The Use of Project Work in fostering learner autonomy

This paper is available online at http://stdb.hnue.edu.vn USING PROJECT WORK TO FOSTER LEARNER AUTONOMY AT A PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY, VIETNAM: A CASE STUDY Cao Thi Hong Phuong1, Le Thi

This paper is available online at http://stdb.hnue.edu.vn

USING PROJECT WORK TO FOSTER LEARNER AUTONOMY

AT A PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY, VIETNAM:

A CASE STUDY

Cao Thi Hong Phuong1, Le Thi Minh Nguyet 2

12 Faculty of English, Hanoi National University of Education

Abstract The ultimate goal of language teaching is to nurture independent learners equipped

with learning autonomy One of the most efficient methods adopted to foster learner autonomy is through cooperative learning or project work [20] The current study, which was carried out at a Vietnamese university, investigates the extent to which learner autonomy is fostered via the use of project work in an EFL classroom The findings of the study revealed that project work had brought students various opportunities to engage in the whole process

of conducting the project including selecting and shaping their learning contents, building up their intrinsic motivation and boosting the self-regulation These factors could eventually allow them to become more autonomous learners As a result, learners’ English proficiency is enhanced The findings of the study also offer some pedagogical implications for researchers, practitioners and teachers at the Vietnamese tertiary context, who wish to employ project work in order to encourage learner autonomy in their classrooms The study also meets the requirements of innovation of higher education policies in terms of reforming teaching

methods and curriculum in Vietnam

Keywords: Learner autonomy, Project work, Cooperative Learning, Vietnam, Tertiary Language

Learners

1 Introduction

Learner autonomy has been increasingly considered as an ultimate goal of education [2] as it has significantly contributed to learners’ process of language acquisition Autonomous learners are assumed to take responsibility for their learning as follows [2] They set their learning goal, and they identify and develop their learning strategies to achieve their goals They also identify and select relevant resources and evaluate their learning progress [2] Developing learner autonomy in EFL classroom requires a gradual transaction from teacher-directed teaching to learner-directed learning [6], which can be observed in project work Project work, a kind of learner-centredness, can provide a sound basis for the fostering of learner autonomy This paper explores a case study on developing learner autonomy via project work in an EFL classroom at a university in Vietnam To be more specific; it aimed to investigate effects of project work in

fostering students’ autonomy in learning English

2 Content

2.1 The Background Context

The research was carried out in the tertiary classroom context, where the researchers are currently working as lecturers of English The institution is tasked with the responsibility to teach about 10,000 undergraduates and graduates of different majors such as natural and social sciences

English faculty holds the responsibility to teach English to all of them to ensure that after graduation (according to the MOET of Vietnam’s 2020 Project of language policies) they can communicate proficiently at B1 (CEFR) level Specifically, the national foreign language 2020 Project’s goal is to guarantee undergraduates entering the world of work to be confidently communicating in a foreign language in their daily work [11] The launch of the Vietnam ELT policies has exerted a profound impact on the innovation of teaching and learning in the Vietnamese context Developing learner autonomy is stated by policymakers and educationalists

as one of the primary targets of the project

Moreover, Vietnamese researchers have also problematised the constraints of teaching and learning English at the Vietnamese tertiary education level including the researchers’ professional workplace Pham [19] and Le [13] have pointed out a variety of difficulties including students’ lack of ability to speak in English and their shortage of generic skills, which results in the inadequate the ability to learn independently Among many factors leading to poor English communicative competences, a critical reason is learners’ lack of autonomy [7]

Consequently, in response to the drastic transformation needs regarding teaching and learning approaches, project work as a tool to foster students’ autonomy, has been implemented universitywide

2.2 Research Aims

This paper investigated the extent to which the use of project work can foster students’ autonomy It seeks to answer the research question:

“How does project work foster autonomy of first-year non-English major students at a pedagogical university Vietnam?”

The findings of this study are expected to shed light on the effectiveness of the utilisation of project work in enhancing learner autonomy in the Vietnamese context

2.3 Literature Review

2.3.1 Learner Autonomy

Learner autonomy has been receiving an increase of attention from practitioners and researchers in ELT One classic definition of autonomy given by Holec cited by Benson [1] is

“ the ability to take charge of one’s learning” In other words, students can take responsibility for numerous learning decisions This includes deciding what, how, when and for how long to learn

It means that students can establish their learning goals, select the most relevant resources and techniques to learn, choose appropriate learning strategies and evaluate the outcomes Undoubtedly, there are different levels of autonomy Therefore, the teacher must not assume that students can learn independently without pedagogical innovation In the real classroom contexts, they should cooperate with students to improve and foster learning skills and strategies in learners, enabling them to become increasingly more autonomous Crabbe [5] added that the ways language learning tasks are designed might have impacts on fostering autonomous learning Teachers also play an essential part in achieving the goal of fostering learner autonomy in classroom practice

2.3.2 Project Work

In EFL and ESL contexts, many researchers have emphasised the significance of project work or cooperative learning as a tool for the “mutual engagement of participants in a coordinated effort to solve the problem together” [20, 7] Interaction among group members plays an integral part in the success of cooperative learning [10] Project work is “student-centred and driven by the need to create an end-product” [9, 6], which is not only targeted for the solution to the real-life problems, but also for the enhancement of learner autonomy

Since project work is considered a vehicle for integrated language, it requires learners to use the target language to communicate When working in groups, students need various skills to plan, organise, negotiate with other members for the strategies, ideas, make their decisions of what to perform, who will take responsibility for each task, and how information will be investigated and presented [21] Because of the collaborative character of project work, learner autonomy can occur even among learners at low levels of language proficiency Research in language learning suggests that cooperative tasks promote achievement, positive behaviour, and efficient outcome For example, the project by Legutke [12, 1] called “English just around the corner: the classroom as a place of the encounter was conducted with high school German students who did a project at the airport interviewing different people from various countries The study concluded that students could develop their autonomy by making decisions to achieve common interests such as writing articles and designing their magazines at the end of the project The outcomes of project work have also been evidenced in the Vietnamese tertiary context, where students conducted their project [13] under the supervision of their lecturers The study found that students’ autonomy was increasingly fostered, as they could brainstorm their ideas, searched for relevant project materials Most importantly, they had a chance to present the products of their projects, thus improving both independent skills and language performance [13]

In summary, project work dramatically benefits students in improving their autonomous learning ability and language outcomes [17]

2.4 Methodology

2.4.1 Research Design

This study is carried out as a case study research The data were collected and analysed by semi-structured interviews and surveys from the participants The interviews were conducted in the Vietnamese language Among 15 participants, three participants Nguyen, Tran and Le (pseudonyms) were selected to participate in the interview as they were group leaders and they could represent their group voices This study employed both quantitative and qualitative analysis, which is driven by theoretical research and analytic phenomena in a range of possible areas First, the interviews were transcribed and translated into English, then the data were coded, and themes emerged To triangulate the data collection procedure, the constant variables are ensured of the same teacher, the same project, the consistency regarding the criteria of feedback in project work as well as the criteria to assess the students’ oral presentation Next, the data from the survey respondents were collected and analysed

The analysis of the data showed that some development of learner autonomy resulted from the cooperation among group members and the actions taken in this research project Learner autonomy was thus reflected in two significant features from students’ perspectives, which will be discussed in the following section

The details of the project are provided in the following table

Project work implementation Week 1- Week 12

Presentation Week 13

Table 1: Details of the project work for EAP course

2.4.2 Participants and Implementation

The participants in the study are 15 students majoring in sciences They are first-year university students (18-19 years of age) They are proven to be at the same level of English proficiency according to their entrance exam scores Their scores indicate that they are of CEFR A2 users of English For project work, the students are divided into three groups of mixed gender During the first week, the teacher gave briefings on project work’s framework, topics, groupings and assessment The teacher provided the components that could be incorporated into the project work framework Four focusing criteria will be used in the entire process of conducting and presenting the project work are content, language, organisation and resources (see table 2) The topic given to the students were topics related to those from the course book A2-B1, which is used to teach students of the A2 level at tertiary level nationwide The groups of students selected the topic of the project that they would like to work on as well as the form of products they wanted to present such as PowerPoint, magazines and video clips

For the project work implementation, students worked in groups of five to conduct their project work The topics of the project were selected by the students at the briefing session at the beginning of the semester In groups, members discussed the purposes and nature of project work and identified key features of effective presentation of project work Each group met three times

to conduct their peer feedback sessions according to four criteria namely contents, language, organisation and resources At the end of the course, students were tested via oral presentation of their projects Each of them received scores according to the four criteria

Contents To apply knowledge across different subject areas

To acquire relevant information from the related domain Language To give a clear and efficient presentation using appropriate language

use namely grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary and structures

To present a coherent report in the spoken form

Organisation To show a good understanding of the topic, summarising relevant

characteristics

Propose the outline of the project Design methodology and methodological rationales

Analyse feasibility and manageability of the project Explain why it is the best solution given the circumstances Show relevance to task requirements

Analyse the impact of the project on the Society

Resources Summarise relevant literature

Draw links Identify gaps in the literature

Discuss the relevance of literature to task requirements and research process

Table 2: Project work framework (adapted from Pillai et al [20]

Students are required to give feedback to their peers according to the four criteria during the three sessions They will exchange their feedback for the improvement of the project

Table 3 below elaborates the feedback criteria checklist that students will use during the feedback sessions (adapted from McCallum, 2015)

Name of group: _

Topic: _

Feedback session no:

suggestions Contents

Language

Organisation

Resources

Reflection

Table 3: Group Peer-Feedback Criteria Checklist ( adapted from McCallum, [17]

2.4.3 Rubrics for Presentation Test

In week 12, each group is required to give an oral presentation of their group project work; each student must contribute to the oral presentation, which will be assessed according to the four criteria discussed above

Table 4 below shows the assessment criteria for the oral presentation

Criteria No- mark Approaching

Expectation

Meeting Expectation

Exceeding Expectation Individuals

Contents 15 Criteria have

not been made

Needs focusing on the contents

Mainly focuses on the contents

Focuses on the contexts with highlight

Language 15 Criteria have

not been made

Speaks haltingly and/ or mumbles,

It is difficult to understand at times

Can only manage very short, isolated words and phrases, structures

Speaks clearly and intelligibly most of the time

Shows some attempts to express complex ideas, despite evident hesitations for grammatical and lexical planning

Produces extended response using simple structure

Deals with presentation with ease, remarkable fluency, accuracy extended stretches

of language with occasional repetition

Organisation

10

Criteria have not been made

Generally appropriate organization

appropriate organisation

Very clear organisation

Resources 10 Criteria

have not been made

Quite relevant resources

Relevant resources Variety of relevant

resources

Total Scores

Table 4: Assessment Rubrics for Oral Presentation (adapted from Pillai et al [20]

2.5 Findings & Discussion

In this section, the paper discusses the key findings drawing on the survey as well as the interview data with the participants The survey revealed positive feedback on the projects regarding their self-learning capacity and attitude With respect to learner autonomy, all three interviewees believed that it was related to learners’ ability to make their decisions of which resources they could select for their project work, they can evaluate their work via working with their peers and through their peer feedback during the project work preparation They also thought that presenting their project work; they can improve their language skills The following themes would be discussed in light of relevant literature

2.5.1 Learner engagement in project work

Learner involvement in learning process seems to be a basic pedagogical principle in fostering learner autonomy The involvement is the prerequisite for the development of cooperative learning, intrinsic motivation and self-regulation from the learners, which In turn, effectively boost learner’s autonomy

Cooperative Learning

Project work offers the opportunities for students to work in a team to reach a common goal and make the learning decisions and strategies together Little [15] stated that engaging learners in the process of learning activities, which students can share ideas, discuss, analyse and evaluate with their peers in the target language could be an efficient way for students to become autonomous learners This can be observed in the following statement made by Nguyen:

“The project requires us to work together from the beginning to the end… We discuss ideas, problems, search materials for the project and prepare the presentation We cooperate with each other, everyone involved and contributed to the workload.”

Nguyen’s statement indicates that the engagement of different members of the group, who cooperate with each other, can enable learners to fulfill their tasks more efficiently In other words, they have the opportunities to learn from each other by sharing their ideas of how to complete the project This confirmed the findings in Borg & Alshumaimeri [3], which indicates that reasons for learner autonomy promotion are through group work cooperation, resulting in the development of learner autonomy This is also aligned with Chan [4], which claimed that the involvement of students in the group learning tasks and group presentation could foster autonomy This study concluded that the discussions among group members encouraged exchanges of views, developed negotiation skills and put students in charge of the task, all of which can lead to fostering learner autonomy

Tran’s opinion’s displays a substantial alignment with Borg & Alshumaimeri [3] suggesting crucial elements promoting learner autonomy when he stated that:

“I could be involved in evaluating my work and my friends’ work also because we give feedback during the project I could decide the topic of the project.”

This can also be reflected on Borg & Alshumaimeri [3,12], which mentioned teachers’ common conceptions of learner autonomy including the “involving learners in decisions about what they learn and how”

The finding from the survey with 15 students in the class resonates the positive impact of project work on fostering cooperative learning during the course when all students agreed that they accomplished the project by cooperating with their teammates and the degree of cooperation was more intense than that in their typical English classroom Also, 100% of the respondents claimed that the project was carried out and completed by their joint decisions The process of the project is claimed to be student-centred and student-driven with the teacher playing the role of a project coordinator, informant, observer and facilitator when necessary

Intrinsic Motivation

Intrinsic motivation is a crucial factor that allows learners to learn autonomously [8, 64] In contrast to the traditional teacher-centred approaches in the ESL classrooms in Vietnam, project-based ones nurture learners’ interest and motivation from inside The first step in a project is selecting the topic of the project by the students themselves, which allows them to focus on the topic of their real interest Tran’s answer reflects this idea:

“We made a list of topic that we liked to know more about and voted to choose the topic for the project of the group I think because we could choose the topic, all of us became more excited, and we all work harder on the project.”

Moreover, the development of internal drive for learning English is also evident in the post-project period given Nguyen’s statement that:

“I found learning English much more friendly and less challenging after finishing the project I used to learn English just because I had to and for the good grades but now I know that I can learn

a lot if can use English well.”

The student’s desire to learn the foreign language of English and accomplish more significant goals in their learning following the project works as a result of boosted intrinsic motivation is also shown in the survey data Specifically, more than 93% of the students acknowledged that they enjoyed working on the project because of their interest in the project topic and the cooperation with their classmates More importantly, over 86% of the responses reflect the growth

of popularity of learning English among the students as a result of accomplishing the project

Self-regulation

A self-regulated learner tries to independently progress in a language classroom by “finding

strategies to cope with their learning difficulties” [8, 63] When encountering a specific situation, instead of asking for teacher’s support, he would rather work on his own or discuss within his team to identify the advantages and disadvantages and eventually work out the solutions to the problems

Tran and Nguyen shared the similar experience in implementing their projects:

“When we made the video clip, the final product of our project, we did not have any idea We did not know the software to make videos or how to collect necessary images and footages However,

we tried to search for the information on the Internet, asked our friends and discussed in our group Finally, we could produce a video clip of online business.” (Tran)

“At first when we decided to research the environmental problems of Hanoi city, we did not know what to talk about Then we talked to our friends and read articles on the Internet to find the ideas

for our project We also tried to borrow cameras from our families to take photos for the projects.” (Nguyen)

Learning autonomy has been successfully fostered when learners became more proactive in their learning, taking charge of their own learning progress, identifying the challenges and independently seek the solutions to their problems According to the questionnaire, more than

93% of the students stated that they made an effort to solve the problems in implementing their projects without consulting their teacher

In summary, the findings revealed that participants mostly referred to their opportunities to

get engaged and active in the whole process of conducting the project including choosing and shaping their learning contents[14], building up their internal learning motivation and boosting the

self-regulation These factors could enable them to become more autonomous learners

Additionally, they also claimed that their language skills could be enhanced

2.5.2 Language skills improvement

Language learning gains in independent learning programs have been acknowledged by many researchers [1], [19] Specifically, an experimental study into a Vietnamese university classroom by Nguyen & Gu [19] found that besides the improvement in study skills, students also

gained better achievements in their writing ability Reflecting on the conversations with Le’s statement, their language skills were also improved

“I myself learned a lot by doing this project work When I have to present, my pronunciation seems to be better I think our group also improves our grammar because we can self-correct the mistakes after my friends’ feedback.”

Le’s statement indicates that working with their peers during project work allows them to overcome their drawbacks and to be more conscious about their study Thus they can make progress

Analysing Nguyen and Tran ’s interview data also revealed that they could improve their accuracy

in speaking: “We rehearsed our presentation; we got feedback from our group members

Therefore, we speak more accurately."

The analysis indicates that their linguistic competence could be enhanced, which

confirmed the findings in [24], which argued that project work could be a versatile vehicle for fully integrated language interaction promoting language improvement by students' active

involvement The analysis also shows a substantial alignment with [25], which concluded that the

group work activities in the author's classroom, could help improve the students’ communication skills day by day Empirically speaking, at the end of the project, more than 86% of the

respondents believed that their English skills had been upgraded

Overall, the participants’ interview data reflect Little’s [15, 2] primary pedagogical principles

of “learner involvement” in sharing responsibility for completing the project work and

“appropriate target language use.” Both of them are essential elements entailed by fostering learner autonomy in language classroom settings

3 Implications, Limitations and Conclusions

The study aimed to examine the role of project work on fostering learner autonomy in an EFL classroom at the Vietnamese setting, where English is still considered as a compulsory subject in tertiary education This study has shown that the application of project work can be exploited combined with the content of the syllabus Instead of a teacher-led classroom, we can encourage students to direct their learning with teacher’s support and guidance Thus, the pedagogical effects of project work may benefit both students and teachers Teachers may reduce their working load through the project compared to traditional regular pedagogic approach More significantly, project work may not only foster students’ autonomy but also could enhance their English language proficiency Reflections from the students and teachers-researchers who evaluated and assessed the presentation confirmed that the students loved doing the project and liked being engaged in conducting the project Moreover, the study may also meet the requirements of policies of higher education reform regarding reforming teaching methods and curriculum in this context Language teachers in the Vietnamese context, then, need to reflect on how to design and define the objectives of the course, materials, tasks and methodology in relation

to the enhancement of learner autonomy

The paper also has some limitations The small number of participants might not generalise the findings Other criteria such as analysis of students’ final products should be considered However, this study yields significant results as it showed a congruency with the fundamental principles in fostering learner autonomy in a language classroom

In sum, project work can offer students opportunities to learn autonomously and improve their linguistic competence In the Vietnamese context, which still focuses on teacher-centred instruction [13], teacher’s role is crucial in encouraging students to become more autonomous learners We would end the paper by citing [14, 17] which stated that the pursue of learner autonomy requires a drastic change in teacher’s role from “purveyor of information to a facilitator

of learning and manager of learning resources”

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