Research On The Application Of Project-Based Learning In Junior High School English Review Lessons

Project-Based Learning(PBL)is a kind of teaching method which is believed to be helpful in cultivating students’ comprehensive language proficiency,cooperative and reflective ability.Students complete a project with group members by planning and completing a series of tasks with the purpose of achieving a goal or solving a problem.By doing projects,students can integrate their language knowledge and skills,at the same time they can evaluate their own achievement.In this process,students can not only cultivate their ability of unity and cooperation,but also stimulate their interest in learning English.In PBL,project is the extension and development of "project" in the field of management.In China,the application of PBL in language courses has been paid more and more attention.There are many researches on college English project-based learning,but there are few researches on the application of PBL in junior high school English teaching and learning.In this study,a 14-week experiment was conducted in order to find out the influence of PBL on students’ English learning by applying it in junior English review lessons.The students from two intact classes(110 in total)in Grade Nine of a middle school in Kunming,Yunnan Province participated in the study as research subjects.One class was chosen as experimental class and the other as control class.PBL was applied in the experimental class while the control class was taught in traditional way in review lessons.The study aims to answer the following three research questions:1.What is the influence of the application of PBL in review lessons on junior high school students’ English learning interest?2.What is the influence of the application of PBL in review lessons on junior high school students’ English learning achievement?3.What is the influence of the application of PBL in review lessons on junior high school students’ group cooperation ability?SPSS 19.0 was used to analyze the data of pre-test,post-test and questionnaire results,combining with interview data.The results of the research show that:1.The application of PBL in English review lessons helps to stimulate junior high school students’ English learning interest to some extent.The students in experimental class liked the new form of English review lessons,most of them participate in the completion of projects with a more positive attitude.Students were more willing to communicate with others in English than before and they spent more time on English learning.2.The application of PBL in English review lessons can better improve students’ English achievement.The students from the experimental class performed better than those from the control class in the post-test.Students’ English scores were significantly improved compared with the scores of the control class after the experiment.3.The application of PBL in English review lessons helps to enhance junior high school students’ group cooperation ability.In the process of doing the project,students learned to discuss with other group members,to listen to their opinions and suggestions when they met with difficulties.They tried to complete their own role and tasks.At the same time,it is also found that students’ inadequate knowledge reserve and weak self-control ability would hinder the successful completion of the project.So teachers should provide enough guidance and supervision to ensure that the expected review lesson effect can be achieved.