'Our personal heroes and heroines' (ESOL)

Learning by doing is a well known motto and it’s true that doing something ‘with’/‘in’ a foreign language is the best way to learn that language! What about EFL by doing research projects? Looking for information about influential people of the past? Students are asked to choose, select information, write reports: while doing their research, going deep into data, problems and matters of importance, students realize that famous people can really become their ‘personal heroes’, role models... and communicative competence in English as a foreign language 'naturally&' improves!