Project-based learning in the writing skill development

Abstract

The objective of this research is to discover if project-based learning promotes the development of English language writing skills of students in the César Augusto Salazar Chávez Educational Unit. The population of this research was thirty-six first-year students of the baccalaureate of the Educational Unit César Augusto Salazar Chávez, twenty students formed the experimental group and the other sixteen students the control group. The diagnostic tests applied at the beginning of the school year were analyzed to establish the needs in reference to the writing skills that the students had. The results of this evaluation indicated that the two groups have a low average in the development of writing dexterity. With this premise, project-based activities were applied as a strategy to improve the development of writing skills. After this process, the students in the two groups took a post test to know if the project-based activity caused any difference in writing skills. The results indicated that the students that belonged to the experimental group obtained a better average grade in comparison to the average of the control group, therefore the experimental group surpassed the control group. In this way the following conclusions were determined: The application of an active method in English is restricted, the application of student-centered activities are not frequently used in the class, there is limited use of strategies for written production during class of English, the writing activities that the teacher can perform in class are very simple and lacking an adequate process for their production. Based on these conclusions, a guide was drawn up containing project-based activities that can be applied by first-year baccalaureate teachers BGU, as well as worksheets and rubrics for evaluation.