Project-Based Learning and Content-Based Instruction in EFL: Developing Lexical Performance and Content Knowledge through Humanitarian Content in a Bangladeshi University
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.53103/cjlls.v6i4.296Keywords:
Content-Based Instruction, Project-Based Learning, Lexical Resource, Content Knowledge, Multidimensional Assessment, EFL, BangladeshAbstract
Integrated language–content pedagogies are increasingly advocated in EFL education, yet empirical work seldom captures linguistic and cognitive change simultaneously. This study examines whether a combined Project-Based Learning (PBL) and Content-Based Instruction (CBI) intervention, organised around Palestinian humanitarian content, was associated with concurrent change in learners' group-level lexical performance and content knowledge. In a one-group pre-test–post-test quasi-experimental design at a private university in Bangladesh, 60 second-semester undergraduates in twelve collaborative groups completed a seven-session integrated sequence, with the groups as the unit of analysis. Learning was assessed through the IELTS Lexical Resource descriptor (0–9) and an author-developed Humanitarian Content Knowledge Rubric (HCKR; 0–4), informed by AAC&U VALUE rubrics and analysed separately. Paired-samples t-tests indicated significant group-level gains in both domains (lexical: t(11) = 16.45, p < .001, dz = 4.75; content: t(11) = 14.66, p < .001, dz = 4.23), corroborated by a Wilcoxon signed-rank analysis (p < .001). The findings indicate concurrent change across a linguistic and a cognitive domain, and that multidimensional assessment offers a fuller account than single-measure evaluation.
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