VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* PHẠM NGỌC DUY AN EVALUATION OF THE COURSE BOOK “NEW CUTTING EDGE PRE -INTERMEDIATE” FOR FIRST YEAR NON-MAJOR STUDENTS OF ENGLISH, THÁI NGUYÊN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY- SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR ADAPTING” Đánh giá giáo trình “New Cutting Edge Pre-Intermediate” dành cho sinh viên không chuyên ngữ năm thứ nhất trƣờng Đại học Kỹ thuật Công nghiệp Thái Nguyên và đề xuất thiết chỉnh giáo trình M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111 Hanoi, 2014 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* PHẠM NGỌC DUY AN EVALUATION OF THE COURSE BOOK “NEW CUTTING EDGE PRE -INTERMEDIATE” FOR FIRST YEAR NON-MAJOR STUDENTS OF ENGLISH, THÁI NGUYÊN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY- SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR ADAPTING” Đánh giá giáo trình “New Cutting Edge Pre-Intermediate” dành cho sinh viên không chuyên ngữ năm thứ nhất trƣờng Đại học Kỹ thuật Công nghiệp Thái Nguyên và đề xuất thiết chỉnh giáo trình M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111 SUPERVISOR: NGÔ HỮU HOÀNG, PhD. Hanoi, 2014 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com DECLARATIONS I, Phạm Ngọc Duy, hereby certify that the thesis entitled “An evaluation of the course book “New Cutting Edge Pre-Intermediate for first year non-major students of English, Thái Nguyên University of Technology- some suggestions for adapting” is the result of my own research for the Degree of Master of Arts at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University. This thesis contains no material written by other person or published previously, except where due reference is made. The thesis also contains no material which has been submitted for any degree at any other university or tertiary institution.
Hanoi, 2014 Student’s signature Phạm Ngọc Duy i TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere thank to my advisor, Dr. Ngô Hữu Hoàng for the continuous support of my M.A study and research, for his patience, motivation, enthusiasm, and immense knowledge. His guidance helped me in all the time of research and writing of this thesis. I could not have imagined having a better advisor and mentor for my M.
I also would like to thank the Faculty of Post Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Hanoi National University for o f f e r i n g the opportunity to pursue my studies and my research. My sincere thanks also go to my colleagues and my friends, who are always willing to share with me any kinds of work, documents or experience in doing a thesis. Last but not least, I owe my genuine, deepest gratitude to my family for their everlasting belief in me, for always encouraging me. Without their support and encouragement, I would not have finished my thesis.
ii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ABSTRACT This study is carried out to evaluate the course book New Cutting Edge Pre- Intermediate written by Peter Moor and Sarah Cunningham with Jane Comyns Carr in 2005. The course book is in use for first year non-major students of English at Thainguyen University of Technology. The researcher strived to seek the answer to the questions “To what extent does NCEP satisfy students’ needs and interests?” and “What improvements should be made to the material to meet the students’ needs and interests?” In order to obtain the goal above, the researcher reviewed the literature related to materials evaluation, employ document analysis, survey questionnaire and identify the answers to the research questions. The subjects of the study were 15 teachers of English and 200 first year non- major students of English at Thái Nguyên University of Technology, who had already experienced the course book New Cutting Edge Elementary.
The findings of the study reveal that the course book could be suitable to the students’ level, partly meet the requirements of the course, the students’ needs, and suit to the particular teaching context. The results also showed that some changes must be made in order to fit the course book to the local English learning and teaching context. Based on the findings, some recommendations on supplementing, expanding, editing, personalizing and localizing a number of items in the course book were made. iii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS TNUT Thái Nguyên University of Technology ULIS University of Languages and International Studies Ss Students Ts Teachers VNU Vietnam National University NCEP New Cutting Edge Pre-Intermediate iv TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES Figure 3.1: Teachers’ and students’ assessment of the book NCEP Figure 3.2: Teachers’ and students’ NCEP preference Figure 3.3: Teachers’ and students’ NCEP dissatisfaction Figure 3.4: Teachers’ and students’ decision to continue using NEC series Figure 3.5: NCEP’s provision of necessary items.6: Teachers and students’ opinions of the language point available in NCEP Figure 3.7: Teachers and students’ opinions of the language skills in NCEP Figure 3.8: Teachers’ and students’ opinions about the topics in NCEP Figure 3.9: Participants’ opinions about the update of the topics in NCEP Figure 3.10: Participants’ opinions about class time Table 1: Teachers and students’ thought of class time each week Table 2: Teachers and students’ preferences for the topics in NCEP v TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration.
iii List of abbreviations .iv List of charts and tables. v Table of contents. vi PART A: INTRODUCTION. Rationale of the study.
Aims of the study. Scope of the study. Design of the study. 4 Chapter 1: Literature review.
Materials in language teaching and learning.2 Role of materials in General English Course. Definition of material evaluation. Why materials evaluation?. Types of material evaluation.
Methods of material evaluation. Models for material evaluation .6 Criteria for materials evaluation. 14 Chapter 2: Research methods. Description of the context.
15 vi TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Data collection procedure. Data analysis procedure. 20 Chapter 3: The study.
Overall evaluation of the course book. Teachers’ and students’ preference of the course book NCEP. Teachers and student’s dissatisfaction with the course book. The decision to choose the book for future use.
Communicative competence development. The language point availability. Language skills distribution. The updated information.
Teachers and students’ preferences for the topics. Teachers’ suggestions for the materials improvement .2 Recommendation for the course book’s adaptation. Limitation and suggestions for future research .I vii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.XVI viii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale of the study Course books are the basically utilized as a part of materials for both instructors and the learners.
They do not just give a structure to instructors in attaining the goals of the course, but additionally assume a vital part as a manual for the teacher in giving the lesson. For the learners, a course book genuinely influences their mentality and execution to the lesson through the course. It is a reality that when learners like their course books, they like the course too and become interested in the lesson. Subsequently, utilizing a course book is likely the most well-known method for teaching English today.
Having a course book is a key component and is looked upon as an irreplaceable mean; thus selecting an appropriate book or giving a course book is of great significance as well. However, now with a variety of text book available on the market each with its own methodology and syllabus, it might be substantially more troublesome to pick the best suitable book for a specific course. Indeed, there is no course book which might be completely perfect for a specific group of learners; assessment and choice of suitable material would be fundamental for language teachers. An intensive evaluation will make ready for the teachers to have the capability to choose among all the accessible books in the market and considering frail and also solid purposes of each one book instructors can pick the most proper book.
Consequently, keeping in mind the end goal to exploit the materials, it is important for language teachers to painstakingly examine all parts of the materials. The course book “New Cutting Edge Pre-Intermediate” (NCEP) has been used as the course book for the general English courses at Thái Nguyên University of Technology (TNUT) since 2010. It received both positive and negative reaction from teachers and students. Nonetheless, up to now, no research on the course book evaluation has been done on its quality and shortcoming and also on how suitably the course book matched the objective of the course.
The researcher has been 1 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com teaching general English at TNUT using this coursebook. He has observed the appropriateness of the course book. In light of the issue, it is reasonable to complete an assessment of the course book to focus its fitness for the students at TNUT then propose adjustment for better utilization. This is the rationale behind the thesis: “An evaluation of the course book “New Cutting Edge Pre-Intermediate (NCEP) for first year non-major students of English, Thái Nguyên University of Technology- some suggestions for adapting” 2.
Aims of the study The study is carried out to improve the effectiveness of teaching the course book NCEP for the first-year students at TNUT. Specific purposes of the study are as follow: - To investigate the English teaching and learning context at TNUT. - To evaluate the currently adopted course book NCEP from the viewpoints of both teachers at Department of Foreign Languages and the first year students of TNUT. - To propose suggestions for the course book’s adaptations.
Research questions This study aims to answer the question “To what extent does the course book NCEP suit the non-English major students at TNUT” In order to answer the research question, the following specific research questions were raised: (a) To what extent does NCEP satisfy students’ needs and interests? (b) What improvements should be made to meet the students’ needs and interests? 4. Scope of the study As a minor thesis, this study just mainly focuses on generally evaluating the course book NCEP for non major students of English at TNUT to find out if the course book suits students’ interests and needs in the actual teaching and learning situation at TNUT. 2 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Design of the study This study mainly consists of three main parts: Part A begins with a general introduction covering the reasons for choosing the theme, aims, research questions, research methods, and design of the study.
Part B contains three chapters: Chapter 1 deals with the literature review in which the most important notions related to materials evaluation are discussed. Readers are provided with concise understandings of the approaches, types, and methods of evaluation. Chapter 2 is the analysis of the survey questionnaire of the course book evaluation carried out at TNUT, in which objectives, description, data collation, and analysis are demonstrated in details. Chapter 3 presents and reports the analysis of the study and encloses suggestions for the course book adaptation.
Part C shows some recommendations and conclusion which encloses practical suggestions for the future use of this course book. 3 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter aims to provide a theoretical background for the study. This chapter consists of four parts. The first part in this chapter concerns with materials in language teaching and learning.
The second part, which presents an overview of materials evaluation, is followed by the third issue related to material adaptation. Finally, the chapter will end up with previous studies which the author finds related to his research. The researcher bases on the review result to design appropriate questionnaires and interviews for more through evaluation of the course book.