TABLE OF CONTENT CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1. Outline of the thesis. 8 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2. The definitions of needs.
Types of needs. Basic information about the in-service EFL program in Hue University – College of Foreign Languages. Adult learners as participants in the program. Teaching Speaking skill.
Definition of speaking. Definition of teaching speaking. The importance of speaking skill. Activities for teaching speaking skill.
Teaching speaking in Asian context. Materials for teaching speaking skill. Textbook and its role in a language program. Definition of textbook.
The role of textbook in a language program. Purposes of materials evaluation. Types of materials evaluation. Criteria for materials evaluation.
Reasons for adapting. Techniques for adaptation. Framework for materials adaptation. “Plenty to Say” in speaking classes at Hue College of Foreign Languages.
Research design and Approach. Piloting the questionnaires. Administering the questionnaires. Analyzing collected data and suggesting some adaptations.
40 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 4. Reasons and purposes. Reasons for learning. Purposes of using English.
Strengths in speaking. The textbook evaluation. Reliability of teachers‟ and students‟ data. Descriptive statistics of teachers‟ and students‟ total mean scores.
Descriptive statistics of teachers‟ and students‟ cluster mean scores. Practical considerations, Layout, and Design. Layout and Design. Subject and content.
Evaluation on the textbook‟s sections and activities. Strengths and weaknesses of “Plenty to Say”. Implications and suggestions. Suggested sample units.
Limitations and suggestions for further research. 95 REFERENCES APPENDICES 4 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale English teaching-learning programs, due to many reasons such as job requirement as well as needs to get to a higher level in education, have become an essential part in education in Vietnam. With the issue of Circular Letter No.
08/2009 of Ministry of Education and Training on Master training program, which made either IELTS or TOEFL certificate or a BA degree in English a prerequisite, a great number of learners have enrolled in English training courses. In that context, second degree training program in Hue College of Foreign Languages seems to increase its enrollees considerably. However, due to various reasons, there is a fact that the learners of this second degree training program do not reach the standard which is required for participants of the program. After finishing the course, these learners are expected to have wide knowledge about four English skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing.
Among these four skills, it is easy to see that most second degree training program‟s learners have low ability in speaking skill. In the attempt to find out the reasons for this fact, I see that apart from internal factors from learners, the subjective reasons which come from the curriculum also need to be taken into consideration. As proved by many researchers, materials play a vital role in acquiring a language. Tomlinson (1998:xi) defines materials as „anything which is used to help to teach language learners‟.
According to his definition, materials can be in the form of a textbook, a workbook, a cassette, a CD-Rom, a video, a photocopied handout, a newspaper, a paragraph written on a white board; anything which presents or informs about the language being learned. As for Wright (1987), the goals of a teaching-learning process can be set and achieved with the support of the materials. More specifically, Dudley-Evans, A. John (1998), when 5 referring the significant role of materials, focus on four main points.
Firstly, materials are source of language. In their views, in some situations, where English is a foreign language, materials play a crucial role in exposing learners to the language, which implies that the materials need to present real language as it is used, and the full range that learners require. Secondly, materials are viewed as a learning support. With the role of learning support, materials need to be reliable and consistent as well as to have some recognizable pattern.
To enhance learning, materials must involve learners in thinking about and using the language. Thirdly, materials need to be challenging yet available. For Dudley-Evans, materials must contain concepts and knowledge that are familiar but they must also offer something new, a reason to communicate and to get involved. Fourthly, materials must be used as a reference.
Materials support as a source for self-study and self- explanatory. They suggest that materials need to take into account of different learning styles and allow the learners to explore the language in the most appropriate ways. However, materials can also have unexpectedly counterproductive effects on both teachers and learners. Allwright (1982) considers textbooks as inflexible tool which controls teachers‟ methods and imposes external objective on students.
Another shortcoming of textbooks is that they are actually too contrived and artificial in their presentation of the target language. Prodromou (1988) and Alptekin (1993) even think that learners of a language may refuse to learn since they are forced to be in the situations, provided in learning materials, which are not familiar to them. Though textbook is an indispensable part of a teaching-learning program in Vietnamese context, it is obvious that no one single published material perfectly matches all teaching-learning situations. Consequently, the act of evaluating materials in order to make adaptations should be carried out.
21) reminds, “teachers generally need to screen materials, in order to predict their suitability for particular classes”. Through identifying strengths and weaknesses in 6 textbooks, optimal use can be made of strong points, and weak points can be adapted or substituted from other sources of materials (Cunningsworth, 1995). This implies that it is important for teachers to evaluate, select, and adapt teaching materials to meet their teaching and learning needs in order to maximize learners‟ learning potentials. “Plenty to Say” published by Longman has been used as a speaking skill textbook for both in-service students and regular students for several years.
However, except for oral comments of teachers and students on the textbook, no formal evaluation on the book has been carried out. Together with the fact about the speaking skill level of second degree students, a formal evaluation on “Plenty to Say” was decided to make with the attempt to find out its strengths and weaknesses. The findings of my research will set lights into the quality of the corresponding activities in the textbook to be applied in the semesters to come. Topic A Formal Evaluation on “Plenty to Say”: A Speaking Skill Book and Adaptations for Second Degree Students at Hue College of Foreign Languages 1.
Research aims The purposeful evaluation on this textbook and the subsequent adaptations aim to provide myself as well as my colleagues with a closer look at its strengths and weaknesses. Based on this formal evaluation, my research aims at suggesting some adaptations on this textbook in ways that make it congruent in the English learning and teaching context in second degree training program at Hue College of Foreign Languages. Research questions Considering all reasons for conducting a formal evaluation on “Plenty to Say”, this study aims to answer the following questions: 1. To which degree does “Plenty to Say” fit in the English speaking teaching and learning setting in second degree training program in Hue College of 7 Foreign Languages with reference to students‟ needs? 2.
What adaptations should be made for effective teaching and learning of the textbook? 1. Outline of the thesis The thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter I introduces the contexts and purposes of the study. Chapter II presents a discussion of the literature relating to major elements in the study.
Chapter III provides the research methodology and chapter IV displays findings and discussions. The thesis ends with chapter V which gives a brief summary of the coursebook‟s strengths and weaknesses, suggests some adaptations to improve it, and points out some limitations of the research and from that gives suggestions for further research. 8 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2. The definitions of needs As the learner is at the heart of any teaching program (McDonough, 1984), knowing what their needs are is important to course designers.
As pointed out by Hutchinson (1987), a course should be based on the analysis of learner needs because anything that can motivate and help learners find the purpose and interest in what they are doing in the course is useful. Depending on what kind of “needs” is referred, the term “needs” is explained differently. As for Widdowson (1981, as cited in Robinson, 1991), “needs” can be referred to students‟ study or job requirement that is what students have to be able to do at the end of the language course. While Widdowson thinks of “needs” as an external motivation, Berwick (1989) links the term to individual matter.
He refers “needs” to personal aims which means what students want to gain from a language course. Looking at “needs” with a far different view, Robinson (1991) interprets needs as lacks that is what students do not know or cannot do in English. All those ways of understanding are synthesized in Hutchinson (1987). “Needs”, in his view, is analyzed in terms of necessities, lacks and wants, as explained in more detail later.
Despite different ways in understanding the term “needs”, it cannot be denied that “needs” has an essential role in a process of course design. Being aware of this role and sharing the same view on what “needs” is with Hutchinson (1987), the set of questionnaire for students is designed to get a further understanding about what second degree learners have to know before attending the course, what they still need to reach the target proficiency in speaking, and what they want to achieve from the course. Types of needs Since it is defined differently, the classification of “needs” also varies. In this part, only the following types of needs are taken into concern: objective needs and subjective needs, target needs and learning needs.
Objective and Subjective needs Dudley-Evans and Jo St. John (1998) state that objective needs is seen as derived by outsiders from facts, from what is known and can be verified. And subjective needs is derived from insiders and corresponds to cognitive and affective factors. Those facts and internal factors are specified in Robinson (1991).
According to Robinson, when analyzing objective needs, different kinds of factual information about learners are taken into account: how they use language in real-life communication situations, as well as their current language abilities and difficulties. Subjective needs, as for his suggestion, can be grouped into factors such as personality, confidence, attitudes, learners‟ wants and expectations, and learning styles. Target needs and learning needs Target needs focuses on the learner language needs, which specifically means what students have to be able to do at the end of the language course. Dudley-Evans and Jo St.
John (1998) refer target needs to objective, perceived and product-oriented needs. Hutchinson (1987) classifies target needs into necessities, lacks, and wants. “Necessities” is what students have to know in order to function effectively in the target situation. “Lacks” may be understood as the target proficiency needs to be matched against learners‟ existing proficiency.
“Wants” is what the learner needs. In other words, “wants” refers to subjective needs or the needs perceived by the learner. It, therefore, can be said that what the leaner really wants or feels they need is related to their motivation. 10 Learning needs, according to Robinson (1991), can be understood as what the learner needs to do during the course to acquire the language.
It is called by the term “process-oriented” and it relates to the means of learning. It examines the conditions of learning situation such as learners‟ knowledge/skills, learning styles and strategies, and learners‟ motivation. In Hutchinson‟s (1987) view, learning needs looks beyond the language use and investigates how learners learn to do what they do with language. It takes into account the factors of circumstances of a language course, i.