Paste your essay in here…3Patrick (2009) deployed PBL with 20 undergrad students coming from multicultural background and they were undertaking a business English course in a Japanese university. Through a survey, he found more positive attitude to the approach like, it's exciting because it's interactive and not just 'sit and write' approach, good opportunity for face-to face communication as well as exchange of ideas and culture, in-depth understanding through first hand findings and arose interest to search for knowledge. Observations by the teachers ensured the encouragement of independent learning, creative stance to problem solving, fostering collaborative learning, heightening the awareness of using English. However, few students struggled with difficulties and hesitated initially discussing the thoughts about the problem in groups.
4Coffin (2013) implemented a newly designed PBL syllabus with 182 English major university students in the first semester of their academic year and three teachers in an EFL context of Thailand. She reported, students were confident to be responsive to the given problems, gained new knowledge from the subject matter as well as working method and in the end, learned to work out the problem. Besides, they took part in the investigation process that let them use analytical expertise. The Thai teachers also mentioned, learners were proud to be learnt by themselves as well as tackle own problems. Hence, they could see their own potentials and could maximize their learning through self-discovery and hands on experiences. The students learnt to work with other too and the teachers came to know the strengths and weakness of individual learners.
In the same year, 5Saeed and Rousta (2013) conducted an investigation upon 40 homogenous Iranian university students who were divided into control and experimental groups each consisting 20 students. They were found trying to comprehend all information they recognized as new in PBL class and it kept them enthusiastically occupied in the learning procedure long enough to achieve some concrete results. Learners persistently updated their mental representations to think over the new information and therefore, created individual perceptions about the given reality. Groups were significantly different in the post-test on critical thinking. The experimental group had much more improvement than the control group as well as a significantly positive impact of PBL on their critical thinking, learners reported.
6Othman and Shah's (2013) experimental research examined the outcome of PBL in course content and language development on 128 third-year Malaysian undergraduate English Language learners set into experimental as well as control group that had a 14 week semester with controlled syllabuses, instructors and textbooks. Analysis of the findings demonstrates the improvement done by both groups in the cloze test (p < 0.005). On the whole, PBL approach precisely effected the learners' language skills (with pre- and post-test mean score difference 3.99 while the same score for the non-PBL group was 1.45. For the written tests (language, organization and content: topic sentence, explanation and relevant examples), the results of the pre- and post-tests of the PBL group showed significance (P < 0.005) while the non-PBL group was not significant (p > 0.005). The mean difference between the tests for PBL group was 2.50 though the score for the other group was 0.10. The distribution of Course Marks/Grades show that the non-PBL group did slightly better than the PBL group with two students scoring between 90 to100. While no one in the PBL group scored between 90%-100%. However, the PBL group shows fewer students in the lower ranges, 31 for ranges 0-49 and 50-59, while the non-PBL group shows 35. They concluded that possibly the weaker students gained more from PBL than the advanced learners did. .
7Lin (2015) had an intervention study with 56 learners in both PBL and the non-PBL conditions in an elementary school of northern Taiwan. The intervention was for 12 weeks using similar texts, workbooks and learning materials though the non-PBL group received explicit vocabulary instruction using instruction-based method. Sample t-test reveals no considerable differences among teaching first (K1), second (K2), and third (AWL) categories of words, though the PBL group topped the non-PBL group while applying off-list vocabulary (t =2.369, p=0.023). 28 participants of PBL group stated that they had enjoyed receiving the opportunity to practice their speaking through English conversations with peers and teachers. Few of them mentioned about teachers' guidance and interactions that raised interest and encouraged them to discover and work out the problems. Besides, few others appreciated practicing actual language use through completing sentences, feeling of interactive dynamics in the group, the help of the group leader in exchanging ideas, additional activities outside classrooms.
Afterwards, 8Affandi and Sukyadi (2016) investigated the effectiveness of PjBL (Project-based learning) and PBL at the tertiary level with 78 second year students of a university in Indonesia and the implementation of PBL had a significant impact on the learners. They had some corresponding findings from learners’ perceptions, it is a learning strategy that can help students to analyze individual or group problems in learning process, finding the solution through discussion helped them to increase thinking and problem solving ability. The authors observed this finding corresponding with that of 9Mayo et al. (1993) who asserted that PBL dealt with a real world content or selected knowledge with learners’ problem solving skills. The interview data revealed that the learners believed the method to improve their writing skill. The respondents mentioned of discussion, communication, finding source and processing sources, criticizing issues on problem, increasing motivation, learning vocabulary, improving writing skills, expanded knowledge and developed critical thinking skills as the advantages.
Forty intermediate Iranian EFL learners in 10Ebrahimi and Beroozizad's study (2016) could develop their knowledge of the receptive and productive spoken forms through peer interference and group discussions. The learners could decode and recognize the newly learned vocabulary as well as were able to write the previously learned ones correctly that confirm the receptive and productive written forms to be prompted by PBL treatment. They also reported of improved receptive and productive meaning through retelling sessions, better retention and retrieving through utterances, good conversion of the earlier receptive vocabularies into productive ones, automaticity and speed in lexicon access, improvement in reading comprehension, improvement in fluency of writing, increase in using English Language outside the classroom and doing self-study, development of higher level of motivation and self-efficacy.
A problem based English listening game was developed by 11Hwang et al. (2017) along with a progressive sequential analysis with an experimental group of 39 students and 38 students with conventional instruction. The post-test listening score as well as motivation performance of the experimental group was largely higher than control group (F =17.53, p < 0.001). That implies, the PBL based listening game helped the students with listening skills though English anxiety could not be easily changed either in conventional technology-enhanced instruction or in problem-based English listening computer games.
12Jiriyasin (2006) performed a semester-long experimental study performances' of the English majors in the private universities in Bangkok. Regarding her 1st research question about the effects of PBL author reported that the overall language learning was affected by the PBL approach (mean difference between pre and post test -5.97500) and they showed more fluency with pauses and/or filter (-2.475). Regarding accuracy, they used more correct word orders, propositions, subject-verb agreements (-1.625), more compound and simple structures with a few complex ones (-1.875). However, the second research question found, the majority of the subjects (97.73%) enjoyed practicing English discussion as well as support from teachers and peers, topics and instruction method respectively. These helped them to feel more confidence in expressing their opinions in English, interesting topics made the learning exciting, created more opportunities to express ideas, became more confident in asking questions and arguing in English. In addition, they learned to express opinions, interrupt, agree and disagree politely, use reasons to convince or persuade others to agree. They also reported to learn new vocabulary and knowledge, to solve problem systematically, to work in a team, to be open-minded and assertive from self-directed learning.
4.2 Challenges:
Teacher 1 in Prathana's study experienced worries while introducing problems at the beginning of the course because the learners were confused and they seemed frustrated with managing information or ideas. Although by the mid of the semester, they seemed to start shaping up ideas and directions after a few meetings or conversations. On contrary, teacher 2 found it difficult to maintain and balance an appropriate role as PBL supervisor regarding when not to control students' work and when to step in. Another challenge was to monitor work process in terms of being fair and equal to their team contribution. PBL requires a lot of time which was a considerable issue. Again, the process has brought more frustration and hard work to both students and teachers. Although majority of them have gained benefit from it, few of them may be left behind. Having a strategy ready in hand to deal with this situation is highly recommended. The most important challenge for the facilitators is that it requires much hard work and professionalism from the teacher. They must be actively engaged in the learning process and perform beyond just giving lectures. PBL facilitators should have mindset for changes and openness to changes in learning philosophy, roles of each agent and educational goals to ensure constant learning.
Comparisons of the behavioural patterns of the students in the study of 11Hwang et al. (2017) expose that those with lower anxiety level learn to fight successfully with their current knowledge to explore the game context and complete the learning tasks. While the highly anxious learners escape from the battle and fail the learning tasks in the beginning but becomes successful in the third stage even. Meanwhile, more anxious students improved their learning achievement more than the less anxious students did.
The high achiever students and interestingly, also one low-achiever student in the study of 8Affandi and Sukyadi (2016) mentioned that not all the members of the group were eager to do the task. The lack of participation from some group members hindered them from working faster. They also observe that high- and mid-achievers were confident while working with their peers though the low-achievers tended to be less assertive in expressing their viewpoints. The students stated about the difficulties in picking the right article to support the solution to given problem. Individual exploration as well as the reluctance of few students to participate in group discussion and work was regarded as obstacle too. This was also mentioned by 13Ommudsen (2001), 14Boud & Felleti (1997), 15Brown (2001) and 4Coffin (2013).
The non-PBL participants in 7Lin's (2015) study appreciated the adequate time given to the vocabulary and syntax specified by the teachers, the clear and comprehensive description of the activities in the exercise-books which assisted in memorization task, demonstration of correct pronunciation by teachers while reading aloud though there was dividing opinion about practice outside the class.
5Saeed and Rousta (2013) mentioned of the aptitude of learners to manage autonomous learning and the designing of the problems. Because, students stated that they had learnt to be self-governing and question solvers. Here, students may use the first language instead of English while working on the consigned task in group. So, PBL may not be appropriate for the beginners with minimum English oral and reading skills. The resistance shown by the learners habituated with traditional lecture mode and the teachers constrained by the factors like syllabus and time was reported by 6Othman and Shah (2013). Although, researchers found they became highly motivated later16.