Positive views and challenges of using project work in ESP lessons

Abstract

ESP lessons in higher education develop foreign language competences of university students and prepare them for their professional lives. This paper brings views of university students on using projects in the classroom within their ESP lessons. As a part of the research through methods of focus groups, their analyses, the results and interpretations uncover positive and negative sides of using projects in ESP classroom from students' points of views. The results show that project work on the one hand strengthens and builds responsibility for learning and thus leads towards autonomous learning as one of the educational objectives of 21st century schooling. On the other hand, the research shows that the students see themselves as still not ready to take over responsibility for their own learning, they do not feel competent to give presentations, feel anxious to speak a foreign language in public and do not see themselves competent enough to develop their own projects in foreign languages within the topics of their future professions even though their language level reaches B1 level according to CEFR. Interpretation of these findings show insufficient or ineffective use of projects in earlier educational level, not enough attention given to development of productive skills and confidence in a foreign language use.