A Study On Application Of PBL In College English Teaching

Project-based Learning is a kind of student-centered instructional approach and adynamic approach to teaching in which students explore real-world problems andchallenges. With this type of active and engaged learning, students are inspired toobtain a deeper knowledge of the subjects they’re studying. Since the 1980s, interestin project-based learning and its integration into second and foreign languageinstruction has been growing around the world. In China, the study of project-basedlearning in foreign language teaching has a short history and began at the end oftwentieth century. However, as a student-centered teaching model, project-basedlearning becomes more and more popular in China for its contribution to improvingstudents’motivation, problem-solving skills, research skills, cooperative skills andlanguage competence with the guidance of the teacher. According to the literatures athome and abroad, PBL proves to be an effective model in many fields and much studywork has been done. But little research work was done in college English teaching inChina. At present, in view of the marked increase in student enrollments andrelatively limited resources, college English teaching is facing many challenges anddifficulties. How can we make use of the limited resources to improve the Englishcompetence of college students? The researcher made a study in Jining MedicalCollege by combining the existing teacher-centered pattern of language teaching withproject-based learning in the first two years college English teaching amongnon-English majors.The study was carried out among five-year medical students of Jining MedicalCollege and 100 students of Grade 2009 from Department of Clinical Medicine wereinvolved. The researcher was their college English teacher in the following foursemesters. In order to test the experimental effect, 50 students from class 13 were setas control group (CG) and 50 students from class 14 were set as experimental group(EG). CG was taught in traditional teaching method, that is, teacher-centeredtraditional approach while EG was taught in project-based model. This study lasted for four semesters and presents the theoretical research on project-based learning andan empirical study among non-English majors in order to solve the long existingproblems in Jining Medical College and promote more medical students to improvelanguage competence and pass CET- 4. The sharp difference between CG and EG wasmade by comparing the CET scores in June 2011. The research findings prove PBL isan effective model in college English fields and suits the needs of college Englishcurriculum and the society.