任務導向之觀光英文課程學習成效

The Effects of Project-based Tourism English Learning a University of Taiwan

本文探討以任務導向教學法，執行專業觀光英文課程之成效。英文程度均等的兩個班級，對照組以教科書為課程重點，不需執行專題任務；實驗組則以專題合作任務為主、教科書為輔，作為學習內容。實驗組之專題任務，包含拍攝觀光宣傳微電影並上傳網站、寄發行銷明信片邀請外國友人來台、與在預算內設計旅遊行程。在一學期課程之後，比較兩組之學習成效。結果發現，實驗組雖課業加重，學生除教科書內容之外，仍須執行任務並完成作品，但該組教科書考試成績表現，在統計上與對照組並無差異，推估施行專題任務教學，並不妨礙專業觀光英文課本內容學習。學習日誌也顯示，學生認為藉由同儕共同執行任務的過程中，應用各類資源，比只教授教科書內容，更貼近實際旅遊產業需求。實驗組同學認為，在學習專業英文的過程中，培養了更多專業技能(諸如微電影拍攝、經營社群媒體與宣傳觀光產品的技巧)。問卷調查亦顯示，大多數修課學生以為，小組合作一起投入專題任務，能改善學習表現、找到彼此優勢共同學習。然而，教師也需投入部份時間協助來自不同科系的小組成員溝通，找出合作模式，以發展更好的團隊精神。

This study investigated the effects of Project-based Learning (PBL) on the English for specific purpose (ESP) course of tourism offered to all departments of students in a university. The class taught with PBL approach was designed to prime students' interest and create a context for learning content through deeper researching in order to complete collaborative works with their peers. Two classes taught by the same instructor were compared, one with the teacher-centered approach focusing only on textbook, the other with collaborative Project-based approach (shooting micro-film to promote tourism in Taiwan, writing and sending post cards with marketing messages, and planning travel itinerary within a budget). The PBL class had heavier loading as the students were required to master the contents of the textbook and also complete the projects. Even with more work, no statistical significant difference was found on the summative textbook exam performances between the students instructed with these two approaches, indicating PBL did not interfere with textbook learning. The survey data and reflective notes collected from the participants also showed that the students felt that they were empowered with the content language and knowledge through the projects and learned how to use available tools to better manage tourism (e.g., they learned the editing skills in shooting the micro-film, or marketing skills in running their websites when promoting traveling products). The survey also demonstrated that PBL approach increased students' emotional engagement which ameliorated their performance on the assignments. In students' reflective notes, it showed that through engagement, a team of students might have developed certain ownership over their projects, and sense of pride as one of the team members. If a team could develop the ‘sink or swim' spirit, the group dynamics could be built successfully. However, this study also showed that as the participants were from different departments, the instructor needed to provide training on developing teamwork skills; otherwise, it was difficult for some students to work together.