Use of the Topical Project Work “My Body” for Developing All Language, Детальна інформація

Work in groups: the teacher used Worksheet 1 (Appendix 5) for each group to fill in, introduced new words: weight, height, length, width.

The teacher together with the nurse weighed the pupils and measured their height pupils in the medical room of the school.

When Worksheet 1 was completed in groups, the pupils could repeat their results to their classmates at the second project lesson.

Work in pairs: What is different about English food? – children read the text (Appendix 6) They consolidated the vocabulary about food/likes and dislikes; discussed on good and bad food, and clarified ideas about the “Pyramid of Food”. (Appendix 7)

Work in groups: in this activity was used Worksheet 3 for making group pictures “Healthy Food for Healthy Body”. (Appendix 8)

Finally, the learners were offered to write “Table Manners” using words: dirty, hands, mouth, do not, fork, spoon, knife, hear, etc. (Appendix 9)

4.3 Analysis of the Results

When all these numerous tasks and activities were successfully performed, the author of the case study summarised the results of the students’ opinion about them.

TABLE 3. Self-assessment

Lessons I like activities at the lesson I partly like the lesson I did not like the activities

1- lesson 10 7 6

2- lesson 15 4 4

3- lesson 16 5 2

4- lesson 16 4 3

5- lesson 18 5 0

6- lesson 20 3 0

Table 3 shows that 20 students out of 23 liked the activities, 3 students out of 23 partly liked the activities at the project lessons. It proves that activities at the project lessons were used successfully.

In order to observe a progress of the students’ knowledge an achievement test was suggested, which consisted of 3 exercises.(Appendix 10)

In those tasks the students had to demonstrate their knowledge of the new vocabulary which were used in the topic “My Body”.

Figure 2. The Result of the Achievment Test

Figure 2 shows the results of the test, where the vertical axis reflects the percentage of development of the students’ skills. According to the final test 15 students out of 23 are good listeners, 18 students out of 23 are good readers, 10 students out of 23 are good writers.

Finally, at the end of the project work the respondents were to choose the statment according to their feeling:

Speaking in English:

I speak as much as possible

I should speak more

I want to speak but I am afraid

So, only 7 respondents out of 23 confessed that they were afraid to speak in English. (see Chapter 4.1)

To compare the results of the first questionnaire with the final test the following conclusion can be drawn out that significant progress in training all language skills has been made. The results of the project work “My Body” showed that the pupils self-activity and potencial self-realization were grown.

Conclusion

Needless to say that the English language has become very popular today. About 350 million people speak English as its first language. It is an official language in 44 countries. It is the dominant language of the medicine, electronics and space technology. A foreign language is not just a subject learnt in the classrooms. It is something which is used in real life situations. Project work is one of the teaching methods teachers can use for teaching the English language during learning process.