Luận văn an evaluation of the course book new cutting edge elementary for the first –year accounting students of haiphong polytechnics college

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOL UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST — GRADUATE STUDIES BO THI QUYNH CHAM AN EVALUATION OF THE COURSE BOOK “NEW

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

FACULTY OF POST — GRADUATE STUDIES

BO THI QUYNH CHAM

AN EVALUATION OF THE COURSE BOOK “NEW CUTTING EDGE —

ELEMENTARY” FOR THE FIRST - YEAR ACCOLNTING STUDENTS

OF HAIPHONG POLYTECHNICS COLLEGE

(Đánh giá giáo trình “New Cutting Edge — Elementary” dành cho sinh viền năm thứ

nhất chuyên ngành kể toàn trường Cao đẳng nghề Bách Nghệ Hải Phòng)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 601410

HANOT, 2012

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

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

pO THI QUYNH CHAM

AN EVALUATION OF THE COURSE BOOK “NEW CUTTING EDGE — ELEMENTARY” FOR THE FIRST - YEAR ACCOLNTING STUDENTS

OF HAIPHONG POLYTECHNICS COLLEGE

(anh giá giáo trinh “New Cutting Edge — Elementary” dinh cho sinh vién nim thie

nhất chuyên ngành kế toán trường Cao đăng nghề Bách Nghệ Hãi Phòng)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 601410

Supervisor: Pham Minh Hign, MA

TIANOI, 2012

1 Rational of the study

2 Aim af the stuily

3, Method of the study

4 Scope af the study

5, Significance of the study

6 Design of the stud;

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

Chapter 1: Literature Review

1.2.1 Definitions of material evaluation 6

1.2.5 Criteria for materials evaluation HH1 E002 m0 2 tre wed

1.2.6 Materials evaluation procedure HH1 kg tr re « TẾ

1.3 Materials adaplation

Chapter 2: Research Methodology

2.1 An overview of current English Teaching and Learning at HPPC

2.4, Data analysis procedure

Chapter 3: Analysis of data and suggestions for materials adaptation

3.1 Evaluation of students’ needs

3.1.1, Students’ English level and Ranking of assumed purposes in learning GE 19

3.1.2 Evaluation on the needs the course book mcets ay

3.2, Evaluation on the Objectives of the Course

3.2.1 Vocabulary improvement 22 3.2.2 Students" speakdine tasks completlon theo 23 3.2.3 Language Proficiency ¬— HH ng Hung hi 24 3.2.4 General evaluation of students’ progress 25

3.3, Evaluation on the format of the course boo

3.4, Evaluation on the content of the course book

3.4.1 Proportion of the four macro-skills 2ï 3.4.2 Topios in the course book LH HH0 H01 gen re 3

3.4.4, Practice in the eourse bodk HH n0 0e rre „.30 3.5, Evaluation on the methodology of the course book

3.5.2, Hiffect of the teaching, aids LH HH0 H01 gen re 32 3.6, Evaluation findings

3.6.1 Evaluation on the learners’ needs 33

3.6.2 Evaluation on the course objectives HH n0 0e rre „38 3.6.3 Livaluation on the format of the course book sec „38

3.6.4 Evalualion on the content of the course book 34

3.6.5, livaluation ơn the methodology of the eourse book we 34 3.7, Recommendation for the course baok's adaptation

3.7.1 8upplementing, HHu re

3.7.2 Hditing ¬— ¬— 1n „36 3.7.2 Expanding 37 3.7.3 Persornlizing 38 3.7.4, Localizing or modifying cultural/situational content 38 3.7.5, Simplifying 38

ABBREVIATIONS

English Language ‘Teaching

General English Haiphong Polytechnics College New Cutting Lidge lementary Ss: Students

Ts: ‘Teachers

ULIS, VNUIL: University of Languages and Intemational Studies, Vietnam

Nalional Universily, Hanoi

vil

LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES AND CHARTS

TABLES

Table 1: Teachers and students’ ranking of the purposes of GE Course

Table 2: Evaluation on the needs satisfied by the course book

Table 3: Studenis’ speaking tasks completion

‘Table 4; Evaluation on the format of the course book

Table 5: Proportion of the macro-skills

Table 6: Student’s level of proficiency in language points

‘Table 7: ‘Teachers and students’ opinion on the Practice of the course book Table 8: Evaluation on the methodology of the course book

FIGURES

Figwe 1; The material process by Torlinson aud Alan Wators (1987, p.97) CHARTS

Chart 1: Students’ Linglish level at the beginning of the course

Charl 2: Students’ vocabulary improvement

Chart 3: valuation on the students’ progress

Chart 4: Evaluation on the vocabulary of the course book

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PART A: INTRODUCTION

1, Rationale of the study

Course books arc the mostly used in teaching and leaming materials for both teachers and the leamers ‘They not only provide a framework for teachers in achieving the aims and objectives of the course but also play an important role as 2 guide to the

teacher in conducting the lesson On behalf of the learners, a course book truly affects

their attitudes and performance to the lesson throughout the course It is a fact that

when Icarners like their course books, they like the course as well and become active

participants to the lesson ‘Thus, using a course book is probably the most common way of teaching English today Having a course book in the trend of teaching and learning is a vilal clement and is looked upon as an indispensable moan, consequently, selecting a proper book or providing a course book is of great importance, too However, now wilh a variely of lexthook available on the market each with a different methodology and syllabus, it can be much mere difficult to choose the best suitable book for a particular teaching situation In fact, there is no course book can be absolutely ideal for a particular group of learners (Curmingsworth,1995), evaluation and selection of suitable material would be essential and important issues for language teachers A thorough evaluation will pave the way for teaching staff of each organization and policy makers to have this ability to discriminate among all the available books in the market and considering weak as well as strong points of each book educators can choose the most appropriate book Therefore, in order to take the advantage of the materials, it is necessary for individuals, especially language teachers,

to carefully examine all aspects of the materials

The course book “New Culling Fdge- Elementary” is used for teaching Pre- ESP for the first year accounting students at the Economics Faculty since 2008 and also had both positive and negative response from both students and teachers

However, up lo now, nu research on the course book evaluation has heen conducted 10

recognize its strength and weakness as well as how suitably the course book matched the goal of the course Tn response to the problem, ais ar urgent demand to carry out

an evaluation of the course book to determine its appropriateness for students at our

college then provide the adaptation for the better use This is also the reason for the

wiiter Lo choose the material evaluation for the thesis:

“An evaluation of the course book “New Cutting Edge — Elementary” for the (first - year accounting students of Haiphong Polytechnics College”

2 Aims of the study

The study is carried out to improve the effectiveness of teaching the course book — NCEE for the first-year accounting students of HP Polyicchnics College So the specific purposes of the study are as follow:

- To investigate the English teaching and leaming context at HPPC

- To cvaluate the ewrerlly adopted course book New Culling Edge Flementary irom the viewpoints of both teachers at Foreign Language Faculty and the first year accounting students of Haiphong Polytechnics College

- To offer the suggestion for the course book’s adaptations

3 Methods of the study

For this sludy, two main instruments are applied lo collect data

- Survey questionnaires are designed for both teachers and the first - year accounting, students at laiphong Polytechnics College

- Formal interviews are conducted to look for students” and teachers’ opinions to the

course book basing on their experience in using it

4 Scope of the study

‘The course book New Cutting Hdge Hlementary has been used for teaching Pre-ESP for the first year students of oonomies Faculty as well as Navigation Faculty at Haiphong Polytechnics College However, due to the imiation of @ anor thesis, his study just mainly focuses on generally cvaluating the course book New Cutting Edge — Elementary for only accounting students at Economics Faculty in term of Learner's Demand, Formal, Objective, Content and Methodology to evaluate the suitabilily of the material to the real Pre-HSP teaching and leaning at HPPC

5, Significance of the study

Firstly, the finding of this study will help the teachers to identify the strength and weakness of the course book to adjust their teaching method and adapt the material so

as to provide students with the most effective lessons.

Furthermore, it is expected that the result of research, to some extent, could become

the reference material for (hose mterested im the field of material evaluation

6 Design of the study

The thesis consisis of three parks

Part 1: Introduction states the rational, aim, scope, methods and design of the study Part Il: Development is divided into three main chapters

Chapter 1 provides the readers with literalure review on the aspecis relating to material evaluation such as: materials in language teaching and learning, materials evaluation, and evaluation types, as well as methods and criteria, purpose of materials Besides, in this chapter, materials adaptation for the belter use has been presented

Chapter 2 deals with an overview of curremt English teaching and leaming situation at Reonomics Faculty of HPPC, research method as well as description of data collection procedure and data analysis procedure which involve in the rescarch

process

Chapter 3 presents and reports the analysis ol the study and oncloses suggestions for the course book adaptation

Part HH: Conclusion summarizes the major findings, limitation of the study and

suggestions for further research.

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CITAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter has addressed Lic key notions about material and matertal evaluation,

These issues, where possible, have been supported by academic literature The first issuc in this chapler concerns with materials in language leaching and fearing The second one presents an overview of materials evaluation At last, the chapter will end

up with theoretical discussion about materials adaptation,

1.1 Materials in language teaching and learning

LLL Definitions

To do book evaluation in a correct way, first defining characteristics and giving a good

definition about textbook, course book and material are necessary

From his point of view, Tomlinson (1998) defines that a textbook provides the core materials for a course Tt 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 use during a course Such a book usually includes work on grammar, vocabulary, pronmnciation, functions and the skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking

Richards (2001) stated that “Textbooks are a key component in most language programs In some situations, they serve as the basic for much of the language input learners receive and the language practice thal occurs in the classroom In other situations, the textbook may serve primarily to supplement the teachers’ instruction” TLis assumed that a textbook is a teaching tool (material) which presents the subject matter defined by the ewriculum A textbook has always been the most preferred instructional material in ELT They are best seen as a resource in achieving aims and objectives that have already heen set concerning learner needs

According to ‘Yomlinson (1998), course book is 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 be serve as the only book whrich the learner necessarily use during a course Such a book usually includes work on grammar, vocabulary, function and the skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking

Although the definition which Ur (1996: 183) has given is a simple one, it is very

useful and easy to understand It reads as follows:

4

The term ‘course book’ means, a text book of which the teacher and each student has a

copy and which is in principle to be followed systematically as the busis for a language course Therefore, from the above definition one can get that a course book must have al leasi being available m the hand of students and teachers, and used systematically in a course of study, and a course of study in this article refers to an English course of study

The term “course book” is somelimes associaled with text materials as il has becn

specifically selected and exploited for teaching purposes by the classroom teacher particularly in the local setting Frequently, a course book is considered core materials

of a certain course Ti may be aceompanied wilh a variely of supplementary materials Tomlinson (1998) identified materials as anything which is used to help to teach

language learners Materials can be in the form of a textbook, a workbook, a cassette, a

CD -Rom, a video, a photocopied handout, a newspaper, a paragraph written on a white board: anything which presents or informs about the language He also supposed

“the term is used to refer to anything which is used by Leachers or learners lo facililate the learning of a language” In other word, they can be anything which is deliberately used to increase the learners’ knowledge and/or experience of the language

Therefore, it is agreed that materials include anything which can be used to facilitate the learning of a language They can be instructional, experiential, exploratory, in that they can inform leamers about the language, they can provide experience of the language use, they can stimulate language use or they can help learners to make discoveries about the language for themselves

12 Role of materials in General English Course

There arc five mportant components involved in English language instruction namely students, teachers, materials, teaching, methods, and evaluations among which essential

constituents are the texthooks and instruction materials because these instruction

materials provide the foundation for the content of the lesson, the balance of the skill

taught, as well as the kinds of language practice the shuderls engage in during class

activities

‘The role of materials in language teaching has also been discussed by different authors

with various points of view A textbook can serve different purposes for teachers: as a

core resource a resource of supplementary materials, an inspiration for classroom

aclivilies and even ihe curriculum itsell (Gannger, 2002)

Confirming the importance roles of teaching materials, Llutchinson and Torres (1994, p315) state

"No teaching — learning situations, it seems, is complete until it has its relevant textbook, adding that textbooks can support teachers thraugh potentially disturbing and threatening change processes, demonstrate new and/or untried methodologies, introduced

change gradually und creule scaffolding upon which teachers can build a more creative

methodology of their own’

Lence, leaming how to use and adapt textbook is an important part of a teacher’s

prolessional knowledge Throughout this thesis, the three basic terms mentioned abave will be used interchangeably in order to serve the purpose of the study

1.2 Material evaluation

1.21 Definition of material evaluation

‘A numbers of researchers have expressed their own points of view towards the

definitions of material evaluation

According to Dudley 1998, “Rvaluation is a whole process which begins with determining what information to gather and end with bringing about the change in the

current activilies or influencing fulure ones”

In his overview, Tomlinson (1998, p3) claims that “this term refers to attempts to measure the value of materials” In many cases, this is done impressionistically and

cons

of allempls to predict whether or nol the material will work, in the sense thal the learners will be able to use them without too much difficulty and will enjoy the experience of doing so

Hutchinson and Waters (1987, 96) point out that cvaluation is matching process

designed to establish the degree of match between the needs and available solutions It

refers to the attempts to measure the value of materials and is aimed at assessing the fitness Though each researcher has his own opinion on material evaluation, they still come to the conclusion that evaluation is the process of collecting data giving judgments based on the collected data, and the most importantly, evaluation must

include action

1.2.2 Purposes of materials evaluation

Material evaluation plays an important part in the improvement of a language course

as il helps to identify particular strength and weakness of (he material in use Aller being used for the language course in a certain time, teaching materials need evaluating to see if they have worked well to moet the expcelation of students

Regarding the purposes of material evaluation, Sheldon (1998) has offered several other reasons for textbook evaluation Ile suggested that a thorough evaluation would provide for a souse of familiarity with a book’s content thal assisting educalors in identifying the particular strength and weakness in textbook already in use ‘his would help teachers make the optimum use of a book’s strong points and recognizing the

shorteoming of ceriain exercises, taska, and entire Lex!

According to Cunningsworth (1995), through evaluation, we can assess whether the course book is the most appropriate for the target learners at varicus levels and in

various teaching settings

Anderson (1992) sets aut a list of purposes of materials evaluation as follow

- To decide whether the materials have had the inlended effec

- To identify what affect materials have had

- To vindicate a decision

- To justify the future course of action

- To compare approaches/methodologies

- To identify the areas for improvement in the furure use

- To show the positive achievements of teachers and students

- To motivate teachers

- To allay suspicions among parenls and sponsors

1.23 Types of materials evaluation

There are many different types of materials evaluation offered by a number of

researchers According to Cunmingsworth (1995, p76) and McGrath (2002:14-15),

there are three types of material evaluation: pre-use, in use and post use evaluation

This classificalion is similar to Ellis (1997) with different names, ie Preliminary,

Formative and Summative Evaluation respectively In spite of different terms uscd to refer types of materials evaluation, these terms are basically similar and discussed as

containing three types.

- The first type, pre-use evaluation: according to Tomlinson (2003:23) often takes place belore the materials are used to predict the potential value of materials for the users to select a course book for use with a particular class It seems that pre-use evaluation fends to be the most diffivull type as there is no actual experionce of using

the materials

- The second type, in-use evaluation is a kind of evaluation of suitability, involving

“inalcling the couse book against a specific requirement including the learner's objectives, the leamers’ background, the resources available, etc” (Cunningsworth,

1995, p14)

- The third typo, posl-use evaluation rolers lo an assessment of # textbook's [ilnicss over a period of continual use According to Tomlinson (2003:25), evaluation of this kind can be “the most valuable as it can measure the actual effect of the material on

the users” Basing on the data measured, cvaluaters can make reliable decisions about

the use, adaptation or replacement of the materials However, this type of material is normally lime — consuming,

Generally, each type of materials has its certain strength and weakness, so it is

necessary for the evaluators to determine what type of materials evaluation will be the

most suitable for specific context Basing on the curent context of Haiphong Polytechnics College, the writer decided to choose the in use evaluation to measure the appropriateness of the course book and offer some method of adaptation for its

better use

1.2.4 Methods of materials evaluation

1.2.4.1.The wpressionistic method

According to Cunningsworth (1995:2), the impressionistic method is designed to be

able to gain an impression of a book by looking rather more carefully at representative features, such as the organization, lopies layoul, visuals and the design of a uni or lesson or more specific features, such as the treatment of particular language elements Therefore this method is wide ranging but relatively superficial due to the fact that

“techniques of impressionistic cvalualion cover (he wide spectrum”,

1.2.4.2 the checklist method

MocGrath (2002) states thal “a checklist is likely to need lailoring to suil a parlicular

context, and this can involve a good deal more than simply deleting checklist items

8

which are in applicable Moreover, William (1993, cited in McGrath, 2002:27) points

oul that “checklist cannul a static phenomenon” This means that the ilems in all materials evaluation checklist reflect the time at which they are conceived

1.2.4.3 The m-depih method

Indepth method consists of a focus on specific features (Cunningsworth, 1995), close

analysis of one or more extracts (ITutchinson and Waters, 1987), or throughout

cxamination of two unils using predetermined questions (McGralh, 2002) McGrath also argued that besides its advantages, this evaluation method has certain disadvantages Firstly, samples selected for analysis may not be representative of the book as a whole Secondly, only a particular section of the material is focused

Moreover, this method takes time and requires expert knowledge (MeGrath, 2002:28) 1.2.5 Criteria for materials evaluation

Criteria for materials evaluation is one of the most difficult problems for materials

evaluator during the process of taterals evaluation,

William (1983) suggests seven criteria, cach of which has the following aspects

- General criteria: give introductory guidance on the presentation of the language

items and skills

- Speech criteria: suggest aids for the teaching of promumciation: e.g phonetic system

- Grammar criteria: offer meaningful situations and variety of techniques for teaching struclural units

- Vocabulary criteria: distinguish the different purposes and skills involved in the teaching of vocabulary

- Reacting criteria provide the guidance on the initial presentation of passages for

reading comprehension

- Writing criteria: demonstrals the various devices for controlling and guiding contert and expression in compositions oxorcises

- Technique criteria: contain appropriate pictures, diagrams, table, ete

Hutchinson and Waters (1987:99) present their own checklist of criteria for objective

and subjective analysis, which is not an exhaustive list, and is based on the following four aspects: audience, aim, content, and methodology

Meanwhile, Sheldon (1998) suggests thal there is uo general lisl of criteria which can really be applicable to all teaching and leaming context without considerable

g

modification In the same opinion, Cunningsworth (1995) assures that any selection procedure should be modified lo suit personal circumstances Therefore, selecting and modifying particular items to produce an individualized checklist is the best method to

make sure thal iL ia suitable to the parlicular teaching and learning corilexts

1.2.6 Materials evaluation procedure

Tlutchinson and Water (1987) provided the four steps of materials evaluation

‘material being evalsated realize the

Subjective Analysis

What realization of Ube criteria do you

Matching, How far does the matarial match your

identify the requirements for materials so the evaluator should describe in detail on

that is, to evaluate whether the existing materials realize the criteria set in the

subjective analysis The last one is the matching process, which finds out haw far the

material matches the course requirements

1,3 Materials adaptation

Materials adaptation plays an important part in the process of language teaching and learning It makes the tcaching materials more relevant to the needs of students and to

objectives of the course, and therefore, would stimulate the effectiveness of teaching

and learning There is a fact that no textbook is perfect Any textbook should be used

judiciously, since it cannot be cater equally to the requirements of every classroom

10

setting (William, 1983, p251) That is why the textbook should be adapted Teachers, with direcl personal knowledge of their classroom tcaching, should see textbook as

their servants instead of master; as a resource or an “ideas bank” which can stimulate

teachers’ own orvative potential (Cunningsworth, 1984, p65)

According to Madsen and Bowen (1978), “every teacher is in a very real sense an

adapter of the material he uses”, and adaptation is the process of employing “one or more number of iechniques: “supplementing, editing, expanding, personalizing, simplifying, modernizing, localizing, or modifying cultural/situational content” At the same time, Ellis (1986:17) mentions the process of “retaining, rejecting, reordering, and modification”

Whatever the definitions give, adaptations can be understood as a process of matching

so as to maximize the strength of teaching materials in context, by changing some of the internal characteristics of a textbook or a set of materials to suit a specific situation

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

With the aim of reaching the objectives of the research, this chapter will present the detailed description of current learning and teachmg English ai the Eeonomies

Faculty of IIPPC in which the research was conducted And in the next section, the

wriler will pul forward an explanation of her underslancbng of the methods used m this research and also their advantages

2.1 An overview of current English Teaching and Learning at IIPPC

24.1 Context

Haiphong Polytechnics College has become one of the leading vocational

colleges in the Marine section since it was founded in 2001 As a newly — established

vocational college, it consists of six main faculties: Navigation, Marine Engine, and Ship building Technology, Economics, Information Technology, Dlectricity and Electronics Among them, Economics Faculty can be seen to be the most important one with a large amount of students joining the course The students al HPPC generally leam Lnglish for two years or the first year, they will be provided with general English by using ihe course book “New Culling Edge - Elementary” In comparison with the English level of the students in other Faculties, the accounting students are considered to be much better at language skills as most of them are female and they are oflen hard working and have positive altitude toward their future jobs

However, it can also be assumed that as a vocational college, most students lack the knowledge of English and learning methods Therefore, the result showed that there is

a small mmnber of students with acceptable English skill

In the general English course for the first - year accounting students, Inglish subject is taught in the first semester with totally 120 periods During the course, the students have to complete ten modules in the course book “New Cutting Hdge Elementary” by Peter moor and Sarah Cunningham in 2005 which provides the students with general knowledge of Fnglish with the integration of Cour skills equivalori to slementary level During the term, depending on the number of periods, the students have three or four

mid-term tests and at the end of each term, they will have to take the final oral test

21.2 The course objectives

12

On the basis of the requirements set by Ministry of Labor — Invalids and Social Allairs and the [actual situation of teaching and learning English in Haiphong Polytechnics College (LEPPC), the following material requirements for a GL course for first ycar accourding students itr the two terms have beon officially approved in the Foreign Language Faculty’s Cumeulum and Syllabus, which are presented hereafter

- Use the simple grammar structures provided in the course book,

- Be able to communicate in daily conversations in English

- Express their feelings, thoughts and emotions

- Read and comprchend the short paragraphs fluently

- Write a short description of the required topic

21.3 Contents

Interms of content, the course book is sct to achieve the following, points At first, it is necessary to equip students with a variety of communicative situation Hence, the students need to gel involved in different Lupics that hey have chances lo use their English in daily activilies such as greetings, introducing themselves, talking about family, hobbies, jabs, favorite things, etc Besides, in each module, the book supplies the students with topic —based vocabulary which serves as the key factor to help them communicate successfully in Linglish Afterwards, as regards the language points, the

course book ineludes all the commonly — used grammatical items and structures in the

imanner that they are not too complicated and these grammatical pattems can be revised in the following, lessons Ideally, the basic English grammar in the book cauld

encourage the students Lo take part m real siluations Also, the tasks and exercises are

not too difficult because most of the students whe arc learning the book are at average

English level and especially they are sufficient enough for the students’ leaming demand, that is to say they encourage students’ langunge skills and onlance their sctl- study Similarly, four skills should be equally paid attention to Finally, the content of

the material should be reasonably organized throughout the book as well as within cach unit so as to avoid students’ boredom and confuscdness

2.1.4, The material description

The course book “New Cutting Edge — Elementary” is written by Peter Moor and

Sarah Cunningham with Frances Hales in 2005 It consist of 15 modules with 15

different topics relating to our life such as greetings, introducing themselves, talking about lamily, hobbies, jobs, favorite things, etc New Culling Edge Elementary gives students an all-round practical knowledge of grammar, skills, vocabulary and real-life fumetional language The new editions retain Lhe ingredients that have made this course

so popular and also introduce useful new features

A typical module consists of the following sections

- Language focus New grammar struclures are presented by using pictures, discussion questions or asking students to read or listen to a conversation After the form, and the tule, students have chances to practice with a variety of exercises

- Vocubulary: the slucenis are asked Lo predict new words and their moaning based on the words given in the border together with several available pictures or small games After that, the students listen to the CTD player/typescript for the way to pronoun Good dictionaries, such as the Longman Basie English Dictionary or Oxford Dictionary will also help stadents to raise their vocabulary

- Tusks (4 skills): For cach modulc, different skills are paid aticntion to improve the

section of language focus and vocabulary

In the reading and listening sections: students can understand very short simple texts

in a single phrase at time, picking up familiar names, words and basic phrascs and rereading as required ‘Ihen they can follow speech which is very slow and carefully articulated, with long pauses for him/her to assimilate meaning Finally, they must listen to the CD player to check their ideas and listen more carefully to do some related

exercises

Tn speaking and writing sections, piclures and discussion are used to help the students activate their knowledge about the topic The students practice speaking skills using conversation pieces in listening part Finally, students must summarize the text's

contenl lo wrile a paragraph on the requirements of each one

- Pronunciation: the students practice sound under the direction of teachers, and then

listening to the CD player to check Finally, they repeal lo remember and pronoun

smoothly

‘There are three consolidation modules after every five modules (module 5, module

10, and module 15) which help the students to revise theories and practice more

exercises,

14

Transcription of difficult words and their meanings are presented at the end of the couse book Besides coming wilh this material are 3 CD’s and the students’ workbook

- What adaptations are needed for its better use?

review thoroughly and rate the course book according to the criteria basing on their

own expericnee

2.2.3, instruments

Tn order to evaluate the course book im terms of learners’ need, objective, format,

content and methodology, among the most usual methods or means of evaluation,

found in a number of authors such as questionnaires, interviews, observation, discussion, records and assessment, two main techmiques for dala collecuion used im

this study are questionnaires and formal interview

2.2.3.1 Questionnaires

Survey questionnaire is a popular instrument in the social scicnces as it is helpful collecting opinions and would be extremely beneficial in specifying aims and analyzing the teaching and learning situation (1.itz, 2005) They have a lot of advantages among which the most obvious may be the fact that the respondents can complete them without any pressure; as a result, they can express their thought freely

Besides, closely ended questions are straighl forward to answer (Gillham, 2000)

In this study, two questionnaires were used for teachers and students to collect their attitude and information on evaluation of the currently used material “New Cutting Edge - Elementary” Each questionnaire is divided into 6 sections:

Section 1 with three questions aims at discovering the students’ Unglish background,

their expectation as well as evaluation on the needs satisfied by the book from the

English course at the college

Section 2 with four questions tries to find out whether students make any progress to

gel

the objectives after the course

Section 3 is designed to gather students’ judgment about the current course book in

term of formal

Section 4 consists of four questions aiming at getting opinions about the content of the

malerials including the topics, skills allocation in each lessou and practice exercise

Section 5 puts its focus on finding out the appropriateness of the methodology of the

assessed book

16

Section 6 with only one question is supposed to collect the general evaluation on the course book in use and the suggestions for adaplation from the bol teachers and

students

2.2.3.2 Formal Interview

‘The purpose of the interview is to collect supplementary ideas for teachers and students after responding to the above questionnaires Johnson (D.M 1992:115) states that response rates {rom inlerview can be quite high and respondents are more likely to answer the questions presented because of their personal involvement with the

interviewer Therefore, the interviewer can obtain more meaningful information

becamse he/she can rephrase questions (hat ara not clear to the respondent

For these reasons, the second method used in this study is structured interview This

type of interview was conducted with 10 English teachers at HPPC The interview which consists of 15 questions thought carcfully and selected in advance help to find out the appropriateness and inappropriateness of the course book in terms of learners’

demand, chjectives, formals, contents and methodology

2.3, Data collection procedure

The research carried out the data collection through questionnaire for both the teachers

and the students First, rescarch developed the questionnaire basing on the criteria she had selected with regard to five main aspects under study ‘hen the student survey was

administrated in the end of class meeting of the course The students were requested to

complete the questionnaire during the class time so that they were more willing to do it and could clarify the ambiguous questions (if any) and last, but not least, could return all the questionnaires ismedialely

Also, the English teachers are invited to complete and return the questionnaires within two days to make sure that they are well-prepared to provide the detailed and accurate

information

After collecting the data from teachers and students, it was summarized by hand and

calegorived in form of tables and charts where appropriale

2.4, Data analysis pracedure

In this thesis, the data from questionnaire was processed by using descriptive statistics

which are often reported in percentage

The data from the English teacher and student interviews were processed by doing transcript Lisl, being quoted to compare support aud challenge the findings during the course of analyzing data,

Tw summary, this chapter has presented the overview of current Fnglish teaching and leaming at Eeonomie Faculty, HPPC ‘The reasons for choosing the research methodology were discussed together with setting out the research questions Furhenuore, the chapler also deseribed the data collection as well as the analytical procedures which lead to the result of the survey as introduced in the next chapter

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CHAPTER 3: ANALYSIS OF RESULTS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR

MATERIALS ADAPTATION

This chapter will discuss the results of the survey conducted through questionnaires

and interview They are summarized in four categories followed by the five aspects

concemed with the study: objectives, format, content, methodology and the other

ordered aspects, accompanied with the comparison between the teachers’ and students’

answers towards each item in the questionnaires

3.1 Evaluation on the students’ need

3.1.1 Students’ English level at the beginning of the course and their ranking of assumed purposes in learning English

Before any courses, the identification of leamer’s level is often paid out much

attention as it helps book writers to provide the most suitable content of knowledge,

and then improve the learners’ language skills

Chart 1: Students’ English level at the beginning of the course

Chart 1 finds out both teachers and students have the same assessments on the

students’ level of learning English at the college, the level of average and under

average are mostly chosen A little difference comes from the belief of students at

themselves Even no students confirm that they are excellent at English but some suppose that before the course they are good at English (15%), and about 60% judge

their English level is average and 25% admit that they are still too bad at the subject

Teachers seem not to highly appreciate their students’ English level when they claimed

that none of their students had excellent or good background knowledge of English

The levels of average (80%) and under average (20%) are also their choices So there

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is an obvious fact that the students’ English background in our school is average, it

was also the warning fact of many vocational colleges in our country

It is really important for the book writer to get to know the students’ relevant

purpose so as to choose the most appropriate textbooks and teaching methods Some of

the reasons for motivating students in leaming English combining with their own

choice are also suggested The answer to this question by teacher and student can be

summarized in the following table:

with the high scores

Prepare for the future job 30% | 40% | 25% | 15% | 60% | 25% | 10% | 5% Follow the hobbies (listening

Table 1: Teachers and students’ ranking of the purposes of GE Course

Table 1 shows the differences between students and the teacher’s purposes of learning

English As it can be seen from this table, to prepare for their future work is the most important objectives of most students, with the highest percentage (60%) While many

teachers insists that to pass the final examination with the high score is the main goal

of most of their students (50%) The teachers seem to be more pessimistic to claim that

students study English for the reason that they desire to have good points after

finishing the course The fact is that, however, students need English to build up their

confidence at work Besides table 1 summarizes both teachers and students share the

same opinion on the least important target to study English - to follow the hobbies

Hobbies are always changeable, especially for the youth, but if one day students do not

remain their passion like listening to music or watching films, it leads to the result they

immediately give up studying Luckily, most of students study English purposefully

‘That is only a pity that teachers and students did not give any other opinions on the

purposes of studying English to supplement the writer

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3.1.2, Evaluation on the needs satisfied by the course book

It can be said that the identification of students’ expectation can be seen the most

important tasks before the course The question given here is whether teachers and

students share the same opinion on their assessment of the needs the course book

meets Let’s see the following table’

Students (%)

Pass the final examination with the

70% 88%

higher scores

Follow the hobbies (listening to music,

20% 14%

watching TV )

Other 30% 21%

Table 2: Evaluation on the needs satisfied by the course book

Table 2 presents the figure regarding teachers and students’ opinions about the needs

that the course book satisfies As it can be seen from the table 3, students strongly

believe that the course book NCEE could help them to prepare for their future jobs

(62%) Most of them (88%) assure that the book may show them the way to overcome the examination The percentage of the students chooses “communicate with the

foreigners” and “follow the hobbies (listening to music, watching TV )” are

comparatively low At the same time, there is a high agreement between the teachers

and students’ evaluation Some students also mention the other needs the book meets

like: “understanding teachers’ lectures, using the internet, reading English books or

papers, ”

For teachers, they also share the opinion that NCEE is a very effective instrument for

their

students to make well preparation for the future jobs And 70 % of them confirm that

for being sufficiently trained by the book students have no difficulties in passing the

examination Similar to their students, teachers definitely affirm that the needs of

“communicate with the foreigners” and “follow the hobbies (listening to music,

watching TV )” will not be achieved by students after the course

3.2 Evaluation on the Objectives of the Course

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3.2.1 Vocabulary improvement

Results from teachers and students about the students’ vocabulary enrichment can be

summarized in the following chart:

m= much improved Bimproved

not improved at all

Teachers Students

Chart 2: Students’ Vocabulary Improvement

Looking at chart 2, it can be seen that teachers and students do not completely make an

agreement among the issue Even most of the teachers and students suppose that the

course book helps students improve their vocabulary However, 26% of students have

the positive response of the course when they confirm their vocabulary is much

improved after the course, and only 10 % of teachers share the same idea with them

The great amounts of teachers identify that students do not get much significant

progress in vocabulary Luckily, only 10% of teachers and 12 % of students complain

the course does not bring them any improvement of vocabulary Therefore, the

collected data showed that students’ vocabulary improvement matches the expected

requirement

3.2.2 Students’ speaking tasks completion

SUT

Tell about your hobbies 90% 92%

Tell about an unforgettable memory in your

Table 3: Students’ speaking tasks completion

Speaking skill may be considered to be the most important one in CLT Table 3 has

pointed out the six typical speaking tasks appeared in the final oral test of the subject,

among them 4 of 6 mentioned tasks are able to complete by the majority of students,

between 50%-100%, they are Introduce yourself and your family, Tell about your

hobbies Order food and drink, Ask in shops whereas the rest appeared not so complicated Telling about an unforgettable memory in your childhood and the

favorite tourist area in your hometown seem to be the hardest topics with 30-32% of

students could do them As for the challenges in these tasks, they blame for the lack of

vocabulary as well as their poor grammatical structures relating to past tense

Therefore, it is understandable which they face a lot of difficulties in these tasks

In regard of teachers’ feedback, they confirm definitely their students could

overcome successfully with the tasks of Introduce yourself and your family, Tell about

your hobbies; Order food and drink, Ask in shops Similar to the tasks of Telling about

an unforgettable memory in your childhood and the favorite tourist area in your

hometown were hardly completed by their students Furthermore, another reason

teachers provide in their class observation is that the students seem not to be interested

in talking about those topics because they are all beyond their needs and knowledge

3.2.3 Language Point Proficiency

30% | 22% | 40% | 36% | 20% | 26% | 10% | 16% Adj/Pronoun

Present Simple Tense 30% | 20% | 30% | 24% | 20% | 25% | 20% | 21% Can/can’t 50% | 25% | 30% | 38% | 10% | 25% | 10% | 12%

There be 40⁄4 249 | 30% 36% | 20% 22% | 10% | 18%

Present Perfect Tense 10% 12% | 20% 21% | 20% 44% | 50% | 25%

Table 4: Student's level of proficiency in language points The data shown in the table prove that there is a close similarity between two proups

of respondents The result indicates that ihe Language Points that students can use well include: Io be, Demonstrative Adj/Pronoun, can/ can’t, there be, some/any, how muchhow many, Countable/Uncountable Noun, simple present _ tense,

continuous tense, present perfect tense, comparatives/superlatives appeared to difficult

to them., some sluderts has been interviewed so as to find the explariation for this,

they said that they could offoctively use the structures as they are not too difficult to remember and put them in practice, and students honestly explained that at their high schools these language points wa

lao taught, so these cannot be their matter, while the complication of verb and adjective form in Comparatives/Superlatives, Present Perfect tense or other structures are too difficult for them to use successfully For most teachers, they also believe thal their students could manage skillfully with the language points as mentioned above with the large proportion for the choices “very good, good”: teachers also express their sympathy for students at vocational college They share with the author the background knowledge of students, most of Uxan are al average level, so the grammar structure like tenses, or Comparatives/Superlatives could be their challenges From the result of the study, we may find out the measure for deduction, that is, teachers should pay more attention to grammatical revision in

the class so that students will have more time and effort to deal with those, and then

24

applying them into daily conversation This also involves in the changing of timetable

Chart 3: Evaluation on the students’ progress

‘As shown in the charts, most teachers believe that their students get progress after the

course Among them, 80% are sure that students could be at least better than their

language before Only 10 % of them, equivalent to one teacher in the survey are

disappointed at the positive changes of his own students The figure outlines that even

teachers are not really satisfactory with the book at some points, but they are proud of their students’ progress

According to students, it is happy that they found themselves much progress after the

course, when the evidence from the chart shows that 75% said they have achievement

in studying GE Beside their own effort and teachers’ support, owning an appropriate

book is also one of the most important elements in order to get the achievement

However, there is the fact that 25% of students do not accept the fact that they get

nothing at all after the course finished For those students, they have to struggle with

the final oral test with the great fear The reasons mainly come from their lack of knowledge at the high school Other factor is the loss of attention in class, or their

refusal of taking part in group discussion or pair work because they only keep silent

and work individually

3.3 Evaluation on the Format of the Course book

The course book provides images and pictures

slructures, and vocabulary in cach module

The book includes an adequate vocabulary list

Table 5: valuation on the format of the course book

From the data collected in table 5, the findings from the teachers and students indicate

that they highly evaluate the course book in some aspects such as the appropriate

Tormal, effecl organization, table conlent and iNustralion in cach module Firstly, the

course book is assumed to be clear and appropriate in format with the score of teachers (80%), and students (85%) This high positive feedback is understandable as at the first glance of the course book, any readers can easily reative thal the layout is quite suitable and attractive Secondly, NCL is also presented with a variety of pictures and images that really attracts lots of leamers’ attention and then promotes their visualization Visualizing strengthens

reading comprehension skills as students gain a more thorough understanding of the text they are reading by consciously using the words to creale meulal images Thal, is

why in the aspect of the images and pictures for illustration, nearly all of the teachers (100%) and students (95%) are satisfactory A full table of content which clearly clarifies different parls of cach module is organized al the [isl beginning pages of the NCEE Looking at this, one could create good imagination of the book, as it was presented so clearly and effectively By this way, the useful table becomes one criteria

of format that gct the high positive response at 90% of teachors and about 72% of

students

However, the survey research from the teachers and students shows that both of the

respondents are unsalisGied wilh some aspecls of the course book duc to the existence

of certain weakness At first, the modules are organized in various ways that motivate sludents’ creativily, but the sequence of the contert in each unit seers nol to be

systematic and easy to follow Besides, the vocabulary list received different opinions

26

from both respondents About half of the teachers and one-third students have positive

assessment of vocabulary glossary Others suppose that the arrangement of new words

at the end of the book does not really bring about the advantages of observation for the

viewers According to students’ evaluation, more words should be added to support

students while they do the tasks, and also they claim that the vocabulary list should be

introduced together with teaching new words One more weakness arises from the

shortage of assessment and testing suggestions With 120 periods of studying, there

should be at least one assessment after 4 modules But in fact, the teachers always

keep periodic tests, make copies and distribute them to their students; even there are

reviews and consolidations after 5 modules, but it seems not to make notable effect as

the restricted amount of consolidations, then results in 50% of teachers and 78% of

students are disappointed at this aspect of format Deleting the weaknesses, as teachers

suggested, the course book will be able to catch the students’ attention and interest in

term of format

3.4 Evaluation on the content of the course book

3.4.1 Proportion of the four macro-skills

Table 6: Proportion of the macro-skills

Looking at the figure above, we realize that 70% of teachers and 78% of students share

the same opinion that listening skill is distributed in a good way, and they also think

the proportion of reading skill is acceptable in the course book, In contrast, skill of

reading is only received the approval of 30% of teachers and 24% of students, and

writing skill is considered not to be logical with percentage of teachers and students in

turn about 40% and 37%

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Therefore, as can be seen from table 6, the proportion of the four skills is distributed

into two groups: reasonable and unreasonable, While the proportion of listening and reading skills is considered to be acceptable with the high agreement of teachers and students, two skills lefl remain Uhe negative response from the usors

When being interviewed to explain for this result, two types of respondents supposed that the course book - NCIIE seems to focus much on listening and reading skills, and then other skills are not paid allenlion adequately; as a resull, the proportions of these ones are not much enough

3.4.2 Topics in the course book

As the findings of research, there is a great salisfactory of response to the question

relating to the suitability of the topics in the course book 92% of students admitted

that the topics are suitable whereas the mumber of students that had negative assessment is minimal, only taking 5%

For students of the first group, they said that many topics are suitable for their ability then help thom have more skills in daily communication sush as the lopies: loves ant hates (module 4), eating and drinking (module 6), buying and selling (module 9), eto, and other topics: people and places (module 3), extraordinary life (module 7) have good cffect in Icarning as at their teenager they ofton admire somcone famous, and these lessons come to them as the special gifts Inregard of teachers’ opinion, 7 of 10 teachers, making up 70% to share the same point of view that the topics in the textbook are appropriate your students’ age, ability and hobbies and bring the latest information in many field To make the opinion of 30% supposing these topics are not appropriate, they honestly complain that as a country has their own cultural value and poople of the country also have their typical hobbies or living manner in general, so it

is understandable that they can't sympathize with the overall topics mentioned in the course book by the authors

3.4.3 Vocabulary im the course book

With the aim of improving commumicative skills in daily conversation, the vocabulary

is one of the most important clements to the success in the content of the course book

According to the survey results, the majority of students and teachers said the

vocabulary is familiar to their daily life and general communication

28

Chart 4: Teachers and students’ evaluation on the vocabulary of the course book

They confirmed that there were not too many new words challenging them, then only

few words rarely in use such as guava, tortilla That is why 53% of students and 70%

of teachers agreed that vocabulary provided in this book satisfied them However,

about 35% of students have their own ideas about the words introduced in NCEE To

give the explanation for this, some students were interviewed, when being asked they said that the book seemed to be very useful for the language learners; students also

would like the language terms that have closer relation with Vietnamese characteristics

and specialties, which may help students a lot at work when they want to introduce and

talk about their country

3.4.4 Practice in the course book

Difficult and useless 80% 23%

Insufficient to the students` learning demand 70% 88%

Table 7: Teachers and students’ opinion on the Practice of the course book

It is probable that students pay much attention on the Practice of the book It should

seem, therefore, further studies are needed to learn how difficult the Practice is for the

students’ ability As can be shown in the table 7, more than a half of students (66%)

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stated that the practice in the book was easy, however, 67% added that they were nat

usclul, only 35% said Licy were useful, and 34% of them claimed thal Practice was loo hard to fulfill Moreover, 88% affirmed that the practice exercises in the book were

insuflicienl for their further study Th detail, they also cmphasived the amount of

sentences in each Practice should be added more to help them use fluently the new

words or structure they have just learnt Also, the students wish that the formats of

Practice should be varied tu allract their allention and improve Lheir skills

Most of the teachers expressed their disappointment to the Practice in the book when 8

of 10 survey teachers chose that they are difficult, useless and insufficient to the

students” learning demand They suggested that int some tnodules, the language focus needs providing much practice, however, the amount of sentences in each exercise is considered not adequately As a result, students lack their opportimities to practice their language skills when they learnt in class

3.5 Evaluation on the methodology of the course book

3.5.1 Methodological Criteria

In criteria of methodology, KCKE seems to make the same opinions from the teachers

and students For the first criteria, that is, the book helps to develop ail skills are not accepted by 70% of teachers and 61% of students This finding showed that the

material writer should design a more comprehensive book focusing on the language skills that students wish to improve such as writing and speaking Regarding the aspeot

of improving the ability for communication, 8 of 10 teachers, making up 80% approve

it, while 65% of students share the same idea One of the criteria that received the high positive comment from the informant is the aclivities for individual, patr -work and

group -work provided in the book These teaching/learning techniques are mainly presented in speaking activities in Task or Further skill They are known as the imperlanl solivilios to promote communication skill when applying CLT approach

Table 9: Evaluation on the methodology of the course book

30

In term of the criteria - Language Points and vocabulary items are introduced in

motivating and realistic context, some teachers said that they almost based on the

context given in the book to teach their students; that is the reason they highly

appreciate the background of the book According to the students, only 45% of them

satisfied with the item, as they strongly believe that more realistic and motivating

context would be performed to attract their attention, With respect of learning

environment that welcomes the students’ creativity and curiosity of the course book,

12% of students agreed with that while 60% of them insist on its negative effect in

order to encourage their motivation in class The similarity came from the group of

teachers which are clearly stated in the table From the survey result, both groups of

respondents are not really happy with the methodological criteria in the material

3.5.2 Effect of the teaching aids applied in the course book

Of all the teaching aids mentioned in the Questionnaire, Pictures and Projector are

hardly used in class as they cost much time and effort for preparation, as the

informants said, they bring much effectiveness to support teachers as well as attract students’ attention In contrast, only a small number of teachers (20%) and students

Language Points and vocabulary

items are introduced in motivating | 60% | 45% | 20% | 24% | 20% | 31% and realistic context

The book provides the activities for

individual, pair work and group —|90% | 62% |0% [24% |10% | 14%

work

(16%) considered CDs and Cassettes are useful because big classes prevented students

from listening to the cassettes The high percentage is also put on the teaching aid

“songs and games” with the agreement of most teachers and students Games and

songs, as their nature, motivate students in leaning However, if one teacher takes

31

them too much time in class, students may feel bored with the games used again and again such as Bingo, Crossword, elc, Hence, there should be more teaching aids applied in the actual class to bring the interesting and effective lessons and help

students lo achieve the course objectives

3.6, Evaluation findings

This chapter has analyzed and evaluated the data from the questionnaires sending to both tcuchers and students In comparison wilh the course requirement and the real teaching and learning environment in LPC while applying the material in teaching GL for the accounting, students of HPC the findings from the collected data in the survey have revealed both appropriateness and imappropriateness of the course book — New Cutting dge Dlementary And the evaluation findings are to be presented as hereafter 3.6.1 Evaluation on the learners’ needs

In regard of course objectives, the book is considered to successfully fulfill its function when most students in the survey found the book a very effective tool to help them prepare (or their future jobs and pass the examination wilh the high score The fact is, most of the students study the textbook with a view to communicate with others in English, which is a favorite to the young nowadays Therefore, it can be said that teaching and learning English at HPPC is communication oriented It 1s stated in the preface to the book New Cutting Ldge Ulementary that the book provides opportunities for practicing the four skills of English language: speaking, listening, reading, and writing usually in an active mode, and the course book is to provide great opportunity for the students to use English for a variety of purposed in interesting

stLualion

3.6.2 Evaluation on the course objectives

By learning the book, students could improve their communicative skills though the groal variety of famitiar topics such as family; food and drink, clothes, hobbies —, which could be seen as one of the appropriate points that meet the requirement of a general English course Tn addition, in this material a certain amount of vocabulary is introduced which arc useful, offective and often used in particular daily situations As being mentioned as above, obviously, the course requirement and material content seem ta comparatively match However, there are still some mismatches between the materials its self and the students’ expectation that required much for improvements

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