Learners’ attitudes towards project works in enhancing English autonomous learning: A case study at Foreign Trade University - Ho Chi Minh City Campus

Abstract

This study was conducted with the following objectives: (1) to investigate students’ attitudes towards the use of project works to enhance their autonomous learning in an English speaking class; (2) to find out to what extent students believe that using project works can promote their autonomous learning; and (3) to figure out difficulties that learners have during the time they conduct Video making projects. The study population was 73 second-year students who took the course of English listening and speaking 2. An open-ended questionnaire and 25 semi-structured interviews were employed as research instruments for data collection. The result firstly shows that the students have positive attitudes towards the use of project works in English classes that may have enhanced their autonomous learning. Then, it reveals students’ preference in having more project works to do in their English classes. Nonetheless, using project works’ evaluation as one of criteria for course assessment is a controversial issue among these students. In addition, students’ interest in utilizing information technology devices is remarked as one of the significant findings in this study. Furthermore, some difficulties when conducting projects are found including time constraints, teamwork conflicts, cultural differences and problems with technology. Because of students’ positive attitudes towards Video making project in enhancing their autonomous learning, it is suggested that teachers should consider applying the projects in their language teaching.

<span><strong>TESOL-major students&rsquo; perceptions and practices on group autonomy at Dong Thap University</strong></span>

“…These scholars have explored definitions, dimensions of LA, as well as EFL teachers' and students' perceptions and practices regarding LA (e.g., Holec, 1981;Chan et al, 2002;Benson, 2006;Borg, 2006;Balcikanli, 2010;Borg & Al-Busaidi, 2012a;Joshi, 2011;Dang, 2012;Le, 2013;Talley, 2014;Keuk & Heng, 2016;Haji-Othman & Wood, 2016;Tapinta, 2016;Alhaysony, 2016;Nguyen, 2016;Dogan & Mirici, 2017;Le, 2019;Tuan, 2021;Al-husban & Tawalbeh, 2023). In the past five years, some studies have focused on project work, collaboration, and cooperation via task-based learning and teacher supervision to enhance LA skills in classroom language learning (e.g., Lynch & Orr, 2016;Nguyen, 2017;Feick, 2018;Lin, 2019;Yasmin & Naseetm, 2019;Chowdhury, 2021;Dang & Nguyen, 2023). However, there has been limited exploration of teamwork without teacher management for developing EFL students' LA abilities outside the classroom, particularly at Dong Thap University, a rural region in the Mekong Delta of South Vietnam.…”