VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES LƯƠNG THỊ MINH THU AN EVALUATION OF THE ESP COURSEBOOK FOR SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS AT MARINE ENGINE DEPARTMENT-VIETNAM MARITIME UNIVERSITY (VIMARU) (Đánh giá giáo trình tiếng Anh chuyên ngành dành cho sinh viên năm thứ hai Khoa Máy Tàu Biển - Trường ĐH Hàng Hải Việt Nam) M. MINOR THESIS MAJOR : ELT METHODOLOGY CODE : 60 14 10 HANOI - 2012 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES LƯƠNG THỊ MINH THU AN EVALUATION OF THE ESP COURSEBOOK FOR SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS AT MARINE ENGINE DEPARTMENT-VIETNAM MARITIME UNIVERSITY (VIMARU) (Đánh giá giáo trình tiếng Anh chuyên ngành dành cho sinh viên năm thứ hai Khoa Máy Tàu Biển - Trường ĐH Hàng Hải Việt Nam) M. MINOR THESIS MAJOR : ELT METHODOLOGY SUPERVISOR: PROF. HOÀNG VĂN VÂN HANOI - 2012 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration.
iii List of abbreviations. iv List of charts, figures and tables. v Table of contents. vi PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1.
Aims of the study. Scope of the study. Method of the study. Design of the study.
3 PART 2: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1. Textbook, course-book and material. Roles of teaching materials in a language program. Course-book evaluation.
Definition of course-book evaluation. Why course-book evaluation. Types of course-book evaluation. Course-book evaluation in ESP.
Why students’ evaluation. 10 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Techniques for course-book evaluation. Models for evaluation.
Criteria for evaluation. Previous studies on materials evaluation. 16 CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY 2. The context of the study.
An overview on Vietnam Maritime University and the Marine Engine Department. The aims of the ESP course. The ESP course-book. The ESP teachers.
Data collection instruments. 22 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 3. Results and discussion. Learners’ attitude towards learning ESP.
23 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Learners’ evaluation of the current ESP course-book. Learners’ evaluation of the teachers’ exploitation of ESP materials. Teachers’ views of ESP course-book.
The suitability of the course-book to the audience. The suitability of the course-book to the aims. The suitability of the course-book to the content requirements. The suitability of the course-book to the methodology.
44 PART III: CONCLUSION 1. Summary of the study. Limitations of the study. Suggestions for further research.
48 REFERENCE APPENDIX 1 (Students questionnaire in English) APPENDIX 2 (Students questionnaire in Vietnamese) APPENDIX 3 (Teachers’ views as stated in the interview) APPENDIX 4 (Checklist for evaluating ESP materials by Hutchinson and waters) APPENDIX 5 (A sample of an original unit vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ESP: English for Specific Purposes GE: General English VIMARU: Vietnam Maritime University 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF CHARTS, FUGURES, AND TABLES Chart 1: Students’ levels of English Chart 2: The aims of the material Chart 3: The usefulness of tasks and exercises in skill development Figure 1: Stages in the ESP process Figure 2: The material evaluation process Table 1: Students’ time of learning English Table 2: Students’ ranking of their purposes of learning ESP Table 3: Students’ needs met by the ESP course-book Table 4: Students’ attitude towards the content of the ESP course-book Table 5: Students’ attitude towards time allocation for ESP Table 6: Students’ attitude towards vocabulary and grammar Table 7: Students’ attitude towards language skills covered Table 8: Students’ attitude towards tasks and exercises Table 9: Students’ satisfaction towards classroom activities Table 10: Students’ suggestions Table 11: Students’ opinions towards teacher’s use of language and the course-book Table 12: Teachers’ views of content Table 13: Teachers’ perceived limitations of the course-book Table 14: Students’ reactions to the course-book as observed by teachers Table 15: Challenges to the students in using the course-book as observed by teachers Table 16: Teachers’ self-reported challenges in using the course-book 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. RATIONALE It goes without saying that English is by far the most popular language of all. Since Vietnam began its open-door policy, the English teaching and learning has strongly developed. More and more people learn English in order to have a better work opportunity.
In Maritime field, English has been considered 'the language of the sea'. This means English is the only language used by seafarers of all nationalities at sea and this shows how important English is for seafarers. Vietnam Maritime University (VIMARU) has been the leading university in maritime section. After graduating from VIMARU, the students of Navigation Department and students of Engine Department work not only on board domestic ships but also on board foreign ships sailing around the world.
Moreover, Vietnam is now a member of WTO, Vietnamese seafarers will have golden opportunities to work on European ships for higher payment if their English is good enough. Because of this, the VIMARU leaders always consider English to be a very important subject. A ship crew is divided into two departments: Deck department and Engine department. When they work on a ship, it means that they live and work in an international environment.
English becomes their most important communication instrument to carry out their daily communication. Especially, engine crews work in the engine room and they need a good English for their marine engine major so that they can operate all machinery on board well. In other words, ESP (English for Specific Purposes) plays a fundamental role in the success of the marine-engine students’ future occupation if they are to work on board the ship. It can’t be denied that materials in general and ESP materials in particular play an important role in the process of language teaching and learning as appropriate materials can stimulate effective teaching and learning.
Therefore, in order to have a successful language- teaching program, it is necessary to have good materials, 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com especially in Vietnamese setting. The course-book “English for Marine Engine Students and Ship‟s Engineers” was designed for the second-year students at Marine Engine Department _VIMARU with the greatest effort of teachers of English Department. This course-book has been used for nearly 15 years, however, no research on the course-book evaluation has been carried out to see how much it meets the students’ needs. For these above- mentioned reason, the researcher decided to choose materials evaluation as the theme of this minor thesis titled as: AN EVALUATION OF THE ESP COURSEBOOK FOR SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS AT MARINE ENGINE DEPARTMENT_VIETNAM MARITIME UNIVERSITY (VIMARU) 1.
AIMS OF THE STUDY The paper aims at evaluating the course-book English for Marine Engine Students and Ship‟s Engineers to see how far it is suitable to the second-year students at the Marine Engine Department, VIMARU. The specific aims are: to evaluate the appropriateness of the material to the course requirements in terms of aims, content, and methodology to offer some suggestions for further improvement of the course-book which is appropriate to the needs and expectations of the students 1. RESEARCH QUESTION The following research question is raised for exploration: To what extent does the ESP course-book English for Marine Engine Students and Ship‟s Engineers at Marine Engine Department-VIMARU meet the course requirements in terms of aims, content, and methodology? 1. SCOPE OF THE STUDY The ESP course is only for the second year students at VIMARU, thus the study focuses on the evaluation of the second year students at Marine Engine Department- VIMARU on ESP course-book currently used.
4 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Hutchinson and Waters (1993) and many other language evaluation experts agreed that evaluating a teaching material is a complicated process based on different criteria such as audience, content, physical appearance, cultural bias, needs…. However, because of the constraint of this kind of research, the researcher just focuses on three criteria: aims, content, and methodology. METHOD OF THE STUDY The study follows a quantitative research approach. A Survey questionnaire is designed for 162 second-year students at Marine Engine Department, VIMARU, who have worked with two-thirds of the course-book to evaluate the quality of the ESP course-book.
In addition, interviews are conducted with three ESP teachers who have been using the course-book to teach second-year students at VIMARU to gain additional information about the quality of the course-book. DESIGN OF THE STUDY There are three main parts in this study: introduction, development, and conclusion. The introduction provides the rationale, the aims, the research question, the scope, and design of the thesis. The development consists of three chapters: - Chapter 1, Literature Review, provides the relevant theories related to textbook, course-book and material and course-book evaluation.
- Chapter 2, Methodology, introduces the context of the study and describes the methodology employed in the study, research procedures and the participants, instruments and the research procedures. - Chapter 3, Data Analysis and Discussion, presents and discusses the findings that arise from the data collected and recommendations The conclusion provides a brief summary of all the contents studied, draws some conclusions drawn and makes some suggestions for further research. 5 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1. INTRODUCTION This chapter is concerned with the review of a theoretical base to develop a framework in which the study operates.
As a way of start, I will first explore the three notions textbook, course-book and materials. Then, I will present an overview of course-book evaluation including definitions; why course-book evaluation; types of course-book evaluation; course-book evaluation in ESP; why students’ evaluation; techniques, models and criteria for evaluation. Last but not least, previous studies on materials evaluation are mentioned.2 TEXTOOK, COURSE-BOOK AND MATERIALS 1.7) defines a course-book as “a textbook on which a course is based”.ix) shares similar point with McGrath when he considers a course-book as “a textbook which provides the core materials for a course”. In his viewpoint, a course-book is used to provide as much as possible in one book and it is designed to serve as the only book which the learners necessarily use during a course.
In Materials Development in Language Teaching (Littlejohn, 1998) the term “materials” is defined as “anything which is used to help to teach language learners. It can be in the form of a textbook, a workbook, a cassette, a CD-Rom, a video, a photocopied handout, a newspaper, a paragraph written on a whiteboard. Therefore, it can be pointed out that course-book is a type of materials. Roles of teaching material in a language program The relationship between materials and other components in language teaching such as students, teachers, teaching method and evaluation have been controversial for 6 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com many years.
Since the end of 1970s, there has been a movement to make learners rather than teachers the center of language learning. According to this teaching approach, learners become the targets of teaching and learning process. Therefore, materials, curriculum, teaching method and evaluation should be designed for learners and their needs. For the teaching and learning English to be successful, besides teachers, learners, curriculum, method and evaluation, materials play a decisive part in language teaching and learning.
The importance of teaching and learning materials cannot be denied and so far, there have been a great number of discussions on different perspectives on the role of materials in relation to other elements. Teaching materials are considered the essential components in most language courses because they help students and teachers know teaching and learning content. Discussing the importance of English language teaching materials to learners, Allwright (1981) indicates that materials help students know what to learn.