An evaluation of the material Lifeline for the first non-English major students at Hai Phong University = Đánh giá giáo trình Lifelines dành cho sinh viên k

LIST OF TABLES Table 1: The teachers and students‟ opinion about using text types in the material Table 2: The teachers and students‟ opinion about proportion of 4 macro skills Table 3:

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

TRẦN THỊ CHUNG OANH

AN EVALUATION OF THE MATERIAL “LIFELINES”FOR THE FIRST

NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTSAT HAI PHONG UNIVERSITY

ĐÁNH GIÁ GIÁO TRÌNH “LIFELINES” DÀNH CHO SINH VIÊN KHÔNG CHUYÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC HẢI PHÒNG

MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: METHODOLOGY CODE: 601410

HANOI – 2010

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

TRẦN THỊ CHUNG OANH

AN EVALUATION OF THE MATERIAL “LIFELINES”FOR THE FIRST

NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HAI PHONG UNIVERSITY

ĐÁNH GIÁ GIÁO TRÌNH “LIFELINES” DÀNH CHO SINH VIÊN KHÔNG CHUYÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC HẢI PHÒNG

MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: The teachers and students‟ opinion about using text types in the

material

Table 2: The teachers and students‟ opinion about proportion of 4 macro skills

Table 3: The teachers and students‟ opinion about allocation time for each unit

Table 4: The teachers and students‟ opinion about content sequenced of this

material

Table 5: The teachers and students‟ opinion about language points in this

material

Table 6: The teachers and students‟ opinion about kinds of exercises need to be

included in this material

Table 7: The teachers and students‟ opinion about using techniques in this

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Certificate of originality of project report

Acknowledgements

Abstract

List of Abbreviations

List of tables

Table of Contents

PART I: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale 2 Aims of the study 3 Research Questions 4 Significance of the study 5 Methodology 6 Scope of the study 7 Organization of the study PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1 : LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Material 1.1.1 Definition of material 1.1.2.Types of material 1.1.3 Roles of teaching materials in a general English course 1.2 Material evaluation 1.2.1 Definitions of material evaluation 1.2.2 Types of material evaluation 1.2.3 Purposes of material evaluation 1.2.4 Materials evaluators 1.2.5 Models for material evaluation 1.2.6 Methods of evaluation 1.2.7 Criteria for material evaluation 1.3 Material adaptation i ii iii iv v vi 1 1 2

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1.3.1 Reasons for adaptation

1.3.2 Areas for adaptation

1.3.3 Techniques for adaptation

1.4 Summary

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

2.1 The current teaching and learning situation at HPU

2.1.1 The context of the study

2.1.2 The material description

2.2.3 Data collection procedure

2.2.4 Data analysis procedure

CHAPTER 3 : RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 Material analysis

3.1.1 The contents of the material

3.1.2 The methodology of the material

3.2 Survey results

3.1.1 The suitability of the content of the textbook with the students‟

requirements from the teachers and students‟ opinions

3.1.2 The suitability of the methodology of the textbook with the

students‟ requirements from the teachers and students‟ opinions

3.3 Major findings

3.2.1 The suitability of the content of the textbook with the students‟

requirements from the teachers and students‟ opinions

3.2.2 The suitability of the methodology of the textbook with the

students‟ requirements from the teachers and students‟ opinions

3.4.Recommendations for material improvements

1 Summary of previous parts

2 Conclusion

3 Limitations and suggestions for further research

References

APPENDICES:

Appendix 1: Questionnaire for teachers

Appendix 2: Questionnaire for students

Appendix 3: Hutchinson and Water‟s criteria checklist

36

36

37

38

PART I: INTRODUCTION

This part includes seven sections The first section focuses on the rationale of the thesis; the second section presents the aims of the thesis; the third section touches on the research questions; the fourth section is the significance of the thesis; the fifth

section points out the methodology, the next section is the scope and the last is the

organization of the study

1 Rationale of the study

Textbooks are a key component in most language programs They may provide the basis for the content of the lessons, the balance of skills taught and the kinds of language practice the students take part in (Richards, 2001:35)

Allwright (1981:5-18) also emphasizes that textbooks are too inflexible to be used directly as instructional material, they should give teachers rationales for what they do From O‟Neill‟s points, in many cases, teachers and students rely heavily on textbooks and they determine the components and methods of learning Students learn what is presented

in the textbook and the way the textbook presents material is the way students learn it

Thus, according to Minh (2007) “textbook should be carefully evaluated and selected before being used for a language program Textbook evaluation helps the managerial and teaching staff select the most appropriate materials available for a particular course It also helps to identify the strengths and weaknesses of a particular textbook that is already in use”

Cunningsworth (1995:45) and Ellis (1997) also suggest that textbook evaluation helps teachers move beyond impressionistic assessments and it helps them to acquire useful, accurate, systematic and contextual insights into overall nature of textbook material

At Hai Phong University, “Lifelines” has been used as major material for several years but no evaluation or consultation has been conducted to determine its strengths and weaknesses and to see how well it suited the desired and attainable goals of the course

From above reasons, it necessary to conduct an evaluation for the “Lifelines” textbook, it is also a good opportunity to discover the suitability of the material with the students‟ level from the students‟ and the teachers‟ perceptions and so that adaptation can

be made to gain better results of teaching and learning

2 Aims of the study:

This study aims to evaluate the “Lifelines” textbook in terms of its content and methodology from the teachers‟ and the students‟ opinions to determine whether the material is suitable with the students‟ requirements

3 Research questions

The study is to discuss the following questions:

1 Does the content of the textbook suit the students‟ requirements in the teachers‟ and the students‟ opinions?

2 Does the methodology of the textbook suit the students‟ requirements in the teachers‟ and the students‟ opinions?

4 Significance of the study:

The findings of this study will find out the suitability of the textbook with the students‟ requirement in terms of its content and methodology, which helps the teachers adjust their ways of teaching and adapt the material to provide their students effective lessons

More importantly, it is hoped that the study will make some contributions to the

field of material evaluation

5 Methodology

In this thesis, survey questionnaire and informal interview used to collect data: Survey questionnaires here play an important role in collection ideas of teachers and students on the material which are very useful for the completion of the thesis

Informal interview is used to seek for detailed and objective opinions of participants on the material and students „requirement

6 Scope of the study

In Hai Phong University, “Lifeline” material uses for both major and non-major students with different levels in the first year and second year But due to the limitation of minor thesis, this study only focuses on evaluating the “Lifelines” material using for the first non-English major students in terms of its content and methodology to determine whether the material is suitable with the students‟ requirements

7 Organization of the thesis

The thesis consists of three parts:

Part I: introduce the rationale, aims, significance, scope and methodology of the study Part II: includes three chapters:

Chapter1: Literature review: provides a theoretical basis for issues relating to Material and Material evaluation such as definition of material, types of material, and criteria for material evaluation and so on

Chapter 2: Methodology: Includes an overview of the approach used on conducting the study It also provides a thorough description of the data collection procedure as well

as the analytical procedure

Chapter 3: Results and Discussion: reports the findings of the survey and discusses the prominent aspects

Part III: Conclusion: summarizes the study, recommends o the material and

acknowledges the limitations of the study

PART II: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Materials

1.1.1 Definition of material

It is common knowledge that with the development of science and technology, the forms of materials have great changed and so has the concept of materials (Tomlinson, 1998: 66) defines: “Materials include anything, which can be used to facilitate the learning

of a language They can be linguistic, visual, auditory, kin aesthetic and they can be presented in print, through live performance or display, or on cassette, CD-ROM, DVD or the internet”

In Richards (2001:251) definition: “Materials can be instructional, experiential, elicitative, and exploratory, in that they can inform learners about the language, they can provide experience of the language in use, they can stimulate language use or they can help learners to make discoveries about the language for themselves”

1.1.2 Types of material

Materials in use can vary from a textbook, institutionally prepared materials or the teacher‟s own materials (Richards, 2001) The former is referred to published textbooks and the latter in- house materials by Robinson According to Robinson (1991:21), choosing published textbooks or in-house materials is what specialists in the field of English language teaching weigh up for arguments

Swales (cited in Robinson, 1991: 57) indicates published textbooks are “less sufficient in practice materials and in coverage of skill areas” so these textbooks need more supplementary materials

self-The same story could be seen with arguments for and against the use of in-house materials Robinson (1991) suggests there are three advantages of in-house materials: more specific and appropriate than published materials; more flexible than published textbooks; and more suitable in terms of methodology for intended learners

It can be said that there are both good points and bad points in the selection of textbook or in-house material However, it should be noted that “there is no such a thing as

a perfect textbook” (Brown, 1995: 41) so an evaluation of materials is necessary to judge the appropriateness to the target students

1.1.3 Roles of teaching materials in general English course

There are five important components involved in English language instruction namely students, teachers, materials, teaching method and evaluation among which the most essential constituents are the textbooks and instruction materials Because instructional materials provide the foundation for the content of the lesson, the balance of the skills taught, as well as the kinds of language practice the students engage in during class activities

Stressing on the role of materials, Richard (2001) states that materials provide a basis for the content of the lesson, the appropriate proportion of skills taught, and the type

of language practice students take part in Furthermore, useful teaching materials provide great assistance to inexperienced teachers or poorly trained teachers They can serve as “a form of teacher training” (Richard, 2001: 251) and teachers can get ideas on how to plan and teach the lesson from the materials

1.2 Material evaluation

Deciding which textbooks to use or whether the materials being used are suitable or not is obviously of great importance in process of learning and teaching of language And this decision can be achieved only by the means of a comprehensive evaluation The next part

of this chapter is the review of literature of major issues in material evaluation

1.2.1 Definitions of material evaluation

A number of researchers express their point of view regarding the definition of material evaluation

First, let‟s look at term “evaluation” It is said that, according to Robinson (1991:230)is “ The discovery of the value of something for some purpose”, “ something”

and “value” here depend on the specification of the “ purpose” And “evaluation concerned with describing what is there, and placing some value judgment on what is found”- Murphy (1985:1-17)

And according to Tomlinson (2001), “Material evaluation is a procedure that involves measuring the value (for potential value) of a set of learning material”

From Dudley (1998: 128) defines “evaluation is a whole process which begins with determining what information to gather and ends with bringing about the change in current activities or influencing future ones”

Material evaluation is “a process not a final product” with “attempts to measure the value of materials” (Tomlinson, 1998) or “the systematic appraisal of the value of materials in relation to their objectives and to the objectives of the learners using them”

With regards to this issue, Murphy (1985:210) considers evaluation one of the key concepts in ELT to “determine the extent to which a programme is worthwhile, and to aid decision-making through the purposeful gathering information” In the programme evaluation, material evaluation is given a great deal of attention

Hutchinson and Waters (1987) define: “Evaluation is basically a matching process, matching needs to available solutions” They also note that evaluation is really a matter of judging the fitness of something for a particular purpose “Given a certain need, and in the light of the resources available, which out of number of possibilities represent the best solution There is no absolute good or bad only degree of fitness for the required purpose”

From above researchers‟ opinions, they all give a general identification that evaluation is a process of collecting data and giving judgments based on the collected data and the most importantly, evaluation must include action

1.2.2 Types of materials evaluation

In terms of types of materials evaluation, Tomlinson (1998) indicates that for each dimension of evaluation, there are certain types of evaluation These dimensions include approach, purpose, focus, scope, the evaluators, the timing, and types of information

Cunningsworth (1995:76) and McGrath (2002:14-15) point out that there are three

types of material evaluation: pre-use, in-use and post-use evaluation While Robinson (1991:59) classifies materials evaluation into three types: Preliminary, summative and formative Although types of material evaluation are indicated with different terms, they

are basically similar

Preliminary or pre-use evaluation is carried out before a course begins to select the

most appropriate materials for the particular group of learners and the aims of the course And another purpose of this evaluation is to identify which aspects of the published material needed adapting to suit the purposes of the evaluators This can be done by

“determining a set of criteria which are used to reach a decision regarding which book to adopt and how it needs to be adapted” (Ellis, cited in Tomlinson (1998))

Formative or in-use evaluation is carried out during the life of the course or project

and the results obtained can be used to modify what is being done or in other words, such may suggest the development of the material in the future

Summative or post-use evaluation is carried out when the course of project is

finished and when it is clearly too late to do to determine whether the program was successful and effective and the findings of this evaluation will lead to the decision whether to repeat or use the material again or not

From different perspective, Cunningsworth (1995:67) has another impressionistic overview and in-depth evaluation The impressionistic overview can only afford us a general introduction to the material, but no enough detail to ensure a good match between the content of the textbooks and the requirements of teaching/learning situation The in-depth evaluation is suitable if we want to examine how specific items and different aspects of language are dealt with

classification-In this thesis, the researcher used the evaluation model by Hutchinson and Waters This is a Macro-evaluation which is divided into 4 steps The first step is to define the criteria upon which the evaluation is based The second step is to determine the subjective analysis The next step is objective analysis And the last one is to evaluate the match between the materials and requirements

1.2.3 Purposes of material evaluation

An evaluation of teaching materials helps to identify particular strengths and weaknesses of material in use After being used in the classroom for a certain period of time, teaching materials need to be evaluated to see if they have worked well for the intended situation and students

Cunningsworth (1995) states that through evaluation, we can assess whether the course book is the most appropriate for the target learners at various levels and in various teaching settings

According to Ellis (1997), there are two main reasons for carrying out materials evaluation Firstly, there may be need to choose among the materials available the most suitable ones to use for a particular situation Secondly, there can be a need for materials evaluation to determine whether the material, which has been chosen, works for that

situation after it has been used for a period of time This may help in deciding whether to use the material again or replace it with a better one

Robinson (1991:112) adds evaluation can be used as part of quality control Through evaluation, we can know about the advantages and disadvantages as well as the effectiveness of the being used materials Then we can decide whether the material can be reused or whether it needs to be adapted to meet the need of the particular teaching situation or we need to change it absolutely

Apart form its contribution to the evaluation of effectiveness of the materials, observation of the materials in use has an additional benefits: it can, for instance, afford general insights into how teachers use materials, and therefore suggest directions both for materials development and professional development activities

Alderson (1992:79) set out a list of purposes of material evaluation as follows:

- to decide whether materials have had the intended effect

- to identify what effect materials have had

- to vindicate a decision

- to justify future courses of action

- to compare approaches/methodologies

- to identify areas for improvement in future use

- to show the positive achievements of teachers and students

to evaluation However, they may not fully understand the teaching and learning situation

in which the evaluation is being carried out In addition, it may take them more time to be aware of the local situation such as learners‟ needs, facilities and time constraints so it may

be difficult for them to make truly judgments and recommendations of the program

In contrast to the outsiders, the insiders are those who have been directly involved

in the language teaching program such as teachers, students, course and materials

designers Therefore, they can provide the most valid information in the evaluation process Also, their understanding of cultural and political factors of the institution in which the evaluation takes place would enhance the reliability of judgments and recommendations To stress the role of the insiders as evaluators, Richard (2001:296) states that the involvement of the insiders plays an important part in the success of evaluation because “as a consequence, they will have greater degree of commitment to acting on its result” Consequently, they can know exactly the extent that the materials work for their purposes and they can make modifications to improve the effectiveness of the materials However, there are also disadvantages to insiders when they are “too close and involved” (Dudley-Evan and St.John, 1998:131) so the evaluation may be influenced

be their subjective points of view and their teaching experience

1.2.5 Models for material evaluation

Littlejohn (1998:192-202) presents a general framework for analyzing materials, which he suggests could be used prior to evaluation and action in a model, which is sequenced as follows:

Figure 1: Materials evaluation model of Littlejohn(1998:192-202)

From the above diagram, it can be seen that basing on analyzing target situation of

use and materials spontaneously and independently, the author conducted matching and

evaluating appropriateness of design and the aspects of publication to the target situation of

uses From the result of these analyses, decision on materials is reached in the last stage

On studying this issue, Hutchinson and Waters (1987:97) also identify four steps of

evaluation process (macro-evaluation) according to following diagram:

Analysis of target situation of use

- The cultural context

- The institution

- The course ( proposed aims,

content, methodology, measures

- What is their explicit nature?

- What is required by users?

- What is implied by their use?

To description:

- aspects of design

- aspects of publication

Match and evaluation

How appropriate are the respects of design and the aspects of publication to the target situation of use?

Action

Adopt the materials Reject the materials Adapt the materials Supplement the materials Make the materials a critical object

Figure 2: Materials evaluation model of Hutchinson and Waters (1987:97)

In the authors‟ ideas advise present the criteria for objective and subjective analyses in a checklist and the evaluators should supplement other criteria they think important to them in the process of evaluating Then identifying the evaluator‟s requirements; analyzing the material and comparing findings those two aspects by awarding points However, the authors also note that highest number of points does not necessarily indicate the most suitable material as the points may be concentrated in one area

Ellis (1997) suggests a model (micro-evaluation) in a clearer and more detailed way:

1 Choosing a task to follow;

2 Describing the task with specification of input, procedures, language activities and outcome;

3 Planning the evaluation with reference to the dimensions above;

4 Collecting information before, while and after the task was used, and what and how the task was performed;

5 Analysis of the information collected;

What realizations of the

criteria do you want in your

course?

Objective analysis

How does the material being evaluated realize the criteria?

Matching

How far does the material match your needs?

6 Findings of the evaluation and making recommendations for future teaching;

7 Writing the report

The author points out the advantages of this model are that can be more manageable Moreover, this type of evaluation can only be conducted when the materials are being used in the classroom

A combination of macro and micro evaluation by McDonough and Shaw (1993): this is a three stage evaluation: external evaluation, internal evaluation and overall evaluation The internal stage requires an in-depth look at two or more units to examine whether claims made by the author are the one found in the internal evaluation The internal stage will be carried out if the external evaluation shows that the materials are potentially appropriate If the findings show that the materials are inappropriate, the evaluation will be finished at the external stage

In summary, although these four models vary in the processes and the purposes, all serve to evaluate whether the set of materials is appropriate to a certain situation or group

of learners or not The evaluator must then base on the purposes of the evaluation, time available, facilities as well as constraints of the context in which the evaluation takes place

to decide which model to follow In this thesis the author decided to use the model of Hutchinson and Waters (1993)

1.2.6 Methods of material evaluation

There are three methods of evaluation according to McGrath (2002): the impressionistic method, the checklist method and the in-depth method

The impressionistic method is concerned to obtain a general impression of the material This is wide-ranging but relative superficial (Cunningworth, 1995:76) The method involves glancing at the publisher‟s description on the back cover, the content page, book layout and visuals

The checklist method is the use of a list of items which is referred to for comparison, identification or verification It is considered systematic, cost effective, convenient and explicit

The in-depth method looks at the kind of language description, underlying assumptions about learning or values on which the materials are based (McGrath, 2002:69) It focuses on specific feature (Cunningworth, 1995:111), close analysis of one or more extracts (Hutchinson, 1987:98)

1.2.7 Criteria for material evaluation

As can be seen that criteria for material evaluation are not constant, the elements making up each criterion do not always coincide Various writers have presented their evaluation checklists As illustrated by Cunningsworth (1995: 7-15), course books should correspond to learners‟ needs, help to equip learners to use language effectively for their own purposes, facilitate students‟ learning process, have a clear role in mediating the target language and the learner

The first set of criteria is stated by Sheldon (1998) It includes a great number of

“key questions” for the evaluators to seek answers when evaluating the material

2 Support for teaching and learning:

+Teacher‟s book?

+Test? Cassettes?

+Suitable for self-study?

Yes/No Yes/No Yes/No

+Suitable for teachers

- Required resources (e.g cassette recorder) available?

Yes/No Yes/No Yes/No Yes/No

Yes/No Yes/No Yes/No

Yes/No

- Evidence of suitability( piloted in local context)

Yes/No

Tomlinson (1998) takes the definition of specific criteria a step further:

1 Media-specific criteria: i.e those which relate to particular medium used In reference to

audio-recorded, for instance, one might consider the audibility of the recording

2 Content-specific criteria: i.e those which relate to the nature of the material, such as the

choice of topics, situation or language in a business English book or the texts included and skills covered in a book focusing on the development of reading skills

3 Age-specific criteria: i.e the suitability of the material (e.g visuals; cognitive challenge)

for the age group for which it is intended

4 Local criteria: i.e the appropriateness of the material for the particular environment on

which it is to be used

Sheldon (1998) presents a set of criteria including: rationale, availability, definition, layout, accessibility, linkage, selection, physical characteristics, appropriateness, authenticity, sufficiency, cultural bias, educational validity, stimulus, revision, flexibility, guidance, and overall value for money

William (1983:41) suggests seven criteria, each of which has the following aspects:

General criteria: give introductory guidance on the presentation of language items and

skills

Speech criteria: suggest aids for the teaching of pronunciation: e.g Phonetic

system

Grammar criteria: offer meaningful situations and a variety of techniques for

teaching structural units

Vocabulary criteria: distinguish the different purposes and skills involved in the

teaching vocabulary

Reading criteria: provide guidance on the initial presentation of passages for

reading comprehension

Writing criteria: demonstrate the various devices for controlling and guiding

content and expression in composition exercises

Technical criteria: contain appropriate pictures, diagrams, tables, etc…

From above criteria and the fact of this study, the criteria of Hutchinson and Waters (1987) seem to be the most appropriate There are four main criteria for materials evaluation and evaluator should concern: the audience, the aims, the content and the methodology:

The audience of the materials requires evaluator should obtain information about and from learners to find out whether the materials are suitable to the students‟ age, sex, knowledge of English, interest, educational background and so on

The aims of the materials require the evaluator has to check if the materials match the aims and objectives of the course

The content of the materials is one of the important elements require evaluator need

to measure if the content of the material is suitable to the content prescribed in terms of language description, language points, macro/micro-skills and their proportion It is necessary to find out if the text-types of the materials are suitable to the requirements of the course Finally, the evaluator need to find out the way the content is organized and sequenced within a unit and throughout the course is appropriate

The methodology firstly needs to be indicated whether the theories of learning on which the course is based are in line with the ones of the material under evaluation Secondly, evaluators need to measure whether learners expectations about learning are the ones the materials intended for Thirdly, it necessary to determine whether the kinds of exercises/tasks includes in the materials are suited to the course requirements Another aspect to be evaluated is the teaching and learning techniques: whether the teaching- learning techniques that can be used with the materials are those required by the course and suitable to the learners Further more, the evaluation also needs to discover if teaching aids available for use are those required by the materials In addition, the evaluation needs to find out whether the materials supply the teachers with necessary guidance and support for teaching course Finally, it is necessary to determine if the material are flexible so that they can be used in different order to suit teaching contexts

1.3 Materials adaptation

1.3.1 Reasons for adaptation

Defining adaptation: “every teacher in a very real sense an adapter of the material houses”- Madsen and Browen (1987:35) employing: “one or more of a number of techniques: supplementing, editing, expanding, personalizing, simplifying, modernizing,

localizing or modifying cultural/ situational content

No one can deny the important role of course book in teaching and learning,

“Course books are not always clear regarding the methodology they use in term of “What” and “how” to teach There are also cases of inconsistency between stated and actual methodology Finally, Course books can not be relevant to all teaching/learning contexts

And the purposes of adaptation are highlighted as follow:

1 to make the material more suitable for the circumstances in which it is being used, i.e to mould it to the needs and interests of learners, the teacher‟s own capabilities and such constraints as time, or as McDonough and Shaw (1993) put it: “to maximize the appropriacy of teaching materials in context, by changing some of the internal characteristics of a course book to better suit our particular circumstances”

2 to help teachers to maximize the value of the book for the benefit of their learners Hence they can improve it so that it is suitable for the particular situation (Apple and Jungck, 1990; Shannon, 1987)

1.3.2 Areas for adaptation

McDonough and Shaw (1993) identify the possible areas to adapt as follows:

* Lack of grammar coverage in general;

* Lack of practice of grammar points of particular difficulty;

* Reading passages contain too much unknown vocabulary;

* Comprehension questions are too easy;

* Subject matters are inappropriate for learners;

* Photographs and other illustrative materials are not culturally acceptable;

* Amount of material is too much/ too little to cover;

* Lack of guidance of teachers on group work and role play;

* There are no vocabulary lists or a key to exercises

However, they also note that more areas could be added to this list, depending on the actual contexts

1.3.3 Techniques for adaptation

According to McDonough and Shaw (1993: 63), there are a number of points to bear in mind regarding the techniques that can be applied a bring about change Firstly, techniques are selected according to the aspect of the materials that needs alteration Secondly, content can be different content areas Thirdly, adaptation can have both quantitative an

qualitative effects Finally, techniques can be used individually or combination with

others,so the scale of possibilities clearly ranges from straightforward to rather complex

Also according to McGrath (2002:1-17), the textbooks may adapt teaching material

by selecting, rejecting, adding and changing The author suggests the following suggestions:

1 Selection- Selection: “some material may be relevant, but pressure of time makes it impossible to include them in the lesson In this case, we need to decide what can most usefully be done in class and what can be set for home work Time-consuming written exercises can, for instance, be started in class to give students a feel for what is requires and then finished for homework This type of adaptation is very common with all kinds of materials are written by Vietnamese authors for a specific group of learners, many of them are imported from foreign recourses

2 Rejection- complete (e.g Omitting a whole activity or even a whole lesson) or partial (e

g cutting one or more stages within an activity)

3 Adding- in the form of extension or exploitation of existing material, this can be regarded as adaptation; where new materials are introduced, this will be termed supplementation

4 Changing this is a more radical form of adaptation, such as modifications to procedure

or changes in context/content (replacement)

McDonough and Shaw (1993) state that there are five main techniques for adaptation: Modifying, Simplifying, Adding, Deleting, and Reordering The following is a brief introduction of commonly used techniques:

Adding: the material is supplemented simply but putting more into them In the

quantitative way, we can add the technique of extending but the model remains unchanged

The qualitative way, which can be termed as expanding refers to the development of the methodology in new directions by putting in different language skills or a new component This can be thought of as “a change in the overall systems” (McDonough and Shaw, 1993) Therefore, addition can be made before, during or after the intended area

Deleting or omitting: deletion means cutting one or more stages within an activity

or omitting a while activity or even a whole lesson Therefore, addition and deletion often work together The tasks in the material may be deleted and compensated by a more suitable one to meet the objectives of the whole unit However, when the techniques for adaptation are applied, it is necessary to take into account the balance of the lesson as well

as the time allocation

Modifying: modification can be divided into two specific ways: writing and

structuring Re-writing refers to the modification of the linguistic contents whereas the structuring applies to the classroom management, especially the structuring of the class In short, teachers may occasionally decide to rewrite material, especially exercise material, to make it more appropriate, more “communicative”, more demanding and more motivating

re-to their students

Simplifying: simplification is a type of modification namely re-writing activity

Many elements of the material can be simplified such as the instructions, explanations or even the visual layout of materials but the texts or most often reading passages are applied

to this technique Teachers can simplify the texts with sentence structures, the grammar structures and the lexical content

Re-ordering: teachers may decide that the order in which the material is presented

is not suitable for their students They can use the technique of re-ordering to put parts of a course book in a different order, adjusting the sequence of presentation within a unit, or to arrange of different units on a course book

In short, material adaptation plays an important part in the process of language teaching and learning It makes the teaching materials more relevant to the needs

of students and to the objectives of the course and therefore, would stimulate the effectiveness of teaching and learning

1.4 Summary

This chapter has provided a brief review of literature on materials and material evaluation It includes three sections The first section addressed major issues reflecting the definition of materials, types of materials and roles of teaching materials in general English course The second section presented major issues in material evaluation: definitions, types

of material evaluation, purposes of material evaluation, materials evaluators, models for material evaluation, methods of material evaluation and criteria for material evaluation The last section also included some theoretical discussions about materials adaptation such as: reasons for adaptation, areas for adaptation and techniques for adaptation Therefore, this chapter can be seen as the theoretical foundation for the applications for the study in next chapter and the improvements that should be made to the course book “Lifelines” for the first non-English major students at HPU

Chapter 2: Methodology

This chapter describes the current teaching and learning situation at HPU such as context, course objectives and material description Besides a detail description of research

method employed in this thesis including participant, instrument, data collection procedure and data analysis procedure

2.1 The current teaching and learning situation at HPU

2.1.1 The context of the study

Hai Phong University has been built and developed for 50 years; the university is the training cradle of teachers and scientific staff and management for Haiphong and other provinces in the country The University also had enough conditions and modern equipments in order to serve the learning needs of students Up to now, there are 15 departments with total ten thousands students

All non-major students at HPU learn English for two years with the course books: Lifelines Elementary and Pre-intermediate published by Oxford University Press in 1999 Before entering University, they have experienced 3 to 7 years studying English at secondary school, but their level of English proficiency and their learning style were varied

During the course, the students have only two classes per week (total 5 periods) in large classes (about 50 students a class) In addition, they have just finished some other basic subjects according to their learning sectors In class, only some strong students are motivated to take part in group discussion, presentation and, etc At the end of the course, they take a 90- minute written test based on the know ledges in the textbook

2.1.2 The material description

Elementary Lifelines is written by Tom Hutchinson and published by Oxford

University Press in 1999 It consists of 14 units with 14 different topics relating to our life such as entertainment, survivors, travel, fashion, health, experiences and so on Each unit is divided into 5 sections: grammar, vocabulary, reading and writing, listening and speaking, and pronunciation

In the grammar section, new grammar structures are presented by using pictures, discussion questions or asking students to read or listen to a conversation After the rules, there are some practice exercises

In the vocabulary section, the students are asked to predict new words and their meaning based on available pictures or some small games And then the students listen to the tape for the way to pronounce

In the reading and writing sections, the students must discuss some questions related to a text given before Then students must read the text again to get ideas to do tasks Finally, the students must summarize the text‟s content to write a paragraph depending on the requirements of each one

In listening and speaking, pictures and discussion are used to help the students activate their knowledge about the topic And then they must listen to the tape to check their ideas and listen more to do some related exercise The students practice speaking skills using conversation pieces in listening part

In pronunciation, the students practice sounds under the direction of teachers; and then listening to the tape to check Finally, they repeat to remember and pronounce smoothly

There is an extension unit after every two units This helps the students to review theories and practice more exercises And in each unit, important parts are highlighted to remind the students to remember

Typescripts, difficult words and their meaning are presented at the end of the textbook Besides, coming with this material there are two CD‟s and a student workbook

2.2 Research methodology

2.2.1 Participants

One important issue should be given consideration is the participants or evaluator

of the study Many authors in the literature hold the view that evaluation should not “be restricted to outside evaluator” (Tomlinson, 1998)

In this study, the first group of participants in this study is 10 teachers from the Foreign Language Department of Hai Phong University They are all young teachers, their ages are from 25 to 36 and they have experienced in teaching English for non-major students

The second group of participants includes 150 of the first year non-major students, who are chosen randomly in three classes of the Philological and Technology Faculty They have been learning English from 3 years to 7 years in the secondary school

2.2.2 Instruments

2.2.2.1 Questionnaires

The questionnaire for students is comprised of 2 sections with 9 questions referring

to the suitability of material content and methodology with the students‟ requirement Section 1 consists of 6 questions (from question1 to question 6) Its aim to find out the students‟ opinions about the suitability of the material‟s content with their requirements Section 2 includes 3 questions (from question 7 to 9) Their aim to find out the students‟ opinion about the suitability of the material‟s methodology with the students‟ requirements

2.2.2.2 Informal interviews

The purpose of the interviews is to collect supplementary ideas from the teachers and students after responding to the above questionnaires They were conducted during and after the course

2.2.2.3 Data collection procedure

Data collection was conducted via the questionnaires for both the teachers and the students First, the questionnaires were developed based on the criteria which are the most appropriate to this study And then, the questionnaires were given to the students in three classes in the last class and the students were requested to complete the questionnaire during the class time

The questionnaires for teachers were distributed on the same day, but the teachers were asked to return later a week to ensure that they would have enough time to give detailed and accurate information

Besides, data collected by using informal interviews with all the teachers and 30 students in three classes during and after the course, both in and out of the classroom And while asking a series of questions prepared beforehand, the researcher noted their answers

2.2.2.4 Data analysis procedure

In this thesis, data was analyzed by using descriptive statistics method After collecting data, the researcher synthesized the answers and categorized them in form of