Promoting efl learner autonomy through project based learning a case study at a state high school in long an provice ma

1 | P a g eFACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE PROMOTING EFL LEARNER AUTONOMY THROUGH PROJECT-BASED LEARNING - A CASE STUDY AT A STATE HIGH SCHOOL IN LONG AN PROVINCE A thesis

1 | P a g e

FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE

PROMOTING EFL LEARNER AUTONOMY THROUGH PROJECT-BASED LEARNING - A CASE STUDY

AT A STATE HIGH SCHOOL IN LONG AN PROVINCE

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of English Linguistics & Literature

in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in TESOL

By

LE THI HONG THUY

Supervised by

DANG TAN TIN, Ph.D

HO CHI MINH CITY, April 2022

based learning, a case study at a state high school in Long An province” is my work

Except where reference is made in the text of this thesis, this paper does not contain any materials published elsewhere or extracted on whole or in part from a thesis by which

I have qualified for or been awarded another degree or diploma

No other author’s work has been used without acknowledgement in the main text of this thesis The thesis has not been submitted for any degree in any other tertiary institution

Ho Chi Minh, April 2022

LE THI HONG THUY

3 | P a g e

supported, motivated and stood by me during the long time I conducted this thesis

Firstly, I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Mr Dang Tan Tin, Ph.D., who are always kind and devoted to me He gave me great encouragement and inspiration when I had many troubles in my life, as well as when I got stuck in finding solutions for my thesis Undoubtedly, without his valuable supports, this thesis is far from being successfully completed Words are not enough to express my gratitude towards his kindness, encouragement and support to me

Next, I would like to send my deepest thanks to all the lectures at the Faculty of English Linguistics and Literature, who are always devoted and enthusiastic in transmitting knowledge to students This knowledge equips me with intensive knowledge in scientific area and necessary skills to carry out this thesis

Then, my particular gratitude is sent to the school board, the students and the colleague teachers at Rach Kien high school, who always create the most favorable conditions for me to complete this thesis successfully, and always eager to participate in the implementation of PBL

Last but not least, my words of appreciation are sent to my family for their endless love, care, and support so that I could get my thesis done

have great influence on students’ skill integration development, awareness towards this approach is still limited Therefore, this case study was conducted on an intact class of 40 grade 11th students at Rach Kien high school It aimed at exploring the procedure of employing PBL in a high school classroom, and how this student-centered approach has impacts on three universal principles of promoting learner autonomy, namely learner involvement, appropriate use of target language, and learner reflection The study employed semi-structured interviews with the teacher and ten students, eight classroom observations, document analysis basing on students’ end-products, such as posters, presentations, both the instructor’s and students’ peer evaluation forms to collect data The findings of the study showed that the implementation of PBL into the curriculum was conducted successfully following 10-step procedure and main features of PBL With the success of PBL application into the curriculum, three universal learner autonomy promoting principles are enhanced significantly In comparison with teacher-centered approach which students are passive receivers of knowledge, PBL lets students free to express their true selves by making them join all the activities relating to learning

By making rooms for working in groups, time for using target language is maximized In addition, completing all steps in the procedure requires the integration of skills Undoubtedly, students’ use of target language is boosted greatly Moreover, in PBL, building students’ awareness of reflection is on the top priority as the fact that learning will not be meaningful enough if students are not be able to transform the experience they went through into real practice for better learning Therefore, the practice of reflecting happens not only at the end but also during the conduction of the projects to foster deeper understanding Then, students are asked to join in evaluating other classmates’ products for more experience This approach is then concluded to be a fruitful method that provides students with benefits to improve their autonomy Therefore, it is suggested that projects should be widely corporated in curriculum

5 | P a g e

ABSTRACT

LIST OF FIGURES

LIST OF TABLES

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 9

1.1 Background to the study 9

1.2 Context of the study 10

1.2.1 The general context of the study 10

1.2.2 The specific context of the study 13

1.3 Aims of the study 15

1.4 Research Questions 15

1.5 Scope of the study 16

1.6 Significance of the study 16

1.7 Organization of the study 18

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 19

2.1 Project-based learning in language education 19

2.1.1 Definitions of project-based learning 19

2.1.2 Key features of project-based learning 21

2.1.3 The benefits of PBL in teaching English as a foreign language 25

2.1.4 Challenges in implementing PBL 26

2.2.2 Versions of learner autonomy 29

2.2.3 Learner autonomy promoting principles in the current study 31

2.3 Review of previous studies 32

2.4 Conceptual framework of the study 35

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 40

Research methodology 41

Research settings and participants 42

3.1 Methods of data collection 47

3.1.1 Observations 47

3.1.2 Document Analysis 49

3.1.3 Semi-structured interviews 49

3.2 Data collection procedure 50

3.3 Data analysis procedure 55

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 59

4.1 The implementation of PBL in an EFL high school class 59

4.2 How PBL promoted three conceptualized principles of LA in an EFL class 75

4.2.1 PBL and Learner Involvement 75

4.2.2 PBL and Learners’ Target Language Use 81

4.2.3 PBL and Learner Reflection 86

4.3 Summary of the main findings 92

4.4 Discussions of the findings 93

Figure 2.1: Key features of PBL ……… 25

Figure 2.2: Three pedagogical principles to promote learner autonomy ……… 33

Figure 2.3: Conceptual framework of the study ……… 38

Figure 3.1: 10 steps to implement a project, advocated by Stoller (1997) ……… 45

Figure 3.2: Thematic network for data analysis ……… ……58

LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1: Summary of the research methodology ……… ……… 41

Table 3.2: The procedure of data collection of the study ……… ……… 52

Table 3.3: Data coding ……….……… 56

LIST OF ABBREVIATION

PBL: Project-based learning

LA: Learner autonomy

MOET: Ministry of Education and Training

CEFR: The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages

DOET: Department of Education and Training

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

CHC: Confucian Heritage Culture

9 | P a g e

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

This chapter introduces the background to the study, its general and specific contexts which lead to the research gaps, and the need to conduct this study It is also concerned with the research aims, the research questions, the significance of the study on how the study will contribute, the scope of the study, and the organization of this thesis

1.1 Background to the study

The role of English is becoming more and more important As claimed by Kirkpatrick (2012, p.131), English is accepted as the official working language of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) It is also a “visa” for Vietnamese people

to integrate into the world (H D Le, 2015) Thus, mastering the English language is unquestionably a must for Vietnamese students

Many efforts have been made to improve Vietnamese students’ English language proficiency Typically, in 2008, The Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam (MOET) launched the project, so-called “the National Foreign Languages Project 2020” with the aims of enhancing foreign language proficiency of Vietnamese human resources and making graduates of intermediate schools, colleges, and universities more independent, autonomous and confident in communication Being one of the most prominent parts of the project, a lot of training sessions and courses have been provided to heighten the quality of teachers throughout the country This project is a great encouragement for educators to renovate curriculum and teaching approaches (T Nguyen, 2017) By the same token, many Vietnamese researchers have agreed that it is required to shift from the traditional teacher-centered to student-centered teaching approach By doing

so, Vietnamese learners’ English language competence as well as their autonomy, a lifelong learning goal in education by MOET, can be developed properly and effectively (T N A Le, 2018)

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in project-based learning (PBL), a student-centered approach, claimed to focus on students while teachers act mainly as facilitators and motivators (Gubacs, 2004; Dale, 2019) Regarding its learning activities,

they are student-centered and real-life, which makes learning experiences more interesting and meaningful to students (T V L Nguyen, 2011) This approach with its benefits has enormous potential to boost students’ Critical thinking, Creativity, Collaboration, and Communication skills (Beckett & Miller, 2006) In addition, the improvement in students’ ability to work collaboratively, resolve conflicts properly, and communicate effectively by the implementation of the PBL approach has also been explored (Beckett & Miller, 2006; ChanLin, 2008; Saenab et al., 2018) Hence, it is believed to be a promising model for promoting learner autonomy (LA) (A S et al., 2013; Isabekov & Sadyrova, 2018) Nevertheless, the implementation of PBL in teaching English as a foreign language

in Vietnam is still unpopular (T T Dang, 2010; T V L Nguyen, 2011) Furthermore, being strongly influenced by the teacher-centered approach, referring to direct and explicit teaching techniques with its focus on academic tasks and high expectations for students, employing PBL in teaching English is considered time-consuming by teachers (Cao, 2018) For a better understanding of the research gaps and the need for this pedagogical attempt,

it is fundamental to discuss the contexts of the study in terms of the PBL approach and LA

1.2 Context of the study 1.2.1 The general context of the study

Vietnamese students are viewed as obedient and passive learners (Littlewood, 2000;

T T, Dang, 2010; Tran, 2013; Truong, 2017) Having been presented in many papers, the cultural background is one of the main causes for this obedience and passiveness Specifically, Vietnamese students are affected by the Confucian Heritage Culture (CHC), which appreciates obedience and respect to those who have higher ranks (Tran, 2013; Ngo, 2015) In addition, Confucian ethics dominates the mindsets of both teachers and students Thus, students are taught to be obedient from a very young age As a result, rote learning has become increasingly prevalent among students from primary to university (Tran,

2013) This dependent learning style, characterized by learning by listening, note-taking,

and reproducing memorized knowledge in exams, has contributed to the formation of students’ passiveness and obedience (Tran, 2013; V.V, Hoang, 2016) Another cause lies in the exam-oriented education system in Vietnam, focusing on test scores more than students’

11 | P a g e

learning process and growth It places a lot of stress on students to achieve high grades The combination of both internal and external factors puts students under a lot of invisible pressure, which makes them hardly raise their voices in class (Tran, 2013)

The fast growth of international economic integration in the context of Trade Globalization in the 21st century requires high quality human resources who are able to work in multicultural and multilingual environments Thus, it is high time Vietnamese students took specific actions to improve their English language proficiency if they do not want to be left behind The changes are first started with English language teaching and learning, since it is a key to the door of human knowledge treasure, contributing to industrialization and modernization (Do & Le, 2020) According to T N A, Le (2018), to promote the development of English competence, it is necessary to shift from the traditional teacher-centered to student-centered approach with teaching methods that enhance LA

Regarding this issue, a long time ago, MOET recognized the need to review English pedagogy (Wright, 2002) Instead of employing the traditional teaching approach with its great emphasis on the accuracy of written language rather than the acquisition of fluency

in spoken language, which is now no longer considered appropriate (V V, Hoang, 2018), MOET is determined to “develop English language skills on a long-term strategic basis” (Albright, 2019, p 106) These efforts have also been acknowledged and reconfirmed through the decisions and decrees on foreign language policy issued by the government and MOET (Fry, 2009; St George, 2010) Among them, it has to mention the National Foreign Languages Project 2020, which revitalizes English language education, involving the improvement of the quality of English language teachers by organizing a series of international and national conferences and seminars about English language education for teachers (T Nguyen, 2017).

Besides the quality of the teaching staff, MOET also focuses on developing LA, which is regarded as the first and also the most important step to prepare students for lifelong learning (Benson, 2001, 2009, 2013; Waterhouse, 1990; Little, 1991, 2007) This means Vietnamese education is changing to integrate itself into the global trend

The determination to change was repeatedly mentioned in Resolution No NQ/TW on November 4th , 2013, and in the Resolution of the 8th Central Committee, whose aims are to "develop the creativity and ability of self-learning, encouraging life-long learning and build learning society", and “improve the quality of teaching and learning, create students' learning autonomy and self-creative capacity; ensure all conditions and self-study time for students, strongly develop the self-study and self-training movement regularly and widely throughout the community” Also, in the New General Education Program 2018, MOET claimed that students need to be more autonomous in their learning, especially in learning English

29-To put it in a nutshell, the desperate need for changes in teachers’ pedagogy in an attempt to improve LA as a lifelong learning goal has already been recognized by both MOET and many Vietnamese researchers However, there are always obstacles standing

in the way to success, and the alarming situation in which the majority of Vietnamese students are struggling with English has appeared as one of the most challenging problems

to solve (Tran, 2013) This may originate from the reality of the teaching contexts of state schools in Vietnam where more than 40 mixed-level students per class follow the route

“teachers ask - students answer” In addition, most of the class time is spent on grammar and vocabulary teaching, which leads to the fact that Vietnamese students score good marks in grammar tests but when it comes to language skills and other necessary skills in the Age of 4.0 Industry, they lack confidence (T Nguyen, 2017)

With these difficulties given above, it seems to be challenging for students to improve their skills properly, even for good students of English Above all, it is argued that lacking autonomy is the primary cause for students’ failures in learning (Phung, 2016) In other words, if students are not autonomous, they can hardly succeed in learning no matter how many favorable learning conditions are given to them

Developing LA has become a prominent role to train independence, responsibility,

as well as other skills, and its importance has attracted many Vietnamese researchers (T

T Dang, 2012; X Q Le, 2013) However, in Vietnam, enhancing LA through PBL has not

13 | P a g e

been sufficiently investigated so far The following section will further discuss the specific context of the study concerning PBL, LA, and its participants

1.2.2 The specific context of the study

Many Vietnamese students can do well in grammar written tests, but they are still encountering difficulties not only in language skills but also in other necessary skills, such

as critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, teamwork skills, and so on, which are highly required by employers (Ngo, 2015) There is no exception to the students at Rach Kien high school as they can achieve high scores in standardized tests, and in national entrance examinations in English but poorly demonstrate language skills and other 21stcentury skills

Many efforts have been intensified by not only the local Department of Education and Training (DOET) but also the school board and the teaching staff of Rach Kien high school in an attempt to address this complicated problem Typically, in the summer, the local DOET annually holds training courses on innovative teaching methodologies for teachers of English In addition, there are professional seminars and conferences organized

by the local DOET for teachers to join It is on these occasions that experts from the local DOET, core teachers from the provincial professional council, and teachers from many schools in the area can present new teaching methods, share teaching experience, or discuss challenges and difficulties frankly to find solutions for the final aim of improving the quality of teaching and learning Besides, the local DOET selects good and innovative teaching experienced ideas to use as a source of reference for schools and teachers within the province The competition “good teachers”, which is held by the local DOET every year, provides teachers with opportunities to challenge themselves, exchange, and learn more teaching experiences Especially, if a teacher wishes to register for any emulation title, he or she must conduct an experienced idea with tangible evidence for his or her efforts in innovating teaching methods for better teaching and learning quality

In the context of Rach Kien high school, renewing teaching and learning methods with evidence is one of the main criteria for evaluating a teacher at the end of an academic year, and it is also a requirement for all teachers to meet Plans for improving teaching and

learning quality with the renewal of teaching and learning methods are discussed carefully

to reach the final agreement among teachers of each professional group before they are submitted to the school board Then, these plans will be the guidelines for teachers to follow Being one of the biggest high schools in Long An, in the school year 2020-2021, Rach Kien high school continued to be at the forefront of joining the campaign “improving teaching and learning quality with the innovation of teaching methods” held by the local DOET With experience and enthusiasm, the professional group of English teachers was eager to join the race by designing a coherent plan to integrate PBL into the teaching curriculum Preparing teachers and students with this new approach in advance is one of the important steps to make a substantial contribution to the success of renovating textbooks in the New General Education Program 2018 Therefore, applying this approach

in teaching English has already been introduced to high school teachers of English in training courses on innovative teaching methodologies by the local DOET

With a great concern for improving LA by the employment of PBL, the researcher attempts to conduct the study at Rach Kien, a state high school in Long An province, which received the national recognition for standard high school by MOET in 2017 Generally, this school is well-equipped with lab-rooms for teaching English with moveable tables and chairs, projectors, screens, and interactive whiteboards The students who are admitted to this school must achieve high passing grades for three subjects Math, Literature, and English

Hopefully, the present study at the site could be beneficial to the students and also the teachers, contributing to teaching and learning English at the high school level The researcher’s familiarity with the program administration, its curriculum, the teaching and learning atmosphere, as well as the students provides favorable conditions for conducting the study

A class of grade 11 students and their English teacher take part in this study The students are believed to be familiar with the teaching and learning environment because they have experienced learning English at this school for more than one year They follow

15 | P a g e

the program in Tieng Anh 11 textbook, designed with the aim of developing students’ general knowledge of grammar and skills (reading, speaking, listening, and writing) After completing high school education, students are ideally supposed to achieve B1 level - the third level of English in the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) Regarding the class teacher, he has never used the PBL approach in his class before, so he has no prior experience in carrying out projects

1.3 Aims of the study

Many studies have been conducted on PBL (Alan & Stoller, 2005; Maulany, 2013; Felipe et.al., 2016), but the implementation of PBL in English as Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms has been hampered by the reluctance of both teachers and students on the transition from teacher-controlled to learner-centered approach (K V Nguyen, 2015) CHC students in general and Vietnamese in particular are more familiar with the traditional learning approach where most class time is spent on teachers’ lectures while students are obedient listeners For that reason, there are many challenges for CHC teachers and students to adapt this student-centered approach (Tran, 2013).Moreover,in Vietnam, even

in the higher education environment, the implementation and practitioner’s awareness of PBL is indeed limited (Felipe et al., 2016) Thus, the implementation of this approach into curriculum should be paid enough attention to In addition, according to V L Nguyen (2017), the improvement of LA by employing PBL needs further corroboration from future research This leads the researcher to the concern about how PBL helps to enhance LA Therefore, this study specifically attempts to investigate the two main issues which are the implementation of PBL and how PBL promotes LA in an EFL high school classroom

1.5 Scope of the study

As PBL is not widely employed in Vietnam (T V L Nguyen, 2011; Cao, 2018), the process of employing PBL in teaching and learning English needs to be explored thoroughly Therefore, this study emphasizes the procedure by which PBL is implemented

in an EFL high school classroom

In addition, LA is a multidimensional construct (Benson, 2001), so it cannot be covered in a single study With the researchers’ concern analyzed in the literature review, three dimensions of LA, namely Learner Involvement, Appropriate Use of Target Language, and Learner Reflection are focused on in this study

It comes from the context of Rach Kien high school, a state high school in Long An province, where the researcher recognizes the need and the importance of building LA in class Due to the time constraint and sample techniques, the research is firstly going to be conducted with a class of 11th graders at Rach Kien high school In this context, students are considered as good learners of English because they got good results in the high school entrance examination, and they have already been exposed to the high school environment for more than one year Thus, the generalization of the findings of this study would be limited to similar contexts only

1.6 Significance of the study

By fulfilling the aims and research questions set out above, the study gained significance in some perspectives

First and foremost, in terms of theoretical value, the study provides a thorough overview of the literature relating to aspects of LA and PBL, as well as related studies in the field

In addition, although PBL is known as an effective approach (Alan & Stoller, 2005; Maulany, 2013; Felipe et al., 2016), its implementation in EFL classrooms is still hindered

by the strong influence of traditional teaching characterized by the teacher-centeredness (K V Nguyen, 2015) In Vietnam, even in the higher education environment, the implementation and practitioner’s awareness of PBL is indeed limited (Felipe et al., 2016)

of them concentrate on perceptions towards LA while promoting LA has just caught researchers’ interest in recent years Especially, promoting LA with the use of PBL, a student-centered approach, has not been adequately investigated According to V L Nguyen (2017), the improvement of LA by PBL needs further corroboration from future researches Besides, there are also some researches closely looking into employing PBL to promote LA They revealed that PBL has positive impacts on students’ participation in classroom activities (María et al., 2017; Phan & Dinh, 2017) However, the impacts of PBL

on three universal principles of LA have remained inadequately explored, which leads the researcher to put a special emphasis on investigating how PBL helps to promote these principles

Moreover, in terms of participants, the reason that makes the researcher conduct the study with high school students originates from the conclusion by Tran (2013) She stated that when entering higher education, students need to learn independently and autonomously, but then nobody tells them how to learn This makes students find it challenging to integrate into the university environment According to Duong and Nguyen, (2018), many lecturers face the same problems in which their students are unprepared for learning autonomously Thus, it is undeniable that high school students need to be trained

to learn independently and autonomously to improve their learning capacity as well as prepare themselves for higher education

As a descendant, this study has comprehensively addressed these issues above as an attempt to fill in the gaps in the literature nationwide and worldwide on employing PBL to

enhance LA Besides, the clear description and explanation of PBL provide teachers in the studied context along with similar English teaching contexts in Vietnam with a better understanding of teaching, learning, and also assessment process in PBL classrooms

1.7 Organization of the study

The overall structure of the study is organized in the form of five themed chapters, including the introductory chapter, namely Introduction as presented here

Chapter 2, Literature Review, critically reviews relevant literature in terms of LA, and PBL Specifically, aspects such as definitions of PBL from which its key features are drawn, challenges and benefits of implementing PBL, as well as the suggested process when employing PBL Additionally, the definitions of LA along with its versions are explicitly presented in an effort to define principles of promoting LA in this study There

is also a section for summarizing relevant previous studies together with the operationalized concept of LA employed in this study The final part of this chapter will

be a discussion on principles underlying the conceptual framework come up with in this study

The third chapter – Methodology highlights the methodology used in this study including the restated research questions, research design, participants, research instruments, data collection, and analysis procedure

The next chapter titled Findings and Discussion will deal with the presentation and description of the data collected in a detailed and organized way to answer all the research questions clearly

The final chapter is Conclusion which draws upon the entire thesis by giving a brief summary and a discussion of the contributions, limitations, and implications of the findings

to future researches in this field

19 | P a g e

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter reviews the literature on topics relating to project-based learning (PBL) and learner autonomy (LA) The chapter begins with different viewpoints on perceiving the notion of PBL, from which key features of PBL are drawn Following is the discussion

on the benefits and challenges of implementing PBL in class, as well as steps to conduct a project Besides, the definitions of LA along with its versions, leading to the promoting principles in the study, is discussed thoroughly in this chapter In addition to these theoretical bases, the review of previous studies is further analyzed, which contributes to the formation of the conceptual framework

2.1 Project-based learning in language education

PBL was introduced to the field of second language education as a way to reflect the principles of the student-centered approach (Hedge, 1993) Nowadays, PBL is widely used in teaching English as a foreign language (Du & Han, 2016), and it has proved itself

as a good option of teaching by gaining some popularity and having a positive influence

on educational practices Besides benefits, many challenges have appeared on conducting PBL in class They are going to be discussed properly in this section

2.1.1 Definitions of project-based learning

In the field of education, several definitions of PBL have been proposed by many intellectuals As earlier described by Katz (1994), PBL is considered as a form of cooperative learning that contextualizes learning by presenting learners with problems to solve or products to develop According to Thomas (2000, p.1), PBL is “a model that organizes learning around the projects”, or “create rather than receive knowledge, and teacher guides or facilitates the process” (Henniger, 2005, p.45), while many others think that PBL is more complicated than the term itself suggests

They have tried to define the nature of this approach for further understanding and for future research Fried-Booth (2002) characterized PBL as a student-centered approach

that boosts students to work collaboratively in a real-world environment to create products This is consistent with the viewpoint from the Ministry of Education Malaysia (2006), in which PBL is “student-centered and integrated with real-world issues and practices” In addition, projects in PBL consist of multi-skills activities (Haines, 1989, p1;

end-as cited in Stoller, 2006) According to him, these projects should focus not only on language purposes but also on the contents and topics to attract students’ attention for further understanding Meanwhile, Beckett (2002) believed that conducting projects needs time as it comprises a variety of collaborative activities such as planning, gathering, compiling, analyzing data, and reporting end-products With a broader view, Stoller (2006) emphasized that PBL can provide students with opportunities for “the natural integration

of language skills” with specific key criteria as listed below:

- must satisfy both process-oriented and product-oriented

- must get students involved in shaping the process and products

- conducted over a period of time (several weeks, months, or semester)

- must encourage skills integration

- support students in both language and content learning

- involve working in groups as well as individual

- must make students take responsibility for their own learning in the target language

- assign new roles for both teacher and students

- require final tangible products

- reflect on both process and products The approach suggested by Stoller (2006) puts the emphasis not only on the changes

in roles of both teachers and students but also on the development of learning content and language skills By paying special attention to learning and learners, it empowers students’ knowledge and skills development

Moreover, PBL would be a good suggestion for preparing students with necessary skills for the future since it is a systematic teaching method (Boss et al., 2013) Employing this approach engages students in learning important knowledge and develops 21st century

21 | P a g e

skills with extended and student-influenced inquiring process structured around complex, authentic questions and carefully designed products and learning tasks (Boss et al., 2013, p.10) Similarly, Larmer et al (2015) also claimed that authentic PBL is an effective teaching method to motivate students, get them ready for colleges and careers in the future, and develop students’ knowledge and thinking skills to meet required standards In other words, PBL benefits all the stakeholders

Although it has not come up with a complete agreement among authors about how

to define PBL, they all share some characteristics in common which are centeredness, learning by doing, concentration on authentic tasks, members’ collaboration, creation of end-products, and learner reflection on both learning process and products This generates greater flexibilities and possibilities for its application in educational practices

student-2.1.2 Key features of project-based learning

• PBL is a student-centered approach

According to Nunan (2013), learner-centeredness is a concept that factors such as what to teach, how to teach, when to teach, and how to assess are all joined by learners To put it in another way, in student-centered classes, students play active roles in acquiring knowledge, which is “closely involved in the decision-making process regarding the content of the curriculum and how it is taught” (Nunan, 2013, p.54)

PBL is explicitly mentioned as a student-centered approach by many authors (Thomas, 2000; Fried-Booth, 2002; Stoller, 2006; Boss et al 2013; Larmer et al., 2015) Specifically, Beckett (2002) and Stoller (2006) claimed that PBL is a learning process with active students’ contribution from making plans, collecting information, analyzing, and reporting their final products In addition, Gubacs (2004) said that end-products, which are the results of their efforts, concern him the most In his opinion, the process from starting

to submitting the final products requires students’ active engagement to solve the problems, gain knowledge, and enhance skills Undoubtedly, in PBL classrooms, students play their central roles rather than heavily relying on the teachers and curriculum

• PBL expects students to learn by doing

Since students actively participate in their learning, they are changing from

“learning by listening” to “learning by doing” (Stauffacher et al., 2006, p 255) To put it briefly, a project relating to a set of tasks will encourage students to take specific actions

to complete This was also mentioned explicitly in Stoller (2006) with the suggestion that projects should create as much students’ ownership as possible Therefore, students are expected to get involved to create their own products Blumenfeld et al (1991) clarified that by carrying out sets of tasks, students can activate and link their prior knowledge, experience, and skills to the new ones This process helps students acquire new knowledge

• PBL works on authentic tasks

Blumenfeld et al (1991) stated that authentic questions or problems are crucial components of projects which drive students’ learning process and result in the acquisition

of knowledge and skills Unlike the traditional approach characterized by centeredness, PBL provides students with certain rights to make their own decisions on setting up their goals, learning process, final products, and so on (Stoller, 2006) According

teacher-to Blumenfeld et al (1991), the final outputs should not be predetermined, since it will limit students from freely thinking to solve the authentic problems in their own ways

• PBL emphasizes members’ collaboration

PBL is characterized by collaboration among members Collaboration or collaborative learning refers to activities that require students to work collaboratively in order to find solutions for given tasks and problems and come up with their final products (Beckett, 2002; Fried-Booth, 2002; Stoller, 2006, Laal & Laal, 2012)

Theoretically, projects are usually conducted in weeks or even months with many tasks to be completed before the final products As mentioned in Hanney and Savin-Baden (2013), projects are a “complex series of interactions among teams over time” (p.8) Thus, collaboration among members is one of the primary features of the PBL approach

23 | P a g e

However, some problems have been recorded when PBL is implemented in class Blumenfeld et al (1991) stated that the majority of students may find projects enjoyable and motivating, but they are not prepared with skills to make good use of group work To work in groups effectively, good communication, clear discussion, constant negotiation, critical thinking, time management, work contribution are extremely necessary (Blumenfeld et al.,1991) Therefore, teachers should be careful about designing projects so that students’ collaboration can be enhanced significantly

• PBL requires end-products

Students get involved in working with their group members actively and constantly

in an attempt to create high quality end-products According to Stoller (2006), the final products must be tangible Specifically, these products must be presented in oral or written form (Beckett, 2002) which is various from posters, academic reports, wallpapers, or multimedia products (Stoller, 1997) More importantly, the description of the final products should be announced and discussed by the participants (Hanney & Savin-Baden, 2013)

• PBL requires learner reflection on both product and process

After students present their final outcomes, it is time for them to reflect on their own learning process, as well as their final products The act of self-reflecting on what they have gone through and what they need to improve must not be skipped, since it helps to improve students’ metacognition (Tanner, 2012) When students are asked for reflection, it is not only concerned with assessment, but with self-improvement

The key features of PBL are summarized as follows:

Figure 2.1: Key features of PBL

These key features of PBL are inseparably linked Since PBL is a student-centered approach that puts students at the center of their learning, they start to take active roles in all learning phases and activities The motivation for heartily joining in these activities generate from authentic tasks, which helps students to change from learning by listening

to learning by doing to create end-products The process leading to successful outcomes needs collaboration among group members since a project usually consists of various activities which take a lot of time and effort It is due to the fact that PBL is a student-centered approach, so it requires students’ active involvement from the beginning to the end Thereby, they are also in charge of making self-reflection for their outcomes as well

as the content and process of their learning from which useful experiences are drawn for improving their future learning

In conclusion, PBL is a student-centered approach that gives students opportunities

to deal with authentic problems (Beckett, 2002; Stoller, 2006; Larmer et al., 2015), and

25 | P a g e

also allows teachers to play different roles during their teaching processes, such as supervisors, instructors, facilitators, or co-learners (Blumenfeld et al.,1991) Besides, PBL emphasizes communication among students, as well as between teachers and students (Beckett, 2002; Stoller, 2006; Hanney & Savin-Baden, 2013)

With those outstanding features presented above, they obviously support the idea that PBL is a promising teaching approach to develop the long-life educational goals by MOET (Decision No 628/QD-TTg dated May 11, 2020) In fact, many researchers point out many benefits of PBL in EFL classrooms as irrefutable evidence to encourage teachers

to employ this approach widely The following section will present its benefits in detail

2.1.3 The benefits of PBL in teaching English as a foreign language

PBL has been known as a powerful teaching method that has enormous advantages over students According to Fried-Booth (2002), the process resulting in the final products of PBL provides students with many opportunities to develop their confidence and independence, since it connects students to the world beyond the classroom and prepares them to accept and meet challenges in the real world Additionally, Levine (2004) argued that when students are engaged in purposeful communication to complete authentic tasks with real-world relevance, they have chances to use language in a relatively natural context; thus, their communication skills can be improved Furthermore, Lee (2002) concluded that students’ motivation and enjoyment have also been enhanced thoroughly

He also pointed out that the given tasks should be authentic and meaningful to students as they will increase their interests and motivation to participate Moreover, Coleman (1992) discussed the benefits of increasing students’ social, cooperative skills and group cohesiveness It is owing to the fact that working in groups affords students numerous great opportunities to exchange ideas and knowledge Also, problem-solving and higher-order critical thinking skills are important as they are lifelong skills that are required in many other aspects of life The process leading to the end-products is conducted in groups, so it maximizes opportunities for students’ decision-making skills, leadership, team-working spirit, real-world problem solving, and so on (Allen, 2004)

In Vietnam, many researchers also come to the conclusion that PBL is significantly beneficial to both teachers and students It is a new way of learning which stimulates interest and creative thinking, which improves communication and collaborative skills, and which exposes students to more meaningful real-life situations (Le & Nguyen, 2021) Pham (2016) believed that PBL is a well-suited approach to actively engage students with real world problems and challenges in order to acquire deeper understand PBL is also a powerful tool for encouraging students to engage more in solving real-world problem as well as reinforce their learning ability to enhance their insightful comprehension of the knowledge and to promote their LA (Tran & Tran, 2020)

In conclusion, PBL is beneficial to students in general However, opportunities are always along with challenges As PBL is quite new in the context of Vietnam (T.V.L Nguyen, 2011), facing difficulties is unavoidable Therefore, having a deep understanding

of these challenges will prepare teachers with necessary skills and solutions in advance to handle them

2.1.4 Challenges in implementing PBL

Along with the undeniable benefits offered by employing PBL as presented above, many challenges also emerge during the conduction of PBL in class According to Tally (2009), a heavy load of work is generated due to the fact that the lack of schemas to integrate new information with their own prior knowledge while doing projects will be a big challenge to novice learners To students from CHC in general, and Vietnamese students in particular, who are taught with a teacher-centered approach, will struggle with this new way of teaching and learning since PBL often lets students “be on their own to explore and figure out problems with minimal guidance from instructors” (Tally, 2009; Pham, 2020) Blumenfeld et al (1991) claimed that if students wish to be successful in PBL, they need to “have sufficient knowledge of content and specific skills to explore information” (p.378)

Another problem with the application of PBL in class is the domination of some students who do not allow other members to take active roles in projects; especially high

27 | P a g e

achievers who always want to direct groups’ projects according to their interests (Shaban, 2018) This should be considered carefully by teachers as “the true focus of PBL is encouraging students to engage in inquiry, explore real-world contexts, and share their learning with others” (Holland, 2015)

Many challenges in employing PBL have been recognized by Vietnamese researchers It is time that PBL requires The process from starting to finishing a particular project takes a lot of time and effort Thus, both teachers and students have to arrange their time effectively to complete their projects successfully (Tran, 2017; Pham, 2020)

Challenges also bring about opportunities, as the bigger the challenges the greater opportunities Therefore, it is advisable for teachers to anticipate possible difficulties so that they can prepare themselves with necessary skills and knowledge in an effort to tackle problems and achieve the final goals successfully

2.2 Learner autonomy (LA) 2.2.1 Definitions of learner autonomy

The concept of LA has been defined by various researchers Tracing back to its origin, this concept first appeared in the field of second language teaching and learning in the Council of Europe Modern Languages Project in 1979 by Holec Later, in Holec’s publication (1981), he defined autonomy as “the ability to take charge of one’s own learning” (p 3) which could be interpreted that students should be the main characters in their own learning by making learning decisions responsibly from setting learning goals, selecting materials, experiencing appropriate learning methods, monitoring learning process to self-evaluate their learning results Until now, this definition still remains the most cited one, and Holec is considered as the father of the learner autonomy concept (Benson, 2005) Having a significant influence on the field of LA, Holec’s definition has been widely used by other researchers in the field, but with adjustments to suit particular teaching and learning contexts

In Holec (1981), LA was treated as an attribute of a learner, not a process, while Little (1991) considered the psychological approach as the heart of LA His definition is a

combination of Holec’ definition and his own belief of this concept, specifically conceptualized as “a capacity for detachment, critical reflection, decision-making and independent action” (p.4) Besides, this term was also employed to describe the learning situations Dickinson (1987, p.11) defined LA as “the situation in which learners are totally responsible for all of the decisions concerned with his learning and the implementation of those decisions” Another author, Allwright defined that LA “is associated with a radical restructuring of language pedagogy” which involved the rejection of the traditional classroom and the introduction of wholly new ways of working” (1988, p.35) He starts to pay attention to the extrinsic factor which is language pedagogy

Along the lines, these perspectives of LA in Holec (1981) have been mentioned by many scholars For instance, Littlewood (1996) described the notion of autonomy as

“learners’ ability and willingness to make choices independently” (p 427), “taking control over” one’s own learning (Benson, 2001), and the environment which allows a certain level

of freedom for students to be their true selves (Benson, 2007)

In Vietnam, experts have also proposed their own viewpoints of this concept In Dang (2010), the terms “ability” and “take charge of” were replaced by “capacity” and

“take responsibility for” respectively In addition, as mentioned in Duong & Nguyen (2018), this concept was clarified as a positive attitude, a capacity for reflection, and a readiness to be proactive in self-management and interaction with others

To conclude, although the interest in LA has grown significantly, and there is no sign that studying LA will ever stop (Duong & Nguyen, 2018), the final agreement on the definition of this concept is still a big question; especially when it is described in detail

LA is a “complicated and multifaceted” perspective (Benson, 1997, as cited in Phung, 2016), so defining it becomes even more troublesome as the context keeps changing However, the term can be easily understood by dissecting its definition into smaller parts (Anni Ikonen, 2013) The informative description of the term, as well as its different versions, will be discussed in the next section before jumping to the conclusion of LA promoting principles in this study

29 | P a g e

2.2.2 Versions of learner autonomy

For further understanding of LA, many scholars have tried their best to formulate different versions of LA based on their own acknowledgment Among them, Benson (1997) was the first pioneer to introduce the idea of different versions of LA He categorized LA into three versions: technical, psychological, and political (Benson, 1997, pp.19-24) While technical autonomy focuses on student management skills in order to promote independent life-long learning, psychological autonomy is about the cognitive process of the individual relating to attitudes, behaviors, and personality in taking charge

in their own learning Learners’ control of the learning process and content is mainly highlighted in the political version of LA

The cake of learner autonomy versions has been cut in different ways, and they have been brought into recent literature, such as Ribe’s (2003) ‘convergence’, ‘divergence-convergence’ and ‘convergence-divergence’ positions; O’Rourke & Schwienhorst’s (2003) ‘individual-cognitive’, ‘social-interactive’ and ‘exploratory-participatory’ perspectives; Holliday’s (2003) ‘native-speakerist’, ‘culturalrelativist’ and ‘social’ approaches Moreover, Smith (2003) made a more general distinction between ‘weak’ and

‘strong’ pedagogies for autonomy, while Kumaravadivelu (2003) made a similar one between ‘narrow’ and ‘broad’ views of autonomy

These models show the link to the integration of autonomy into the mainstream of language education Smith (2003, p.131), for example, on one hand, connects “weak pedagogies” with the idea that autonomy is “a capacity which students currently lack”

“Strong pedagogies”, on the other hand, are built on the assumption that learners are

“already autonomous” to some degree Furthermore, “strong pedagogies” focus on creating with students’ optimal conditions for the exercise of their own autonomy” (Smith,

“co-2003, p.131)

After the introduction of Benson’s first model (1997) of three versions of LA, in

2003, Oxford expanded this model with the recognition of one more version which is the

“sociocultural” perspective Due to the fact that the tendency of decontextualization in the

autonomy literature (Oxford, 2003), she suggested that adopting the sociocultural perspectives as an ‘addition’ can help to conquer the problem of decontextualization that the individual approaches have faced (Ohara, 2013) To put it in another way, while studying LA, researchers must pay attention to the importance of acknowledging the results

of students’ interaction with the learning environment In such a way, the deconstruction

of the concept LA into different versions arises from the belief that LA is “contextually variable” (Benson, 2006) Little (2004; 2007) asserted that the origin of LA is not only from learners’ independence, but also relates to learners’ interaction with others in the learning environment around them In a similar vein, Smith & Ushida (2013) also agreed that LA grows as the result of students’ interaction with their learning situation This idea

is also repeated in Phung (2016, p.35) According to her, the influence of interaction can foster students’ “cognition to formulate better behaviors to achieve the control” over their learning process

Holliday (2003) was also interested in the socio-cultural perspective in LA by devoting himself to proposing the model of the “social” approach, in which everyone is perceived to be equal (p.118) Noticeably, LA is not firmly confined to Western culture, but it is implicitly a universal concept regardless of their cultural similarities and differences With this “cultural-neutral” perspective, the “socio-cultural” version of LA has attracted greater interest from researchers worldwide

The definitions of LA as well as its different versions have been presented in the previous two sections With the basement of the “socio-cultural” perspective on LA which emphasizes the importance of students’ interaction with the learning environment, this study employed project-based learning (PBL) to create an interactive learning environment for learner autonomy development On the other hand, LA is “complicated and multifaceted” (Benson, 1997, as cited in Phung, 2016), so all aspects of this concept cannot

be covered in one single study The following section will thoroughly explain learner autonomy promoting principles in this study

31 | P a g e

2.2.3 Learner autonomy promoting principles in the current study

As mentioned earlier, in Holec’s viewpoint of LA, which is “the ability to take charge of one’s own learning” (Holec, 1981, p 3), he put students in the center of making decisions related to their own learning Little (1994, p.4) also thought that students need

to be involved in their learning, and autonomous learners are those who “set their own learning agenda” and take responsibility for planning, monitoring, and evaluating their learning activities and their overall learning process Therefore, students should be engaged

in every stage of their learning process

No matter what approaches teachers employ and no matter how they use them in their teaching, they are all for the final purpose in teaching and learning which is to train learners to become proficient in their target language Moreover, students’ language proficiency development is one of the main focuses in the process of learner autonomy enhancement (Little, 2010) As stated in Phung (2016, p.37), the extent of “how autonomous they are as language users” is one of the criteria for an autonomous learner For that reason, various forms of target language should be encouraged to use constantly and frequently in the classroom (Little, 2009 & 2010) For clearer explanation, appropriate target language use which is “the necessity of using the target language as the preferred medium of classroom communication” (Klimas, 2017, p 23) is important in promoting

LA Thus, the development of LA and the growth of target language proficiency are inextricably linked (Little, 2017, pp 145-147)

According to Little (1991, p.4), learners’ “capacity for detachment, critical reflection, decision making, and independent action” are promoted in learner autonomy development In other words, promoting LA and enhancing students’ reflective ability are complementary to each other Specifically, students’ reflective ability or learner reflections refers to the process in which learners are stimulated to “apply critical thinking to planning, monitoring, and evaluating their learning” (Klimas, 2017) Thus, it can be concluded that students’ ability to self-reflect on their own learning process is one of the typical examples

of a successful learner autonomy promoting practice

Previously discussed points, which are Learner Involvement, Appropriate Target Language Use, and Learner Reflection summarily characterized three principles promoting

LA in this study They are repeatedly argued as universal principles which guide the development of LA (Little, 1999; 2004; 2006) Noticeably, these three principles are clearly interdependent, or linked together (Little, 2004) This is also shared by Phung (2016, p.38), who agrees that making use of different forms of the target language is a means for maximizing learner involvement (students use English to plan, discuss, monitor, and evaluate the tasks) and learner reflections (on the learning process and learning outcomes) If these principles are applied appropriately, it will obviously be beneficial to learner autonomy improvement (Little, 1999; 2010) The conceptualized principles of PBL

is summarized as follows:

Figure 2.2: Three pedagogical principles to promote learner autonomy

2.3 Review of previous studies

There have been several studies on PBL and LA, but there exists no single study in Vietnam exploring how three conceptualized principles are promoted through the use of the PBL approach

In Vietnam, the main concern in many research is teachers’ and students’ perceptions towards this concept, which can be found in T C L Nguyen (2009), T V L Nguyen (2011), T N Nguyen (2014), T K T Phan (2018), T N A Le (2018), and V Nguyen (2019) Those studies revealed that although the concept of LA is new and alien

33 | P a g e

to Vietnamese teachers and students, they are all positive towards it Furthermore, activities and learning contents provoking LA should be integrated into the curriculum (T V Nguyen, 2011; T N A Le, 2018; T K T Phan, 2018)

Recently, there has been considerable interest in exploring the enhancement of LA, which has been claimed as the lifelong learning goal in education (Benson, 2001, 2009; Waterhouse, 1990) In Vietnam, improving LA has been investigated by different researchers whose findings have made many significant contributions to the field, such as

X Q Le (2013), T T T Phan (2015), Phan & Dinh (2017), V L Nguyen (2017), V S Nguyen (2017), Phung (2016), Do & Le (2020) However, the focus of these studies is different from those of the current one Particularly, the integrated learner training program (ILTP) (X.Q Le, 2013) was concluded to help learners take control of their own learning, extensive reading (V S Nguyen, 2017; Do & Le, 2020), and speaking e-portfolios (Phung, 2016) were employed to develop LA, while this study was carried out in the teaching and learning environment employed PBL

As for employing PBL in an attempt to promote LA, it has to mention V L Nguyen (2017), whose findings proved that using PBL as a supplement definitely enhances students’ intrinsic motivation When the students do more projects in their training program, the skills and behaviors relating to LA will be probably developed Therefore, a regular integration of projects into the training program is suggested to create extensive opportunities for exercising, thereby promoting learners’ ability to control their learning However, it still remains unclear regarding the evidence for the improvement of LA as a capacity According to him, in order to prove the enhancement of LA through using projects, it really needs further corroboration from future research

In addition to V L Nguyen (2017), Phan & Dinh (2017) also had a closer look at

employing PBL to foster LA in Vietnamese EFL classrooms with the study “An approach

to foster language learner autonomy in a Vietnamese EFL classroom” As revealed in their

findings, there is strong evidence that the development of PBL can help Vietnamese learners to take greater control over their own learning from actively engaging in the projects, setting goals, searching information, and so on, which matches the principle

“Learner Involvement” described above Sharing the same interest with the predecessors, the researcher not only explores the improvement of LA in the principle of “Learner Involvement”, but also wishes to expand the research to two other principles, namely

“Appropriate Target Language Use”, and “Learner Reflection”

Internationally, many efforts have been made to investigate the improvement of LA with the use of PBL Some of those are the studies of Teresa (2014), Díaz Ramírez (2014), María et al (2017), Setyono (2017), Rostom (2019), and Zhang (2020) Their findings have great contributions to the development of LA Specifically, Teresa (2014) suggested that PBL can be used to guide learners towards autonomous learning as they can see their strengths and weaknesses through the practice of self-assessment Also, PBL brings obvious benefits to learners as highlighted in Díaz Ramírez (2014) Particularly, students’ interests and intrinsic motivation implying the desire for accomplishment and knowledge

to fulfill a learning goal are promoted by the use of PBL Besides, according to María et

al (2017), PBL can enhance LA in terms of learner involvement which they can decide their learning content, set their learning goals, and plan actions to reach these goals Setyono (2017) also found that PBL promotes learners’ responsibility in learning which contributes to training autonomous learners, and PBL is believed to be able to lay a strong foundation for the formation of EFL learner autonomy Drawing on the PBL approach, Rostom (2019) indicated that students take good responsibility for their own learning, which stimulates their understanding of the topic presented and increases their motivation for language learning and speaking skills This paperalso stressed the need for practitioners

to incorporate autonomy-promoting strategies into classrooms Additionally, Zhang (2020) concluded that PBL can help to engage students in doing projects, which is different from teacher-centered classes by inviting students to design and carry out their own projects, enabling students to bring relevance to the project work and to take ownership of their learning

In conclusion, regarding promoting LA, numerous studies have been conducted, but only a few of them put emphasis on PBL, especially in the context of Vietnam Thus, there

is inadequate evidence to prove the enhancement of LA with the application of PBL (V L Nguyen, 2017) For that reason, future studies are needed to explicit this issue

35 | P a g e

Furthermore, from reviewed literature on fostering LA with PBL, only the principle of

“Learner Involvement” has been studied (Phan & Dinh, 2017; Claudia & María, 2017; Rostom, 2019; Zhang, 2020) As a descendant, the researcher wishes to extend her study with principles in LA conceptualized above (Learner Involvement, Appropriate Target Language Use, and Learner Reflections) These all lead to the conduction of the current study

2.4 Conceptual framework of the study

As thoroughly discussed above, the three outstanding learner autonomy promoting principles are designed as a part of the conceptual framework of the study These three principles are clearly interdependent, or linked together (Little, 2004)

Another part of the conceptual framework is PBL It is explained intensively with six key features which closely related to learner autonomy promoting principles in the study PBL is a student-centered approach (Thomas, 2000; Fried-Booth, 2002; Stoller, 2006; Boss et al 2013; Larmer et al., 2015) which requires students to change from

“learning by listening” to “learning by doing” (Stauffacher et al., 2006) through their active contribution from making plans, collecting information, analyzing and reporting their final products, or PBL bases on learner involvement during the whole learning process

In addition, PBL lets students expose to authentic tasks (Blumenfeld et al.,1991) to find the best solutions for realistic questions or problems with the collaboration among group members (Beckett, 2002; Fried-Booth, 2002; Stoller, 2006) By doing this, it creates

“a bridge between what is learned in the classroom and why this knowledge is important

to the world outside of the classroom” (Kolk, n.d.) As written in Stoller (2006), the majority of project work exposes learners to the target language through the use of authentic information sources PBL activities allow students to integrate language skills and content knowledge to complete the projects (Fried-Booth, 1997; Stoller, 1997; Simpson, 2011; Solomon, 2003; Srikrai, 2008) Recently, Poonpon (2018) also claimed that PBL provides students with plentiful opportunities to use their language skills in real-life contexts

Besides, among a list of key criteria for PBL suggested by Stoller (2006), he emphasizes the must to include student reflection on both their process and final products

In Alan and Stoller’s model (2005, p.10) of the revised ten-step process to implement PBL

in foreign language classrooms, after presenting the final products, students are required to evaluate the process and final products

The interactions between PBL learning key features and principles promoting LA are conceptualized as follows:

of PBL Student-centeredness

Spoken – Thought -Written - Speech

Metacognitive Interaction

The key features of PBL are learner-centeredness and learning by doing with students’ involvement, authentic tasks with the requirement of members’ collaboration to come up with their end-products with students’ self-reflection not only on their learning process but also their own end-products Those features are accounting for the three promoting principles for LA, including Learner Involvement, Appropriate Use of Target

Language, and Learner Reflection (Little, 1999 & 2010)

As for the first principle, when all stages, steps, and activities are student-centered with students’ active involvement from planning, monitoring, to evaluating, their responsibility will be enhanced To put it differently, when students play key roles in their learning, they are changing from “learning by listening” to “learning by doing”; thus, it can maximize students’ involvement

In terms of the second principle, students are exposed to authentic tasks, which put real communicative demands on them In order to find solutions for these tasks, members’ collaboration in communicating, negotiating, discussing, planning, presenting ideas, etc in the target language, is indispensable Moreover, final products with their contents, messages, values are delivered to the audience in the target language Therefore, it can be said that the process leading to end-products puts authentic language demands on students Using target language in various forms constantly and frequently will potentially boost students’ enhancement of target language use

Regarding the third promoting principle, the final feature of PBL is students’ reflection not only on final products but also on their learning process This practical requirement helps to promote students’ ability to reflect on their learning content and outcomes, which potentially enhances students’ metacognition and metalinguistics (Mackey & Gass, 2005) These interacted features are considered to be beneficial to learner autonomy development

self-There is an obvious interaction between learner autonomy promoting principles and key features of learner autonomy Learners show their involvement in learning by playing

39 | P a g e

the key roles and taking specific actions to complete their given tasks This process requires learners to take full responsibility from planning, monitoring as well as evaluating their final products and also their learning process Moreover, the appropriate use of target language when learners work in groups collaboratively to conduct authentic tasks for final products is shown via the ways they think, discuss with group members (speak), write down ideas or opinions, and deliver their products (speech) In order to become an autonomous learner, they have to be aware of metacognition, which is the ability to think about one’s thinking Metacognitive practices increase students’ abilities to transfer or adapt their learning to new contexts and tasks (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, p 12; Palincsar & Brown, 1984; Scardamalia et al., 1984; Schoenfeld, 1983, 1985, 1991) Metacognitive practices help students become aware of their strengths and weaknesses as learners, writers, readers, test-takers, group members, etc A key element is recognizing the limit of one’s knowledge or ability and then figuring out how to expand that knowledge

or extend the ability Those who know their strengths and weaknesses in these areas will

be more likely to “actively monitor their learning strategies and resources and assess their readiness for particular tasks and performances” (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, p 67)

In summary, this chapter summarized, analyzed, and synthesized theoretical bases

in terms of PBL and LA It also reviews empirical literature relating to PBL and LA in the field of English language education in the world and Vietnam The 10-step procedure used

to implement PBL in the teaching curriculum of the research context was also summarized

in detail All of the presented information is the foundation for the researcher in selecting the most appropriate methodology for the research

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

With the previous theoretical foundation in the literature review, this chapter will present the research methodology employed to explore the research questions In addition, the research settings and participants are also described in detail The following sections covered in this chapter are the procedures of data collection and data analysis

The purpose of this study is to discover the extents to which PBL has impacts on

LA It aims to answer the following questions:

(1) How is PBL implemented in an EFL state high school classroom in Long An province?

(2) How does PBL impact LA dimensions in an EFL high school classroom, namely learner involvement, appropriate use of target language, and learner reflection?

As a focus of this study, the teachers’ and students’ reactions and thoughts were collected and analyzed This section comprises the approach in which the study was conducted and the methodology that the study followed In this chapter, there are discussions in detail about the context and participants of the study, the data collection techniques and procedure, and the framework for data analysis Generally, these parts are briefly summarized in the following table:

Table 3.1: Summary of the Research Methodology

Methodology Narrative Case study Methods of

data collection

1 Observations: including 8 field notes to have detailed descriptions of the class

2 Document Analysis: 5 posters, 5 video clips, 5 oral presentations, 5 leaflets, 10 teacher’s evaluation forms, 40 peers’ evaluation forms, 10 groups’ reflection papers

3 Semi-structured interviews: with 1 teacher and 10 students

Setting An intact class of grade 11

Participants 40 students and a teacher