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The projectwork at schoolsisusedacross the curriculum. Wecan use projects in a schoolsubjectseparatelyor wecanjoinmore schoolsubjects in one project. Sometimeswe call „projectwork“ everyactivitythatisdifferentfrom a traditionalway of teaching and learning. According Oxford Advanced Learner´sDictionary "project" is: . plannedwork – a plannedpiece of workthatisdesigned to find information about sth, to producesth new, or to improvesth. The definition of "project" in Oxford WordpowerDictionaryis: . a piece of work, ofteninvolvingmany people, thatisplanned and organizedcarefully, . a piece of schoolwork in which the student has to collect information about a certain subject and thenwrite about it. In Advanced Learner´s English Dictionary,defines : "project" is"a taskthatrequires a lot of time and effort." Cambridge Advanced learner´sDictionarydefines"project" as: . A piece of plannedwork or an activitywhichiscompleted over a period of time and intended to achieve a particularaim. . A study of a particularsubjectdone over a period of time, expecially by students.
In educationalcontext, the projectworkshouldbepupil-centredactivity, no teacher-centred or syllabus-centred one. The pupils have to understandwhytheymake a project and how itisusefulfor them. The best wayiswhentheycanchoose the topic of the projectthemselves. Theyusuallywork in groups and theydeveloptheir social skills to cooperate and communicatetogether. Theychoose the way of work, dividetasks and agreeon the output of the project. The pupils are responsiblefor theirwork on theirproject and for theirresults. At the end, the pupilspresent the result of theirproject and the teacherevalutesnot only the projectitself but also the work of eachpupil on the project and the cooperationamong the pupils in their groups.
a) It isverypersonal- the pupils are writing about „themselves, theirlives, theirtown, theirdreams and fantasies, theirownresearchintotopicsthatinterestthem.“He continues thatbecause the projectisverypersonalexperience for the pupils, itsmeaning and presentation are very important for them and thatiswhythey put a lot of effort intodoingitright. b) The pupils are „learningthroughdoing“– they are not justreceiving and producingwords, they are alsocollecting information, drawingpictures, cutting out pictures, arrangingtexts, colouring, carring out interviewing and surveys…etc. c) Project workgives the sense of achievementand itenables the pupils to produce the worthwhileproduct. It alsoenables to the pupils to work on theirownleveland achievetheir goals. Betterpupilscan express whatthey know and slowerpupilscanbesuccessful by using more photos and pictures. d) Project workhelps to integrate the foreignlanguageinto the learner´sown world , encourages the use of communicative skills and provides the opportunities to write about thingswhich are important for them. e) It enables to make the language more relevant to the pupils´ needs. f) It enables the relationshipbetween the language and the culture, while the pupilslearn a foreinglanguage, theylearn about other cultures.
The most important benefit of projectwork for the pupilsisthatitenablesthem the contact with real world in whichthey use the targetlanguagethatthey have learnt. . Theywork on theirownlevel and canachieve a goal regardless how good they are at the targetlanguage, whichisverymotivating for them. . Theyworkwith a wider range of materialsthantheirtextbookoffers. . Theyimprovetheir communicative and social skills, such as cooperating in groups and developingtheirpersonality, acting withotherpupils in a group, listening to others and expressingtheirown opinions, statingtheir cases and attitudes, solving the problems. . They deal withproblemswhichthey are interested in and theylearn to solvethem. . They are taught to beresponsible for theirwork and itsresults. . The pupils´ efforts and joining the project are more important thanlinguisticaccuracy.
Althoughthe responsibility for projectworkisgiven to the pupils, a teacher´sroleis not insignificant. In the project, the teacheris acting as consultant and co-ordinator. Making a projectdoes not mean „more work“ for the teacher if heis able to plan and organizeitwell and hemakes the pupils to take the responsibility for the end product. The teacher´srole . Initiatingrole: the teacherdecideswhenitis the suitable time for a project and how long itshould last. Thenheshouldalso„introduce a broad discussion topicwhichmaydevelopnaturallyinto a project.“ . During the project: a) the teacheris an advisorbeingprepared to advice and help if the pupilsask for it, b) as a referee heisassisting to solve out arguments and differences of opinion, c) as a chairperson, „from time to time groups will report theiractivities to the whole class. On these occasions the teachercantakeon the role of an objective chairperson.“ . Finally: when the projectiscoming to its end, the teacherbecomes„an organiser beingactivelyinvolved in the organization of displays, the final production of written reports, etc.“ As an evaluator, he encourages the pupils„to evaluate the projectworkprocess for themselves“ and heshouldbepreparedto comment honestly on what the students have reached.“
The success of projectworkdepends on planning and organizationthatpupils and a teacher deal withtogether. If a good timetable of the projectisestablished, ithelps to avoid the chaos and similarproblems. Generally, I thinkthateveryprojectshould have four stages: topic, collecting data, presentation and evaluation of a project (by the pupils and the teacher).
Opening a project • This stage has severalaims: • to develop a positive group dynamic, • to introducelearners to a communicative approach, • to givelearnerspersonalexperience of using multi media, • to introduce the live community as a resource base for languagelearningwhereappropriate, • - to introducetextual data (content materials, processmaterials) for researchactivities.
Topic orientation • The time devoted to this stage canbe short, comparing to stages 1 and 3. • The teacher´s objectives are following: • to sensitizelearnerstowards the theme, • to mobilizeexistingknowledge, • to arousecuriosity, • - to allow for the exchange of personalexperiences.
Research and data collection • This is the longest and the most intensive part of the project and itincludes the planning and otherproceduresneeded to complete the targettask, practisingrequiredskills and data collection. The objectives are summarized as following: • definingthe nature and extent of the projecttasks, • learninghow to carry out research in the live communityusingappropriatemeans of investigation and recording, how to researchtextual data, how to comprehend a literarytext, • - completing the targettask.
Preparation of data presentation • to remotivatelearnerstowardscompletion of an end product, • to encourage and monitor team building and acceptance of areas of responsibilities, • to enablelearners to decide on the form of the end product. • The objectives for learners in this part of the project are: • to present information to a live audience using the appropriate media, • to structure and direct the event and interactwith the audience. • On presentation, the pupilsalsopresenttheir end product of the project
Presentation • Many projects have a form of presentation that is intended to audience outside the group. This stage enables the pupils to communicate in the target language and to practise acquiring presentation skills. The presentation itself is a short-time event but it is preceded „by a preparatory process of collective decision making, data reorganization and skill acquisition.“ (Legutke and Thomas 1991, p. 179) • The objectives for learners in this part of the project are: • to present information to a live audience using the appropriate media, • - to structure and direct the event and interact with the audience.
Evaluation • A concludingevaluation stage involve an overallevaluation of: • topicunderstanding, • group and teacher interaction, • proceduralorganization, • input materials, • languagegains and deficits, • examplesof learnerwork,
CONCLUSION Project work in the languageclassroomis the opportunity for learners to developtheirlanguageskills, it encourages learners to use the foreignlanguage and motivatesthem. Moreover, itdevelops the learners´ social skills, the ability to cooperatetogether, becausetheyoftenwork in groups on theirproject, and theirsense for responsibility for theirwork
