Welcome to Teachers' Narratives about Project Work. This website contains case studies of teachers describing their experiences with project work in foreign language instructional contexts. The goal of the site is to provide living examples of how language teachers think about project work - more specifically, how they plan, implement, and evaluate project work as well as what they learn from doing so.

Surviving the Car Buying Language Experience --- Karen Johnson
Language: ESL
Level: New International Students

This project is designed to prepare advanced ESL learners with the necessary language skills to research, locate, and negotiate through the process of purchasing a new or used car. - A PDF of the project can be downloaded here


Process of German Unification --- Gabi Appel
Language: German
Level: 4th-5th semester college/university

In this "inquiry project" students conduct in-depth research into a socio-political topic. The project develops from a speech, in which students learn about several key issues surrounding German unification. After identifying key concepts, students select a set of sub-topics worth investigating and do so in small groups. The products are written reports and oral presentations. - A PDF of the project can be downloaded here

German Media Landscapes --- Ute Maschke
Language: German
Level: 6th-8th semester college/university

This semester-long project seeks to promote learners' communicative activities and skills as responsible citizens of the world. It encourages and facilitates engagement with media samples for German-speaking cultures and offers opportunities to develop critical media and intercultural literacies.

Intercultural Learning in Action --- Gunhild Lischke
Language: German
Level: 4th semester college/university

In this project students learn to interview an individual from another cultural background. The short project focuses on awareness raising of language and culure.

Rediscovering Japan through Blogs --- Yumi Takamiya

Language: Japanese

Level: 3rd-4th semester college/university

Planning a Trip to Japan --- Yasuko Takata Rallings
Language: Japanese
Level: 3rd semester college/university
Teaching Literature through Language --- Carmen Yáñez Prieto
Language: Spanish
Level: 5th-8th semester college/university

This is an innovative curriculum project by the instructor which involves several small projects by students who learn to approach literature through discovering the language used in texts.
The narrative introduces an extensive site which features video clips from interviews with Carmen Yáñez Prieto, in which she talks about the project in detail.