Project-Based Learning in College English Instruction

摘要

With the development of curriculum, project-based learning (PBL), which started with the medical field, began to be applied to more content-based courses and is now attracting the concern of EFL practitioner and researchers. Former studies all demonstrate the value of PBL in the overall development of students, but little research is conducted in college English instruction, especially in China. This paper presents a three-semester study which confirms the feasibility of PBL in college English instruction. The study also reveals the contradiction between PBL and the current course evaluation, especially the testing system in China's colleges and universities. It argues for an all-round innovation from course evaluation, to learning assessment, to teaching approaches from coursebook compilation in order to satisfy the needs of society for English.