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REFLECTING ON PROJECT-BASED LEARNING
ACTIVITIES IN A COMPUTER ASSISTED LANGUAGE
LEARNING (CALL) CLASSROOM
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Vincentia Ika Sindi Prawesti 112013082
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION PROGRAM
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS
UNIVERSITAS KRISTEN SATYA WACANA
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
COVER PAGE i
APPROVAL PAGE ii
COPYRIGHT STATEMENT iii
PUBLICATION AGREEMENT DECLARATION iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS v
ABSTRACT 1
INTRODUCTION 1
LITERATURE REVIEW 3
Advantages of PBL in English Language Learning 4
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Global and national trends and encouragement enhances English language teachers to facilitate their teaching practice. The implementation of project-based learning (PBL) using technology application in the class need to be investigated to know whether it can influence students in the learning language process or not. The aim of this study is to explore students’ perspectives on the use of technological group workshop in the CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning) class. This study takes place at Faculty Language and Arts Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana (FLA-UKSW). The use of open-ended questionnaire is used to get the individual point of view, where they free to answer and give responses. Before distributes the questionnaire, the researcher conducts the piloting in order to ensure that the questions were understandable. Moreover, researcher elicits the data of questionnaire using semi-structure interview which is conducted in participants’ L1 (Bahasa Indonesia). There were 10 participants of ED-UKSW students in CALL classroom. The data showed that the project give positive meaning for the participants. It encourages students to learn new technology by utilizing the technology in the real life setting and requires them to improve their speaking ability. Also, the project gives the opportunity to improve their collaborative skills. Besides, there were challenges in designing the lesson plan and experiencing the internet problem.
Keywords: PBL, CALL, speaking skill, collaboration skill, lesson plan, internet connection.
INTRODUCTION
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new standards require teachers to integrate technology in their classrooms (Davidson, Richardo, & Jones, 2014). In the same way, Project tomorrow (2013) as cited in Machado and Chung (2015) reported that the use of technology as teachers’ technological tools in United States’ classrooms is rising. To maximize
the use of technology in the class, all the academic staffs in higher education institutions throughout the Republic of Ireland are required to use technology (Donnelly, 2005). In Turkey, where technology plays a major role in Educational activities, teachers should be equipped with technological skill (Uredi, Akbasli, & Ulum, 2016). In Indonesia, the Minister of Education and Culture Republic of Indonesia has also encouraged English language teachers to use technology in their practices as described in some national educational policies (Mali, 2016).
Responding creatively to those global and national trends and encouragements for teachers to use technology, English Language Education Program, Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana, Salatiga, Central Java (henceforth called ED-UKSW) has a course named Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL). The general aim of this course is to provide students with opportunities to utilize technology in learning English language (Mali, 2017) through some projects that students have to complete. In this research, I am interested in exploring students’ perspectives on the technological group workshop project,
which is one of the projects in the classroom. Specifically, I aim to answer the research question:
What are the students’ perspectives on the technological group workshop
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The results of this research are expected to provide practical benefits for the teachers of the CALL classroom, EFL teachers, and students. For the CALL teachers, this study may suggest them in maximizing the use of CALL potential for teaching and learning language (English), implementing certain technology applications as a project, and preparing the students to face a changing world. For EFL teachers, it might give them insights how the project which implemented technology can influences students in learning a language. Furthermore, it may give the students information about kinds of technology that can help to promote English language learning and to achieve the classroom objectives.
LITERATURE REVIEW Definitions of Project-Based Learning
Project-Based Learning (PBL) is an organized learning model using projects (Thomas, 2000), which should be central to the curriculum (Tamim and Grant, 2013) and emphasize learning through student-centered collaborative learning, student’ creative critical thinking (Poonpon, 2017; Tamim & Grant, 2013; Savery,
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the students in selecting topic and designing project (Tamim and Grant, 2013). Fourthly, students’ critical thinking skill is a students’ ability to think critically in finding both problems and its solution (Savery, 2006).
Advantages of PBL
PBL has some benefits in teaching and learning process. First, it helps teachers in their practices in motivating their students to learn, foster problem-solving, and develop independent and cooperative working skills (Beckett, 2002). Second, PBL is also helped the teacher to make the classroom experience meaningful and enganging for students, where they can maximize their learning (Swanson, 2014). Third, PBL creates students’ opportunities for collaboration, through coordination, discussions, and assessments (Elam & Nesbit, 2012). Fourth, PBL also gives the opportunity for students to learn how to build, manage and share their project (Wong, Quek, Divaharan, Liu, Peer, & Williams, 2006) which intended to help students become proficient (Thomas, 2000). Fifth, through PBL, students gain knowledge and skills from different activities (Tamim & Grant, 2013). Sixth, PBL incorporates real-life challenges. The projects are realistic which allow students to feel the authenticity (Thomas, 2000).
Challenges of Using PBL
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different schedule to meet and discuss together and different ideas, to solve particular problems. For some students, work as a team and deal with the difference with several students is very involved. Second, it was difficult for some students to manage the deadline for submission of their work (Simpson, 2011). It clarifies the previous challenges that they have different schedule. To find the best time when all of the team can discuss the project is a challenge. This situation makes them have limited time to submit their work. Third, in PBL, students are challenged to solve a real-world problem (Amaral, Gonçalves, & Hess, 2015). For those who are good in a problem solving, it is easy to find the solution when facing a real problem. However, some other students still need more time to solve the real problem.
Previous Studies on PBL
Highlighting the importance of PBL in language teaching learning, a plethora of international studies had been carried out in different contexts. For example, in South Korea, Elam and Nesbit (2012) conducted a study to address whether the combination of PBL and a technology is an effective methodology for promoting and motivating learners. The participants were twenty-two undergraduate Tourism course students at PaiChai University in South Korea. The data showed that PBL played a significant part in increasing their overall collaborative skills and interest in technology.
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explore teachers’ definition of PBL and their account on the meaning of PBL. The
result showed teachers positively defined PBL as a teaching method that supports, facilitates, and improves the learning process.
In a more recent year, a study was conducted by Mali (2016) who attempted to look into the meaning of PBL in learning Second Language Acquisition (SLA). This study involved three students in his SLA class. The findings highlighted that PBL, as implemented in the classroom projects, gives positive meanings to the students.
In the same year, Petersen and Nassaji (2016) examined and compared ESL teachers' and learners' beliefs and attitudes toward PBL. The data were collected from 118 participants (88 students and 30 teachers) in three ESL schools that offered intensive English programs for adult second language learners in Victoria, Canada. The data showed that students had positive opinions about PBL, and almost all the teachers indicated that project work is an effective strategy for learning a language.
In a more recent year, Poonpon (2017) conducted a study to investigate learners’ opinions about the implementation of PBL in an English course at a Thai
university. The researcher involved 47 undergraduate students. The findings revealed that students believed the implementation of project was appropriate and could help them aware of their own English ability and improve English skills in real life contexts.
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understand that PBL gives positive meanings and perspectives to the students in increasing their overall collaborative skills and interest in technology, and can help them aware of their own English ability and improve English skills (Mali, 2016; Elam & Nesbit, 2012; Poonpon, 2017; Petersen &Nassaji, 2016). Second, the literature review show that teachers had a positive perspective of PBL as a teaching method that supports, facilitates, and improves the learning process, and as an effective strategy for learning language (Tamim & Grant, 2013; Petersen & Nassaji, 2016).
Therefore, this study was also to find out whether the implementations of PBL in CALL class continue the positive impacts that PBL has on English language teaching and learning practices with technology.
THE STUDY
The aimed of this study was to explore students’ perspectives on the use of
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characteristics of qualitative research which have been mentioned above. This study was conducted in a natural setting, focused on participants’ perspectives,
included a limited number of participants, and displayed stories of their experiences in doing the technological workshop project.
The context of the study
The setting of this study was in a CALL classroom at ED-UKSW in the 2016/2017 academic year. This course is an elective class that expects the students to be able to [1] explain related ideas of CALL, [2] be familiar with some forms of technology which are potential for teaching and learning, [3] create lesson plan that incorporate technology application, [4] utilize the technology application in real-life settings (Mali, 2017).
9 The research participants
This study involved 10 ELT-UKSW students in the CALL classroom. The participants were selected from different group projects. Two students in the same group were selected to know whether there was different perspective in doing the same project. The participants were chosen based on the following considerations. First, the researcher considered accessibility to meet the participants. Second, the selected participants were those who provided answers on the questionnaire stating that they were interested in PBL. To keep the confidentiality of the participants, the researcher kept their names in initials (e.g., Student 1).
Data collection instrument
Before interviewing, the researcher explained the research purposes and gave them an open-ended questionnaire. The purpose of open-ended questionnaire was to give the participants an opportunity to voice their individual points of views (Zacharias, 2013). In the questionnaire, the participants were free to answer and write their responses (Zacharias, 2013). Then, the researcher asked their permission to conduct an interview.
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the interview were: [1] please tell about your experiences in doing the technological workshop project in your CALL classroom!; [2] what are the advantages that you experience in the process of completing the technological workshop project as an attempt to achieve the classroom objectives?; [3] What are the challenges that you experience in the process of completing the technological workshop project as an attempt to achieve the classroom objectives?; and [4] Does the workshop help you to learn English? In what ways? Please explain!
Data collection procedure
To collect the data, the researcher did some following steps. First, the researcher met the lecturer and asked for permission to conduct the research in the class. Second, before the researcher did the interview, the researcher piloted the interview questions with one student who took CALL class last semester to ensure that the questions were understandable. After that, the researcher distributed the questionnaire to get the information about the participants’ project group and their
willingness to participate in this research. This questionnaire was also helping the researcher to ask more detail in the interview. Last, the researcher made an appointment with the participants to do the interview.
This interview was conducted in the participants’ L1 (Bahasa Indonesia)
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around 5-10 minutes. It was recorded using a voice recorder. Then, the recorded information of the interview was transcribed and analyzed.
Data analysis procedure
After the researcher had collected the data from the questionnaire and the interview, the researcher analyzed the data with these following steps. First, the researcher read the participants’ answer in the questionnaire and compared with
their answer in the interview. Second, the researcher developed significant statement lists. These lists were based on the participants’ response in the questionnaire and the note from their answer in the interview.
Third, the researcher grouped the statements into the large information. The statements were categorized to determine the themes. After that, based on the themes, the researcher made an interpretation to answer the research question.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
Based on the result of interview data, there are five themes from students’
perspectives of the technological workshop project. The themes are [1] Learning new technology, [2] Improving students’ speaking skill, [3] Improving students’ collaborative skill, [4] Designing the lesson plan, and [5] Experiencing the Internet Problem.
Learning New Technology
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utilized in the class. Before presenting the technology applications, the students should try and related the application with the CALL principles. They had to find the technology application by themselves, it was quite challenging but it gave the students the opportunities to learn new technology as what some students mentioned in the interview.
Excerpt 1
“I know what technology was, the advantages of technology, and the purpose of technology. Through this project I could learn new technology applications and gained some knowledge related the technology, especially for learning English”. (Student 3/ Interviewed on June 20, 2017/ translated by the researcher)
Based on the findings, student 4 and 5 believed that the project in the CALL class helped them in learning new technology. It also could be used for improving their English competence (Yunus, Salehi & Amini, 2015). In line with student 4 and 5, student 2 clarified further in the interview that technology gave her the benefit in learning language.
Excerpt 2
“So, through this project, I could learn new technology application which very useful to help me in learning language. I tried to utilize the technology in order to help me learning English. It made my learning process more interesting, motivated me to learn vocabulary and grammar, and gave me the chance to know my mistakes through the feedback”. (Student 4/ Interviewed on June 19, 2017/ translated by the researcher)
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supports, facilitates, and improves the learning process. Donelly (2015) adds that through new technology, students could learn by doing, got feedbacks and built new knowledge. They could learn vocabulary and grammar (excerpt 2) by doing the task in the application. They also could develop new knowledge related the technology (excerpt 1).
Improving Students’ Speaking Skill
This project allowed the students to improve their skills. From the interview, the researcher found that through the project, students could enhance their speaking ability in a way that the project required the students to present their material related the topic and the technology application which they choose to be implemented in the class. Besides, the students should ensure that their classmate understood their explanation. They had to use English to give the explanation, answered the question and handled the class orally most of the time. It increased their speaking ability.
Excerpt 3
“This workshop helped me in learning English especially in increasing my speaking skill. Whether I like or not, I had to be fluent in English while explaining the material and doing the workshop”. (Student 2/ Interviewed on June 19, 2017/ translated by the researcher)
14 Excerpt 4
“I learned a lot from the workshop. Here, I could practice my speaking skill and my pronunciation, also my listening and grammar skill. There were many difficult words to pronounce, so I had to prepare before the presentation”. (Student 4/ Interviewed on June 20, 2017/ translated by the researcher)
The finding above confirmed an idea by Poonpon (2017) that their speaking is enhanced when they performed their presentation. While Coleman (1992) as cited in Beckett (2002) added that through the project students could improve their reading, writing, speaking and listening skills. It showed that project gives the students opportunity for the students to increase not only their speaking ability but also their other skills. It was confirmed (excerpt 4) that besides improving her speaking skills, the student also can improve her listening and grammar skills.
Experiencing a Collaboration
In this project, students should work in a group and they are given a topic related to technology. Here, the students should not only present their material and the application, but also applied the application in the workshop. The cooperation was much needed here. They should work as team to solve some problems that they face before and while doing the workshop.
Excerpt 5
“This project helped me to work cooperative, I need to work with the others to explaining the material, doing the workshop and creating an enjoyable situation in learning the new technology”. (Student 2/ Interviewed on June 19, 2017/ translated by the researcher)
Excerpt 6
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needed together. Some problems we shared and found the solutions together”. (Student 4/ Interviewed on June 20, 2017/ translated by the researcher)
Collaborative skill showed from how the students worked together to give and ask some suggestion or comment, shared some knowledge and discus the material. It is line with Abruquah, Dosan and Duda (2016) that the purpose of the collaboration was to establish an interaction between the and to share information about their differences. Through this project, learners might develop communication and collaboration skills (Savery, 2006) by the way they divide the parts and present the material, and utilize the technology application in the class.
Mostly all students agreed that they could do the project well if the communication in the group was going. Student 5 clarified further in the interview that collaboration was crucial in doing this project.
Excerpt 7
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students’ overall collaborative skills and interest in technology. It will affect the students’ language learning process.
Designing the lesson plan
This research also revealed the fact that some students found difficulties especially in designing the lesson plan because the lesson plan that they made was a little bit different with the one that they had known in teaching practicum course.
Excerpt 8
“Lesson plan that we made was different with the one that we use in teaching practicum course. The focus of the lesson plan was students centred where the students should utilize the technology that we have been explained before”. (Student 6/ Interviewed on June 21, 2017/ translated by the researcher)
Most of the participants were in line with student 6. Student 5 clarified further in the interview the difficulties that they faced in designing the lesson plan. Excerpt 9
[…] There were some difficulties that we face in designing the lesson plan. First, it was different with the one that we know. Second, it was difficult to design the lesson plan where the activity is student centred. Last, we were confuse to find the activity which appropriate with our material using the applications”. (Student 5/ Interviewed on June 20, 2017/ translated by the researcher)
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Reflecting on the finding, I would like to propose some solutions to deal with the difficulty in designing the lesson plan. First, teachers need to give a clear illustration of the activity that the students do in the workshop. It helps the students in designing a good lesson plan. Second, teachers need to give the example of the lesson plan and the activity. Those examples may open their mind in designing an illustration of the activities through the lesson plan. Last, the teachers have to give the instruction more detail about the lesson plan. It helps students to prepare the lesson plan more efficient. This idea is in line with Ersoy and Bozkurt’s (2015) argumentation that the instructional process provides the
opportunity to prepare for the lesson actually.
Experiencing the Internet Problem
This workshop required the students to share and utilize the technology applications. Each group had to find 2 applications which they used in the workshop. Most of them used 1 free application and 1 application which needed the internet connection.
Excerpt 10
[…] our second application was quite difficult to use. We need the internet, but the connection there was very limited. We have to wait for a moment. It made some students were bored.” (Student 7/ Interviewed on June 22, 2017/ translated by the researcher)
18 teaching learning activity, because most of the technology applications need it. (Student 10/ Interviewed on June 22, 2017/ translated by the researcher)
In workshop, students needed the internet connection to connect and provide their technology application in the class. It is in line with Gourova, Asenova, and Dulev (2013) that using wireless connectivity is to provide access, […] and to allow students capturing material that can be sent. Furthermore,
Prastya (2017) stated that almost people use internet as a tool in communicating and sharing the information. It was a reason which makes the internet users are growing (Edy, 2016) which rise the need of internet access in Indonesia (Yulee, 2017). It showed that everyone needs internet connection to connecting them with the world. However, the policy of the internet access is not consistent (Wahyudi, 2013). It was one of the reasons which make the internet access in Indonesia as a third lowest in ASEAN (Movementi, 2014). It is a challenge if there is no or less internet connection while students were doing their project.
Reflecting on the research finding, the researcher intended to substantiate Mali’s (2016) voice that Indonesia Government need to ensure and give the easy
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learning easily. Third, it helps the students learn how to communicate and share their knowledge through media social.
CONCLUSION
The purpose of this study is to explore students’ perspectives on the use of
group workshop in the CALL class. As a classroom projects’ implementation, PBL gives the positive meaning for the students. Based on the findings, the researcher concluded that, PBL would seem to encourage students to learn new technology by utilizing the technology in the real life setting. Technology can motivate students in learning English. Yet, PBL implemented in the classroom also requires students to speak English most of the time. It helps the student to improve their speaking ability. Furthermore, PBL gives the opportunity for students to discuss, share their knowledge and work together as a group. It improves their collaborative skills.
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Further, this paper may encourage the future research to investigate how PBL influences students’ learning process in other EFL contexts with the best and wisest
use of technology. For the next research, the researcher suggests enlarging the context of the study, so the data will be more varied. The researcher also suggests using more various research instruments to investigate how PBL, especially which is held outside the classroom influences students’ learning process.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
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25 APPENDIX
Dear participants,
I am Vincentia Ika Sindi Prawesti. I am doing the research to explore your perspectives on the technological workshop project in your CALL classroom. I would be very grateful if you would kindly participate in this research by answering all questions in this questionnaire. Your answer will not affect your grade in your CALL classroom. I thank you very much for your participation in this research. technological workshop project as an attempt to achieve the classroom objectives? (Students will be able to: [1] explain related idea of CALL and principle of CALL evaluation, [2] be familiar with some of technology that are potential for teaching and learning, [3] create a lesson plan that incorporates technology application, [4] utilize the technology application in real-life setting.)
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3. What are the challenges that you got in the process of doing the technological workshop project as an attempt to achieve the classroom objectives? (Students will be able to: [1] explain related idea of CALL and principle of CALL evaluation, [2] be familiar with some of technology that are potential for teaching and learning, [3] create a lesson plan that incorporates technology application, [4] utilize the technology application in real-life setting.)
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4. Does the workshop help you to learn English? Please explain!
II. Demographic information
Name / NIM : ………..
Gender : Male/Female (circle accordingly) Phone Number :
Email :
Presentation topic :
