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ADVANTAGES OF PBL IN EFL ENVIRONMENT Umarov B.N.
Umarov Bobir Norboevich - Teacher, DEPARTMENT OF PRACTICAL ASPECTS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGES, ENGLISH
LANGUAGES FACULTY 3, UZBEKISTAN STATE WORLD LANGUAGES UNIVERSITY, TASHKENT, REPUBLIC OF UZBEKISTAN
Abstract: adopting a project-based teaching approach in the classroom can energize the curriculum. Research has shown that PBL is a viable and flexible alternative to traditional short-term intensive language programme. It enables teachers to bridge academic instruction with real-life experience in communicating across cultures. Keywords: project based learning, assessment, technology, feedback.
PBL helps students to develop their skills holistically while improving their ability to work in groups and managing their time well. As students are evaluated on the basis of their projects, rather than on the comparatively narrow rubrics defined by exams, essays, and written reports, assessment of project-based work is often more meaningful to them. Students also thrive on the greater flexibility of project learning. In addition to participating in traditional assessment, they might be evaluated on presentations to a community audience they have assiduously prepared for, informative tours of a local historical site based on their recently acquired expertise, or screening of a scripted film they have painstakingly produced.
Furthermore, PBL is also an effective way to integrate technology into the curriculum. A typical project can easily accommodate computers and the Internet, as well as interactive whiteboards, global-positioning-system (GPS) devices, digital still cameras, video cameras, and associated editing equipment. Fried-Booth [2] advocates the ways that technology can support students and teachers as they work on projects, so that motivation and thoughts are sustained.
The active and engaged learning plus the real-world relevance of PBL enables students to obtain a deeper knowledge of the subjects under study as well as enables them to hone their organizational and research skills, develop better communication with their peers and adults as well as develop confidence and self-direction as they move through both team-based and independent work. In short, a well-designed and well-implemented project can be the ideal platform for generating meaningful learning because all the relevant skills and knowledge obtained can be utilized in their daily lives.
According to Stoller, a project is meaningful if it fulfils two criteria. First, students must perceive the work as personally meaningful, as a task that matters and that they want to do well. Second, a meaningful project fulfils an educational purpose. For a project to be meaningful to students, they suggest that seven essentials needed to be fulfilled [3, 5].
(1) A Need to Know: "With a compelling student project, the reason for learning relevant material becomes clear: I need to know this to meet the challenge I've accepted."
(2) A Driving Question: A good driving question gives students a sense of purpose and challenge (In the study context, the questio n is: "How can we help to narrow the generation gap?")
(3) Student Voice and Choice: In terms of making a project feel meaningful to students, the more voice and choice, the better (Students can decide what products they will create, what resources they will use, what tasks they would do, how they would work together, how they will structure their time and so on.)
(4) 21st Century Skills: A project should give students opportunities to build 21st century skills such as collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and the use of technology which will serve them well in the workplace and life.
(5) Inquiry and Innovation: Students find project work more meaningful if they conduct real inquiry. Exposure to a variety of authentic and challenging real-life tasks, will make them learn to innovate- find a new answer to a driving question, a new product, or an individually generated solution to a problem
(6) Feedback and Revision: When students refer to rubrics and other sets of criteria to critique their own as well as one another's work. Self-evaluation and reflections as well as feedback from peers make learning more meaningful.
(7) A Publicly Presented Product: When students present their work to a real audience, they will try to replicate the kinds of tasks done by professionals and in the process, create authentic products that people outside school might use. [1, 112]
For teachers who use Project-Based Learning, the task of classroom management is quite different from that faced by teachers employing the traditional instructional methods of lecture, discussion, and seatwork. With PBL, very little time is devoted to teacher-directed seatwork or whole-class discussions. Students spend the majority of their time working on their own or in small groups. Teachers typically do not lead instructional activities, nor do they dispense resources, or present material to be learned. Students find their own sources, conduct their own research, and secure their own feedback. Experienced PBL teachers report that they spend very little time promoting student engagement or handling student misbehavior. Teachers often spend their time participating in projects as peers rather than as classroom managers. Project-based Learning is implemented in the form of classroom and out of class. During the whole process, students not only learn a particular culture and language, they also develop their overall abilities as learners of language and culture.
References
1. Beckett G.B. & Slater T. (2005). The project framework: A tool for language, content, and skills integration. ELT Journal, 59(2), 108-116.
2. Fried-Booth D.L. (2002). Project work (2nd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.
3. Stoller F. L. (1997). Project work: A means to promote language content. English Teaching Forum, 35(4), 2-7.
