Project-based learning (PBL), as a dynamic form of experiential education, stands as a powerful and transformative approach within student-centered pedagogical evolution, while a systematic synthesis of what features of PBL help promote language learning motivation in higher education level over the last 10 years is lacking. Filtered from the ERIC, Scopus, SAGE Journals, Web of Science, and ProQuest databases, a scoping review of 20 studies from 2015 to 2024 was carried out. This scoping review analysed the main research context of PBL in language learning realm, identified the key features of PBL in promoting language learners’ learning motivation, and analysed the challenges that students and teachers mainly confronted when conducting PBL in language class. The results show that the vast majority of studies about PBL focus on English learning and teaching; two key features are identified to promote students’ learning motivation in language class; several challenges confronted by instructors and learners are specified. A dual method of utilizing key features and overcoming main challenges synthesized in this review, is a way forward in promoting and maintaining learners’ learning motivation in language class of higher education with PBL.