TEACHING IRREGULAR VERBS IN THE PROJECT-BASED GERMAN WRITING SKILLS COURSE

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess how well 178 irregular verbs in German were taught in a project-based writing skills course. The class met for two hours a week; the first hour was spent explaining irregular verbs' meanings, use characteristics, and second and third forms using examples from sentences. Students were required to complete a project in the second hour using irregular verbs they had learnt earlier, including story, poem, and theatre. The completed projects were given to the course instructor, who checked and modified them before distributing them on a weekly basis to the students. The use of this strategy lasted for 14 weeks. Students were given a list of irregular verbs at the start of the semester and instructed to write their definitions, second and third forms. Their responses were assessed. Each verb whose meaning, second and third forms are written correctly was calculated over 4 points and these data formed the pre-test data of the study. At the end of the course, the same list of verbs was provided to the students, who were again asked to write their meanings, second and third forms. These results were used as the post-test data for analysis. The data was analyzed using a t-test, which yielded a significant p-value of 7.168e-10. Examination of the projects submitted by the students revealed a high level of proficiency in the use of irregular verbs, even among those who had difficulty constructing sentences with them previously. Based on the findings of this study, we recommend the adoption of project-based writing skills courses not only in writing courses but also in teaching other subjects in different courses.