Project Work

Project work is not a new methodology. Its benefits have beenwidely recognized for many years in the teaching of subjects likeScience, Geography, and History. Some teachers have also beendoing project work in their language lessons for a long time, butfor others it is a new way of working.

The aim of this booklet is to provide a simple introduction toproject work. I shall explain what project work is, what benefits itbrings, and how to introduce it into the classroom. I shall also dealwith the main worries that teachers have about using project workin their classrooms.

The ideas in this booklet are based on the real classroomexperience of a large number of teachers and students of English. Ihope that after reading it, you too will be encouraged to tryproject work.

INTRODUCTION TOPROJECT WORK

Tom Hutchinson

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E-mail: [email protected] 3

© Oxford University Press 1991

Second edition 2001

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may bereproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in anyform or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of OxfordUniversity Press.

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The publishers would like to thank all the teachers whosecomments contributed to the preparation of this book and aregrateful for permission to quote.

40INTROPROJ6.01/HE

Project work is not a new methodology. Its benefitshave been widely recognized for many years in theteaching of subjects like Science, Geography, andHistory. Some teachers have also been doing projectwork in their language lessons for a long time, but forothers it is a new way of working.

The aim of this booklet is to provide a simpleintroduction to project work. I shall explain what projectwork is, what benefits it brings, and how to introduce itinto the classroom. I shall also deal with the mainworries that teachers have about using project work intheir classrooms.

The ideas in this booklet are based on the realclassroom experience of a large number of teachers andstudents of English. I hope that after reading it, you toowill be encouraged to try project work.

What is a project?The best way to answer this question is to show someexamples of projects. The following pieces of projectwork were done by students aged 11–15 in Slovakia andHungary.

1 Here is an example of a very straightforward andpopular project: My Favourite Animal. The studentschoose an animal and write about it. They illustratethe project with pictures (photographs, postcards,etc.).

Project 1

WHAT IS A PROJECT ?

2 Introduction to Project Work

1

2 Projects allow students to use their imagination andthe information they contain does not always have tobe factual. In this example of a project whichrequired students to introduce themselves and theirfavourite things, the students pretend they are ahorse.

Introduction to Project Work 3

Project 2 by Katorina Pokorná and Klára Kucejová

Introduction to Project Work4

3 One of the great benefits of project work is itsadaptability. Here are two examples of the sameproject task. These two projects on The World weredone by students at different levels. The first projectis a poem using the simple present tense only. Thesecond project, however, has been done byintermediate level students, who have been able touse a range of different structures.

Project 3a by Megyeri Ildikó and Miklósi Tímea


Project 3b


4 You can do projects on almost any topic. They can befactual (4) or fantastic (5). Projects can, thus, help todevelop the full range of the learners’ capabilities.

Project 4


Project 5 by K Hajnovic

5 Projects are often done in poster format, but studentscan also use their imagination to experiment with theform. In Project 6 the student has used her creativityto produce a fashion project entitled This Year’sFashions in the shape of woman, while in Project 7the student has been inspired to use the shape ofmountains for his presentation on climbing.

You will probably also note that project work canproduce errors! Project work encourages a focus onfluency. Some errors of accuracy are bound to occur.I shall deal with this important issue on page 18.


Project 7 by Ivica Kukurová

Project 6


What are the common characteristics of these projects?

Hard workEach project is the result of a lot of hard work. Theauthors of the projects have found information abouttheir topic, collected or drawn pictures, written downtheir ideas, and then put all the parts together toform a coherent presentation. Project work is not asoft option.

CreativeThe projects are very creative in terms of bothcontent and language. Each project is a unique pieceof communication, created by the project writersthemselves.

PersonalThis element of creativity makes project work a verypersonal experience. The students are writing aboutaspects of their own lives, and so they invest a lot ofthemselves in their project.

AdaptableProject work is a highly adaptable methodology. Itcan be used at every level from absolute beginner toadvanced and with all ages.

As the examples show, there is a wide range ofpossible project activities, and the range of possibletopics is limitless. Here are a few more possibletopics and tasks:

A project on Families might involve:

• labelling a photograph of your family

• drawing a family tree and writing about yourancestors

• writing a story about your parents’ orgrandparents’ life

• comparing life today to life in your parents’childhood

• comparing different kinds of families in differentcountries

• a survey on who does what in the home

• writing a play about a family argument

• writing a poem about your family

A project on Food might involve:

• writing recipes

• conducting surveys on favourite foods, whatpeople eat for breakfast, etc.

• compiling a tourist guide to the restaurants inyour town

• describing eating habits in your country

• finding out about and comparing the diets ofrich and poor countries

• writing about diet and health

A project on Space might involve:

• finding out and writing about early space flights

• drawing space creatures

• planning a city on the Moon

• writing a science fiction story or play

• making an advertisement or brochure aboutholidays in space

• describing the latest space flight

• finding out and writing about the planets, howrockets work, the problems of living in orbit, etc.

These are just a few examples of possible topics andactivities for project work. Which activities are actuallydone will, of course, depend on many factors includingthe age, level, and interests of the learners, the resourcesavailable, and the constraints of time and space. Buthopefully the examples given here indicate the potentialrange of things that you can do.

So, let us now return to the original question: What is aproject? In fact, the key to understanding project worklies not in the question What?, but rather in the questionWho? Who makes the decisions? A project is anextended piece of work on a particular topic where thecontent and the presentation are determined principallyby the learners. The teacher or the textbook provides thetopic, but as the examples in this section show, theproject writers themselves decide what they write andhow they present it.

This learner-centred characteristic of project work isvital, as we shall see when we turn now to consider themerits of project work.

2


WHY DO PROJECT WORK ?

It is not always easy to introduce a new methodology, sowe need to be sure that the effort is worthwhile. Whatbenefits does project work bring to the language class?This teacher from Spain expresses it very well:

Pupils don’t feel that English is a chore, but it is ameans of communication and enjoyment. They canexperiment with the language as something real,not as something that only appears in books.(Marisa Cuesta, Spain)

As this teacher indicates, project work captures betterthan any other activity the two principal elements of acommunicative approach. These are:

a a concern for motivation, that is, how the learnersrelate to the task.

b a concern for relevance, that is, how the learnersrelate to the language.

We could add to these a third element:

c a concern for educational values, that is, how thelanguage curriculum relates to the generaleducational development of the learner.

Let’s look at these in a bit more detail:

a MotivationIf I could give only one piece of advice to teachers itwould be this: Get your learners to enjoy learningEnglish. Positive motivation is the key to successfullanguage learning, and project work is particularlyuseful as a means of generating this. If you talk toteachers who do project work in their classes, youwill find that this is the feature that is alwaysmentioned: the students really enjoy it. But why isproject work so motivating?

PersonalThe first and most important reason has alreadybeen mentioned on page 10. Project work is verypersonal. There is nothing simulated about a project.The students are writing about their own lives: theirhouse, their family, their town, their dreams andfantasies, their own research into topics that interestthem. What could be more motivating, particularly tothe young learner? And because it is such a personalexperience, the meaning and the presentation of theproject are important to the learners. They will thusput a lot of effort into getting it right.

Learning through doingSecondly, project work is a very active medium. It isa kind of structured playing. Students aren’t justreceiving and producing words, they are:

• collecting information

• drawing pictures, maps, diagrams, and charts

• cutting out pictures

• arranging texts and visuals

• colouring

• carrying out interviews and surveys

• possibly making recordings, too

Project work is learning through doing.

Sense of achievementLastly, project work gives a clear sense ofachievement. It enables all students to produce aworthwhile product, as another teacher from Spaincomments:

There is feedback from the students as they realizewhat they can do with the English they havelearned. (Jesús-Angel Vallejo Carrasco, Spain)

This feature of project work makes it particularly wellsuited to the mixed ability class, because students canwork at their own pace and level. The brighterstudents can show what they know, unconstrainedby the syllabus, while at the same time the slowerlearners can achieve something that they can takepride in, perhaps compensating for their lowerlanguage level by using more photos and drawings.

b RelevanceIn looking at the question of motivation, I have beenmost concerned with how students feel about theprocess of learning, that is, the kinds of activitiesthey do in the language class. An equally importantand related question is how the learners feel aboutwhat they are learning, the language. A foreignlanguage can often seem a remote and unreal thing.This inevitably has a negative effect on motivation,because the students don’t see the language asrelevant to their own lives. If learners are going tobecome real language users, they must learn thatEnglish is not only used for talking about thingsBritish or American, but can be used to talk abouttheir own world. Project work helps to bridge thisrelevance gap.

2

Integration of language with other skillsFirstly, project work helps to integrate the foreignlanguage into the network of the learner’s owncommunicative competence. As this diagram shows,project work creates connections between theforeign language and the learner’s own world. Itencourages the use of a wide range ofcommunicative skills, enables learners to exploitother spheres of knowledge, and providesopportunities for them to write about the things thatare important in their own lives.

Project work and integration

Real needs of language learnersSecondly, project work helps to make the languagemore relevant to learners’ actual needs. Whenstudents from Athens or Barcelona or Milan useEnglish to communicate with other English speakers,what will they want to talk about? Will it be London,New York, Janet and John’s family, Mr Smith’shouse? Surely not! They will want, and be expected,to talk about aspects of their own lives – their house,their family, their town, and so on. Project work thusenables students to rehearse the language and factualknowledge that will be of most value to them aslanguage users.

Language and cultureThis last point raises a very important issue inlanguage teaching: the relationship betweenlanguage and culture. It is widely recognized that oneof the most important benefits of learning a foreignlanguage is the opportunity to learn about othercultures. However, it is important, particularly withan international language such as English, that this isnot a one-way flow, like this:

Language and culture in atraditional approach

The purpose of learning a foreign language is tomake communication between two cultures possible.English, as an international language, should not bejust for talking about the ways of the English-speaking world. It should also be a means of tellingthe world about your own culture. Project work helpsto create this approach. As the diagram belowshows, with project work the language acts as abridge enabling two cultures to communicate witheach other.

Other realms of knowledge

CommunicativeskillsLe

arne

r sow

n world

Learner

English languageand culture

Language and culture in a project approach

English language

English-speaking world Learner’s own world


’

c Educational valuesThere is a growing awareness among languageteachers that the process and content of thelanguage class should contribute towards the generaleducational development of the learner. Project workis very much in tune with modern views about thepurpose and nature of education.

Independent investigationFirstly, there is the question of educational values.Most modern school curricula require all subjects toencourage initiative, independence, imagination, self-discipline, co-operation, and the development ofuseful research skills. Project work is a way of turningsuch general aims into practical classroom activity.

Cross-curricular studiesSecondly, cross-curricular approaches areencouraged. For language teaching this means thatstudents should have the opportunity to use theknowledge they gain in other subjects in the Englishclass. Project work clearly encourages this. Here, forexample, is a project which required knowledge ofthe history and geography of Slovakia.


Project 8 by Anna Mankováˇ


And here are project tasks that bring in knowledge fromGeography and Science classes: They are taken from theProject series of books.

In this section I have considered the merits of projectwork in terms of the process of learning, languagecontent, and educational values. From all three points ofview, project work emerges as a practical methodologythat puts into practice the fundamental principles of acommunicative approach to language teaching. It can thusbring considerable benefits to your language classroom.

In the previous section we looked at the benefits ofproject work. You are probably wondering by now,what’s the catch? For every benefit there is a price to bepaid, and in this section I’ll take a look at some of themain worries that teachers have about project work.

a NoiseTeachers are often afraid that the project classroomwill be noisier than the traditional classroom and thatthis will disturb other classes in the school. Butproject work does not have to be noisy. Studentsshould be spending a lot of the time working quietlyon their projects: reading, drawing, writing, andcutting and pasting. In these tasks, students will beworking on their own or in groups, but this is not anexcuse to make a lot of noise.

Project work is not inherently any noisier than anyother activity. Obviously there will be a certain amountof noise. Students will often need to discuss things andthey may be moving around to get a pair of scissors orto consult a reference book. And some activities dorequire a lot of talking. If students are doing a surveyin their class, for example, there will be a lot ofmoving around and talking. However, this kind ofnoise is a natural part of any productive activity.

Indeed, it is useful to realize that the traditionalclassroom has quite a lot of noise in it, too. There isusually at least one person talking (and teachersgenerally talk rather loudly!) and there may be a taperecorder playing, possibly with the whole class doinga drill. There is no reason why cutting out a pictureand sticking it in a project book should be any noisierthan 30 or 40 students repeating a choral drill.

The problem is not really a problem of noise, it is aconcern about control. Project work is a differentway of working and one that requires a differentform of control. In project work students are workingindependently. They must, therefore, take on some ofthe responsibility for managing their learningenvironment. Part of this responsibility is learningwhat kind of, and what level of, noise is acceptable.When you introduce project work you also need toencourage and guide the learners towards workingquietly and sensibly. Remember that they will enjoyproject work and will not want to stop doing itbecause it is causing too much noise. So it should notbe too difficult to get your students to behavesensibly.

Make a project about a country.

1 Choose a country. Find some

information about it. Try an atlas, an

encyclopaedia, the Internet, travel

agencies, and the country’s embassy.

2 Write a few paragraphs about the

country.

3 Illustrate your text with a map and

pictures.

YES, BUT . . .

Make a poster about anenvironmental problem.1 Choose your topic.2 Do some research to find informationand illustrations.3 Design your poster and write your text.

3

b TimeProject work is time-consuming. It takes much longerto prepare, make, and present a project than it doesto do more traditional activities. When you arealready struggling to get through the syllabus orfinish the textbook, you will probably feel that youdon’t have time to devote to project work, howevergood an activity it may be.

There are two responses to this situation. The first isa practical response and the second more of aphilosophical point.

Outside the classFirstly, not all project work needs to be done in classtime. Obviously, if the project is a group task, most ofit must be done in class, but a lot of projects areindividual tasks. Projects about My Family, MyHouse, etc. can be done at home. You will besurprised how much of their own time students willgladly devote to doing projects.

Rich learning experiencesSecondly, when choosing to do project work you aremaking a choice in favour of the quality of thelearning experience over the quantity. It isunfortunate that language teaching has tended to putmost emphasis on quantity, i.e. as much practice aspossible of each language item. And yet there is littleevidence that quantity is really the crucial factor.What really matters in learning is the quality of thelearning experience.

Project work provides rich learning experiences: richin colour, movement, interaction and, most of all,involvement. The positive motivation that projectsgenerate affects the students’ attitude to all the otheraspects of the language programme. Learninggrammar and vocabulary will appear more relevantbecause the students know they will need thesethings for their project work.

Think back to your own learning, or for that matterto your life in general. It is the rich experiences thatyou remember. Looked at in this way, project work isactually a very cost-effective use of time. There is nosubstitute for quality.

c Use of L1 (the mother tongue)But surely the students will spend all their timespeaking their mother tongue? This is true to a largeextent. It is unlikely that most students will speakEnglish while they are working on their project.However, rather than seeing this as a problem, weshould consider its merits.

Natural working environmentFirstly, it is a natural way of working. It is a mistaketo think of L1 and L2 (the language being learnt) astwo completely separate domains. Learners in factoperate in both domains, constantly switching fromone to the other, so it is perfectly natural for them touse L1 while working on an L2 product. As long asthe final product is in English it doesn’t matter if thework is done in L1.

Realistic translation workSecondly, project work can provide some goodopportunities for realistic translation work. A lot ofthe source material for projects (leaflets, maps,interviews, texts from reference books, etc.) will be inthe mother tongue. Using this material in a projectprovides useful translation activities. In projects onLife in the Past students usually have to interviewpeople in their native language but report theirfindings in English.

Writing practiceThirdly, there will be plenty of opportunities in otherparts of the language course for learners to practiseoral skills. Project work should be seen as a chance topractise that most difficult of skills, writing. There isno need to worry if the students use L1 to discuss it.

d Different levelsSome teachers are concerned that without theteacher’s firm control the weaker students will be lostand will not be able to cope. Again, the answer tothis worry is to see the positive side of it. Not allstudents want or need the teacher’s constantsupervision. By encouraging the more able studentsto work independently you are free to devote yourtime to those students who need it most. It is oftenthe case in the traditional classroom that the weakerstudents are neglected because the brighter studentstake more than their share of the teacher’s attention.

It would be wrong to pretend that project work doesnot have its problems. It certainly demands a lot ofthe teacher in terms of preparation and classroommanagement (see pages 16 and 17). It requires achange of attitude about what is really valuable inlanguage teaching, and you also need to work withyour students to develop a responsible workingenvironment. But, in practice, most teachers find thattheir worst fears about project work do notmaterialize. The work is so motivating for thestudents that it produces its own momentum. Thenoise of the well-managed project classroom is thesound of creativity. And that’s what we want toencourage, not suppress.



GETTING STARTED

So, you’ve decided to introduce project work in yourclassroom. Good. How do you get started? The key tosuccessful project work is good preparation.

a You’ll need some basic materials and equipment:

• scissors

• rulers

• glue

• large sheets of paper or card

b It’s a good idea to have some reference booksavailable:

• a dictionary

• a grammar book

• an atlas

Students will want to know new words orconstructions for expressing their ideas. And if youhaven’t got reference books available, the studentswill ask you! This will not only become tiresome foryou, but it also misses out on an opportunity forlearners to become more independent and to developsome useful research skills.

c Try to keep a stock of magazines, maps, and leafletsin the class. You need to develop squirrel habits!Collect any material you can find. It’s amazing howmuch printed material is available free from shops,travel agents, banks, etc. Remember two importantpoints:

• The material does not have to be in English.Indeed, as already noted, material in L1 canprovide opportunities for some creativetranslation work.

• You do not have to provide all the materialyourself. Encourage the students to providematerial as well. They will often have old comicsand magazines at home.

d Start with concrete, small-scale activities. Don’t startwith an ambitious project like Space Travel. Trysomething simple and well-defined. For example, youcould start with a project such as the one onCommunication in Project 1.

4

Make your ownproject on

communication.

24

YOUR PROJECT

WHAT TO DO

1 Find pictures of famous people. Sti

your project. Write speech bubbles

2 Introduce yourself and your favou

My favour

is ‘The

My fis

My favourite football tea

m

is Manchester United.

They're great.

Hi! I'm Ronan $Keating. I'm $from Ireland.

Hello. I’m Ba

tman. $

I’m from Go

tham City.

Hi. My nam

e's $

Ben Taylor.

I'm from $

London in B

ritain.


A straightforward project like this is a good way ofintroducing the students to project work. From thisthey can progress to more extensive projects.

e Teach your learners how to do project work. Beforestarting any project, discuss with the students howthey will tackle it: What materials will they need?,Where will they get them?, etc. If the project requiresa particular kind of activity, such as an interview, agraph, or a chart, make sure the students know howto do it. Give some practice activities if necessary.Use each project not only to learn and practiselanguage but also to help your students to learn a bitmore about project work.

f Project work works best when it comes at the end ofa chapter or unit. In this way you teach and practisethe language in the unit that the students will need toexpress their ideas in their project. So, for example,before a project on Free Time you would first teachor revise the names of sports and hobbies, days ofthe week, etc. and some useful grammar, such as thepresent simple. In this way the learners are providedwith the basic tools for doing their project.

But do bear in mind that you can’t anticipate all thelanguage the learners will need. Nor do you need to.A lot of language learning goes on during the actualproject work itself, as students look for new words orexpressions. In project work, learners not only learnnew vocabulary, they also develop the skills oflooking for words they do not know or alternativeways of expressing what they want to say.

g One of the most important features of project work ispresentation. The form of presentation you choosewill depend on the topic, the way of working, and theneeds of your teaching situation. But it is importantto present and preserve projects neatly. You don’twant lots of bits of paper lying around. Projects canbe presented in two ways:

— as a poster. Students arrange their pictures andwritten texts on a large sheet of paper or card.The poster can then be displayed on theclassroom walls. This is a particularly useful formof presentation for group projects.

— as a book. Students keep their own project book.This is the best format for individual projects.Students can make two kinds of book. They cando their projects in a large format (A4 or A3)scrapbook. Alternatively they can make a projectfile: students do their projects on separate piecesof paper and then collect them together in a ringfile. This is more flexible than a scrapbook, but itis less tidy and is probably not so suitable foryounger learners. If students have a projectbook, encourage them to personalize their bookwith some decoration on the cover.

Do remember that the value of project work isgreatly increased if students display their work.Public display gives students an added incentive todo their best work. Both books and posters can bedisplayed.

Be preparedPreparation, then, is the key to making project worka success. Prepare your classroom by providingsome basic materials. Prepare your students bypractising the language, skills, and techniques theywill need. Most important of all, prepare yourself fora new way of working that is challenging but verysatisfying.

SONG1 Complete the song.

2 Listen and chec

Song for Sandy

Hello. Daniel.

Am I on the radio?

I’m Dublin.

Yes, it’s a great city, I kn

My song is a frie

She’s seventeen today.

Play a for Sandy

You’re our favourite D

She isn’t with me now

home is in LA.

But play a song for Sa

And her friends in

Play song for

Hope I see her again��

��

��

��

31

Progress diar

• The verb to be

• Possessive a

Nowcheck

3 Introduce a friend.

4 You can do your project in a

scrapbook like this, or on a poster.

ick them in

s.

rite things.

rite comic

e Beano’.

favourite TV programme

s ‘Top of the Pops’.

Me What's your name?

Jane Jane Hill.

Me Where are you from?

Jane I'm from London.

Me How old are you?

Jane I'm twelve.

Me What's your favourite

comic?

Jane It's ‘Big Time’.

Me And what's your

favourite TV

programme?

Jane It's ‘Top of the Pops’.

Me ‘Top of the Pops’ is my

favourite programme,

too. Thank you, Jane.

Here's an interview

with my friend.


Assessment of project work is a difficult issue to tackle.This is not because project work is difficult to assess, butbecause assessment criteria and procedures vary fromcountry to country. In this section I will give someguidelines for assessing projects, but, of course, youknow best what is possible in your own system.

There are two basic principles for assessing projectwork:

a Not just the language!The most obvious point to note about project work isthat language is only a part of the total project.Consequently, it is not very appropriate to assess aproject only on the basis of linguistic accuracy.Credit must be given for the overall impact of theproject, the level of creativity it displays, the neatnessand clarity of presentation, and most of all the effortthat has gone into its production. There is nothingparticularly unusual in this. It is normal practice inassessing creative writing to give marks for style andcontent, etc. Many education systems also requiresimilar factors to be taken into account in theassessment of students’ oral performance in class.

So a wide-ranging ‘profile’ kind of assessment thatevaluates the whole project is needed.

b Not just mistakes!If at all possible, don’t correct mistakes on the finalproject itself, or at least not in ink. It goes against thewhole spirit of project work. A project usuallyrepresents a lot of effort and is something that thestudents will probably want to keep. It is a shame toput red marks all over it. This draws attention to thethings that are wrong about the project over thethings that are good. On the other hand, students aremore likely to take note of errors pointed out to themin project work because the project means muchmore to them than an ordinary piece of class work.

So what do you do about errors? There are two usefultechniques:

• Encourage the students to do a rough draft oftheir project first. Correct this in your normalway. The students can then incorporatecorrections in the final product.

• If errors occur in the final product, correct inpencil or on a separate sheet of paper attachedto the project. A good idea suggested to me by ateacher in Spain is to get students to provide aphotocopy of their project. Corrections can thenbe put on the photocopy.

But fundamentally, the most important thing to do abouterrors is to stop worrying about them. Projects are realcommunication. When we communicate, we do the bestwe can with what we know, and because we usuallyconcentrate on getting the meaning right, errors in formwill naturally occur. It’s a normal part of using andlearning a language.

Students invest a lot of themselves in a project and sothey will usually make every effort to do their best work.Remember, too, that any project will only form part ofthe total amount of work that the students produce inthe language course. There will be plenty ofopportunities to evaluate accuracy in other parts of thelanguage programme. There is much more to languagelearning and education than just accuracy and it is a pityto make project work a hostage to accuracy-orientatedassessment systems. Project work provides anopportunity to develop creativity, imagination, enquiry,and self-expression, and the assessment of the projectshould allow for this.

EVALUATION5


In this booklet I have concentrated on small-scalewritten projects, primarily for young learners andteenagers, but project work is an extremely adaptablemethodology:

a There are many examples around the world of theuse of projects with adult learners, in ESP classes,and in teacher training, too.

b Project work can also be expanded into moreambitious activities. Here are some examples of somemore advanced projects.

c As the last two projects suggest, other media can beused, too. Projects using audio-recordings or evenvideo-recordings require a lot of planning, but theycan be highly motivating. Students can make miniradio or TV programmes.

Project work must rank as one of the most excitingteaching methodologies a teacher can use. It trulycombines in practical form both the fundamentalprinciples of a communicative approach to languageteaching and the values of good education. It has theadded virtue in this era of rapid change of being a long-established and well-tried method of teaching.

In this booklet I have tried to answer the main questionsthat teachers have about project work. I hope that it willencourage you to try it in your own classroom. Onceyou have tried it I am sure that you will find it a rich andrewarding experience both for your students and foryourself. In talking to many teachers about project work,I have met some who have never tried it and I have metsome who have tried it and now use it regularly, but Ihave never met a teacher who has tried project workand then given it up. So try it yourself. You’ll wonderhow you ever managed without it!

I’ll leave the last word to a teacher in Italy:

As far as the teacher is concerned, it was certainlyhard work to organize the students’ writing andeverything, but it was very rewarding to go intothe classroom and hear ‘Oh, good. Today it’s ourproject lesson. I love English!’ (Mavi Marino Greco,Italy)

Tom Hutchinson

FURTHER DEVELOPMENT CONCLUSION

Tell the story of your country.1 Find some information in your books or on theInternet. Or you can talk to your History teacher.• How and when did it become a united country?• Have its borders changed?2 Write about your country. Illustrate your projectwith maps.

Write and act a play about ‘friends’.

1 Decide these things.

• What message do you want your play to have?

• Who are the characters?

• What happens?

2 Write your play.

3 Act out your play. You can record it too.

Make a project about teenage health.

1 Choose some topics to write about, e.g. food,

exercise, drugs.

2 Make some rules for living a healthy life.

3 Find some pictures to illustrate your ideas.

4 Present your ideas as an information leaflet or as a

short TV programme.

6 7

Project work is not a new methodology. Its benefits have beenwidely recognized for many years in the teaching of subjects likeScience, Geography, and History. Some teachers have also beendoing project work in their language lessons for a long time, butfor others it is a new way of working.

The aim of this booklet is to provide a simple introduction toproject work. I shall explain what project work is, what benefits itbrings, and how to introduce it into the classroom. I shall also dealwith the main worries that teachers have about using project workin their classrooms.

The ideas in this booklet are based on the real classroomexperience of a large number of teachers and students of English. Ihope that after reading it, you too will be encouraged to tryproject work.

INTRODUCTION TOPROJECT WORK

Tom Hutchinson

You can order any of our titlesthrough your usual bookseller.Your local Oxford University Pressoffice can help if you need moreinformation, or you can write to us:ELT Promotions Oxford University PressGreat Clarendon StreetOXFORD OX2 6DPEngland

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© Oxford University Press 1991

Second edition 2001

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may bereproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in anyform or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of OxfordUniversity Press.

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, byway of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, orotherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent inany form of binding or cover other than that in which it ispublished and without a similar condition including thiscondition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

The publishers would like to thank all the teachers whosecomments contributed to the preparation of this book and aregrateful for permission to quote.

40INTROPROJ6.01/HE

Project Work

Documents

Transcript of Project Work