An Action Research On Project-based Learning For Basic German Grammar Teaching

Serving as the basis of language learning,grammar is often interpreted as the rules and forms that make up words and sentences.Generally speaking,grammatical knowledge,an essential element of language learning,plays an extremely important role in developing language skills and contributing students to mastering the rules of language organization.Overall,as a non-universal language,German is characterized by its complicated grammar at the initial stage.However,the development of German grammar teaching in China has been relatively backward for a long time One of the most prominent traditional teaching methods,teacher-oriented teaching method which argues that students are often treated as passive receivers,still plays a dominant role in German grammar class,resulting in low teaching quality and unsatisfying learning effect.Moreover,the traditional teaching mode makes students over-reliant on teachers,without independent learning ability,thus showing little interest in grammar learning.Hence,the author,as a front-line German teacher,tries to adopt the project-based teaching method in German grammar teaching to address the problems involved in German grammar teaching,such as students’ poor knowledge on grammar,lack of autonomous grammar learning ability and low interest in grammar learning.More specifically,it is suggested for the author to explore new ways to improve the quality of German grammar teaching.Hence,this study will explore the feasibility and effectiveness of project-based learning in German grammar teaching using action research methods,and the following two research questions will be answered:Do the project-based learning activities have any positive impact on certain German grammar rules?If do,in what aspects?This study mainly applies PBL to the teaching of two German grammar rules,Adjective Declension and Konjunktiv Ⅱ,and expects to further answer the following research questions:1.Do the project-based learning activities have any positive impact on students’learning of Adjective Declension?If do,in what aspects?2.Do the project-based learning activities have any positive impact on students’learning of Konjunktiv Ⅱ?If do,in what aspects?Taking 25 freshmen majoring in German at a college in Hebei as the research objects,this action research lasted for a semester.To be more specific,the author designed research questions through questionnaires and teaching observation and developed an action research plan following the process of project-based learning.According to the project teaching process,the author applied the project-based learning method into two German grammar rules,namely,Adjective Declension and the Konjunktiv Ⅱ,followed by the conduction of two rounds of action researches.Furthermore,data were collected in this research based on class videotaping,class observation records,teacher’s reflection journals and students’ learning journals,field notes-interviews,questionnaires,tests,etc.The analysis of the quantitative as well as qualitative data showed that project-based learning activities can contribute students’ to mastering certain German grammar rules,cultivating students’autonomous learning ability in the process of grammar learning,and stimulating students’ interest in grammar learning.However,this action research also involves some limitations.Specifically,the project-based learning activity may not be applicable to all German grammar rules.Even more,it is difficult for students with weak academic foundations to adapt to this method,thus resulting in an unsatisfactory learning effect.Moreover,the limited time for the course,standardized tests and lack of teaching experience hinder the effective implementation of the project-based learning partly,which needs to be further improved in the future.