MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ------------ TRAN THI BICH NGOC AN EVALUATION OF THE TEACHING OF “NEW CUTTING EDGE PRE-INTERMEDIATE” AT THE COLLEGE OF ARTS – HUE UNIVERSITY MASTER IN EDUCATION HUE, 2011 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ------------ TRAN THI BICH NGOC AN EVALUATION OF THE TEACHING OF “NEW CUTTING EDGE PRE-INTERMEDIATE” AT THE COLLEGE OF ARTS – HUE UNIVERSITY FIELD OF STUDY: THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 60.10 MA THESIS IN EDUCATION SUPERVISOR: Assoc. TRUONG VIEN HUE, 2011 BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƢỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ -------- TRẦN THỊ BÍCH NGỌC ĐÁNH GIÁ VIỆC DẠY BỘ SÁCH GIÁO KHOA “NEW CUTTING EDGE PRE-INTERMEDIATE” TẠI TRƢỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGHỆ THUẬT – ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ CHUYÊN NGÀNH : LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƢƠNG PHÁP DẠY - HỌC MÔN TIẾNG ANH MÃ SỐ: 60.10 LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ GIÁO DỤC NGƢỜI HƢỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: PGS. TRƢƠNG VIÊN HUẾ, 2011 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby acknowledge that this study is mine. The data and findings discussed in the thesis are true, used with permission from associates and have not been published elsewhere.
Author Tran Thi Bich Ngoc I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude and appreciation to a number of people, without whose support and involvement, this thesis would not have been completed. Above all, I am deeply indebted to Associate Professor Doctor Truong Vien, my supervisor, for his whole-hearted guidance at every stage of the development of this study, continuous support, encouragement and critical feedback, especially for his first suggestion of implementing this research topic. Next, I am heartily grateful to the English teachers at College of Arts, College of Pedagogy, College of Science, College of Economics, College of Agriculture and Forestry and students at College of Arts Hue University for their precious ideas and enthusiastic participation in my study. Without them this paper could not have been completed.
Finally, I own my deepest gratitude to my parents, my family and close friends whose love, support and encouragements help me overcome all difficulties during the time I conducted this study. Hue, November 2011 Tran Thi Bich Ngoc TABLE OF CONTENTS Contents pages Sub cover page Statement of authorship Acknowledgements Table of contents. 1 List of abbreviations. 4 List of tables .5 List of charts.
Aims of the study. Scope of the study. Structure of the thesis .11 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW. The role of textbooks in EFL/ESL classroom.
Syllabus and types of syllabus. Functional –Notional syllabuses. Procedural/Task-based syllabuses. Theme-based textbook.
Textbook adaptation and techniques of adaptation. Techniques of adaptation. An overview on the textbook “New Cutting Edge Pre-Intermediate”. Aims of the textbook.
Structure of the textbook. CLT and its implementation in classroom in Vietnam. What is CLT?. Implementation of CLT in the Vietnamese classroom.
Reasons for Textbook Evaluation. Types of textbook evaluation. Textbook evaluation schemes. Previous studies relating to the research.
In other countries .32 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY. Instruments and procedures of data collection. Questionnaires for teachers. Questionnaires for students.
Interviews with teachers. Interviews with students .41 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. Teachers' and students' perceptions on the textbook. Practical Considerations and Methodology.
Layout and Design. Subject and Content. Difficulties or challenges faced by teachers and students in the English teaching – learning process at the College of Arts. Large class size and multi-level classes.
Students’ motivation in studying English. Some suggestions from teachers and students for improvement. Some suggestions from teachers. To GE teachers.
Some suggestions from students. To GE teachers .77 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS. Summary of the key findings. Some suggested adaptations.
Limitations of the study. Recommendations for further research .92 APPENDICES Appendix 1: Teacher Textbook Evaluation Form Appendix 2: Student Textbook Evaluation Form Appendix 3: Interview Checklist A (For English teachers at CA, HU) Appendix 4: Interview Checklist B (For students at CA, HU) Appendix 5: Descriptive statistics of teachers’ item mean Appendix 6: Descriptive statistics of students’ item mean Appendix 7: Frequencies of teachers in marking each statement of the Textbook Evaluation Form Appendix 8: Frequencies of students in marking each statement of the Textbook Evaluation Form Appendix 9A: Module 1, Language focus 1: Revision of question forms, Students’ Book Appendix 9B: Module 1, Language focus 1: Revision of question forms, Teacher’s Resource Book Appendix 10A: Module 4, Reading: Birthday traditions around the world, Students’ Book Appendix 10B: Module 4, Reading: Birthday traditions around the world, Teacher’s Resource Book Appendix 11: Checklist for evaluation and selection (Cunningsworth, 1995) 3 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CA College of Arts CAF College of Agriculture and Forest CE College of Economics CP College of Pedagogy CS College of Sciences GE General English HUCFL Hue University – College of Foreign Languages M Mean Method Methodology NCEP New Cutting Edge Pre-Intermediate SPSS Statistical Package for the Social Sciences Ss Students Ts Teachers TB Textbook WB Workbook 4 LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1: Summary of teacher participants Table 3.2: Summary of student participants Table 3.3: Reliability of teachers’ and students’ questionnaires Table 3.4: Questions for teachers grouped into categories Table 3.5: Questions for students grouped into categories Table 4.1: Reliability of teachers’ and students’ data Table 4.2: Descriptive Statistics of teachers’ cluster mean Table 4.3: Descriptive Statistics of students’ cluster mean 5 LIST OF CHARTS Chart 4.1: Teachers’ and students’ item mean on Practical Considerations Chart 4.2: Teachers’ and students’ view on textbook price Chart 4.3: Teachers’ view on textbook’s language and methodology Chart 4.4: Teachers’ and students’ item mean on Layout and Design Chart 4.5: Teachers’ view on vocabulary list or glossary Chart 4.6: Teachers’ and students’ item mean on Activities Chart 4.7: Teachers’ and students’ view on the balance of activities Chart 4.8: Teachers’ and students’ view on communicative & meaningful activities Chart 4.9: Teachers’ & students’ view on grammar points and vocabulary items Chart 4.10: Teachers’ view on the activities’ modification and supplementation Chart 4.11: Teachers’ and students’ item mean on Skills Chart 4.12: Teachers’ and students’ view on the skills contained in NCEP Chart 4.13: Teachers’ and students’ view on the appropriate balance of the four language skills Chart 4.14: Teachers’ view on natural pronunciation Chart 4.15: Teachers’ and students’ item mean on Language Type Chart 4.16: Teachers’ and students’ view on the authenticity of language Chart 4.17: Teachers’ and students’ view on language used in NCEP in comparison with students’ current English ability Chart 4.18: Teachers’ and students’ item mean on Subject and Content Chart 4.19: Teachers’ and students’ view on subject and content Chart 4.20: Teachers’ & students’ view on the reality of subject & content Chart 4.21: Teachers’ and students’ item mean on Overall Consensus Chart 4.22: Teachers’ view on the appropriateness between textbook and language- learning aims Chart 4.23: Teachers’ and students’ choice on using the textbook again 6 ABSTRACT This thesis aims to evaluate the fitness of the textbook New Cutting Edge Pre-Intermediate in the English teaching and learning setting at the College of Arts – Hue University through the perceptions of the English teachers and students. To obtain this, the questionnaires designed according to the standard textbook evaluation criteria developed by Cunningsworth (1995) and adapted by David R.Litz (2001) were utilized. 30 English teachers from HUCFL and 150 first and second year students attending the Basic English Course at College of Arts in the academic year 2010-2011 participated in the study.
The data were collected through questionnaires and interviews which were designed separately for teachers and students. While the data based on the questionnaires were analyzed by the Statistic Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) including cluster mean, item mean, frequencies, content analysis was carried out to analyze the qualitative data. Results of the study indicate that the textbook is not really suitable to the English teaching and learning setting at College of Arts-Hue University. The findings also reveal that some improvements in the textbook, the physical conditions and assessment are required to make the teaching and learning of the textbook more effective.
7 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION In this chapter, I present the rationale of the study, the research aims, research questions and the structure of the thesis. Rationale In the trend of globalization and world economic integration, English has proved its very important and indispensable role in our everyday lives. It is considered as an international language rather than a foreign language in more and more countries in the Outer and Expanding countries and Vietnam is not an exception. It is true that English is widely used in all aspects of life from politics, economy, culture, society, and especially in education in Vietnam in recent years.
Foreign languages in general and English in particular play a role and an important position in the education and training cause and in the development of the country. In fact, firstly, no one can deny the fact that English is a very important and useful tool in communicating, working and cooperating among nations, especially since Vietnam has become a member of Asian Bloc (1995) and World Trade Organization (2007). Secondly, in order to be able to access the world knowledge, we have to have a good command of English because it is also the official language used in science, technology, commerce, education, etc. Lastly, English is one of the first and most important criteria for a good job and position after graduation from university.
Thus, the role of English at schools in general and at universities in particular is more important than ever. Almost all of the Vietnamese universities use English textbooks as teaching media to present the material. Actually, materials, especially authentic materials, play a significant role in foreign language teaching. So the use of textbook in English teaching is really needed.7 – 15) shows that textbook itself should correspond to learner’s needs, help to equip learners to use language effectively for their own purposes, facilitate student’s learning process, have a clear role in mediating the target language and the learner.
8 The New Cutting Edge Pre-Intermediate has been used for the teaching general English at all colleges of Hue University since 2007. It is a new theme- based textbook and considered an excellent tutorial for students who have pre- intermediate level. However, during the past several years, the reality shows that after two years studying English at school, the number of students who can use English well is a few, the rest students have very low level of English proficiency not as expected and required by as the school and society. Actually, many arts students seem not to be interested in studying and participating in activities in English classes.
This is really a deep concern of all English teachers. In order to meet the needs of teaching and learning English around the world, there are more and more English textbooks published and sold in the market to support the teaching-learning process inside and outside schools. It is clear that materials and textbooks are an important resource for not only the teachers but also the learners. According to Brown (1994, cited in Prafitasani, 2010), “The presence of a textbook is necessary to support teaching-learning process”.
However, as we know that most of the textbooks are written for a large readership in different countries where English may be the first, second or a foreign language. So we do not know whether the textbook contains good material or not, suitable and appropriate with our students’ level and needs or not. Therefore, Cunningsworth (1995) argues that “No course book designed for a general market will be absolutely ideal for particular group of learners”. Hence, the evaluation of a textbook is really necessary and important in the process of teaching and learning a foreign language in any institutions.