Luận văn thạc sĩ VNU ULIS an evaluation of the speaking tasks in the textbook tieng anh 11 in relation to their implementation at an upper secondary school in son la province

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES ****************** NGUYỄN THỊ BÍCH HẠNH AN EVALUATION OF THE SPE

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

******************

NGUYỄN THỊ BÍCH HẠNH

AN EVALUATION OF THE SPEAKING TASKS IN THE TEXTBOOK “TIENG ANH 11” IN RELATION TO THEIR IMPLEMENTATION

AT AN UPPER-SECONDARY SCHOOL IN SON LA PROVINCE

Nghiên cứu đánh giá các nhiệm vụ Nói trong sách giáo khoa

“Tiếng Anh 11” với việc thực hiện chúng tại một trường THPT

tỉnh Sơn La

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 60140111

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

******************

NGUYỄN THỊ BÍCH HẠNH

AN EVALUATION OF THE SPEAKING TASKS IN THE TEXTBOOK “TIENG ANH 11” IN RELATION TO THEIR IMPLEMENTATION

AT AN UPPER-SECONDARY SCHOOL IN SON LA PROVINCE

Nghiên cứu đánh giá các nhiệm vụ Nói trong sách giáo khoa

“Tiếng Anh 11” với việc thực hiện chúng tại một trường THPT

tỉnh Sơn La

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Dr Hoàng Thị Xuân Hoa

HANOI – 2017

CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT

I certify my authority of the minor thesis entitled: “An evaluation of the Speaking

Tasks in the textbook „Tieng Anh 11‟ in relation to their implementation at an Upper-Secondary school in Son La province” in fulfillment of the requirements of

the degree Master of Arts

Hanoi, 2017

Nguyễn Thị Bích Hạnh

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

On the completion of this minor thesis, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Hoàng Thị Xuân Hoa, who made valuable suggestions and comments which helped me complete the study

Besides, I would like to give my special thanks to the teachers and students

at Tong Lenh Upper-Secondary School in Son La for their help in completing my survey as well as their willingness to share their ideas on the accomplishment of the research

I also wish to acknowledge the assistance and encouragement of all the lecturers of the Faculty of Postgraduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University

My sincere thanks go to a number of my colleagues and friends who helped

me a lot in gathering data for the study

Finally, my gratefulness is to my family members who have constantly supported and encouraged me to carry out this thesis

ABSTRACT This study was conducted at an upper-secondary school in remote and mountainous

Son La province Its general objective was to evaluate the appropriateness of the speaking tasks in the textbook “Tiếng Anh 11” to grade 11 students at the school in terms of aims, content and methodology Specifically, it examined the suitability of those tasks to the course‟s objectives for speaking skills and explored how they were appropriate to the students‟ levels and interests, from which the ineffective factors of the speaking tasks were identified To achieve this purpose, document analysis, survey questionnaire for students and interview for teachers were employed to collect data for the evaluation The findings of the study revealed that the speaking tasks were not fully suitable to the course‟s objectives for speaking skills due to the fact that some elements in the speaking tasks were inappropriate to the target students, suggesting for some task adaptation techniques to make them better fit this specific learning context

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CANDIDATE‟S STATEMENT i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF TABLES vii

LIST OF CHARTS AND FIGURES viii

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Objectives of the study 3

3 Research questions 3

4 Scope of the study 3

5 Significant of the study 4

6 Design of the paper 4

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 6

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

1.1 Chapter introduction 6

1.2 Language learning tasks 6

1.2.1 Definition of tasks 6

1.2.2 Task classification 7

1.2.3 Task components 7

1.3 Material evaluation 8

1.3.1 Types of material evaluation 8

1.3.2 Models of material evaluation 9

1.3.3 Criteria of material evaluation 11

1.3.4 Material adaptation 12

1.4 Teaching and learning speaking skills in EFL classrooms 13

1.4.1 The vital role of speaking skills in developing communicative competence 13

1.4.2 Problems in teaching and learning speaking skills in EFL classrooms 13

1.5 Previous studies on evaluation of speaking tasks in English textbooks 14

1.5 Chapter summary 17

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 18

2.1 The setting of the study 18

2.1.1 English teaching and learning context 18

2.1.2 An overview of the ELT course for grade 11 and the textbook “Tiếng Anh 11” ………18

2.1.3 Description of the speaking tasks in the textbook “Tiếng Anh 11” 19

2.2 The informants of the study 20

2.2.1 The teachers 20

2.2.2 The students 20

2.3 Data collection instruments & procedures 21

2.3.1 Document analysis 21

2.3.2 Survey questionnaire 21

2.3.3 Semi-structured interview 22

2.3.4 Procedures of the study 23

2.4 Modes of data analysis 24

2.5 Chapter summary 24

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 25

3.1 Document analysis 25

3.2 Surveys‟ results 30

3.2.1 Questionnaires‟ results 30

3.2.2 Interviews‟ results 40

3.3 Major findings 41

3.3.1 The appropriateness of the speaking tasks to the course‟s objectives for speaking skills 41

3.3.2 The appropriateness of the speaking tasks to the level and interests of grade 11 students at Tong Lenh Upper-Secondary School 42

3.3.3 Teachers and students‟ suggestions for the adaptation of the speaking tasks 43 3.4 Chapter summary 44

PART C: CONCLUSION 45

1 Summary 45

2 Suggestions for adaptation 46

3 Conclusion 47

4 Limitations of the study & suggestions for further research 47

REFERENCES 49 APPENDICES I APPENDIX 1 I APPENDIX 2 III APPENDIX 3 VIII APPENDIX 4 XIII APPENDIX 5 XIV APPENDIX 6 XV

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CLT Communicative Language Teaching

EFL English as a Foreign Language ELT English Language Teaching MOET Ministry of Education and Training

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1: Curriculum for Secondary Education – English 11 in term of speaking 26 Table 3.2: Description of the objectives of the speaking tasks in the textbook “Tiếng

Anh 11” 27

Table 3.3: The students‟ ability to ask and answer about the topics covered in the book 30

Table 3.4: Students‟ ability to perform some basic language functions in speaking 31 Table 3.5: Students‟ opinions on the difficulty of the task topics 32

Table 3.6: Students‟ opinions on the difficulty of the task instructions 33

Table 3.7: Students‟ judgment on the effectiveness of the interaction patterns 34

Table 3.8: Students‟ interests on the task topics 36

Table 3.9: Students‟ interests on the task instructions 37

Table 3.10: Students‟ interests on interaction patterns 37

Table 3.11: Barriers for students when implementing speaking tasks 38

Table 3.12: Students‟ comments on the speaking tasks 39

LIST OF CHARTS AND FIGURES

Figure 1.1: The material evaluation model of Hutchinson and Waters (1987: 97) 10 Chart 3.1: Students‟ opinions on the effectiveness of the given suggestions in the tasks 35 Chart 3.2: Teachers‟ methods in speaking lessons 39

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

The important roles of textbooks in language teaching and learning process have been recognized and emphasized by several researchers For teachers, a textbook provides a structure; therefore, it is easy to keep track of what they have done and where they have reached Moreover, it helps teachers to save time from preparing materials for every lesson by offering linguistic and methodological support (Cunningsworth, 1995) For students, a textbook is a key resource for them

to focus on because it defines what is to be learned and what will be tested It also reinforces what the teacher has done and makes revision and preparation possible;

thus offers support for learning outside class (Ian Mcgrath, 2002) In other words, textbook is “the visible heart of any English Language Teaching program”

(Sheldon, 1988: 237)

However, since textbooks tend to be the main teaching-learning aid, there have been vigorous arguments against them It has been claimed that although textbooks can help teachers, many of them do not (Brumfit, 1979), and language learning is far too complex to be satisfactorily catered by pre-packaged materials (Allwright, 1989) In addition, Cunningsworth (1979: 31) notes “course materials are not intrinsically good or bad – rather they are more or less effective in helping students to reach particular goals in specific situation” As a result, evaluation has become “an intrinsic part of teaching and learning” (Rea-Dickins & Germaine, 1992: 5)

In Vietnam education context, since 2006 when a set of English textbooks for all upper-secondary secondary schools was officially approved, students‟ ability

to use English for communicative purposes has been put into more consideration

However, in spite of several strengths of the textbooks, some issues have arisen such as students‟ disinterest in doing the tasks in the textbooks, students‟ focus on grammar points due to the tests‟ format, or teachers‟ reuse of tasks in their boring

lessons Therefore, it is a necessity to do evaluation on English textbooks for upper secondary students so as to find solutions to those problems

There have been many studies on evaluation of English textbook at Vietnam

general education level, well documented by Nguyen, T T M (2007), Le, V C

(2007) and Hoang, V V (1999) Of those studies, the one done by Nguyen, T T M

(2007: 57) notes: “Overloaded contents for the student population in disadvantaged areas and unhelpful teacher‟s manuals, also tend to impact on the effective application of the books” She explains: “Students in large urban areas normally have more access to different learning resources Thus, their English language proficiency levels are generally higher than those of rural areas who are not offered all these favorable conditions when studying the books” (2007: 53) In short, contextual difference caused textbooks more challenging for language teachers and learners in Vietnam

The review of speaking tasks in English textbooks for secondary schools also has been put into consideration by Vietnamese researchers and educators Nguyen,

T T M (2007: 57) concludes: “many of speaking activities in the textbooks are found non-communicative, failing to elicit negotiation of meaning and presenting unrealistic and unnatural discourse Also, guidance is not always available for students to complete tasks and socio-cultural information is not included for learning the rules of speaking in the target language” Obviously, the topics, contents, instructions, illustrations, etc of the speaking tasks in the textbook can influence the implementation of teaching and learning speaking skills

In short, it is the limitations of the speaking tasks‟ design in the textbook

“Tiếng Anh 11” that have motivated me to conduct this study Besides, the fact of applying the same set of textbooks for students both in large urban areas and remote mountainous areas has made my concerns I do hope that the findings of this research are practical implications not only for teachers who are teaching in rural areas but also for textbook writers in their future designs

2 Objectives of the study

This study aimed to evaluate the speaking tasks in the textbook “Tieng Anh 11” which is in use for grade 11 students at Tong Lenh Upper-Secondary School in Son La Specifically, it explored the suitability of those tasks to the objectives for speaking skills of the grade 11 ELT education and their appropriateness to the students at an upper-secondary school Thus, it helped to identify problems and suggested ways to adapt the inappropriate elements of the tasks to fit the target audience

3 Research questions

The study was designed to answer the two following questions:

 To what extent were the speaking tasks suitable to the course‟s objectives for speaking skills?

 To what extent were the speaking tasks appropriate to the level and interests of grade 11 students at Tong Lenh Upper-Secondary School?

4 Scope of the study

The evaluation in this study was restricted to the textbook “Tiếng Anh 11”, unofficially called „standard textbook‟, which have been in use since 2007 for non-major 11th form students However, due to the researcher‟s recognition of many problems with the implementation of teaching speaking skills, the study only focused on the speaking tasks in the book

The study also limited the research context at Tong Lenh Upper-Secondary School where the researcher has been working for 8 years The participants in the study were available teachers and students of grade 11 at the school Moreover, this study only made an in-use evaluation; therefore, beside the document analysis conducted by the researcher, all other data from questionnaires and interviews were

gathered right after the end of the second term of the school year 2016-2017 to guarantee that the students have experienced all the speaking tasks in their textbook.

5 Significance of the study

Firstly, this evaluation work can help English teachers in mountainous areas

to gain feedback in terms of an explanation to which factors contribute to the „good‟

and to the „not so good‟ aspects of the speaking tasks By this way, the teacher can use the speaking tasks in the textbook more effectively and meaningfully within their real context

Moreover, from this work‟s evaluation on the process of teaching speaking, the teachers may develop insights into ways in which aspects of teaching can be improved; for example, types of materials, particular methods, or learners‟

involvement, which lead to a successful teaching and learning process

In addition, the research may help textbook writers to design suitable speaking tasks for students in remote areas In other words, evaluation can serve a developmental function where it can be used for purposes of curriculum development A possible solution is to make the curriculum cater to the varied proficiency levels of the target student population

Finally, this study can be a source of information for the reference of many other researchers who are interested in the issue of choosing language teaching materials for the student population in disadvantaged areas

6 Design of the paper

This paper is composed of 3 main parts:

Part 1 (Introduction) presents the rational, objectives, research questions, procedure of the study and the design of this paper

Part 2 (Development) includes 4 Chapters Chapter 1 (Literature Review) presents the main features of language learning tasks, approaches of material evaluation and some issues related to teaching and learning speaking skills in ELT

classrooms Chapter 2 (Methodology) describes the research method used in the thesis so that the way to conduct this study was made clear It mentions four main points including: the setting of the study, the informants participating in the study,

data collection instruments & procedures, and modes of data analysis In Chapter 3 (Results and Discussions), the results from the data collection instruments are

analyzed and concluded with some major findings on the suitability of the speaking tasks to the course‟s objectives and to grade 11 students at Tong Lenh Upper-Secondary School

Part 3 (Conclusion) closes the paper by the summary of all the matters analyzed and discussed in Chapter 3 The researcher then suggests some adaptation techniques to make the speaking tasks fit the situation Besides, the limitations of the study and the suggestions for further research are also added

1.2 Language learning tasks 1.2.1 Definition of tasks

In its general sense in language education, tasks are considered as pedagogical instruments that stress the importance of using language to achieve a communicative purpose, and show learners‟ attention on meaning rather than form

of language Nunan (2004) notes that a task is a stand-alone communicative act in which students mobilize grammatical knowledge to create meaning rather than manipulate form Besides, the principles of language learning tasks are identified by Ellis (1998:227) as follows: (1) tasks should be meaning-focused, (2) tasks should include an information or opinion gap, (3) learners should rely mainly on their own linguistic resources, and (4) tasks should result in a clearly defined outcome These criteria, obviously, stand in contrast to the traditional “focus on form” approach to language learning and highlight more on learners‟ outcomes

The definitions of tasks presented above all imply that tasks are generally focus on the use of authentic language and closely associated communicative language use For learning with tasks, students are engaged to utilize their linguistic resources to make interaction and create meaning within various communicative situations In other words, “it is not tasks themselves that create the context for learning but rather the way the participants carry out the tasks” (Ellis, 2003:180)

1.2.2 Task classification

Ellis (2011) describes tasks by classifying them in terms of: (1) focused or unfocused, (2) input-providing or output-prompting, and (3) closed or open If a task is unfocused, students will complete the task by using the useful linguistic resources to complete the tasks However, in focused tasks, the necessary language

is provided to students so they can employ features of communication, such as fluency or engagement In terms of input or output-providing tasks, Ellis (2011) describes them as the tasks that focus on listening and reading skills while output-prompting tasks mainly deal with speaking and writing In classification of tasks as closed task or open task, while the first one tends to be related to „information-gap‟

activities and have a limited number of answers, the second one seems to be related

to „opinion-gap‟ activities and have many possible outcomes

The awareness of different task types mentioned above helps teachers understand what types of tasks are available to use with different language skills and whether those tasks are suitable to their intended teaching objectives This description on task classification may also provide educators with a lot of ideas for designing tasks that effectively transmit their lessons to students

1.2.3 Task components

Task components explore the elements of task and some of the components

of tasks recommended by various linguists (e.g Nunan, 2004; Ellis, 2011) include:

goal, input, conditions, procedures, and predicted outcomes The goal describes the

objects and general purposes of the task The input is the verbal or non-verbal information presented in the task The conditions are related to how the input is shown, for example, information is shared among students The procedures concern with how the task can be achieved, such as by working individually, in pairs or in groups Predicted outcomes can be distinguished into product outcomes and process outcomes The product outcome is what students will achieve at the end of the task, for example, making a list or drawing a map Process outcomes are the types of linguistic features, interaction, and cognition that students use to complete the task

Consequently, while designing a task, beside considering the target students‟

capabilities, interest and needs, the task designer should also regard to certain aspects such as the general aim of teaching the task, the topic to be taught, the resources that students can use, and what learners and teachers will be doing during their lessons

1.3 Material evaluation 1.3.1 Types of material evaluation

In language education, it is a fact that teachers often deal with the choices of teaching materials to use in their classrooms Therefore, it seems to be a norm for teachers to conduct a predictive evaluation of the materials available to them in order to reveal which best fit their teaching purposes This type of evaluation is typically organized in a way that is believed to analyze tasks design (i.e., tasks‟

goals, input, conditions) before they are applied in classrooms This model should help teachers to identify elements in tasks that are likely to affect the accuracy, fluency and complexity of the students‟ output before they are implemented

After having applied the tasks, teachers may need to carry out another evaluation to examine whether the tasks have worked effectively or not; that is called a retrospective evaluation (Ellis, 1997) It is probably true to say most teachers often do carry out such kind of evaluations during their teaching by

assessing whether particular activities 'work' by observing the enthusiasm and degree of involvement of students in classrooms Furthermore, at the end of the course, they may make a judgment of the tasks they have used with reference to records on task performance

It can be argued that different types of evaluation have their particular strengths: while predictive evaluation provides teachers with information to examine the linguistics and structural validity of the tasks, retrospective evaluation can help to reveal which tasks actually work in teaching and learning processes

1.3.2 Models of material evaluation

There have been several models of material evaluation developed by different famous linguists, in which the most popular ones are suggested by Hutchinson & Waters (1993), McDonough & Shaw (1993), Cunningsworth (1995), and Ellis (1997)

To examine whether a teaching and learning material is suitable for a group

of learners, pre-use evaluation, in-use evaluation and post-use evaluation are effective (Cunningsworth, 1995) For predicting the potential performance of materials, pre-use evaluation should be conducted “When a newly introduced course-book is being monitored or when a well-established but ageing course-book

is being assessed to see whether it should be considered for replacement”

(Cunningsworth, 1995:14), in-use evaluation is a good choice Besides, post-use evaluation provides retrospective assessment of a material and serves to decide whether to use the same material on future occasions

Additionally, McDonough & Shaw (1993) provides a flexible model for the comprehensive evaluation of materials which consists of two stages A brief external evaluation will give an overview of the organizational foundation of the material through its cover, introduction and table of contents After that, an in-depth internal investigation of the materials would help „to see how far the materials in

question match up to what the author claims as well as to the aims and objectives of

a given teaching program.” (McDonough & Shaw, 1993: 64)

On studying this issue, Hutchinson & Waters (1987) proposes a logical

procedure for material evaluation that consists of the following main steps:

Figure 1.1: The material evaluation model of Hutchinson and Waters (1987: 97)

In this process, materials evaluators first identify criteria for their evaluation then analyze the materials subjectively and objectively Based on matching and comparing the findings from those two aspects, evaluators will look for the widest spread of desired features and concentrations in the areas they consider most important

Another famous model for evaluating material is developed by Ellis (1997)

in the form of a micro-evaluation He suggests a detailed empirical evaluation of a particular language task which consists of the following steps: (1) choosing tasks to

evaluate; (2) describing the task; (3) planning the evaluation; (4) collecting the data;

(5) analyzing the data; (6) reaching conclusions and making recommendations; and (7) writing the report Ellis (1997) has demonstrated that a systematic evaluation often begins at the planning stage of a lesson; and it requires a clear and explicit description of the task in terms of its objectives, its input, conditions, procedures, and the intended outcomes A micro-evaluation is obviously more manageable than

a macro-evaluation, but it may cost much time to make a series of evaluation for series of tasks

In sum, all models of material evaluation are remarkable in their major purpose of evaluating whether the materials are appropriate to a certain situation or group of learners Different evaluators, basing on different contexts and needs of evaluation, should make their own decisions on an appropriate model to follow In this study, the researcher decided to use the model of Hutchinson and Waters (1987) for the purpose of evaluation and constraints of the research context

1.3.3 Criteria of material evaluation

There are numerous suggested checklists and guidelines from famous linguists that teachers can use to conduct their own evaluation systematically Grant (1987) introduced an evaluation approach called CATALYST; it means Communicative, Aims, Teachability, Availability, Level, Your impression, Students‟ interest, Trying and testing Sheldon (1988) also provides an expansive checklist which appraises major factors such as Accessibility, Content, Layout and Authenticity Similarly, Tanner and Green (1998) offer a practical assessment form called MATERIALS which stand for Method, Appearance, Teacher-friendliness, Extras, Realism, Interestingness, Affordability, Level and Skills Additionally, Cunningsworth (1995) ‟s checklist for evaluation covers criteria such as Aims, Design, Language content, Skills, Methodology, and Cost

When suggesting their material evaluation process, Hutchinson & Waters (1987) present four main criteria for subjective and objective analysis: Audience,

Aims, Content, Methodology For the criteria of audience, the evaluator should

obtain their learners‟ information to find out whether the materials are suitable to their psychological age, learning condition, educational background and so on The aims of the materials require the evaluator to check if the material match the objectives of the course To examine the content of the materials, it is important to find out the way the content is designed, organized and sequenced throughout the course In term of methodology, the material needs to be evaluated in that whether the teaching and learning techniques suit to the course‟ objectives as well as to learners The authors of the checklist also advise evaluators to supplement other

criteria that they think important to their evaluation process

From the above discussed criteria and the condition of this research, the evaluation criteria of Hutchinson and Waters (1987) are considered to be most

appropriate to this evaluation Nevertheless, it should be noted that “course-book

assessment is fundamentally a subjective, rule-of-thumb activity, and that no neat formula, grid or system will ever provide a definite yardstick” (Sheldon, 1988: 245)

In other words, there is no standard checklist for ELT material evaluation because

of many contextual variables may have an effect on the process of language teaching and learning Any procedure, therefore, should be modified to suit different personal circumstances (Cunningsworth, 1995) Material evaluators should have the suggested checklists adapted or make up their own checklist to accommodate individual needs and specific contexts

1.3.4 Material adaptation

When a course‟s objectives are unachievable due to a number of inappropriate elements in teaching and learning materials, adaptation techniques that make the materials to be fit specific learning contexts (Samuda & Bygate, 2008) is a necessity For different teaching and learning situations, course-books can be adapted to become consistent with their conditions, procedures and target outcomes Some adaptation techniques include adding (some more information or instruction as useful language are added into materials), deleting (elements which

are inappropriate or unproductive for learners are left out), modifying (materials are rewritten to become more accessible to students) and simplifying (materials are simplified so that they become easier for students to complete the task) Teachers of English may have different choices of adaptation techniques for constructing their own teaching materials that best fit the target audience

1.4 Teaching and learning speaking skills in EFL classrooms 1.4.1 The vital role of speaking skills in developing communicative competence

One of the major goals of all English language teaching processes should be

to give learners the ability to use English accurately in communication (Davies &

Pearse, 1998) In real communication, because each participant has information that the other does not have, authentic communication often involves an information gap The participants often manage uncertainty about what the other person will say

so they have to clarify their meaning or ask for confirmation of their own understanding With CLT approach, students are required to perform certain communicative functions such as promising, inviting, and declining invitations within a social context (Wilkins, 1976) Evidently, speaking skills plays a vital role

in successful communication and is an indispensable component in language education

To create classroom speaking tasks for developing communicative competence, instructors need to incorporate a purpose and information gaps which allow for multiple forms of expressions A combination of structured output tasks which allow for error correction and increased accuracy with communicative output tasks that give students opportunities to practice language use more freely will help

to develop learners‟ speaking skills

1.4.2 Problems in teaching and learning speaking skills in EFL classrooms

It is the fact that many EFL teachers face problems in encouraging students

to respond to and engage in discussions in their classrooms Many Asian EFL

learners tend to sit passively in class as obedient listeners (Littlewood, 2000) Being worried about making mistakes in speaking lessons, they play safe by being passive instead of actively taking part in classroom discussions Furthermore, there is a tendency in large group that only some learners dominate while others speak very little or not at all In other words, the big problems of learning and teaching speaking English in foreign language classrooms include unwillingness to give responses, reluctance ask questions and low participation among learners

Asking students to say something in a foreign language if they have no ideas about what to say, which vocabulary to use, or how to use the grammar correctly would be a barrier for them Byrne (1987) points out that the speaking tasks which have difficult requirements or frustrating contents often make students quiet in discussion Learners seem to be silent when the topics of speaking tasks are unfamiliar with them or they know very little about those topics This implies that speaking materials in some cases are inappropriate to the students, for which teachers should be responsible and try to use their teaching experiences to solve the problems

To conclude, there are some issues in teaching and learning speaking skills which come from both internal and external factors To solve these problems,

“much of the language teaching that occurs throughout the world today could not take place without the extensive use of textbooks (Richard, J C, 2001) Therefore, learning how to evaluate and adapt speaking tasks is an important part of all language teachers‟ professional knowledge

1.5 Previous studies on evaluation of speaking sections in English textbooks

There have been several previous studies carried out with the aim of evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of speaking parts in English textbook currently in use in different specific contexts

“Analyzing speaking tasks in contemporary English textbooks for Swedish compulsory schools” by Jan Tietge (2010) aims at analyzing speaking tasks and

task design in two sets (textbook and workbook) of textbooks - Happy, Workbook

No 3, and What‟s Up? Textbook 9 and Workbook 9 - for 9th

graders in Swedish schools The first analysis presents a content analysis, providing a general overview

of speaking tasks found in both textbooks This shows what kinds of tasks dominate the books and are required by most of the students The second is a close analysis of four speaking tasks against a framework of seven principles: scaffolding task dependency, recycling, active learning, integration, from reproduction to creation, and reflection The content analysis reveals a vast majority of dialogues keeping the communicative approach of the syllabus in mind, but discussion/argumentation, not narration or giving information, is the text type most frequently asked for

The general objective of the study “An Evaluation of the tasks of IX-X textbook "English for Today": An Empirical Study” (Zahin Antara Zishnu, 2011) is

to evaluate the tasks in the English textbook currently used in classes IX and X of Secondary Schools in Bangladesh Specifically, it attempts to find out if the tasks are communicative as claimed in the preface of the book The study also seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of the tasks by analyzing the perspectives of the teachers and the students through questionnaire survey The study focuses on: (a) definitions

of task, (b) task components, (c) framework, (d) task difficulty, (e) empirical basis for task-based language teaching, and (f) focus on form in task- based language teaching The researcher used teachers' and students' questionnaire along with a researcher's checklist to evaluate the book The results show that the tasks are very effective with a few drawbacks in some areas

The research “Evaluation of the Speaking Lessons in Grade 10 English Textbook in Relation to its Suitability for Promoting Group work” (Tadesse Bizaga Nucha, 2014) used textbook evaluation, teachers‟ interview and students‟

questionnaire to collect data The results of the study indicated that some speaking lessons are not suitable for the students to practice or work in group As a result, some students can not involve in the speaking lessons and in different group speaking activities The study shows that the speaking lessons of the current grade

10 English textbook have problems in some of the aspects of the speaking lessons

For instance, some instructions lack clarity, many of the speaking activities in the speaking lessons lack variety, some speaking activities are without adequate pictures and illustrations, a few speaking lessons are not with specific objectives, and the students‟ local culture is not given much concern in the contents of the speaking lessons All of these problems can influence the students‟ participation in the speaking activities and in encouraging them

Besides, there have been many studies on evaluation of English textbook at

Vietnam general education level, well documented by Nguyen, T T M (2007), Le,

V C (2007) and Hoang, V V (1999) The study “Textbook evaluation: the case of English textbooks currently in use at Vietnam‟s upper-secondary school” by Nguyen, T T M (2007) evaluates a series of English textbooks currently developed for use at the upper secondary school level in Vietnam Specifically, it seeks to examine the communicative nature of the textbooks and the ease of their use with a view to proposing practical implications for both textbook authors and teachers of English The findings of this study tend to suggest that despite a number

of shortcomings, the series of textbooks can still make effective instructional materials for Vietnamese upper secondary school teachers and learners in the current situation The problematic aspects of the books, however, can be modified, adapted, replaced or supplemented so that the books correspond more closely with the aims of the teaching and learning program and the true needs of different classrooms In terms of speaking section, the researcher has come to the book‟s weakness in that the challenge for students in rural, remote areas to improve their communicative functions and language skills

In terms of the speaking sections in English textbooks for secondary schools

in Vietnam, Nguyen, T T M (2007) has come to the books‟ weakness in challenges for students in rural, remote areas to improve their communicative functions and language skills She reviews “many of speaking activities in the textbooks are found non-communicative, failing to elicit negotiation of meaning and

presenting unrealistic and unnatural discourse” (2007: 57); however, the speaking tasks in each particular textbook have not been evaluated specifically Therefore, this study aims to make an evaluation for the speaking tasks in the textbook “Tiếng Anh 11” in relation to their implementation at a specific context in Vietnam

1.6 Chapter summary

The chapter has presented the relevant literature which has helped to form the theoretical framework for the study “An evaluation of the speaking tasks in the textbook Tiếng Anh 11 in relation to their implementation at an upper-secondary school in Son La” Different aspects related to the concepts and dimensions of language learning tasks, approaches in task evaluation as well as major issues in teaching and learning speaking skills in language classrooms have been discussed critically

Through what have been mentioned in this chapter, it is important to

reconfirm that both predictive and retrospective evaluation play crucial roles in

reflecting on the tasks implemented For planning on what to evaluate, the evaluator may decide to follow student-based evaluation or response-based approach The information needed to evaluate a task can be collected before, during, or after the teaching of the task Besides, the conclusions of evaluation need to be framed in relation to the purposes of the evaluation, indicating in how the tasks are effective and how they can be improved In short, an evaluation work needs a systematic approach with a comprehensive flexible framework to become effective in use

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

This chapter describes the research method used in the thesis so that the way

to conduct this study was made clear It mentions four main points including: the setting of the study, the informants participating in the study, data collection instruments & procedures, and modes of data analysis

2.1 The setting of the study 2.1.1 English teaching and learning context

The study was conducted at Tong Lenh Upper-Secondary School, where the textbook “Tiếng Anh 11” published by Education Publishing House (EPH) is officially used There were 5 classes at grade 11 in this school and each class had 35 students on average – a rather large-class size for teaching language English is taught as a core subject in this school with four periods per week, and the teaching and learning English receive much care from the managerial board of the school

In spite of that care, however, the most frequent challenge for all teachers of English at Tong Lenh Upper-Secondary School is how to motivate learners in speaking activities in class because nearly 80 percent of the students there are Thai ethnic people One big problem is the fact that these minority students mainly use their Thai mother tongue to communicate inside their families and community This

is why studying speaking a foreign language, English, is very difficult for most students in Son La who even cannot speak Vietnamese clearly Besides, another factor that is considered to have an effect on the students‟ English learning process

is the inappropriateness of the main course book that they are using

2.1.2 An overview of the ELT course for grade 11 and the textbook “Tiếng

Anh 11”

The general aims of secondary English education are as follows:

 To use English as a means of communication at a certain level of proficiency in four macro skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing; and to be able to read materials at the same level of their textbooks, using a dictionary;

 To have mastered basic English phonetics and grammar; to have acquired the minimum of around 2500 vocabulary items of English.; and

 To attain a certain level of understanding of English and American cultures; to become aware of cross-cultural differences in order to be better overall communicators, to better inform the world of the Vietnamese people, their history and culture, and to take pride in Vietnam, its language and culture

(MOET, 2006, cited in Minh, 2007: 18)

In other words, the communicative competence is the main goal of the ELT course for secondary education in general as well as for Grade 11 in particular

The textbook currently used to teach English to grade 11 students is “Tiếng Anh 11” which is claimed to adopt a theme-based syllabus There are 16 teaching units and six review units “Test Yourself” in the book Each review unit has four main sections: Listening, Reading, Writing, and Language Focus with no speaking practice included However, each teaching unit covers a topic and is structured into five sections: Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing, and Language Focus, each of which is supposed to be taught in one or two periods with 45 minutes in length per one The teaching contents for each section are summarized in a book map which is

on the first pages of the book

2.1.3 Description of the speaking tasks in the textbook “Tiếng Anh 11”

The general objectives of speaking sections in grade 11 ELT education is stated as enabling students to:

 “ask and answer about the topics covered in the book

 perform some basic language functions such as expressing likes and dislikes, agreement and disagreement, distinguishing facts and opinions…” (Teachers‟ book, 2006: 4)

In the textbook, the Speaking sections are designed to be the second part of each unit, appearing after Reading sections Each Speaking section may consist of

two, three or four tasks for students to practice Conventionally, while the first tasks often provide language input for students with specific language functions in communication, the remaining tasks focus on students‟ practice with short talks on a specific topic with or without prompts

The total number of speaking tasks in the textbook “Tiếng Anh 11” is 49 tasks for 16 units The description in details of the speaking tasks in the book was presented in the Appendix 1 of this study

2.2 The informants of the study

The participants in this study were 4 teachers of English and 100 students of grade 11 at Tong Lenh Upper-Secondary School in Son La province

2.2.1 The teachers

The teachers were selected by using convenient sampling technique as they were teaching English at grade 11 classes at the school All these four teachers accepted to participate in the interviews related to the speaking tasks in the textbook they have used They aged between 28 and 41, and three of them are female All of them were trained from Foreign Language Teacher‟s Training College, and their teaching experience at this school ranged from 5 to 18 years

2.2.2 The students

Due to the fact that there was no specialized class at the school and all learners, in general, were at the same level of English, the selection for students as participants in this study was based on convenient sampling technique Among 167 grade 11 learners at the school, students in class 11A1 (35 students), 11A2 (32 students), and 11A3 (33 students) were chosen to participate in a survey Most of them are at the age of 17 and belong to Thai ethnic group At the time of the survey, all of the students were in the end of the second semester of grade 11, and they had already finished 15 out of 16 units in the textbook “Tiếng Anh 11”

2.3 Data collection instruments & procedures

The collecting data instruments for this study consisted of document analysis, survey questionnaire and interview, which were believed to provide reliable and valid information for the evaluation The purposes as well as the descriptions of using these tools are presented in details as follows

in term of speaking skills

In order to answer the first research question on whether the speaking tasks

in the textbook “Tiếng Anh 11” suit to the course‟ requirements, it is necessary to have a detailed view on the related documents which are the Curriculum for Secondary Education – English 11 in term of speaking, the Syllabus for teaching speaking at grade 11, and the description of the Speaking tasks in the textbook The topics of the speaking tasks in the book were analyzed and compared to find out if they fit the 6 themes listed in the curriculum and satisfied the course‟s statement in term of topic In addition, an analysis of these documents also helped identify whether or not the aims of language functions in the speaking tasks were suitable to the course‟ attainment targets in speaking

2.3.2 Survey questionnaire

Beside the data collected by analyzing the related materials, questionnaires for students were employed in this study to collect more data for answering if the speaking tasks fulfilled the objectives in speaking of the course, and to investigate the appropriateness of the speaking tasks in the textbook to the students at Tong Lenh Upper-Secondary School The questionnaire‟ design was based on the

guidance of processing questionnaire in Second Language Education from Dorynei (2003) and three general evaluation criteria suggested by Hutchinson & Waters

(1987): aims, content and methodology

One hundred grade 11 students at Tong Lenh Upper-Secondary School were requested to complete a questionnaire which consists of fifteen questions with sets

of options for the respondents to choose from and one open-ended question (see Appendix 2) The survey questionnaires were divided into five main parts Part 1

was designed to investigate whether the speaking tasks were appropriate to the

objectives of grade 11 ESL education in term of speaking, from which the factors that affected those targets were identified Part 2 consisted of four questions that were to seek the suitability of the speaking tasks to the students‟ level Next questions in the third part aimed to find out how the speaking tasks fit the students‟

interests Then, the information of learning conditions as well as teaching methodology was gathered in part 4 At last, part 5 helped to collect the learners‟

ideas about elements in the speaking tasks so that the ways to adapt those tasks were made clear

The questionnaires were sent to the students on May 6th, 2017 and were collected on the same day To make it easy to answer for the respondents, most of the questions were designed in multiple-choice form, and all of them were translated into Vietnamese The students were asked to put a tick (√) into the appropriate boxes they choose (except the last open-ended question), then frequency counts and percentage of responses were used for data analysis

2.3.3 Semi-structured interview

In addition to the document analysis carried out by the researcher and the questionnaire completed by the students, semi-structured interview was chosen as the third collecting data instrument to supplement more information for the study

Face-to-face interviews with four teachers of English at grade 11 at Tong Lenh Upper-Secondary School (see Appendix 4) were conducted informally in

separate teachers‟ room at the school, and they were all conducted by Vietnamese

so that no challenges in presentation by second language existed Besides the prepared questions, the researcher also asked the teachers some follow-up questions

to make clear their viewpoints During the interviews, the teachers were encouraged

to comment, explain, and give suggestions on speaking tasks in terms of topics, requirements, suggested structures and modes to do tasks Each interview lasted around 20 minutes and was recorded for transcription later

Ten questions were prepared for the interviews The first question was to investigate if the speaking tasks are communicative in their nature to fit the course‟s objective The next two questions aimed to find out whether or not the speaking tasks suited to the attainment targets in speaking skills as described on the grade 11 syllabus The following questions 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 were related to the teachers‟

comments on the difficulty, the length and the interestingness of the speaking tasks

in terms of task‟s topics, tasks‟ contents, modes to do tasks, and useful languages given in the tasks Thus, more information of the appropriateness of the speaking tasks to the target students was collected Finally, the question 10 focused on the teachers‟ suggestions for adapting the speaking tasks in the textbook.

2.3.4 Procedures of the study

At first, from reviewing Hutchinson & Waters (1987)‟s evaluation model, three general criteria for evaluating the speaking tasks in this study were identified

to include: Aims, Content and Methodology with items for checklist adapted (see Appendix 6) Then, the researcher did an analysis of related documents, involving the Curriculum for Secondary Education – English 11 in term of speaking, the Syllabus for teaching speaking at grade 11, and the Speaking tasks in the textbook

“Tiếng Anh 11”, so as to find out if the speaking tasks met the speaking objectives

of the course Next, prepared questionnaires were given to students to explored whether the speaking tasks suited to the learners‟ knowledge interests With all the collected data, the researcher discussed and evaluated the appropriateness of the

speaking tasks in the textbook “Tiếng Anh 11” to grade 11 students at Tong Lenh Upper-Secondary School Finally, for the inappropriate elements founded from the analysis, some suggestions for adapting those tasks were given to make them more fit this situation

2.4 Modes of data analysis

As mentioned above, the instruments to collect data for the evaluation of the speaking tasks were document analysis, questionnaires for students and interviews for teachers The gathered data from the document analysis was interpreted qualitatively while the data through questionnaires (with close-ended questions) was quantitatively calculated using SPSS software for the percentage of responses and the mean of descriptive statistics Besides, the substantive contents of transcribed interviews were analyzed by identifying key points, putting them into categories, and the necessary information was then interpreted to shed more light on some

issues in the questionnaires

2.5 Chapter summary

This chapter provided a description of instruments for collecting data in this research which were document analysis, survey questionnaires and informal interviews It also presented some information of Tong Lenh Upper-secondary School as the setting for the study The convenient teachers and students of grade 11

at Tong Lenh Upper-Secondary School were chosen to be the informants in the study The research procedures were also described in order to present how the evaluation was conducted

The next chapter discusses the data collected, from which some major findings of evaluation are made clear

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

In this chapter, the results from collecting data for the study are presented and discussed The chapter consists of three main points: document analysis, survey‟s results, and major findings

3.1 Document analysis

As mentioned in the previous chapter, one of the aims of this study is to examine the appropriateness of the speaking tasks in the textbook suit to the course‟s objectives for speaking skills Therefore, it is necessary to look at the attainment targets of the course as well as the description of the speaking tasks in

terms of their topics, objectives and language functions

On one side, the objectives of speaking sections in Grade 11 course in general was stated as enabling students to:

 “ask and answer about the topics covered in the book

 perform some basic language functions such as expressing likes and dislikes, agreement and disagreement, distinguishing facts and opinions…”

(Teachers‟ book, 2006: 4)

Besides, the course requirements were said to focus on the following points:

 Topics: Firsly, the topics in the textbook should be contextualized in real communication situations Secondly, these topics should be suitable with the students‟ psychological age, background knowledge as well as their needs and interests Thirdly, these topics should be interesting and highly applicable Fourthly, these topics should be spiral and widened through the academic years Emphasis is placed on consolidating and extending the students‟ language knowledge and their language skills

 Language elements: Firstly, the language elements should be contextualized through the suitable communication situations Secondly, the language elements should be practical (MOET, 2006: 12-13)

Specifically, the syllabus of English subject for grade 11 students was as follow:

Table 3.1: Curriculum for Secondary Education – English 11 in term of speaking

- talk about physical characteristics and personalities

- discuss qualities for true friendship

- talk about a close friend

- talk about past experiences and how they affected one‟s life

- talk about a party and how to plan a party

- talk about types of volunteer work

- talk about literacy problems and offer solutions

- ask for and give information about types of competitiond

- describe a recent competition or contest

3 Community

- Population

- Celebrations

- Postal and telecommunication services

Speaking Students will be able to:

- talk about causes to population explosion

- talk about problems of overpopulation and offer solutions

- talk about the celebration of Tet and other popular holidays/

festivals

- talk about different postal and telecommunication services

- express satisfaction or dissatisfaction towards postal services

4 Nature

- Nature in danger

- Sources of energy

Speaking Students will be able to:

- Talk about endangered nature

- Talk about measures for protecting endangered nature

- Talk about types and sources of energy

- Talk about advantages and disadvantages of each type of energy sources

- talk about the Asian Games

- talk about a preferred hobby

- talk about collections

- express agreement and disagreement and explain reasons

6 People and places

- Space conquest

- Wonders of the world

Speaking Students will be able to:

- Talk about possibilities of events

- Talk about historical events in the space conquest

- Talk about features of man-made places

- Distinguish facts and opinions

On the other side, after analyzing the speaking tasks in the textbook “Tiếng Anh 11”, the researcher summarized and categorized the objectives of those tasks in the following table:

Table 3.2: Description of the objectives of the speaking tasks in the textbook “Tiếng

Anh 11”

Functions

Speaking Tasks

Objectives

1 Friendship Describing people Task 1  Describing physical

characteristics Task 2  Discussing personalities Task 3  Role-playing: talking about a

famous friend

2 Personal

experiences

Talking about course and results

Task 1  Talking about past experiences

and how they affected one‟s life Task 2

Task 3

3 Parties Making plans Task 1  Talking about parties and how to

plan parties Task 2

Task 3 Task 4

about volunteer work Task 3  Talking about volunteer work

5 Illiteracy Talking about

problems and offering solutions

Task 1  Talking about literacy problems

and offering solutions Task 2

Task 3

6 Competitions Asking for and

giving information

Task 1  Asking for and giving

information about types of competitions

Task 2  Talking about competition or

contest Task 3

7 Populations Talking about

causes & results, problems and solutions

Task 1  Identifying causes to population

explosion Task 2  Identifying problems facing

overpopulated countries Task 3  Working out solutions to

problems of overpopulated countries

Task 4  Talking about problems of

overpopulation and offering solutions

8 Celebrations Asking for & giving

information

Task 1  Talking about the celebration of

Tet and other festival‟s activities Task 2

Task 3

9 Postal and

communication services

Making requests Task 1  Making requests

Task 2 Task 3  Talking about different postal

and telecommunication services

10 Nature in

danger

Talking about problems and solutions

Task 1  Talking about nature in danger Task 3

Task 2  Talking about measures for

protecting endangered nature Task 3

11 Sources of

energy

Talking about advantages and disadvantages

Task 1  Talking about advantages and

disadvantages of energy sources Task 2

Task 1  Asking for and giving

information about the Asian Games

Task 2  Talking about sport results

13 Hobbies Asking for and

giving information

Task 1  Talking about a hobby Task 2  Talking about collections Task 3

14 Entertainment Expressing

agreements and disagreements

Task 1  Expressing agreements and

disagreements about entertainment activities and stating the reasons

Task 2 Task 3 Task 4

15 Space conquest Asking for and

giving information

Task 1  Asking and answering questions

on given information Task 2  Talking about historical events

in the space conquest

16 Wonders of the

world

Distinguishing facts and figures

Task 1  Distinguishing facts and

opinions Task 2  Using facts and opinions to talk

about features of man-made places

Task 3

According to Table 3.1 and Table 3.2, it is clearly seen that the speaking tasks‟ objectives mostly met the speaking requirements of the course, except the

goal of „Making requests‟ in Unit 9

In term of contents, as the research observed, each unit consists of two, three

or four speaking tasks in norms, and those tasks‟ contents are all sequenced from

easier to more difficult Besides, it can be seen from matching Table 1 and Table 2 that all the 16 topics of the speaking tasks in the book were fit for the 6 themes listed in the curriculum Most of these topics were related to students‟ daily life and

suitable with students‟ psychological age such as Parties, Hobbies or Competition

Furthermore, the topics introduced in the speaking tasks seemed to help students broaden their background knowledge of the world when they covered a wide ranges

of cultural issues, social problems, scientific and technical development However,

in order to state if the speaking tasks were interesting and familiar to the students in this specific situation, the researcher would mainly rely on the students‟ opinions

Regarding to language points, Table 3.2 presented that the speaking tasks in the book covered ten communicative functions for grade 11 students, including:

expressing likes and dislikes, agreement and disagreement, distinguishing facts and opinions, describing people, talking about course and results, making plans, making requests, asking for and giving information, talking about problems and solutions, talking about advantages and disadvantages They all

are basic tools that can help students develop their communication competence as the course are intended, and they are presented in guided tasks then free tasks

However, after finishing the speaking tasks in the book, whether the students‟

performance on these functions met the course requirements in speaking, the survey‟s results would help to explore

In terms of methodology, the kinds of speaking tasks in the book are

organized with variety such as role-play, describing, discussing, or solving, which are all content-based The interaction patterns to do tasks were also instructed clearly in the book, involving: individual-work, group-work, pair- work and student-presentation In addition, it is a norm for the speaking tasks to

problem-be provided guidance with useful vocabulary and structures to do the tasks Besides, the speaking sections in a unit are all linked to the other parts of that unit: the information in the reading part can help students to do speaking tasks, and what