic objective, namely, the project’ [2,57]. Strategically orchestrated lessons devoted to relevant elements of language capture students’ attention because they have immediate applicability to their project work.
Step I: Defining a theme.
In collaboration with students, we identify a theme that will amplify the students’ understanding of an aspect of their future work and provide relevant language practice. In the process, teachers will also build interest and commitment. By pooling information, ideas, and experiences through discussion, questioning, and negotiation, the students will achieve consensus on the task ahead.
Step II: Determining the final outcome.
We define the final outcome of the project (e.g., written report, brochure, debate, video) and its presentation (e.g., collective or individual). We agree on objectives for both content and language.
Step III: Structuring the project.
Collectively we determine the steps that the students must take to reach the final outcome and agree upon a time frame. Specifically, we identify the information that they will need and the steps they must take to obtain it (e.g., library research, letters, interviews, faxes). We consider the authentic materials that the students can consult to enhance the project (e.g., advertisements from English magazines, travel brochures, menus in English, videos, etc.). Decide on each student’s role and put the students into working groups. If they are not used to working together, they may need help in adapting to unsupervised collaboration. They may also be a little reluctant to speak English outside the classroom with strangers.
Step IV: Identifying language skills and strategies.
There are times, during project work, when students are especially receptive to language skills and strategy practice. We consider students’ skills and strategy needs and integrate lessons into the curriculum that best prepare students for the language demands associated with Steps V, VI, and VII.
1. We identify the language skills which students will need to gather information for their project (Step V) and strategies for gathering information. If students will secure information from aural input, we show them how to create a grid for systematic data collection to facilitate retrieval for comparison and analysis.
2. We determine the skills and strategies that students will need to compile information that may have been gathered from several sources and/or by several student groups (Step VI).
3. We identify the skills and strategies that students will need to present the final project to their peers, other classes, or the headmaster (Step VII). As they prepare their presentations, they may need to work on the language (written or spoken) of formal reporting.
Step V: Gathering information.
After students design instruments for data collection, we have them gather information inside and outside the classroom, individually, in pairs, or in groups. It is important that students ‘regard the tracking down and collecting of resources as an integral part of their involvement’ in the project.
Step VI: Compiling and analysing information.
Working in groups or as a whole class, students should compile information they have gathered, compare their findings, and decide how to organize them for efficient presentation. During this step, students may proofread each other’s work, cross-reference or verify it, and negotiate with each other for meaning.
Step VII: Presenting final product.
Students will present the outcome of their project work as a culminating activity. The manner of presentation will largely depend on the final form of the product. It may involve the screening of a video; the staging of a debate; the submission of an article to the school newspaper or a written report to the headmaster; or the presentation of a brochure to a local tourist agency or hotel.
Step VIII: Evaluating the project.
In this final phase of project work, students and the teacher reflect on the steps taken to accomplish their objectives and the language, communicative skills, and information they have acquired in the process. They can discuss the value of their experience and its relationship to future vocational needs. They can also identify aspects of the project which could be improved and/or enhanced in future attempts at project work.[2,105]
First of all, we should always consider the students’ long-term language needs. Though it may be difficult, we should try to identify the social and professional contexts that they will have to function in and to think of projects students can undertake that require them to use the language in a way that resembles their ultimate use.
Secondly, we should consider the linguistic skills that students will have to employ in these contexts. Projects that require practice in those skills would be most useful. If students have to manage a lot of fax traffic, the project’s subsidiary tasks should involve those types of activity.
Thirdly, consider what is feasible. One popular project involves querying travelers as they pass through an airport terminal or major train station.
Although an airport/train station is the ideal place to ask questions and to find English speakers to answer them, there may be no international airport or major train station at hand to use for this purpose. If this is the case, there is no point in insisting that students interview native speakers of English. At the same time, teachers should not abandon the idea of a project altogether if ideal circumstances are not available. Since most professional conversation in English is probably carried on among non-native speakers, students will benefit equally from projects that put them in touch with speakers of varieties of world English. In addition, there are numerous sources of material in English that can be obtained at no cost with a formal letter of request and then sifted, compared, and summarized. In other words, we should not give up simply because a pool of native speakers or authentic printed material is unavailable close to home.
Finally, we should do a lot of planning. Although the project approach requires student input and decision-making in the initial phase of project definition, the teacher’s understanding of the outcome and the steps needed to achieve project objectives is crucial. Therefore, before introducing the project, the teacher should identify topics of possible interest, the educational value of the outcome, corresponding activities, and the students’ material or cognitive needs in conducting the project. There are many schools where curricula demands, the lack of equipment, scheduling problems, issues of insurance, administrative rigidity, and the like preclude instructional innovations like project work.[6,240]
Incorporating project work into more traditional classrooms requires careful orchestration and planning. Students who are not used to functioning autonomously, who may even be accustomed to close control and monitoring, may find it hard to take control of their own activity. Therefore, we should ease them into it by planning cooperative, small group work beforehand.
Similarly, many teachers encounter resistance from school administrators when they challenge the status quo with the project approach. Traditional schools that are governed by strict curricula guidelines and systematic testing are frequently not the most receptive environments for project work. Some administrators, for example, may complain that the elaborate activities associated with project work do not prepare students for required exams. Yet, if the underlying objective of the educational process is to build the students’ ability to use the language fluently in novel situations, project work will carry them a lot closer to meeting that objective than more conventional work on grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation.
Project work can only be effective when teachers relax control of their students temporarily and assume the role of guide or facilitator. The teacher can play an important role by diligently overseeing the multiple steps of project work, establishing guidelines, helping students make decisions, and providing instruction in the language when it is needed. Giving students freedom to immerse themselves in the project can lead to motivated and independent learners, but it requires a certain flexibility on the part of the instructor if students are to benefit maximally.
Chapter II. Examples of Project Work Activities
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