Research On The Effectiveness Of Project-Based Learning In English Writing Instruction For Senior High School

As one of core elements of English teaching,writing embodies learners’ language proficiency and language performance,hence attracting teachers’ and students’ increasingly wide concern.However,there are still many problems which are encouraged to be dealt with in the teaching of English writing in China.For instance,teachers always play the role of knowledge instiller rather than the guider of learning;students have low interest in English writing;students’ writing competence can’t meet the demand of National English Curriculum Standard for General Senior High Schools.Therefore,exploring a more effective teaching method beneficial to students’ writing ability is of great necessity.Based on the above situation,this study is designed to apply Project-Based Learning(PBL)in English writing instruction in senior high school through the practical experiment,to explore an innovative teaching strategy and curriculum design centered on the theory of the PBL,thus proving its positive effect on teaching.In this study,the following two research questions are posed: 1.What are the changes of students’ interest in English writing in senior high school when the Project-Based Learning teaching method is applied? 2.What are the effects of Project-Based Learning on students’ English writing competence?According to the purpose of research,the author conducts an experiment lasted for almost 14 weeks,and selects 110 fresh students from two parallel classes in a senior high school in Nanchang in Jiangxi province as the research subject,including 55 students respectively.Before the experiment,there are pre-test and pre-experiment questionnaires provided for those students in two classes.It indicates there is no significant difference in writing ability.In the process of experiment,one class is considered as experimental class applied PBL method,while the other one is served as control class where the traditional PPP teaching method is involved.What’s more,this study adopts mixed research method.The experimental data consist of students’ writing test,questionnaire survey,and semi-interview.At the end of experiment,the collected data are processed and analyzed by the Statistic Package for Social Science(SPSS)25.0.The results of this study reveal that there are statistically significant changes in students’ interest in English writing in the experimental class adopted the PBL for almost four months.However,the students have low interest in English writing in the control class,where the traditional Presentation-Practice-Production(PPP)teaching method is applied.Besides,according to the data of the pre-tests and the post-tests from experimental class and the control class,it can be found that PBL not only can promote students’ English writing ability,but also can be conducive to students’ English achievements.Substantially,this paper attempts to conduct the teaching experiment of infusing the PBL in English writing instruction in senior high school to verify its feasibility and validity,and also provides certain reference for the application of PBL,thus laying a foundation for further improving the teaching of English writing.