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Trang 1 QUY NHON UNIVERSITY VO THI THU HIEN AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE IMPACTS OF PBL ON PRIMARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ SPEAKING Trang 2 BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN VÕ THỊ
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING QUY NHON UNIVERSITY VO THI THU HIEN AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE IMPACTS OF PBL ON PRIMARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILL AND THEIR PERCEPTIONS AND ATTITUDES TOWARDS PBL Field : Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching Code : 8242170011 Supervisor: NGUYEN TIEN PHUNG, Ph.D ii BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN VÕ THỊ THU HIỀN KHẢO SÁT TÁC ĐỘNG CỦA VIỆC SỬ DỤNG PHƯƠNG PHÁP HỌC THEO DỰ ÁN TRONG PHÁT TRIỂN KỸ NĂNG NÓI CỦA HỌC SINH TIỂU HỌC VÀ NHẬN THỨC – THÁI ĐỘ CỦA HỌC SINH Ngành : Lý Luận và Phương Pháp dạy học bộ môn Tiếng Anh Mã số : 8242170011 Người hướng dẫn: Tiến sĩ Nguyễn Tiến Phùng i STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY I certify that this thesis titled “An investigation into the impacts of PBL on primary school students’ speaking skill and their perceptions and attitudes towards PBL” is my work Except where reference is made in the text of this thesis, this paper does not contain any materials published elsewhere or extracted on whole or in part from a thesis by which I have qualified for or been awarded another degree or diploma No other author’s work has been used without acknowledgement in the main text of this thesis The thesis has not been submitted for any degree in any other tertiary institution Quy Nhon, October 2023 VO THI THU HIEN ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to express my appreciation and deepest thanks to all who have supported, motivated and stood by me during the long time I conducted this thesis Firstly, I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Nguyen Tien Phung, who are always kind and devoted to me He gave me great encouragement and inspiration when I had troubles in my life, as well as when I got stuck in finding solutions for my thesis Undoubtedly, without his valuable supports, this thesis is far from being successfully completed Words are not enough to express my gratitude towards his kindness, encouragement and support to me Next, I would like to send my deepest thanks to all the lectures at the Department of Education and Department of Foreign Languages, who are always devoted and enthusiastic in transmitting knowledge to students This knowledge equips me with intensive knowledge in scientific area and necessary skills to carry out this thesis Then, my particular gratitude is sent to the center, the students and the colleague teachers at AAC English center, who always create most favorable conditions for me to complete this thesis successfully, and always eager to participate in the implementation of PBL Last but not least, my words of appreciation are sent to my family for endless love, care, and support so that I could get my thesis done iii ABSTRACT While project-based learning (PBL) has proven to significantly impact students’ skill development, especially in speaking skill, many Vietnamese students appear to have limited awareness of this approach Consequently, this study was conducted on 60 primary school students at American Australian Center (AAC) to investigate the impacts of PBL on the development of students’ speaking skill and understand their perceptions and attitudes towards the use of PBL The study employed pre-test and post-test, classroom observations, and semi-structured interviews with 10 students and 2 instructors to collect data before conducting thematic analysis The findings of the study showed that the students’ speaking skill improved after the projects Notable enhancements were observed in various aspects, including speech length and vocabulary, as well as improved pronunciation and intonation, leading to increased accuracy and fluency Additionally, the students displayed remarkable progress in their stage performances, mastering the use of body language and effectively delivering their messages Meanwhile, throughout the project experiences, students encountered both positive and negative aspects They expressed feelings of confidence and enthusiasm for project-based learning However, they also confronted challenges such as time pressure, competitiveness, and personal obstacles Encouragingly, they effectively transformed these challenges into opportunities for further skill development In conclusion, PBL is a fruitful method that provides students with numerous advantages to develop their speaking skill and enhance their enjoyment in learning English iv TABLE OF CONTENT STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .ii ABSTRACT iii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Rationale .1 1.2 Research aim and objectives 2 1.2.1 Research aim 2 1.2.2 Research objectives 3 1.3 Research questions 3 1.4 Scope of the study 3 1.5 Significance of the study 3 1.6 Organization of the study 4 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .5 2.1 Speaking skill 5 2.1.1 Speaking skill 5 2.1.2 Speaking skill teaching 5 2.1.3 Speaking assessment .7 2.2 Project-based learning (PBL) 10 2.2.1 History 10 2.2.2 Definitions 11 2.2.3 Key features of PBL 12 2.3 The application of PBL in teaching speaking 14 2.4 Students’ perceptions and attitudes 15 2.5 Previous studies 16 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 20 3.1 Research design 20 3.2 Research setting 20 3.3 Participants 21 3.4 Data collection procedure 21 3.5 Methods of data collection 24 3.5.1 Pre-test and post-test (Speaking test) 24 3.5.2 Semi-structured interview 25 3.5.3 Observation 25 3.5 Data analysis 26 3.6 Research procedure 28 v CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 30 4.1 The impacts of using PBL on teaching speaking skill to primary school students (Research Question 1) 30 4.1.1 Students’ speaking performance within two groups before and after the intervention .30 4.1.2 Students’ speaking performance between two groups before and after the intervention 31 4.2 Students’ attitudes toward teachers’ use of PBL in their speaking lessons (Research Question 2) 33 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 40 5.1 Conclusions 40 5.2 Contributions and Implications of the study 41 5.3 Limitations 42 5.4 Recommendations for future research 43 REFERENCES 45 APPENDICES .49 vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EFL: English as a Foreign Language ESL: English as a Second Language OUP: Oxford University Press PBL: Project-based Learning 1 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale English is known as a global language, so its role has become more important than ever It is a crucial tool for the integration process and considered as a “visa” for Vietnamese people to integrate into the world (Le, 2015) Therefore, to acquire and become influent in English is a must for Vietnamese people The way English is taught has evolved over time, and several initiatives have been made to assist Vietnamese students in improving their English language proficiency These initiatives are made to assist Vietnamese speakers in improving their foreign language skills The location, the learning processes, the teaching methods, and the learning objectives all influence the most effective teaching strategy (Brown, 2000) It is also necessary to apply the appropriate curricula and teaching strategies to enhance the educational processes The nation's English language instructors have so received significant training to raise their standards It also encouraged educators to actively update their curricula, modernize their teaching techniques, and incorporate technology into their lessons Only educator training, however, is insufficient to improve learners' competency since it “does not only serve to reinforce the material of the teacher-training curriculum, but also to model a strategy that teachers in training may later utilize with language learners” (Stoller, 2006, p.22) Therefore, to improve students' language and speaking abilities, an efficient and effective teaching style should be used Project-based learning is one kind of foreign language instruction that is thought to help students improve their language abilities and speaking abilities (Hsieh, 2012) The method emphasizes constructivism, in which students gain new information and abilities through working on projects, and it is student-centered It encourages students to participate actively in their studies because they are crucial to the learning process In other words, through the activities involved in carrying out projects, PBL provides students with an opportunity to further their general English 2 language skills and their speaking ability in particular (Simpson, 2011) But there are still some obstacles to PBL implementation in Vietnam First, a lot of students still employ the exam-based teaching method At the end of each course, standardized tests are frequently utilized to assess students' achievement rather than their progress Additionally, the majority of teachers lack enough training in project-based learning techniques for classroom instruction Many of them are reluctant to incorporate new techniques into their classrooms in part because “less teacher talk implies more teacher time” (Cornell & Clarke, 1999, p.94) The students appear to lack the necessary experience to be prepared for the project-based learning in the classroom Moreover, there is still disagreement regarding this strategy between teachers and students (Beckett, 2002) Even though “most project-work proponents say that the advantages outweigh the downsides,” some of them nevertheless demonstrate their discontent with PBL (Alan & Stoller, 2005) It appears that utilizing English to communicate successfully orally has been a challenge for Vietnamese educators and students for many decades Many students still struggle to speak English fluently, despite receiving high marks on written English proficiency tests The primary reason is a lack of understanding of the significance of the English language (Tran & Baldauf, 2007) Therefore, it is urgent to train the prospective teachers with approaches which inspire learner to talk and raise their awareness about the importance of using English For these reasons, this study, entitled “An investigation into the impacts of PBL on primary school students’ speaking skill and their perceptions and attitudes towards PBL”, is conducted and aims to identify the effect of PBL and students' attitudes toward its use to understand its effectiveness and students' attitudes toward its use in classes to enhance students' speaking levels 1.2 Research aim and objectives 1.2.1 Research aim This study is carried out in order to measure the effects of using PBL on teaching speaking skill to primary school students