Luận văn an evaluation of the material reward for the first year non english major students at hai phong private university

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES ‘The materials evaluation process by ‘om Lutehinson & Alan Waters Students’ English Toarning time ‘Teachers’ and students’ assessment of students’ results in l

‘VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FVACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES:

NGUYEN THI MINH NGUYET

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 truéng Dai hoc Dan lap [fai Phong)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Kield: English Teaching Methodology Colle: 60 1410

LIA NÓI, 2010

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STTIDIES

NGUYEN THI MINH NGUYET

AN EVALUATION OF THE MATERIAL “REWARD”

FOR THE FIRST-YEAR NON-ENGLISIT MAJOR STUDENTS

AT HAIPHONG PRIVATE UNIVERSITY

(Dánh giá giáo trình “Reward” đảnh cho sinh viên năm thứ nhất khéng chuyén

của trường Đại học Dân lập Hải Phòng)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Supervisor: Vii Thi Thu Thily, M.A

iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION

2.2 Types of matetials evaluation

2.3, Criteria of materials cvaluation

iv

4.2.3 Good points and limitations of CLT 11

Chapter 2: The study 13

1 Description of data collection instruments and procedures 13

2.1 Students’ Frglish background and their expeetalions from the course 14

2.1.2 Students’ difficulties in learning English KH Hy H3

3.1.3 Suderts' expeotatHions #om an English eourse 7

2.2, Students’ improvement after learning the textbook 17

2.2 1 Students’ level of Huency in language points 17

2.2.2.2 Students’ writing tasks completion 20

2.2.2.5 Stustonis” satisfaction level in cach skill and teachers’ assesstnent

2.3.3 Aims of the units 26

2.3.4 Tasks and exercises in the texthook 27

2.4 Teachers’ and students’ evaluation on the methodology of the book 28

2.5 Teaehers and students' opinions on the fextbook s appearance and current

Chapter 3: An evaluation of the texthook “Reward” for the frst-vear non-Fnglish

1 Materials reqruirements of he courss 31

2 Analysis of the material “Reward Pre — intermediate” 33

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

‘The materials evaluation process (by ‘om Lutehinson & Alan Waters) Students’ English Toarning time

‘Teachers’ and students’ assessment of students’ results in learning English Studcuts’ difficulties in learning English

Students’ expectations from an English course Students’ level of fluency in language points Students’ reading tasks completion

Students’ writing tasks completion Students’ speaking tasks completion Students’ listening tasks completion Students’ satisfaction level in each skill

‘Teachers’ point of view on students” improvement in each skill Students’ point of view on the aims of the units

‘Teachers’ and students’ opinions on the tasks and exercises of the textbook Teachers’ und students’ points of view on the methodology of the book Teachers’ and students’ opinions towards the layout of the textbook and the current time for teaching and learning the book

The distribution of tasks in each unit

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

Responding to th changes brought by the mterational integration tendency, mastering foreign languages, especially English, has become one of the prerequisites for success, English

is, henee, 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 malerials resource so Lal English ieachers and lemmers have quite a wide range of selection of the textbooks Ihal are suitable for thoir own purposes

Regarded as “an inevitable teaching partner” and “the visible heart of any ELT program” by Sheldon (1988, p.237), ELT matcrials in gencral and textbooks in particular have been proving, themselves one of the most impoutant factors in every English class, functioning as the teaching and learning toot, 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 conmmunicative competence is wol an easy job Tl is, therefore, necessary for the teachers to be good at asscssmenl skill for the cvaluation of madcrials so as lo cusure (bul (heir studenis can got much benefit fiom their textbooks The importance of materials evaluation to the teachers of English

in an ELT program has urecd me to choose it as the theme of this study

‘The second reason for this choice originated fiom 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 enviroument of HPU IL is really essential thal we shonld conduel an evaluation of the textbook to assess its appropriateness agamst the Icarning purposes and then find out the solutions to anprove the quality of English teaching m the university,

2, Aims of the study

‘The purpose of the research projects are:

- Yo investigate the evaluation methods discussed by a number of researchers and choose the

most appropriate one for the project.

- To evaluate the currently-adapted textbook Reward Pre — intermediate from the viewpoints

of both leachers of Foreign Languages Department and first — year non - English major

slixdents al Haiphong Private University

- To give suggestions for the textbook’s adaptations

3 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 ITaiphong Private University who have experienced using the book

- Formal interviews with the loachers and sludents regarding their experience in leaching and learning the Iex[book

- Direct class observations

Among these, swvey 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 contirmation of the evaluation findings

4 Scope af the study

The study limits

book, workbook and cassetie tape with the focus on the evaluation of posi-useil textbook

The

Teaching approach and the objectives set in the syllabus of the first and second semester

self al evaluating the student's book, oxcluding the ngoompaniod loscher”s

is largely baszd on Communicative Tangmge

designed for first year non - English major students at Haiphong Private University

5 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 1) Development consists of three chapters

Chapter T handles the literature review of the

relating to matcriuls, materials cvaluation and adaptation and CLT approach, Definitions of materials, matcrials cvaluation, 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.

Chapter 2 is ds

evaluation implemented al Haiphong Private University in which objcetives, description, data

voted 1o the analysis of the survey questionnaire of the texthonk

collection and analysis arc discussed in detail

Chapter 3 deals with the evaluation of the textbock 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 ñuther

study

PART B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: Literature review

1 Textboak, course boak and materials

‘The term “course book” is used by ‘Tomlinson (1998, p.ix) to refer to “a textbook which provides the core rreilerials for a course.” A course book is specifically selected by a teacher to suil the teaching and Isaming purposes in u cerlain leaching context, in other words, a

particular course A course book may be accompanied by other supplomentary materials

Regarding the definition of matcrials, Tomlinson (1998, p.xi) claims that materials is

“anything whieh is used to help teach language leamers” 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 texthonk, course book and materials can be used interchangeably, therefore, in

Reward Tre — imlenncđiate by Simon Greonall can be referred to as the above mentioned forms

1.2 The role of materials in a language program

The role of materrals in language teaching has been discussed by difterent 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, p80) Particularly, Liltlejohn (in Hulchinson & Tones, 1994, p316), ø representative for the group of authors who lave negative altitudes towards the role of

textbooks in a language program, claims thal textbooks “reduce thz teacher's rate to one of

managing ot overseeing preplanned events” Towever, there are still quite a number of scholars recognizing the importance af textbooks A textbouk can serve different paxposes for

toachors: 8s ø corc Tosottoo, ø sowreo of supplementary materials, an inspiration for classroom activities and cven the curriculum itsclf (Garinger, 2002) Richards and Rodgers (cited in

‘Nunan, 1991) view instructional materials as detailed specifications of content, and guidance

to teachers on both the intensity of coverage and the amount of attention demanded by particular content or pedagogical tasks Richards (2001, p.66) explains that materials provide

a basis for the content of the lesson, the appropriate proportion of skills taught, and the type of language practice students take part in Besides, useful teaching materials provide great

2002, p.11) It is obvious that in many cases, teachers and studcnts rely nụch ơn fcxtbooks and

ching

ance lo inexperioneed teachers or poorly trái

the toxthooks contol the content, method as well as procedure of learning and ts

Therefore, to some extent, materials are the canter of instruction and one of the most important factors influencing what happens in the classrooms

Confinming the important role of teaching materials, Hutchinson and ‘Torres (1994, p 315) state .No teaching-learning situation, it seems, is complete until it has its ralevant textbook”, adding that textbooks can support teachers throngh potentially disturbing and threatening change processes, demonstrate new and/or untried methodologies, introduce change yracually, and create scaffolding upon which teachers can build a more creative methodology of theit

own

2 Materials evaluation

Daspite the acknowledged importance of materials, Cunningsworth (1984, p.15) wams

“course materials for English should be seen as the teacher’s servant and not his master”, which means that mnaierials should nol be regarded as a controller but an assistant of the teaching activities It is the teachers, those in a crucial position in language teaching and

ings students Their assessment skill is, therefore, becoming more and more important in sorting

learning, who ar: jonsible for chan lable content and Leaching methods Lo their

out the most appropriate materials among the masses of books available in the market

2A Definition

In his overview, Hulchinson (1987, p.96) claims that “ovaluation is a matter of judging thơ fitness of something for a particular purposc” And by extension, materials cvaluation is a matter of judging the fitness of materials against specific teaching and learning goals

Similar to Hutchinson (1987, p.96) but more specifically, ‘Tomlinson (1998, pd) defines

materials evaluation as “the systemic appraisal of the value of materials in relation to their objectives and to the objectives of the leamers using themy” the focus of materials evaluation

in this point of view is put on measuring the value of materials in a systemic approach to work ont whether or not the language points of the malcriais arc potentially suitable Lo the learners and whether the ateriats can meet the demands of learners Obviously, with his leaer- centered approach, the Izerners* opinion plays an important part in the provess of evaluating the materials

Let us have a look back Hutchinson’s viewpoint (1987, p.96) He afiirms that “evaluation is not simply a process of obtaining information; it is also a decision making process” while Dudlsy-Evans and St John (1998, p28) claim “evaluation is a whole process which begins with determining what information to gather and ends with bringing about the change in currant activitios or influencing future nas”, Generalizing fram many opinions of different researchers regarding the definilion of materials evaluation, il is viewed as a process of deciding whothor the taterials is suitable to the Leaching and learning objectives based on collected data and suggesting actions to make changes

2.2 Types of materials evaluation

A mmber of researchers including Tomlinson, MeGrath, Lillis and Cunningsworth use the similar terms when discunsing the types of materials evaluation

According to Tomtinson (1998, p.xi), evaluation can be “pre — nse” and focused on

“prediction of potential value”, it can bo “whist — usc” and focused on awarsnoss and

description of what the Icarners arc actually doing whilst the materials arc being used”, and it can be “post use” and focused on analysis of what happened as a result of using the materials McGrath (2002, p.14) offs the way of classifying materials evaluation as a cyclical process inchading pre-use, in-use and post-use evaluation, According to him, pre-use evaluation establishes potential suits, in-use evaluation gathers data on planning decisions,

implementation and response and this may stimulate preliminary racons

and soveral graups of learners” by McGrath (2002, p.15), uscs dala on in-coursg usc and dala

on effets to assess the suitability of sclection

The focus of the thesis is put on post use evaluation to work out the value of the materials by drawing on the teaching and learning experience of teachers and first — year non — English major students at Haiphong Private University

2.3 Criteria of materials evaluation

One of the most difficult problems of any materials evaluators is to identify the evalualion criteria

According to Ur (1996, in McGrath, 2002, p.31), there are two types of criteria including

general (ie the essential features of any good teaching learning material) and specific (or

context-related) criteria

For more specific criteria, Tomlinson (1999, in MeGrath, 2002, p.32) suggests the four

categories including media — specific criteria which relate to the particular means used, conten! — specific crilzria which relate to the nature of the materials, age — specifie criteria, or

in other words, the suitability of the materials and Tastly local criteria which means the

appropriateness of the materials for the particular environment in whieh it is to be used

Hutchinson (1987, p.99-104) suggests a very detailed evaluation checklist with five main

criteria regarding audience, aims, content, methodolagy and other criteria According to

Hutchinson (1987), the criterion of audience refis to the target Jeamers’ background

including ages, gender, nationality, major, interests, etc., aims refer to the purpose of learners” course and materials, content refers to language points, proportion of work on each macro and

micro-skill, lexltypes and the subject malters, methodology is concerned wilh learners? expectations ftom the course, kinds of tasks, teaching techniques and the aids available for use, and other crttevia include price range and the possibly available quantities of the mlerials The evaluation checklist in the thesis is largely based on the above five criteria with some suitable adjustments so as to fit the research setting,

2.4 Materials evaluation pracedure

Hutchinson (1987, p97) suggests the following materials cvatuation pracoss

Subjective analysis Objective analysis

‘What realizations of the How does the material criteria de you want in, being cvaluated realize the

Matching

How far does the

imalcrial match your

needs?

Figure }- Tha materials evaluation process (by Tam Flutchinson & Alan Waters (1987, p.97)

In order to carry out the above evaluation process, it is necessary to work out the objective and subjective criteria, Then, Hutchinson (1987, p.104) also suggests some other steps that need to

be followed in using the checklist, that is, identifying the evalnator’s requirement, analyze the materials and compare the findings from objective and subjective analyses by awarding points

At the same time, he reminds that the highest number of points does not necessarily indicate the most suitable materials as the poinls my be concentrated on one area

3 Matcrials adaptation

It is likely that the most expected activity affer the process of materials evaluation is adaptation with the aims to make the materials more appropriate to the circumstances in which itis being used, in other words, as McDonough and Shaw (1993, p.85, in McGrath, 2002, p.64) put it “io maximize the appropriacy of teaching materials in context” and to supplement for

the inappropriateness of the materials such as “lack of authenticity, out-of-datedness,

Lc.” (Madsen & Bowen, 1978, in McGrath, 2002, p.64)

(1998, p xi) defincs materials adaptation as an acl of “aking changes to ratzriats

‘There are also a number of other techniques for teachers to employ when they want to adapt materials such as “supplementing, editing, expanding, personalizing, simplifying, modemizing, locativing or wodifying cultural’ siluational content” (Madson and Bowsn, 1978, in MeGrath,

2002, p.64) or “retaining, rejecting, re-ordering and modification” (Ellis,1986, p.47, in

McGrath, 2002, p 64)

4, An overview of Communicative Language Teaching

Emerging in the 1970s and 1980s, new teaching style namely CLI has been widely adopted

by many educators around the warid It is currently used as a dominant approach in teaching English in Haiphong Private University and the cvahuation erilcria in dhe checklist are also largely concerned wilh this approach; Iherefore, a brief introduction of CLT is absotulely

4.1, Communicative competence:

Informed by Hymes (1972), the notion of commnuucative competence is viewed as the contrast

to Chomsky’s theory of competence Chomsky (1965, p.3) claims that

Linguistic theory is concerned primavily with an ideal speaker — listener, in a complately homogeneous speech community, who knows its language perfectly and is unaffected by such grammatically irrelevant conditions in applying his knowledge of language in actual performance

(in Brumiit, C J & Johnson K., 1979, p.5) For Chomsky, “compelence” is simply underslond as “knowledge of language systern”, or in

otter words, “grammatical knowledge” This point of view sccms to be much narrower Uhan

appropriate in fact occurs

4.2 Communicative language teaching

(in Lo Van Carih (2004, p80) Most of the definitions of CLT arc based on the “weak version” of CLT “favoring interaction anong suall numbers of learners in order to maximize their talking thue” (Le Van Canh, 2004,

p 80) Inferring fiom the literature, CLT can be defined as “an approach that focuses on the interaction among Jearners to achieve the goal of developing their conmmunicative competence”

CLT is developed basing on the theary of language as communication, therefore, its goal is to create a realistic teaching and learning environment where learners can develop their communicative competence as well as develop procedures for teaching of the four language skills that acknowledge the interdependence of language and communication (Lc Van Canh,

2004, p.79) In this approach, it is believed that “skill” is much more important than “content”

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4.2.2 Principles of CLT

Three major principles of CLT include comnmnication principle, task principle and

meaningfulness principle, of which, se first emphasizes activities that involve real

communication promote learning, the second stresses that activities in which language is used

for carrying out meaningfd tasks promote learning and the third claims that language that ix

meaningful to the learners support the learning process (Le Van Canh, 2004, p.83)

More specifically, Richards and Roger (2001, p.172) suggest a diverse set of principles that teflcel a communicative view of language and language learning as follow

+ Learners learn a language through using it to commumicate 1 is obvious lo ses Uhal this

principle is quite nevzssary in CIT because ils goal is lo develop learners’ communteative

competence, How is it enhanced without communication?

- Authentic and meaningful communication should be the goal of classroom activities One

way to assist learners in promoting their competence is to involve them in the classroom

activities that are realistic and meaningfill

- Mluency: is an intportant dimension of conmnnication In the light of CLY, much attention is paid Lo fluency but not accuracy like other approaches

- Communication involves the integration of different language skills, thal ts, C1.T focuses on

the combination of all the lmguage skills without any special priorily given lo a particular

4.2.3 Good points and limitations of CLT

CLT has manifested itsclf to be the most productive approach in ELT till now because it

incorporates many of the progressive characteristics of the previous applied methodologies while at the same time avoiding their disadvantages In the light of CLT, the traditional

“presentation — practice — production” model is recommended to be replaced by a more top —

đown model where loamers bepin with a comwnuicative task which is monitored by the teachor who is also responsible for error corrcetion (Ie Van Canh, 2004, 7.85)

This undeniable thal CLT has quile a lot of advenlages in promoting learnors* abilily irr using language to communicate, howcvcr, some limitations of the approach also need to be taken into consideration, According to Le Van Canh (2004, p.86-87), firstly, it is obvious that CLT

is not always appropriate in any contexts and cultures A school culture of teacher — centered classrooms with a focus on transmission of knowledge will have been indluenced in part by wider cultural notions of the teacher’s authority as expert and leader Secondly, things like rote-leaming, memorization, display questions and teacher talk mean bad with CLT while in fact none of thơm is bad, Thirdly, the notion of “communicative competenca” only applies to the competence in the first language of native speakers and cannot be transferred to forcign

language leaching contexts Put it in alher way, communicative competence can mean

ditferent things tor different groups of foreign leamers, Finally, even though CLT rejects the theory of “structuralism” which was supposed to be based on behaviorism, sts communicative goals are all described in typical behaviorist terms,

No teaching method or approach proves itself to be the best Consequently, when applying CLT to LLY, teachers should use their knowledge of context, goals and characteristics of a specific groups of learners so as to Luka advantages of CLT's bonehits in motivating Isarners in

their study

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Chapter 2: The study

1 Description of data collection instruments and procedures

1.1 Survey questionnaires

1.1.1 Participants

139 survey questionnaires were randomly delivered to 129 first — year non — English major

students and 10 teachers of English al Uaiphong Privale University right afer (he second lem

of the academic your 2009 — 2010 had already Gmished Ths questiomaires were dircelly distributed to the students anil tha author herself was also present in the classrooms when the students wrote down their answers with an aim to cxplain questions fiom the students about the questionnaires

‘The author also found it necessary to give a brief introduction of the surveyed teachers and students as well as the English course in the university itself Non — English major students at Llaiphong Private University are scheduled to study Linglish in five terms, two of which are for

general English with the materials “Reward Pre — ilermediate” by Sitnon Greenall and the

Jast three are spent on their ESP Regarding surveyed stadoris, they come fron class QT1301,

XD1303, MT1301 and VH1302 Those students are fiom different cities and provinces in the country, conscqucnily, their Icvel of Enslish is not the same, Ton teachers taking part in ths survey are all experienced in teaching general English using the textbook “Reward Pre intermediate” by Simon Greenall for two years in a row In addition, they have all completed

or pursuing master courses Though bemg young at age, the teachers have been adequately trained to teach and evaluate the materials; therefore, their answers to the questionnaires are reasonably reliable

1.1.2 Description of the survey questionnaires

The survey questionnaires arc designed for the teachers and students separately

Questionnaire 1 (for the studenis} includes five sections, Section / with three questions aims

at discovering the students’ English background and their expectations trom the English course at the university Meanwhile, the last four sections deal with the materials’ appropriateness in terms of objectives, contents, methodology and some other aspects in comparison with the course as well as the students’ expectations Section 2 with three

questions tries fo find ont the stndenis? improvement in language points

sks completion and

their satisfaction level towards their advance in each kanguage skill Secifon 3 consists of five

questions

Questionnaire 2 for the teachers) is the same to the students’ in terms of the objectives

1.2 Farmal interviews and class observation

As mentioned above, the survey quostionnmira sorves as the key roscarch method, however, in order lo be able to gel firm conctusion [rom the questionnaire resulls, il is essential to conduct format interviews wilh teachers and students as well as class obscrvation in the class QT1301, XDI303, MI1391 and VH1302 where the survey questionnaires are completed by the students

Fonnal interviews and class observation will be employed as the supplementary methods to ensure that the results of the survey as well as the findings of the study are reasonably reliable

2 Preliminary results and analysis

2.1, Students’ English background and their expectations from the course

2.1.1 Students’ English learning time and their results

It is necessary for the teachers ta get to know their stidsnts’ background in Finglish so as to find oul the most appropriate touching methods O)

From Table J, it can be seen that the students’ factual time of English Isarning is quite different Only five of 110 students affirmed that (hoy had started learning Figlish since they wore al (hoir primary schools, 19 students, making up 17 %, studied English al their secondary schools while a large number of the surveyed students (67 %) said that they Icamt English at their high schools There are even seven students, equivalent to 6%, who have never experienced learning English, When being interviewed, those students said that if is, tor example, French or even Russian to be their compulsory subjects at school but not English With the above information about the students” English learning time, it is much easier to understand their own assessments on their English level

Degree Excellent Good Average Under average Percentage ofthe Ts | 0% 0% — 70% 30%

Percentage ofthe Ss | 1% 35% — 51W 23%

Table 2; Teachers’ and students’ assessment of stusdenis’ results in learning English

Table 2 figured out the fact that both teachers and students had a similar assessment on the

starting point of English learning at unuversity, that is, the high percentage is put on the levels

of average and under average, however, the students seemed to be more self-confident in

themselves when some of them believed that they were good and even excelfent at English In the students’ assessment, the mumiber of those excellent at English was extremely small (only 1%) while 51% confirmed that their English was average Only 25% of the students affirmed that they wore good at English whereas 23 % admilied that they were still bad al this subject

when they entered the university The teachers, more pessimistically than their students, with

their pedagogical knowledge in teaching and evaluating, claimed that none of their students had excellent or good background knowledge of English Most of them (70%) judged the

students’ English level was at average while there are even three teachers, making up 30% of the group surveyed, reflecting that their students’ English level was even under average ‘To

the three teachers in the interview with the author, they asserted that many of their students

were really bad at English and that they were not able to catch np with the leaming speed of the others Obviously, il is definitely possible Lo say {hat the students’ English background in

general is average.

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2.1.2 Students? difficulties in learning English

Even though the sindonts* English level may incol the requirements of the courss as well as the materials, the students themsclves still pointed out a number of difftcultics when Icamning English as can be seen fiom table 3 below

Difficulties in using English in daily conversations 50% 40%

Table 3: Students’ difficulties in learning English

As whal is slated in Table 3, 90% of the sindenls confirmed thal their vocabulary was not sufficient enough for them to confidentially complete their tasks in class, 85 % got into trouble with grammatical structures A similar rate (87%) also admitted their poor pronunciation, which is one of their biggest problems when learning English Listening skill appeared to be the most challenging to the students when 95 % divulged that they were bad at it Many students were honest to say that they found listening really difficult and they could not fulfill any listening exercises wilhoul, the teachers” a

their mother tonguc on thair English acquisition and their low motivation in English ole

ote.

Getting to know and bettering grammatical structures 50% 90%

Writing some normal types af dacuments in English 30% 75%

(such as informal Icttcrs, short paragraphs about given

Tabla 4: Students’ expectations from an English course

Looking at Table 4, it can be scen that understandably the surveyed studznts hoped that they

could be good at communicating in English in daily conversations, which is also considered the final goal of GE course in the university Most of the respondents (90%) wanted to know

how to make grammatically correct sentences The percentage of the students who wished to

be able to develop their reading skills and write some normal types of documents in inglish is quite big, 80 % far the former and 75% for the latter At the same time, some others expressed their hope that they could not onky widen their vocabulary in daily topics but also familiarize themselves in specialist lenns which they ure going lo study in the following semeslzrs

However, there is a discrepancy between the teachers’ and students’ opinions While the

students (80-85%) were ambitious to be able to develop their basic reading and writing skills, only 20-30% of the teachers thought that developing reading skills and writing some nommal

types of documents in English are appropriate for the students’ needs in a general Enghsh course ‘They just believed, similarly to the students’, that cammmnicating in English in daily conversations and then getting to know and bettering grammar are the most appropriate

objectives to meet the students’ needs

2.2 Students’ improvement after learning the textbook

2.2.1, Students’ level of fluency in language points

Language points

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Presen continuous tense 70 6 20 19 10 18

Conditional sentence typz 2 0 él 7 28 30 it

Present simple passive 20 39 30 4I 30 20

Condhtional sentence typs 1 | 60 49 30 37 10 14

Table 5 Students’ level of fluency in language paints The data displayed in Table 5 above showed a close convergence between two groups of rospondonls The resulls indicated thal the language points thal high porcontage of the students admitted that they could usc them fluently include simple present tense (72%),

conditional sentence type } (61%), possessive 's! possessive adjectves (70%) Whereas, the

low percentage put on such language points as comparison, pavt perfect, present perfect and simple past tense, Such structures as conditional sentence type 2, expressions of future time, prepositions of place and time appeared not to be so difficult to them In addition, when being interviewed, a large number of the students confirmed that the reason why they could

successfully used simple present tense, conditional sentence type I and possessive's and

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possessive adjectives was that those structures were simple enough for them ta remember and put Them into practice Al the same time, they blamed the complexity of verbs and adjective forms in the strucliwres of comparison, past perfect, present perfect, cle for their failure in

using them Also, many of the interviewed students admitted that they did not often learn to

memorize the irregular verb forms which are considered the key to the success of using perfect

tense

At the same time, most of the teachers seemed to be proud of their students’ competence in

using such language points as present simple, possessive's/ adjectives, present continuous, preposition of place and time, modal verbs, expressions of quantity and conditional sentence

ce type

(20%), refutive clauses (20%), comparison (30%), articles (30%), and present perfect (30%)

type Í apart fiom past perfect (0%), conditional sente 0%), present simple passive

The teachers then slated Ihat the students faced a tol of difficulties in transforming a verb from infinitive to regular past forms or changing the forms of adjectives and advarbs in comparison patterns, In thet, many teachers supposed that the current timetable for teaching the book should be modified so that they would have more time to help students revise their grammar

‘The statistics above are clues for a deduction that students really need more teachers” attention

lo grammatical consolidation in tho cliss sơ thai siudzmls ars sure about and confident of the structures they arc applying in the real — lift communication and the question relating to the

current timetable needs ta be taken into consideration

2.2.2 Students’ tasks completion

2.2.2.1 Students’ reading tasks completion

information in a passage with personal opinion

Table 6: Students’ reading tusks completion

‘As can be seen fiom Table 6, 83% of the students confidently chose reading and answering a

questionnaire to be the task they could complete with little or no difficulty, They said that the questionnaires in the textbook were 30 simple and interesting that they could easily complete them ‘Ihe students who could fulfill the tasks of reading for specific information, reading

about safety instructions and reading for main ideas take lower percentage of 78%, 60% and

53% respeclively Jaferring and predicting appcarcd lo be the mosl challenging of the soven

mentioned reading tasks becausc only 32 — 33% could complete them When being asked, the

students said that iL is heir lirniled imagination as well as the lack of sovio-cullural knowledge

that prevented them fiom making inference and prediction

The tasks of reacting to a passage and comparing information in a passage with personal opinion, predicting and inferring, which were previously stated by the students to be the most difficult to them, were once again claimed by the teachers to be unsuccessfully completed by

their students The teachers firther explained that the tasks might be so difficult and complicated for the students al this Tevcl

2.2.2.2 Students’ writing tasks complction

Porecntage of Writing tasks

Writing simple sentences with adverbs of frequency 90 62

Writing connected sentences about daily routines 90 70

using “and” and “then”

Witing @ story about something went wrong using 30 35

and, but, so and because

‘your life

Wriling ø paragraph sùoml whal people think about 3 mm

the fiature of English

‘Writing a paragraph describing an important national R 35

Tabla 7: Students’ writing tasks completion

Tn regard Io the students’ writing tasks completion, as revealed in lable 7, there emerged a

coincidence in the tcachers and students’ assessment The dala lms shown that 79% of the

students found il casy 10 write cormected sentences about daily routines using “and” and

“then”, the very popular conjunctions to them while the percentage of those who could handle

the tasks of writing sentences with adverbs of frequency, writing a description of your

hometown, a description of your appearance and writing and replying an invitation is between

52 — 62%, which are deemed not to be so difficult tasks to the students At the same time, a

minority of the students (35%, 33% and 32 % respectively) admitted that they could deal with

the tasks of describing an inportant national occasions, predicting # slory fiorn questions and writing a slory using suddenty, fbrlurelely, unfortunately lo my suxprise, finally Additionally,

those students alleged that they confronted with a number af difficulties while doing those

above-mentioned tasks bccausc the topics were not popular and they lacked vocabulary to

express their ideas

‘The teachers found that the tasks of writing a story about something went wrong using and, but, so and because, writing a paragraph describing recent changes in your life, predicting a story ftom questions, writing a paragraph about what people think about the future of English, writing a paragraph describing an important national occasion, writing a story using seddenty, fortunately, unfortunately, to my surprise, finally were vol casy for the studenis lo complete,

while (he rest wore doomed to be opposite

‘Talking about suifable questions to ask people 100 80

Talking abont, customs and traditions of hospitalily 20 50

‘Talking about typical meals and food in different 30 58

countries

Talking about ritual or festival in your country 40 35

‘Talking about table manners and social occasions in 30 2B

your country

wrong

Giving general’ specific information about Eumilies mm a

in your country

-23-

Talking about your perfect weekend 80 69

Table 8: Students’ speaking tasks completion

Compared to the completion of reading and writing tasks, speaking may be said to be the best

of all Table 8 has pointed out that 15 of 24 mentioned tasks were able to be completed by a majority of the students, between 50% — 80%, whereas the rest appeared not so difficult

Environment scomed lo be a hard topic because 41 % could deal with this Similar rates (42%,

13%) considered zafking about future of English, talking ahout experiences and table manners

and social occasions in your couniry bard ones because they blamed the irrelevance of the

topics to their interest tor their reluctance in talking about them As for the difficulty in the task of talking about experiences, one mote reason is mentioned, that is, the students previously said that theix grammatical structures relating to past tense was not so good,

therefore, it is understandable when they faced a lot of difficulties in these tasks,

Considering the teachers’ answers, a majority of them (60-80%) agreed that the tasks of latking about such topics as suitable questions 10 ask people, people's lifestyle, typical entertainment, memorable journey clothing, your perfect weekend and describing people

were nol difficult for the students Similar to the students’ point of view, teachers also

confirmed that the topics of customs and tradition of hospitality, surprising behuvior,

experiences, typical food and drinks, ete were hardly completed by the students Again, the teachers explained that in their class observation, the students seemed not to be interested in

talking about those topics because they were all beyond their needs as well as knowledge

2.2.2.4, Students’ listening tasks completion

Listering for specific information 70 st

Table 9 Shidents’ listening tasks completion Listening tasks can be said to be the most challenging because, for example, the task of listening for specific information could be handled by only half of them, whereas listening for main ideas, listening for context und predicting were compleled with many difficulties, More

-24-

importantly, as can be inferred from the table, the students” ability of generalizing information

is nol good wilh only 35 % of the studenls suecessfully doing the task af listening for main ideas The leachers also gave out their answers which wore basically similar lo the studants’ Among the four listcning tasks, listening for contest and predicting appeared to be the most difficult because only two teachers, accounting for 20% of the surveyed group, claimed that their students could fulfill these two tasks, Listening for main ideas ranked the second in terms

of difficulty level with three teachers, making up 30%, stating that their students were able to complete it, ‘'o the teachers” assessment, listening for specific information was deemed to be the easiest Seven teachers, in the interviews, added that their students completed the task with litle and even no difficulty

2.2.2.5, Students’ satisfaction level in each skill and teachers’ assessment on their skill improvement

‘The students’ satisfaction level in each of their skills improvement after the course has been,

in details, presented in table 10 below

7able 10: Studends" sanlgfacfion level in each skill

As can be seen from the table, understandably uo students admitied that they were very salisficd with their progress in all four skills, Together with the data shown in table 9, i is

teasomble when the number of the students tat lad negative smcnts on {heir advances in

listening is the smallest, taking only 1% whereas 83% ware dissatisfied, The percentage of the students who considered their reading, skill most improved 1s 35% while that of writing and speaking is only 27% and 10%, ‘Lhe result, overall, indicated that more progress had been made with two skills: reading and writing while untortunately, a very small number of students confirmed that their stening and speaking ckills were better A question raised here

is that whether such unbalance in stress on skills development was probably a najor cause of the uncven skills improvemnenl among students,

In order ra have a morz objective evaluation ơn the sitđents` rrnprovernert in each skill, let ns

have ø look at table 1] belaw to discaver how the teachers assessed their stadents’ four skills

Table 11: Teachers’ point of view on students’ improvement in each skill

On the whole, the teachers agreed that the two skills of speaking and reading arc much

improved while they confirmed that the students did not make much progress in the skills of listening and writing There exists the mismatch between the teachers’ and students’ opinions

when the students were supposed that their writing is quite good and their speaking is not good

at all which is different from the teachers’

2.3 Teachers’ and students’ evaluation on the cantent of the materials

2.3.1, Topics of the textbook

There is a big difference in the vate of response to the question relating to the update af the

topics in the textbook 104 students, making up 95%, admitted that the topics are up-to-date whereas the number of students that had negative assessment is minimal, only taking 5% For

the students of the first group, they claimed that many topics are updated to help students understand more about the world, for example, “warning: ving is bad for your health” is

really suitable in the modern lifs when people are accustomed to traveling by plane

Considering the same issue, eight of ten teachers, making up 80%, sympathized with the point

of view that the lopics in the textbook arc updated, and bring aboul latest information in many ficlds

Regarding, the suitability of the topics to the students’ ability, interests and age, 12 % of the students claimed that they were not appropriate to them while the percentage of those who are

really interested in the topics makes a big group (88%) ‘fo make their opinions more

evidential, students also gave out some topics such as Time travelers, The Skylight, Take a closer look, eic., which are considered irrelevant to their knowledge As a matter of fact, the students again argued that it is not suitable when forcing them ia learn anything beyond their needs and alsiily

is suitably designed in terms of the balance among four skills with 95% of its advocates,

When being interviewed, the students expressed their opinions that in the last five lessons much attention seemed to be paid to speaking and listening with liftte or even no attention to the other two skills ‘I'he question that needs to be dealt with is that how students can improve all four skills with such unbalanced skills allocation in the lessons

Table 12: Students’ paint of view on the ains of the units

Looking al labls 12, if can be seen that the sturents’ criticism were dirceted al the point that

the lessons were designed to draw attention to grammar rathcr than background knowledge on

socio-culture or vocabulary which are considered quite impoutant for students to succeed in

communicating in English As has been shown in the above table, 70% of the students claimed

that the book aimed at providing grammatical structures while 60% thought the goal was at cultural knowledge Knowledge of society as well as vocabulary has heen recognized as the aims of the lessons by 53% and 54% of the respondents Additionally, in the interviews, the students expressed their thoughts that even though there are vocabulary boxes in almost every Jesson, the words scom not io be “new” Lo them and they hoped that they would be provided

with more new words not only uscful for their daily conversations but also specialist (crrns Lò

help them get used to ESP that they are going to deal with in the next semesters Students

added that grammar boxes in the book should be made move clearly with more examples to

help them better understand and effecuvely use grammatical structures

A bit different from the students’ opinions, the teachers showed their ideas that the units in the

textbook focuses on widening students’ vocabulary, at the same tims grammatical structures