VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* BÙI THỊ HƢƠNG AN EVALUATION OF THE MATERIAL “NEW HEADWAY – ELEMENTARY” FOR THE FIRST YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT THAINGUYEN COLLEGE OF ECONOMICS AND TECHNOLOGY Đánh giá giáo trình “New Headway_Elementary” dành cho sinh viên không chuyên ngữ năm thứ nhất trƣờng Cao đẳng Kinh tế - Kỹ thuật Thái Nguyên 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 ********************* BÙI THỊ HƢƠNG AN EVALUATION OF THE MATERIAL “NEW HEADWAY – ELEMENTARY” FOR THE FIRST YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT THAINGUYEN COLLEGE OF ECONOMICS AND TECHNOLOGY Đánh giá giáo trình “New Headway_Elementary” dành cho sinh viên không chuyên ngữ năm thứ nhất trƣờng Cao đẳng Kinh tế - Kỹ thuật Thái Nguyên M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111 SUPERVISOR: TÔ THỊ THU HƢƠNG, DR Hanoi, 2014 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com i DECLARATION I certify the minor thesis is submitted entitled “An Evaluation of the material New Headway_ Elementary for the first year non-English major students at Thai Nguyen College of Economics and Technology” in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. I confirm that this is the result of my own work, and that it has not been submitted for any other degrees. Signature Bùi Thị Hương TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My thesis has been completed with the supports of many people. I would like to thank them for their thoughtful help.
First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. To Thi Thu Huong for her valuable guidance, thoughtful comments, sympathy and encouragement. Without her help, I can not complete this thesis. I am also grateful to all the professors and lecturers at College of Foreign Language (CFL), Vietnam National University, Hanoi (VNUH) for their insightful lectures and useful guidance during the course.
I would also like to express my thankfulness to all my English colleagues and all the first year students in the class K9QLMT, K9KT, K9CNTT, K9QLĐ at Thai Nguyen College of Economics and Technology (TNCET) for the great cooperation in the collection of data for my study. Finally, I am deeply indebted to my husband and my little daughter for their love, encouragement and support, who helps me to accomplish this research. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com iii ABSTRACT Material evaluation is an important task in the process of language teaching. Within these regards, the thesis was carried out to evaluate the material "New Headway_ Elementary" which is being used at Thai Nguyen College of Economics and Technology in order to determine how the material is suitable for the needs of students within the framework of the English program.
Thanks to this, there are some suggestions for material adaptation to make a more appropriate material with the hope of improving the quality of teaching and learning English at Thai Nguyen College of Economics and Technology. The material is evaluated based on the criteria of Hutchinson and Waters (1987) in terms of objective, content, and methodology by using two instruments to collect the data from teachers’ and students’ opinions such as questionnaires and interviews. Research results show the strengths and weaknesses of the material, it also reveals some inappropriate things to the needs of students. Based on these findings, they help the researcher come up with some suggestions for material adaptations as omission, addition and replacement to have a more appropriate material for the following courses.
TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS VNUH: Vietnam National University, Hanoi CFL: College of Foreign Language TNCET Thainguyen College of Economics and Technology ELT: English Language Teaching T: Teachers S: Students TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com v LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figure 1: The materials evaluation process (Hutchinson and Waters 1987, p. 98) Table 1: Students’ desire and achievement after finishing English course Table 2: The match of the material to the needs of students Table 3: Students’ interest on the material Table 4: Teachers’ opinions about students’ achievement after learning this material Table 5: Students and teachers’ opinion about language point in this material Table 6: Students and teachers’ opinions about the proportion of four macro- skills in this material Table 7: Teachers and students’ opinions about the integration of four macro- skills in this material Table 8: Teachers and students’ opinions about the kinds of texts in this material Table 9: Teachers and students’ opinions about the organization and sequence of content in this material Table 10: Teachers and students’ opinions about topics of the material Table 11: Teachers and students’ opinions about each part of units in this material Table 12: Teachers and students’ opinions about the number of new words in each unit in this material Table 13: Teachers and students’ opinions about the variety of kinds of tasks/ exercises in this material Table 14: Teachers and students’ opinions about teaching and learning interactions/techniques in this material Table15: Teachers and students’ opinions about teaching aids TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com vi TABLE OF CONTENTS PART A: INTRODUCTION. Rational for the study. Aims of the study.
Methods of the study. Scope of the study. Design of the study.4 CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW. Materials in language teaching and learning.
Material and types of materials. What are roles of material in language teaching and learning?. What is material evaluation?. Different types of material evaluation.
What are purposes of material evaluation?. Who are material evaluators?. Models for material evaluation. Different methods of evaluation.
What are criteria for material evaluation?. Why should adapt materials? .13 CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY. The current teaching and learning situation at TNCET. Teaching and learning context.
General description of the material .16 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Data collection procedure. Data analysis procedure .17 CHAPTER III: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION. The objective of the material.
The content of the material. The methodology of the material. The suitability of the objectives of the material to the needs of students within the framework of the English program at TNCET. The suitability of the content of the material with the students’ needs within the framework of the English program at TNCET.
The suitability of the methodology of the material to the needs of students within the framework of English program at TNCET. The suitability of the objectives of the material to the needs of students within the framework of the English program. The suitability of the contents of the material to the needs of students withinthe framework of the English program. The suitability of the methodology of the material to the needs of students within the framework of the English program.
Suggestions for material adaptation. Limitations and suggestions for further study .36 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com viii REFERENCES .I Appendix 1: HUTCHINSON AND WATERS’S CRITERIA CHECKLIST FOR MATERIALS EVALUATION (1987: 99-104).I Appendix 2: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS.VI Appendix 3: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS.XI Appendix 4: PROPOSED QUESTIONS FOR INTERVIEWS………………….XVI TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 1 PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rational for the study English is an international language and as a mean of communication between nations, cultures and international organizations. In the trend of globalization today, English has become a prerequisite for success and national integration into the world family.
With the strong development of the English language in modern society in Vietnam, National Foreign Language 2020 has been made and implemented with goals “. by 2020 most Vietnamese students graduating from secondary, vocational schools, colleges and universities will be able to use a foreign language confidently in their daily communication, their study and work in an integrated, multi-cultural and multi- lingual environment, making foreign languages a comparative advantage of development for Vietnamese people in the cause of industrialization and modernization for the country”. Therefore, the teaching and learning of English has become one of the very pressing needs. And it is necessary for students to be educated in the appropriate skills with the appropriate tools.
This is the first reason for me to carry out an evaluation of the material New Headway_ Elementary. Materials play an important role in most language programs. It is one of the most important factors in English class, functioning as the teaching and learning tool, the tutor and guidebook. It is, therefore, necessary to choose the one that suits the desired and attainable goals of the course as well as students.
Furthermore, Cunningsworth (1995) and Ellis (1997) suggest that textbook evaluation helps teachers move beyond impressionistic assessments and it helps them to acquire useful, accurate, systematic, and contextual insights into the overall nature of textbook material. This is another reason for me to execute the research. At TNCET, New Headway_ Elementary has been used for 10 years but no evaluation has been conducted to assess how the material is. Moreover, under the requirement for language skills of National Foreign Language 2020 Project, the researcher’s college requires students to achieve A2 level as a condition of graduation.
Hence, it is very important to have a suitable textbook that helps students achieve goals. And, it is really necessary to carry out the material evaluation to see how it matches the needs of students within the framework of the English program at this college. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 2 From above reasons, the researcher decided to evaluate the material New Headway_ Elementary to discover the suitability of the material to the needs of students within the framework of English program at TNCET in terms of objective, content, and methodology and then having suggestions for material adaptation to improve the quality of English teaching and learning. Aims of the study This study is carried out to evaluate the material New Headway _Elementary is suitable for the students’ needs within the framework of the English program.
From that, teachers can make suggestions for material adaptation to have more appropriate material. These can help to improve the quality of teaching and learning English at TNCET. Research questions - To what extent does New Headway_Elementary suit the needs of students at TNCET in terms of objective, content and methodology? - What suggestions for material adaptation should be given to meet the needs of students at TNCET? 4. Methods of the study In this thesis, survey research was employed with survey questionnaires and informal interviews for data collection.
Survey questionnaires were designed for the English teachers and the first-year students at TNCET, who have experienced using the book. Informal interviews were applied to get more information from selected participants. Scope of the study Although the researcher mentioned the Common European Framework of Reference, she did not analyze it; she just relied on it to assist in the evaluation of the material. Thus, the most important task of this research is focusing on evaluating the material New Headway_ Elementary from the opinions of the English teachers and the first-year students at college in terms of Objective, Content and Methodology basing on material evaluation model and criteria proposed by Hutchinson and Waters (1987).
Design of the study This study consists of three parts: TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 3 - Part A: Introduction presents the rational, aims, research questions, methods, scope, and design of the study. - Part B: Development includes three chapters: + Chapter 1: Literature review provides a theoretical basic for issues relating to Material, Material evaluation and Material adaptation. Material part concludes definition of material, types of material, and roles of material in language teaching and learning. Material evaluation part consists of definition, types, purposes, material evaluators, models, methods, and criteria of material evaluation.
Material adaptation part mentions about reasons for material adaptation and adapting techniques.