Nghiên cứu tính phù hợp của giáo trình American Headway 1 dùng cho sinh viên năm thứ nhất của Đại học Công nghiệp Thành Phố Hồ Chí Minh cơ sở Thanh Hóa

University of language and International studies Faculty of Post- graduate studies ************** Lª thÞ ca s¬n Appropriateness of the textbook “American headway 1” for the first year

Faculty of Post- graduate studies

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

Lª thÞ ca s¬n

Appropriateness of the textbook

“American headway 1” for the first year students at

ho chi minh city university of industry based in

thanhhoa province

(Nghiªn cøu tÝnh phï hîp cña gi¸o tr×nh “American Headway 1” dïng cho

sinh viªn n¨m thø nhÊt cña §¹i Häc C«ng NghiÖp TP Hå ChÝ Minh c¬ së

Thanh Ho¸)

M.A Minor thesis

Field: English teaching methodology Code: 601410

HANOI- 2010

University of language and International studies

Faculty of Post- graduate studies

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

Lª thÞ ca s¬n

Appropriateness of the textbook

“American headway 1” for the first year students at

ho chi minh city university of industry based in

thanhhoa province

(Nghiªn cøu tÝnh phï hîp cña gi¸o tr×nh “American Headway 1” dïng cho

sinh viªn n¨m thø nhÊt cña §¹i Häc C«ng NghiÖp TP Hå ChÝ Minh c¬ së

Thanh Ho¸)

M.A Minor thesis

Field: English teaching methodology Code: 601410

Supervisor: §ç B¸ Quý, M.Ed

HANOI- 2010

Table of contents

Page Declaration i

Acknowledgements ii

Abstract iii

Table of contents iv

List of ABBREVIATIONs vii

List of Tables and charts viii

Part A: Introduction 1

1 Rationale……… 1

2 Aims of the study……… 1

3 Research questions……… 2

4 Significance of the study……… 2

5 Methods of the study……… 2

6 Scope of the study……… 2

7 Design of the study……… 3

Part B: Development 4

Chapter 1: Literature review 4

1 1 Textbook……… 4

1.1 1 Definitions of textbook……… 4

1 1.2 The roles of textbook……… 4

1 1.3 Textbook evaluation……… 5

1 1.4 Textbook adaptation……… 8

1.2 Language skills……… 10

1.2 1 Receptive skills……… 10

1.2 1.1 Listening……… 10

1.2.1.2 Reading……… 10

1.2.2 Productive skills……… 11

1.2.2.1 Speaking……… 11

1.2.2.2 Writing……… 11

1.3 Language elements……… 12

1.3.1 Grammar……… 12

1.3.2 Vocabulary……… 12

1.3.3 Pronunciation……… 13

1.4 Summary……… 13

Chapter 2: An overview of the textbook and current Situation of using textbook at HUI 14

2.1 Current situation of using textbook……… 14

2.1.1 Brief introduction of HUI……… 14

2.1.2 Teachers and teaching methods……… 15

2.1.3 Students and their background……… 16

2.2 An overview of the textbook……… 17

Chapter 3: Methodology……… 19

3.1 Setting……… 19

3.2 Research design……… 20

3.3 Participants……… 20

3.4 Data collection instruments……… 21

3.4.1 Survey questionnaires……… 21

3.4.2 Interview……… 22

3.5 Data collection procedures……… 22

3.6 Summary……… 23

Chapter 4: Findings and Discussion……… 24

4.1 Data and data analysis ……… 24

4.1.1 Survey questionnaires……… 24

4.1.2 Interview……… 34

4.2 Feasible solutions……… 36

4.2.1 Extension……… 36

4.2.2 Re-ordering……… 37

4.2.3 Modification……… 37

4.2.4 Braching……… 38

4.2.5 Addition……… 39

Part C: Conclusion……… 40

1 Conclusion……… 40

2 Limitation of the study and suggestions for further studies……… 40

Reference……… 42 Appendices

List of ABBREVIATIONS

List of Tables and charts

TABLES

Table 1: Content of the textbook “American Headway 1”

Table 2: The teachers’ experience of teaching

Table 3: The role of the textbook in teaching and learning English

Table 4: Teachers’ opinions about the presentation of four skills in the textbook

Table 5: Students’ opinions about the presentation of four skills in the textbook

Table 6: Teachers’ opinions and students’ opinions about the difficult degree of four

skills in the textbook

Table 7: Teachers’ opinions and students’ opinions about skill development

Table 8: Teachers’ opinions and students’ opinions about the level emphasis on the four

macro skills of each unit in the textbook

Table 9: Teachers’ opinions and students’ opinions about the location of time for four

macro skills

CHARTS

Chart 1: Students’ history of learning English

Chart 2: Students’ time of learning English

Chart 3: Teachers’ satisfaction of the textbook

Chart 4: Students’ satisfaction of the textbook

Chart 5: Teachers and students’ attitudes towards grammar points in the textbook

Chart 6: The approach to grammar in the textbook

Chart 7: The stage of PPP approach paid most attention

Chart 8: The number of techniques of PPP approach is used in each unit

Chart 9: The quantity of new words in every unit

Chart 10: Students’ vocabulary after learning the textbook

Chart 11: The textbook includes materials for pronunciation works

Chart 12: Students’ pronunciation after completing the textbook

Part A: Introduction

1 Rationale for the study

The textbook is “the visible heart of any ELT (English Language Teaching) program” (Sheldon 1988:237) Textbooks help to standardize instruction and assessment That is,

by giving students in different classes the same textbook, teachers can teach and test them

in the same ways (Richards 2005) The textbooks also provide syllabus for a program, thus supporting novice teachers, training them in methodology and saving their time and effort for more worthwhile pursuits than material production (Cunningsworth 1995) What are more, students also often expect to use the textbook in their learning program (Sheldon 1988) Without textbooks, they may think their learning is not taken seriously, thus, textbooks are psychological essential for students Textbooks may constitute an effective resource for learning in the classroom and self-directed learning (Cunningsworth 1995) A learner without a textbook might be out of focus and teacher-dependent

However, textbooks are not always professionally designed and do not always fit the curriculum and closely correspond to the aim of a teaching program and the needs of the students Thus, textbooks should be carefully evaluated and selected before being used for

a certain language program

As a teacher of HUI (Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry), I have worked quite closely with the textbook “American Headway 1” I have noticed that although the book has shown a great deal of improvements, it also bears several limitations These limitations may cause considerable difficulty for both students and teachers, especially, for teachers who wish to teach in a communicative way

For all those reasons, I think that textbook evaluation helps the managerial and teaching staff select the most appropriate material available for a particular course It also helps to identify the strengths and weakness of a particular textbook This is to inform teachers in the process of textbook adaptation and decision-making for the next course

To this end, I have decided to carry out a study entitled “Appropriateness of the textbook

“American Headway 1” for the first year students at HUI based in Thanh Hoa Province

2 Aims of the study

The study aimed at:

- Evaluating "American Headway 1" in the terms of its methodology and

practicality Specifically, it seeks to answer such a question as how the four language skills and language elements are taught and practiced

- Finding out the strengths and the weaknesses of the textbook

- Suggesting changes to enhance the textbook's appropriateness for the first year

students' needs at HUI based in Thanh Hoa Province

3 Research questions

The research is carried out with an attempt to find out the answer to the following research questions:

- Is the textbook “American Headway 1” suitable for the students‟ level and the

teachers at HUI based in TH Province in terms of language skills and language elements?

- What suggestions should be offered to help teachers and students to overcome the weaknesses of the textbook?

4 Significance of the study

In order to serve the purpose of teaching and learning effectively, the textbook needs to

be professionally designed, fits the curriculum and closely corresponds with the aim of the teaching program and the needs of the students Thus, teachers and learners working with the textbook might experience considerable difficulty in achieving the ultimate goal of their teaching and learning program, which is developing students‟ communicative competence The current study helps to identify the problem and suggests ways of improving them This contribution would be of practical value to textbook authors, teachers and students

5 Methods of the study

In order to achieve the aims mentioned above, the study was designed to use two methods: survey questionnaire and informal interview The data can be recorded formally and informally The interview is used to record information from teachers and students The survey questionnaire to both students and teachers is to get more information to support the study

6 Scope of the study

The author of the study is always aware that a great number of criteria should be taken into consideration for a textbook and each criteria on need taking into account various aspects However, within the limits of a minor thesis, this study only seeks the appropriateness of the textbook “American Headway 1” in terms of their methodology and practically Specially, it seeks to examine the communicative nature of the textbook

and the ease of their use That is, to seeks to answer such question as how the four

language skills and language elements are taught and practiced

7 Design of the study

The minor thesis is divided into three parts: Introduction, Development and Conclusion

Part A (Introduction) presents the rationale, the aims, the scope, the methods and the

design of the study

Part B (Development) consists of four chapters

Chapter 1 reviews the theoretical background, which is relevant to the

purpose of the study

Chapter 2 gives a brief introduction of the textbook and current situations

of teaching and learning at HUI

Chapter 3 describes the research methodology, which focuses on the

context of the study, participants and the instruments and data collection procedures

Chapter 4 deals with data analysis and some suggestions

Part C (Conclusion) summaries the study and offers some suggestions for further

research

Textbook is generally defined by Microsoft Encarta (2005) as a book that treats a subject comprehensively and is used by students as a bias for study A book exploited in teaching-learning situations In many circumstances, the expectation is that teaching will

be based on a single textbook, although other materials may be used at the teacher‟s discretion

The textbook is written based on standard curriculum and its principal users are teachers and learners in school There is some degree of standardization in the textbook rather than others because there is usually an inspectorial system and public examinations

to ensure the suitability of the textbook Textbook has still been approved and upgraded when having been in use within school system That is why textbook serves as a standard instrument of knowledge for both teachers and learners Textbooks are viewed as resource in achieving aims and objectives that have already been set in terms of learners‟ needs

1.1.2 The role of textbook in EFL/ESL classroom

Garinger (2001) points out that “Textbooks play a pivotal role in language classroom in all types of educational institutions - public school, colleges and language school- all over the world” Riazi (2003, p52) also agrees with that point of view and clarifies that “textbooks play a very crucial role in the realm of language teaching and learning and are considered the next important factor in the second/foreign language classroom after the teacher”

Sheldon (1988, p237) explains that textbooks not only „represent the visible heart

of any ELT program‟ but also offer considerable advantages for both teachers and

students when they are being used in the EFL/ESL classroom Researchers have suggested several advantages of using textbooks For example, textbooks help to standardize instruction and assessment That is, by giving students in different classes the same textbook, teacher can teach and test them in the same way (Richarchs 2005) Textbooks also provide syllabus for program, thus supporting novice teachers, training them in methodology and saving their time and effort for more worthwhile pursuits than material production (Cunningsworth 1995) Without textbooks, they may think their learning is not taken seriously, thus textbooks are psychologically essential for student Textbooks may constitute an effective resource for learning in the classroom and self-directed learning (Cunningsworth 1995) A learner without a textbook might be out of focus and teacher dependent

In spite of the aforementioned positive view of textbook use, however, there have also been certain reservations about this use One of the most cited concerns is that textbooks are often implicitly prescriptive and thus might control the method, processes, and procedures of classroom practice and „deskill‟ teacher (Allwright 1982).Another concern is that since textbooks are often written for global markers, they may out suit all classrooms and might require adaptation to better meet student‟ true needs (Richarch 2005) More importantly, recent criticisms have been targeted at the quality of the textbooks It has been repeated shown that many English testbooks represent biased views of gender and stereotyping (Clarke and Clarke 1990; Carrell and Korwitz 1994; Renner 1997) Other researchers such as Prodromou (1988) and Alptekin (1993) pointed out that textbooks are often cultural artifacts because it is impossible to teach a language without embedding it in its culture base

It is owing to these potential problems that textbooks should be carefully evaluated and selected before being used for a language program Despite that fact, textbooks have a vital and positive role play in teaching and learning process in schools

judgment…Evaluation implies judgment-making which therefore means that evaluation

is subjective When we compare a description of a textbook with a description of a context in order to establish in a preliminary way whether that textbook might be suitable for that context we are evaluating

There are two main reasons for carrying out material evaluation Firstly, there may be need to choose among the materials available the most suitable one to use for a particular situation Secondly, there can be a need for material evaluation to determine whether the material which have been chosen works for that situation after it has been used for a period of time (Ellis, 1997)

Textbook evaluation is the fact that it can be very useful in teacher development and professional growth Cunningsworth (1995) and Ellis (1997) suggest that textbook evaluation helps teachers move beyond impressionistic assessments and it helps them to acquire useful, accurate, systematic, and contextual insights into the overall nature of textbook material Textbook evaluation, therefore, can potentially be a particularly worthwhile means of conducting action research as well as a form of professional empowerment and improvement Similarly, textbook evaluation can be also be a valuable component of teacher training programs for it serves the dual purpose of making students, teachers are aware of the important features to look for in textbooks while familiarizing then with a wide range of published language instruction materials

1.1.3.2 Types of textbook evaluation

Researchers offer different ways of categorizing material evaluation However, that offered by McGrath (2002) seems to be the most widely accepted He divided material evaluation into three stages:

- Pre-use evaluation: establishes potential suit

- In-use evaluation: gathers data on planning decisions, implementation and

response; may stimulate preliminary reconsiderations

- Post-use evaluation: uses data on in course use data on effects to assess suitability

of selection

1.1.3.3 Textbook evaluators

Dudley – Evans & St John (1998); Tomlinson (1998); Robinson (1991) and Richarchs (2001) agree that the evaluation of materials can be conducted by outsides (those who are not involved in the program, for example

1.1.3.3.1 Textbook evaluation by outsiders

As many researchers believe, the advantages of having outsiders involved in the textbook evaluation are obvious They can bring “fresh” and “objective” perspectives into the evaluation However, there may be some disadvantages; outsiders as evaluators will have their own views on language teaching methods They may not obtain a full understanding of the teaching and learning situation in which the evaluation is being carried out

1.1.3.3.2 Textbook evaluation by insiders

Textbook evaluation by insiders has some advantages as indicated by Tomlison (1998) Because insiders have already been involved in the program, they will understand the teaching and learning situation better than anyone else However, the insiders “may

be too close and involved” (Dudley-Evan and St John, 1998: 131), the evaluation may be influenced by their teaching experience and their subjective points of views

1.1.3.4 Methods of textbook evaluation

McGrath (2002:25) refers to three basic methods of textbook evaluation: The impressionistic method, the checklist method and the in-depth method

1.1.3.4.1 The impressionistic method

The impressionistic method is concerned to obtain a general impression of the material and involves glancing at the publisher‟s blurb (i.e the brief description of the book on the back cover) and content pages of each textbook (for an indication of the syllabus-type and coverage), and then skimming though out the book looking at various features of it such as organization, topics, layout and visuals This kind of overview is of course inadequate if it constitutes the sole basis for textbook evaluation and selection

1.1.3.4.2 The check-list method

The checklist has at least four advantages: it is systematic which ensures that all elements that are deemed to be important are considered, it is effective which permits a good deal of information to be recorded in a relatively short space of time; the information is recorded in a convenient format which allows for easy comparison between competing sets of material; and it is explicit and provides the categories that are well understood by all involved in the evaluation while offers a common framework for decision making (McGrath, 2002)

1.1.3.4.3 The in-depth method

In-depth techniques go beneath the publisher‟s and author‟s claims It considers the kind of language description, underlying assumption about learning or values on

which the materials are based or, in a broad sense, whether the materials seem likely to live up to the claim that are being made for them (McGrath,2002)

1.1.3.5 Previous Research on textbook evaluation

Textbook evaluation is carried out by many previous researchers from many different countries to evaluate textbook being taught in their countries They all aim to determine the value and suitability of the book toward the specific language program

“Textbook evaluation and ELT management – A South Korean Case Study” by David R.A Litz (2005), this study applies a wide variety of relevant and contextually appropriate criteria for the evaluation of the textbook that are being used in the language classroom to find out whether content of the book are of an acceptable standard or level

of quality and appropriate to the learners for whom are being used A series of textbook evaluation questionnaires had been created to layout and design, range and balance of activities, skill appropriateness, subject content, language types represented in the textbook

“Evaluation of EFL Materials Taught at Iranian Public High School” by Ali Jahangard (2007), the study firstly evaluates four EFL textbooks which have been prescribed for used in Iranian high school by the Ministry of Education and then the study gives some suggestion to alleviate some of the shortcomings encountered in the textbook

The research of this study has the same purpose to evaluate the effectiveness of the material in use and offers suggestions to improve the material in use

1.1.4 Textbook adaptation

Adaptation is a process of matching and its purpose is to maximize the appropriateness of teaching material in context, by changing some of internal characteristics of a course book or a set of materials to better suit our particular situations

According to Madsen and Bowen (1978: ix), adaptation is an action of employing

“one or more of a number of techniques: supplementing, expanding, personalizing,

simplifying, modernizing, localizing, or modifying cultural/situational content”

Similarly, from Tomlinson‟s point of view (1998: xi), adaptation is referred to “reducing,

adding, omitting, modifying and supplementing”

In reality, a textbook can never totally be an effective tool for teachers to follow without any adaptation Most teachers adapt materials every time they use a textbook in order to maximize the value of the book for their particular learners

1.1.4.2 Areas of adaptation

According to McDonough and Shaw (1993), the following are the possible areas which are often taken into account in adaptation:

1 Lack of grammar coverage in general

2 Lack of practice of grammar points of particular difficulty to these learners

3 Reading passages contain too much unknown vocabulary

4 Comprehension questions are too easy

5 Subject matters are inappropriate for learners of this age and intellectual level

6 Photographs and other illustrative materials are not culturally acceptable

7 Amount of material is too much / too little to cover

8 Lack of guidance of teachers on group work and role play

9 There are no vocabulary list or a key to exercises provide

The reason for adaptation presented above can be grouped into: aspects of language use; skills; classroom organization and supplementary material

1.1.4.3 Methods to adapt textbook

Maley (1998:281) suggests the following options to adapt materials:

- Omission: the teacher leaves out things deemed inappropriate, offensive,

unproductive, etc for the particular group

- Addition: where there seem to be inadequate coverage, teachers may decide to

add to textbooks, either in the form of texts or exercise material

- Reduction: Where the teacher shortens an activity to give it less weight or

emphasis

- Extension: where an activity is lengthened in order to give it an additional

dimension (For example, a vocabulary activity is extended to draw attention to some syntactic patterning)

- Rewriting/modification: teachers may occasionally decide to rewrite material,

especially exercise material, to make it more appropriate, more “communicative”, more demanding, more accessible to their students, etc

- Replacement: text or exercise material which is considered inadequate, for

whatever reason, may be replaced by more suitable material This is often culled from other resource materials

- Re-ordering: teachers may decide that the order in which the textbooks are

presented is not suitable for their students They can then decide to plot a different course through the textbooks from the one the writer has laid down

- Blanching: teachers may decide to add options to the existing activity or to

suggest alternative pathways through the activities

Listening is an invisible mental process, making it difficult to describe Listeners must discriminate between sounds, understand vocabulary and grammatical structures, interpret stress and intention, retain and interpret this within the immediate as well as the large socio-cultural context of the utterance (Field, 1989:38)

Grant (1987,page 19) states that the listening skill includes everything from learning particular sounds to comprehending complicated message Without this skill, communication can break down Therefore, successful communication really depends on listeners or receivers of messages Steil & Watson (1983:22) also suggested that listening

is a major communication activity

The term “reading” has been used in different ways

Dean (2000:2) mentions Anderson‟s view of reading as “the process of constructing meaning from written texts It is a complex skill requiring the coordination

of a number of interrelated sources of information”

Anderson (1999:1) states that “reading is an active, fluent process which involves the reader and the reading material in building meaning”

Goodman (1988: 135) shares this view as he defined reading as “a psycholinguistics process by which the reader, a language user, reconstructs, as best as he can, a massage which has been encoded by a writer as a graphic display”

In short, reading is an active process in which the reader utilizes his background knowledge and experience to understand the author‟s thought Reading is not separated from comprehension Reading comprehension involves communication as it is the process of encoding and decoding between the sender, who has messages in mind, encodes them into a written or spoken text and the receiver, who decodes the text into his mind

1.2.2 Productive skills: Speaking and Writing

1.2.2.1 Speaking

It is obvious that speaking is the key to human communication Though speaking takes many definitions, following are some of the definitions by the most famous

researchers According to Byrne (1976:8), “speaking is a two-way process between the

speaker(s) and the listener(s) involving the productive skill of speaking and the receptive skill of understanding.” Both the listener and the speaker have a positive function to

perform: the speaker has to encode the message to be conveyed in appropriate language, while the listener has to decode the message

Brown (1983) also states that “speaking is an interactive process of constructing

meaning that involves producing, receiving and processing information.” Its form and

meaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs, including the participants themselves, their collective experiences, the physical environment, and the purposes for speaking

Chaney (1988:13) defined that “speaking is the process of building and sharing

meaning through the use verbal and non-verbal symbols in a variety of contexts”

Different researchers have different concepts of speaking but they all agree with one very important feature of speaking, that is a two way process between the speaker and listener

Candlin & Hyland (1999, p.2) defined writing as a complicated action, is “much

more than the generation of text-linguistic products” They thought of writing “as text, as process and as social practice” (p.1) They stated, “Each act of writing also constricts the reality that it describes, reproducing a particular mode of communication and maintaining the social relationship that implies” (p.2)

Another researcher, Lannon (1989), looked at writing in a more complicated

process relating to research It is “a process of transforming the material discovered by

research inspiration, accidents, trial and error, or whatever into a message with a definite meaning…writing is a process of deliberate decision” (p9)

In short word “writing” itself may imply an act, a process or a skill, which needs practice and study to develop It requires both physical and mental powers from the writer

1.3 Language elements

1.3.1 Grammar

Oxford Advanced Learner‟s dictionary defines grammar as “rules for forming words and combining them into sentences (1993:394) As explained in the dictionary, grammar is what language teachers introduce to learners and helps the practice regularly

Jeremy Harmer provides a similar view: “Grammar is the way in which words

change themselves and group together to make sentences The grammar of a language is what happens to words when they become plural or negative, or what word order is used when we make questions or join two clauses to make one sentence” (1981:1)

A broader idea about grammar is explained by Penny Ur: “grammar may be

roughly defined as the way a language manipulates and combine words (or bits of words)

in order to form longer units of meaning” (1988:4) She clarifies the term “grammar: in

the book „A course in language teaching”: “Grammar is a set of rules that define how

words (or parts of words) are combines or changed to form acceptable units of meaning within a language” (1996: 87)

All the ideas given above agree on a point that grammar is a set of rules of forming words and making sentences from words This help to orient language teachers

to the focus of grammar teaching

1.3.2 Vocabulary

The term "vocabulary" appears to be a very simple concept but in fact, we can find

it extremely difficult to give an exact definition of vocabulary Based on different criteria, linguistics defined vocabulary in different ways According to Peny, Ur (1996: 60), vocabulary‟ as the words we teach in the foreign language However, a new item of vocabulary may be more than a single word: a compound of two or three words or multi- word idioms" Pyles and Algeo (1970: 96) also noted that: "It is in words that sound and meanings inter- lock to allow us to communicate with one another and it is words that

we range together to make sentences, conversations and discourses of all kinds"

In general, vocabulary is the total number of all the words that a language possesses, including a single word, two or three word items expressing a single idea and multi- word idioms whose meaning cannot be deduced from the analysis of the component words Vocabulary can be defined as the words we teach in the foreign language and a useful convention is to cover all such cases by talking about vocabulary

"items" rather than "words" It can be seen that a "vocabulary" item can be more than

one word Therefore, it is necessary not to make confusion between vocabulary item and word

In Longman dictionary of contemporary English (1978), “pronunciation” is defined “the way in which a word is usually pronounced”

Dalton, (1994) described pronunciation in general terms “as the production of significant sound in two senses First, sound is significant because it is used as part of a code of a particular language In this sense we can talk about pronunciation as the production and reception of sounds of speech Second, sound is significant because it is used to achieve meaning in context of use Here the code combines with other factors to make communication possible In this sense we can talk about pronunciation with reference to acts of speaking”

1.4 Summary

This chapter has reviewed theories related to the textbook and the role it plays in the process of teaching and learning as well as important issues of textbook evaluation that need to be considered when conducting textbook evaluation It has also reviewed some of the previous research on textbook evaluation in different contexts in the world and some theoretical discussions about textbook adaptation The next section of this chapter presents the theories of language skills and the theories of language elements that have reviewed through its definition All these serve as a basis for carrying out an evaluation of the textbook at a specific school presented in the next chapter

Chapter 2: An overview of the textbook and current situation of Using textbook at HUI

2.1 An introduction of the context of using textbook “American Headway 1” at HUI

2.1.1 Brief introduction of Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry based in Thanh Hoa Province

Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry based in Thanh Hoa Province (HUI) has been in operation for 2 years in Thanh Hoa Province Before that, its name is Thanh Hoa Teachers' Training School (THTTS) and its duty was to train only elementary school teachers, so English serves as a means that provides students with basic knowledge about grammar and vocabulary Since October, 2008, HUI joined with THTTS to become Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry based in Thanh Hoa Province There are many new branches have been opened such as Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Chemical Engineering Bank Financing, Marketing studies, Accounting … Accordingly, English has become a major subject for the students of these fields

Every year our University admits more than 3000 newly enrolled students for a course of 2, 3 or 4 years study, of whom 200 students are trained in the Science Bachelor which is the biggest section at HUI After graduating students of this field will become main engineers or main architects for our country Therefore, the authority in our university has decided that English is the main subject with the purpose of helping these non-major students to develop their English communicative skill to meet the demand of their future employment

The objective of the course, first of all is to provide students with general knowledge of English Secondly, the course aims at improving the professional knowledge of English to adapt their future job requirement At HUI, the teaching of English is divided into two stages During the first stage (consisting of the first three terms), students study general English with four micro skills namely: speaking, listening, reading and writing The second stage lasts one term in which students learn English related to their field

The first stage is considered to be the most important to student‟s development of the four macro language skills since they have more time and chances to practice their skills basically than in the second one

As far as the materials are concerned, “American Headway 1” textbook and workbook are chosen in GE classes The time devoted to GE is 90 periods for A1 and A2 level of English and 60 periods for A3 level of English (each period lasts 45 minutes)

2.1.2 Teachers and teaching methods

Our school has got 10 teachers of English language aged from 24 and 45 Ten of them had formal ELT training in different universities inside VietNam, they graduated from College of Foreign Languages- Vietnam National University, Hanoi, Hong Duc University and Vinh University One of them is Dr in Russian and re-trained to teach English Another is taking MA course at College of Foreign Languages- Vietnam National University, Hanoi The oldest teacher has more 15 years of teaching experience and the youngest teacher has got one year Most of them have little chance to access to the latest alteration of language teaching methods They have to face with many difficulties, of which the gap of content knowledge and the choice of appropriate teaching methodology as well as textbook seem to be the major concerns

However, the teaching staff at HUI is energetic and willing to devote their time and energy to teaching In terms of language teaching, an information exchange among these teachers shows that they usually employ the traditional method of teaching even though the teachers are always aware of the importance of the new trend in teaching method nowadays: learner- centered approach, communicative approach when teaching English to the first students of the general knowledge They try to give their students independence in studying by asking them to work through the text or discussing subject matters in groups, giving them some instructions before asking them to make presentation or role play in front of the class, students at the time play the key role in the lesson and they feel highly motivated in learning However, only one or two teachers can sometimes do these and the amount of time spent on such activities is not much

Actually, all teachers in our college and I, myself included have to work harder and make our best effort to respond to the requirement of the new teaching situation

At HUI, English teaching and learning activities are mostly carried in fixed classrooms that make it difficult for teachers to make a change in applying new ideas of new teaching methods in language teaching What‟s more, there are often more than 50 students in each class It is not easy to carry out a communicative task in a mixed ability and large classroom

2.1.3 Students and their background

Students of HUI come from all parts of Thanh Hoa province (Thanh Hoa city, districts and mountainous areas) Students from Thanh Hoa city and towns (Bim Son, Sam Son) seem better at English Students come from mountainous areas such as Muong Lat, Quan Hoa, Ba Thuoc… never learn English before Some of them have learned English for 7 years at secondary and high school some have only learned English for 3 years and some others have never learned English before The students experienced traditional method of English teaching at high school (the Grammar- translation method) the emphasis of which is on the learning of the rules of the language, not on the acquisition of language skills They have been familiar with Grammar-Translation from years at school so they need to know every unfamiliar word and translate everything into Vietnamese in order to understand an English text and learning used focus on reading and writing but not listening or speaking In addition, the course duration is limited hence the students do not have enough time to practice the language in class Thus, they had very few chances to speak English In fact, the first-year non-major students of English find the university learning style completely different and they find it difficult to join classroom activities As a result, they can not speak fluently and most of them do not feel confident in communicating in English Because the students are rarely given chances to work in pairs, in group or take par in some activities such as discussion or games Many students don‟t have the habit of learning independently and tend to depend mainly on the given text books and the teachers for knowledge Only a small number of them are interested in the subject, studious and several learn it quite well Furthermore, the majority of the students does not have appropriate learning strategies and have passive learning styles, all of them lack of the General English skills

At HUI, before entering university all first year students have to take part in the survey entrance exam with fifty multiple choice questions in paper Then they are divided into three groups: A1, A2 and A3 Students with lowest level (A1) of English follow the course book “American Headway 1” from unit 1 to unit 7 for 1 semester (90 periods) Students with level (A2) of English follow the course book “American headway 1” from unit 8 to unit 14 for 1 semester (90 periods) And student with highest level (A3) of English follow the course book “American Headway 2” from unit 1 to unit 7 for 1 semester (60 periods) This classification allows them a suitable pace of progress So, they are real beginners at English when entering the first year of college and of different language proficiency levels Thus, the large number of first year students at HUI must use

the textbook “American Headway 1” As a teacher of HUI for over 2 years, I have already found many inappropriate features of this textbook for my first year students

2.2 Overview of the textbook “American Headway 1”

Following is the description of the currently used course book for first year students at HUI

ISBN-10: 0-19-435375-3

 Book title: “American Headway 1” One of the recent additions to Oxford is a revised

version of the Headway series that is centered on American English; hence the name American Headway

 Book objectives:

- “American Headway 1” combines the best of traditional methods with more

recent approaches to make the learning of English stimulating, motivating, and effective

- “American Headway1” can be sued by both true and false beginners It provides a

foundation in the structure of language, gradually building students‟ understanding of the basic grammar, vocabulary, and function of English

 Book content: The student‟s book is in use with 14 units under different topics: Hello

everybody, Meeting people … American Headway 1 is geared toward students at the

elementary level

The teaching contents for each unit are summarized in a book map which is provided on the first page of each book Each of the textbook is accompanied with cassettes tapes, student‟s workbook and teacher‟s manual

There are 14 teaching units American Headway 1, the level reviewed here, is an integrated skills textbook that focuses mainly on grammar and vocabulary Each unit consists of five sections, Starter, Practice, Vocabulary, and Integrated Skills In addition, there are scattered Pronunciation and Everyday English sections throughout the book Each unit begins by focusing on specific grammatical structures, followed by practice Next are the „skills‟ sections: listening and speaking, reading and speaking, vocabulary and listening, thought not necessarily in that order The last section in every unit is

“Everyday English” which addresses function such as “What time is it?”, “Directions” and so on The combination of all these components results in a very packed textbook

Units Grammar Vocabulary Skills work (in the student book)

Writing (in the workbook)

- Food and drink

Reading and listening: A letter from America

- What‟s in your bag?

- Parts of the plane

- Phonetic symbols

- Relationships

- Reading and listening: Three inventors

- Speaking; Incredible information

- Listening and speaking: How did you two meet?

- Food and drink

- Stores and shopping

- Listening and speaking: my favorite food

- Reading and speaking: food around the world; meal in your country

- City and country nouns

- Speaking: Maria‟s the youngest

- Reading and speaking: Three musical cities

- Adverbs and adjectives

- Describing feelings - Speaking and listening: Noises in the

* ever and never

*yet and just

*since and for

- Present perfect and past

simple

- Past participles

- At the airport

- Speaking: things you have done

- Reading and speaking: How to live to

be 100? / a song

Table 1: Content of the textbook “American headway 1” (language skills and language elements)

Chapter 3: Methods of the study

This chapter deals with the research methods that have been employed for the achievement of the aims and objectives of the study The rationale for the method chosen for the study presented in this thesis is also mentioned It also presents a discussion on how to conduct an evaluation of the textbook with the aim to improve appropriateness of

the textbook for future use The chapter includes setting, research design, participants,

data collection instruments, data collection procedures

3.1 Setting

Setting by the Ministry of Education principles, all the first year students at HUI had passed the entrance exam and two terms test because English at HUI is a compulsory subject in the curriculum of teaching and learning English course is divided into two parts: General English and English for special purpose The course is applied for students

of all departments General English is taught during the first and the second term with the total of 90 periods (English levels A1 & A2) and 60 periods (English level A3) with the aim of giving the students basic general knowledge of English At this stage, the teacher concentrates on developing students‟ 4 basic language skills: listening, reading, speaking, writing and three basic language elements: grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation in order

to prepare for students‟ knowledge towards ESP taught in the next terms The textbook chosen is American Headway 1 & 2 by John and Liz Soars Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001 Students at HUI have to face a great difficulty when “American Headway” which is follow is the new book they have ever worked with so they feel not easy to join classroom activities Furthermore, they share very different backgrounds, others are merely beginners and others have not yet experienced any courses in English Therefore, the role of teachers is very important to apply the suitable methods to help students improve their studying

Most of the teachers at HUI have got their M.A degree or are studying toward that degree at University of Language and International Studies of Vietnam national University They are all experienced, friendly, active, knowledgeable and full inspiration for teaching

As for classroom arrangements, there are 30 English classes in grade first years in this school The class-size is averagely 50, 60 (or more) The size of the class is very large It is obvious that due to large-class size, there are some negative effects on teaching and learning English in the school However, all classrooms are designed for

lectures with board, a cassette recorder and teachers can also present their lectures by using overhead projectors in most of the classrooms

3.2 Research Design

This study is aimed at studying the appropriateness and evaluating the textbook

“American Headway” taught at Ho Chi Minh City University based in Thanh Hoa province (HUI) in terms of content of the course book As for the evaluation of contents,

attitudes towards language skills and language elements are taken into consideration

This evaluation research was carried out while the teachers and first year students (in term 1 of course years (2009-2010) have been using the textbook to determine whether the textbook has applied well at HUI and what aspects of the textbook should be modified

Adding, the research decided to use triangulation of different research methods which was implemented in the study was combination of survey questionnaires and informal interviews The reason why researcher use triangulation because of its advantages: one method can be related to another to provide clearer insight into different level of analysis and the result of one method can help develop or inform another method Moreover, evaluation data can come from students, instructors and others who interact with the program Source of data when combined among ideas of students, teachers and the researcher herself through survey questionnaires and a formal interview become more reliable, comprehensive (Lynch, 1996) Researcher believed that a combination of different methods to collect data will provide the validity and reliability of data for evaluation

3.3 Participants

non-English major students at HUI They range from 24 to 45 years of age, seven teachers are female and three are male Of the 10 teachers, four have been trained from fulltime M.A course at Hanoi Foreign language Teachers Training College, three others are following M.A course and three others graduated from in-service course All of them have taught English to non-English major students at least 1 year

90 first years students were randomly chosen from 300 students Their age

varied between 19 and 22, 67% are female and 23% are male so they belonged to the same psychological age group However, their length of English learning at school (before entering our college) was different: some have learned English for 3 years or six years, some others have never learnt English before The reason for choosing the first

year students for this study is as follow: “American Headway 1” textbook is chosen to provide insights into the General English Researcher hoped that 90 students from Economics Department as participants of the study can give the result seems more reliable and may reflect the reality of teaching and learning English at HUI based in Thanh Hoa province

3.4 The data collection instruments

3.4.1 Survey questionnaires

Richard and Lockhart (1994) stated that questionnaires are an effective way of yielding data quickly in respect of “effective dimension of teaching and learning as beliefs, attitudes, motivation and preferences” In addition, the administration of the questionnaires was convenient for the data collection procedure So this study uses questionnaires as a main tool to get information to fulfill the aims of the study

* Questionnaire for the teachers (appendix 1)

The first questionnaire, consisting of two sections, section1 with 5 questions related to teacher‟s information and section 2 consists of 18 questions about teachers‟ evaluation of the current textbook that were delivered to 10 teachers at HUI The aims of this were to elicit:

(1)Teachers‟ background of English (five questions of section 1)

(2)Teachers‟ attitude towards textbook (question1, 2 & 3 of section 2)

(3)Teachers‟ evaluation for the appropriateness of the textbook with the teaching

of language skills (questions: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 & 10 of section 2)

(4)Teachers‟ evaluation for the appropriateness of the textbook with the teaching language elements (questions: 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 & 18 of section 2)

With these questions teachers can choose more than one answers appropriate

* Questionnaire for the students (appendix 2)

The second questionnaire which includes 23 questions was delivered to 90 first year students at HUI The purpose of this questionnaire was to identify:

(1)Students‟ background of English (five questions of section 1)

(2)Students‟ attitude towards textbook (question1, 2 & 3 of section 2)

(3)Students‟ evaluation for the appropriateness of the textbook with the learning

of language skills (questions: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 & 10 of section 2)

(4)Students‟ evaluation for the appropriateness of the textbook with the learning

of language elements (questions: 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 & 18 of section 2)

To answer these questions students can choose more than one options

3.4.2 Interviews

Interviews are extremely useful evaluation as they can provide in-depth and valuable information (Dudley-Evan, 1998) So the interviews will be conducted because they are personalized and permitted a level of in-depth information- gathering, free response, and flexibility (Selinger & Shohamy, 1989: 172) Teachers‟ opinions were collected via an interview question which consisted of three open-ended questions concerning the strengths and weaknesses of the book (appendix 3) In addition, students‟ views about what they like and dislike from the textbook (appendix 3) My purpose in conducting the interview was to enhance material development This information would help to explain

my findings of the study The interview lasted approximately 30 minutes and I used taking techniques to gain information This is a good research method because it helps have accurate and immediate respond

note-3.5 Data collection procedures

3.5.1 Survey questionnaires

The questionnaires were delivered to the students in their classroom in the last class hour They were encouraged to give their true answers I confirmed to them that the research was carried out to improve their current English textbook so all their information is kept secret and only used for research

Questionnaire is designed to get opinions of teachers as same as questionnaires for students Before delivering to the teachers, I gave them my detail aims of the thesis with the hope that they could cooperate truthfully The questions are in the form of multiple choices which easier for respondents and less time consuming

Data from questionnaires were sorted and analyzed statistically to get answers for the research questions raised in the previous part The information was then displayed in forms of tables and charts

3.5.2 Interview

The interview was organized directly or face to face interview between the researcher and the teachers; the researcher and the students Participants in the interview being said above are the sample of the teachers and the sample of first year students The informal interviews between the researcher and 10 teachers to collect more data for this study were organized They were carried out during the course focusing on the strengths and the weaknesses of the textbook “American Headway 1” The interviews between the researcher and 90 first year students were taken place during short breaks or after each lesson mentioning what they like and dislike about the textbook Because of the large

amount of participants (90 students) so the interview was divided into nine times and each time consists of ten students The interview lasted approximately 30 minutes for each time and I used note-taking techniques to gain information Informal interview that are taken place right during the course, short breaks, after each lesson or in meetings of teachers can helps researcher can have immediate and fresh responds

3.6 Summary

This chapter has provided a description of research design It also presented the setting, participants, data collection instruments and data collection procedures In the next chapter, the data analysis and discussion will be presented

Chapter 4: Findings and Discussion

This chapter presents and discusses the findings that are resulted from the analysis of two types of data collection: survey questionnaire and informal interview

4.1 Data and data analysis

4.1.1 Questionnaire for the teachers and students

4.1.1.1 Teachers and students’ information

Table 2: The teachers’ experience of teaching

According to the data collected in table 2, two out of 10 teachers (20 %) have been teaching English from 1-4 years, 50 % have experience of teaching from 5-9 years The rest (20 %) have been teaching for more than 10 years It is concluded that more than half of teachers at HUI have been teaching English for 5 to 20 years, which is very significant in term of their language adjustment and experience in teaching English

 Students’ background of learning English

Question from 1 to 5 of Section 1 is aimed to find out the students‟ information This is considered to be an indicator of students‟ social background which is said to be related to their conditions for learning English

We can be seen in chart 1 most of the students (61%) come from the countryside where the English learning condition is poor Whereas, only 29 % of the respondents come

from city in which they have better conditions for learning English More noticeably, 10%

of the students are from mountainous areas where English seems to be strange for them Question 3 relates to students ‟time of learning English 58% of students have learnt English for 7 years while 8% of the subjects have never learnt English The students learning English for 3 years account for 34 %

4.1.1.2 Teachers and students’ evaluation of the current textbook “American Headway 1”

2 (20%)

0 (0%)

(30%)

5 (50%)

1 (10%)

1 (10%)

Table 3: the role of textbook in teaching and learning English

It can be clearly from the table 3 that there is a high level of agreement about the significant of the textbook in teaching and learning English All teachers and learners agree that the textbook is very important in teaching and learning English It means that the textbook should be used at school Moreover, (80%) teachers always and usually use the textbook in teaching English and (97.8%) students use it in learning English While only a small number of teachers (10%) think that they seldom and never use the textbook

 The teachers and students‟ satisfaction of the textbook

It is obvious that there is a similarity between the students and teachers‟ satisfaction of the textbook Chart 3 presents information on teachers‟ satisfaction of the textbook 30% of the respondents were quite satisfied with the textbook 10% were very much satisfied, 30% were a little satisfied and 10% were not satisfied at all Chart 4 shows the percentage of students‟ satisfaction of the textbook nearly the same of teachers‟ result 40% for little satisfied, only 13% for very much satisfied and 6% for not at all satisfied These figures show that both the teachers and students‟ satisfaction is quite low 40% for teaches and 39% for students claimed that the textbook was not appropriate only a very low number of students and teachers really satisfied with the textbook This might explain why the textbook should be adapted

4.1.1.2.2 Appropriateness of the textbook with the teaching and learning of language skills

 The presentation of 4 skills in the textbook

Table 5: Students’ opinions about the presentation of 4 skills in the textbook

From table 4 & 5, 100% teachers and students highly agreed that the textbook included and focused on the 4 skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing The four skills were linked with one another in terms of topics and themes The practice of individual skills was

integrated into the practice of other skilsl The majority of teachers supposed that there was

a balance of the four language skills in the textbook Although students were expected to speak and listen, they were taught four skills equally because in order to achieve the goals, students must study well integrated four skills, not any individual skill

 The difficult degree of four skills in the textbook

As illustrated in the table 6, both teacher and students agree that 4 skills in the textbook are difficult However, with the first year students Listening is difficult most Only one teacher (10%) and some students think that 4 skills are very easy because these students with high results in learning English

Table 6: Teachers and students’ opinions about the difficult degree of four skills in the

Table 7: Teachers and students’ opinions about skill development

According to the teachers and students, the exercises are not very useful in improving skill development Only one, four or five students of out 90 students seem satisfied and a minority thinks they can develop theirs skills much through the actives in class The main reason, according to teachers, exercises and tasks are not enough to meet students‟ needs, they are monotonous and poor in contents, students appear to get little practice from them As for the student book, there are a large number of speaking activities, but, unfortunately, these are often simply question and answer activities or conversation topics for students to discuss

 The level emphasis on the 4 macro skills of each unit in the textbook

Table 8: Teachers and students’ opinions about the level emphasis on the 4 macro skills

of each unit in the textbook

The teachers and students‟ judgments on the level of emphasis on the language skills in the textbook, to illustrate this point, table 8 has been made clearly That great emphasis was devoted to listening and speaking Otherwise, little attention was put on reading and the worse could be said of writing Only unit1 was writing taken into consideration, the main weaknesses are that it does not have enough emphasis on either writing or reading Writing is mainly reserved for the workbook The exercises usually consist of little more than composing a paragraph using your own experiences based on the model provided From what has been gathered, a rising serious problem is on unbalanced level of skills emphasis in the book and thus needs modifying

 The location of time for 4 macro skills

Table 9: Teachers and students’ opinions about the location of time for 4 macro skills

As many as 70% teachers and 87, 8% students believe that the proportion of 4 macro skills is inappropriate, they consider little time for writing In short, respondents are not satisfied with the appropriateness of the 4 macro skills in comparison with the requirement of the course Many students suggest more time for reading and writing

skills Most teachers suggest more time spending on writing skill The location of time is therefore concluded not yet suitable

4.1.1.2.3 Appropriateness of the textbook with the teaching and learning of language elements

Difficult Normal Easy Very

Chart 5: Teachers and students' attitudes towards grammar

points in the textbook

Students Teachers

All teachers and learners agree that grammar is very important in teaching and learning English, so it should be taught and learnt However, haft and more than half of teachers and students also agree that grammar points in the textbook are difficult They think there are too many grammar points in each lesson so it is hard for teachers and students to teach and learn grammar

 The approach to grammar in the textbook

The findings are shown in the chart 6 indicates that the highest percentage of the teachers (80%) belongs to those who choose PPP approach It means that PPP approach to

grammar is the most famous one comparing with other approach

The biggest number of students (78%) also thinks PPP approach is often used the most by the teachers It is very easy to explain why teachers use PPP in grammar teaching because PPP approach is a common approach to communicative language teaching In the PPP methodology, pre-communicative exercises are presented for

controlled practice to increase students‟ confidence, while the final production phase is to allow students to use the forms they„ve learned with more freedom

 The stage of PPP paid most attention

PPP stands for Presentation- Practice- Production and each stage has its own importance Most of teachers (60%) pay attention to Practice stage because teachers often ask students to do exercises in the practice part in the textbook In contrast students want to have more time for the Production stage

 The numbers of techniques of PPP are used in each stage of each unit

The teaching of Grammar is perhaps the most problematic part in the books given consideration Despite the claim about the communicative and task-based approaches underlying the books, however, grammar seems to be taught and practice out of context

in most units Teachers don‟t use many techniques in each stage because most of teachers ignore it They believe that practice is enough for students to acquire grammar There are only two techniques are used in Production stage which are problem-solving and personalization activities, most of them use personalization activities

4.1.1.2.3.2 Vocabulary

 The quantity of new words in every unit

It is demonstrated in chart 9 the quantity of vocabulary in every unit is too much and much Only 3% or 2% good students agree that there are not many new words in every unit At the end of the textbook, the word list part lists all lexical items of each unit In average, there are often more than 50 new words each unit Most of students think that this amount of vocabulary is a challenging for them to learn by heart

 Students‟ vocabulary after completing the textbook

Students often claimed that textbook supplies too much vocabulary, they can‟t remember all so 78% implied their vocabulary was not very much enriched after learning the material, only 2 or 3% respectively considered their vocabulary very much enriched and much enriched

Similarly, only one teacher, according for 10% affirmed their students‟ vocabulary was much enriched, more than half 60% argued that their students‟ vocabulary very bad Although they were always aware to provide their students extra-activities in enriching new words such as using games, doing cross-word …

00%

50%

100%

Very much enrich

Much enrich

Not very much enrich

4.1.1.2.3.3 Pronunciation

 The textbook includes materials for pronunciation work

50%

100%

Too much

Much OK little Too

Both teachers and students agree that the textbook seems not to cover almost aspects of phonology: for examples articulation of individual sounds, weak forms and strong forms, word stress, sentence stress, rhythms, intonation…The textbook also sometimes to teach phonology non-communicatively Although the book focuses so much on listening, all of them are listening conversation or paragraph; it doesn‟t mention the pronunciation aspects Some teachers often teach pronunciation outside the textbook and only practiced almost mechanically via repetition drilling There are no communication tasks for students to practice them in connected, natural discourse

 Students‟ pronunciation after completing the textbook

0%

50%

100%

Very good

Good Not very

As a result, students‟ pronunciation after completing the textbook was not very good, even bad Some teachers said that the contents of the textbook are too much and the limitation of time so they don‟t have time to focus the practice of pronunciation in class time On the other hand, as a teacher at HUI, I can draw out some causes of the participants‟ poor pronunciation When they practice in class, they are too busy with the things they are talking about that they do ignore the how they are speaking They do not know how to develop their self-study they do not take any advantage of checking up new words in dictionary for its phonetic transcription but for meaning only They are not aware that learning pronunciation occurs in their speaking, listening class with authentic situation