Oral presentation and social-emotional learning in EFL bilingual projects

This study examined oral presentation (OP) competency and social-emotional competency (SEC) development among EFL high school students enrolled in bilingual project-based learning (PBL) courses across three senior high schools in northern Taiwan. An explanatory sequential mixed-methods design combined MANCOVA with qualitative interviews. Experimental group students showed higher scores across all five OP competencies compared with the baseline group. Goal orientation interactions were associated with SEC outcomes, with students demonstrating both high social and high academic goal orientations showing comparatively greater Self-Management development. Students with moderate academic goals appeared to develop Relationship Skills through collaborative work, though subgroup patterns should be interpreted cautiously given small cell sizes. Goal configurations may account for meaningful variance in SEC outcomes beyond instructional condition alone, though no formal model comparison was conducted. Qualitative interviews illuminated process-level mechanisms, including peer network formation and authentic audience effects, not accessible through multivariate analysis alone. Findings should be interpreted in light of non-random assignment and school-level clustering. Future research employing larger samples and structural equation modeling may further clarify how goal configurations and instructional design interact to shape bilingual EFL outcomes.