On The Influential Factors Of The Project-based English Learning Model Upon Learning Motivation

In view of the dramatic increase in student enrollments, the relatively limited educational resources and the fast development of information technology, the College English Curriculum Requirements (2007) recommends that a new language teaching model be set up in place of the existing teacher-centered pattern of language teaching. The new model should integrate the principles of interest, knowledge and practicality, stimulating the motivation of both teachers and students, and give priority to students’central position and teachers’guiding role in the teaching and learning process. By taking advantage of the special functions of computers and the Internet, the new model should allow learners to select appropriate materials and methods based on their personal needs, obtain guidance in learning strategies, gradually improve their autonomous learning ability and achieve the best learning effects.Project-based learning (PBL) is an effective approach to promoting the simultaneous acquisition of language, content and skills. It is an innovative and empirically proven instructional method built upon student-centered, authentic, interdisciplinary and long-term learning activities that enhance student interest and motivation. When we compare the key features of PBL model with the constructs of motivation, there seems to be a strong connection, by which we tend to conclude cautiously that PBL might be one of the ideal models in the L2/FL classroom, which meets almost all the requirements proposed in the Requirements. Under such a background, this study, based on the cognitive and social constructvist perspectives, applied methodological triangulation with a view to locating the motivational factors of the networked PBL model, finding out the relationship between PBL and learning achievement and setting up a networked PBL model of motivation.A review of previous studies left us an impression that despite the large number of resources, models, frameworks and proofs claiming the benefits of PBL, there is a severe shortage of empirical research on project-based L2and FL education (Beckett,2006; Stoller,2006), especially research-based models built upon sound L2/FL learning theories. Still limited empirical research has presented PBL in the student perspective (Land&Greene,2000; Wu&Krajcik,2006). What is more, students’motivation of project-based lang uage learning with technology has not yet become a central concern. Research is, therefore, urgently needed to investigate what PBL actually looks like in the L2or FL classroom and how it motivates student learning.Considering strong behavioral indicators offered, motivation is easy to describe but much more difficult to explain, for example, why people are motivated or demotivated at a specific task or in a specific context. Although the recent motivational studies have gradually attached importance to the role of a learning context, they can’t be applied directly to language teaching. For instance, Gardner’s socio-educational model focuses not on the real causes of activating and sustaining motivation, but on the possible learning outcomes affected by motivation. To him, once motivation is triggered, the causes are unimportant, but to language teachers, it is too risky an attempt to implement a language activity if its sources of motivation are nowhere to track down. Just as Oxford and Shearin (1994:15) maintain,"quite possibly the source of motivation is very important in a practical sense to teachers who want to stimulate students’motivation. Without knowing where the roots of motivation lie, how can teachers water those roots?"This paper, based on cognitive and social constructivist perspectives, aims to track down the key features of the networked PBL model that affect the internal motivational constructs. It is hypothesized that both the key features of the networked PBL model and the internal motivational constructs work together to improve learning achievements. Specifically, the four research questions formulated are:1) Which key features of the networked PBL model could affect students’learning motivation?2) To what extents do these key features of the networked PBL model affect students’learning motivation?3) To what extent does gender or major affect the relationship between the key features of the networked PBL model and students’learning motivation?4) From students’perspective, what learning achievements might the networked PBL model lead to?The networked PBL model was carried out over three years (2008,2009&2010) at Northeastern University (NEU), targeted at the author’s first-year and second-year non-English majors. These participants were admitted into Level3English classes based on their performances on the English Placement Tests taken in the first week of their college life. For the present study, only the167students of Grade2010were taken as participants due to the comparatively small size of Grade2008participants and the researcher’s inexperience in the years of2008and2009. In order to obtain confirmation of findings through the convergence of different perspectives and arrive at a deeper and more complex understanding of the language learning context, a range of data sources was employed here to provide opportunities for triangulation in what was essentially an empirical study. Sources included self-designed questionnaire, interview and students’e-portfolios, in particular their self-reports.Based on the analysis and discussions of the questionnaire, the interview and the students’ self-reports, it could be safely concluded that the networked PBL model tends to significantly enhance students’intrinsic motivation rather than extrinsic motivation. The nine key features of the networked PBL model have varied but marked effects on the seven motivational constructs selected for the present study. Given the different contributions of the PBL features to learning motivation, the author of the paper tentatively divided the nine key PBL features into two categories. One is the primary motivational factors that include collaboration, autonomy, accumulativeness, exploration and scaffolding while the other is the secondary motivational factors that comprise authenticity, reflection, integrativeness and technology-enhancement. Both the primary and the secondary factors work together to impact such internal motivational constructs as self-efficacy, anxiety, self-confidence, attribution, expectancy-value, goals and self-determination. Based on the analysis and discussions of the questionnaire and the students’self-reports, we concluded that the networked PBL model is likely to promote students’ multiple learning achievements including language proficiency, subject content and21st century skills. Also, we amazingly found that what learners could achieve in the networked PBL model fits well with the Standards for Foreign Language Education raised by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL,1999).Compared with the previous research on PBL and motivation, this study has the following innovative points:●Theoretical innovationConsidering that a large majority of previous research is based on Gardner’s socio-educational models including a rather limited number of motivational constructs, the author of the paper attempted to take both cognitive and social constructivist perspectives, adding a total of seven motivational constructs into the present study. Moreover, with reference to Williams and Burden’s social constructivist model as well as Dornyei’s models of FL/L2learning motivation, the author of the paper attempted to set up a motivational model specifically designed for networked PBL and almost exclusively from the learner perspective. From this model, we can not only prove that networked PBL activities enhance learners’intrinsic motivation as well as their learning achievements, but also find out the features of PBL that play a primary or secondary role in motivating learners. Thus, this model, on one hand, informs us about the outcomes of PBL motivation, and on the other hand, explains clearly the sources of PBL motivation.●Methodological innovationFrom a review of the previous research on motivation, it is not difficult to find that most of them are on the whole quantitatively designed. After an analysis of some or many data with the aid of some statistical tools, several tables or figures were worked out and conclusions were drawn accordingly. This unitary method seems more appropriate for research on natural sciences rather than social sciences. For the present study, the author of the paper methodologically attempted to apply triangulation, a way of cross-checking the validation of data from more than two sources. By using a mixed research method to gather both quantitative and qualitative data, such as questionnaire, interview and self-report, he tried to cross verify the same phenomenon from several sources. Moreover, it is the author of the paper who formulated the questionnaire used to check the relationship between PBL, motivation and learning achievement. Undergoing a careful revision in the previous pilot study, it performed satisfactorily in the testing of reliability and validity for the present study. Thus any researcher who wants to do some empirical research in this area could refer to it as well.●Pedagogical innovationIt was suggested by the author of the paper that in order to create an optimal learning context for students, teachers designing and implementing their own networked PBL activities are encouraged to make salient the primary motivational factors and make improvements on the secondary motivational factors. If so, students may have more chances to become motivated and gain more learning achievements. However, PBL is not a panacea. As early as1931, Dewey opposed firmly the idea that PBL is the only way out of the educational confusion. Rather, it is simply one of the many teaching methods. A reasonable solution is to integrate the networked PBL model into the more traditional teaching.Limitations of the study do exist due to such factors as sample size, time constraints and researcher’s experience. However, since there is rather scarce empirical research available evaluating the influential factors of the networked PBL model on language learners’motivation, the present study may still provide valuable information about the relationship between PBL, motivation as well as learning achievement. Considering that this study is rudimentary in nature, there is much more for improvement. More future work needs to be done on improving the networked PBL model of motivation, checking the effect of a specific PBL feature on a certain motivational construct as well as introducing strategy training to sustain learner motivation. In order to guarantee the reliability of future research, investigator triangulation is also strongly recommended.