Problem-based learning in the first or second language: Does it make a difference?

Abstract

Problem-based learning (PBL) is the key didactic approach in the curriculum of the Stenden Hotel Management School. Real-world problems are used to activate prior knowledge and to trigger a learning process aimed at expanding and elaborating students’ understanding and competences. Since the hotel school accommodates an international student population, the entire programme uses English as the medium for communication. For approximately 90% of our students, English is a second language. This paper reports on the effectiveness of using the mother tongue (language 1) in collaborative learning, as opposed to using the student’s second language. We did so by asking a group of 12 students, who all have Dutch as their first language to perform all PBL activities in English as they usually do. At a later stage, the same group was asked to do a similar task in Dutch. PBL sessions were videotaped in our PBL lab, transcribed and analysed. Utterances of students were divided into the following categories: (1) statements, (2) constructive statements, (3) arguments, (4) questions, (5) confirmations, (6) negations, and (7) source utterances. The utterance analysis was limited to the first five steps in a seven-step approach. The findings in this small-scale pilot show – in line with earlier research – that students mainly communicate factual statements, hardly ask questions, and seldom confirm each other’s contributions when using their second language. However, when the first language was used, scores were more positive. Further research should show whether or not this is a structural finding. It was a surprise to notice that the English session contained nine minutes of “reading from paper” out of 32 minutes of reporting. In the Dutch session “reading from paper/tablet/phone” was absent.

Keywords: problem-based learning, second language, collaborative learning, verbal interactions, utterance analysis, Englishmedium education