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Education» – 1916). In the 1960s project learning has been a central issue in edu-
cational debates in Europe. Since that time, the term «Project» has become very 
fashionable [2]. 
It is necessary to explore ideas and opinions of English authors interested in 
projects. A well-known personality who deserves to be in the centre of attention is 
John Dewey. He can also be considered the father of project approach. Dewey says 
that project does not present topics as verbal formulations to be memorized, but 
brings conditions when pupils try their resourcefulness, ability to make right deci-
sions, activity. And this certain degree of uneasiness, certain amount of obstacles 
should maintain pupils’ attention [3]. 
W. Kilpatrick, another follower of pragmatic pedagogy, indicates the differ-
ences between traditional and modern theory of teaching. Whereas, the traditional 
one represents learning from books, learning words and utterances of others, hold-
ing back from real life, learning through repetition and the promise that «what has 
been learned will be applied somewhere else and at some other time, the modern 
theory introduces learning through experience, situations of concrete personal life, 
pupils’ behaviour as a part of learning process and immediate practice [3]. 

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Simon Haines explanation of project work should not be left out: «Projects 
are multi-skill activities focusing on topics or themes rather than on specific lan-
guage targets. Of crucial importance is the part which students themselves play in 
the initial choice of subject matter and in the decisions related to appropriate work-
ing methods, the project 12 timetable and the eventual 'end-product'…project work 
provides students with opportunities to recycle known language and skills in a rela-
tively natural context» [3]. 
Harmer then adds that projects involve investigation, reporting, commitment 
and dedication from students and the most important thing here is the end-product 
[Harmer, 1991]. 
The Project Approach, a specific kind of project-based learning, brings a 
number of advantages to any classroom and represents best practices in 21st-
century education. It fits securely within both a long history of innovative teaching 
and learning practices – dating back, at least, to the 16th century – and within the 
framework of today’s growing body of research on what students need to find suc-
cess and fulfillment in the current (and future) world. The Project Approach refers 
to a set of teaching strategies that enable teachers to guide students through in-
depth studies of real-world topics. Projects have a complex but flexible framework 
within which teaching and learning are seen as interactive processes. When teach-
ers implement the Approach successfully, students feel highly motivated and ac-
tively involved in their own learning, leading them to produce high-quality work 
and to grow as individuals and collaborators. 
A project, by definition, is an in-depth investigation of a real-world topic 
worthy of a student’s attention and effort. The study may be carried out with an en-
tire class or with small groups of students – most often at the preschool, elemen-
tary, and middle school levels. Projects typically do not constitute the whole educa-
tional program; instead, teachers use them alongside systematic instruction and as a 
means of achieving curricular goals. 
To summarize, it seems that projects are extended tasks which usually inte-
grate language skills work by means of a number of activities. These activities 
combine in working towards an agreed goal and may include the following: plan-
ning, gathering of information, group discussion, problem solving, oral and written 
reporting and display. 
For the students to take the language as means of interaction between differ-
ent cultures, it’s necessary not only to get them acquainted with the regional pecu-
liarities of the country of a given language, but to involve them into an active dia-
logue between the cultures, for them to realize practical value of the language, its 
peculiarities of functioning in a close-to-life environment. 
Division of project work 
Project work cannot be characterised simply: there is a large number of pos-
sibilities how to describe what the project work is. The teacher´s imagination and 
fantasy is crucial. However, it is possible to innumerate some kinds of the most 
used projects. 
According of Diana L Fried-Booth, there are two main streams of project 
work: motivating activities and full-scale projects. Full-scale activities are almost 
always extended out of the classroom whereas motivating activities usually take 
place in the classroom. They also differ in their length. Motivating activities are a 
form of easier work, they are in fact a preparation for full-scale projects. These ac-

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199 
tivities are usually shorter than full-scale projects and they are also more suitable 
for younger learners [2]. 
Simon Haines divides projects into four main categories: information and re-
search projects, survey projects, production projects and performance or organiza-
tional projects. 
We shall now tackle the classification of the common didactic types of the 
projects. 
First of all, we should clear out the main criteria, according to which the 
types of projects are differentiated: 
– the activity or the method predominating in the project (research projects, 
creative, role play, informative, practice-oriented projects); 
– the subject(s), involved into the project (monoprojects: within one subject, 
one field of knowledge; the project, made on the border of some subjects); 
– the character of coordination (open, clear & vague, imitating the partici-
pants); 
– the character of the contacts (among the schoolmates, classmates, the par-
ticipants from one town, region, country, or different countries of the world; inner 
character, regional or international); 
– the number of participants (personal, pair or group projects); 
– duration of the project (short-term, middle-term or long-term projects). 
1. According to the method dominating in a project we may distinguish the 
following types of projects. 
Research projects. The projects of such kind demand a well-planned struc-
ture, clear aims, substantiated actuality of the subject of the research, precise list of 
the sources of information, considered methods and results. They are very close to 
a real research and have the similar structure. 
Creative projects. Such projects imply the appropriate design of the results. 
As a rule, the structure of the collective activity of the students, elaborating the pro-
ject, is not worked through in detail. It’s just planned and develops according to the 
logic of the process, accepted by the participants. It may be a newspaper, a compo-
sition, a film, acting out, a role play etc.
Role play projects. In the projects of such kind the structure is also only 
planned and stays open up to the end of the project. The participants take certain 
roles (chosen according to the content & the character of the project, to the peculi-
arity of the problem), which can be literary characters or fictional roles, imitating 
social or business relations.
Informative projects. The aim of such projects is to collect information about 
some object or phenomenon; to introduce it to the participants of the project; to an-
alyse it; to generalize the facts; to sum up.
Practice-oriented projects. Their peculiarity is the clear, distinct result, fixed 
from the start, which must be directed to the social interests of the participants.
2. According to the number of the subjects involved into the project, there 
are several types of them: 
Monoprojects. As a rule, they are carried out within the limits of one subject. 
But then the most difficult units, the most complicated problems are chosen (for 
example, in the course of a foreign language the topics connected with the regional 
geography, social studies, history can be taken). The work at the lessons should be 
carefully planned; the students should be divided into groups (within which the 

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roles are distributed). Before they start students themselves choose the way in 
which they’ll present their work. 
The projects made on the border of several subjects. As a rule, they are made 
at the extracurricular time. They can be of a small size, dealing with 2-3 subjects, 
or great long ones, involving the whole school, aiming to solve any complicated 
problem, which is important for every participant (for example, “culture of com-
munication”, at the border of the centuries” etc). 
Such projects must be coordinated by the specialists; several creative groups 
are to work in a harmonious unity; they ought to have clear tasks for a research; 
their presentations (both intermediate and final) should be well-worked through. 
3. According to the type of coordination we may distinguish the following 
types of projects. 
The projects with clear, open coordination.
Projects with vague coordination.
4. As for the character of the contacts, this criterion divides the projects into 
following groups. 
Internal, regional projects. They are organized within one school (including 
one subject or several ones) or among different schools or grades in a region or in a 
country. 
International projects. Their participants are the representatives of different 
countries. Such projects are of great importance, since to be realized they need 
some information technologies. 
1. By the number of participants the projects can be also different: personal 
(between 2 partners from different schools, regions, countries), pair (be-
tween/among the couples of participants) or group projects (among the groups). 
And it’s very important to organize group work properly from the methodical 
viewpoint (both inside a group of participants, close to each other and in a group, 
uniting the members from different schools, countries etc). The role of a coordina-
tor is especially important in this case. 
2. According to the duration of the projects, they can be short-term (in order 
to solve one little problem or a part of a more important problem); middle-term
(1 or 2 months) and long-term (up to a year). 
Naturally, in reality we usually deal with combined types of projects, which 
may unite the peculiarities of research and creative projects, or practice-oriented 
and research ones. Every type has his own way of coordination, deadlines, stages 
and number of participants. That’s why, working on a project we ought to bear in 
mind its peculiarities and characteristic features. 
To sum up we shall notice that projects based learning has a lot of ad-
vantages. Working on projects, students have an opportunity to practice and learn 
English language and at the same time they gain a lot of new information and de-
velop various important skills. All the mentioned aspects of projects based learning 
show that it is a true approach to language teaching and learning.