PROJECT-BASED LEARNING AND ITS EFFECT ON STUDENTS’ ENGLISH SKILLS

The 21st century has contributed so much to the change in language learning today. Educational restructuring and strategies should focus on the students and whether the current teaching strategies sufficient for them to hone their language skills and utilise it outside of the classroom. For these reasons, many teachers are looking for new ways to teach and help students to improve their language skills. Project-Based Learning (PBL) has been proven to be one of many teaching strategies that can help to improve students’ language skills and proficiency for it provided students with enough opportunities to use the language in a natural context. Numerous studies have demonstrated that the use of projects in the English language classroom is able to improve their English skills and increase their deeper understanding of the concept learnt. This study is conducted to investigate students’ perceptions of the implementation of projects in the English language classroom and how PBL is able to enhance students’ English skills. The study applied quantitative and qualitative research methods. The subjects of this study consist of 77 second-year students, who are taking English for Occupational Purposes subject at Universiti Malaysia Sabah Labuan International Campus. The findings of the study have generated a positive response from the students and through those projects the students were able to improve their English skills, particularly in speaking and writing. Based on the results of the present study, project-based learning should be one of the teaching strategies used in the English language classroom to help improve students’ English abilities.