Navigating the 21st Century: The Role of Technology in ELT Project Work

Innovation in ELT

The 21st century confronts its citizenship with new choices, opportunities and challenges due to  the ubiquitous presence of technology into all spheres of life; business and administration, government, education. The profound shifts undergone in the academic field must be viewed by thoughts on the new possibilities that new technologies involve. 

Question:

In doing the project work, give an example of topic you will decide for your students and why do you think it is better for them to choose such a topic? What kind of project that is suitable for them to do the topic?

Answer:

There are several ways that teachers can do to increase student creativity and one of them is by making learning activities more interesting and active. In learning activities, the teacher does not just provide a theory but also gives assignments to measure students' abilities and one of them is with project assignments. Learning with this project provides opportunities for students to do project work and makes students more creative in solving problems or completing the project like an in-depth investigation of a real-world topic (Fragoulis, 2000). 

Brown (2019) also assumes that this project assignment provides opportunities for students to explore material and complete projects in various ways that they are interested in and conduct experiments collaboratively.

Example of topic:

And according to my assumptions, topics that are suitable for project-based learning are, for example, the topic of: "Giving Congratulation to others." which we can pour into a greeting card design project. With this topic, students not only increase their English skills but also develop their creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking skills, which are in line with real life.

Why choose it?

That topic, for example: “Giving Congratulation” would allow students to learn and practice vocabulary related to feelings and happiness while also developing their language skills in writing personal messages and greetings. And to choose the best topics for teaching English if we use project-based learning should consider the following:

• Originality Aspect: Choose topics that are relevant and meaningful to students' lives. This aspect relates to their interests, experiences, or real-world situations (Brown, 2019)
• Student-centered: In this case students can take an active role in their learning, directing projects and making decisions throughout the process, so that they have autonomy and ownership of their work (Brown, 2019)
• Collaborative Aspects: Choose topics that encourage collaboration and teamwork among students as they will foster communication and collaboration skills, so topics that require teamwork will enhance collaboration skills (Fragoulis, 2009)
• Language Acquisition: The topic we choose should provide many opportunities for language acquisition and skills (Brown, 2019). It should cover various aspects of language such as vocabulary, grammar, reading, writing, listening, and speaking (Fragoulis, 2009)
• Multidisciplinary Approach: Choose topics that allow for the integration of different subjects or skills, as this will promote learning experiences that make them connected across different areas of knowledge in the real world (Brown, 2019)
• Creativity and Critical Thinking: Choose topics that encourage creativity and critical thinking to get students involved in problem-solving, analyzing, evaluating, and generating new ideas (Brown, 2019).
• Authentic Assessment: Ensure that the topic allows for authentic assessment methods as in this case they can demonstrate their learning through class presentations, projects, portfolios, or other means that reflect real-life contexts (Brown, 2019)

The kind of project that is suitable for the topic is creating a greeting card, we can divide the students into several groups,  and they will be tasked with making greeting card designs in various ways like real life. In the process of creating these greeting cards, they will not only gain an increase in their sheer artistic skills but also enable them to express themselves and communicate meaningful messages through their designs.

References:

• Brown, H. D. 2019. Project-Based Learning in ELT: Practical Approaches for the English Language Classroom. Cambridge University Press

• Fragoulis, L. 2009. Project-Based Learning in Teaching of English as A Foreign Language in Greek Primary Schools: From Theory to practice. (A Journal). English Language Teaching. Vol. 2 September 2009.

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