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A Case Study Of Project-Based Instruction On Chinese EFL Learners

Posted on:2007-08-04Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:Y J LiFull Text:PDF
GTID:2155360185950757Subject:Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics
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It is common knowledge that English as Foreign Language (EFL) Instruction in China is now facing with greater challenges than used to since, on the one hand, the teaching goal has been shifted to be that students not only should understand spoken and written English, but also can communicate freely and appropriately in real situations, on the other hand, it has to meet the demand that students should be better prepared for the global working environment which requires qualities like computer literacy, cooperation skills, research ability and etc. The computer-assisted Project-Based Learning (PBL) approach has the potential to address this issue as well as other critical needs in EFL instruction.This dissertation presents data from a case study examining Chinese college EFL students' attitude toward and their perceptions of a Project-based collaborative e-mail exchange project. This email exchange project was conducted between a class of grade-1 college students of various majors at a university in Guangzhou, southern China and an English native speaker class in the University of Hawaii.After exposure to the technology-based email-exchange project, Chinese students were questioned about (a) changes in attitude towards language learning;(b) perceptions of their acquired reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills;and (c) challenges encountered during the project. Data was collected primarily from classroom observation, informal interviews, questionnaire surveys and students' artifacts. The majority of the Chinese participants said they enjoyed the learning experience, gained personal confidence in English and communication skills, and felt that they've made progress in writing, thinking and speaking.With empirical data, it discusses the potential of PBL method from four aspects: 1) authenticity of language communication;2) opportunities for linguistic intake and output;3) learning motivation;4) collaboration and learner autonomy.
Keywords/Search Tags:Project-Based
PDF Full Text Request
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