VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE ĐOÀN THỊ THỦY AN EVALUATION OF INTELLIGENT BUSINESS - ELEMENTARY FOR THE FIRST YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT ACADEMY OF FINANCE; SUGGESTIONS FOR BOOK USE AND ADAPTATION (Đánh giá giáo trình Intelligent Business, trình độ cơ bản dành cho sinh viên không chuyên tiếng Anh năm nhất Học viện Tài Chính; những gợi ý trong việc chỉnh sửa và sử dụng giáo trình ) MINOR PROGRAM THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111 HÀ NỘI – NĂM 2015 z VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE ĐOÀN THỊ THỦY AN EVALUATION OF INTELLIGENT BUSINESS - ELEMENTARY FOR THE FIRST YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT ACADEMY OF FINANCE; SUGGESTIONS FOR BOOK USE AND ADAPTATION (Đánh giá giáo trình Intelligent Business, trình độ cơ bản dành cho sinh viên không chuyên tiếng Anh năm nhất Học viện Tài Chính; những gợi ý trong việc chỉnh sửa và sử dụng giáo trình ) MINOR PROGRAM THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111 SUPERVISOR: Assoc. NGUYỄN VĂN ĐỘ HÀ NỘI – NĂM 2015 z DECLARATION I hereby state that I, Doan Thi Thuy, being an M.A candidate of the Faculty of Postgraduate, University of Languages and International studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled: “An Evaluation of Intelligent Business – Elementary for the first year non- English major students at Academy of Finance; Suggestions for book use and adaptation” The thesis is the study of my own work and substance of the thesis has not, wholly or in part, been submitted for a degree to any other universities or institutions. Hanoi, October, 2015 Doan Thi Thuy i z ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In my exploring of knowledge and in the course of completing this thesis, many individuals have assisted me. I would like to acknowledge wholeheartedly their assistance, cooperation and encouragement which all contributed to make this study completed.
This thesis would not have been feasible without their guidance and help of which in one way or another rendered their valuable assistance during the whole process of carrying out and completing this study. First and foremost, I would like to express my utmost gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc. Nguyen Van Do for his precious guidance and constructive criticism from the start of my work. He has constantly provided me with encouragement and support.
I would not have made steady progress without his kind support. It is an honor for me to have his guidance as a supervisor to complete my thesis. Second, I owe special thanks to the first year non-English major students at Academy of Finance for their enthusiastic participation throughout my research. Without their patience, cooperation and attention, this study could have never been completed.
I also wish to thank all my colleagues at Academy of Finance who are the subjects of my thesis for their willingness to answer the questionnaire and interview. Without their help, I could not have finished the thesis. Last but not least, I also owe a deep debt of gratitude to my beloved friends and family members for their unfailing encouragement and valuable support until the completion of this research. ii z ABSTRACT Course books have played an important role in most language programs.
However, they are not always professionally designed and do not always fit the curriculum and closely correspond with the objectives of the course and the needs of the students. Within this regard, the thesis was conducted with the aims to evaluate the suitability of the material “Intelligent Business Elementary” for the first year non- English major students at Academy of Finance to investigate the suitability of the course book to the students’ needs and interests, then to suggest practical recommendations for future improvements of the material. The data collection instruments employed in this study were questionnaires for teachers and students, and informal teachers’ interviews. In this thesis, the material is analyzed based on the criteria proposed by Hutchinson & Waters (1987).
After investigating some strengths and weaknesses of the material, the author comes to the conclusion that the material well responds to students’ needs and interests. Thanks to the findings, suggestions would be given for better application of the material through adaptation techniques like addition, deletion, replacement, and reorder and combination. iii z LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES No Title Page Figure Materials Evaluation Process (Hutchinson and Waters 1987, p98) 10 1 Figure Need analysis jigsaw 15 2 Figure Teachers’ and students’ assessment of the book Intelligent 27 3 Business Elementary Figure Teachers’ and students’ opinions about the topics in Intelligent 32 4 Business Elementary Figure Participants’ opinions about the update information of the topics 32 5 in Intelligent Business Elementary Table 1 Teachers and students’ opinions of the language point available 29 in Intelligent Business Elementary Table 2 The teachers and the students’ opinion about proportion of 4 31 macro-skills iv z TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION……………………………………………………………….iii LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES………………………………………….iv TABLE OF CONTENTS…………………………………………………………. Rationale of the thesis.
Aims of the thesis. The significance of the thesis. Scope of the thesis. Methods of the study .4 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW.
Materials and course book. The roles of materials. Types of materials evaluation. Purposes and importance of materials evaluation.
Models for Materials evaluation. Evaluation by Ellis (1997). Evaluation by Hutchinson and Waters (1987). Evaluation by McDonough and Shaw (1993).
Criteria for Materials evaluation. Hutchinson and Waters‟ Criteria. Purposes of materials adaptation. Techniques for adaptation.
Previous Researches on Materials Evaluation. Suitability of the present study in the research area .20 CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY. Description of the context. Methods and procedures .26 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS DISCUSSION.
Comments on the course book Intelligent Business Elementary. The Appropriateness of the Material to the Course Objectives. The Appropriateness of the Contents. Teachers‟ suggestions for the materials improvement.
Summary of major findings. Recommendation for future material improvements. Why teachers have to adapt the book. Reorder or combination .The Conclusion of the study .Limitation and suggestions for future research.I vi z PART A: INTRODUCTION 1.
Rationale of the thesis It is said that there are many factors leading to the success of the teaching and learning a foreign language which can be divided into internal and external ones. Internal factors are those that the individual language learner brings with him or her to the particular learning situation such as students‟ age, personality, motivation, experience, etc. And external factors are those that characterize the particular language learning situation including curriculum, instruction, culture and status and so on. Course book choice is directly related to those factors with strong effects on the entire process of obtaining a foreign language.
According to Richards (2001:35), course books are a key component in most language programs. They may provide the basis for the content of the lessons, the balance of skills taught and the kinds of language practice the students take part in. Therefore, “textbook should be carefully evaluated and selected before being used for a language program. Textbook evaluation helps the managerial and teaching staff select the most appropriate materials available for a particular course.
It also helps to identify the strengths and weaknesses of a particular textbook that is already in use” (Minh 2007). At Academy of Finance (AOF), the course book Intelligent Business, Elementary began to be used for the first year non-English major two years ago instead of Business Basics at the same level, but no evaluation or consultation has been conducted before applying it at AOF to determine its strengths and weaknesses and to see how well it suits the desired and attainable goals of the course. For all above reasons, the author has decided to choose the topic “An Evaluation of Intelligent Business - Elementary for the first year non-English major students at Academy of Finance; Suggestions for book use and adaptation. Aims of the thesis This thesis aims at evaluating the course book Intelligent Business Elementary by getting both teachers and students‟ opinions.
Then it recommends some adaptation 1 z so that the book can meet the students‟ needs and interests. These proposed questions help to achieve the aims of the thesis. (a) How does Intelligent Business Elementary satisfy students‟ needs and interests? (b) What recommendations should be made to the material to meet the students‟ needs and interests? 3. The significance of the thesis The results of the thesis may help the researcher, the teachers and the first year non- English major students at Academy of Finance to have a deep understanding about the course book so as for them to have suitable adaptation and to use the book more effectively in the future.
In addition, the author does hope that the study will make some contributions to the field of material evaluation in general. Scope of the thesis Firstly, the thesis will focus on evaluating the post use of the course book Intelligent Business Elementary for the first year non-English major students at Academy of Finance. Secondly, due to the limitation of the minor thesis, the course book will be evaluated in terms of language providing and skills developing. Methods of the study In this thesis, the author employs both quantitative and qualitative approaches.
To get answer for quantitative approach, there are survey questionnaires for both the teachers and the students. In addition, teachers‟ informal interviews are used to collect data according to qualitative approach. Survey – questionnaires: are designed for both teachers and the first-year non English major students who have experienced the book to collect their ideas on the material. Teachers’ informal interviews: are conducted with the author‟s colleagues who also teach the material to seek for detailed and objective opinions and their suggestions for better book uses.
Design of the study There are three main parts in this thesis: Introduction, Development, and Conclusion. Part I comprises the rationale, the aims, the significance, the scope, and the design of the study. Part II consists of three chapters Chapter 1: Literature Review presents a theoretical background related to materials evaluations such as definitions, purposes, and types of materials evaluation, materials evaluators, models for materials evaluation, criteria for materials evaluation, as well as material adaptation. Chapter 2: Methodology includes a brief background about English teaching and learning at Academy of Finance, research methods, and the data collection procedures.
Chapter 3: Results and Discussion shows the findings of data analysis and some recommendations. Part III: Conclusion gives a brief summary of what discussed in the study and suggestions for further research. 3 z PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter gives a brief overview of the literature relevant to the research. Materials and course book 1.
Definitions Materials: According to Brian Tomlinson (2005), materials are anything which is used by teachers or learners to facilitate the learning of a language like cassettes, videos, CD-Roms, dictionaries, grammar books, readers, workbooks or photocopied exercises as well as newspapers, food packages, photographs, live talks by invited native speakers, instructions given by a teacher, tasks written on cards or discussions between learners. In other words, anything which is deliberately used to increase the learners‟ knowledge and or experience of the language are all called materials. In Richards (2001:251) definition: “Materials can be instructional, experiential, elicitative, and exploratory, in that they can inform learners about the language, they can provide experience of the language in use, they can stimulate language use or they can help learners to make discoveries about the language for themselves”. There are so many kinds of materials that teachers will have a wide range of options to choose different sources of input to help their students learn the most effectively.
Course book: It is essential to give a good definition of course book and its characteristics so as to do book evaluation in the most correct and suitable way.