VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ MINH NGUYỆT AN EVALUATION OF THE MATERIAL “REWARD” FOR THE FIRST-YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HAIPHONG PRIVATE UNIVERSITY (Đánh giá giáo trình “Reward” dành cho sinh viên năm thứ nhất không chuyên của trường Đại học Dân lập Hải Phòng) M. MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10 HA NOI, 2010 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ MINH NGUYỆT AN EVALUATION OF THE MATERIAL “REWARD” FOR THE FIRST-YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HAIPHONG PRIVATE UNIVERSITY (Đánh giá giáo trình “Reward” dành cho sinh viên năm thứ nhất không chuyên của trường Đại học Dân lập Hải Phòng) M. MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10 Supervisor: Vũ Thị Thu Thủy, M. HA NOI, 2010 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com iii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION ………………………………………………………………….
ii TABLE OF CONTENTS…………………………………………………………. iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS……………………………………………………. vi LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES………………………………………………. vii Part A: Introduction…………………………………………………………….
Rationale of the study…………………………………………………………. Aims of the study………………………………………………………………. Methods of the study……………………………………………………………. Scope of the study……………………………………………………………….
Design of the study……………………………………………………………. 4 Chapter 1: Literature review………………………………………………………. Textbook, course book and materials…………………………………………. The role of materials in a language program……………………………….
Types of materials evaluation……………………………………………… 6 2. Criteria of materials evaluation……………………………………………. Materials evaluation procedure……………………………………………. An overview of Communicative Language Teaching………………………….
Communicative Language Teaching………………………………………. 10 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Definition of CLT………………………………………………………. Principles of CLT……………………………………………………….
Good points and limitations of CLT……………………………………. 11 Chapter 2: The study………………………………………………………………… 13 1. Description of data collection instruments and procedures……………………. Description of the survey questionnaires……………………………….
Formal interviews and class observation…………………………………… 14 2. Preliminary results and analysis. Students’ English background and their expectations from the course……. Students’ English learning time and their results.
Students’ difficulties in learning English………………………………. Students’ expectations from an English course………………………… 17 2. Students’ improvement after learning the textbook………………………… 17 2. Students’ level of fluency in language points………………………….
Students’ tasks completion ……………………………………………. Students’ reading tasks completion………………………………. Students’ writing tasks completion………………………………. Students’ speaking tasks completion……………………………… 22 2.
Students’ listening tasks completion………………………………. Students’ satisfaction level in each skill and teachers’ assessment on their skill improvement…………………………………………………………. Teachers’ and students’ evaluation on the content of the materials………. Topics of the textbook………………………………………………….
Aims of the units………………………………………………………. Tasks and exercises in the textbook……………………………………. 27 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Teachers’ and students’ evaluation on the methodology of the book……….
Teachers and students’ opinions on the textbook’s appearance and current time for teaching and learning the textbook…………………………………………. 29 Chapter 3: An evaluation of the textbook “Reward” for the first-year non-English major students at Haiphong Private University……………………………………. Materials requirements of the course…………………………………………… 31 1. Analysis of the material “Reward Pre – intermediate” ………………………… 33 2.
Objectives of the material…………………………………………………. Contents of the material……………………………………………………. Methodology of the textbook………………………………………………. Suggestions for the textbook’s adaptation……………………………………… 38 4.
Localizing or modifying cultural/ situational content………………………. I Appendix 2……………………………………………………………………… VII Appendix 3………………………………………………………………………. XIII TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CLT: Communicative Language Teaching ELT: English Language Teaching ESP: English for Specific Purposes GE: General English HPU: Haiphong Private University Ss: Students Ts: Teachers TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com vii LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figure 1: The materials evaluation process (by Tom Hutchinson & Alan Waters) Table 1: Students’ English learning time Table 2: Teachers’ and students’ assessment of students’ results in learning English Table 3: Students’ difficulties in learning English Table 4: Students’ expectations from an English course Table 5: Students’ level of fluency in language points Table 6: Students’ reading tasks completion Table 7: Students’ writing tasks completion Table 8: Students’ speaking tasks completion Table 9: Students’ listening tasks completion Table 10: Students’ satisfaction level in each skill Table 11: Teachers’ point of view on students’ improvement in each skill Table 12: Students’ point of view on the aims of the units Table 13: Teachers’ and students’ opinions on the tasks and exercises of the textbook Table 14: Teachers’ and students’ points of view on the methodology of the book Table 15: Teachers’ and students’ opinions towards the layout of the textbook and the current time for teaching and learning the book Table 16: The distribution of tasks in each unit TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com -1- PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale of the study Responding to the changes brought by the international integration tendency, mastering foreign languages, especially English, has become one of the prerequisites for success.
English is, hence, necessary for both undergraduates and on-the-job employees. The demand of English study has resulted in the development of ELT industry as well as ELT materials. Publishing commercial textbooks is considered a million – dollar industry and serves as an abundant materials resource so that English teachers and learners have quite a wide range of selection of the textbooks that are suitable for their own purposes. Regarded as “an inevitable teaching partner” and “the visible heart of any ELT program” by Sheldon (1988, p.237), ELT materials in general and textbooks in particular have been proving themselves one of the most important factors in every English class, functioning as the teaching and learning tool, the tutor, guidebook as well as gauge.
However, among various textbooks commercially available in the market, choosing the one that is appropriate to the students‟ learning purposes and that can help students enhance their communicative competence is not an easy job. It is, therefore, necessary for the teachers to be good at assessment skill for the evaluation of materials so as to ensure that their students can get much benefit from their textbooks. The importance of materials evaluation to the teachers of English in an ELT program has urged me to choose it as the theme of this study. The second reason for this choice originated from the fact that in the recent two years, there have been different opinions of both teachers and learners on the actual effectiveness of the textbook Reward Pre – intermediate by Simon Greenall currently used in teaching English for first – year non – English major students at Haiphong Private University.
The textbook itself has revealed many potentials as well as shortcomings in the teaching and learning environment of HPU. It is really essential that we should conduct an evaluation of the textbook to assess its appropriateness against the learning purposes and then find out the solutions to improve the quality of English teaching in the university. Aims of the study The purpose of the research projects are: - To investigate the evaluation methods discussed by a number of researchers and choose the most appropriate one for the project. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com -2- - To evaluate the currently-adopted textbook Reward Pre – intermediate from the viewpoints of both teachers of Foreign Languages Department and first – year non - English major students at Haiphong Private University.
- To give suggestions for the textbook‟s adaptations. Methods of the study The following methods are employed to collect data for the study: - Survey questionnaires designed for both teachers and first – year non – English major students at Haiphong Private University who have experienced using the book. - Formal interviews with the teachers and students regarding their experience in teaching and learning the textbook. - Direct class observations Among these, survey questionnaire serves as the major instrument for data collection while the interviews and direct class observation are applied with an aim to get more information for any confirmation of the evaluation findings.
Scope of the study The study limits itself at evaluating the student‟s book, excluding the accompanied teacher‟s book, workbook and cassette tape with the focus on the evaluation of post-used textbook. The evaluation criteria enclosed in the thesis is largely based on Communicative Language Teaching approach and the objectives set in the syllabus of the first and second semester designed for first – year non - English major students at Haiphong Private University. Design of the study The thesis is divided into three parts: Part A Introduction presents the rationale, aims, scope, methods and design of the study Part B Development consists of three chapters Chapter 1 handles the literature review of the issues relating to materials, materials evaluation and adaptation and CLT approach. Definitions of materials, materials evaluation, evaluation types, models and criteria, its role in materials development and materials adaptation have been discussed there.
Also, readers are provided with a brief introduction of communicative language teaching, the approach that is applied in the evaluation of the textbook Reward Pre – intermediate, in this chapter. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com -3- Chapter 2 is devoted to the analysis of the survey questionnaire of the textbook evaluation implemented at Haiphong Private University in which objectives, description, data collection and analysis are discussed in detail. Chapter 3 deals with the evaluation of the textbook Reward Pre – intermediate for the first – year non – English major students at Haiphong Private University in terms of the materials requirement of the course, the analysis of the textbook, and gives out the evaluation findings as well as encloses suggestions for the textbook adaptation. Part C Conclusion summarizes all the obtained results and includes suggestions for further study.
TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com -4- PART B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: Literature review 1. Textbook, course book and materials 1. Definitions Textbook, course book and materials are commonly - used terms in ELT and they are defined in many ways by different authors. Textbook is generally defined as a teaching tool which presents the subject matter set by the curriculum.
A university textbook is required to contain the complete overview of the subject, including the theories, as well as to be of a more permanent character. A textbook seen from this view is closely related to the fixed curriculum and it serves as the basis in the teaching and learning process. The term “course book” is used by Tomlinson (1998, p.ix) to refer to “a textbook which provides the core materials for a course.” A course book is specifically selected by a teacher to suit the teaching and learning purposes in a certain teaching context, in other words, a particular course. A course book may be accompanied by other supplementary materials.
Regarding the definition of materials, Tomlinson (1998, p.xi) claims that materials is “anything which is used to help teach language learners”. It can be “in the form of a textbook, a workbook, a cassette, a CD-Rom, a video, a photocopied handout, a newspaper: anything which presents or informs about the language being learned.” From his viewpoints, materials can be understood in a broader sense because it covers both textbook and course book. The three terms textbook, course book and materials can be used interchangeably; therefore, in the thesis, the subject Reward Pre – intermediate by Simon Greenall can be referred to as the above mentioned terms. The role of materials in a language program The role of materials in language teaching has been discussed by different authors with two main opposing points of view.
For some, commercially available materials may “deskill teachers and rob them of their capacity to think professionally and respond to their students (Crawford, 2002, p. Particularly, Littlejohn (in Hutchinson & Torres, 1994, p.316), a representative for the group of authors who have negative attitudes towards the role of textbooks in a language program, claims that textbooks “reduce the teacher‟s role to one of TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com -5- managing or overseeing preplanned events”. However, there are still quite a number of scholars recognizing the importance of textbooks. A textbook can serve different purposes for teachers: as a core resource, a source of supplementary materials, an inspiration for classroom activities and even the curriculum itself (Garinger, 2002).