DIFFICULTIES IN IMPLEMENTING A PROJECT-BASED COURSE OF THE THIRD-YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT A UNIVERSITY IN VIETNAM

Abstract

This study aims to explore the difficulties that 3rd year English major students at a university in Vietnam have when doing a project-based learning course - the Magazine Project. A survey questionnaire was built basing on a proposed model and administered to 60 English major students at the university. The quantitative session of the questionnaire was to test how the students rate the different types of difficulties in the model. The qualitative session was to investigate additional problems (if any) and seek for solutions suggested by the students. The quantitative data revealed that teachers’ lack of support and enthusiasm caused difficulties to the students. In addition, students struggled the most with finding IT tools and authentic magazine resources, writing in magazine conventions, and collaborating with peers. Meanwhile, the qualitative data show that low learning motivation was additionally the source of troubles. Some suggestions were also given by the students to minimize the difficulties. The study contributes to the limited existing literature of a particular PBL course –the Magazine project and brings more insights into students’ learning difficulties in similar contexts.