Use of the Topical Project Work “My Body” for Developing All Language Skills in Form 4 (стр. 3 из 3)
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.
The aim of the Paper was to stimulate the interest in studyng the English language and to improve the skills and knowledge of pupils with the help of project work “My Body”.
The objectives of the Paper have been completed:
metodological literature on teaching English through project works has been studied;
the case study has been carried out;
the results of the case study have been analyzed.
The research that was carried out based on the analysis of the theoretical literature and completed tasks and activities for the project work “My Body”, allowed the author to ascertain that the hypothesis of the Paper has been proved, that the effective use of the project work successfully develops all language skills of young learners. The study proved also that the project work elevated the effectiveness of learning English.
Project work includes a lot of practical activities through which learners develop all skills and knowledge even in different school subjects. Project work is an example of the co-operative learning. In big classes it is possible to organise dynamic and creative teaching with the help of such teaching/learning organization forms as pair and group work.
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Appendix
TABLE 2. Activities for the Topic “My Body”
| Description ofactivity | Teacher’sLanguage | Language SkillsFocus |
| 1.Sing song and do the actions | Nose, head, shoulders, etc. | Listening, speaking skills |
| 2.Drawing the parts of the body | “Show me…”“What is it?” | Speaking, writing, listening skills |
| 3.To listen to the dialogue | Helping with difficult words | Listening and speaking skills |
| 4. Mime-show | Introduce new words | Speaking, writing, reading, listening skills |
| 5. Measuring your body | Giving instructions | Speaking, listening, reading, writing skills |
| 6. English food | Giving key words. “What is different about English food?” | Reading, listening, speaking skills |
| 7. Game “Healthy Food for Healthy Body” | Questions about the text | Speaking, listening, writing |
| 9.“Table Manners” | Helping with new and difficult words | Reading, speaking, writing, listening |
| 10. Test | Read the first task | Listening, writing, reading, skills |
Figure 1. Types of the Intelligences in Form 4