by "Samir Bounab"

teacher trainer at MONE

(yellowdaffodil66@gmail.com )
Project work is particularly effective in English for Specific
Purposes(ESP)settings because it leads itself easily to
authentic language use, a focus on language at the discourse
rather than sentence level ,authentic tasks , and learner
centeredness.Most importantly , project work leads to
purposeful language use because it requires personal
involvement on the part of the students.
What is project work ?
Project work involves milti-skill activities which focus on a
theme of interest .In project work ,students work together to
achieve a common purpose ,a concrete outcome ,(for
example, a brochure,a bulletin board display , a video , an
article ) .Typically it requires students to work together over
several days or weeks , both inside and outside the classroom
,often in collaboration with speakers of the target language .
DEVELOPPING A PROJECT
Although recommendations as to the best way to develop
projects vary ,most are consistent with eight(8) fundamental
steps described below :
1. Define a theme : In collaboration with students , define a
theme that will amplify the students' understanding of an
aspect of their future work and provide relevant language
practice .
2. Determine the final outcome: Define the final outcome
of the project (for example,a written report ,brochure
,debate,video) and its presentation (collective or
individual) .Agree on objectives for both content and
language .
3. Structure the project : Collectively identify the
information that students will need and the steps they
must take to obtain it (library research, letters,
interviews,etc).Decide on each student's role and put the
students into working groups.
4. Identify language skills and strategies : Integrate
lessons into the curriculum that prepare students for Steps
5.6 and 7.Identify the language skills which students will
need to gather and compile information for their project
.For example , will they need to write letters ?Will they
interview natiove speakers?Determine the skills and
strategies that students will need to compile information
(Step6) .Plan activities to prepare them for these tasks
.Identify the skills and strategies that students will need to
present the final project(Step7) .As they prepare their
presentation, they may need to work on the language
(written or spoken) of formal reporting .
5. Gather information : After students design intruments
for data collection , have them gather information inside
and outside the classroom , individually, in pairs , and in
groups .
6. Compile and analyze information : Students should
compile information they have gathered ,compare their
findings , and decide how to organize them for efficient
presentation.
7. Present final product : Students will present the
outcome of their project work as a culminating activity .
compile /k@m"paIl/ verb [T]
to collect information and arrange it in a book, report,
or list
8. Evaluate the project : In this final phase ,students and
teacher reflect on the steps taken to accomplish their
objectives and the language ,communicative skills , and
information they have acquired in the process .They can
also discuss the value of their experience and its
relationship to future vocational needs .

A SAMPLE PROJECT
To illustrate how these generic steps can be translated into
practice,we outline a project entitled Purchasing a computer" ,
designed by two teachers of business English in Italy .
1.

2.

Students agree to compile information about four

computers models in order to recommend which system
their school should purchase .
Students decide on the final outcome : sibgroups will
report on the information they have gathered at a
computer trade fair and recommend a purchase .The
whole class will then decide which computer to buy
.Together they will write a formal recommendation and
submit it to the head administrator of their school .

4,5,6 and 7 .Students will review advertissements

promoting different computer models and brands to
discover the criteria used in comparing computers
.Students will survey school personnel to determine
how the new computer will be used .They will inquire
about such criteria as memory ,warranty,software
compatibility , maintenance ,and cost .Studens will
decide how to obtain information about four computers
on the market (trade magazine, promotional literature ,
computer trade show ) and summarize the materials
they have accumulated .Students will prepare an oral
presentation that summarize their findings and
concludes with a recommendation to be submitted to
the school administration .
In the process of completing the project , students may
need To practise those language skills and strategies
that they determined to be important at different
stages.Students will read a passage that compares
computer models.They will practise skimming and
scanning for key information from manufactures about
their products .Students will rehearse the formal oral
presentaton of a product comparison using a visual
aid .
8. The teacher and students will enumerate the steps
they compted , consider what they achieved in the
process , and discuss the problems they encountered .
CONCLUSION
ESP teachers can break with routine by spending a
week or more doing something besides grammar drills
and technical reading .The benefits of project work
also include improved student motivation and
enhanced awareness of their language needs ,
integrated skillls practrice , ands a more stimulating
and stisfying learning and teaching experience .

Article by Ken Sheppard and Fredricka L.Stoller

[U.S.A , 1995]
Forum Magazine'October2002'

Document N2 about "Project work"

Introduction :
Teaching English with the projects approach a double
effect objective : first it's an approach to promoting
indirect teaching in English , and second it's a method
of teaching in itself .
In the following the project approach in English , it is
not the research findings that counts , as much as the
English discourse and the interaction of the learners
to complete the assignment

.
What is a project ?
The project is the final production of the file .It
facilitates language learning by setting tasks that
require learners to work on their own .
Learners collect information from a variety of sources
that will result in authentic output so that learners
could produce a research report , a thesis or a model
in form of : recipe book , a brochure , posters that
will serve authentic communicative and learning
purposes .

The advantages of doing projects in the classroom

It's an appoach in which indirect teaching is employed
.Through this approach we aim to :
Students make their own choices about what
they do
Motivate learners abilities and skills .
Put in use the language acquisitions .
Give the learners the satisfaction of seeing a
concrete product that they have produced .
Be cooperative and sharing views and
problems , respecting each other's feelings , point
of view and developing group work and social
skills .
In the other hand :
Project encourage cooperation and sharing
They promote learner's independence
Project work is topic- based
It involves research / questionnaires
They lead to a presentation
They involve different skills .
They may be very creative and include artwork
They cater for different learning styles and
personalities
They require use of all language skills .
How to plan a project
Every project involves various activities and should be
planned as follow :
1. Preparation : It's a talk about the topic in which the
teacher presents the project and motivates the learners .
The learners , by their turns may ask for further
information .
2. Planning : At this stage , the learners have come to a
decision confirmed by the teacher .The planning goes
through these aspects :
a) Identifying sources
b) Determining the mode for collecting and
analysing information
c) Deciding on the presentation technique
d) Establishing evaluation procedures
e) Assigning individual tasks to team members in
cases of collaborative efforts .
3. Here the learners collect materials and information from
books ,journals , libraries , maps , internet , magazines or
resource persons and work individually or in groups .The
teacher himself is a source of information .
4. Timing : A certain amount of time is put aside for the
project with a deadline , when the project work will be
ready .This depends on how much time is available
.We don't want a project going too long as much may
lose interest and momentum .
5. Language : The language that is produced is not
controlled , but the students should have had input on
the kind of language that the project needs

For example : news stories often use a lot of passive

e.g . The jewellery store was broken into and ten
diamond rings were stolen .
Project can be presented as :
Wall displays
Posters
Magazines
Newspapers
Books
Radio broadcast
Tv programmes
Film
Documentary
Teacher's role :
A successful project depends mostly on the teacher.Teachers
should act as counsellors and guide the learners to sources
of information.They should .
Motivate and encourage the learners until the project is
achieved .This help can be linguistic like helping get the
grammar right or practical like supplying stationery ;
To help the learner performing a sucessful project work , the
teacher guides the learner by ticking the following elements
while preparing his project .This guide (plan) is categorised
as follow :
a) Organization :
My report is sequenced in a logical way
My introduction is exciting and inviting
My ideas flow well and are clearly connected to one another
I have a satisfying conclusion
b) Fluency :
My sentences begin in different ways .
My sentences build upon the ones before
My sentences are of different lengths
The meaning of each of my sentences is clear
My sentences flow from one another
There are no run-on sentences
There are no sentences fragments
c) Ideas :
I used brainstorming and a concept map or outline to
organize ideas
My ideas are logically related to one another
Ideas are written in my own words
I understand my topic
My report is clear and focused .I stay on topic
My details give the reader important information
I have listened to suggestions from the teacher or peer writers
d) Word choice :
Every word seems just right .
I used a lot of descriptive words(adjectives and adverbs)
My words paint pictures in the reader's mind
I used synonyms to add variety
I use new spelling words
I use the right action word form with my nouns
I use the dictionary to spell words I don't know .
e) Conventons :

My letters are written clearly

I leave white spaces between my words
My sentences go from left to right .
f) Punctuation:
I use a full stop at the end of each sentence.
I use a question mark at the end of each question;
I use an exclamation point at the end of each exclamation.
I use commas between words in a list
g) Capitalization :

I use both capital and lower case letters.

I use a capital letter to start the first word of a sentence
I use a capital letter to start names of people , pets, and places
After the learner gets his project ready, a checklist is to be
ticked to evaluate his own work himself.
Some elements of this list can be dropped or more detailed
can be added according to the learnern's level needs.
-

Making choices : They organise themselves into groups and

decide which part of the paper they are going to produce .One
group may be involved in creating the crossword, another with
writing some news or sports items , yet another with writing
the horoscopes .The topics can be light hearted or serious
,real or imaginary it's up to the students to decide .

The zoo a wall display

Animals are a topic often found in course books and children
generally are interested in the animal world.
Tell your class they are going to create a zoo .The zoo will be
a display on the classroom wall .Children can either work
ontheir own or with a partner (even younger children
sometimes prefer working alone and some are distressed if
they they cannot work with their friend)
Each child or pair of children can choose an animal and they
have a few days to research this animal they have to find out
at least 5 interesting facts .They can find out the information
by reading books either in English or mother tongue, they
could look at the internet (if this available) or they can ask
other people like their family.
You can do the presentation preparation in two stages .In one
lesson the children can prepare the writing part a short
paragraph about their animal .It's a good idea to allow for
redrafting so that the final result is as well-written as possible
.In the next lesson (or for homework) , they can draw a picture
of their animal or find a picture or pictures in magazines and
cut them out .The final stage will be to mount the text and
picture this can be done on pieces of coloured card to
different areas of the zoo and as a class decide where all the
different animals should go .The children can be encouraged
to say which animals would like to live near each other .And
finally , the class can decide on a name for the zoo and write
thisup at the top of the display .Other students and parents can
be invited in to see the zoo.
Alternative topics that can have similar project work done by
the class are :
A street of shops with each child choosing a shop
designing it and labelling the contents .Later they can act out
role plays of people visiting their shops.
Sports, pop or film stars .
Food
Countries
Famous people
Topics :
Any topic you are studying can lend itself to project work .For
example if you are doing Monsters, you could get the children
to do any of these mini-projects :
Research famous monsters like Yeti, Loch Ness monster
Design and make a monster mask and then create a little
sketch.
Design a monster poster
Interview with a monster
Write a monster story as a class .
Or Food
Design a pizza
Cooking competition make a dis hand get the class to taste
it and award point .
Research food around the world
Design a menu of the student's favourite foods or an alien
planet menu
Restaurant role plays .
A display or presentation on healthy eating
Children keep a food diary and make a poster on what they
have eaten all week .
Surveys or questionnaires of likes / dislikes of the class
presented as graphs or reports.
Write a song about food .
Older Students :
As students get older , more independent and used to doing
projects there can be less input from teachers .But often it is
more convenient and effective to give students a framework
for project work .
Bellow are some ideas for more structured projects I have used
with students .An example of a project is a class newspaper.
News paper publication :
Background : After studying English language newspaper or
looking at television news stories onTV channels , students
are encouraged by their teacher to create their own newspaper
.

Presentation : Students have to work together to organize

who does what and what the final result will look like .When
I have done this , the students took over a wall in the
classroom and displayed their newspaper there so other
students and parents could come in and see it . They could
have used the school photocopier to make copies and
distribute it .
Common reasons why teachers might avoid project work
There isn't enough time
Time is always an issue in the classroom .We never seem to
have enough and there are so many other things to do .But a
lot of work on projects can be done outside classroom time .
Homework is often done quickly or badly if students are not
motivated .If your students are interested inthe project and
want the final presentation of their ideas to be good , they wull
spend more time outdside the classroom on it .Class time will
not be wasted on projects as the work the children are doing
is very valuable for their language development they are
using English to be creative and communicative and often
stretch themselves to try to produce an excellent end result .
Children speak a lot in their mother tongue :
Of course they will use a certain amount of their own language
especially if they are lower level , but they are thinking about
English and their final presentation of the project will be in
English .
You can equip children with the classroom language they need
for projects and encourage them to use it by putting it up
around the class so they can refer to it . E.g . " where are the
scissors ?" Shall we put this here?"
It can get very noisy :
Set rules before doing the project work and make it clear to the
students that excess noise is not allowed .Have good signals
for getting children to stop talking and pay attention to you
ask Resources Language
Needed

functions

Language
Structures

Lexical
sets

Language
skills

.For example, stand in the centre of the room with your hands
in the air and wave .As the children notice you they must do
the same until everyone is standing quietly waving looking at
you .It's much better than shouting and once the children get
task

Intellectu
skills

Motor
skills

Social
skills

Learner
Emotional/personal
Independe development
skills
outcomes

into the routine , it is a quick and effective way of quietening

down the room .We can easily tell what is good noise and
what is excess noise and we should encourage our students to
tell the difference too .
It 's hard to plan what children need to do a project
successfully :
Try using a grid like this to analyse what you need before the
project .It can also be a good way of assessing the project for
yourself after it is done to help you be better prepared next
time .
Teacher doesn't know what skills are being practised :
Try this grid to analyse the project , again ,before and after .It
can help you see the value of the project and you can better
explain it to the parents and your colleagues , too .
Some problems facing teachers while dealing with project
work:
Crowded classes : It's hard to organize a sucessful group in
such classes.
Too much written work to be corrected, presented and
discussed in the classroom.
Bad equipped classrooms for language teaching.

Some suggestions :
As we are facing problems while achieving our tasks ,and
in order to get as good project work as possible ; we
suggest the following :

Making a list of the project subjects at the beginning of the

school year.

Split the class onto groups (4- 5)

Let the students decide which subjects they might
choose
Each project is to be done by three or four groups
each time to avoid boredom and the other groups would
take their turns after.
To encourage learners in performing good projects
work, the teacher may give a reward by additional pints
to their final mark and this may differ from a work to
another.

Organize a wall
display in the class at the end of each term and the best
project work is selected for projects exhibition by the end of
the year to which parents can invited. "this work was done
by some teachers at Blida"
3

By Mr Samir Bounab (Teacher Trainer at MONE)

Yellowdaffodil66@gmail.com