Luận văn an evaluation of the esp coursebook for second year students at marine engine department vietnam maritime university vimaru

Chart 2: The aims of the material Chart 3: The usefulness of tasks and exercises im skill development Figure 1: Stages in the ESP process Figure 2: The material evaluation process Tab

LƯƠNG THỊ MINH THU

AN EVALUATION OF THE ESP COURSEBOOK FOR SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS AT MARINE ENGINE DEPARTMENT-VIETNAM MARITIME UNIVERSITY (VIMARU)

(Đánh giá giáo trình tiếng Anh chuyên ngành đành cho sinh viền năm

thar hai Khoa May Tau Bién - Trường ĐH Hàng Hải Việt Nam)

VIETNAM NATIGONAI., UXTVERSITY, HANOT UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST — GRADUATE STUDIES:

to # og

LUONG THI MINIT THU

AN EVALUATION OF THE ESP COURSEBOOK FOR SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS AT MARINE ENGINE DEPARTMENT-VIETNAM MARITIME UNIVERSITY (VIMARL)

Đánh giá giáo trình tiếng Anh chuyên ngành dành cho sinh viên năm

thứ hai Khoa Máy Tàu Biển - Trường ĐH Hàng Hải Việt Nam)

MA A MINOR THIBSIS

SUPERVISOR: PROF DR HOANG VAN VAN

HANOI - 2012

1.4 Scope of the study

1.5 Method of the study

1.6 Design of the study

PART 2: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Introduction

1.2 Textbook, course-book and material

1.2.2 Roles of teaching materials in a language program

1.3 Course-book evaluation

1.3.1, Definition of course-book evaluation

1.3.2 Why coursebook evaluation

1.3.3 Types of course-book evaluation

1.3.4, Course-book evaluation in USP

1.3.5 Why studerits’ evaluation

1.3.6 Techmiques for course-book evaluation H

1.4, Previous studies on materials evaluation cssssssessssseenssieneenoee 14

2.2.1, An overview on Vietnam Maritime University and the Marine lingine

Department 17

3.2.2, The course ke HH1 kg tr re 16

2.2.5, The ESP teachers ke HH1 kg tr re 19

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANAI.YSIS AND DISCUSSION

3.1.1 Leamers’ altitude lowards learnmpg ESP 23

3.1.2, Learners” evaluation of the curent HSP course-book 2

3.1.3 Leamers’ evaluation of the teachers’ exploitation of ESP materials 33

3.1.4 Students’ suggestions 34

3.1.5 Teachers’ views of LISP course-book cscs essen 36

3.2 Major findings a7

3.2.1 The suitability of the course-book to the audience 38

3.2.2 The suitability of the course-book to the alms cece cee issn 38

3.2.3 The suitability of the course-book to the coment requirements 38 3.2.4, The suitability of the course-book to the methodology 39

1, Summary of the study 45

3 Suggestions [or furthor rescarch 47

4 Conclusion Hee Hee HH1 E002 m0 2 tre 48

REFERENCE

APPENDIX 1 (Students questionnaure in English)

APPENDIX 2 (Students questionnaire in Vietnamese)

APPENDIX 3 (Teachers* views as stated in the interview)

APPENDIX 4 (Checklist for evaluating HSP materials by Hutchinson and waters) APPENDIX 5 (A sample of an original unit

vi

LIST OF CHARTS, FUGURES, AND TABLES

Charl 1: Students’ levels of English

Chart 2: The aims of the material

Chart 3: The usefulness of tasks and exercises im skill development

Figure 1: Stages in the ESP process

Figure 2: The material evaluation process

Table 1: Students’ time of leaning English

Table 2: Students’ rariking of their purposes of learning ESP

Table 3: Students’ needs met by the HSP course-book

Table 4: Students’ attitude towards the content of the ESP course-hook

Table 5: Students’ attitude towards time allocation for ESP

‘Table 6: Students’ attitude towards vocabulary and grammar

Table 7: Students’ attitude towards language skills cavered

Table 8: Students’ attitude towards tasks and exercises

Table 9: Students’ satisfaction towards classroom activities

Table 10: Students’ suggestions

‘Table 11: Students’ opinions towards teacher’s use of language and the course-book

Table 12: Teachers’ views of corlcnt

Table 13 Teachers’ perceived limitations of the course-book

Table 14° Students’ teactions to the course-book as observed by teachers

Table 15 Challenges to the students in using the courso-book as observed by teachers

‘Table 16: Teachers’ self-reported challenges in using the course-book

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1.1 RATIONALE

Tl gocs without saying thal English is by far the mosl popular language of all Since Vietnam began its apen-door policy, the English teaching and leaming has

strongly developed More and more people lear English in order lo have a better work

opportunity In Maritime field, English has been considered ‘the language of the sca!

This means English is the only language used by seafarers of all nationalities at sea and

this shows how important English is for seafarers

Vietnam Maritime University (VIMARU) has been the leading university in

maritime seation After graduating from VIMARU, the students of Navigation Department and students of Engine Department work not only on board domestic ships but also on board foreign ships sailing around the world Moreover, Vietmam is now a

member of WTO, Vietnamese seafarers will have golden opportunities to work on

Huropean ships for higher payment if their English is good enough Because of this, the VIMARU leaders always consider English to be a very important subject

A ship crew is divided into two departments: Deck depariment and Engine department When they work on a ship, it means that they live and work in an international environment English becomes their most important communication instrument lo cany out their daily communication Espovially, engine orews work im the engine room and they need a good Linglish for their marine engine major so that they can operate all machinery on board well Tn other words, ESP (Fnglish for Specific Purposes) plays a fundamental role in the success of the marine-engine students’ future occupation if they are to work on board the ship

Tt can't be denied that materials in general and ESP materials in particular play

an important role in the process of language teaching and learning as appropriate

materials can stimulate effective teaching and learning Therefore, in order to have a

successful language lcaching program, it is ttecossary to have good malorials,

expecially in Vietnamese setting Ihe couse-book “Hnglish for Marine Engine Students and Ship’s Engineers” was designed for the second-year students at Marine Engins Department VIMARU with the greatest effort of teachers of Fnghsh Department ‘This course-book has been used for nearly 15 years, however, no research

on the course-book evaluation has been carried out to see how much it meets the

students’ needs For these above- mentioned reason, the researcher decided to choose

materials evaluation as the theme of this minor thesis titled as:

AN EVALUATION OF THE ESP COURSEBOOK FOR SECOND-YEAR

STUDENTS AT MARINE ENGINE DEPARTMENT VIETNAM MARITIME

UNIVERSITY (VIMARU)

1.2 AIMS OF THE STUDY

The paper aims at evaluating the course-book Hnglish for Marine Engine Students and Ship’s Engineers to see how far it is suitable to the second-year students

al the Marine Engine Department, VIMARU The spevific aims are:

¥ to evaluate the appropriateness of the material to the course requirements in

terms of aims, content, and methodology

Y Ww ofler some suggestions for further improvement of the coursc-book which is appropriate to the needs and expectations of the students

1.3 RESEARCH QUESTION

The following research question is raised for exploration

To what extent does the ESP course-book English for Marine Engine Students and Ship's Engineers at Marine Engine Department-VIMARU meet the course

requirements in lerms of aims, content, and methodology?

1.4, SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The ESP course is only for the second year students at VIMAR, thus the study focuses on the evaluation of the second year students at Marine Engine Department

VIMARU on ESP course-book currently used.

Hutchinson and Waters (1993) and many other language evaluation experts agreed that evaluating a teaching material is a complicated process based on different crieria such as audience, comlerl, physical appearance, cullural bias, needs

Llowever, because of the constraint of this kind of research, the researcher just focuses

on three criteria: aims, confent, and methodology

1.5 METHOD OF THE STUDY

‘The study follows a quantitative research approach A Survey questionnaire is

designed for 162 second-year students at Marine Engine Department, VIMARU, who

have worked with two-thirds of the course-book fo evaluate the quality of the ESP course-book In addition, interviews are conducted with three USP teachers who have

been using the course-book te teach second-year students at VIMARU to gain additional information about the qualily of the course-book

1.6 DESIGN OF THE STUDY

There are three main parts in this study: introduction, development, and conclusion The introduction provides the rationale, the aims, the research question, the scope, and design of the thesis

The development consisls o! three chapters

- Chapter 1, Literature Review, provides the relevant theories related to

textbook, course-book and material and course-book evaluation

- Chapter 2, Mothodology, introduces the context of the study and describes the methodology employed in the study, research procedures and the participants,

instruments and the research procedures

- Chapter 3, Data Analysis and Discussion, presents and diswusses the findings

that arise from the data collected and recommendations

The conclusion provides a brief sunusary of all the contents studied, draws some

conclusions drawn and makes some suggestions for further research.

PART II: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 INTRODUCTION

‘This chapter is concerned with the review of a theoretical base to develop a framework in which the sludy operates, As a way of start, T will first explore the three notions textbook, course-book and materials ‘then, | will present an overview of course-book evaluation including definitions; why course-book evaluation; types of course-book evaluation: coursc-book cvaluation in ESP; why students’ cvaluation, techniques, models and oriteria for evaluation Last but not least, previous studies on materials evaluation are mentioned

1.2 TEXTOOK, COURSE-BOOK AND MATERIALS

1.2.1 Definitions

McGrath (2002, p.7) defines a cowrse-book as “a textbook on which a course is based”, Tomlinson (1998: p.ix) shares similar point with MoGrath when he considers a course-hook as “a textbook which provides the core materials for a course”, Tn his viewpoint, a course-book is used to provide as much as possible in one book and it is designed to serve as the only book which the leamers necessarily use during a course

In Materials Development in Language Teaching (Littlejohn, 1998) the term

“materials” is defined as “anything, which is used to help to teach language learners It can be in the form of a texthook, a workbook, a cassette, a CD-Rom, a video, a photoeopicd handout, a newspaper, a paragraph written on a whitcboard.” (Tomlinson,1998: p.xi) Therefore, it can be painted out that course-book is a type of malerials

1.2.2 Roles of teaching material in a language program

The relationship between materials and other components in language teaching, such as students, teachers, teaching method and evaluation have been controversial for

many years Since the end of 1970s, there has been a movement to make leamers rather than teachers the center of language leaming According to this teaching approach,

learners become the targets of teaching and learning process Therefore, materials,

curriculum, teaching method and evaluation should be designed for learners and their

needs For the teaching and learning English to be successful, besides teachers,

learners, curriculum, method and evaluation, materials play a decisive part in language teaching and learning ‘the importance of teaching and leaming materials cannot be

denied and so far, there have been a great number of discussions on different

perspectives on the role of materials in relation to other elements Teaching materials are considered the essential components in most language courses because they help studenis and (cachers know teaching and learning contonl Discussing the imporlance

of English language teaching materials to leamers, Allwright (1981) indicates that materials help students know what to learn In addition, he says, they are resources for ideas, acliviliss for instruction and they give teachers rationale for what 1o de He also emphasizes that materials control leaming and teaching It is undoubted that materials are of importance in teachers’ language instruction Both experienced and incxpericnced (cachers rely on the materials O'Neill (1982) supports Wright's idvas that materials help learning and teaching It is true that in many cases, teachers and studenis rely heavily on materials and materials determine the components and methods of learning hey control the content, method and procedures of leaming, Students learn what is presented in the textbook and the way the textbook presents

materials in the way the teacher teaches it Therefore, the materials become the center

of instruction and one of the most important influences on what goes on in the class,

Obvionsly, good icavhing materials are of great help to both inexperienced and experienced teachers, especially the inexperienced or poorly trained teachers because

they also provide models for teachers to follow in developing their own materials

(Nunan, 1998), ‘Therefore, the first thing the teachers need to de when preparing his

course in his own situation is to select the appropriate materials

In VIMARU, Aaglish for Marine Engine Students and Ship’s Engineers was designed by teachers of linglish Department Due to the unavailability of various

resources, the material was compiled from various texts and most of the exercises were

designed by teachers Aficr being used for 15 years, il is necessary 1o evaluate the

material to see if it is appropriate or not

13.1 Definition of course-book evaluation

Until now, there have been a number of materials evaluations of different author

im ELT According to Tomlinson (1998: p.3), materials cvalualion is defined as “a

systematic appraisal of the value of materials in relation to their objectives and to the objectives of learners using them.” (Zllis, quoted in Figen, 2002, available at

itp: /Aywwmetuedu tr Ahomeswwwsbe/lhabs/2002/ADS him)

Ilutchinson and Waters (1993: p96) also give definition of materials evaluation,

as “Evaluation is a matter of judging the fitness of something for a particular purposes

Given a cerlain niced, and in light of the resources available, which is out of a number

of possibilities can represent the best solution?” In other words, “Evaluation is

basically a malching process: matching necds (o available solutions.”

In conclusion, from the general definition of evaluation and the definition of specific area of materials evaluation, it can be inferred that materials evaluation involve the determination of what necds to be evaluated, the objectives and

requirements of the materials, and the judgments of the value of the materials being evaluated in relation to the objective and requirements determined

1.3.2 Why course-baovk evaluation

Evaluation plays a very important role in the development of materials

Robinson (1991) asserts the importance of evaluation as to provide the advantages, disadvantages and the effectiveness of the being, used materials so that the material can be decided to be reused, adapted to meet the needs of the particular teaching situation or changed

Also, Ellis (1997) points out two reasons for materials evaluation Firstly,

evaluation is carried out a choose among the available materials the most suitable one

to use for a particular situation and such valuation is taken before the course takes

place Secorlly, evaluation is carried out 1o determine whether the material which has

been chosen works for that situation after it has been used for a period of time This

helps to decide whether to continue using the material or to replace it with a better

material

In the words of Cunningsworth (1995: p 7), course-book is “a resource in achieving aims and objectives that have already been set in terms of learner needs” Through evaluation, we can assess whether the course-book is ths most appropnats for the target learners at various levels and in various teaching settings What is more, the

evaluation pracess will involve elements of comparison, especially where existing

malcrials are being challenged by newly produced matorials

In summary, materials especially authentic materials play a significant role in foreign language teaching They are not simply the everyday tools of the language teachers; they are an embodiment of the aims and metheds of the particular teaching/leaming situation Materials evaluation in general and caurse-book evaluation

in specific is very necessary and important It may be taken for two reasons: first, it

confirms the course-book and second, it adjusts the course-book ‘hen, it will increase the strengths and minimize the drawback of the course-book

1.3.3 Types of course-book evaluation

There are many different ways of dividing course-book evaluation according to

chifferent researchers

According to some scholars, material evaluation in general and course-book evaluation in specific are divided into three main types depending on the reasons for

evaluation, namely Prelimisary, Formative and Summative

‘The first type, Preliminary evaluation, is carried out by determining a set of

criteria which are used to reach a decision regarding which book to adopt and how it

necds lo be adapted (Fllis cited in Tomlinson, 1998), thus, i is done before the

begumning of a course ‘he purposes of this type are to select “the most relevant and

appropriale materials for a particular group of learners”, and idenilify “specific aspects

of the published materials” necded adapting to suit the purposes of the evaluators

(Lillis cited in ‘Tomlinson, 1998: p.220)

The second type, Formative evaluation, is carried onl during the course This type is aimed at shaping the material during its lifetime and suggesting the improvement of the material in the future (Dudley-Lvans & St John, 1998)

The third one, Summative evaluation, is carried oul al the end of the course

According to Dudley-Ivans & St John (1998: p.128), this type of evaluation is obtained to “assess impact and to provide information that can be fed into repeat

versions” of the material In addilion, they belicve that summative evaluation is

especially valuable for durable courses Also, Richards (2001) claims that this type of

evaluation ean determine the effectiveness of the maternal Findings will belp to decide

whether to use the material again or not, which tasks and activities are suitable and

which are not, which aspects of the materials need to be changed and how to modify

them to make the materials more cffective and efficient for future use (Ellis, 1997) In short, summative evaluation is carried out to determine the worth and value of teaching

materials after they have been used

In addition, there is another way of dividing materials evaluation introduced by Tomlinson (1998) and MoGrath (2002) These authors identify three types of materials

evaluation namely Pre-use, Whilst-use and Post-use

10

‘Tomlinson (1998: p.xi) who affirms that evaluation is “the systematic appraisal

of the value of materials in relation to their objectives and to the objectives of leamers”

distinguishes three types of materials evaluations as follows:

- Pre-use evaluation focuses on predictions of potential value

- Whilst-use evaluation focuses on awareness and description of what the

learners are actually doing whilst the materials are being used

= Post-use evaluation focuses on analysis of what happened as a result of using

the materials

McGrath (2002) shares the similar point with Tomlinson when he introduces

three concepts: Pre-use, In-use and Post-use ‘rom his opinion, McGrath (2002) claims

that (hese three types and their purposes arc interrclaled

- Pre-use evaluation establishes potential suitability

- Inuse evaluation gathers data on planning decisions, implementation and Tesponse, may simulate preliminary recousideralions of selection erileria

- Post-use evaluation uses data on in-course use and data on effects to access

suitability of selection and selection procedures

In summary, allhough types of materials evaluation are indivaled with different terms, there is no difference in distinguishing evaluation process Preliminary ar pre- use cvalualion establishes potential suitability of the malsrials Formative or in-use evaluation examines how materials really work in by gathering data on planning decisions, implementation and response Summative or postarse evaluation is used at the ond of the course in order to provide retrospective assessment and identify which strengths and weaknesses of the materials

1.3.4, Course-book evaluation in ESP

‘Lo meet the needs of leamers, many HSP course-books have been designed and

compiled for some specific fields Ilowever, there can be a need for materials

11

evaluation to determine whether the material which has chosen works for that situation after it has been used for a period of time (Lillis, 1997)

According to Hutchinson and Waters (1993), a careful course-hook evaluation

in LSP can save a lot of expense and frustration On the positive side, it can also help

in justifying requests to sponsors or other members of an ESP team for money to buy

maltcrials or fame fo write thera,

In ESP, evaluation in ESP has been viewed in the broad context of the teaching, and learning process From the perspective of Dudley-Fvans and St John (1998), cvaluation docs not stand alone, but occupies a prominent place in the ESP process, giving an LSP teacher a wealth of information on their needs, expectations and

commons aboul the material (see Figure 1)

@udle-Evans and St, John, 1998: p 121) Obviously, materials evaluation is an indispensable part of the key stages in

ESP process (Dudley-Bvans and St John, 1998) In other words, course-book over a period of being used needs to be evaluated to see whether it has worked well for the

target situations and students

1.3.5, Why students’ evaluation

12

‘Together with the worldwide trend to learn ESP, many HSP course-bools have

been designed for some specific fields Course-book evaluation in ESP is an

indispensable part of the key stages in ESP process (Dudley-Rvans and St John, 1998),

and students’ evaluation is really necessary and important because of the following

reasons

Firstly, in addition to teachers, sludents are the most important users of the

course-book ESP course-book is designed to provide the leamers with some basic concepts and knowledge relevant (o their field and skills up to the expeclalion of their future omployment As a result, the students can give their own cvaluative comments

on the course-book related ta their own needs and expectation

Secondly, being the people who use directly the course-book, the leamers will

have information of the strengths and weaknesses of the course-book ‘therefore, they

will give objective comments when they are not the course-book designers

Tn short, if is necessary to have the vourse-book “English for Marine Engine Students and ship’s engineers” evaluated by the learners themselves at VIMARU to

see how far it meets the learners’ needs Also, this evaluation is valuable for the

improvement of the eourse-book in lhe coming years

1.3.6 ‘Techniques of matcrials cvaluation

There are three lypes of evaluation and cach of them has their own methad to

collect data (Robinson, 1991) ‘the importance is that researchers should identify the suitable methods in the study A lot of technique used to evaluate materials attract

much attention and have been discussed by many researchers According Hutchinson

& Waters (1993), Lynch (1996), Richards (2001), Robinson (1991), the useful

evaluation techniques are questionnaires, interviews, test results, discussion and other

informal means The different methods used for evaluation have been mentioned but

they all have their possible advantages and limitations as follows:

13

* Questionnaires are the most popular methods of data collection They can be

used to elicit, students’ and teachers’ comments on a wide range of issucs The

advantage is that they can be given to a large group of respondents at the same time

and they are nol expensive (Wallace, 1998) However, queslionnaires need lo be

carcfully designed to avoid respondents’ misinterpretation of questions

© Interviews, as Robinson (1991) stated, are also a valuable method for evaluation They have advantages of in-depth information on specific questions but the problem is that iL is very time-consuming though they ean provide the opportunily for more extended exploration of the issues than questionnaires

© Observation can focus on any observable aspect of the lesson and can provide

an objective eye Lo identify things thal may not be very clear to the teacher However,

it is a specialized work and requires careful preparation

¢ Document analysis refers to any documents that are involved in evocation, such as: curriculum description, policy statement, newspapers, and program brochures,

correspondence and so on (Lynch, 1986)

‘Lo sum up, there has been a large number of different metliods to collect data

The researcher should identify what types of these imstruments to be used effectively im

their study According to Hutchinson & Water (1993) and Robinson (1991), employing,

instruments in an evaluation project will depend on what suits the particular situation;

the combination of two methods inchiding questionnaires and interviews is applied for

data collection in this study

1.3.7 Modcts for evaluation

According lo Hulchinson and Waters (1993), evaluation 1s a process of

matching needs to available solutions The evaluation process is divided into four steps

14

as follows: Defining criteria; Subjective analysis, Objective analysis, Matching, ‘The above steps are presented in the following diagram as the following:

DEFINE CRITERLA

On what bases will you judge material?

Which criteria will be more important?

What realizations of the critcna do How does the material being

you want in vour course? evaluated realize the criteria?

MATCIING

How far does the material match your needs?

Figure 2: The material evaluation pracess( Hutchinson and Waters, 1993: p 98)

In Ilutchinson and Waters’ view, a teaching material in general and a course- book in particular has to suit the needs of a number of parties such as teachers, students, sponsors, 30 it is important that the subject factors should not be allowed to obsoure objectivity in the early stages of analysis In order to have an objective malching, it is advisable Lo look at the needs and solutions separately However, in the final analysis, any choice will be made on subjective ground

In summary, Hutchinson and Waters (1993) suggest the model for material cvaluation that presents a logical procedure This model also has a elear-cut description

of the stages and criteria, which are presented systematically Besides, it can help the researcher Inows exactly what must be done to analyze the material in comparison with the course requirements Therefore, in order to determine whether the existing, material is suitable for marine-engine students at VIMARU, the evaluation framework

by Hutchinson and Waters (1993) has been chosen

15

13.8 Criteria for evaluation

Various scholars have suggested different ways to help evaluators become more systematic and objective in their method of evaluation by using a checklist

Llutchinson and Waters (1993, p.99-104) suggest five evaluation criteria for

objective and subjective analysis az follows

- Aurhenes: the learners and the materials mtended for

- Aums: the aims of the course and the aims of the materials

+ Conlent: language description, language poinls, proporlion of work on each macro-skill, macro-skills, text-types, subject-matter arcas, level of knowledge, types of topics, treatment, organization of content within the

course unils, sequence of content Umoughoul the course, sequence of content within a wut

- Methodology: theory of learning, learners’ attitudes, kinds of exercises,

teaching-leaming techniques, aids, guidance! support for teaching, the

flexibility of materials

- Other criteria: price, quantities, availability

In summary, choosing approprialc criteria plays a very important in evaluating

the suitability of the material in general and the course-book in particular to the learner's neods and expeclalions Togelher with the evaluation model by Hutchinson and Waters, the list of criteria for evaluation introduced by them appears to be more suitable to the BSP course-book at VIMARU

1-4 PREVIOUS STUDIES ON MATERIALS EVALUATION

Lvaluation is obviously a world-wide activity which has been more and more appreciated by teachers and researchers According to Brown (1989, p223), evaluation

is the systematic collection and analysis of all relevant information necessary to promote the improvement of a curriculum and assess its effectiveness and efficiency

Up to now, there have been many studies done in the field of evaluation of ESP

16

materials Many of these studies have brought about good improvement for the textbooks or teaching materials themselves and for ESP courses We can count on Figen (2002), Griffiths (1995), James (2002) or Nguyen Thi Thai Ha (2004,), Vo Thi Anh Dao (2004), Tran Thị Thuy Nga (2005), Dong Thi Lien (2006) or Lloang ‘Thi Tham (2007) These evaluation had been done on different kinds of materials such as ESP for cngiering students, for Electronics and Tclecommunications students, for marine students, for information technology students or medical students Vo ‘Thi Anh

Dao (2004) made an evaluation on the ESP textbook used for the sludents of

Husbandry and Veterinary Science in 2000 Nguyen Thi Thai Ha (2004) evaluated the USP material used for freshman postgraduate students at llanoi University of Technology it 1999 Vu Thi T.us (2005) had a critical lock al the ESP course book for students of Business and Management at Hanoi UBM and then she made some recommendations for a better use Dong Thi Iien (2006) made an evaluation of ESP

materials used for the seeorut year students of Securily al People’s Security Academy

All of these researchers of ESP materials aimed at finding out the strengths and the weaknesses of the materials and then usually gave suggestions for improving the materials As this thesiy aitus al evaluating he ESP course-book Lor second-year students at Marine Engine Department-VIMARU in terms of aims, content and methodology, to determine whether it ects sludents’ needs and (he aims of Ihe course, the researcher just want to review two Vietnamese studies that have the similar aspects shall be reviewed in more detail

Pham Thi Thu Huong (2006) catricd out an evaluation of the ESP material

“Linglish in medicine” for 3 year students of medicine at the Military Academy of

Medicine (MAM) in terms of aims, content, methodology and to determine whether the material is suitable to the students with regards to their level of English ‘Lhe study employed a combination of two data collection instruments, namely questionnaires and interviews for teachers and students Also a research on RSP maternal, Pham Thi Thanh

Huyền (2009) made an evaluation of the material for freshman postgraduate students of

General Medicine which has been used as the official course book for the ESP courses

al ThaiPinh medical universily since 2003 10 see if iL met the students’ language levels,

the course’s aims, content and methodology She also followed the model of material

evaluation proposed by Hutchinson and Waters (1993)

From the studies on the maicnal evaluation presented above, iL is founded that

the material evaluation model suggested by Hutchinson and Waters (1993) was

employed by most of researchers, especially the Vietnamese ones This model seems Lo

fit their teaching and Icaming contexts The data collection instruments including questionnaires and interviews were the most popular ‘Lhe review of the studies above have prompted the resoarcher to use Hutchinson and Waters (1993)'s model to carry

out the material evaluation at Marine Engine Department-VIMARU

145 SUMMARY

Tins chapter has provided a bref review of literature on malorials evaluation Therefore, this chapter can be seen as the theoretical foundation for the applications for

the study and the improvements that should be made to the course book “English for

Marine Engine Students and Ship’s Engineers” or sccond-year siudeuls al Marine

Engine Department, Vietnam Maritime University

18

CHAPTER 2: TIIE STUDY

2.1, INTRODUCTION

Tn this chapter, the current ESP icaching and learning situation al Vietnam Maritime University (VIMARU) related to the study will be taken in close-up and then

the research methodology will be discussed

2.2 THE CONTEXT OF THE STUDY

2.2.1 An overview om Victnam Maritime University and the Marine

Engine Department

Founded in 1956, ‘the Vietnam Maritume University (VIMARU) has been a

leading university of Viemam in the maritime section With total number of nearly

16,000 studsnis who study 19 (uneteen) fields of edacaion and conslard-armual

enrolment of 2,400 to 3,000 students, VIMARU nowadays has been being assigned for

educating higher education level graduates of nautical science, marine engineering,

electrical and electronic cnginvering, shipbuilding sca-transport cconomics, waterway engineering and all the other fields relating to the national maritime sector Besides, the Universily also educates postgraduates of Master of Science (Msc.) and Doctor of Philosophy (PHD.) in the fields of Nautical Science, Marine Engineering, Energetic

Engineering, Naval Architecture, Waterway Engineering, Sea-transport Iconomics,

ole Furthermore, VIMARU is in charge of taining for upgrading and refreshing courses to meet the SICW78/95 requirements of all levels of competent certifications (Master, Chief Engineer, Deck and Engine Officers, Chief Radio Operator, Chief Hlectrician, ete ) for the whole country

Marine Engine department and Navigation Department can be said to be two most important departments of VIMARU These two departments train students to

work on ships, nol only on V

English is taught as a compulsory subject at Vietnam Maritime University As

for marine-engine students, English as a subject is taught in five semesters in the whole

course wilh lolally 345 periods The whole curriculum of Fnglish for marine-engine

students is divided into 2 stages as follows:

Stage 1: Semester 1 consists of 75 periods of GE

Scmesler 2 consists of 75 periods of GE Semester 3 consists of 75 periods of GE

Stage 2: Semester 4 consisls of 60 periods of ESP

Semester 5 consists of GO periods of ESP

‘The first three semesters for GZ occupy 225 periods and the course-book used

lor GE are New Headway Elementary and New Headway Pre-iniermediate (Third

Edition) by John and Liz Soars In the second stage, KSP are taught for 120 periods in

the fourth and the fifth semester with 14 units of the course-book “Zaglish for Marine

Engine Students and Ship's Engineers”

2.2.3 The aims of the ESP course

The aims of the ESP course is to provide the students with linguistic knowledge relevant to their field und skills up to the expectation of their future employment of working on board the ship At the end of the course, the students are able to achieve:

- Listening skills: listening and understanding common orders and instructions

on board the ship as well as in the engine room

- Speaking skills: communicating with multilingual crews on board vessels and

in the engine room

- Reading skills: reading and comprehending manuals for operating equipment and engineering documents

- Writing skills: writing letters, messages and engine log-book

2.2.4, The ESP course-book

The following is a description of the ESP course-book currently used

- ‘The course-book title; Hnglish for Marine Engine Students and Ship's Engineers

For many years, the English teachers at VIMARU used teaching materials designed or selected by themselves for the 120 periods for ESP, However, the demand

of a specially designed LISP material for an USP training course of marine engine was increasing, and English for Marine Engine Students and Ship’s Engineers was compiled by the Dean of the Department of Foreign Ianguage, Mr Nguyen Tuong Luan, who was the most experienced teacher with more than 25 years teaching English

al VIMARU This material fas been officially used as Uke core teaching material for

students of marine engine at VIMARU sinee 1998

- The course-bock content: consisls of five parls

« Part T: consists of 23 basic lessons but only 14 first lessons are taught in two semesters for ESP Each lesson has 5 scctions namely Reading, Vocabulary,

Grammar Notes, Engine ‘telegraph orders, and Lixercises It covers topics:

dicscl engine, pistons, cylinders, crankshalls, valve gear, cooling, kinds of fuel pumps, automatic warning units, direct current generators

* Part TI : Practical business English conversation

© Part TIT: Glossary

& Part TV: Vocabulary

« Part V: International conversation on standards of training, certification and

watch-keeping for seafarers

- Types of task and exercise in the course-book

* Reading: comprehension questions, True-False sentences, gap filling

© Grammar: building sentences, sentence transformation and gap filling

œ Tramlaliow transtaling from Bnglish into Vietnamese and translating from Vietnamese into English

2.2.5 The ESP teachers

‘The teaching staff of English Department at VIMARU consists of 35 teachers aged between 25 and 50 There are 15 teachers who take the charge of teaching ESP of all fields Only 3 teachers are responsible for teaching ESP for marine-engine students Most of the LISP teachers have finished or are doing their MA degrees ‘They always ty their best to give their students attractive and interesting ESP lessons However due to their mexperience in FSP, they have to face willy some diflicullies in lorms of knowledge of the specific field and the teaching methodologies appropriate to HSP

2.2.6 The students

The students whose evaluation this study focuses on arc all the second-year students of Marine Ungine Department All of them are male ranging from 19 to 22 years old Most of them are expected to lear Puglish related to their field which will help them in studying materials for their jobs in the future ‘those factors seem to be their advantages in learning English

However, those students have some disadvantages in learning English:

The first disadvantage is that most students of the Engine Department come from rural areas Before entering VIMARU, some students learned English for 6 years, sone learned English for 3 years, some learned Russian or French It can be said (hat marine engine classes consist of students of mixed English levels and abilities Moreover, classes are becoming bigger and bigger This is a challenge for the teachers teaching Hnglish to the students of the Marine Engine Department

The second disadvantage is about the students” leaming styles They do not have the habit of learning independently and tend to depend much on teachers and the given course-book for knowledge Accordingly, it is difficult for them to follow a new learning style which is used in learning English in general and ESP in particular The teachers, therefore, have to help students be familiar with this new learning method

The third disadvantage is student’s limited time frame for BSP They do not have much time in class, so they cannot lean much bul only lear a few of marine-

engine terms or concepts in English ‘thus, the students find it hard acquire and develop their English communicative competence to meet the needs of their future jobs

2.3 THE STUDY

2.3.1 Participants

162 out of 448 second-year students from Marine Engine Department were chosen to lake parl in this study They are all male studenls from Uhre classes MKT

31DH1, MKT51DH3 and MKTSEDH6 At the time when the survey was conducted,

these students had finished three first GE semesters and were im the second semester of

the ESP course

‘Lhe other group was 3 respondents who are currently working as LISP teachers

of marine engine al VIMARU

2.3.2 Data collection instruments

2.3.2.1 Questionnaire

Questionaire is used as an instrument to collce! data for this study Tk is designed to collect students’ information on evaluation of the currently- used DSP course-book in Marine Engine Department at VIMARU The questionnaire includes

four scclions with Wwelve iterus The researcher hoped to confirm Lhe reliability of the

information about the appropriateness of the material in terms of course aims, content, methodology The questionnaire (sce Appendix 1) consists of four scetions

- Section 1 was designed to get the information of the learners: the time of learning, English, the level of English, and their purpose of leaming ESP

- Section 2 was designed to collect the information on the leamers’ evaluation

of the current J/SP course-book related to aims, needs met by the course-book, content,

time allocation of ESP, vocabulary, grammar, skill development

- Section 3 was designed to gather the information about the leamers’ evaluation

of the teachers” exploitation of ESP course-book

- Seclion 4 was designed (o collect the learners’ suggestions

2.3.2.2 Interview

To gather more information for the study, interview is also used as an

imstrumenl To make the result of the interviews objective, three inlerviews were

conducted with three ESP teachers of Marine Lngine at three points of time (see

Appendix 3 for the results of the interviews} The interviews were designed with the

same questions related lo the following issues

- ‘The content of the course-book

+ The teachers’ perceived lituitations of the course-book

- The students’ reactions to the course-book as observed by teachers

- ‘The challenges to the students in using the course-book

+ The teachers’ sell-reported challenges in using the course-book

23.3 Procedure

The questionnaires were delivered to the learners while they were in their

classrooms The researcher guided to the students how to wTH€ the answors appropriately The researcher also helped them when necessary The students spent

about 30 minutes thinking and answering the questions After all the questionnaires

were collected, data was analyzed and resulls were then interpreted

In addition ta questionnaires, three interviews were carried out with three ESP

teachers of marme cngine at three different points of time in the teachers’ classrooms

‘The researcher raised the same questions to each teacher and collected all the answers

All the answers were represented in five tables (see Appendix 3)

2.4, SUMMARY

‘This chapter has provided an overview of the current Linglish teaching and

learning context at VIMARU The participants were second-year students at Marine Engine Department and ESP teachers of Knglish Department, VIMARU Besides,

questionnaire and interview being primarily based on three criteria: aims, content, and methodology were employed as major research instruments,

CHAPTERä3

DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

‘The data analysis is presented in the following frame

- Leamors’ altitude towards learning ESP

- Leamers’ evaluation on the current HSP course

- Leamers’ evaluation of the teachers’ exploitation of ISP course-book

- TLeamers’ suggestions

3.1.1 Learners’ attitude towards learning ESP

As mentioned in the previous chapter, these leamers are the second-year

students who finished three semesters of GE courses and are in the second semester of BSP course

Students’ time of learning English

162 students participating the research provided us with a variety of answers to

the question about their time of leaming Unglish

Table 1: Students’ time of learning English

Most of them (51/162 = 33.9%) have learned English for 9 to 11 years, others (42/162 35.9%) have been learning English for 7 Lo 9 years, 8.6% (14/162) have been

learning English for 1 to 3 years (because they leant Russian of French at school and started learning English when entering VIMARU) Surprisingly, there are 17 students

(10.5%) have keamed English for more Uva 1Ì years The resi of the leamers

(34/162=21 %) have been leaning Linglish for 3-5 years, and 5-7 years

Students’ levels of English

Chart 1: Students’ levels of English (Total number of informants: 162)

Most of these learners (75.4%) are at Pre-intermediate level, only 9.8 % of the

learners are at Elementary level and 13% are at Intermediate level Only 3 students

(1.8%) are at Upper-intermediate The difference in the time of their learning English

and in levels of English, to some extend, lead to the difference in identifying their

purposes of learning ESP

Students’ purposes of learning ESP

The following table shows a variety of purposes among these students:

important important | important

To improve English grammar 19.1% (31) | 22.2% (36) | 32 %(52) | 26.5%(43)

To widen ESP vocabulary 3.1% (5) 9.9%(16) | 40 %(65) | 47%(76)

To read technical documents/ 4.3% (7) | 12.3%(20) | 32.1%(52) | 51.3%(83)

The figures in Table 2 indicate that the most important purpose of learning

ESP to many learners is to read technical documents and to widen ESP vocabulary in

English Reading technical documents in English is seen as the most important purpose

to most of the learners (51.3%), About 47% of the learners consider widening ESP

vocabulary as their most important purpose when taking ESP course whereas only

3.1% of them rank this purpose of the least importance Similarly, applying for a job on

foreign ships seems to be the important purpose to these learners when 46.3% of them

see this purpose of any importance Besides, there are still 26.3% thinking that

improving English basis grammar is the most important

Obviously, all the leamers take part in the ESP course purposefully, Although some learners consider the purpose of learning ESP as a means of improving English basis grammar, most of them are aware that ESP is really a means of broadening

technical vocabulary as well as specialized knowledge in English and applying for working on board foreign ships

3.1.2 Students’ evaluation of the current ESP material

This part presents and discusses the information on leamers’ evaluation of the

current ESP course-book in terms of its relevance and usefulness, its content, its time allocation, vocabulary, grammar, skills development and exercises/ activities

Section 1: Students’ evaluation on the aims of the course-book

marine engine field

skills

Chart 2: The aims of the material (Total number of informants: 162)

All of students (100%) agreed that the course-book provides technical terms used in marine engine field Besides, most of them (142/162=87.6%) think that the course-book mainly focuses on training reading and tanslating skills However only nearly one-third of informants which account for 31.5% (51/162) agree that reading and translating are integrated with other skills In addition, only 35 out of 162 informants (217%) confim thal aller learning the course-book your grammar is improved Especially, only 25.3% agree that the course-book provides skills which are useful for their future jobs

Needs met by the ESP course-book

‘The students were asked to evaluate how much the course-book meet their

Tieecds This is shown m the following table:

Total number of informants: 162 (group 1: 58, group 2: SI, group 4: 53)

Table 3: Students’ needs met by the ESP course-book

As shown in Table 3, only 45 students( 27.8%) of 162 satisfied with the ESP

course-book One noticed thing is thal there is a significaril percentage of the learners

(46.3%) finding that the ESP course-book mects their needs little while only 29 of 162 informants (17.9%) think that the ESP course-book meets their needs much.

Obviously, the findings indicate that the HSP course-book does not really meet most of the learners’ needs, and it should have some changes to be more appropriate to the students and meel more their needs,

Section 2: Students’ evaluation on the content of ESP course-book

No/() | No/() | No/(4) | No/() Topies are

8, not very usclul 0(0 4.8) |0(0

9 useless a(0) 00) a(o)

As can be seen from Table 4, no one thinks (hal the Lopies covered in the ESP course-book are very impractical and only 4.9% of the leamers think that the topics are impractical Most of the Ieamers (50.6%) think that the topics covered in the ESP course-book are all right and 30.3% & 14.2% find that the topics are practical and very practical respectively, In general, those figures show that the majority of the learners satisfy with the topics in the ESP course-book However, it is a good idea to provide

more interesting topics in order to satisfy more leamers

Information in the ESP course-book

The figures in Table 4 indicate that no one in the three groups think the

information in the ESP course-book is useless In addition, no one in group 1 and

group 3 find that the information is not very useful ‘Lhere is only 4 out of 51

informants Of group 2 (2.5%) think that the information is not very useful Most of the

learners (62.3%) find that the mformation is useful (62% m group 1, 60.8% m group 2

and 64.2% in group 3) ‘This finding indicates that most of the leamers are satisfied wilh the usefulness of the mlormation given in (he course-book

However, information in the ESP course-book should be paid more attention in

terms of its update Although there is a slight difference in the proportions of the

learners who twink that the course-book should provide them with more update

information (58%) and 42% of them find that the information in the course-book is

update More leamers are not satisfied with the information given in the course-hook Accordingly, more up-to-date information should be added La the course-book to meet

the learners’ needs better

Section 3: Students’ evaluation on time allocation for ESP

Categories too much much enough Tinle too little

‘Time for the course | 6(4/7%) | 8(49%) |51(31.5 75(463) |?7203.6

‘Tame for each unit | 15(9.2%⁄) |24(148) |98(605) 17105) | 8 (5%)

Table 5: Students’ attitude towards time allocation for SP

As mentioned im the previous chapter, line allocaled for an ESP course is 120

periods and time allocated for each of 14 units in the ESP course-book is 8 periods On answering the survey question of time allocation for ESP course, most of the leamers

(46.3%) agree that i is little and the other (13.6%) think that i is too httle Only 6 out

of 162 informants (account for 3.7%) find that it is too much and the other 4.9% find

that it is much, With respect to time allocated for each of 14 units in the course-book,

30