Designing an Alternative Interactional Project Work

Abstract

This study investigates whether first-year Algerian secondary school project work achieves its objectives in terms of interaction and examines the major obstacles, which we identified as the textbook and teachers’ and learners’ beliefs about foreign language teaching/learning and project work. On the basis of the information which stemmed from the findings, we have attempted to design an alternative interactional project work. Classroom observations and teachers’ and learners’ questionnaires were applied to evaluate whether the existing project work exploits its rich potential for promoting and generating contexts for meaningful interaction. Regarding the project hurdles, they were investigated through teachers’ and learners’ questionnaires, follow-up interviews and documents. The results suggest that this activity, as it stands, does not successfully contribute to the accomplishment of its oral interaction goals and indicate that the textbook and teachers’ and learners’ conceptions of language learning/teaching and project work are, indeed, a hindrance. However, it should be noted that the textbook and teachers’ and learners’ beliefs about language learning/teaching and project work can not account for all the findings of the present inquiry. Factors such time constraints, examination pressures, and project work being difficult and a lot of work seem also to have a bearing on the failure of project work to promote and create contexts for interaction. On the basis of the information we gathered from the exploration of the project work hurdles in the first-year, we developed a rationale for the design of an alternative interactional project work. Ten principles, identified on the basis of this research, were applied to the first unit of the textbook, ‘At the Crossroads’, to remedy to the textbook weaknesses and to address both teachers’ and learners’ incorrect beliefs about foreign language learning/teaching in general and project work in particular. These caveats consist mainly of explicit guidance, project structuring, and the incorporation of pedagogical tools such as project planning and pseudo-assessment grids.