High schools in District Four in Mashhad

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES

Table a- The merits of the PBL procedure in comparison to the traditional classrooms      7

Table b – The pre-test scores of both groups                                                                       43

Table c – The mean scores of the two groups on the test section                                         44

Table 1- Tests of Normality for experimental group                                                            53

Table 2- Tests of Normality for control group                                                                      54

Table 3- Group Statistics on autonomy                                                                                 54

Table 4- Independent Samples Test on autonomy                                                                55

Table 5- Group Statistics for reading pre-test                                                                       56

Table 6- Independent Samples Test for reading pre-test                                                       57

Table 7- Group Statistics for writing pre-test                                                                        57

Table 8 -Independent Samples Test for writing pre-test                                                        58

Table 9- Group Statistics on speaking pre-test                                                                      59

Table 10- Independent Samples Test on speaking pre-test                                                    61

Table 11- Group Statistics on listening pre-test                                                                     61

Table 12- Independent Samples Test on listening pre-test                                                    62

Table 13- Group Statistics on reading post-test                                                                     63

Table 14- Independent Samples Test for reading post-test                                                    63

Table 15- Table 9 Group Statistics for writing post-test                                                        64

Table 16- Independent Samples Test for writing post-test                                                    65

Table 17- Group Statistics on speaking post-test                                                                  66

Table 18- Independent Samples Test on speaking post-test                                                 67

Table 19- Group Statistics on listening post-test                                                                  67

Table 20- Independent Samples Test on listening post-test                                                 68

Abstract

The present empirical research reports on the findings of a study that investigated the effects of Project Work on Language proficiency and autonomy level of Iranian Intermediate Learners in an EFL setting. The method of teaching and learning English language through Project works is a contrast to the current teaching of English in Iranian high schools. The researcher after implementing FCE exam as the pre-test to homogenize 250 female students of two high schools in district 4 Mashhad, chose 50 students as the participants of the study. They were divided randomly into two groups of experimental and control groups. Through 12 sessions of instruction in three months’ time students in experimental group went under different project works introduced by the researcher. At the same time the students in the control group were provided with five short stories as their reading comprehension assignments. In order to collect the required data, a Cambridge FCE proficiency test was employed by the researcher as both pre-test and post-test. To check the autonomy level of the participants, a Learner Autonomy Questionnaire developed by Zhang and Li (2004, p. 23), was administered. At the end an interview was performed by the researcher to perceive the students’ ideas about the project work. Regarding the first hypothesis,” Project works do not have any significant effect on Intermediate Iranian EFL learners’ autonomy “, descriptive statistics of the autonomy questionnaire indicated that the mean of the autonomy level of the experimental group (M= 42.80) was higher than that of the control group (M= 26.76), therefor the hypothesis was rejected. The second hypothesis was not completely rejected. The projects applied had enabled the students to develop positive attitudes towards all English skills except for the reading skill. The results of the interview indicated that most students enjoyed doing projects. The study revealed that project works can be an effective way in teaching foreign languages and could create a gradual shift