Making full use of the application of PBL in teaching speaking skill in english textbooks, education publishing house

THANH HOA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HOANG HOA 4 HIGH SCHOOL

EXPERIENTAL INITIATIVE

MAKING FULL USE OF THE APPLICATION OF PROJECT
BASED LEARNING IN TEACHING SPEAKING SKILL,
ENGLISH TEXT BOOKS, EDUCATION PUBLISHING
HOUSE

Author: Dang Thi Hoai Thu
Position: Teacher
Subject: English

THANH HOA, 2019


TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
Page
I- INTRODUCTION……………………………………………
1
1. Rationale……………………………………………………...
1
2. Aims of the study…………………………………………….
1
3. Objects of the study…………………………………………..
2
4. Methods of the study…………………………………………
2

II- CONTENTS OF THE STUDY……………………………...
3
1. Theoretical background………………………………….
3
2. Practical background…………………………………….
4
3. Applying PBL in teaching English …………………….
7
4. Results of applying method……………………………..
15
III- CONCLUSION……………………………………………
18
Reference books
Appendix 1: PROJECT TEAM WORK PLAN
Appendix 2: GUIDELINES FOR POSTER LAYOUT
Appendix 3: GUIDELINES FOR ORAL PRESENTATION
Appendix 4: CHECK LISTS FOR POSTER
Appendix 5: ASSESSMENT FOR GROUPWORK SKILL
Appendix 6: TEACHER AND PEER’S ASSESSMENT
Appendix 7: VIDEOS OF GROUPWORK
LIST OF RECOGNIZED EXPERENTIAL INITIATIVES


I- INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
Today the demand for English to study, research, work and live in the
domestic and international conditions is increasing in both quantity and quality.
Especially, in the context of rapid and deep integration as today, the need
becomes even more urgent for not only individuals but also the whole nation.
The needs of teaching and learning foreign languages require a

comprehensive change in all levels of education, disciplines, materials,
facilities, methods and motivational attitudes of all participants in the process of
teaching and learning foreign languages, in English. Facing such demands, the
Ministry of Education and Training has implemented the project of foreign
language 2020 according to Decision No. 1400 / QĐTTg (Decision of Prime
Minister) dated 30 September 2008. The project has set the overall goal of
"comprehensive reform of teaching and learning foreign languages in the
national education system". By 2020 most Vietnamese young people will be
able to use their competence of foreign language confidently in communication,
learning to work in an environment of integration, multi-lingual, multicultural;
Foreign languages become the strength of Vietnamese people, serving the
industrialization and modernization of the country."
To achieve that goal, the Ministry of Education has implemented a number
of specific measures, including changing textbooks as one of the solutions to
help teaching and learning foreign languages have many positive changes.
The new English book 11 is one of the pilot materials in some high schools
nationwide. In the book, the difference from the old one is the Project section at
the end of each unit.
To better understand the methodology of project-based teaching, as well as
to maximize the effects it brings, I forcefully chose and applied Project based
learning (PBL) in teaching many units in English textbook, Education
Publishing House, with the aim of enabling my students to “experience what

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they are learning about and the opportunity to relect on those activities”
(Silberman, 2007:8), since “learning is the process whereby knowledge is
created through transformation of experience” (Kolb, 1984).
In what follows I shall concentrate on “Making full use of the application

of PBL in teaching speaking skill in English textbooks, Education
Publishing House”, but many of the points apply to other languages, too.
2. Aims of the study
This paper endeavors to demonstrate the value of PBL in ELT in general
and English teaching in particular. Therefore, my theme focuses on making
clear about some issues below:
- What is PBL?
- Why is PBL?
- How is PBL applied?
3. Objects of the study
This study was conducted in Thanh Hoa province, Vietnam. It has
3,496,000 inhabitants (GSOV, 2014). In this province, the predominant native
language is Vietnamese. However, English is currently the most used language
in the world (Michel, 2014) in different fields such as science, technology and
education. This is the reason why there are many bilingual schools and schools
that teach ESL in Thanh Hoa province. Here, there are a total of 798 high
schools: 89.6 % public schools and 10.4 % private schools (GSOV, 2012). This
study was carried out at a public high school that teaches ESL: Hoang Hoa 4
high school, Thanh Hoa province. The participants were 11 th grade students. In
total, 100 students took part in this study, all of them have fulfilled English text
book 10 in the previous school year.
4. Methods of the study
My study is conducted by qualitative methods in order to collect a
number of information, compare, and then, analyse data. By using the

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combination of these methods, my theme will make clear the questions in this
topic, and reach effectively the targets of the essay.

II- CONTENTS OF THE STUDY
1. Theoretical background
According to Wikipedia, Project-based learning (PBL) is a studentcentered pedagogy that involves a dynamic classroom approach in which
students acquire a deeper knowledge through active exploration of real-world
challenges and problems.[1] Students learn about a subject by working for an
extended period of time to investigate and respond to a complex question,
challenge, or problem.[2] It is a style of active learning and inquiry-based
learning.
The experience of thousands of teachers across all grade levels and subject
areas, backed by research, confirms that PBL is an effective and enjoyable way
to learn - and develop deeper learning competencies required for success in
college, career, and civic life. Why are so many educators around the
world interested in this teaching method? The answer is a combination of
timeless reasons and recent developments.
•

PBL makes school more engaging for students. Today’s students, more
than ever, often find school to be boring and meaningless. In PBL, students
are active, not passive; a project engages their hearts and minds, and
provides real-world relevance for learning.

•

PBL improves learning. After completing a project, students understand
content more deeply, remember what they learn and retain it longer than is
often the case with traditional instruction. Because of this, students who gain
content knowledge with PBL are better able to apply what they know and
can do to new situations.

•

PBL builds success skills for college, career, and life. In the 21st century
workplace and in college, success requires more than basic knowledge and

3


skills. In a project, students learn how to take initiative and responsibility,
build their confidence, solve problems, work in teams, communicate ideas,
and manage themselves more effectively.
•

PBL helps address standards. The Common Core and other present-day
standards emphasize real-world application of knowledge and skills, and the
development of success skills such as critical thinking/problem solving,
collaboration, communication in a variety of media, and speaking and
presentation skills. PBL is an effective way to meet these goals.

•

PBL provides opportunities for students to use technology. Students are
familiar with and enjoy using a variety of tech tools that are a perfect fit with
PBL. With technology, teachers and students can not only find resources and
information and create products, but also collaborate more effectively, and
connect with experts, partners, and audiences around the world.

•

PBL makes teaching more enjoyable and rewarding. Projects allow
teachers to work more closely with active, engaged students doing highquality, meaningful work, and in many cases to rediscover the joy of

learning alongside their students.

•

PBL connects students and schools with communities and the real
world. Projects provide students with empowering opportunities to make a
difference, by solving real problems and addressing real issues. Students
learn how to interact with adults and organizations, are exposed to
workplaces and adult jobs, and can develop career interests. Parents and
community members can be involved in projects

2. Practical background
It is a matter of fact that TIENG ANH 11 is the second of a three-level
English language set of textbooks for the Vietnamese upper secondary school. It
follows the systematic, cyclinical and the theme-based curriculum approved by
the Ministry of Education and Training on the 23 rd November 2012. The aim of
this set of textbooks is to develop students’listening, speaking, reading and
4


writing skill with a focus on communicative competence so that when finishing
upper secondary school, they will have achieved level three of the Foregn
Language Proficiency Framework for Viet Nam (Equivalent to B1 in the
Common European Framework of Reference for Languages).
GETTING STARTED contains a menu listing and the skills taught in the
unit, a conversation introducing the overall topic of the unit, some topic-related
vocabulary and the main grammar points, a number of activities to check’s
students’ comprehension and provide practice of the teaching points in this
section.
LANGUAGE includes Vocabulary, Pronunciation as well as Grammar.

Vocabulary give in- depth practice of the words and phrases presented in
GETTING STARTED and additional vocabulary for use later in the unit.
Pronunciation include aspects of pronunciation that can be problematic to
Vietnamese students such as sound clusters, weak form, stress patterns and
intonation. Grammar introduce and practice the main grammar points in focus.
They are presented in meaningful contexts and follow the thre- stage approach
to language teaching.
SKILLS includes Reading, Speaking, Listening and Writing. Reading
contain a topic- related reading text developed to suit students’ interest and age.
The vocabulary and grammar points learnt in the previous sections are recycled
in the reading text. The text also provide an imput of language and ideas for
students to use in the Speaking, Listening and Writing sub- sections that follow.
Speaking includes three or four activities which are designed and sequenced in
a way that ensures an uninterrupt link between them. Listening consists of four
or five activities which aim to develop listening skills such as listening for
general ideas and/ or litening for specific tinformation. Writing guide students
through the writing process and focus on the specific text types rewuired by the
syllabus.

5


COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE includes 2 sub - sections.
Communication provide language consolidation and free practice of intergrated
skills. This section recycles what students have learnt in the previous sections
and introduces extra vocabulary for extension. The activities are less controlled.
Students are encouraged to express their ideas and opinions freely. Culture
providing information about the ASEAN countries and English speaking
countries around the world connected to the cultural aspects of the unit topic. It
helps students to broaden their knowledge of the world cultures as well as

deepen that of their own Vietnamese culture.
LOOKING BACK offers revision and consolidation of the language learnt
in the unit.
PROJECT is aimed at providing students with an opportunity to apply the
language and skills they have learnt throughout the unit to perform a task in real
– life situation. Students are aked to do survey or carry our research to get
information about their friends, their neighbourhood or to broaden their
knowledge about the real world. The project activities often involve teamwork
which develops team spirit. Much of the work for the Project can be done
outside of class, at home or during break time.
It goes without saying that many teachers have been trying hard to find
suitable teaching methods and, to a certain extent, these methods can fulfil the
aim of helping students understand and know thoroughly the contents of the
lessons. Nonetheless, how will the class be if these methods are applied in all
the lessons? Will the students find it interesting to learn whereas they can find
the exact answers for the tasks in many reference books? Will the completing
tasks in the text book help students learn how to take initiative and
responsibility, build their confidence, solve problems, work in teams,
communicate ideas, and manage themselves more effectively? Will the students
have chance to build important skills such as critical thinking, problem solving,
collaboration, communication in a variety of media, and speaking as well as

6


presentation skill? More important, will the students be connected with
comunities and the real world while studying in textbook only?
PBL bearing many good points as mentioned above can bring to a new
change in teaching process. I therefore forcedly implemented PBL in teaching
many units, of which Unit 9, English text book 11, Education Publishing House

brought my students as well as my teaching much joyful experience and core
value.
3. Applying PBL in teaching Speaking skill in English text books,
Education Publishing House.
The process of PBL can be varied, depending on the real situation in
terms of students’ ability and the content of each unit. By my experience in
learning and teaching English, instead of teaching lessons in each units; that
means teaching Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing skills and language focus
in turns traditionally,

I have forcefully and successfully applied PBL in

teaching speaking skill, English text books, Education Publishing House in the
following stages.
Sample
English 11, Unit 9: CITIES OF THE FUTURE, P. 57 (Volume 2)
Project: CITIES OF THE FUTURE
1. Work in groups of four to six. Discuss and decide on your own ideal
city of the future. You can expand the ideas you braned stormed in the
COMMUNICATION section. Include the following points:
- The city’s name
- Geographical features: location, area, population, weather conditions
- Infrastructure: means of transport, environmental conditions, energy
souces, treatment of waster
- People’s life and work: education, health care, working hours
Take notes of your group’s ideas and think about how to organize them.
Then design a poster to promote your ideal city. Add some pictures to
illustrate it.
2. Introduce your poster to the class. Present the features of your city
and explain what makes it the most liveable city in the world.

3. Time: 7 days

7


3.1. Stage 1: Discovering real situation related to the content of the lesson.
Many students find schoolwork meaningless because they do not
perceive “a need to know” what they are being taught. They are unmotivated
when told they will need it later in life or simply because “it’s going to be on the
test”. With a compelling student project, the reason for learning relevant
material becomes clear: I need to know this to meet the challenge I have
accepted.
In this stage, as a classroom teacher, I could powerfully activate my
students’ need to know content by launching a unit in a way that engages
interest and inititates questioning. This could take the form of a lively
discussion.
Also, in this stage, I gave out many driving questions to my students.
Good driving questions capture the heart of the project in clear, compelling
language, giving students a sense of purpose and challenge. The question should
be provocative, open-ended, complex, and linked to the core value of what you
want students to learn. It could be abstract (What are features of a liveable city?/
to what extent do you think a liveable city should be?); concrete (Is the city you
are living in a liveable one?); or focused on solving a problem (How can we
change the attitude of the people to make a liveable city?)
3.2. Stage 2: Negotiating the Criteria for Evaluation
I and my students decided that the projects should be assessed by
fullfiling the questions in rubrics including self assessment rubric, peer
assessment rubric and teacher assessment rubric (See Appendix 6) and
checklist. (See Appendix 4)
Once the criteria were clearly defined, the students realized that they

might have to be modified in the future.
3.3. Stage 3: Deploying projects
- Dividing groups

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In the first place, I divided my class in to groups of six, and appointed the
leader of each group.

(Students worked in groups of 6)
- Assigning tasks
The group’s leaders assigned the task for each members. In terms of
making a project feel more meaningful to students, the more voice and choice,
the better. The leaders should assign the tasks depending on each member’s
ability. On one end of the scale, groups’ members should also discuss on how to
design, create, and present products. In the middle, I might provide a limited
menu of options for creative products to prevent students from becoming
overwhemed by choices. On the other end of the scale, students could decide
what products they will creat, what resources they will use, and how they will
structure their time. Students could even choose a project’s topic and driving
questions. Basing on the topic in units 9, Cities of the future, my students chose
posters to be their final products. During this stage, students in each group use
the check list (See Appendix 4) and Project team work plan (See Appendix 1)
and Assessment for group work skill (See Appendix 5) to check the work and
the duty of each member.

9

(Groups’ leader distributed work to members)
3.4. Stage 4: Conducting the project.
A project should give students opportunities to build such 21st century
skills as collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and the use of
technology, which will serve them well in the workplace and life. This exposure
to authentic skills meets the second criterion for meaningful work—an
important purpose. A teacher in a project-based learning environment explicitly
teaches and assesses these skills and provides frequent opportunities for
students to assess themselves.
Being given the Guidelines for poster layout (See Appendix 3), the
students in each group worked on preliminary sketches until they decided on a
final design. Besides, students gathered information from many resourses such
as websites, newspapers and their real lives. They then compiled imformation,
deciding on what pictures and information to paste on the posters. Finally, they
decided on how and where to put information and pictures on the posters.
During this stage, Check list for poster (See Appendix 4) was also used to check
the tasks of all the members.

10


(Students gathered and compiled information and pictures)

(Students drew their poster)
During this stage, I served as coach, moving from group to group to
guide the students' work. As I did so, I asked myself the following coaching
questions:

11

•

Do the students have a clear understanding of the task?

•

Does each student have ownership of her role within the group?

•

Are the students attentive and working together cooperatively?

•

Are the resources that students use geared to their comprehensive level of
understanding?

•

Are any groups stumbling in a way that is blocking their work due
to heightened emotions?
My role as coach obtained a clarity of purpose throughout this process.
Prompted by the coaching questions and the checklist, the students used their
own intellects to solve problems while attaining a higher level of learning.
3.5. Stage 5: Presenting the project
In this stage, students became aware of the ways their presentations meet
the criteria of assessment. The teacher-coach using Teacher’s assessment (See
Appendix 6), observed how engaged they were in presenting their projects.
Each group in my class showcased its poster to the class, explaining how the

product was achieved as well as presenting the content, the core value of the
project. Not one student was absent on the day of the competition.

“HAPPY CITY” (Group 1‘s presentation)

12


“SFELCITY”(Group 2‘s poster and presentation)

“SINGAPORE CITY” (Group 3‘s poster)

13


“PARADISE CITY” (Group 4‘s poster)

“DREAM CITY” (Group 5’s poster)

14


“SMART CITY” (Group 6’s poster)

“NATURE CITY” (Group 7’s poster)
3.6. Stage 6: Reflecting on the Process and Evaluating the Process
In this simulation, the students discussed what they enjoyed about
working in their groups, and how one student's idea would spawn another
student's idea. They discussed what they liked about the materials and what they
found to be frustrating. Students shared their reflections to note what they had

in common and what was special to each group or to each individual personally.
They reviewed the criteria of assessment and discussed how well they met
them.
The teacher assessed students’ posters basing on the criteria discussed
before. I used my assessment rubric (see Appendix 6), combining with students’
self assessment rubric and peer assessment rubric (see Appendix 4 ans 6), to
evaluate student’s work, gave them comments as well as compliments.

15


(Students assessed peer’s work)

(Teacher evaluated, commented, and gave marks)

4. Results of applying PBL in teaching speaking skill, English text book 11,
Education publishing house.
In order to assess the effectiveness of applying this method to teaching
unit 9, I have compared my work within many classes (11 A1, 11A7, 11 A3,
11A10 school year 2017-2018).

16


At the beginning of the school- year, before I apply PBL approachin
teaching, I tested attitude of 100 students from 5 classes: 11 A1, 11A7, 11 A3,
11A10 (in which there were many good students in 11A1 and 11A10). The
statistics was shown as follows:
Before the application of PBL

Number of

Percentage

students
makes school more engaging for
students
improves learning
provides opportunities for students to
use technology
connects students and schools with
communities and the real world

40

40 %

11

11 %

20

20 %

5

5%

10

10 %

helps address standards (skills such as
critical thinking/problem solving,
collaboration, communication in a
variety of media, and speaking and
presentation skills.
After a year of applying PBL, the result is better:
After the application of PBL

Number

Percentage

of

Compared with
a year ago

students
makes school more engaging for
students
improves learning
provides opportunities for students
to use technology
connects students and schools with

95

95 %

increase 55 %

83

83 %

increase 72 %

65

65 %

increase 45 %

90

90 %

increase 85 %

17


communities and the real world
helps address standards (skills
such as critical thinking/problem
solving, collaboration,
communication in a variety of

95

95 %

increase 85 %

media, and speaking and
presentation skills.
The result means that the implementation and solutions used in the school year
2017-2018 have brought good effect on students’ learning attitude. Before
using this method, most of my students could traditionally complete all the tasks
in the text book, with the help of their teacher. However, they easily forgot the
vocabularies, the topic as well as the contents of the unit. To a certain extent,
after each lesson, students seemed to know the floating part in an “ice berg”, not
really understand the deeply sinked part in the unit, in other words, it is the core
value of the lesson.

(class without appying PBL )

18


It is a matter of fact that when applying applying PBL in teaching in
general and teaching speaking skill in particular, my students enjoyed working
together to creat their groups’ outcomes, they seemed to be very eager for each
unit because they like dealing new challenges. Here, I enclosed video clips
recording my students’ presentation. ( Please, watch video source in the CD
enclosed)

(Class with PBL application)
Here, I felt the sense that schoolwork is more meaningful when it is not
done only for the teacher or the test. When students presented their work to real
audience, they cared more about its quality. Once again, it is the more, the better
when it comes to authenticity and even more important than any other things,
all the students could find out the core value of their projects; that is: “To make
a city liveable and sustainable, it is our responsibility”. Additionally, all the
students in my class also had the chance to express their wish in the name of the
cities such as: “SPEL CITY” (Group 2); “SINGAPORE CITY” (Group 3);
“HAPPY CITY” (Group 4); “PARADISE CITY” (Group 1); “DREAM CITY’
(Group 5); “SMART CITY” (Group 6); “NATURE CITY” (Group 7).
III- CONCLUSION
1. Conclusion

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Teaching method is a product connecting theory and practice in order to
help students acquire knowledge, practice their skills and solve the problems.
Changing teaching method, according to me, firstly is changing the phylosophy
of teaching. By the end of the lesson, students can find out the core value of the
problem and apply them in to their real life. Besides, changes is also shown as
the role of the teacher from the provider into a consultant; students will fulfil
the demand of knowledge themselves. It is clearly that in my class, with PBL,
each unit indeed is appealling to students because they are solving their realproblem in their life. When students practice decision making and deductive
reasoning and are exposed to examples from real life, they are able to expand
their skills, evaluate their options, and think critically. The activities in this
section help students visualize how events actually unfold by having students
conduct research, discuss and write about the material, collect or draw
illustrations, and reflect on their work. Students learn from each other by

analyzing and synthesizing material, reinforcing main points, and moving
information from short- to long-term memory. Most importantly, students
content- basedly talk and write for a purpose, because their work is often
presented in front of their peers.
I myself find it is relaxing to be a facilitator, an adviser, a coach, a co-learner
instead of being a translator and a leader, for all the activities in the classroom.
PBL is a dynamic approach to teaching in which students explore realworld problems and challenges. With this type of active and engaged learning,
students are insprired to obtain a deeper knowledge of the subjects they’re
studying. When designing or planning projects the work or task is meaningful if
it fulfills two criteria. First, students must perceive the work as personally
meaningful, as a task that they want to do well. Second, a meaningful project
fulfills an educational purpose.
2. Suggestion

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Basing on practical teaching English text book 10, 11, 12 Education
Publishing House, I suggest that there should be no multiple choice questions
in examinations in order to assess the real ability of students and to avoid
students’ laziness.
This is my little experience in finding methods to help students find
learning is acquiring actively by themselves. I hope that you will use these
hands-on, interactive strategies to motivate and engage your students, and to
foster an environment that makes learning fun. I hope to receive your reading
and comments as well as contribution to make this theme more perfect so that it
can be applied widely.
Thanks for your reading!
THE CONFIRMATION OF

Thanh Hoa, May 26 th 2019.

THE HEAD MASTER

I hearby assure this is my experience
initiative, without copying the contents of
other people.

Author

Đặng Thị Hoài Thu

21


REFERENCES
Bibliography:
1. Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of
Learning and Development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
2. Silberman, M. (2007). The Handbook of Experiental Learning. San
Fransisco: Pfeiffer.
Webliography:
1. Project-Based Learning, Edutopia, March 14, 2016. Retrieved 2016-0315
2. What is PBL? Buck Institute for Education. Retrieved 2016-03-15
3. />fintea/pdf/press/confinteavi_statement_delors_en.pdf
4. />

APPENDIX 1: PROJECT TEAM WORK PLAN
Project name
Team members

Product:
What need to be

Who will do this

done?

part?

Due:
By when?

Where?

APPENDIX 2: GUIDELINES FOR POSTER LAYOUT
Your PROJECT POSTER may follow the layout below (or may creat your own
layout)

Location
(pictures)

Waste
processing
centres
(pictures)
NAME OF PROJECT:…………

Weather
condition
(pictures)

CITY
(symbol/
name)

Environmental
conditions
(pictures)

Education &
Healthcare
(pictures)

Means of
transport
(pictures)

SLOGAN:…………………………
APPENDIX 3: GUIDELINES
ORAL PRESENTATION
GROUPFOR
MEMBERS:
1………………………………….
Name of the project:……………………………..
2……………………………….....
3………………………………….