A Guide du Routard Simulation: Increasing Self-Efficacy in the Standards through Project-Based Learning

Abstract: Project-based learning (PBL) is described as a student-centered approach to learning in which students collaborate on sequential authentic tasks and develop a final project. Through opportunities to integrate both language and content learning, PBL practitioners suggest that meaningful language use and purposeful communication are fostered (Sheppard & Stoller, 1995; Stoller, 2006). Despite its numerous cited advantages, there are no known empirical studies evaluating the influence of PBL on the self-efficacy of foreign language learners. The purpose of this study was to evaluate how project-based learning influenced the development of false beginner French students' self-efficacy, or perceived competence, in the five goal areas of the Standards for Foreign Language Learning. Significant improvement was found in students' self-efficacy in the areas of Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons, and Communities after participation in the PBL curriculum. Key words: false beginner language learners, project-based learning, self-efficacy, Standards for Foreign Language Learning, virtual environments Language: French Introduction Project-based learning (PBL) in the foreign language classroom is defined as a practice "in which students are socialized through a series of individual or group activities that involve the simultaneous learning of language, content, and skills" (Slater, Beckett, & Aufderhaar, 2006). Through the completion of a series of authentic tasks, PBL collectively engages language students in the development of an end product (Stoller, 2006). PBL practitioners suggest that meaningful language use and purposeful communication are fostered through the attainment of this end product (Levy, 1997; Slater et al., 2006). Miller (2006) suggested that project-based instruction can also assist instructors in integrating the Standards for Foreign Language Learning (National Standards, 1996) into foreign language curricula. Through the promotion of communication, the integration of language and culture, the development of connections between language and content, the comparison of native and foreign language cultures, and the development and discovery of communities both inside and outside the classroom, Miller (2006) proposed that PBL can help learners and instructors attain the important instructional goals outlined by the Standards. Furthermore, Fried-Booth (1982) asserted that project-based foreign language education attempts to revitalize "students who may lack motivation to relearn, or who feel that only 'new' materials are interesting and relevant" (p. 98). PBL may therefore appeal in particular to "false beginner" language learnersFstudents who have had previous language instruction but whose language skills are not sufficient to place them into the intermediate level. Despite their limited linguistic skills, false beginners typically have a stronger familiarity with vocabulary, grammatical structures, and cultural content than their "true beginner" counterparts. University-level language instructors have the unique challenge of sufficiently challenging students of this level while providing the necessary review of vocabulary, grammatical structures, and cultural content (Thomas, 2006). By providing students with the opportunity to recycle previously learned language and to extend and apply their content knowledge (Stoller, 2006), PBL may provide multiple opportunities for false beginner language learners to revisit the necessary foreign language material and connect new information to previously learned material. Despite the large number of resources, frameworks, and anecdotal evidence claiming the merits of PBL (Barron, 1998; Fried- Booth, 2002; Stoller, 1997), researchers have claimed that empirical research on projectbased second language and foreign language education is scarce (Beckett, 2006; Stoller, 2006). Although practitioners have asserted that PBL may effectively attain the goals of the Standards, there are no known empirical studies demonstrating the influence of PBL on students' perceived competence in the five C's of the Standards. …