i VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES =========== =========== NGUYỄN THỊ THẢO AN EVALUATION OF THE COURSEBOOK “ENGLISH FOR PHARMACEUTICAL COURSE” FOR THE SECOND - YEAR STUDENTS AT VĂN HIẾN MEDICAL AND PHARMACEUTICAL SCHOOL (Đánh giá giáo trình “English for pharmaceutical course” dành cho sinh viên năm thứ hai Trường Trung cấp Y, Dược Văn Hiến) M. PROGRAM PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60 14 10 HA NOI- 2013 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ii VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES =========== =========== NGUYỄN THỊ THẢO AN EVALUATION OF THE COURSEBOOK “ENGLISH FOR PHARMACEUTICAL COURSE” FOR THE SECOND - YEAR STUDENTS AT VĂN HIẾN MEDICAL AND PHARMACEUTICAL SCHOOL (Đánh giá giáo trình “English for pharmaceutical course” dành cho sinh viên năm thứ hai Trường Trung cấp Y, Dược Văn Hiến) M. PROGRAM PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60 14 10 SUPERVISOR: Dr. NGÔ HỮU HOÀNG HA NOI - 2013 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com iv ABBREVIATIONS BA - Bachelor of Arts ELT - English Language Teaching ESP - English for Specific Purposes HUT - Hanoi University of Technology LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com v LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figures Figure 1: Materials Evaluation Process of Hutchinson and Waters (1987) Figure 2: Materials Evaluation Model of McDonough and Shaw (1993) Tables Table 1: Types of information in the teachers and students‟ questionnaires Table 2A: The teachers‟ opinions about the aims of the materials ( Q1 - 6) Table 2B: The students‟ opinions about the aims of the materials ( Q1 - 6) Table 3A: Students‟ opinions on the skills of the material ( Q7 - 11) Table 3B: Teachers‟ opinions on the skills of the material ( Q7 - 11) Table 4A: Students‟ opinions on the language points and text types of the material ( Q12 - 16) Table 4B: Teachers‟ opinions on the language points and text types of the material ( Q12 - 16) Table 5A: Students‟ opinions on the topics of the material ( Q17 - 20) Table 5B: Teachers‟ opinions on the topics of the material ( Q17 - 20) Table 6A: Students‟ opinions on the tasks/exercises of the material (Q20 - 25) Table 6B: Teachers‟ opinions on the tasks/exercises of the material (Q20 - 25) Table 7A: Students‟ opinions on the teaching - learning techniques of the material ( Q25 - 30) Table 7B: Students‟ opinions on the teaching - learning techniques of the material ( Q25 - 30) LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page PART A: INTRODUCTION .Background and Rationale of the study.
Aims of the study. Significance of the study. Scope of the study. Organization of the study .5 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEREOTICAL BACKGROUND.
Materials in Language Teaching and Learning. Roles of Materials. Types of Materials. In - house materials…………………………………………………8 1.
Definitions of Materials Evaluation. Reasons of Materials Evaluation. Types of Materials Evaluation. Principles of Materials Evaluation.
Models of Materials Evaluation. Evaluation by Hutchinson and Waters (1987) …………………. Evaluation by McDonough and Shaw (1993)…………………. Evaluation by Ellis ( 1997)……………….…17 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Criteria for Materials Evaluation……. Research instruments in materials evaluation……………. Research questions restated………. Data collection instruments………………….
Data collection procedures……………………………………………….27 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION. The results from the evaluation of aims………………………………. Aims of the course………………………………………………. Results from the analysis of material aims and questionnaires…….
The results from the evaluation of the content………………………. ESP material analysis……………………………………………….2 Teachers and students‟ opinion on the content of the material…….32 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Language points and text types………………………………. Results from the evaluation of the methodology…………….
Methodology implied in the material in terms of tasks/ exercises. Methodology implied in the material in terms of teaching - learning techniques …………………………….39 CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION…. Recommendations for the material improvement………………………. Limitations of the study and suggestions for further study…………….
Conclusions of the study……………………………………………………. …… V Appendix 1: Hutchinson and Waters‟s criteria checklist for materials evaluation…………………………………………………………………………V Appendix 2: Questionnaire for students .XIV Appendix 3: Questionnaire for teachers. XX Appendix 4: A sample unit. XXVII LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 1 PART A INTRODUCTION In part A, I will introduce rationale, aims, significance, scope and organization of the study.
Rationale of the study. English has been the main language of international communication, which has become an integral part of most modern professions. Along with this trend, branch of English Language Teaching (ELT) – English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has been focused on more. Harding (2007: 6) puts it: “in ESP – English for Specific Purposes – the purpose for learning the language is paramount and relates directly to what the learner needs to do in their vocation or job”.
ESP material for pharmaceutical students at Van Hien School is designed to help students get effective knowledge related to their job in the future. This material has been introduced to students since 2009. It has been officially used as the core material for the students of Pharmacy at Van Hien School. English is a compulsory subject at this school.
English course for pharmaceutical students is divided into two stages. The first stage consists 60 class hours of general English with the coursebook Headway Elementary written by Liz and John Soars (2000). And in the second part (the third semester), they have 30 class hours of ESP with English for Pharmacy. It was designed by two first teachers but they moved to other school.
This material contains 25 units. Each unit includes one reading text and pronunciation of new words. The reading text introduces the theme of unit related to pharmacy. The second one is the list of new words with pronunciation.
Teachers and students feel dissatisfactions with this material because of many reasons. Until now, no research on the course book evaluation has been carried out to examine how well the material being in use match the course requirements in terms of aims, content and methodology. And based on those reasons, the researcher decides to evaluate this material named “English for pharmaceutical course” with the hope that it will help to improve the material‟s LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 2 quality and get better learning efficiency as well as stimulate students‟ interest in language learning to meet the students‟ needs and the course requirements. Aims of the study This study is to evaluate the ESP material “English for pharmaceutical course” to determine how the material satisfies the requirements in terms of aims, content and methodology and what the material effects on students.
From the evaluation, some suggestions for using the material will be shown to change and improve the effectiveness of the material for the better use. This study aims at answering the following questions: 1. What effects does the material “English for pharmaceutical course” have on students in terms of aims, content and methodology? 2. What are students and teachers‟ attitudes towards this material? 3.
Significance of the study The findings of the study are expected to be useful not only to the researcher, the English teachers who are teaching English but also to the second year pharmaceutical students at Van Hien Intermediate School. Besides, the evaluation results will show the suitability and unsuitability of the ESP material in use, so that the researcher will make some suggestions to improve the material to be better use in the nearest time. Scope of the study In textbook and evaluation, many criteria need to be examined like layout, cultural bias, audience, aims, content, methodology, and so on. However, because of limited time, the researcher bases on the Hutchinson and Waters‟ (1987) criteria for evaluation with focus on the three following criteria: aims of the material, content of the material (in term of language points covered, skills, text types, and topics), and methodology ( in terms of types of tasks and exercises, and teaching - learning techniques).
And the researcher only investigates the attitude of the second year pharmaceutical students and English teachers at Van Hien Intermediate School based on their feedback. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Organization of the study The study is organized into two parts as follows: Part A discusses about rationale, aims, significance, scope and organization of the study. Part B, development, the main part in this study, consists of four chapters.
Chapter 1 presents a review of literature of this study and theoretical background about materials and materials evaluation. Previous studies are presented first. This chapter is concentrated on the issues related to ELT material evaluation including the roles and types of materials in language. Then, it presents major issues in materials evaluation such as: definitions, reasons, types, principles, models as well as criteria of materials evaluation.
The chapter ends with research instruments in materials evaluation. Chapter 2 describes the choices of methodology adopted in the study, the data collection instruments, the subjects as well as the data collection procedures Chapter 3 presents the results of the study and the discussion of those results, data analysis and the findings of the study, pointing out the strengths and weaknesses of the material. Chapter 4 shows recommendations of the study, the limitations of the study, suggestions for further study and conclusion of the study. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 4 PART B DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND Chapter 1 aims to provide the background information about materials and materials evaluation.
The first part reviews previous studies. In the second one, some main points of materials in ELT will be presented. The third part is about the specific points about materials evaluation such as: definitions, reasons, types, principles, models, criteria of materials evaluation. The chapter ends with research instruments in materials evaluation.
Previous studies Until now, there have been many studies carried out to evaluate materials in general and ESP material in particular, such as Litz (2001), Akin and Guceri ( 2001), Nguyễn Thị Phương Dung ( 2002), Võ Thị Anh Đào ( 2003), Nguyễn Thị Bích Liên ( 2004), Trần Thị Thúy Nga ( 2005). The first example is the study of Nguyễn Thị Phương Dung (2002). In her own study, she recommends criteria for the adaptation of the reading material for the fourth - year students of Electronics and Telecommunications at Hanoi University of Technology after conducting a questionnaire survey for teachers and students, using Hutchinson and Waters‟ (1987) framework for materials evaluation. Four criteria are focused on that study: the audience, the aims, the content and the methodology.
The subjects of the study are 80 students and 11 teachers of HUT. The questionnaires are well - organized and able to help her to collect necessary information. She concludes that the existing material basically meet the requirements of the course. However, the material has some weaknesses which should be modified and added.
LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 5 Võ Thị Anh Đào ( 2003) also chooses the criteria proposed by Hutchinson and Waters ( 1987) to evaluate ESP materials for students of Husbandry and veterinary Science at Tay Nguyen University in terms of language level, aims, content and methodology. The subjects of the study are 40 second year students and four teachers. The methods used in the study are document analysis, questionnaires for students and interview for teachers. The study is well presented.
After collecting information from the document analysis and the survey questionnaires, she concludes that the material is difficult for students in terms of grammatical structure and lexical items. However her thesis reveals some weaknesses. And it should be implemented some parts.