Telling China's Stories Well in English: Project-Based Learning in the Ideological and Political Education of College English

DOI: https://doi.org/10.62517/jhet.202615425

Author(s)

Cai Jia

Affiliation(s)

School of Physical Education, Yan'an University, Yan'an, Shaanxi, China

Abstract

Telling China's stories well in English has become a distinctive objective of ideological and political education in college English courses, yet its realization is often limited by decontextualized drills and a lack of productive tasks through which students construct and voice Chinese narratives in the target language. Drawing on project-based learning (PBL), this study designed a four-stage storytelling project, covering theme selection, bilingual source reading and script writing, multimodal production, and public presentation, and implemented it in two college English classes for physical education undergraduates at Yan'an University across a twelve-week semester. A mixed-method evaluation with 42 students, combining pre- and post-course questionnaires, product assessment, and semi-structured interviews, showed significant gains in students' confidence in telling Chinese stories in English, willingness to communicate about Chinese culture, and perceived speaking self-efficacy. Most group products reached the expected level in narrative structure, linguistic accuracy, and cultural interpretation. The findings suggest that PBL offers an effective pathway for integrating value education with foreign language competence, and the paper discusses the conditions under which the approach can be transferred to other disciplinary contexts.

Keywords

Project-Based Learning; Telling China's Stories in English; Ideological and Political Education; College English; Cultural Confidence

References

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