An Experimental Study On The Application Of Project-based Learning To English Reading Instruction In Secondary Vocational School

The English Syllabus for Secondary Vocational School puts forward the basicrequirements of students’ reading ability as follows: students can read easy practicalwritings, including letters, invitations, notices, notes and some common signs; theyshould reach a total volume of100,000-150,000words in supplementary reading;with a dictionary, they can understand reading materials at the difficulty level whichis slightly lower or equivalent to the texts they have learned and basicallyunderstand references and practical writings relevant to their profession.English reading teaching in secondary vocational school usually follows thetraditional “three-step” teaching method which includes pre-reading, while-readingand post-reading. In the teacher-centered classroom, learning enthusiasm has beendepressed. Students lack motivation and seldom participate in class activities, andthe learning outcome is not satisfying. It is difficult to improve students’ readingability. Moreover, students are passive receivers, their learning autonomy has beengreatly undermined. Therefore, it is imperative to work out a feasible and effectiveteaching mode of English reading in secondary vocational school to improvestudents’ reading comprehension proficiency and enhance their autonomous learningability.This study attempts to explore the application of PBL approach to Englishreading instruction in secondary vocational school. The research questions are:(1)Can PBL improve students’ reading comprehension proficiency in secondaryvocational school?(2) Can PBL enhance the overall level and five dimensions ofstudents’ autonomous learning ability in secondary vocational school?A four-month experiment was conducted in two intact classes of Grade2010inHeyuan Vocational and Technical School, with a total number of78students. PBLwas adopted in EG, while traditional “three-step” teaching method was adopted inCG. This study on the effectiveness of the application of PBL to English readingteaching was done by means of the pretest and posttest of reading tests and aquestionnaire. Data collected from the pretest and posttest of reading tests and thequestionnaire were analyzed by SPSS18.0. The findings show that:(1) The mean score of EG was higher than that of CGin the posttest. Paired-Samples T Test results revealed that both CG and EG hadmade progress in reading comprehension proficiency, but EG performed better.(2) Itwas also found that EG significantly outperformed CG in autonomous learningability at the end of the experiment. Paired-Samples T Test results indicated thatstudents’ autonomous learning ability had been greatly enhanced in EG, but CGremained at the original level. Five dimensions of students’ autonomous learningability had all been enhanced in EG. In descending order, the sequence was planning,reading proficiency, self-monitoring, self-evaluation and regulation as well asmotivation and attitude.Based on the above mentioned major findings, conclusions can be made that:(1)PBL can improve students’ reading comprehension proficiency in secondaryvocational school.(2) PBL can enhance the overall level and five dimensions ofstudents’ autonomous learning ability in secondary vocational school.