The Application of Project-Based Learning in Chinese College English Education

Abstract

Project-based learning (PBL)originated in the 1950s and has been widely applied to the education field. After reviewing previous research, this paper found that in input classes: 1) The ability to retrieve and read academic papers, critical thinking, analytical abilities, team organization and coordinated ability of students have been shown to improve. 2) There are still existing weaknesses such as task building and requirements on basic English level. In output classes, the paper found that: 1) The reading skills of undergraduates enhanced and the ability to use vocabulary and grammar correctly gained great progress. 2) Learners lack of motivation is still a problem. Moreover, this paper also provided some possible research directions for future PBL studies, and they could address some solutions or could develop comparative studies of PBL application in different countries. In this paper, college English classes in China will be divided into input classes and output classes. The ability to retrieve and read academic papers, critical thinking, analytical abilities, team organization and coordinated ability of students have been shown to improve, but there are also existing weaknesses such as tasking building and requirements on basic English level in the PBL applied input English courses in Chinese colleges. Likewise, the application of PBL in output classes has shown that not only have the reading skills of undergraduates enhanced, but the ability to use vocabulary and grammar correctly has also gained great progress. However, learners lack of motivation is still a problem, according to which there are also solutions at the end of this paper trying to solve the existing problems found in the application of the PBL model in Chinese English courses.