Impacts Of Project-Based Insturction Of The Courses On English-Speaking Countries/Areas Studies On English Majors

With the implementation of “the Belt and Road” strategy,China urgently needs talents in countries/areas studies who are familiar with society,culture,politics,law,trade and finance of relevant countries.In order to meet this need,an institution for the education of English majors in Northeast China has made an attempt to develop a curriculum on area and country education for English majors at the undergraduate level.This study is to identify the impacts of project-based instruction of the courses on English-speaking countries/areas studies(PBI of the courses on ECAS in brief hereafter)on English majors,problems existing in the courses and their coping strategies.With classroom observations and interviews as instruments for data collection,a qualitative research design was employed.Interviews were carried out with 20 students who had studied the courses on ECAS and 14 teachers who were responsible for the teaching of the courses on ECAS.All of the four courses on ECAS were observed.Analysis of the data collected generated the following findings.Firstly,at the level of knowledge,PBI of the courses on ECAS had exerted positive impacts on students' acquisition of English language knowledge and it also contributed to students' acquisition of in-depth disciplinary knowledge and consolidation of content-area knowledge which was closely connected to the topic of their projects.Secondly,at the level of competences,it had positive impacts on the improvement of students' comprehensive language-using competence,intercultural communicative competence,learning competence to acquire and update knowledge,and the competences in scientific research,critical thinking and innovation.Thirdly,at the level of qualities,it helped the cultivation of the students' moral qualities,humanistic qualities,professional qualities and physical and psychological qualities.Fourthly,it also contributed to the enhancement of students' affect,especially the improvement of students' motivation.Problems existing in teaching objectives,teachers,students and evaluation system were identified.Coping strategies of the problems were proposed accordingly.