To find out the reasonable answer for the research question 2, the researcher did a comparative and contrastive data analysis from interview and observation.
These two sources of data provided information about what the students liked and disliked, and their behavior and attitudes when doing the projects.
4.2.1. Findings from interview
In the next question of the interview, the researcher asked whether participants like doing the projects they were assigned in their learning process and
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why. All of the students being asked stated “yes” in Vietnamese as their answer. It was because project work helped them to be more comfortable and creative in learning. They worked more with their friends than the teacher, and they themselves could make posters and power points, and design games which were suitable for their styles and interests. Besides, students could gain much knowledge out of books by searching information in doing projects. All of these reasons made students prefer doing projects to other learning activities. Moreover, all the participants answered this question immediately with the eyes looked straight to the researcher‟s eyes. This quick and confident reaction showed that the answer was their first thought and reflected their real thinking.
In another part, the researcher asked participants for their interests and difficulties in doing these projects. In terms of likes, four students said that they preferred to search information because it helped them to know more knowledge, remember knowledge better and get more interesting information about the topic.
Meanwhile three other students enjoyed designing posters since they are good at drawing and they thought that making posters could foster their creative ability. The rest of the interviewees liked presentation since they loved speaking activity and enjoyed showing off themselves. When it comes to difficulties in project work, eight out of ten students felt hard to decide time and place to do project out of the class. It was easy when working individually, but when working in group, it was difficult for students to find out the same free time of all members and the place where all of them could go and work together. Moreover, there were lazy members who did not do anything in some groups, which could make these groups miss the deadline. About presentation, some students liked this part whereas some students found it difficult. The reason was that they lacked confidence and good preparation.
Last but not least, the researcher really wanted to know whether project work brought any intermediate objectives to the students. Ten out of ten participants answer that thanks to project work, they can improve their groupwork skills. They supported each other, cross-checked their tasks and worked well with together though there were some conflicts. Additionally, five of them could develop their presentation skills, and one member mentioned learner‟s autonomy development.
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From the interview, the researcher could collect the information about students‟ attitudes toward project work, their interests and difficulties when doing the projects and the objectives they achieved from project work. More information will be shown in the findings from observation.
4.2.2. Findings from observation
During observation process about students‟ behavior and attitudes when doing the projects, the researcher saw that students enjoyed steps of selecting topics and designing posters most. In these steps, participants discussed in group enthusiastically with nice facial expressions and focused on the work with one hundred percent effort.
When students searched for the information from available sources, with the teacher‟s permission, they went to the school library and found out information from books. Those who had good English level could do it easily, and their information were useful. Nonetheless, weak students found out irrelevant information because they did not understand the contents of the text. In this case, these students with discouraged face had to find the information again, but they got their groupmates‟ help.
Moreover, good English students helped other members in their group to check spelling and grammar mistakes. Whereas most of weak students, both boys and girls did not work actively. They depended on the other members in the group and waited for their friends‟ helps. At that moment, the leaders of the groups were very angry and shouted at those students.
Table 4.7: Students’ attitudes and behavior when doing the projects
Attitudes Behavior Students’ learning
autonomy Nice facial expression
(happiness, excitement)
Select topics Choosing contents Discoraged face Find out information
Angry Design posters Selecting methods and
techniques to be used
Inactive Support groupmates
Dependent Cross-check spelling
and grammar mistakes Do nothing
64 Wait for friends‟ help Shout at each other
Table 4.7 shows the students‟ attitudes and behavior when they did the projects. As can be seen, thanks to these projects, students could enhance their learning autonomy in terms of choosing contents and selecting methods and techniques to be used. Moreover, not all students have developed a positive attitude towards project work.
Finally, the second research question is addressed through the results of the interview and observation. It can be inferred that students had a positive attitude towards project work. Students adored doing projects and could achieve many objectives through project work like developing groupwork and presentation skills.
There were some favorite activities of theirs in doing project, like searching for information, designing posters, and making presentation, which made them work actively without the teacher‟s request, so their learning autonomy could be fostered.
However, there were also some problems in project work process such as finding time and place to work together and presenting that might prevent students from enhancing their learning autonomy.