Design and Implementation of the Holistic Unit Teaching for Upper Primary School Grades English Based on Project-based Learning

Current English teaching in upper primary grades often suffers from fragmented content delivery and insufficient systematic integration of project-based learning, resulting in limited development of students’ language application skills and innovative thinking. To address these issues, this study focuses on enhancing students’ comprehensive competencies through the design and implementation of a holistic project-based learning intervention. Taking the “Personal Preferences” unit from the Beijing Edition Grade 5 English Textbook as a case study, this study developed the “Hobby Square” project activity. This initiative explores effective strategies for deeply integrating project-based learning with English unit instruction while employing multi-dimensional assessment tools to monitor learning progress. Teaching practice shows that students’ language skills in authentic contexts have significantly improved. At the same time, their critical thinking, interdisciplinary integration, and collaborative communication abilities have also been strengthened. The combination of project learning-based and holistic unit teaching offers a feasible way to reform primary English teaching. In the future, studies should focus on improving process-oriented assessment mechanisms and expanding design frameworks for diverse thematic units. This will promote systematic and innovative practices to enhance students’ core competencies in a sustainable way. This study offers actionable insights for advancing primary English education reform under updated curriculum standards, emphasizing systematic innovation and sustainable core competencies development.