Project work

Project work offering the student an opportunity to put into practice what has been learnt through formal teaching. For a project to succeed, a good working relationship needs to be established. The students must be able to co-operate not only with each other but also with a teacher. Groups who are accustomed to student-centred activities will find project work an extension of a familiar approach, rather than an innovation.

Project work has been described by a number of language educators, including Carter and Thomas (1986), Ferragatti and Carminati (1984), Fried-Booth (1982, 1986), Haines (1989), Legutke (1984, 1985), Legutke and Theiel (1983), Papandreou (1994), Sheppard and Stoller (1995), and Ward (1988). Although each of these educators has approached project work from a different perspective, project work, in its various configurations, shares the following features:

1. Project work focuses on content learning rather than on specific language targets. Real world subject matter and topics of interest to students can become central to projects.

2. Project work is student centered, though the teacher plays a major role in offering support and guidance throughout the process.

3. Project work is cooperative rather than competitive. Students can work on their own, in small groups, or as class to complete a project, sharing resources, ideas, and expertise along the way.

4. Project work leads to the authentic integration of skills and processing of information from varied sources, mirroring real-life tasks.

5. Project work culminates in an end product (e.g., an oral presentation, a poster session, a bulletin-board display, a report, or a stage performance) that can be shared with others giving the project a real purpose. The value of the project, however, lies not just in the final product but in the process of working toward the end point. Thus, project work has both a process and product orientation, and provides students with opportunities to focus on fluency and accuracy at different project-work stages.

6. Project work is potentially motivating, stimulating, empowering, and challenging. It usually results in building student confidence, self-esteem, and autonomy as well as improving students’ language skills, content learning, and cognitive abilities.

The length of time spent on a project work will, clearly, depend on the amount of time available and on the nature of the project work. But, however, long or short the project may be, it will pass through certain stages of development these are:

1. Stimulus. Initial discussion of the idea – comment and suggestion. The main language skills involved: speaking and listening, with possible reference to prior reading.
2. Definition of the project objective. Discussion, negotiation, suggestion, and argument. The longer the total time available for the project, the more detailed this phase will be. Main language skills: speaking and listening, probably with some more note-taking.
3. Practice of language skills. This includes the language the students fell is needed for the initial of the project, e. g. for a data collection. It is also introduces a variety of language functions, e. g. introductions, suggestions asking for information, etc., and may involve many or all of the four skills (particularly writing, in the form of note-taking).
4. Design of the written materials. Questionnaires, maps, grids, etc., required for data collection. Reading and writing skills will be prominent here.
5. Croup activities. Designed to gather information. Students may work individually, in pairs or in small groups, inside or outside the classroom. Their tasks will include conducting interviewers or surveys, and gathering facts. All four skills are likely to be needed.
6. Collecting information. Probably in groups, in the classroom. Reading of notes, explanation of visual material, e. g. graphs. Emphasis on discussion.
7. Organization of materials. Developing the end-product pf the project. Discussion, negotiation, reading for cross-reference and verification. The main skill practiced, however, will be writing.
8. Final presentation. The manner of presentation will depend largely on the form of the end product – chart, booklet, video display or oral presentation and on the manner of demonstration. The main skill required is likely to be speaking, but could be backed up by other skills.

Projects can also differ in data collection techniques and sources of information as demonstrated by these project types: Research projects necessitate the gathering of information through library research. Similarly, text projects involve encounters with ‘texts’ (e.g., literature, reports, news media, video and audio material, or computer-based information) rather than people. Correspondence projects require communication with individuals (or, business, governmental agencies, schools, or chambers of commerce) to solicit information by means of letters, faxes, phone calls, or electronic mail. Survey projects entail creating a survey instrument and then collecting and analyzing data from ‘informants’. Encounter projects result in face-to-face contact with guest speakers or individuals outside the classroom. Projects may also differ in the ways that information is ‘reported’ as part of a culminating activity. Production products involve the creation of bulletin-board displays, videos, radio programs, poster sessions, written reports, photo essays, letters, handbooks, brochures and so forth.

Performance projects can take shape as staged debates, oral presentations, theatrical performances, food fairs or fashion shows. Organizational projects entail the planning and formation of a club, conversation table, or conversation-partner program.

Whatever the configuration, Projects can be carried out intensively over a short period of time or extended over a few weeks, or a full semester; they can be completed by students individually, in small groups, or as a class; and they can take place entirely within the confines of the classroom or can extend beyond the walls of the classroom into the community or with other via different forms of correspondence.