DIFFICULTIES IN IMPLEMENTING THE MAGAZINE PROJECT OF THE THIRD YEAR STUDENTS MAJORING IN ENGLISH AT THAI NGUYEN SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

Abstract

At many universities, learning English through project-based learning is no longer strange to students, especially at universities of foreign languages. This study examined the difficulties in implementing English magazine project by third-year English majors at School of Foreign Languages - Thai Nguyen University. The participants were 30 third-year English students. Data for the study were collected by using a questionnaire. The study was conducted on four main groups of difficulties: Difficulties in learners' ability, difficulties with time, difficulties in group work, and difficulties in support of teacher. The study results showed that learners' ability in using photoshop and finding information technology tools, learners' language competence (expressing ideas in journalistic style) accounted for the highest percentage of trouble, followed by difficulty in time (setting a specific timetable), group work (forgetting materials). Teachers’ ambiguous comments and corrections also cause problems for students. In contrast, the difficulties in support of teachers accounted for the lowest percentage because most students did not have problems with contacting teachers for support. Besides the mentioned difficulties, there is also the problem of low learning motivation raised by students as some students were not really excited about the magazine project.