This paper reports on the benefits of Project-based learning (PBL) for the lecturer and the students in an English for Business course at a university in Vietnam. This qualitative study employs classroom observations of how the projects are carried out and interviews with five student representatives and the lecturer about the benefits of PBL. As most research focuses on how PBL develops learners’ language and project-related knowledge, this paper points out positive effects provided by PBL for personal, professional, and notably social development, which has been understudied in current literature. The findings showed that although the development existed in all three areas, it happened with a considerable disparity in which social development was surprisingly regarded by the learners as highly valuable. Besides, the lecturer in this study pointed to the benefits gained in terms of motivation and discipline-based knowledge. Based on a wide range of benefits provided by PBL, the study provides recommendations for a better implementation of PBL in EFL/ESP education so that learners’ successful experiences in their future careers can be further supported.

Phương pháp học dựa trên những nhiệm vụ thực tế (Task-based language teaching) từ lâu được nghiên cứu và ứng dụng rộng rãi trong giảng dạy tiếng Anh vì những lợi ích trong việc phát triển năng lực ngôn ngữ của người học. Dù phương pháp này không còn mới mẻ nhưng vẫn còn tồn tại nhiều khó khăn khi ứng dụng phương pháp này trong giảng dạy do những hiểu nhầm về phương pháp này. Bài nghiên cứu tổng quan này sẽ phân tích những hiểu nhầm thường gặp khi ứng dụng Phương pháp học dựa trên những nhiệm vụ thực tế tại Việt Nam. Bài viết sẽ tìm hiểu những hiểu biết chưa thỏa đáng về phương pháp học dựa trên những nhiệm vụ thực tế và đề xuất giải pháp để thiết kế các nhiệm vụ thực tế có hiệu quả trong dạy và học tiếng Anh.

No abstract

While critical thinking is one of the ultimate requirements for students and is integrated into assessment practices in higher education, there has not been a definitive view of what it means and how it can be achieved. This limitation challenges students when they neither recognize the need to demonstrate critical thinking nor successfully perform it. To reconceptualize critical thinking in higher education, this study emphasizes how critical thinking is defined, performed, and evaluated in an English Literature course in Vietnamese higher education. Following the analyses of the course documents, the students’ writing with the lecturer’s comments, and the interview with the lecturer, the study revealed the distinctive view of critical thinking in relation to the characteristics of the writing genre and the Literature discipline. For critical thinking being discipline-oriented and genre-based, successfully performing critical thinking was also found challenging to the students given their limited understanding of the lecturer’s conceptualization of critical thinking in this particular course. This study therefore suggests pedagogical implications to support the explication of this concept to students to improve their academic performances.