| |
Wing Ling has reached the final stage of her project -- write
her project report. She finds this task an easy one, for
she has almost got everything ready. In Unit 4 she did some
paper work which can be used by adding more things to it.
The cover page and the first page now look like this:
Cover page design
Project Title:
Pair Work Design & Learners' Interest
Investigator
Wing Ling
Beijing TV University
Submitted on 20th June 1999
In fulfillment of the course
Practical Project Design
|
Acknowledgment
I am mostly grateful to my supervisor
Professor Guide without whose support and patience
this project would not even have got off the ground.
I am also grateful to my colleagues
Li Yue, Song Qin and Wen Jing for their time spent
on brainstorming and panel discussion with me.
No thanks will be adequate for my students
without whose willing participation in the project
implementation it would have remained on paper.
Last but not the least, big thanks go
to my mother and my family who have shared with me
my worries, frustrations, and hopefully my ultimate
happiness in eventually finishing this project.
|
Abstract
It presents a detailed report of the
project implemented to solve the problem that some
of my students do not like doing pair work. It is
hypothesized that learners' interest in pair work
is increased by better-designed pair work exercises.
This hypothesis is verified by a four-week classroom
teaching of the newly designed pair work exercises.
Among the methods of scientific investigation
used are analytic method, Socratic dialogue, cause
analysis, questionnaire, and brainstorming.
|
|
page 1
Main Headings of the Project Report
1. Project objective
2. Project hypothesis
3. Project rationale
4. Pair work design
5. Control and target groups
6. Project implementation
7. Project evaluation
8. Project findings and discussion
References
Appendix A The questionnaire for problem
analysis
Appendix B Pair work exercises
Appendix C Teaching notes
Appendix D Students' handouts
Appendix E Diaries
Appendix F Audio tapes of students' performance
Appendix G The post-trial questionnaire
|
The main headings give the project reader an overall view
of the report. They also act like an outline of the report.
From Page 2 onwards, Wing Ling further elaborates each of
the main headings. Pages 2, 3, and 4 now look like this:
|
page 2
1. Project objective
¡¡enhance learners' interest in pair work
2. Project hypothesis
It is hypothesized that learners' interest in pair
work is increased by well-designed pair work exercises.
3. Project rationale
(1) The role of speaking in class and its purpose
-- I would like to give speaking the purpose of communication,
making it as close to real-life as possible. Classroom
speech is not to be judged as performance, but has
the role of practising for real-life communication.
This means that the students should feel relaxed and
free about speaking to each other in English in class.
They should also see that speaking to their peers
has a purpose and does not have to be evaluated by
the teacher all the time. The emphasis should shift
from accuracy to fluency.
|
|
page 3
(2) The role of the students
-- I would like the students to feel that learning
is a collaborative endeavour and not a competitive
one. They should come to realise that they can learn
from each other and help each other, especially in
speaking as it is not a skill they can practise on
their own.
(3) The role of the teacher --
Students should realise that the teacher has many
roles in the classroom, not just that of evaluator.
I would like to demonstrate these different roles
so that students realise when the teacher takes a
major instructional role in class and when she takes
only a minor helping role. I would like students to
get used to being responsible for their own learning
and not to depend on the teacher all the time.
(4) The type of classroom tasks used -- I think
all of the above can be dealt with by designing and
using appropriate tasks in the lesson. If students
have to do information-gap
|
|
page 4
tasks, which require them to gain information
from their partner by means of questioning and listening
and to give information to their partner by listening
and responding adequately to questions, then I feel
they can be shown the value of communicating with
their peers.
4. Pair work design
...
...
...
|
As you may realize, Wing Ling's first three main headings
are applicable to your project report. In your report, you
should have these three headings. Heading 4 -- Pair work design,
and Heading 5 -- Target and control groups, on the other hand,
certainly need to be changed to suit your own project. The
headings 6-8 are again applicable to your report. Your report
should also have headings like these.
 |
Heading 6 -- Project implementation --
gives a detailed description of how the classroom teaching
has been conducted as discussed in Unit 4. |
|
Heading 7 -- Project evaluation -- will
be a summary of the project results discussed in Unit
5 above. |
|
Heading 8 -- Project findings and discussions
-- will be a summary of your main findings including what
you and your students have learned from the project, and
a summary of what you feel should have been done, or what
you should do in the future. |
Finally you must not forget to include references. In other
words, those books or papers you have read and benefited from
for your project should be listed in alphabetic order.
As Wing Ling has done, you may need an appendix or appendices.
Wing Ling has put these in her appendices:
Appendix A The questionnaire for problem analysis
Appendix B Pair work exercises
Appendix C Teaching notes
Appendix D Students' handouts
Appendix E Diaries
Appendix F Audio tapes of students' performance
Appendix G The post-trial questionnaire
Note that appendices can be no less important than the report
itself. They give your report extra strength of validity and
authenticity. The reader of your report may also check your
appendices for more details which cannot be included in the
report proper. In your report, you should give cross-references
showing which appendices should be consulted for such more
details.
|
|
