Promoting speaking skills in an EFL classroom through project-based learning : a way to involve learners in participatory classes

Abstract

This research project reports the results of a study that aimed at analyzing the influence of project-based learning (PBL) in the development of speaking skill in a group of EFL learners at a public school in Bogota. Students had difficulties with speaking because of limited vocabulary, poor knowledge and practice of language structures, and their restricted opportunities to be in contact with an English speaking environment inside and outside the classroom. This research study indicated that project-based learning applied to EFL contexts can be a meaningful learning experience for those learners lacking sufficient speaking skill, since projects allowed them to speak in English about their personal life, school problems, and the neighborhood where they live in Bogotá. These topics related to their own lives helped these students to use the English language for communicative purposes and to enhance communicative competence. Field-notes, transcripts of students’ oral productions, and interviews were the main data related to how eighth graders increased their lexical competence, overcame fears of speaking in L2, became more goal-oriented and responsible, and were able to work cooperatively during the completion of three projects in a pedagogical intervention. This research study concluded that learners changed their negative perceptions about the English class, as English language projects motivated them to, become more active learners since they gradually got more used to practice the foreign language in oral form.