Project Work in Teaching English

Project work can only be effective when teachers relax control of their students temporarily and assume the role of guide or facilitator. The teacher can play an important role by diligently overseeing the multiple steps of project work, establishing guidelines, helping students make decisions, and providing instruction in the language when it is needed. Giving students freedom to immerse themselves in the project can lead to motivated and independent learners, but it requires a certain flexibility on the part of the instructor if students are to benefit maximally.

Chapter II. Examples of Project Work Activities

2.1 Project Work Activities for the Elementary Level

The Class Contract

l. Divide the class into pairs. Ask each pair to draw up two lists: what they expect of you and what they think you should expect of them. Give them about fifteen minutes for this. Meanwhile you make a list of what you expect of them and what you think they should expect of you.

2. Tell your students that you want to draw up a contract with them based on the expectations that they and you have just noted down. Divide the board into two columns: `(your name) Agrees to' and `The class agrees to'. Appoint a class secretary to make a fair copy of what you are about to write on the board and give them a sheet of paper to write it on. Nobody else need write anything. Negotiate with the class, on the basis of what you and they wrote down, what they can expect of you and you are willing to abide by, and vice versa. Draw up an agreed wording on the board for the secretary to copy. When it is complete, you and all your students must sign the secretary's fair copy.

3. Take the fair copy of the contract. Make enough copies to give one to each student. Distribute the copies next lesson and stick the original on the classroom wall. If any new students join the class, invite them to read the contract and sign it. Give them a copy too.

4. At regular intervals, once a week in a one-month course, or beginning, mid and end of terms in a one-year course, hold a brief discussion with the class on how well everyone is abiding by the contract. If you are all doing well, give yourselves a round of applause. If not, discuss what is going wrong and what you might do about it. This might include discussion as to whether you are slipping or the demands of the contract are unrealistic.

David agrees to give motivating lessons, maintain a good relationship with the class, be honest and critical, respond to initiatives, attend regularly and be punctual, correct homework promptly and thoroughly and to speak English out of class.

The signature of the teacher

We agree to cooperate and participate

attend regularly and be punctual

to do homework thoroughly

to speak English in class all the time except for words

we don't know

be honest and critical

he signature of the students

Symbol Shadows

1. Write the quotation by Rabrindinath Tagore “What you are you do not see, what you see is your shadow.” on the board. Discuss it briefly with your students. Then draw a symbolic representation of your own `shadow' on the board - various symbols that in some way represent you and things/people that are important to you. When you have drawn your shadow explain the symbols to your students.

2. Ask them to draw their own shadows. When they have done that, if you have a small class, ask them one by one to explain their shadow to everyone else. If your class has more than around a dozen students, divide the class into groups of between six and a dozen to do the cams. If you remain in whole-class formation, make sure the explanations are directed towards everyone in the class, not just you. If you have groups, monitor them discreetly, again making sure the explanations are directed towards their colleagues rather than you.

3. As a follow-up task, either in class or for homework, ask your students to write up the explanation of their symbols.

Here is an example of shadows done by a student with her own explanation of the symbols:

It is a sort of box because I'm very closed in myself, and with a locker because I do not let everybody in. In it there is a book, a radio/tape recorder and a TV, it is mainly what I spend my days doing when I am not at school or studying. There are also faces of boys and girls: these are my friends, and they are in a little box apart because I do not reveal myself to them, I do not have as many close friends as I would like.

Beatriz

The Happiness Cake

1. Ask everyone to think for a moment about the ingredients for happiness. Tell everyone to imagine they are going to bake a happiness cake. What ingredients and what spices would they put in? Ask them to work alone and write down the ingredients and spices for their cake. Allow five minutes for this.

2. If you have a small class, ask each member in turn to tell the others about the ingredients and spices for their cake. You tell them your list last. If you have a larger class, divide it into groups of six to dozen, and get them to do the same. Monitor the groups and when they have finished, ask them to report back to the whole class. Again tell them your ingredients and spices last.

What Went Right? What Went Wrong?

1. Talk to your students about your own good and bad learning experience and the extent to which these correlated with good and bad relationships with your teachers.

2. Tell your students to draw two columns. In the first they are to list teachers they remember getting on well with and in the other those they got on badly with. Divide the class into groups of four or five and ask them to tell one another about these teachers and effect they had on their learning.

3. Bring the students back together as a whole class and ask them what they feel are the main things that contribute to a good relationship between students and their teacher. The most important thing is regular, honest communication, because everything else both depends on this and can be remedied through this. Your students may come up with other points but be sure to emphasis the importance of regular, honest communication.

Variation

As a follow up, either in class or for homework get your students to write about their positive and negative learning experience.

If a Table Could Speak

1. Draw an object, e.g. a table, on the board. Tell the students that your object is the starting point for a picture you would like the class to create and that you would like them to come up to the board one at a time and add more things to it. Tell them that they can draw absolutely anything except people and that quality of the drawing does not matter. The picture is finished when there are about a dozen items in it.

2. Put the chalk or board pen where everyone can reach it easily - make sure they know where it is. Then get out of the way and let them draw the picture.

3. When the picture is reasonably complete declare the picture ready. If your class has had to come out to the front, send them back to their usual places.

4. Divide the class into pairs. Ask the pairs to choose any two items. In the picture write a dialogue between them of about ten lines. Tell your students they must not mention the name of their items in the dialogue. For example, if it is a dialogue between the table and a plant, the plant must not say, `Hello, table. How are you today?' but just, `Hello, how are you today?' Give a time limit of fifteen minutes. First reaction to this task would usually be a gasp of shock, but they should quickly get used to the idea. Keep out of the way for about five minutes while they settle. Then be available to help with vocabulary, etc. If you are not needed, do not hover, just sit down out of the way. As they are finishing, go round and check they have not mentioned the names of the `speakers' in their dialogue as this will ruin Step 5.

5. When they have finished, ask the pairs in turn to read aloud their dialogue, each partner taking a part. The others in the class must guess which item is talking to which. This phase is very good for making students read loud and clearly as colleagues will not otherwise understand.

2.2 Project Work Activities for the Intermediate Level

Magnet, Island or Bridge

1. If you have a magnet, show it to the class and check if they know what it is called. Otherwise, you may need to explain it in the next step. On the board draw three columns, heading them respectively `magnet', `island' and `bridge'. Divide your class into pairs and ask them to draw up a list of characteristics in the columns on the board.

2. Ask your students to think for a moment about the way they act in various social contexts, for example at parties, with colleagues, in the family - more like a magnet, an island or a bridge. Divide the class into groups to discuss the problem briefly.

3. Ask them, still in groups, to discuss which attitude - the magnet, the island or the bridge - is most conductive to a good working environment in class and what that implies in term of actual behaviour.

4. Discuss as a class the findings of the groups. They should feel that being a bridge is the most conductive and that it implies a spirit of co-operation, participating, helping others. At the same time a magnet may on occasions act as a catalyst to encourage shyer members of the class when/how a magnet might be a positive element in a class and when/how a negative one.

5. Extend the discussion to how bridges can be formed out of class. Draw up a list on the board.

6. Give your students a few minutes to discuss with those sitting near them which of these ideas they feel are most appropriate to them and how they intend to implement them. It is better in this phase to let pairs/groups form spontaneously than to impose them. Ask a few members of the class what conclusion they came to.

Encouraging Reading

1. Initiate an informal discussion on your student's reading habits in their own language. Ask which of them are in the habit of reading regularly in English outside class. Ask what kind of things they read and where they get their reading material from.

2. Put it to the class that for most learners regular reading out of class is absolutely essential to reach an advanced language level - it is one of the best ways of expanding vocabulary and probably the only way to get a good sense of style. Tell them you are going to work with them to set up a framework that encourages them to read regularly.

3. The first hurdle is to find a source of suitable books. With the help of your students, write a list on the board of possible sources of books in English. Tell them to copy it into their notebooks. It will probably look like this:

a) public lending libraries;

b) school libraries;

c) bookshops;

d) each other.

Discuss with the class which of these sources is/are most readily available.

4. Arrange with your students for all to bring a book to class the lesson after next so that everyone can get an idea of what their colleagues are going to read.

5. When the class brings their books, ask each student to set a realistic target date to read their book by. Tell them that the date must be agreed with you. Draw up a class list of author/title/target date for all their books and fix this to the classroom wall.

6. As target dates are reached, check on progress, do not be 'heavy' if they do not achieve their targets but remind them that they are the ones who set the target dates and that you do expect them to finish soon.

7. As students finish their books, ask them to fill in information about the books they have read on a `book recommendation sheet', which you van fix to the wall for your students to consult. It might look like this:

Recommended Reading

Author Title Interest Difficulty Comments Reader

For `Interest' and `Difficulty' it is best to use a scale, for example one to five, to indicate the degree of interest and difficulty.

Variation

The same broad principles apply to listening. Below is a list of possible sources for material:

a) English-speaking people that students meet

b) television programmes

c) films (original or subtitled), film clubs

d) videos

e) theatre

f ) radio

g) songs

h) spoken word cassettes

Discuss with your students which of these are available locally. Draw their attention to the help that images give in understanding and to the high level of concentration needed when listening, which is quickly tiring. Follow-ups for listening are more difficult to set up than for reading. Once again, in general encourage reflection. Here are possible headings for a `recommended listening sheet' that you can fix to the classroom wall:

Culture Project

1. Initiate a discussion with your students about their interests. Ask them about how they might link those interests to their study of English. Put it to them that they could extend an interest or begin a new one by doing a project on some aspect of English-speaking culture. Tell them that they can choose anything they like within that, only that at the end of the project they must produce something to present to the others in the class - orally or in writing. This can be something quite modest but its purpose is simply to provide some kind of objective. If you get a reasonably positive response, go on to Step 2.

2. Tell them that the hardest part is often choosing the project. So give them copies of the handout given below:

Example topics for personal culture projects

1. History

a) A long period, e.g. the Elizabeth era, the Victorian era

b) A short period, e.g. the American Civil War, Henry VIII and the Reformation

c) An incident and the events surrounding it, e.g. the Spanish Armada, the Wall Street Crash

2. Geography

a) A country you do not know about where English is spoken, e.g. one of the Caribbean or Pacific islands

b) A region or state in an English-speaking country, e.g. Florida, Wales, Queensland

c) A city or town, e.g. Cambridge, Stratford-upon-Avon, Auckland

3. People and their work

a) Statesmen and women, e.g. Gandhi, Churchill, Lincoln

b) Scientists, e.g. Newton, Darwin, Einstein

c) Artists of all kinds, e.g. The Beatles, Constable, Blake, Jane Austen, Shaw

d) Entertainers, e.g. Charlie Chaplin, Fred Astaire, Marilyn Monroe

e) Individuals, e.g. Martin Luther King, Bede, Dr Johnson

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