Event Date: 9th April 2022

Abstract:

Project-based pedagogy, rooted in Deweyan student-centered experiential learning educational philosophy, aims to educate the whole learner. This is done by organizing the learning of content subjects as a series of projects through which students learn scientific knowledge, theories for, and research about the knowledge. The designing and implementation of projects help students learn and verify knowledge through articulating their learning verbally and in writing with peers and teachers. As such, project-based pedagogy is about learning by experiencing and reflecting on learning, not through rote memorization, often multimodally. With such learning, students also develop the transferrable critical thinking, decision making, and collaborative work skills necessary for their projects and to function in changing societies. Additionally, students develop form and function of language associated with the content and various skills contextually and authentically.

In this webinar, we will discuss project-based pedagogy for language education, including its principles and procedures for teaching and assessment. We will discuss research on project-based language pedagogy and propose some project ideas. We will then illustrate how those projects can be implemented and assessed multimodally and contextually with examples.

Participants can expect to learn about the project-based language pedagogy that empowers them to teach and assess their subjects, including English, by incorporating their students’ goals and needs into their curriculum experientially, lively, meaningfully, and authentically. They can also expect to learn the necessary procedures of such teaching and assessment. Participants will be invited to brainstorm for more project ideas as well.

About the Speakers:

Dr. Gulbahar Beckett, Professor of TESL/Applied Linguistics, focuses on project-based second/foreign language acquisition and socialization; Content-based second/foreign language (a.k.a English as a medium of instruction/learning); Second and minority language policies; Technology integrated teaching and learning; and Academic literacy.

She has numerous publications including books, chapters, and articles in such journals as Review of Educational Research, Language Policy; TESOL Quarterly; The Modern Language Journal; The Canadian Modern Language Review; The English Language Teaching Journal; TESL Canada Journal; Journal of Research on Computing in Education; Distance Education; Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education; Journal of Mixed Method Research; and Applied Measurement in Education.

Dr. Beckett has also obtained various grants and fellowships totaling over $2 million. Additionally, she has chaired/supervised numerous doctoral dissertations and masters thesis/projects. She is an associate editor of Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education journal (Routledge).

LATEST PRACTICAL ARTICLE

Slater, T. & Beckett, G. H. (2019). Integrating Language, Content, Technology, and Skills Development through Project-based Language Learning: Blending Frameworks for Successful Unit Planning. MexTESOL Journal.

Available for webinar participants here.

Latest Scholarly Book

Beckett, G. H. & Slater, T. (Eds.) (2019/2020). Global perspectives on project-based language learning, teaching, and assessment: Key approaches, technology tools, and frameworks. NY: Routledge.

Jeanne Beck is a PhD student in Applied Linguistics and Technology at Iowa State University. She holds an Educational Specialist degree (Ed.S.) in Education Administration from William Woods University, and an M.Ed in TESOL Education, a BS in Middle School Education, and a BA in International Studies from the University of Missouri.

She has taught undergraduate, graduate, and teacher training courses at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul, South Korea; high school English on the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program in Nagano, Japan; and ESL, ELA, and technology classes in rural K-12 Missouri public schools; and currently teaches elementary English language learners in Iowa.

Her interests include CALL, technology training for teachers, project based language learning, second language assessment, policy, and rural needs. She has presented at multiple conferences including CALICO, JALT-CALL, MIDTESOL, MwALT, PSLLT, and TESOL, and has served as a board member for MIDTESOL. She helped co-author an English textbook in South Korea, and has written articles for Assessing Writing, CALICO Journal [forthcoming], Language Magazine, MIDTESOL Journal, and TESL-EJ.