How teachers exploit the textbook a survey at Vinh Tuong high school, Vinh Phuc = Cách giáo viên khai thác sách giáo khoa khảo sát tại trường THPT Vĩnh Tường

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ****** PHẠM THỊ MINH TÂM HOW TEACHERS EXPLOIT THE TEXTBOOK: A S

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

******

PHẠM THỊ MINH TÂM

HOW TEACHERS EXPLOIT THE TEXTBOOK: A SURVEY

AT VINH TUONG HIGH SCHOOL, VINH PHUC

(CÁCH GIÁO VIÊN KHAI THÁC SÁCH GIÁO KHOA: KHẢO SÁT TẠI

TRƯỜNG THPT VĨNH TƯỜNG, VĨNH PHÚC)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 601410

HANOI, 2012

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: A thematic classification of teacher images for

English-language Figure 2: Description of participants

Figure 3: The observation schedule

Figure 4: The interview schedule

Figure 5: Teachers‟ opinions about advantages of textbooks

Figure 6: Teachers‟ opinions about the disadvantages of textbooks Figure 7: Adaptation techniques used by teachers

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Abstract

List of figures

PART I: INTRODUCTION……… 1

1 Rationale of the study……… 1

2 Aims of the study……… 2

3 Research questions……… 2

4 Significance of the study……… 2

5 Scope of the study……… 3

6 Design of the study……… 3

PART II: DEVELOPMENT………

CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW………

4 4 1 Textbook……… 4

1.1 Definition……… 4

1.2 The role of textbooks in the EFL/ESL classroom……… 4

1.3 Advantages and disadvantages of textbooks……… 5

2 Textbook exploitation and adaptation in EFL classroom……… 7

2.1 Teachers‟ attitudes toward textbook exploitation……… 7

2.2 Different ways in textbook exploitation……… 10

3 Review of related studies……… 13

4 The influence of context on teachers‟ use of textbook……… 16

CHAPTER TWO: THE STUDY 1 Setting and background……… 18

1.1 The school……… 18

1.2 The teachers and the students……… 18

1.3 The textbooks……… 18

1.4 Assesment procedure……… 19

2 Participants……… 19

3 Instruments……… 20

3.1 Classroom observation……… 21

3.2 Interviews……… 22

CHAPTER THREE: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION……… 24

1 Research question 1……… 24

2 Research question 2……… 28

PART III: CONCLUSION……… 32

1 Conclusions……… 32

2 Pedagogical suggestions for a more effective exploitation of textbooks 32 3 Limitations of the study……… 34

4 Suggestions for further research……… 35

REFERENCES……… 36 APPENDICES……… I

Apendix A-1 A format of observation notes……… I Appendix A-2 An extract from the observation data of one of the

participants……… II Appendix B-1 A format of interview notes……… III Apendix B-2 A sample of an interview note with one of the participants V

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

According to Richards (2005), textbooks are the core element of most language programs They are expected to provide teachers and learners with all the essentials of a subject or the general outline of a course In many cases, textbooks are the main source of the language input the students receive and the language practice which occurs in classroom For the inexperienced teachers, the textbook can guide them how to plan and teach the lessons There are assumptions saying that textbooks have their own negative effects

on language teaching and learning (Hutchinson & Torres, 1994) but they are still an important component of almost every language program

In Vietnam, English has been a compulsory subject at upper-secondary schools since late 1980s Like other subjects at schools, English is taught following the textbook designed by the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) There are a considerable number of studies about the difficulties that teachers and learners meet when using the textbook or about the textbook evaluation and adaption These include the studies by Phung (2008), Vu (2010), Alamri (2008), Litz (2001) Whereas, the teachers‟ attitudes towards textbook and the way they exploit it have not been paid much attention For such reasons, this research is carried out to investigate what the English teachers at Vinh Tuong upper-secondary school think about textbooks in general and how they exploit them The researcher also hopes to give some suggestions and recommendations basing on the results of the study to contribute to English teaching and learning at the school

2 Aims of the study

The study is aimed to probe the way that the English teachers at Vinh Tuong high school, in Vinh Phuc province, exploit textbooks Within this purpose, the three central objectives are:

(i) To investigate the teachers‟ opinions about the advantages and disadvantages of textbooks

(ii) To investigate the way the teachers exploit textbooks

(iii) To give some suggestions and recommendations to contribute to the teaching and learning English at Vinh Tuong high school

3 Research questions

In order to achieve the aims of the study, two research questions are raised:

1 What are the teachers‟ attitudes towards textbooks?

a What are the teachers‟ opinions about the advantages of textbooks?

b What are the teachers‟ opinions about the disadvantages of textbooks?

c What do the teachers use textbook for?

2 What kind of adaptations do the teachers make when using textbooks? Why?

4 Significance of the study

Although the study is carried out as a small scale one, the researcher hopes that its results can (1) help the English teachers at Vinh Tuong high school have an overview about the advantages and disadvantages of the textbook in order to find the most effective way to exploit it; 2) keep teacher trainers aware of the way that some high school teachers exploit the textbook

5 Scope of the study

The paper focuses on the exploitation of the textbook to teach English

at a particular high school The participants of the study are restricted to a group of English teachers at Vinh Thuong high school, in Vinh Phuc province

6 Design of the study

The study consists of five chapters

Part I: (Introduction), presents the rationale, aims, research questions,

significance, scope and the design of the study

Part II: Development

Chapter 1: (Literature Review) presents an overview of the theoretical background of the research

Chapter 2: (Methodology) provides the setting of the study, participants, and instruments

Chapter 3: (Results and discussion) presents the findings for the two research questions and further discussion on these findings in the relationship with the literature

Part III: (Conclusion) summarizes the study, the limitations of the study,

some recommendations as well as suggestions for further studies Following this chapter are the Reference list and Appendices

PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter provides an overview of the theoretical background of the research

1 Textbook

1.1 Definition

In the Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary (8th

edition), textbook is

generally defined as “a book that teaches a particular subject and that is used

especially in schools and colleges” This definition just provides a simple

understanding about textbook For a more comprehensive view about who use textbooks, and how they are employed, the definition of Tomlinson (1998) is

more suitable He states that a course book or a textbook “provides the core

materials for a course It aims to provide as much as possible in one book and

is designed so that it could serve as the only book which the learners necessarily use during a course Such a book usually includes work on grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, functions and the skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking” (Tomlinson, 1998, p.vii)

1.2 The role of textbooks in the EFL/ESL classroom

According to Sheldon (1987) as cited in Lawrence (2011, p.5), textbook is especially designed and published to help learner to improve their language skills Textbook is not only a learning instruments, it also supports teachers in their teaching (O‟neil, 1982; Ur, 1996)

Textbook has been used widespread in different ELT contexts and it plays a vital role in ELT classrooms all over the world (Laurence, 2011) It is almost

a universal element of ELT teaching (Hutchinson & Torres, 1994) and essensial in any ELT program (Sheldon, 1988) It is extremely common to see

ELT teachers use textbooks in their daily teaching; very few of them would not (Laurence, 2011)

The important role of textbooks in ELT teaching is obvious However, the question of whether textbooks can actually help or hinder the teaching and learning process has been discussing From this point, the researcher would like to review on both the advantages and disadvantages in using textbooks in ELT teaching

1.3 Advantages and disadvantages of textbooks

Throughout the history of language teaching and learning research, there are many studies about using textbooks These studies express arguments for as well as against the use of textbooks

O‟Neill (1982, p.105) approves of using textbooks in teaching because 1) he can find many things suitable for his students in the materials; 2) they allow his students to see the lessons beforehand and revise what they have learned; 3) they save his money and time in preparing the lessons; 4) they guide his adaption and improvisation in the process of teaching

Sheldon (1988, p.237) identifies three main reasons for which textbooks are widely used Firstly, developing their own classroom materials is extremely

difficult for teachers Secondly, textbooks are “labor-saving tools”, they save

the teachers‟ time and effort in preparing teaching materials Last but not least, textbooks help teachers cope with external pressures, such as the heavy timetables

Hutchinson and Torres (1994) argue that textbooks play a positive role in everyday use and in the process of change They provide a structure for lesson management and a basis for negotiation in education They are a “flexible frame-work” that learners and teachers need to make informed choices In

term of negotiation, textbooks are visible, which makes it possible for all the relevant parties take part in the process Moreover, textbooks help to

“re-skill” the teachers; when textbooks are developed, teachers will need

more skills to use it

Ur (1996, p.193) states that the course book provides a set framework and a

“jumping-off point” for his new ideas in teaching His students also feel that their learning is taken more seriously when using a textbook

Additionally, Richards (2005) claims that textbooks help to standardize the instruction Students in different classes get exposed to the same content so they can be tested in the same way Wen-Cheng,W (2011) also shares Richards in the idea that textbooks may provide multiple learning and teaching resources, for example, workbooks, CDs and Videos

In general, the most prominent positive effect of textbooks is they meet the teachers‟ and learners‟ needs Learners need a textbook for it shows them what is to be learned and what will be tested; it makes their learning outside classroom possible Teachers need a textbook because it is a map, a structure for their teaching; it saves their time and effort in designing materials; it helps

to standardize the instruction and testing; a highly developed textbook can even improve the teachers‟ teaching skill Besides, administrators can use textbooks to ensure that there is some degree of standardization and parents can use them to measure their children‟s progress

It is obvious that “Textbook not only survives, it thrives” (Hutchinson &

Torres, 1994, p.316) for many of its advantages However, we should be aware of its potential negative effects in order to make full use of the textbook One of the advantages of the textbooks mentioned earlier is that they provide

a basic framework on how a lesson can be delivered In fact, many teachers, therefore, would rely heavily on the textbook and become uncreative in

teaching and follow the textbook uncritically (Ur, 1996, p.185) This might lead to the situation that teachers do not want to design their own materials and teach the textbook, not the language itself (McGrath, 2002) Although the textbook can be a structure for both teaching and learning process, they cannot satisfy all the needs of every different learner or class (Ur, 1996; Williams, 1983) Allwright (1981) argues that textbooks may affect the involvement of students in the language acquisition process He suggests that

a pre-packaged set of textbooks cannot sufficiently cater for the complex learning process The set structure of textbooks may confine the teachers‟ creativity and imagination and demotivate the learners (Ur, 1996) Teachers may even be led to the thought that the activities and tasks in the textbook are better than their own ideas (McGrath, 2002)

In short, the textbook has a lot of positive effects in the learning and teaching process in spite of some limitations in certain cases This is the reason that

makes textbooks an “essential constituent” of almost all teaching-learning

conditions in EFL classrooms (Litz, 2001, p.5)

2 Textbook exploitation in EFL classroom

2.1 Teachers’ attitudes toward textbook exploitation

Lakoff and Johnson (1980, p.128) state that imaginative and creative metaphors can reveal new understanding about our life, knowledge and belief According to Botha (2009), metaphors in education refer to unfamiliar

phenomenon, events or actions as familiar ones (e.g Teachers are guides,

learning is an uphill battle)

According to McGrath (2002, p.7-8) metaphors about textbooks can offer a useful insight into the way teachers perceive course books He investigated metaphors by teachers in different contexts, which can be divided into three main themes:

1 Control: A textbook is compared with “a holly book, a compass, a

straitjacket”

2 Choice: A textbook provides teachers a wide range of choices as “a

supermarket, a recipe”

3 Support: A textbook supplies teaching with great support like “a

springboard, a survival kit, a crutch”

Each metaphor reveals the context in which teachers work and the way they use the textbook Accordingly, the metaphor that compares the course book as

a holy book is particularly worrying because of “its undertones of transferred

responsibility and undue veneration for the authority of the printed word”

(McGrath, 2002, p.8)

McGrath (2006) investigated the metaphors or similes that teachers and students in a particular context in Hong Kong used for English language coursebooks then compared them He asks the participants, both teachers and students to complete the statement “A course book is…” through metaphors

or similes The teachers‟ images are organized into three positive categories, guidance, support and resource and a negative one, constraint

Figure 1: A thematic classification of teacher images for English-language course books (McGrath, 2006, p.174)

anchor scaffolding teacher‟s

Music house

Coal mine

Cake ingredients Handbag

Constraint Road block millstone straitjacket

There were also metaphors that did not belong to the classification above because they express mixed feelings through explicit comparisons For examples:

A coursebook is like a choker that can make you look good but can also

make another feel suffocated

A textbook is a thick wood, rich, you learn a lot, you see a lot [but] you get entangled, you get lost

A course-book is a smokescreen [subsequently explained as a sop to the parents rather than a guide to what is actually done in class]

A textbook is like a pair of shoes It takes time to choose one that you feel comfortable to wear for a long time A bad pair will kill you, give you blisters A good one will give you confidence to run, to jump, to fly high

(McGrath, 2006, p.175)

Results of McGrath‟s studies show that the teachers, in their minds, are aware

of the advantages as well as the disadvantages of the textbook This may positively affect the way they exploit the textbook

2.2 Different ways in textbook exploitation

From the investigation into teachers‟ attitudes towards textbooks, it can be seen that there are two common ways of textbook exploitation The first one

is totally dependent use and the second one is adaptation of textbook

In many teaching contexts, teachers are under the pressure of following

everything in the textbook This is mentioned as slavish use of textbooks in

Menkabu (2010, p.7)

It is suggested that teachers in many cases should use the textbook with adaptation

Tomlinson (1998, p xi) defines materials adaptation as:

Making changes to materials in order to improve them or make them more suitable for a particular type of learner Adaptation can include reducing, adding, omitting, modifying and supplementing

According to McDonough and Shaw (2003) as cited in Menkabu (2010, p.5),

the main purpose of adaptation is “to maximize the appropriacy of teaching

materials in context, by changing some of the internal characteristics of a course book to suit our circumstances better” To achieve this purpose, many

researchers have suggested different techniques of adaptation Ellis (1986,

cited in McGrath, 2002, p.62) mentions four processes, “retaining, rejecting,

reordering and modification” Also cited in McGrath (2002, p.62), Madsen

and Bowen (1978) refer to adaptation as “one or more of a number of

techniques: supplementing, editing, expanding, personalizing, simplifying, modernizing, localizing, or modifying cultural/situational content” Menkabu

(2010, p.6) gives more specific explanations of some techniques introduced

by Tanner and Green (1998) and McDonough and Shaw (2003)

Deleting: Some materials or activities are not used for the lack of time,

inappropriate level of difficulty or being irrelevant to the examination in future

Editing: Teacher may take the activity in the textbook and change it so that it

is more suitable and interesting to their students For example, the teacher can use the vocabulary in the textbook to write exercises which help learners to develop strategies in vocabulary learning

Adding: The teacher can use different materials to supply to the textbook

being used

Replacing: When the teacher sees that an activity in the textbook is not

suitable for their learners, they can replace it by another one

Reordering: The teacher may reorder some activities in the textbook for

some specific purposes

In relation to textbook adaptation, the question of supplementary materials should also be revised According to Tomlinson (1998, p XIII)

supplementary materials are “materials designed to be used in addition to the

core materials of a course They are usually related to the development of skills of reading, writing, listening, or speaking rather than to the learning of

language items” Block (1991, p 213-215) argues that teachers should design

supplementary materials for three reasons The first reason is

"contextualisation"; the information presented in textbooks is sometimes not relevant to students Teachers should use supplementary materials in these cases to make the lessons more interesting to students The second reason is

"timeliness" which means the information in textbooks may be out of date The third reason is "personal touch" explained as students appreciate the

teachers' effort in preparing supplementary materials and are encouraged to learn In addition to these reasons, Howard and Major (2005, p.102) state that teachers design supplementary materials because of the “individual needs” Supplementary materials designed by a teacher are suitable for students in a particular context These materials are appropriate to the level of learners in that context The researchers also point out six factors that teachers

should bear in mind when designing supplementary material; 1) the learners,

2) the curriculum and the context, 3) resources and facilities, 4) personal confidence and competence, 5) copyright compliance, 6) time Last but not

least, Howard and Major (2005, p.104-107) suggest ten guidelines for designing effective supplementary materials, they are:

1 English language teaching materials should be contextualized

2 Materials should stimulate interaction and be generative in term of language

3 English language teaching materials should encourage learners to develop language skills and strategies

4 English language teaching materials should allow for a focus on form as well as function

5 English language teaching materials should offer opportunities for integrated language use

6 English language teaching materials should be authentic

7 English language teaching materials should link to each other to develop a progression of skills, understandings and language items

8 English language teaching materials should be attractive

9 English language teaching materials should have appropriate instruction

10 English language teaching materials should be flexible

Generally, the textbook is often invariable whereas the teaching contexts are variable Therefore, teachers should know what their learners need in order to make effective adaptation of the textbook as well as design appropriate supplementary materials when necessary

3 Review of related studies

Hutchinson and Torres (1994, p.315) point out that the use of ELT textbook has not been paid much attention Menkabu (2010, p.6) also claims that the number of researches in textbook use in classroom is limited; researchers often carry our studies on the quality and appropriateness of the textbook In this section, some studies on the use of textbooks, both in ELT and non-ELT context will be reviewed

The first one is a non-ELT study which is carried out in the United States by Stodolsky (1989) reviewed by Menkabu (2010, p.7-10) The researcher investigated the use of textbook in mathematics and social classes

at some elementary schools using the data collected for another study Though the observations of six maths and six social studies teachers were not aimed to study the textbook use, the records of every class were used for this purpose Stodolsky explored three aspects in textbook use:

The extent to which topics presented in the textbook were cover, which sections of the textbook or other materials were used, and which suggestions in the teacher‟s guide were followed

(Menkabu, 2010, p.7) Stodolsky found that the participants used the textbook in different ways They preserved all the topics presented in the textbook, but they changed the order The observed teachers did not follow all suggestions in the teacher‟s guide; they just chose the ones that were suitable for their classes She concluded that the participants did not use textbooks in a “slavish” way

(totally dependent on the textbook); the textbook and the suggestions in the teacher‟s guide were used critically However, it is necessary to bear in mind that the teachers in this study were highly experienced ones; this may be the reason for them to use the textbook, use and modify the materials comfortably

In 1996, Rechards and Mahoney conducted a study in ESL context in Hong Kong 326 English teachers were involved in this study They were asked to identify their beliefs and practices in textbook use by responding to

110 items A six-point scale, open ended and multiple choice questions and follow-up observations were used to investigate the teachers‟ beliefs about textbooks and textbook writers, about the extent in using textbook, about textbook selection and textbook evaluation The finding was that most of the teachers appreciated the usefulness of textbooks in their teaching but they did not heavily depend on them

Chandran (2003) (reviewed by Menkabu, 2010, p.8-9) explored the teachers‟ beliefs and attitudes about the English textbooks in more than thirty randomly selected Malaysian secondary schools Sixty teachers, with different backgrounds, including trainee teachers, newly appointed teachers and experienced teachers were interviewed The research showed that most of the teachers, in fact, did not use the prescribed textbook because it was not helpful for examinations They would like to use materials with exercises similar to the examination format so as to help their students cope with examinations I agree with Menkabu (2010, p.9) to the point that the design of this study could have been strengthened if Chandran had carried out classroom observations

The last study in line that Menkabu (2010) reviewed is Lee and Bathmaker (2006) The researchers investigated the perceptions towards the use of textbooks of 23 language teachers from 11 secondary schools in

Singapore who were teaching 4 classes of Normal Technical students They wanted to find out whether the teachers used textbooks to teach literacy skills

or underestimated them because they were not the right materials for examinations

The data were collected with a semi-structured questionnaire and follow up telephone interviews The study revealed that the teachers used the prescribed textbook in classroom to teach language skills but they often made some changes so that it was more suitable for their students Though the teachers were aware of the advantages of the textbook, they usually used supplemented materials which helped the students get exposed to the examination format It

is obvious that the teachers in this study were not completely reliant in the textbook However, the potential reasons for this were explored by Lee and Bathmarker (2006) in Menkabu (2010, p.9-10), they were “demands of examination and teachers‟ perceptions towards Normal Technical pupils‟cognitive weakness in English and their behavioral problems”

Menkabu (2010) worked with 7 female English language instructors at

a Medical university in Saudi Arabia to explored the ways they used the ESP textbook and the teacher‟ guide in teaching the first year students The research instruments used were class observations and interviews For the question how the teachers used the prescribed textbook, the finding was that the teachers used the textbook in various ways They often made some adaptations according to their students‟ needs or their own preferences and beliefs It should be noted in this study that the teachers were working in ESP context and they were always under the pressure of time, examinations and limited knowledge on medical fields

In Vietnam, it is difficult to find a study which directly investigates the language teachers‟ attitudes towards the textbook and the way they use the

textbook in classroom However, there are a considerable number of studies about difficulties which students and teachers in certain contexts face when using the prescribed textbooks and the ways they overcome them (Vu, 2010; Nguyen, 2010; Vu, 2011) We can infer that the prescribed textbooks in Viet Nam do not completely fit to every teaching context and the teachers are aware of this Consequently, they choose to adapt the textbook

4 The influence of context on teachers’ use of textbook

From the reviewed studies above, we can see that examinations are a common constraint which affects the teachers‟ use of textbook (Chandran, 2003; Lee & Bathmaker, 2006; Menkabu, 2010) The institutions, the parents and the students often base on the results of examinations to assess the teaching and learning process This is the explanation for the fact that many teachers neglect some parts in the textbook which are irrelevant to examinations or supplement the textbook with test form materials

Another factor may influence the way teacher use textbooks is their attitudes towards the cultural contents in textbooks Gray (2000) conducted a study on how teachers think about the cultural information in ELT reading materials The participants were 12 language teachers in Barcelona, most of whom came from Britain They were asked to respond to a short questionnaire Over 90 percents of the teachers dropped or adapted the topics they felt uncomfortable for classroom discussion, for example, one of the teacher abandoned the topic about alcohol for not feeling comfortable with it However, Gray (2000, p

280) suggested that further exploration on textbooks as “a cultural artifact or

bearer of messages” is need

In summary, textbooks are proved to have a vital role in second language teaching all over the world (Hutchinson & Torres, 1994, p.315) regardless of some of its disadvantages Yet, there are a limited number of studies on the

use of textbooks in ELT classroom (Hutchinson & Torres, 1994; Menkabu, 2010) In Vietnam, it is hard to find out a study directly explore this topic As

a result, the researcher of the present study aims to contribute to the empirical studies of textbooks by examining the language teachers‟ attitudes towards textbooks and how they exploit them at Vinh Tuong high school, in Vinh Phuc province

CHAPTER TWO: THE STUDY

This chapter presents the context where the study took place followed by the background information of the participants and the instruments as well as the procedure used for data collection

1 Setting and background

1.1 The school

Vinh Tuong is a 10-year-old high school, located in Vinh Tuong town – Vinh Tuong district, Vinh Phuc province where students come from different communes nearby It was a semi-state school from 2003 to 2008 In the year

2009, the school was declared state school It started with 10 classes, and widened its number of classes up to over 24 up to now Each of class has from

40 to 50 students Beside boards, chalks, pictures and other visual aids designed by teacher themselves, the class is now equipped with tapes, cassette players and CDs

1.2 The teachers and the students

There are 5 teachers of English at Vinh Tuong high school The teachers graduated from different universities Most of them are rather young, which means inexperienced but willing to learn new things

The students at the school, in general, are not very good at English Their marks for English in the entrance exams are about 5 on average The students acknowledge the importance of English, but many of them are demotivated to learn this subject because of their limited English ability

1.3 The textbooks

The textbooks used at Vinh Tuong high school are three English books for

upper-secondary school students in Vietnam, English 10, English 11 and

English 12 This set of textbooks was written by a group of lecturers of

College of Foreign Languages (Vietnam national University, Hanoi) They

were designed under theme-based approach with 16 units Each unit is divided into 5 parts: reading, speaking, listening, writing and language focus After every three units, there is a Test Yourself, which provides some exercises for the students to do in order to test how good they are at English

1.4 Assessment procedure

Students are assessed mainly on the basis of regular 45-minute written tests which are set by the English teacher group These tests are in multiple- choice formats for the purpose of getting students acquainted with the form of the university entrance examinations Students will be evaluated on their pronunciation, grammar, structures, vocabulary and reading skill The speaking, listening, and writing skills are not being tested

2 Participants

The participants of this study are 5 teachers of English (ranging from 25 to 32 years old) teaching at Vinh Tuong high school All of them have at least 3 years‟ experience teaching at upper-secondary schools They are willing to participate in the study after the researcher has explained to them about the investigation The five teachers agreed that each of them would take part in an interview after the researcher has randomly observed their five classes The information about the participants is described in the table below

Figure 2: Description of participants

Teacher (T) Gender Qualification Years of teaching English

T5 Female University 3

3 Instruments

The study aims to investigate the teachers‟ attitudes towards textbooks and their use in classroom It is a qualitative research which is defined by Mackey and Grass (2005) in Menkabu (2010, p.18) as a “research that is based on descriptive data that does not make (regular) use of statistical procedures” In

a qualitative research, detailed descriptions of individuals or events in their natural settings are more concerned than issues of generalisability Therefore,

it works effectively with few participants According to Dornyei (2007, p.187)

as cited in Menkabu (2010, p.19), multiple method approaches in a qualitative research can help to achieve “a description and explanation of what is happening in classrooms” For instance, Richards and Mahoney (1996) combined questionnaires with classroom observation in order to investigate teachers‟ beliefs and practices in respect to textbooks while Basterkmen, Loewen and Ellis (2004) compared the teachers‟ stated beliefs with their actual teaching in classrooms by employing interviews and observations

In this research, the teachers‟ beliefs about the textbook, how they actually exploit it and their purposes after such practises are investigated Therefore, a combination of observation and interview research method is necessary Theobservations are helpful in recording the participants‟ behaviors in a naturalistic environment while the interviews reveal the participants‟ motivations for their classroom practises The classroom observations are conducted first for the purpose of describing the facts The interviews are carried out later to investigate the teachers‟ reasons for their practises in