VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE A SURVEY ON TEACHERS’ EVALUATION TOWARDS ‘EVERYBODY UP’ LEVEL 2’S PACKAGE ON SUITABILITY IN TEACHING SPEAKING SKILLS FOR YOUNG LEARNERS AT ENGLISH CENTERS A thesis submitted to the Faculty of English Linguistics & Literature in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in TESOL By TIEU TIEU LONG Supervised by LE THI THANH, Ph. HO CHI MINH CITY, August 2023 ACKNOWLDEGEMENTS First, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Le Thi Thanh, for her dedication and continuous support. There are no words that can fully show my appreciation for what she has done for me.
Without her guidance and encouragement, I would not have been able to overcome this challenge. My sincere thanks also go to my colleagues who created all the favorable conditions for me to collect data for this study. I am grateful and thankful for their valuable support. I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to my friends in the cohort for encouraging me to overcome this challenge.
Last but not least, I would like to express my deep sense of gratitude to my family for their unconditional love and support. Without their care and encouragement, I would never have had enough motivation to go to the end of this journey. STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY I certify that this thesis entitled “A SURVEY ON TEACHERS’ EVALUATION TOWARDS ‘EVERYBODY UP’ LEVEL 2’S PACKAGE ON SUITABILITY IN TEACHING SPEAKING SKILLS FOR YOUNG LEARNERS AT ENGLISH CENTERS” is my own work. This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other institution.
Ho Chi Minh City, August 1st, 2023 Tiêu Tiểu Long RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that I, TIEU TIEU LONG, being the candidate for the degree of Master of TESOL, accept the requirement of the University relating to the retention and use of Master’s Theses deposited in the Library. In terms of these conditions, I agree that the originality of my thesis deposited in the Library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for the care, loan or reproduction of theses. Ho Chi Minh City, August 1st, 2023 Tiêu Tiểu Long TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. i LIST OF TABLES.
ii LIST OF FIGURES .iv CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .1 Background to the study.2 Statement of the problem .3 Aims of the study .4 Significance of the study .5 Scope of the study .6 Organization of thesis chapters. 6 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW .1 Teaching-learning English of young learners .1 Young learners and their learning characteristics .2 Principles of teaching-learning English for young learners .3 Teaching young learners to achieve language skills .2 Teaching skills using materials .1 Teaching four skills .2 On speaking and EFL’s speaking skills .3 Teaching Speaking with coursebooks .4 Communicative Language Teaching’s approach .3 On coursebooks and coursebooks’ roles .1 Definitions and concepts on materials and coursebooks.2 Coursebook as a teaching material.3 Concerns on coursebooks and its using.4 Teachers as users of materials .1 Teachers’ practices related to coursebooks .2 Teachers as materials evaluators .3 Teacher’ evaluation as a cyclical process.1 Definitions of materials’ evaluation .2 Previous research for materials evaluation .3 Approaches of coursebook’s evaluation .4 Evaluating materials for speaking skills .5 A review of checklists’ criteria for coursebook evaluation .6 Theoretical framework of coursebook evaluation .2 Principles to determine evaluative criteria .1 Context of the study .2 Coursebook’s package description.2 Teachers’semi-structured interview .5 Data collection procedure.6 Data analysis scheme. 63 CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION .1 Findings from interviews .1 On teachers’ perspectives on evaluating coursebooks .2 On suitability for teaching speaking skills to young learners .3 Summary and discussions on interview’s findings.2 Findings from questionnaire .1 On reference to The General Curriculum and the syllabus .3 On suitability to learners and to teachers .4 On Topics, activities .5 On language content.7 On additional resources .8 Summary of questionnaire’s results .1 Major findings of the study .2 Implications of the study .3 Limitations of the study. 107 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CEFR Common European Framework of Reference for Languages CLIL Content and Language Integrated Learning CLT Communicative Language Teaching ELT English Language Teaching EU Everybody Up’s package MOET Ministry Of Education and Training NFL2020 National Foreign Languages Project 2008-2020 TEFL/EFL Teaching English as a Foreign Language TESOL Teaching English of Speakers of Other Languages YLE Cambridge English: Young Learners i LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1 The viewpoint of using coursebook (Ur, 1996).1 Reviewers of the instruments Table 3.2 General information about the interviewees Table 3.3 Distribution and reliability of the questionnaire items Table 3.4 Interview questions Table 3.5 Steps of thematic analysis Table 3.6 Points of interest linked to Research questions Table 3.7 Data Extracts and Codes Table 4.1 Teachers’ evaluation on the Everybody Up’s package Table 4.2 Findings from the interview data Table 4.
Evaluations by groups of criteria in full Table 4.4 Opinions on teaching methodology Table 4.5 Opinions on suitability to learners, to teachers Table 4.6 Opinions on topics, activities Table 4.7 Opinions on language content Table 4.8 Opinions on skills Table 4.9 Opinions on additional resources Table 5. Main findings of the study ii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1 Classification of coursebook evaluation criteria Figure 3.1 Teachers’ views on evaluation for teaching speaking skills iii ABSTRACT This study aimed to explore teachers’ evaluations of Everybody Up level 2’s coursebook package, specifically in relation to teaching speaking skills for young learners at the English centres. With numerous documents of MOET guiding English teaching and learning in the national education system released, as well as the reference of the CEFR to curriculum, this study sought to figure out the evaluations on the suitability of the coursebook in facilitating learners’ communicative competence in terms of speaking skills, as learning objectives proposed in the General Curriculum of English promulgated by MOET. Using a mixed-methods approach, the researcher employed both questionnaires and semi-structured interviews to get the data of how teachers were giving materials’ evaluation in their contexts, taking the coursebook package in surveying.
The surveying included six one-on-one interviews with teachers who have been used the package for over two years, and data from 35 teacher questionnaires; all participants are of two English centres. The results of this research indicated that teachers had a positive attitude towards the materials evaluating and found the coursebook package to be suitable for their teaching context. This research ultimately contributes to understanding on teachers’ evaluation of coursebook packages for teaching speaking skills at English centres and offers valuable insights for future developments in language teaching materials. Key words: English centres, speaking skills, coursebook evaluation, teachers’ survey, young learners iv CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION This chapter is for introducing the study’s background, the aims of the study (including statement of the problem, and research questions), the significance of the study, scope of the study, and the organization of thesis chapters.1 Background to the study With the emerging needs for globalization and the 4.0 technology evolution, English has been the first foreign language in Vietnamese’s educational system.
Many state documents have been issued to guide English teaching and learning in the national education system. Actually, Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) established the National Foreign Languages Project 2008-2020 (i., the NFL2020, also known as Project 2020, Decree 1400). This MOET’s project (NFL2020) aims to “give Vietnamese students at all educational levels a good opportunity to learn foreign languages” (Decree 1400, 2008, Section I). More specifically, the vision is for students to obtain A1, A2, and B1 levels on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) at the general education levels of primary (Grades 1 to 5), lower secondary (Grades 6 to 9), and upper secondary (Grades 10 to 12).
The introduction of NFL2020 has had a significant impact on Vietnamese language teaching. The CEFR, which serves as a part of the path to the realization of NFL2020, has six levels of criteria from A1 to C2. It has been implemented in Vietnam under Decision 1400/QĐ-TTG as a standardized program for reviewing and assessing language proficiency. Following CEFR’s scope, the project suggests that the elementary stage (CEFR’s A1 level) have set target levels for learners.
In line with this, under Decision 01/2014/TT-BGD-ĐT issued by MOET in 2014, the learning objectives for adopting the CEFR for English learning in the Vietnamese educational system were set, with the following five primary goals: 1 1. The basis of capacity requirements for. [English] should be standardized. The work of organizing program,.
choosing curriculum, coursebooks, teaching plan, other. [English] teaching materials and establishing criteria of testing, examination, and evaluation of each level of education, level of training in order to fit the. [English] teaching with educational levels and training level. should be determined.
For teachers or trainers, the matters of content, teaching methodology, examination and assessment should be defined; for learners, the requirements of the curriculum should be proposed. To let learners to know the content and requirements for each level of language skills and self-assessment of their proficiency. To get benefits of cooperation, educational exchanges, recognition of diplomas and certificates with countries adopting Common European Framework (CEFR). (MOET, 2014, Section IV) As can be seen from the second targets, standardized coursebook in any program or curriculum need to be concerned in terms of TESOL’s contexts, particular in private English centres where a great amount of students are enrolling in English courses with hope of having excellent English competence.
However, in real situations, the implementation appears to present several issues of teaching - learning and of coursebooks to fit with the standards. In practice, English language courses at primary stage are mainly for young learners (i., under ten years old), regarding the actual conditions like in Ho Chi Minh City. One may heard that learners at this age have some learning characteristics that impact on pedagogical aspects, such as materials. Many researchers suggest that young learners are predominantly kinaesthetic, experiential and performative learners of languages who can acquire language more effectively through language driven 2 physical activity, meaningful exposure and language use than through static study (Harmer, 2007; Hummel, 2014; Read, 2015; Tomlinson & Masuhara, 2018).
Yet many young learners’ coursebooks and many young learners’ lessons still seem to be selected and used that hardly be reviewed through an procedure of evaluation which referred to the NFL’ standards, by teachers that work directly with these kind of learners. A study on cousebooks’ evaluation therefore should refer to the NFL with CEFR as a navigating document. Recent research in terms of teaching and learning with coursebook in Vietnamese’s context, especially in consider to the NFL, appears to exist a “gap”. This gap for study, concerning the coursebooks’ issues of using and evaluating, may be essential to English language teaching and learning at English centres.
Looking into several trends in socio-economic development these days, one may notice a phenomenon that concerns in materials’ evaluation and choosing coursebooks for English teaching and learning are increasing. Coursebook use have been the topic raising a great concern that is a field of study for many researches. It is not surprising that different viewpoints on these issues have been expressed (Tran, 2011; Le, 2012; Huynh, 2012; Phan, 2013; Lathif, 2015; Nguyen, 2020). In public schools, coursebook are designed and implemented strictly following guidelines and supervising of the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET).
However, choosing coursebooks are conducting somehow conveniently, with a less diversity in English centres and other educational contexts. The researcher personally had several discussions with many teachers and lecturers on the issue of suitable coursebook that can be fit into the context of English centres to serve the users, learners as well as teachers, to gain the benefits of English language for whole life. The status, from these insider, seem to reveal many worries that need to be considered.