Problem Based Learning for English Subjects in Students’

Perspectives

Yosi Handayani and Sri Murni

Politeknik Negeri Batam, Jalan Ahmad Yani, Batam, Indonesia

Keywords: Problem Based Learning, Learning English, Teaching English, Learning Problems.

Abstract: This study focused on the students' perspectives toward the implementation of Project-Based Learning (PBL)

for English Subjects in State Polytechnic Batam. The research used qualitative descriptive to analyze the

student's perspective related to the learning of the PBL method applied in English courses. The instrument

was a questionnaire to examine the student's perspectives. The participants were about 250 students of Batam

State Polytechnic majoring in Business Management, which consists of 10 classes of English courses that

output oral and written skills, study programs in Accounting, Managerial Accounting, and Applied Business

Administration. The result showed that students faced many difficulties in their PBL English. However, they

were still able to complete their PBL assignments on time. The role of lecturers in English PBL subjects has

been carried out properly as facilitators and student companions and most students feel satisfied with this.

The data that is mostly used by students in making their English PBL written reports is about

procedures/processes, data in tabular form, line graph, bar chart, and pie chart. The topics that are widely used

by students in their English PBL oral reports are product promotion and internship reports.

1 INTRODUCTION

Problem Based Learning (PBL) is a combination of

learning theory, model, and practice in real terms

according to conditions in the field (De Graaf and

Kolmos, 2003). This learning method has been

implemented more than 45 years ago.

The PBL emphasizes the learning process through

students' field experiences which are carried out

collaboratively to get a solution to a problem

(collaborative problem solving). This learning

method makes the students experience real projects

and work at working place. In this process, students

will be directly involved in a case or work project,

where they need to synergize with students from other

disciplines, forming study groups to complete the

projects/cases they face. Their teamwork skills are

built in this system.

Research results from previous studies show that

students have a less positive attitude towards the

implementation of PBL (Hasan and Esmat, 1990).

However, in 2013, Maulany found that PBL can

significantly improve students' speaking skills (It was

indicated by the improvements of students' speaking

aspects covering comprehension, vocabulary,

grammar, fluency, and pronunciation. Of all the five

aspects, comprehension and vocabulary were

improved most significantly).

Furthermore, Pangander and Read (2014) found

contradictory results related to the effectiveness of the

application of this PBL method in the field of

educational medicine. Still, in the same year,

Trisdiono (2014), found that teachers in schools had

difficulty in determining suitable teaching materials

for the PBL curriculum.

Moreover, Ceker and Ozdamli (2016) also found

several limitations in the application of PBL in the

teaching and learning process. In the same year,

Maysara (2016) found that the application of PBL in

Colloid system subjects was effective in achieving

learning objectives. In the following year, Eduardo,

Thayla, and Paulo (2017) found that PBL is an

effective learning method because students directly

gain experience in creating and developing a product,

but they also stated that this method could be

ineffective in developing countries.

At Batam State Polytechnic, PBL has only been

tried to be implemented starting in early 2021. To

expedite the course of PBL from the four existing

Departments, Batam State Polytechnic provides a unit

that specifically functions to manage projects that will

be run in each department. These projects are then

336

Handayani, Y. and Murni, S.

Problem Based Learning for English Subjects in Students’ Perspectives.

DOI: 10.5220/0010921300003255

In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Applied Economics and Social Science (ICAESS 2021), pages 336-341

ISBN: 978-989-758-605-7

distributed to the courses offered each semester to

students.

In practice, each person in charge of the course

will prepare material designs that will later be needed

to build and increase students' knowledge to solve the

problems they face while working on their projects.

One of the courses involved in the project is English.

In this case of the English course, students are

expected to be able to make project progress reports

and project final reports in English, as well as be able

to present these reports in English. However, the

implementation of this PBL method will not be easy

for students because in the even semester of

2020/2021 this is the first time it is applied to English

courses.

Students' learning culture and their readiness for

technology and critical thinking will greatly affect

their success in solving problems encountered in the

projects they are working on. In addition, lecturers do

not yet have appropriate teaching materials for PBL,

this can be another obstacle for their students. The

fact that the PBL method is something new for these

students.

They are required to be more active, spirit full,

and critical in working on their projects and also

analyze important things in the project. This

challenge is further complicated by the

implementation of a 100% online learning system for

English courses in the even semester of 2020/2021

due to the increasingly severe Pandemic situation.

The condition of the students who are familiar and

fit with the traditional learning method is then

drastically changed into student center method in

PBL. The policy to have fully online learning can be

a big problem for them as some of the students still

have limitations in mastering and accessing the

technology.

2 FORMULATION OF THE

PROBLEM

The following are some of the problems that

researchers can identify related to the implementation

of PBL for English subjects:

1. There are several obstacles faced by English

students in communicating with other students in

collecting data for their reports.

2. The role of lecturers as facilitators for PBL

determines the success of the PBL learning system.

3. The topics contained in the lesson plan of

English subjects are hardly obtained evenly in the

working places.

4. The material for the PBL final oral and written

report is strongly influenced by the condition of the

project being carried out by students

3 RESEARCH PURPOSES

Based on the background and identification of the

problems described above, the purpose of this study

is to find out general problems and students’

perspectives related to the implementation of PBL for

English courses.

4 LITERATURE REVIEW

4.1 Characteristics of Problem based

Learning (PBL) Methods

The basic characteristic of PBL is student-based

learning or commonly called student-center (Hasan

and Ezzat (1990). One of the previous studies on PBL

conducted by De Graaf and Kolmos (2003) found that

the problem (problem) is the starting point of the PBL

process. learning using the PBL method. They

formulated there are three other characteristics of

PBL:

a. PBL is activity-based learning

b. PBL is an interdisciplinary learning

c. PBL is group-based learning.

Ceker and Ozdamli (2016) stated that teachers and

students are thoroughly involved in PBL.

Furthermore, Habok and Nagy (2016) stated that in

PBL the teacher is the facilitator and students must be

involved in the assessment.

From the basic characteristics of learning the PBL

method, it is clear that most of the teaching and

learning process is in the students/students

themselves, and teachers/lecturers only facilitate and

assist so that students/students are on the right track.

4.2 Characteristics of Problem based

Learning (PBL) Methods

The basic characteristic of PBL is student-based

learning or commonly called student-center (Hasan

and Ezzat (1990). One of the previous studies on PBL

conducted by De Graaf and Kolmos (2003) found that

the problem (problem) is the starting point of the PBL

process. learning using the PBL method. They

formulated there are three other characteristics of

PBL:

Problem Based Learning for English Subjects in Students’ Perspectives

337

a. PBL is activity-based learning

b. PBL is an interdisciplinary learning

c. PBL is group-based learning.

Ceker and Ozdamli (2016) stated that teachers and

students are thoroughly involved in PBL.

Furthermore, Habok and Nagy (2016) stated that in

PBL the teacher is the facilitator and students must be

involved in the assessment.

From the basic characteristics of learning the PBL

method, it is clear that most of the teaching and

learning process is in the students/students

themselves, and teachers/lecturers only facilitate and

assist so that students/students are on the right track.

4.3 Teaching English as a Foreign

Language (EFL): Oral and Written

Skills

Karyawati and Ashadi (2018) found that students

dominate the class especially to improve their

speaking skills and lecturers provide a new learning

atmosphere in teaching English by providing several

activities that contain communication, critical

thinking, collaboration, and creativity.

In addition, Fandino (2013) adds that the 21st

century demands an explicit integration between

learning strategies, digital competencies, and career

skills. He believes that Schools in general and EFL

classrooms, in particular, should provide students

with practices and processes focused on acquiring and

developing, among other things, creativity, critical

thinking, collaboration, self-direction, and cross-

cultural skills.

4.4 Student's Perspective on Problem

based Learning (PBL) Lectures

From the research conducted by Hammel, et al

(1999), it is known that students feel that the PBL

approach adopted consistently throughout the

curriculum contributes to the development of

information management, critical reasoning,

communication, and team-building skills; however,

the challenges identified were time and role

management, access to information, instructor versus

PBL expectations and practices, and overcoming

knowledge and reasoning ambiguity.

According to Nanda and Manjunatha (2013),

students have a willingness to adapt to the PBL

system even though they feel some advantages in the

traditional system. In this case, the relationship

between students and lecturers is one of the keywords

for the success of PBL,

Carlos (2015) states that the success of PBL

learning depends on the reactions and attitudes of

students. From a student's perspective, PBL is not an

easy way to learn, especially for those who are

exposed to this system for the first time. Another

problem that was presented was the lack of

knowledge and teamwork skills. Furthermore,

Shitarukmi, Projosasmito, and Roebertsen (2017)

claim that students are expected to be able to discuss

problems according to the principles of collaborative

learning.

5 RESEARCH METHODS

5.1 Research Object

This research was conducted at Batam State

Polytechnic majoring in Business Management,

which consists of 10 classes of English courses that

output oral and written skills, study programs in

Accounting, Managerial Accounting, Applied

Business Administration, with a total of 214 students.

5.2 Data Collection

The data for this research will be collected using a

questionnaire that will be filled out by students

regarding their experiences and opinions related to

learning the PBL method applied in English courses

in the Even Semester 2020/2021.

5.3 Data Analysis Method

In principle, this research is qualitative and

descriptive. The qualitative descriptive method was

used to analyze the student's perspective related to the

learning of the PBL method applied in English

courses.

Broadly speaking, the stages of data analysis will

be carried out as follows:

The researcher will analyze the student's

perspective related to the learning of the PBL method

applied in English courses. The data analyzed here are

data obtained from students who are involved in

projects at the Batam State Polytechnic and are taking

English courses.

6 DISCUSSION

The targeted respondents, respectively 250 students,

do not fully participate in filling the questionnaires of

this research. There are only 214 respondents who

ICAESS 2021 - The International Conference on Applied Economics and Social Science

338

participate in giving the data regarded to their

perspective.

The following is a description of data analysis

results obtained from respondents who are students

taking English courses in the Even Semester

2020/2021 at the Department of Business

Management, Batam State Polytechnic:

6.1 Difficulties Faced by Students in

the PBL System Lectures for

English Courses

The most common difficulties experienced by

students in this English PBL course are as follows:

a. Difficulty in face-to-face communication,

and in searching data and information to be

processed for English PBL weekly.

This causes the time to discuss working on the project

to be very limited. This is due to the Covid-19

Pandemic situation, where English lectures are

carried out 100% online. They try to negotiate with

the English lecturer to accommodate the certain

possibility of getting similar data from the internet

which can be personally done by the student. So, that

they do not need to rely on their friends for getting the

data. However, the solution is violence to the

principal of PBL, which is team working and

collaborative learning (De Graaf and Kolmos, 2003;

Ceker and Ozdamli, 2016).

b. Time Management.

Most students convey that it was difficult to divide

their time because in this semester many courses are

run with the PBL system. The workload of each

course that must be completed at the same time leads

them to bad time management.

This is a common issue in the PBL system. This

problem will lead the students to explore their

creativity to be able to think critically in a limited time

for a lot of workloads (Caesar, et.al, 2016; Doroty,

and Timothy, 2018).

c. Difficulty in obtaining data from PBL

groups of other majors for analysis in English.

This is caused by two things. First, the projects in

other majors have not yet been integrated with the

English lesson plan, so that when students have to

analyze data in the form of tables or graphs, the

project group that is the target of their respondents has

not yet started working on the project, it is still in the

project preparation stage.

6.2 Students Commitment to Complete

Their PBL Tasks on Time

Of the 214 respondents, 193 of them states that they

could still submit weekly reports on time, while only

21 students stated that they could not submit reports

on time. This shows that PBL affirmatively can

develop the students' good attitudes toward

responsibility they have from their PBL subjects. The

students can succeed to find a solution and give their

hard work to complete their target, make hard efforts

to show their performance (Ceker and Ozdamli,

2016).

Graphically, the data can be shown by the

following chart:

Figure 1: Students’ commitment to complete the task on

time.

This shows that having many assignments from

many courses with the PBL system, English course

students still show their enthusiasm and commitment

to carry out their obligations in this course. There are

greatly 90% of the respondents admit that they can

finish all the weekly progress reports and final reports

on schedule.

6.3 Common Data Obtained for the

English PBL Report

In this question, the respondents can give more than

one answer. The eight choices given to the students in

this question are taken from the topics available in the

English lesson plan: Line graph, Bar Chart, Pie Chart,

Table, Map, Process/procedures, Multiple Charts,

and Budgeting. The students have initially got the

theoretical explanation on how to present these data

in a spoken and written report.

The following graph shows the information of

common data that the students get from the project

handled by students of other courses and majors.

Problem Based Learning for English Subjects in Students’ Perspectives

339

Figure 2: Common Data Gathered for PBL Tasks.

From the data and graphs above, it can be seen

that the most common information gathered is

process/procedure (26%) and tables (19%). The

second common layer is dominated by data in form of

line graphs (12%), bar charts (10%), and pie charts

(9%). Those are the five most common categories

taken up to 76% accumulation.

6.4 The Role of Lecturers in the PBL

Learning System of English

Courses

The data obtained from 214 respondents shows that

only 1 respondent stated that the lecturer did not give

time to discuss, ask, and discuss the progress reports

made by students while 213 other respondents admit

that the lecturers had given time and opportunity very

well for the students.

Graphically, it will be seen in the following chart:

Figure 3: The roles of English teachers in the PBL.

It is clearly shown that the lecturers have carried

out their role as facilitators and provided assistance to

students in implementing projects for English PBL

(Habok and Nagy, 2016).

6.5 Common Topics for Oral

Presentations in Students English

PBL

In this question, the respondents can also give more

than one answer. The following is a graph showing

the topics that were mostly gathered by the students

for their oral report in English PBL:

Figure 4: Common topics for Oral Presentation in English

PBL.

From the graphs and data above, it can be seen

that PBL materials such as “product promotion and

internship report are two topics that are widely used

by students for their oral reports. There are around 80-

84 respondents. However, other topics such as

financial reports are also common to use in their

presentation task.

This is due to the condition of the respondents

who are in the period of their internship program

while taking the English subjects. In addition, the

students of this program are also expected to present

their internship reports in English.

7 CONCLUSION

From the description above, it can be concluded that:

1. Students faced many difficulties in their PBL

2. English lectures this semester, but they were

still able to complete their PBL assignments

on time.

3. The role of lecturers in English PBL subjects

has been carried out properly as facilitators

and student companions and most students

feel satisfied with this.

4. The data that is mostly used by students in

making their English PBL written reports is

about procedures/processes, data in tabular

form, line graph, bar chart, and pie chart.

5. The topics that are widely used by students in

their English PBL oral reports are product

promotion and internship reports.

ICAESS 2021 - The International Conference on Applied Economics and Social Science

340

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