VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ********** VŨ THỊ HỒNG LUYẾN THE EMPIRICAL EVALUATION OF THE COURSEBOOK “ENGLISH FILE BEGINNER STUDENT’S BOOK – THIRD EDITION” FOR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT A PREPARATORY SCHOOL IN VIET TRI (Đánh giá thực nghiệm giáo trình “English File Beginner Student’s Book - Third Edition” dùng cho học sinh Tiếng Anh không chuyên tại một trường dự bị đại học ở Việt Trì) M. MINOR PROGRAM THESIS Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 8140231.01 Hanoi, 2018 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ********** VŨ THỊ HỒNG LUYẾN THE EMPIRICAL EVALUATION OF THE COURSEBOOK “ENGLISH FILE BEGINNER STUDENT’S BOOK – THIRD EDITION” FOR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT A PREPARATORY SCHOOL IN VIET TRI (Đánh giá thực nghiệm giáo trình “English File Beginner Student’s Book - Third Edition” dùng cho học sinh Tiếng Anh không chuyên tại một trường dự bị đại học ở Việt Trì) M. MINOR PROGRAM THESIS Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 8140231. Ho Ngoc Trung Hanoi, 2018 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION I certify that the work contained in this thesis is the result of my own research, and this thesis has not been submitted for any degrees at any other universities or institutions.
Hanoi, November 2018 Signature Vu Thi Hong Luyen Approved by Supervisor Assoc. Ho Ngoc Trung Date: …………………………. i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc. Ho Ngoc Trung for his useful comments and continuous support of my study, for his patience, encouragement, enthusiasm and immense knowledge.
His guidance helped me tremendously in all the time of research and writing of this thesis. I would also like to thank my school leaders and colleagues for their support and sharing the workload so that I could wholeheartedly focus on the study and get it completed. Finally, I would like to express my profound gratitude to my parents, my spouse, and to all of my friends for providing me with unfailing support and continuous encouragement throughout my years of study and through the process of researching and writing this thesis. This accomplishment would not have been possible without all of them.
Thank you! Hanoi, November 2018 Signature Vu Thi Hong Luyen ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT The present study evaluates the coursebook “English File Beginner Student’s Book – Third Edition” by Christina Latham-Koenig, Clive Oxenden (Oxford University Press, 2014) for non-English major students at a preparatory school in Viet Tri in terms its suitability to the objectives of the course, students’ needs and current teaching and learning method. 150 non- English major students and 8 teachers who were using this coursebook were invited to answer the questionnaires, and two groups of three or four students were chosen randomly together with 8 teachers to take part in the interviews. Data were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. Findings revealed that the coursebook fundamentally met the course’s objectives and students’ needs, and fit in with the current teaching and learning method, though there were still minor unsuitable parts that need adaptation.
The result of this study would benefit both teachers and learners who work with this material for better use in the future. Key words: coursebook, textbook, material, coursebook evaluation, empirical evaluation, English File Beginner Students’ Book, non-English major. iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF TABLES Table 4.1: Teacher’s assessment of students’ English level at the beginning of the course .2: Learners’ purposes of learning English .4: Students’ ability to communicate in English about the topics in the coursebook.5: Students’ and teachers’ evaluation of the language elements in the coursebook .6: Students’ and teachers’ evaluation of the skills in the coursebook .7: Students’ suggestions on the proportion of the skills .8: Teachers’ suggestions on the proportion of the skills .9: Effectiveness of the teaching and learning interactions used with the coursebook .10: The frequency of the teaching aids used with the coursebook .11: Students’ and teachers’ evaluation on the methodology of the coursebook. 48 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF CHARTS Chart 4.2: Students’ background of learning English .3: Students’ self-assessment of their English level at the beginning of the course .5: Students’ progress after the course .6: Students’ and teachers’ evaluation of the topics of the coursebook .7: The appropriateness of the coursebook with students’ learning purposes .8: Students’ and teachers’ overall rating of the coursebook .9: Students’ and teachers’ judgement on the time allocation for each unit.
52 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION. iii LIST OF TABLES. iv LIST OF CHARTS. Aims of the study.
Scope of the study. Significance of the study. Structure of the study. 4 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW.
Text book, coursebook and material. Roles of materials in ELT classrooms. Definitions of coursebook evaluation. Approaches to coursebook evaluation.
Criteria for coursebook evaluation. Previous studies on coursebook evaluation. 19 vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY. English teaching and learning context.
Data collection procedure. Data analysis methods. 27 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. About the learners.
Learners’ English learning background. Learners’ English level. Learners’ purposes of learning English. Learners’ favorite learning styles.
The suitability of the coursebook to the objectives of the course. Data collected from the questionnaire. Data collected from semi-structured interviews. Discussion and conclusion.
The suitability of the coursebook to students’ needs. Data collected from questionnaires. 38 vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Data collected from semi-structured interviews.
Discussion and conclusion. The suitability of the coursebook to the current teaching and learning methods 46 4. Data collected from questionnaires. Data collected from semi-structured interviews.
Discussion and conclusion. General evaluation and suggestion for further use of the coursebook. Suggestions for further use. The suitability to the objectives of the course.
The suitability to students’ needs. The suitability to current teaching and learning methods. Limitations and suggestions for further studies. I APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS.
I APPENDIX 2: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS. X APPENDIX 3: TRANSCRIPT OF TEACHER INTERVIEW. XIX APPENDIX 4: TRANSCRIPT OF STUDENT INTERVIEW. XXIII viii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION This chapter presents a general overview of the study with specific references to the rationale, the aims of the study, research questions, scope of the study, significance of the study, and structure of the study.
Rationale Coursebooks are generally considered as the core materials and “the visible heart of any ELT program” (Sheldon, 1988). They play a lot of essential roles in ELT such as a source of learning and teaching activities, a resource of learners’ self-study, a syllabus, and a support for inexperienced teachers (Cunningsworth, 1984). However, coursebooks are usually designed and written for the general market, thus they cannot fit in all teaching and learning contexts with possibly inappropriate cultural and social contents or teaching methods. That is the reason why selecting a suitable coursebook for a particular teaching course is a challenging.
It also takes on special importance because the chosen coursebook would determine the teaching and learning process and reflect the value of the educational institution. Therefore, the need of evaluating coursebooks should also take on the same importance. It helps identify the strong points and weak points of the materials so that future decisions can be made about whether or not to keep using the materials, or adapting them to better fit learners’ needs and learning objectives. However, very few of such a retrospective evaluation has been undertaken in comparison with the predictive evaluation, which is carried out before using the materials to decide if they are to be selected (Ellis, 1997).
In terms of retrospective evaluation, the evaluation of the materials that have actually been used, there are two ways of evaluating: impressionistic and empirical evaluations. While the former involves evaluation based on observation of learners’ engagement and enthusiasm in 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com activities and contents of the book, it is more commonly conducted than the latter one, which relates to collecting data in a more systematic way. The importance and the inadequate quantity of empirical evaluations of coursebooks triggers a desire in the researcher to apply an evaluation of this type to the coursebook “English File Beginner Student’s Book – Third Edition” for non-English major students in a preparatory school in Viet Tri. Since English was incorporated into the school program as a compulsory subject, there has not been an official coursebook approved by the Ministry of Education for the school.
It is the teaching staffs who select the book that they consider best fit the objectives of the course and corresponds to students’ needs based on predictive evaluation of the books. The coursebook “English File Beginner Student’s Book – Third Edition” is currently used as the main coursebook in the school after several choices of different materials. After a year of piloting the book, the researcher, also the teacher who has worked with this book, finds it quite interesting to students with a lot of authentic videos and meaningful tasks; however, it also reveals several problems which renders it difficult to meet students’ needs and achieve the ultimate goal of teaching and learning program. To present, there has not been any careful and systematic evaluation of this material.
That is the reason why the researcher desires to perform an empirical evaluation on this book to examine the validity of the predictive evaluation of the teachers in English groups of the school and that of her personal impressionistic evaluation, as well as to evaluate the appropriateness of the book for learners, learning and teaching context and purposes. Aims of the study This study mainly aims at evaluating the coursebook “English File Beginner Student’s Book – Third Edition” by Christina Latham-Koenig, Clive 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Oxenden (Oxford University Press, 2014), which is used for non-English major students at a preparatory school in Viet Tri to determine whether it meets the requirements of the course in terms of the objectives, students’ needs and methodology. Scope of the study In terms of book evaluation, Cunningsworth (1984) listed a number of important evaluating criteria in the quick-reference checklist for evaluation such as: aims and approaches, design and organization, language content, skills, topic, methodology, teachers’ book, practical considerations. Besides, evaluation can be conducted predictively or retrospectively for different purposes (Ellis, 1997).
Due to the time constraint and the length limitation a master’s thesis, the subject of the evaluation is narrowed down to one type of retrospective evaluation, the empirical evaluation of the coursebook “English File Beginner Student’s Book – Third Edition” for non-English major students at a preparatory school in Viet Tri with main focus its suitability to the course’s objectives, students’ needs and current methodology. Research questions The study will be conducted to answer the following three questions: - To what extent does the coursebook “English File Beginner Student’s Book – Third Edition” meet the objectives of the course? - To what extent does the book meet students’ needs? - To what extent is the book suited to the current teaching and learning methods? 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.