Use of Oral English in Project Based Learning

Abstract This study focuses on the use of oral tasks to develop students’ willingness to communicate (WTC) under a Project Based Learning (PBL) approach. The participants were thirty-one 10th graders from a private school in Chile. The data of this research was collected through audio-recorded lessons and a students’ perception rating scale. The findings show that whenever the students were exposed to specific oral tasks, they used English more frequently to ask for information, as opposed to their L1, Spanish. The students also inclined to give more information in English when answering yes/no questions, as opposed to wh- questions. Moreover, the students used their L1 very few times; however, Spanish was still used when the teacher was not monitoring the tasks. The study also revealed that the students perceived they used English in different frequencies for different language functions.

摘要：本研究聚焦于项目式学习（Project Based Learning，PBL）模式下，借助口语任务培养学生的沟通意愿（Willingness to Communicate，WTC）。研究参与者为智利一所私立学校的31名十年级学生。本研究的数据通过课堂音频录音与学生感知评分量表采集。研究结果表明，当学生接触特定口语任务时，会更频繁地使用英语而非母语西班牙语来询问信息；学生在回答是非问句时，也更倾向于用英语提供更多信息，相较特殊疑问句而言。此外，学生极少使用母语，但当教师未对任务进行监督时，仍会使用西班牙语。本研究同时发现，学生感知到自身会根据不同的语言功能，以差异化频率使用英语。