VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES BÙI THU TRANG AN EVALUATION OF COURSE BOOK “ENGLISH UNLIMITED- ELEMENTARY” FOR FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS OF UNIVERSITY OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY UNDER THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY (ĐÁNH GIÁ GIÁO TRÌNH “ ENGLISH UNLIMITED ”TRÌNH ĐỘ A2 DÙNG CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC CÔNG NGHỆ THÔNG TIN VÀ TRUYỀN THÔNG THUỘC ĐẠI HỌC THÁI NGUYÊN) M. MINOR THESIS Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 6014.0111 Hanoi- 2017 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES BÙI THU TRANG AN EVALUATION OF COURSE BOOK “ENGLISH UNLIMITED- ELEMENTARY” FOR FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS OF UNIVERSITY OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY UNDER THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY (ĐÁNH GIÁ GIÁO TRÌNH “ ENGLISH UNLIMITED ”TRÌNH ĐỘ A2 DÙNG CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC CÔNG NGHỆ THÔNG TIN VÀ TRUYỀN THÔNG THUỘC ĐẠI HỌC THÁI NGUYÊN) M. MINOR THESIS Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 6014.Do Tuan Minh Hanoi, 2017 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com i CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY OF THE THESIS I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled An evaluation of course book “English unlimited- elementary” for first- year students of university of information and communication technology under Thai Nguyen University submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in English Linguistics. Except where the reference is indicated, no other person‘s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis.
Hanoi, April 2017 Signature Bùi Thu Trang TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My deepest gratitude goes to Dr.Do Tuan Minh, my supervisor, for his valuable instructions, comments and criticisms as well as his stimulating ideas, expertise, and suggestions have inspired me greatly through my growing this thesis. I am deeply indebted to the teachers and students at ICTU for their generous cooperation and enthusiasm from which I have benefited a lot during my study. Finally, I wish to express my sincerely thanks to my family for the sacrifice they have devoted to the fulfillment of this academic work. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com iii ABSTRACT The coursebook ―English Unlimited- Elementary‖ is written by Alex Tilbury, Theresa Clementson, Leslie Anne Hendra & David Rea in 2010 and used for the first-year students at University of Information and Communication Technology under Thai Nguyen University since 2014.
However, up to now, there has been no official research conducted to evaluate the relevance of the coursebook to the learners‘ purposes as well as its outcome requirements. The purpose of this study is to reveal the findings and information about the coursebook evaluation from the perspectives of students and teachers of ICTU. With this regard, the study tries to assess the relevance of the coursebook to the students‘ needs in terms of knowledge, skills and methodology. The study is divided into three parts including: Introduction, Development and Conclusion.
Ten teachers of English and 120 first- year students participated in the survey. The findings show that the coursebook is rather relevant to the needs of learners. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com iv TABLE OF CONTENTS PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale of the study.
Aims of the study. Scope of the study. Method of the study. Design of the study.3 PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.
Materials in language teaching and learning. The role of materials. Types of materials 1. Definition of materials evaluation.
Purposes of materials evaluation. Types of materials evaluation. Methods of materials evaluation. Criteria for materials evaluation.
Materials evaluation models .16 CHAPTER II: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 2. An overview of current GE teaching and learning at ICTU. The coursebook description. Data collection instruments.
Data collection procedure .24 CHAPTER III: RESEASRCH RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 3. Learners‘ level of English .25 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Learners‘ purposes and expectations of learning the GE course ―English Unlimited Elementary‖. Evaluation on the needs satisfied by the course book.
Learners‘ and teachers‘ evaluation of the coursebook ―English Unlimited Elementary‖. The evaluation on the knowledge. General evaluation on the students‘ process. The evaluation on skills.
Evaluation on the methodology………………………………………. Teachers‘ suggestions fr the materials improvement…………………………35 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com vi PART C: CONCLUSION 1. Summary of the study. Limitations of the study.
Suggested for further study .XVIII LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ESL/EFL English as a Second Language/ English as a Foreign Language ESP English for Specific Purposes GE General English ICTU University of Information and Communication Technology TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 1 PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale of the study Since Vietnam began its open-door policy, English teaching and learning has strongly developed and English is considered an important subject taught at both schools and universities. University of Information and Communication Technology (ICTU) under Thai Nguyen University is not an exception. Appropriate materials are thought to stimulate effective teaching and learning.
Because of materials‘ role to second language acquisition, material evaluation has become a major concern of several researchers. Cunnings worth (1995) and Ellis (1997) have suggested that course book evaluation helps teachers move beyond impressionistic assessments and help them to acquire useful and contextual insights into the overall nature of the material. In the curriculum for ICTU students, English courses account for 10 credits, which are distributed into two phases: General English (GE) and English for Specific Purposes (ESP). General English consisting of two courses (a total of six credits) aim to train students in four general skills of English.
ESP including two courses with four credits in total is designed to teach students English language for specific purposes, such as English for Electronics and Telecommunications, English for Automation Technology and English for Information Technology. In ICTU, course books are mostly used in teaching and learning materials for both teachers and the learners. They not only provide a framework for teachers in achieving the aims and objectives of the course but also play an important role as a guide to the teacher in conducting the lesson. Therefore, using a course book is probably the most common way of teaching English today.
However, now with a variety of textbook available on the market each with a different methodology and syllabus, it can be much more difficult to choose the best suitable book for a particular teaching situation. Thus, it is necessary for language teachers to carefully examine all aspects of the materials and to take advantage of the materials. The course book ―English Unlimited- Elementary‖ is used for teaching GE for the first year students at ICTU since 2014 and also both positive and negative TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 2 response from both students and teachers. However, up to now, no research on the course book evaluation has been conducted to recognize its strength and weakness as well as how suitably the course book matched the goal of the course.
In response to the problem, it is an urgent demand to carry out an evaluation of the course book to determine its appropriateness for students at our university then provide the adaptation for the better use. For these above-mentioned reasons, the researcher decided to choose materials evaluation as the theme of this minor thesis titled as: “AN EVALUATION OF COURSE BOOK “ENGLISH UNLIMITED- ELEMENTARY” FOR FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS OF UNIVERSITY OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY UNDER THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY” 2. Aims of the study The study is carried out to evaluate the course book ―English Unlimited- Elementary ‖ which is used as teaching materials for first- year students at ICTU to see how is the appropriate degree of the course book to meet the requirement of the course learning outcomes in terms of knowledge, skills and attitudes. The specific aims are: To evaluate the appropriateness of the material to the course requirements in term of knowledge, skills and attitudes.
To offer suggestions for its better use. How is the course book English Unlimited- Elementary relevant to the course outcomes requirements in terms of knowledge, skills and methodology? 2. What should be done so that this coursebook is used better? 4. Scope of the study The course book English Unlimited- Elementary is only for the first year students at ICTU, thus the study focuses on the evaluation of the first year students at ICTU on course book currently used.
In material evaluation, there have been a number of criteria that should be taken into consideration, such as the content, the TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 3 methodology, the layout, the culture bias, the authenticity, and so on. It will be highly precious to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the course book. However, within the scope of a minor thesis, the criteria for evaluation were based on Hutchinson and Waters‘ (1987) with focus on three criteria: Knowlegde, Skills and Methodology to see how the course book is relevant to learners‘ needs. Methods of the study To conduct this study, two main instruments were used to collect data: - Survey questionnaires - were designed for both first-year students of Faculty of Information Technology and ten involved teachers of English at ICTU.
- Semi-structured interviews - were conducted to look for both teachers and students‘ further opinions on the course book based on their experience in using it or to clarify any misunderstanding. Design of the study The study consists of three parts: Part A: Introduction – presents the rationale, aims, the research questions, scope, methodology and design of the thesis. Part B: Development – includes three chapters: Chapter I: Literature review – provides theoretical basis for the study with literature review on the aspects relating to material evaluation such as: materials in language teaching and learning, materials evaluation. Readers are provided with concise understandings of the definition of materials evaluation, purposes, types, methods of materials evaluation, criteria and materials evaluation models.
Besides, in this chapter, materials adaptation for the better use has been presented. Chapter II: Research methodology – describes the methods employed in this thesis. Chapter III: Analysis of data and suggestion for materials adaptation - is devoted to the analysis of the survey questionnaire and interview of the course book evaluation carried out at ICTU in which description, data collection, and analysis are demonstrated in detail. This chapter also reports main findings of the thesis to address the research questions.
TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 4 Part C: Conclusion – summarizes the content of the thesis with regard to the relevance of the course book in terms of three evaluated aspects, and points out some limitations of the study. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 5 PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter is concerned with the review of a theoretical base to develop an operational framework for the evaluation of the course book “English Unlimited- Elementary” used for first-year students at ICTU. The first section in this chapter presents materials in language teaching and learning with regard. Next, the study presents an overview of materials evaluation.
Then, need analysis will be presented. At last, the chapter will end up with theoretical discussion about materials adaptation. Materials in language teaching and learning. Definition It is important to give a good definition about textbook, course book and material to do a book evaluation in a correct way.
Tomlinson (1998) defines that a textbook provides the core materials for a course. It aims to provide as much as possible in one book and is designed so that it could be serve as the only book which the learner necessarily use during a course. Such a book usually includes work on grammar, vocabulary, function and the skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking. Ur (1996: 183) has given a simple one; it is very useful and easy to understand.