Luận văn Điểm về nội dung cuốn giáo trình new english file pre intermediate dành cho sinh viên không chuyên năm thứ nhất trường Đại học Điện lực theo nội dung Định hướng anh mỹ hoặc Định hướng toàn cầu

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, IIANOL UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES PIIAM TIM WAI YEN ANGLO-SAXON BASED OR GLOBAL BASED CONTENT: AN

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, IIANOL UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

PIIAM TIM WAI YEN

ANGLO-SAXON BASED OR GLOBAL BASED CONTENT:

AN EVALUATION OF THE COURSE BOOK NEW ENGLISH FILE

PRE- INTERMEDIATE TOR FIRST YEAR NON- ENGLISII MAJOR

STUDENTS AT ELECTRIC POWER UNIVERSITY

(ĐIÊM VE NOL DUNG CUGN G1A0 TRINIT NEW ENGLISH FILE PRE- INTERMEDIATE

DÀNH CHO SINH VIÊN KHONG CHUYEN NAM THU NHAT TRUGNG DAI HOC BIEN

LIC THEO NOI DUNG DINH HUGNG ANH MY HOAC DINH HUONG TOAN CAT)

MLA MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Ficld: English ‘caching Mcthodology Code: 60140111

TRanoi, 2014

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

LTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

PIIAM TI WAI YEN

ANGLO-SAXON BASED OR GLOBAL BASED CONTENT:

AN EVALUATION OF THE COURSE BOOK NEW ENGLISH FILE

PRE- INTERMEDIATE FOR FIRST YEAR NON- ENGLISII MAJOR

STUDENTS AT ELECTRIC POWER UNIVERSITY

(ITEM VE NOT DUNG CUON GIAO TRINIT NEW ENGLISII FILE PRE_ INTERMEDIATE

DÀNH CHO SINH VIÊN KHÔNG CHUY ÊN NĂM THỨ NHẬT TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC ĐIỆN

LUC THEO NOT DUNG ĐỊNI HƯỚNG ANTT MỸ HOẶC ĐỊNH TƯỜNG TOÁN CÀI)

MLA MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Wield: English Teaching Mcthodology

Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Dr Ngo Hữu Huàng

Hanoi, 2014

DECLARATION

T cerify my authorship of the minor thess entitled “Anglo-Saxon based or global based content: an evaluation of the course book New English File Pre- Intermediate for first year non-English major students at Electric Pawer University”

in tenns of the statement of requirements for the thesis and the field study reports in Masters’ programs is the result of my own work, except where otherwise acknowledged and that this minor thesis or any parls of the same had not been submitted for a higher degree to any other universities or institution I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library can be accessible for the purposes of study

and research,

Hanoi, 2014

Pham Thị Hải Yến

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to express my grea gratitude and indebtedness

to my supervisor Dr Ngo Huu Hoang for his careful instructions, valuable advice and inspiration during the pracess of this research

My sincere thanks also go to all the English lecturers at the Faculty of Post- Graduate Studies for providing me useful lectures and suggestions that have helped me

much in my study

1 would like to take this opportunity to extend my deep appreciation to mv colleagues and students at Electric Power University for their cooperation and support

so thal T could complete my necessary data collection for the research

Finally, { wish to thank my family and friends, who have always been by my

side to encourage and support me throughout my study Without their help and encouragement I could not have compleled (his thesis

ABSTRACT

This sludy aims al examining whellter Anglo-Saxon culture or global culture is

disseminated in the course book New English File Pre-Intermediate The data are collected by using survey questionnaire, interview and document analysis 150 first year non-Fnglish major students and S$ lecturers al Fleckie Power Universily are employed as participants ‘he content of the afore-mentioned course book is analyzed

to extract all the possible kinds of culture included in each module The study finds that both Anglo Saxon culture and global culture are embedded in the course book; however, the former is more predominant than the latter Based on those findings, the

study provides some suggestions for teachers as well as students to improve the quality

of teaching and learning English as an international language

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS, FIGURES AND TABLES

ABBREVIATIONS

FIGURES AND TABLES

Figure 1.2.1: Four Senses of Culture

Figure 3.1.2; Students’ opinions about teachers’ frequencies teaching Lnglish

integrated into culture in English classroom

Figure 3.1.3: Students’ opinions about the culture representation in the course book

Figure 3.1.5: Students’ opinions about the order of the appearance of kinds of culture

inthe course book

Figure 3.1.6: Students’ opinions about preferred kinds of culture to learn

Table 3.1.1: Students’ opinions about learning English integrated into culture

Table 3.1.4: Students’ opinions about the kinds of culture presented in the course book

‘Table 3.1.7; Students’ opinions about some difficulties of learning Unglish integrated

into culture

'Table 3.3.1: Frequency and percentage of the cultural activities in the textbook

Table 3.3.2: Frequency and percentage of Anglo-Saxon culture and global culture in the textbook

‘Table 3.3.3: ‘Ihe presence of Anglo-Saxon culture in the textbook

Table 3.3.4: The presence of global culture in the textbook

1.1 Course books in Language ‘Teaching and Learnin

1.1.1 Definitions of course book, text book and material

1.1.2 Characteristics of a course book

1.2 Culture in course books

1.2.1 What is culture?

1.2.2 Culture in course book:

13 The role of culture in language learning and teaching

1.4.2 Purposes and the importance of course book evaluation - 13

15 Summary

2.2 Descriptions on the course book

2.3 Data collection methn

2.4 Data collection instruments

2.5 Data analysis procedures

2.6 Summary

CHAPTER 3: THE STUDY

3.1 Questionaire for student:

3.2 Interview for teachers

3.3 Document Analysis for the course books

3.3.1 Cultwally oriented activities in the course book

3.3.2 The representation of kinds of culture in the course book 33

3.4 Discussion

3 Limitations of the study

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Today, English is considered as an internalional language, and more and more people use it for a variety of specific purposes As a result, choosing methodologies,

cultures, and models to teach English as a global language, not a normal language, is

not an easy issue McKay (2002) states that “it is imperative we examine what goals and approaches in English language teaching are appropriate for the various kinds of

EI, users.” This leads to that i is compheated and difficult for desigsung suitable

course books In Vietnam, a British or American textbook tends to be chosen in KLT, but its contents mostly relate to native English speaking cultures, which is not appropriate for leaching BIL

In addition, whenever it comes to language, culture is always mentioned with it

because language and culture are so closely linked that any change within culmre is

reflected in the language and vice versa As a result, the aspects of language arc expressed through the cultural content in course books An assumption is given that if

a textbook is composed by nalive speakers, ils orienlation of content is Anglo-Saxon

based content McKay (2002) points out that “Currently, many KL materials use

cultural topics related to native English-speaking countries on the grounds that Icaming English should entail knowledge of native English speaking cultures” In the article English as culture action, Prodromou (1988) also shows that one of the reasons

why students are not motivated by culture learning is that the way of presenting culture

in many ELI textbooks He maintained that “globally designed textbooks have continued to be stubbornly Anglo-centric They have not gone far in recognizing

English as an international language either”

At Electric Power University, the course book New English File Pre- Intermediate written by Clive Oxenden, Christina Latham Koeing and Paul Seligson

and published by Oxford is used for first year non-English major students While

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teaching linglish, the researcher realizes that the course book seems to be more

inclined to Anglo-Saxon based content than global based content The elements of

Anglo-Saxon cullures are more probably dominaled in the course book (than the ones

of global cultures; whereas, nowadays Hnglish is regarded as a global language

Some aforementioned reasons inspire the researcher to conduct the study titled

“Anglo-Saxon based ur glubal based content: an evaluation uf the course bouk New

English File Pre-Intermediate for first year non-English major students at Electric

Power University”

2 Research Aims and research questions

‘The study is conducted with the aim of highlighting the role of Anglo- Saxon and

global culture in ELT and reviewing whether the textbook New English File Pre-

Intermediate is Anglo-Saxon based content or global-based content It also examines

the appropriateness of culture in the textbook with the Hnglish teaching and learning

context al EPU Finally, this study hopes lo investigale the ways lo help students gain

English more effectively and give some useful suggestions for changing textbooks in the future To achieve these aims, two following research questions will be answered

inthe end of this thesis:

- Is the content of the course book inclined to Anglo-Saxon based content or global based content?

- What is a cultural course book conlont perceived by the firsk year non-English

major students and teachers at Llectric Power University?

3 Significance

The findings of the thesis will be useful not only to the researcher, but also to the

tcaching staff and the first yoar non-English major students at Electric Power University In addition, the results of the study may be considered as a foundation

towards improving the quality of toaching and learning English as an international

language at IPL ‘The researcher hopes that teachers of Linglish at PU can use this course book flexibly and choose a better course book in the future

4 Scope

Duc to the limited scope of time and content of a minor thesis, the rescarch attempts

to review the kind of cultural content in the course book basing on Anglo-Saxon based and global based content The researcher will employ 150 first year non-English major students to fulfill the survey questionnare and 5 teachers of English for mterviewing (See clearly in the chapter 2 — Methodology)

5 Design

There are Gee main parts in this thesis including inoduction, development, and conclusion

Part A: The introduction provides the rationale, the aims, the significance, the scope

and design of the thesis

Part B: ‘The development consists of three chapters:

Chapter ane: Titcratime Review- presents a review of literature concentrating on the

issues related to culture, the role of culture in learning English, cultural content, course book, textbook and material

Chapter two: Methodology- focuses on the methodology employed in this thesis

including an overview of current Unglish teaching and leaming at Lilectric Power University, research methods, and the data collection procedures

Chapter three: The study- discusses the data, the findings of the study; poinls oul the

strengths, weaknesses, and students’ and teachers’ perception about a cultural course

book content,

Part C: Conclusion and Suggestions- The conclusion provides a brief summary of

all the major parts being presented in the study, makes the conclusions drawn out and suggests directions for further research,

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Course books in Language Teaching and Learning

LLL Definitions

The term “course book” is defined by Ur (1996:183) as “a textbook of which

the teacher and each student has a copy and which is in principle to be followed

syslemalically as the basis for a language course” Tl means thal a course book is the

oue teachers and students use systematically with the purposes of learning and teaching ina specific course

The term “course book” is used to refer to a textbook on which a course is

based In ELIT, it is defined more specifically by Tomlinson (1998) as

A textbook which provides the core materials for a course It aims to provide

as much as possible in one book and is designed so that it could serve as the only book which the leamers necessarily nse during a course Such a book usually ineludes work on grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, functions and the skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking

Encyclopedia of Education gives the explanation about textbooks as follows:

Textbooks arc not like other books Today, textbooks arc assembled more than

they are written They are not usually written by a single author, nor are they a crealive and jinaginative endeavor They arg, in fact, usually specially made by

@ corporation to follow a set standard curriculum for a school system or larger

organization, such as a province

In the broad sense of the concept, “textbook” and “course book” are regarded as

“materials” by Tomlinson (1998) He states that “material is anything which is used to

help to teach language learners.” It cam be in the form of a textbook, a workbook, a cassette, a CD-room, a video, a photocopied handout, a newspaper, a paragraph

writen on a white board aboul anything thal presents or mforms about the language

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being leamed Materials of these kinds can be obviously exploited effectively for language learning However, in the local setting, textbooks seem to be the most widely used mulcrials in language teaching

‘Therefore, within this master thesis the terms “textbook”, “course book”, and

“naterial” are used interchangeably

11.2 Characteristics af a course hook

‘Textbooks play an important role in language learning and teaching and are paid much attention to by many authors and researchers In the field of education,

characteristics of an ELT textbook are on debate,

According to Deuri (2012), a good textbook should have the following

characteristics:

Adequate Subject Matter: The subjoct alter should be based con the psychological needs and interests of students it should be related to the student's

enviroment and have a variety of topics such as prose, poetry, slory, biography,

narration, description, cte In addition, it should be practical utility as well as informative

Suitable Vocabulary and Structures: The vocabulary should be controlled, properly selected and graded The introduction of vocabulary should be progressive within the series of readers ‘Ihe words and structures should be introduced in a systematic order The simple meaning should be used a word or structwe if they have more thar one moaning At the end of the text book, a glossary of diflicull words and structures should be given

So/le: ‘the style should be based on the principle of simple to complex, ‘The subject matter should be presented in a logical manner The style should be appealing lo the

students

Exercises: There should be a sufficient number of exercises at the end of every lesson The interactions about the exercises should be brief and clear The exercises

should be well selected and graded Tifferent types of exervises should be included

1llustrations The illustrations should make the subject matter clear They should be sufficient in number ‘They should be attractive with natural color combination ‘Too

many ideas should not be conveyed in one illustration

Proportion and Order: A lesson should not be very long There should be plausible proportion between prose, poetry, stary, biography, lesson, ete ‘Iwo topics should not

be in continuation Proportion of content and structure should be maintained,

Ansary and Babaii (2002) have different opinions about the standards of a

textbook According them, four universal features of a good ESL (English as Second

Language) or EFL (English as Foreign Language) are approach, content presentation,

physical make-up and administrative concems

Approach is the disscmination of a vision (theory or approach) about the nature of language, the nature of learning and the application of the theory

Content presentation includes

} Stating purposes and objectives for the total course and for individual units

> Selection and its rationale for coverage, prading, organization and sequencing

3> Satisfaction of the syllabus to the teachers and to sLudents For teachers,

textbook provides thom with a guide book, gives advice on the methodology,

theoretical orientations, keys to the exercises, and supplementary materials As

for the student, it gives them picee-meal, unil-by-uril instructions, graphics

(relevant, free from unnecessary details, colorful, etc.), periodic revisions,

workbook, exercise and activities in the classroom, homework, periodic test

sections and accompanying audio-visual aids

Physical make-up needs appropriate size and weight, attractive layout, durability, high

quality of editing and publishing and appropriate title

Administrative Concerns mention macro-state policies, the appropriateness of local situations such as culture, religion, gender, and appropriate price

Hutchinson and Waters (1987) also agree thal « good material is the one that

gives student a stimulus for learning, offers teachers to organize the process of teaching and leaming Moreover, it must have a view of the nature of language and leaming, the nature of the learning tasks, and a very useful function in broadening the basis of teacher training, Finally, a good textboak needs to use the models of correct

and appropriate language use

rT

ELT materials have all above characteristics, however, teachers should take

All ii all, cach author has differant, views about a good textbook Not all the

consideration carefully to select an appropriate textbook for students and the context of

Icaming and teaching

1.2 Culture in course books

1.2.1 What is culture?

When discussing the term cuHure, we often refer to musie, art, food, geography, literature, customs, regions, etc Actually, culture is viewed under many dimensions and has many different meanings for different authors

According to Kramsch (1998: 127), culture is “a memborship in @ discourse community that shares a common social space and history, and a common system of standards for perceiving, believing, evaluating, and action”

Eli Hinkel (1999) also shares the idea (hal a number of definitions of culture are the same as “there are the field of inquiry into human societies, groups, systems,

behaviors and activiti

Rogers and Steinfatt (1999) regard culture as “the total way of life of people

composed of their learned and shared behavior pattems, value, norms, and material

3

objects” It means that culture has influence on the way people lives, thinks, behaves and speaks in their lives,

However, Adaskou, Britten and Fahsi (1990) view culture under some dimensions They classify culture into four senses: the aesthetic, the sociological, the

semantic and the pragmatic sense They can be seen in the Figure 1.2.1

Figure 1.2.1: Four Senses of Culture (Adaskou, Britten, and Fahsi, 1990)

They refer the aesthetic sense or Culture with a capital C to “the media,

the cinema, music (whether serious or popular) and, above all, literature”

The sociological or Culture with a small ¢ is viewed as “the organization and

nature of family, of home life, sense of interpersonal relations, material conditions, work and leisure, customs and institutions”

The semantic sense is “the conceptual system embodied in the language

and, according to the Whorf-Sapir Hypothesis, conditioning all our perceptions

and our thought processes Many semantic areas (e.g., food, clothes, institutions)

are culturally distinctive because they relate to a particular way of life - that is,

to our sociological sense of culture”.

Hinally, the pragmatic sense refers to “the background knowledge, social

skills, and paralinguistic skills that, in addition to mastery of the language code,

e commiunicalion”

make possible successful se

‘The pragmatic sense includes some following thmgs:

¥ the ability lo use appropriale exponents of the various communicalive

functions

Y the ability to use appropriate intonation patterns

¥ the ability lo conform lo nonns of politeness, which 1s differen from the

leamers’ culture, including taboo avoidance

Y the awareness of conventions governing interpersonal relations-questions of

slatus, obligation, license, where different from the learners’ culture

Y the familiarity with the main rhetorical conventions in different written genres such as different types of letters and messages, form-filling,

advertisements

All in all, the different definitions of culture provide with different values However, in gencral, culture involves in the way people from a particular region or cultural background lives, thinks, behaves and it can distinguish them from the others

and from animals

1.2.2 Culture in course books

Many authors and researchers reflect the relationship between language and

culture in the field of ELT pedagogy Carkil (2010) gives the idea that “the lack of

teaching culture or involving culture specific elements in teaching materials leads to

failure lo understand and commurricate the target language and socicties” Morcover, Abdullah also adds that cultural understanding should not be disregarded but should be

in the heart of second language learning So it is very importari to disseminate cultural

elements in textbooks.

Cortazzi and Jin (1999) divide the cultural information used in language

textbooks and materials into three categories: source culture materials, target culture

materials and international target cullure material

According to Cortazzi and Jin (1999), Source Cultwe matenals refer to the

feamers’ own culture as conlent Target Cullure material address to the culture of a

country where English is spoken as a first language or mother tongue Finally,

International Target Culture attach to a great variety of cultures in English and non-

English-spoaking countries around the world They also claim that “there aro FFT textbooks, produced at a national level for particular countries, which mirror the source culture, rather than target cultures, so that the source and target oultures are

identical and there are a large number of FFT textbooks thal focus on target culture:

Basing on the classification of Cortazzi and Jin (1999), Anglo-Saxon based content is a kind of Target Culture content, in which the Pritish, American, Canadian, Australian cultures or other cultures adopting English as first language are reflected Source Culture here refers to Vietnamese cultures while global based content is a kind

of International Targel Culture m the thesis

Adaskou, Britten and Fahsi (1990) do not also deny the presence of cultural elements in the textbook They claim that ELT material can inchide the cultural contents Its content many focus on “some neutral aspect of real life, some exotic culture, or about specific culture features present in the world of the learner or that of the speech communities in which the target language is the mother tongue”

From these above view, it can be suggested that learning and teaching materials should carry cultural elements and cultural contents

1.3 ‘The role of culture in language learning and teaching

When it comes to the role of culture in learning and teaching language, Peck (1998) admits thal forcign language imstruclion is not accurale and complete without

10

the study of language It is clear that language is a part of culture and it also reflects culture Kramsch (1994) discusses the interaction between language and culture She poinis oul that teaching language is leaching culture because oullure plays a prominent role in language teaching Culture and language are interwoven so foreign language

teachers are “involved in handling the meaning of language rooted in socio- cultural context” Thus, cultural awareness should become an educational aim in itself and the core of language teaching

Bemell (1993) comlends that the person who learns a language without ils culture will become a “flrent fool” It means that he or she can speak a language well and fluently but does not understand the social or philosophical content of that language As a resull, when learning a forcign language, it is vilal for learners lo galher cultural information for a better communication In addition, according to McKay

(2003), culture has an effect on language teaching in twa dimensions: linguistic and

pedagogical ones As for linguistics, culture influences the scmantic, pragmatic, and discourse levels of the language Pedagogically, it affects the choice of the language

materials because cultural content of the language materials and the cultural basis of

the teaching methodology are taken into consideration while deciding upon the language materials

Kitao (2000) gives some benefits of teaching culture in language classroom He said that learning culture provides students with a reason to study the target

language as if they understand culture clearly, their studying language and literature

will become more meaningful Learning culture can motivate and increase learners” curiosity about, interests in target countries Besides, it oan “give learners a liking for

the nalive speaker of target language”, “help avord the stereotype” and play a vital part

in general education

Mentioning the importance of culture in language teaching Kramsch (2001)

claims that studenls can realize sumilarilics and differences among a varicty of cultural

11

groups by learning culture Liven, studying culture makes them understand and

tolerate the other people In addition, the ultimate goal to learn culture is ta narrow the

gap belween the two cullures and ullimately overcome ellmocentric views Hence, it is necessary for language jearners to learn culture in language classroom It will help

them communicate well and adjust themselves to real situafions

From the aforementioned ideas, it is inevitable that culture should be included into language classroom The idea for incorporating culture into language teaching and learning has been concerned by many authors and educators Many teachers have paid attention to incorporating culture in thei lectures Politzer, (as cited in Broaks, 1960) points that

‘As language teachers we must be interested in the study of culture not because we necessarily wanl to leach the culture of the other country, buf because we have Lo

teach it If we teach language without teaching at the same time the culture in which

it operates, we are teaching meaningless symbols ar symbols to which the student

altaches the wrong meaning: for unless he is warmed, unfess he reecives cultural instruction, he will associate American concepts or objects with the foreign

symbols (p 85-86)

Moreover, the importance of inchision of cultural elements in teaching language

has heen addressed by many inlernational and national foreign language associalions

such as TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages in 1996), ACTFL (American Council of Teachers of Foreign Languages)

Tn conelusion, il is [hal language and culture arc inseparable clemenis so teaching

language should be attached to teaching culture

1.4, Course book evaluation

A3 mentioned above, the term “course baok”, “texthook” and “material” will be

used interchangeably in this part

1.4.1, Definitions of course book evaluation

Course book evaluation has been concerned by many authors all aver the world There are many definitions of evalualiim perceived by authors as well as teachers

According to Hutchinson and Waters (1987, p 96) materials evaluation refers to “a

mater of judging the fitness of something for a particular purpose.” Evaluation is,

then, concemed with relative merit It is neither absolutely good nor bad - only the degree of fitness for the required purpose is taken into account Rossi and Freeman (1993) also define evaluation as “ihe systomate application of social research procedures for assessing the conceptualization, design, implementation, and utility of programs”

However, in language programs, evaluation from the viewpoint of Kiely and Rea-Dickins may have more meanings than others It is regarded as “the judgment

about students by teachers and by external assessors; the performance of teachers by

their students, program managers and institutions, and programs, departments and institutions by intemal assessors, external monitors and inspectors” (Kiely and Rea-

Dickins, 2005, p 5)

rom the aforesaid definitions, it can be concluded that “material evaluation is a procedure that involves measuring the value (or potential value) of a set of learning materials, It involves making judgmonts about the effcct of the materials on the people

using them” (Yomlinson, 2003:15)

142 Purposes of course book evaluation and the importance of course book

evaluation

Course bock evaluation serves many purposes Tl holps to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the materials in use As a result, both teachers and learners need to

evaluate malcrials Lo meel their needs, demands and ineresls Ellis (1997) gives two

reasons why materials should be evaluated Firstly, it supplies information to decide

whether materials in use are worthwhile or not Secondly, it gives teachers the way to

13

modify materials more effectively for future use Moreover, Sheldon (1988) also

provides some other reasons for material evaluation He states that the selection of an

ELT often signals an important administrative and educational decision where there is considerable professional, financial or even political investment In addition,

evaluation helps the managerial and teaching staff of a specific institution or organization to discriminate between all of the available materials on the market Finally, it supports the educators to identify the particular strengths and weaknesses in

matgnals m usc TL will also assist leachers with reahzing the sirong poinls of the

materials in use and adapting the unsuitable exercises, tasks, or activities to meet their students’ needs and demands

To conclude, course book avalualion helps ux make decision in choosing textbooks, form professional judgments as well as the awareness of teaching and

learning experiences

143 Types of course book evaluation

In matcrials cvaluation ficld, cach author has different classification of materials evaluation ‘omlinson (2003) divide course book evaluation into three types: pre-use evaluation, whilyi- use evaluation, and post-use evaluation By contrast, Robinson (1991:59) classifies materials evaluation into three types: preliminary, summative and formative Despite the categories are different, the meanings of these term are basically similar

Pre-use evaluation or preliminary relates to the process of making predictions about the potential value of material for their users

Whilst- use evaluation or formative relers lo the measuring the value of materials whist using them or whilst observing them being used It can be more objective and reliable than pre-use evaluation because it makes uses of measurement ralher than prediction However, it is limited to measuring what is observable and cannot measure what is happening in the learners’ brains

14

Post use evaluation or summative 1s normally carried out when the course is finished with the aim to determine whether the program was successful and effective

and the findings of Ihis evaluation wall lead to the decision whether to repeal or use the

materials again or not

Tn short, there are different types of materials evaluation so when making an

evaluation; the evaluators have to determine what type of materials evaluation will be suitable with their work In the context of English teaching and leaming at Ilectric Power University, the researcher decided to choose post- usc evaluation or sumntalive

to examine whether the course book NHF Pre is effective and suitable for first year students or not and then could give some recommendations for further improvements

Administragon Among them, Flecincal System can be seen the most important one

with a large mumber of students joining the course Unglish is a compulsory subject at EPU with 10 credits Generally, students at EPU leam English for two years In the first year, they will be provided with General English by using the course books New English File Elementary and New English File Pre-Intermediate In the second year,

they will study English for Specific Purposes Fach year is divided into wo semesters; each lasts 13 weeks and then finishes with the end of examinations For a General English course, student will have to take part in 6 periods each week They will study

five modules from 1 to 5 for the first semester and four rest madules from 6 to 9 for

the second semester During the term, basing on the levels of students and the number

of the periods, there will be two or three mid-term tests including listening, and writing

teat, and al the end of tern, they will have to sil for a wrilten lesl

2.1.2, Participants and participant selection methods

‘Lhe participants for the research were 150 first year non-Hnglish major students

from three classes al EPU in questioning survey questionaire and five Iscturers

teaching English for the first year students responding to the interview The rescarch was carried out randomly only on the first year students of the school year 2013-2014

They imeluded both males and females bul the males outnumbered the females,

ranging from the age 18 to 23 Most of them had learned English for seven years;

16

however, they had different levels of Linglish proficiency because they were from different places in Vietnam with different background knowledge Five teachers at

Frglish Division were selecled to parlicipate in the research, Both of them were females and had more than three years in teaching English at English Department,

PU All of them have M.A degree in Education or Linguistics Five teachers agreed

to answer the interview questions enthusiastically

‘The researcher decided to choose first year students because first year students wore the dircol ones using the course book NEF Pre so they took # balanced view of the cultural contents in this course book, Besides, the lecturers teaching Hnglish for the first year students were the anes who had full realization of the kinds of culture presented in the course book NRF Pre They were supposed to give the most usefull suggestions to help students leam better when using this course book

For this purpose, this research employed the simple random sampling technique

to sclect the data from students and lecturers First year studonts from three classes and five lecturers were chosen randomly as for the authenticity and reliahility of the study

2.2 Descriptions on the course book

The course book “New English File Pre-fntermetliale” is wrilien by Clive

Oxenden, Christina Latham Koeing and Paul Seligson and published by Oxford University Press It consists of 9 modules, each modules includes 4 sub-modules A, B,

©, D with different Lopics, Practical English, Writing, and Revise and Check NEF Pre

provides students with an all-round practical knowledge of grammar, skills,

vocabulary pronunciation and real-life functional language

Tn the course book NEF Pre, a typical sub-module is presented with following

sections:

- Gramunar: New grammar struchies are presented by using pictures, discussion

questions or asking students to read or listen to a conversation After the forms and the

rules, students have chances to practice with a variety of exercises

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- Vocabulary: Students are asked to predict new words and their meanings based on

the words given in the border together with several available pictures or small games

Afier thal, students listen to the CD player to check and pronounce them

- Promuneiation: Students are asked to hear the CD player, repeat the sound words, and

then do some practices,

- Tasks (4 skills): For each module, different skills are paid attention to improve the sections of grammar and vocabulary

Tn the roading and listening scetions: students can understand very short simple texts in a single phrase at time, picking up familiar names, words and basic phrases and re-reading as required Then they can follaw slow and carefully articulated speech with long pauses for him/her Lo assimilate meaning Finally, they mus listen to the CD player to check their ideas and listen more carefully to do some related exercises

Tn speaking sections, pictures and discussion are used to help the students activate

their knowledge about the topics Thon students practice speaking skills using conversation pieces in the listening parts

Aller four sub-tmodutcs, there are three paris m cach big module: Practical

English, Writing, and Revise and Check

Practical English sections offer students to practice a large number of real- life situations such as situations at the airport, calling reception, ordcring a meal, asking for directions, buying clothes, ete

Writing sections help students to get familiar with many different types of writing

such as describing someone, writing an informal letter, describing a place you live, writing a formal email, or giving opinion

Revise and Check seciions give students opportunities to revise theories and

practice more exercises

At the end of the course book, exercises about Grammar Bank, Vocabulary Bank

and Sound Bank are designed to offer sludents 19 practice mors grammar rules,

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vocabulary and pronuneiation Transeriptions of diffieult words and their meanings are also presented at the end of the course book Besides, coming with this material are 3

CDs and the students” workbook

2.3 Data collection methods

‘Three instruments were employed in this study: survey questionnaire, interview,

and document analysis As Johnson (1992, cited in Mackey and Gass, 2005, p.181)

notes “Ihe value of triangulation is that it reduces observer or interviewer bias and enhances the validity and reliability (accuracy) of the information”, one method alone

cannot provide adsquate support Through these insiruments, accurate and reliable dala

were expected to be obtained ‘the major source of data was derived from the

questionnaires for freshmen at EPU Along with this, interviews for lectures of English

Tand document analysis were conducted to galher extra information

Conserning the survey questionnaire, this instrument was adopted in the research

for a tuber of reasons Firstly, 4 was the survey questionnaire that helped the

researcher save time According to Jo and Steve (1997), it is the quickest way to get answer from scattered participants with much precision and clarity ‘I'he major parlivipants of his research were the first year sludents from three classes al FPU; therefore, a set of questionnaire was regarded more convenient than other instruments Secondly, it is argued that financial benefits of questionnaire should be taken into cousideration Questionnaires have been considered “a vilal tool im the collection of data it can provide data economically and in a form that lends itself perfectly to the

purposes of the study” (Verma & Mallick, 1999) Tt could fulfill the purpose of the

author lo collect dala [rom a large manber of freshmen Tas bul not Teast, the

combination of closed-ended and open-ended questions was believed to provide sufficient data for the rescarcher

‘This study aimed to identify and then quantify the cultural cantent of the course

book NIV Pre Along with questionnaire, document analysis was be used to collect

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data Document analysis is both qualitative and quantitative technique ‘the researcher

employed content analysis method, which is one of the types of document analysis in

this study According to Holsti (1968, p.608), content aralysis is viewed as “any technique for making inferences by systematically and objectively identifying special

characteristics” Holsti also admils thal any items such as photographs, videotapes that

can be made into texts are dealt with content analysis In this sense, content analysis is viewed as a qualitative approach By contrast, in the book Content Analysis: 47 introduction to ils methodalogy, Berelson (1952) cited in Kripperulorfl (2004) regards

content analysis as “a research technique for the objective, systematic, quantitative

description of the manifest content of communication” Similarly, Silverman (1993)

also dismisses content analysis from the view of qualitative dala analysis as il is “a

quantitative method” Ilowever, because of the subjective and in-depth discussion of

the researcher in the process of analysis and evaluation of the cultural content of the

textbook, quantitative content analysis that “cater for statistical methods and numerical results” (Sandorova, 2014) was applied as an instrument

With the purpose of avoiding some misleading information from answers to questionnaires and acquiring as well as enriching accurate data for the research, a structured interview was used In fact, “it is not the only qualitative research technique that will produce rich information about social relationships but it docs give you to

social relationships in a quite profound way” (Dowsett, 1986 cited in Nunan, 1992)

Owing to this kind of imerview, the interviewer could be able to control the general flow of the mterview with a list of set questions in a predetermined order ‘Ihe present study was carried out with some interviews for lecturers of English I at BPU Five

Enghsh teachers of Enghsh T were invited Lo respond lo the inferview Through the

interview, the researcher could cover and understand the informants’ viewpomts and perceptions, their attitudes towards the cultural contents of the course book and some

suggestions to improve the cultural contents

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In short, the validity and reliability of the research could be strengthened thanks to

a combination of questionnaire, document analysis and structured interview

2.4, Data collection instruments

Survey questionnaire, document analysis, and interview were selected to be the dala collection instruments to conducl the research (They were presented clearly in the Appendix)

First of all, the survey questionnaire with seven questions was constructed with

behavioral questions to suck [he students’ opinions aboul the kinds of eulural corterit

presented in the course book In addition, an open-ended question was used to receive

the suggestions to improve the cultural content from the students All the questions

were short and clear for students to understand The questionnaire for students was written by Vietnamese so that they would not misunderstand the questions The

instructions were clearly shown in (he quesliounaire paper and the cormilment, not Lo

show their identification in the data analysis Moreover, before delivering questionnaire for students, the researcher gave some explanation about the kinds of culture and helped thom to distinguish the Anglo-Saxon culture and global culture

‘The questionnaire was divided into two parts: the attitudes of the students towards leaming English and the attitudes of the informants towards the cultural content of the course book NEF Pre ‘he students were asked to complete the questionnaires seriously in fifteen minutes in their classrooms

Secondly, the researcher decided to milerview five lecturers with four structured

questions This instrument could offer the rescarcher to receive the teachers’ opinions about the kinds of cultural content designed in the course book Fram that, they would provide the useful suggestions to improve the cullural content in the course book

Finally, document analysis was used to analyze the cultural content of the course

book Tt was chosen Lo evaluate whether the content of the course book belonged to

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Anglo-Saxon culture or global culture Only nine modules with 1 sub unit A, B, C, D

and Practical English sections in the course book were examined

2.5 Data collection procedures

The procedure to collect data included two main stages: preparation and

implementation

2.5.1 Preparation

In this stage, a research design was carried out The participants were selected randomly and the survey questionnaire and questions Cor interviews were designed The last step was to contact the participants and invite them to take part in the

research

2.5.2 Implementation

First of all, students from three classes (D8 H5, D8 DCN3 and D8 H1) wore employed to do the survey questionnaire, Secondly, five executive interviews were conducted The teachers answered the questions in the interviews by recording or sending the answers via email to the researcher Finally, the cultural content of the course book was analyzed ta see whether it was global- based content or Anglo-Saxon

based content

2.53 Data analysis procedure

The data from the survey questionnaire were analyzed, synthesized and

transcribed into charts arcl tables A detailed explanation was provided afler each chan

and table In addition, the data were also drawn out from the analysis of the course book content in this kind of analysis, quantitative method was employed On the other band, qualitalive method was used [or answers in the operrended question in the questionnaire, the interviewee’s answers

3.6 Summary

‘This chapter has presented an overview of the context of teaching and learning

English at EPU The participants employed in the study were 150 first year non-

English major students and five teachers of English who had more than three years in teaching lnglish at PU In addition, the content of the textbook NLV

analyzed to examine whether it belonged to the Anglo-Saxon culture or global oulture

Pre was

Finally, survey questionnaire, interview and document analysis were chosen as the

main data collection instruments in this research.