A textbased ESP course for Pharmacy students

HANOI, 2019VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES Lê Tố Hương AN EMPIRICAL EVALUATION OF THE ESP COURSE BOOK USED AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF PHARMACY MA THESI

HANOI, 2019

VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

Lê Tố Hương

AN EMPIRICAL EVALUATION OF THE ESP COURSE BOOK

USED AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF PHARMACY

MA THESIS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE

VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

Lê Tố Hương

AN EMPIRICAL EVALUATION OF THE ESP COURSE BOOK

USED AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF PHARMACY

Field: English Language Code: 8220201

Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Hồ Ngọc Trung

DECLARATION BY AUTHOR

I certify that the work contained in this thesis is the result of my ownresearch, and this thesis has not been submitted for any degrees at any otheruniversities or institutions

Author’s Signature

Lê Tố Hương

Approved bySUPERVISOR

Assoc Prof Dr Hồ Ngọc Trung

Date:

This thesis is completed after many working hours, as well as the contribution from numerous people with their effort, enthusiasm and assistance; and this dissertation is whole heartedly dedicated to them.

First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc Prof Dr Hồ Ngọc Trung for his useful comments and continuous support of my study, for his patience, encouragement, enthusiasm and immense knowledge His guidance helped me tremendously in all the time

of research and writing of this thesis.

Next, I would like to convey my sincere appreciation and thanks to Mr Đặng Nguyên Giang and the staff of the Department of Foreign Languages, Graduate Academy of Social Sciences for granting me the honor of writing this thesis as well as their assistance and most valuable comments.

Additionally, I would be most grateful for all of the help from teachers

at Hanoi University of Pharmacy for their support and sharing the workload

so that I could wholeheartedly focus on the study and get it completed.

Furthermore, I would like to send my special thanks to all of the students at Hanoi University of Pharmacy for their enthusiasm; their answers and responses helped me a lot with the analysis of the thesis.

Last but not least, I would like to express my gratitude to my beloved family, who always support me during the progress of conducting and finishing this thesis.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION BY AUTHOR i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS vi

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE THESIS vii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1.Rationale 1

1.2.Aim(s) of the study 1

1.3.Research questions 1

1.4.Scope of the Study 2

1.5.Significance of the study 2

1.6.Research methods 2

1.7.Structure of the study 2

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

2.1.Text book, coursebook and material 4

2.1.1.Definitions 4

2.1.2.Roles of materials in ELT classrooms 5

2.2.Coursebook evaluation 7

2.2.1.Definitions of coursebook evaluation 7

2.2.2.Models of coursebook evaluation 7

2.2.3.Criteria for coursebook evaluation 13

2.3.Needs analysis 16

2.4.Previous studies on coursebook evaluation 18

2.5.English for Specific Purposes 20

2.6.Summary 21

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 22

3.1.The setting 22

3.1.1.Overview of ESP teaching and learning at Hanoi University of Pharmacy 22

3.1.2.Course material 22

3.1.3.Course objectives 23

3.1.4.Course assessment 23

3.2.Research methodology 24

3.2.1.Participants 24

3.2.2.Research instruments 26

3.2.3.Data collection procedure 28

3.2.4.Data analysis methods 29

3.3.Summary 29

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 30

4.1.About the learners 30

4.2.The suitability of the coursebook to the objectives of the course 33

4.2.1.Data collected from the questionnaire 33

4.2.2.Data collected from semi-structured interviews 39

4.2.3.Discussion and conclusion 39

4.3.The suitability of the coursebook to students’ needs 40

4.3.1.Data collected from questionnaires 40

4.3.2.Data collected from semi-structured interviews 42

4.3.3.Discussion and conclusion 43

4.4.The suitability of the coursebook to the current teaching and learning methods 43

4.4.1.Data collected from questionnaires 43

4.4.2.Data collected from semi-structured interviews 50

4.4.3.Discussion and conclusion 51

4.5.General evaluation and suggestion for further use of the coursebook 51

4.5.1.General evaluation 51

4.5.2.Suggestions for further use 52

4.5.3.Summary 53

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 54

5.1.Recapitulation 54

5.2.Concluding Remarks 55

5.2.1.The suitability to the objectives of the course 55

5.2.2.The suitability to students’ needs 55

5.2.3.The suitability to current teaching and learning methods 55

5.3.Implications 56

5.4.Limitations and Suggestions for Further Studies 56

REFERENCES 58 APPENDIX 1: PHIẾU KHẢO SÁT Ý KIẾN SINH VIÊN I APPENDIX 2: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS VIII APPENDIX 3: TRANSCRIPT OF TEACHER INTERVIEW XV

to answer the questionnaires, and four teachers to take part in the interviews.Data were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively Overall, the results

of the research have shown that teachers’ evaluations of the textbooks arevery positive Findings revealed the coursebook fundamentally met thecourse’s objectives and students’ needs, and fit in with the current teachingand learning method, though there were still minor unsuitable parts that needadaptation The result of this study would benefit both teachers and learnerswho work with this material for better use in the future

Key words: coursebook, textbook, material, coursebook evaluation,

empirical evaluation, A text-based ESP course for Pharmacy students, English major.

non-LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS

Chart 4.2: Students’ period of learning English 31Chart 4.3: Students’ background of learning English 32Table 4.1: Teachers’ evaluation of the objectives of the coursebook 33Table 4.2: Students’ evaluation of the objectives of the coursebook 35Table 4.3: Teachers’ evaluation of the suitability of the coursebook 40

to the students’ needs

Table 4.4: Students’ evaluation of the suitability of the coursebook 41

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE THESIS

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

ESL: English as a Second Language

ESP: English for Special Purpose

ETL: English Teaching and Learning

FLF: Foreign Language Faculty

HUP: Hanoi University of Pharmacy

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has been taught to undergraduates

of Hanoi University of Pharmacy (HUP) for many years The aim of ESPcourse is to enable the learners to use English for their professional purposes,especially to digest professional documents of their field for further study.There are several factors affecting the ESP teaching and learning process suchas: materials, teaching and learning method, students’ awareness of learningand so on One of the factors which is of utmost importance in learning ESP is

to see whether the coursebook is useful for the purpose of the course or not

At the HUP, the book of “A text-based ESP course for Pharmacy students”, which was collected and edited from various sources, and put into

use in 2016, is designated to those in the fourth year, who hold certainknowledge of pharmacy To some extent, its objectives meet teaching andlearning’s goals such as the vocabulary, grammar points as well as help thelearners how to gain effective reading techniques and ability of choosing therelevant documents for their job However, with a view to having a moreobjective look at the course material, a textbook evaluation from teachers andstudents of HUP is done

The main purpose of the thesis is to evaluate the current ESPcoursebook used at HUP to find out whether the coursebook meets the aims ofthe course and the students’ needs and methodology

In order to fulfill the above aims, the study is expected to answer thefollowing research questions:

1. To what extent does the course book “A Text-based ESP Course for Pharmacy Students” satisfy the aims of the course?

2. To what extent does the book meet students’ needs?

3. Is the book suitable to the current teaching and learning methods?

In material evaluation, there has been a great number of criteria thatshould be taken into consideration such as: the audience, the content, themethodology, the cultural bias, the layout, the authenticity, and so on In thisstudy, the criteria for evaluation were based on Hutchinson and Water’s(1995) with focus on the three following criteria: objectives of the material,contents of the material, and methodology

This study is to provide information on HUP teachers and students’evaluation of the current ESP coursebook This information is intended to beused as additional evidence for improving the current ESP coursebook at theHUP, making it more relevant to the learners’ needs

Also, the finding of this study will help ESP teachers at the university

to meet the learners’ expectations better by narrowing the gap betweenteaching and learning

The study adopted both quantitative and qualitative designs to evaluatethe ESP coursebook designed for the students of HUP In addition to aquestionnaire is used to elicit the students’ perceptions regarding their ESPcoursebook, there is an interview being run with the aim of achieving morereliable and valid findings

The study consists of 5 chapters:

Chapter 1 - Introduction - presents a general overview of the study withspecific references to the rationale, the aims of the study, research questions,scope of the study, significance of the study, overview of the thesis.

Chapter 2 - Literature review - provides theoretical basis for the studywith the detailed discussion about some relevant theories related to textbook,course book, material, material evaluation and need analysis

Chapter 3 - Research Methodology - includes an overview of theapproach used in conducting the study It also provides a thorough description

of the data collection procedure as well as the analytical procedure

Chapter 4 - Findings and Discussions - includes a detailed description

of the findings as well as full explanation and interpretation of these findings

Chapter 5 - Conclusion - makes conclusion of the study; recommendsthe improvements to the material; expresses the limitations and suggestionsfor further research

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter provides theoretical basis for the study with the detaileddiscussion about some relevant theories related to textbook, course book,material, material evaluation and need analysis

2.1.1. Definitions

Teaching materials are an indispensable component of any languageteaching curricula There are a number of ways researchers defined thisconcept but they share the same viewpoint that materials can be anything used

to facilitate language teaching and learning (Littlejohn 1998, Tomlinson 1998,McGrath 2002) Littlejohn (1998) and Tomlinson (2011) viewed materials invarious forms which can be students’ books, workbooks, teacher’s guides,videos, CDs, DVDs, lesson plans, website activities and more Similarly,McGrath (2002) provided a broad sense of materials in which he explainedthat they could be “realia” (real objects) or presentations (drawings orphotographs) He also added textbooks, worksheets, computer software andrecordings as sources of materials Among these forms, textbook is consideredthe official material and “the visible heart of any ELT programs” (Sheldom,1988) It plays an important role of teaching a particular subject in schoolsand colleges and serves a basis of study for students and a primary teachinginstrument for teachers (Oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com, 2008)

As a type of teaching materials, a course book is defined as “a textbookthat students and teachers use as the basis of a course”(Collinsdictionary.com, 2018) In other words, it is used to refer to a book

“used by students when they do a particular course of study”(Dictionary.cambridge.org, 2018) In accordance with the dictionarydefinition, Ur (1996) and Tomlinson (2011)

explains that course books function as the core materials for a learning course that a teacher and each student has a copy It aims to provide

language-as much language-as possible in one book and serves language-as the only book which thelearners basically use during a course A coursebook usually includesexercises on not only language elements like grammar, vocabulary,pronunciation but also functions and skills of reading, writing, listening andspeaking

From the above view of “textbook”, “course book” and “materials”, itcan be pointed out that text book and course book are types of materials andthese three terms can be used interchangeably in ELT teaching and learningcontext

2.1.2. Roles of materials in ELT classrooms

According to Richards and Rogers (2001) as cited in Ulaş Kayapinar(2009), course books play an indispensable part in the curriculum becausethey specify content and define coverage for syllabus items They play multiessential roles in ELT such as a source of learning and teaching activities withsystematic and standard knowledge of grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation,etc., a resource of learners’ self-study, a syllabus in accordance withdetermined learning objectives, and a support for inexperienced teachers(Cunningsworth, 1995) Course books also help standardize instruction, framethe language contents, and provide language models and practice activities forteachers and students to follow in class (Ur, 1996) Ur adds more advantages

of course books For example, they provide available and appropriate textsand exercises for most learners and classes They are also the most economicand convenient ways of providing teaching and learning materials for bothteachers and learners Thus, the use of course books is more and more popularamong universities, private schools and some state schools It is the ready-made syllabi in the ready-made course books that are preferred by bothschool

administrations and teachers of English Besides, course books provideopportunities for learners to practice the target language in the classroombefore they use it in real life situations.

However, course books as preplanned instruction materials have somepossible disadvantages According to Richards and Renandya (2002), as cited

in Ulaş Kayapinar (2009), course books fail to present real-life languagemodels and contextualize language activities They fails to address linguisticcompetence as well as to teach idioms in everyday language Lack of equity

in gender representation and the inadequate cultural understandingencouragement are also among the disadvantages of course books Ur (1996)adds the following drawbacks of course books Firstly, course books areinadequate in that every class and learner has their own learning needs and acourse book cannot supply these satisfactorily Secondly, course books areirrelevant because the topics dealt within the books may not necessarily beinteresting for the class Course books may lead to boredom and lack ofmotivation on the part of the learners Also, they do not cater for variety oflevels of ability and knowledge that exist in most classes Moreover, althoughcoursebooks are considered as the magical instruction tool for languageteachers, highly structured coursebooks may even lead to the de-skilling of

teachers (Hutchinson & Torres 1994 as cited in Osman Dülger 2016).

In conclusion, on one hand, coursebooks prove to be very advantageousfor both school administrations, language teachers and students with availablesyllabi and already designed texts and tasks which are suitable for a largeportion of language learners On the other hand, coursebooks reveal somelimitations such as inadequacy, irrelevance, inauthenticity That is the reasonwhy any coursebooks should be evaluated to see whether or not they matchthe school curriculum and learners’ needs and interests

2.2. Coursebook evaluation

2.2.1. Definitions of coursebook evaluation

Coursebook evaluation is of great significance as it seeks to identify thestrengths and weeknesses of the books and helps to make decisions aboutadapting the materials or adopting new ones In order to conduct theevaluation of a coursebook, it is necessary to understand what the process ofevaluation involves There are a number of definitions of evaluation provided

by researchers According to Tomlinson (2011), coursebook evaluation is anattempt to measure the potential value of the coursebooks It involves makingjudgements about the effects of coursebooks on such agents as learners,instructors, administrators who use them through such features of the books ascredibility, validity, flexibility, etc Coursebook evaluation is also defined byRea-Dickins and Germanie (1994) as “the means by which we can gain abetter understanding of what is effective, what is less effective and whatappears to be no use at all” Effective evaluation relies on asking appropriatequestions and interpreting the answers to them (Cunningsworth, 1995)

In summary, coursebook evaluation is the process of collecting data,giving judgement on the effectiveness of books based on the collected data tomake precise decisions of effectively using the materials or replacing them.2.2.2. Models of coursebook evaluation

Material evaluation is “a dynamic process which is fundamentally asubjective, rule-of-thumb activity" where "no neat formula, grid, or systemwill ever provide a definitive yardstick" (Sheldon, 1988) There are a variety

of models and criteria of coursebook evaluation which vary according to theELT contexts Administrators and instructors should choose the most suitable

criteria to evaluate coursebooks, considering the specific teaching andlearning contexts.

The following sets out a range of models to coursebook evaluationwhich all tend to evaluate coursebooks on four main aspects, including theinternal content, the aims and approaches, the supporting sources and thephysical appearance of the coursebook

Ellis’s approach (1997)

According to Ellis (1997), there are two main types of coursebookevaluation: predictive evaluation and retrospective evaluation A predictiveevaluation is designed to help teachers decide what coursebooks to usewhereas a retrospective evaluation may be conducted once the book is used tofind out if the material matches the learners’ need and current teachingmethodology Predictive evaluation, according to Ellis, can be carried out intwo principal ways One involves teachers relying on evaluations carried out

by experts specializing in coursebook evaluation Alternatively, teachers cancarry out their own predictive evaluations by making use of various checklistsand guidelines available in the literature Another kind of evaluation –retrospective evaluation – is carried out while a coursebook is in use (whilst-use evaluation) or after it has been used (post-use evaluation) There are twoways of retrospective evaluations: impressionistic and empirical one Whilethe impressionistic evaluation is based on observation of learners’engagement and enthusiasm in activities and contents of the book, empiricalone relates to “collecting data in a more systematic manner” (Ellis, 1997) Toconduct empirical evaluation, teachers use “end-of-course questionnaires tojudge the effectiveness of their teaching, including the material used”;therefore, it is often more objective and reliable than other kinds of evaluation

as it is based on users’ feedback Such an evaluation provides information thatcan be used

to determine whether the material is worth using again In addition, Ellis(1997) states that retrospective evaluation is a good way of testing the validity

of a predictive evaluation

Tomlinson’s approach (2003)

Another approach of evaluating coursebooks is proposed by Tomlinson(2003) with a three-stage process of evaluation: pre-use evaluation, whilst-useevaluation and post-use evaluation The first stage, pre-use evaluation is,according to Tomlinson (2003), “impressionistic and consists of a teacherflicking through a book to gain a quick impression of its potential value’ Itinvolves assessing the potential value of materials for their users, including aquick scan of a book’s physical appearance and content pages to get animpression of its potential value The second stage, whilst-use evaluation,involves evaluating materials in use This can be more reliable than pre-useevaluation, as it involves deeper evaluation of the content of materials andmakes use of classroom observation and feedback from the users although,according to Tomlinson (2003), this stage includes controversial issues aboutwhat exactly can be measured The criteria seem to be general and some (e.g.credibility of tasks, achievement of performance objectives, motivating power

of the materials, etc.) are not easy to measure However, he also suggests thatthese criteria “can be estimated during an open-ended, impressionisticobservation of materials in use but greater reliability can be achieved byfocusing on one criterion at a time” They can be measured by differentmethods For example, to measure the motivating power of the materials hesuggests ‘noting such features as student eye focus, proximity to the materials,time on task and facial animation’ (Tomlinson, 2003) In the last stage ofevaluation in this approach, post-use evaluation, most evaluators tend to seekanswers to such questions as: What is the impact of the coursebook onlearners?

What is its impact on teachers? And what is its impact on administrators?According to Tomlinson (2003), this stage is probably the most valuable stage

in the evaluation process as it involves measuring the effects of the materials

on users after the coursebook has been used Also, as Cunningsworth (1995)points out, post-use evaluation is useful in helping to decide whether tocontinue using a coursebook or not in the future

Littlejohn’s approach (1998 & 2011)

The third major approach for coursebook evaluation is suggested byLittlejohn (1998 & 2011) He suggested a three-level evaluation checklistincluding: (1) What is there? (2) What is required of users? and (3) What isimplied? At the first level, there are questions about the physical properties ofthe coursebook These cover publication date, intended audience, physicalaspects (number of pages, paper quality, artwork, etc.), and are similar to theones in Tomlinson (2003) Level 2 focuses on the language learning activitiesand tasks in the coursebook to see what teachers and learners using thecoursebooks need to do It moves slightly deeper into an analysis of what isassumed to be the most important aspect of coursebooks At the third level,there are questions on the approach, philosophy and aims of the coursebook.Littlejohn points out that his levels of evaluation move from more objectivecriteria to less objective ones The first level is the most objective while thethird level is the least

McGrath’s approach (2002)

The fourth approach to coursebook evaluation is suggested by McGrath(2002) He points out the aspects which need evaluating in a two-stageprocess of systematic materials evaluation They are ‘first-glance’ evaluationand ‘in- depth’ evaluation Each stage consists of a series of criteria by which

to evaluate the coursebook The ‘first glance’ evaluation has four steps In step1

– practical considerations, features evaluated in this step include: availability,cost, and the levels of the book which are available If these are judgedsatisfactory, the evaluation proceeds to step 2 – support for teaching andlearning Features assessed at this step include the teacher’s book and howwell it relates to the student book, supporting resources (e.g cassetterecordings, photocopiable worksheets, etc.) If all these are satisfied, theevaluator proceeds to step 3 - context relevance At this stage the evaluatorassesses the suitability of the coursebook in terms of aims, syllabus, lengthand its suitability for learners’ proficiency level, age and background If all ofthese meet the requirements, the evaluator goes further to step 4 - learnerappeal This step involves considering the appeal of the book to learners This

is mainly related to the appearance of the book The evaluation starts from thefirst sub-step If a coursebook meets all of the key criteria for each step, theprocess continues with the next one If it does not meet the key criteria in anysub-step, the process stops and the coursebook is rejected If all of the above-mentioned key criteria are met, the in-depth evaluation step is carried out toassess the coursebook in detail

According to McGrath (2002), the in-depth evaluation tends to address the following points:

- The aims and content of the book

- What they require learners to do

- What they require the teacher to do

- Their function as a classroom resource

- Learner needs and interests

- Learner approaches to language learning

- The teaching-learning approach in the teacher’s own classroom

McDonough and Shaw’s approach (1993 & 2003)

Another important approach for coursebook evaluation is suggested byMcDonough and Shaw’s (1993 & 2003) with three stages: externalevaluation, internal evaluation and overall evaluation This implies thatevaluation is continuous and never static, as the criteria can be changed to suitdifferent teaching and learning contexts External evaluation is similar toMcGrath’s (2002) ‘first-glance evaluation’, Tomlinson’s (2003) ‘pre-useevaluation’ and Littlejohn’s (1998 & 2011) ‘level 1 evaluation’ It focuses onthe intended audience, the proficiency level, the context, the organization andpresentation of units, the author’s views and methodology, the learningprocess and the learner, and the physical appearance Issues of layout anddesign and local availability, supporting resources (teacher’s book, audio-visual materials, etc.) are also included in this stage The internal evaluation isconcerned with the content, including grading and sequencing This stageseems to resemble McGrath’s (2002) ‘in-depth evaluation’ and Tomlinson’s(2003) ‘whilst-use evaluation’

In general each approach to coursebook evaluation, as mentionedabove, has its own strengths and weaknesses, evaluators should choose oreven devise an approach which is the most principled, systematic and suitablefor their context In the researcher’s opinion, it is also important for evaluators

to combine approaches, in order to offset the weaknesses of one approachwith the strengths of others The present study uses a mixed approach, mainlybased on Ellis’s framework (1997), though modified, with evaluation criteriafrom other authors

2.2.3. Criteria for coursebook evaluation

From different approaches to the evaluation of coursebooks, there arealso different sets of criteria for evaluating coursebooks

Criteria proposed by Hutchinson and Water (1987)

Hutchinson and Water (1987) proposed a checklist of materialevaluation including items related to subjective and objective analysis of thebook such as: audience, aim, content, methodology, price and its availability

Audience: This part of the checklist consists of some questions related

to information about the learners such as their age, sex, nationalities, study orwork specialism, language background and interests

Aim: Evaluators need to consider if the aims and objectives of the

coursebook match those of the course/ school program

Content: The questions involving the language description, language

point, macro-skill and their proportion, micro-skill, types, subject matterareas, topics, organization through the course, organization within the courseunit, content sequence are covered in this part

Methodology: In this part, the checklist investigates methodology

including questions about the theory of learning, the attitudes or theexpectation of the learners about learning, exercises and tasks, teaching andlearning techniques used, teaching aids, teaching guidance needed and theflexibility of the material in different teaching situations

Criteria suggested by Cunningsworth (1995)

Cunningsworth (1995) proposed a number of criteria to consider thematerials, which was presented as a basic quick-reference checklist forevaluation and selection, including: aims and approaches, design andorganization, language content, skills, topic, methodology, teacher’s booksand practical considerations

Aims and approaches: Evaluators should take into consideration the

suitability of the aims of the coursebook with the aims of the teachingprogram and the needs of the learners as well as the suitability of the bookwith the learning/ teaching situation and styles

Design and organization: The components of the book package, the

organization of the content, the recycling and revision included in thecoursebook are concerned in this criterion

Language content: The language components such as grammar,

vocabulary, pronunciation are considered carefully through detailed questions

in Ellis’ checklist

Skills: The questions involved four skills are to be investigated in this

set of criteria with regard to the adequacy, authenticity, integrity andsuitability of the skills in the coursebook with students’ level

Topic: Evaluators need to consider whether the coursebook provides

students with enough variety and range of topics of genuine interest tolearners; whether the topics equally address men and women as well as othergroups of various ethnic origin, occupation, disability; whether the social andcultural values are conveyed in the range of topics in the book

Methodology: Approaches to language learning presented in the

coursebook, the language presenting/ practicing techniques, the method toteach different skills and the guideline to students’ self-study are taken intoaccount in this set of criteria

Teachers’ books: The guidance, supporting materials and the answer

key that the book provides for teachers as well as the teaching techniques,language items and cultural content that they cover are to be evaluated

Last but not least, the practical considerations which involves the

price, the duration, the appearance of the book and the equipment it requiresare also considered

Criteria proposed by Wong Pak Wing Lawrence (2011)

Wong Pak Wing Lawrence (2011) proposed a self-constructedevaluation framework for evaluating curriculum fitness with the followingcriteria:

Use of task-based approach teaching and learning strategies:

Evaluators base on this set of criteria to check if the materials are designedwith learner- centered instruction, target-oriented English learning, integrativeand creative language use, learning grammar in context, purposeful tasks andexercises as well as extended tasks and project learning

Integrated skills: In this part, the checklist examines if the four skills –

listening, speaking, reading and writing – are integrated in the book forauthentic purposeful communication

The teaching of language arts: Evaluators take into consideration the

place of language arts (i.e films, songs, lyrics, movies, dramas, novels, shortstories, etc.) in the English Language Curriculum and considerations forselecting language arts materials

Other criteria are to check if the book promotes independent languagelearning or provide information technology for interactive learning and life-wide learning

In summary, the criteria set by both established material evaluators likeHutchinson and Water (1987), Cunningsworth (1995) and novice researchscholars like Wong Pak Wing Lawrence (2011) for an in-depth and objectiveanalysis of teaching materials They share some core factors and the criterialisted in them may not always be effective in a specific context Therefore, itis

necessary to prepare “a new one or modify the existing ones in order to coverall aspects of evaluation” (Cunningsworth, 1995) In this regard, in this studythe author used and modified ideas from these checklists to design a set of

criteria for the empirical evaluation of the course book “A Text-based ESP Course for Pharmacy Students” for non-English major students at Hanoi

University of Pharmacy

Needs analysis (also known as needs assessment) play a vital role in theprocess of designing and carrying out any language courses, and itsimportance has been acknowledged by several scholars and authors

The term “needs analysis”, according to Elaine Tarone and George Yule(2000), refers to the collection and evaluation of information to answer thequestion: “What aspects of the language does some particular group oflearners need to know?” Mountford (1981) offers the definition that “needs”can be defined as what students should be able to do at the end of theirlanguage course, or “what the user institution or society at large regards asnecessary or desirable to be learnt from a program of language instruction”.Another definition given by Brindley (1984) is that “needs” refers to wants,desires, demands, expectations, motivations, lacks, constraints, andrequirements It is evident that course designers may take students’ needs intoconsideration when designing a course For Johns (1991), needs analysis isthe first step in course design and it provides validity and relevancy for allsubsequent course design activities Different approaches to needs analysisattempt to meet the needs of the learners in the process of learning a secondlanguage Among which, a modern and comprehensive concept of needsanalysis is proposed by Dudley- Evans and St John (1998) with the concept

of needs analysis as follows:

Environmental situation – information about the situation in which the

course will be run (means analysis)

Personal information about learners – factors which may affect the waythey learn (wants, means, subjective needs)

Language information about learners – what their current skills andlanguage use are (present situation analysis)

Learner’s lacks (The gap between the present situation and professionalinformation about learners): learner’s needs form course – what is wantedfrom the course (short-term needs); language learning needs – effective ways

of learning the skills and language determined by the lacks

Professional information about learners – the tasks and activitiesEnglish learners are/will be using English for (Target Situation Analysis andobjective needs)

How to communicate in the target situation – knowledge of howlanguage and skills are used in the target situation (register analysis, discourseanalysis, genre analysis)

Different types of need analysis are presented in the below figure:

Needs analysis jigsaw

As can be seen from the figure, these types of needs analyses are notexclusive but supplementary Each of them provide a piece to complete thejigsaw of needs analysis.

Up to now, there have been a number of studies on coursebookevaluation In 2009, Ulaş KAYAPINAR conducted a study which revealed theteachers’ views on the quality of foreign coursebook packages (from beginner

to intermediate level) widely used in the teaching process of Englishpreparatory classes in twenty-five different high schools In the study, widelyused (best selling) coursebooks with the same sub-domains are chosen to beevaluated by teachers The data were gathered from the questionnaire results

of ninety-four teachers and standard open-ended interview results of fortyteachers who teach in English preparatory classes and use particularcoursebook packages in the classroom environment (n=134) The viewsreveal that teachers do not have positive impressions about the coursebookpackages used in general Moreover, the general conceptions of the teacherssuggest that coursebooks should be developed and used to meet the needs ofthe learners in the national context In the same year, Azadeh Nemati carriedout a study to evaluate English Pre-University textbook of Karnataka state inIndia with respect to general criterion as well as vocabulary teaching Firstly,

a questionnaire was made with reference to some critical features extractedfrom different material evaluation checklists The prepared questionnaire wascompleted by 26 Pre-University teachers from 12 randomly selectedgovernmental and non-governmental schools Then strong points andweaknesses of the course book were discussed in detail In the second phase,

to analyze the vocabulary of the book systematically, some texts of the bookwere randomly selected, submitted to vocabulary profile to see if they are

sequenced from the most frequently used words to the less used ones whichaccording to Nation (1990) is an important factor in vocabulary teaching.

In Vietnam, Tran Minh Thanh (2014) conducted a study to evaluate thebook “English for Information Technology” for second-year students of auniversity in Thai Nguyen to see how the coursebook is relevant to thelearners’ needs in terms of content, format and methodology Surveyquestionnaires and semi-structured interviews were employed to investigateboth students and teachers’ perception of the book The result reveals that thecoursebook is relatively relevant to the needs of the learners and it should befurther used by second-year students in the university with some changes andadaptation

In 2015, Tran Thi Thuy carried out an evaluation of the coursebook

“New English File - Elementary” for the first year students at a university inHanoi The aim of the study is to evaluate the material to determine whether itmatches the course’s requirements in terms of the audience, content, aims andmethodology The criteria suggested by Hutchinson and Warter (1987)together with two data collection instruments: document analysis and surveyquestionnaires are selected The finding of the study showed that the bookbasically meets the requirement of the Faculty of English Department of theuniversity besides some demerits to be changed and adapted

In 2018, Vu Thi Hong Luyen made a study of evaluating the coursebook “English File Beginner Student’s Book – Third edition” by ChristinaLatham- Koenig, Clive Oxenden (Oxford University Press, 2014) for non-English major students at a preparatory school in Viet Tri in terms itssuitability to the objectives of the course, students’ needs and current teachingand learning method The findings revealed the course book fundamentallymet the course’s objectives and students’ needs, and fit in with the currentteaching and learning method, though there were still minor unsuitable partsthat need adaptation

The result of this study would benefit both teachers and learners who workwith this material for better use in the future.

This study is also carried out to evaluate the course book “A Text-based ESP Course for Pharmacy Students”, but the evaluation is only focused on

the suitability of book to the aims and methodology of the course as well asthe needs of the students The researcher does not use a single model toconduct the evaluation but criteria from different valuators are chosen andadapted for the evaluation by means of delivering questionnaire andinterviewing both teachers and students It is hoped that the study will revealreliable and valuable results

Since its emergence, much effort has been made to give an exactdefinition of ESP There are almost as many definitions of ESP as the number

of scholars who have attempted to define it Many researchers have tried todefine ESP in terms of what it is not rather than in terms of what it really is.However, the concept of ESP has been basically agreed by numerousresearchers to be a kind of language learning which has its focus on allaspects of language pertaining to a particular field of human activities whiletaking into account the time constraint imposed by learners According toHutchinson and Waters (1997), ESP is one important branch of EFL/ESL(English as a Foreign/Second Language) system that functions as the mainbranch of English language teaching (ELT) Therefore, ESP is not a particularkind of language or methodology, but rather an approach to language learningwhereby the content and methods are based on the learners’ particular needs

to learn the language

Robinson (1980) defines that ESP courses as the ones in whichparticipants have specific goals and purposes (again, academic, occupational,

and scientific) She cited Strevens (1977) to emphasize that the purposeslanguage learners have for using language are of paramount importance Shestates that those purposes must be understood as the driving force of thecurriculum in a way that would help teachers and learners to not let irrelevantmaterials be introduced into the course She also places the learners in the role

of curriculum designers in order to make the curriculum more centered Strevens also argues that ESP courses are those that are almoststrictly based on the analysis of the participants’ needs - a key and crucialelement - in order to tailor the curriculum to meet its true purposes

learner-From the above definitions, it can be seen that ESP can but is notnecessarily concerned with a specific discipline (subject), nor does it have to

be aimed at a certain age group or ability range or in other words ESP can beapplied to any subject and any learner ESP should be seen simple as anapproach “to teaching, or what Dudley-Evans describes as an attitude ofmind” Hutchinson et al (1987, p.19) share the same idea that ESP is anapproach to language teaching in which all decisions as to contents andmethod are based on the learners’ reason for learning

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

This chapter describes the methodology employed in the study It startswith a description of the research context The next part presents the researchdesign with a description of the subjects, instruments, and data collectionprocedures

3.1.1. Overview of ESP teaching and learning at Hanoi University of Pharmacy

ESP courses are used for the fourth year students and last for 2 credits

It aims to equip students with necessary specific English knowledge which ispractically related to the future career or further education Students attend theclass 4 periods per week for 8 weeks By the end of the course, beside thepoints for attendance and a 40-minute mid-term test, students are required to

do a written examination

The course is designed to:

Provide students with vocabulary related to different specialties in the field of pharmaceutical sciences

Introduce students to some general knowledge in several aspects of pharmaceutical sciences

Provide students with opportunities to practice and develop their

language skills in general as well as pharmacy context

Develop students’ language skills in the context of pharmacy with emphasis on reading

sciences such as chemistry, basic pharmacology, drug interaction, traditionalmedicine, etc This material to some extent was a big head-start for both theteachers and students: for the first time, priority was given to the mostcommon subject areas, language forms, functions and vocabulary relevant tothe students at the University.

“A Text-based ESP Course for Pharmacy Students”, which consists of

ten units, presents the general content knowledge related to basicpharmaceutical sciences and practices grammar and vocabulary with a focus

on reading skills It also provides the practices of writing activities andseveral opportunities for speaking

3.1.3. Course objectives

The ESP course provided by the Faculty of Foreign language aims toprovide them with basic content knowledge related to the pharmacy students’subject area Thus, by the end of the course, the students are expected toachieve the followings Firstly, they can distinguish the terms and words used

in pharmaceutical sciences from those of other specialties and in dailycommunication Secondly, they can infer and guess the meaning of words andphrases related to the topics and specialties based on the context of the lesson.Thirdly, they should have a thorough grasp of the grammatical points of ESPtexts Moreover, after the course, based on the seven oriented specialties,students’ vocabulary was developed, which help them read and translate manykinds of reference books in English on their own specialization

3.1.4. Course assessment

Because the time allotted for ESP teaching and learning is limited, there

is only one kind of summative assessment which includes a forty-five-minutemidterm test and a sixty-minute end-of-term test

3.2. Research methodology

3.2.1. Participants

According to Dudley-Even (1988, p.132), the main sources to providedata should be the learners, the people with whom the learners work or study,documents being used, evaluator and colleagues

The application of the mixed research instruments in the researchrequired the data from more than one source of informants The first source tosupply the data is the ESP teachers who are currently using the coursebookand also making adaptation for better performance in teaching Secondly, thedata is collected from the fourth-year students who were studying thematerials at the time when the study was carried out Lastly, the researcherwho has used the materials took part in the data analyzing and supplying Inorder to have data for her materials evaluation, the researcher analyzes theESP course syllabus and the ESP materials under study and conducted asurvey to collect information

The research participants would be described as follows:

3.2.1.1. The first group of participants

86 students in their fourth year at the University were invited toparticipate in the study The students are from three groups and they had justcompleted their ESP course with their subject matter area relating topharmacy At the time when the researcher did the data collection, thesestudents were in the eighth semester All of them finished three semesters ofGeneral English course in which they had to go through New Cutting EdgePre Intermediate and Intermediate

Most of the fourth-year students are from 20 to 22 years of age.Although having finished general English credits, they do not share the samelevel of language proficiency Before entering the academy, some of themlived in big cities and towns and started learning English at early ages so theycould use four skills rather well But most of them, especially the studentsfrom remote areas (some of them are even cadres of minority stock) are veryweak at English.

From these students, the researcher can gather information about theircoursebook evaluation relating to their proficiency level, the aims, the content

of the materials they had learnt, the tasks, exercises, and the learning-teachingtechniques they were asked to do in their course

3.3.1.2 The second group of participants

The second group of participants for interviews are 4 ESP teachersworking in Faculty of Foreign Language at HUP, who have been using the

coursebook “A Text-based ESP Course for Pharmacy Students” They are

qualified and experienced in teaching ESP to the students of pharmacy Theage of respondents varied from 36 to 47 These four teachers had graduatedeither from National University or from the University of Foreign Studies inHanoi Furthermore, all of them obtained MA in English and have beenteaching English for a long time Therefore, they understand deeply whataspects of English language should be required by the students as well as how

to help students acquire the kind of English needed

The interview was done in June 2019 when the participants have justfinished the teaching of their ESP course

3.2.2. Research instruments

To evaluate if the coursebook meets the requirement of the course interms of methodology, aims and needs of the students, two instruments forcollecting data were used, which were questionnaires and semi-structuredinterviews

Questionnaires

In this study, questionnaire was used for both teachers and students toexplore the three aspects of materials evaluation that are chosen for this study:suitability to the objectives of the course, students’ needs and current teachingand learning method Each questionnaire is divided into five parts withstudent version being written in Vietnamese while teacher version in English

Part 1 consists of three questions They are designed to investigate the

students’ English learning background

Part 2 consists of nine items Among these items, items one to eight are

used to look into the attitudes of the students towards the suitability of theaims of the ESP material to the aims of the course Item nine is an open-endedquestion which aims to ask the respondents to add the other areas relating tothe aims of the coursebook that the researcher could take into account

Part 3 includes four items in order to collect the students’ information

relating to suitability of the coursebook to the content requirements of thecourse Item four is designed in an open way to let the students express theopinions on the the suitability of the coursebook to learners’ needs

Part 4 comprises three questions (questions six to eight) to investigate

the appropriateness of the methodology used in the coursebook to the courserequirements through questions about the teaching and learning techniquesused in the book and the teaching aids required by the book

Part 5 is teachers’ and students’ general evaluation of the course book

as well their suggestions and expectations for the book adjustment if

necessary

Interviews

It is noted that a lot of information could be gathered fromquestionnaires However, the researcher might not have all necessaryinformation through this method of data collection Therefore, collectinginformation through interviews was also chosen in this study Usinginterviews, according to Nunan (1998), could help to get in-depthinformation, more response and flexibility despite the fact that it could becostly, time-consuming and difficult for the researcher The researcher found,however, that with a small number of informants, using interviews wasrelatively suitable and effective for the research

The language of the questions used in the interview is in Vietnamese tomake sure that all the questions were equally understood As regards thedesign of the questions for the interview, the questions are adopted and thenadapted from the theses of Nguyen (2003), Nguyen (2004) and Le (2018).Some more questions are designed by the researcher herself The questionsare designed on the three criteria selected for the evaluation: the suitability ofthe ESP material to the students’ language level, the aims of the course, andthe methodology The interviews of the study are conducted with theparticipation of the ESP teachers in order to get information from the teachersabout the material they were working with and suggestions for the betterquality of the material

The ESP teachers were asked about their evaluation on the coursebookunder study in terms of the aims, the learners’ need, and the methodology.These questions and items, which are similar to those in the fourth-year

students’ questionnaire are designed with regards to the teachers’ commentson

the coursebook and their suggestions for the material improvement Thescales used in the teacher interviews are also the same as those in the fourth-year students’ questionnaire This would make it easier for the researcher tocompare the students and the teachers’ views later.

3.2.3. Data collection procedure

Data collection was carried out through questionnaires for students andinterviews for teachers

First, the researcher designed the questionnaires based on the criteria thatshe had carefully chosen and adapted from different evaluators Next, thequestionnaires were distributed to 90 fourth-year students after the last lesson

of the ESP course All the students had over half an hour to fill in thequestionnaires in their classes The questionnaire collection was done rightafter the survey completion and all the questionnaires had been returned.However, some of the students were absent because of their illnesses at thetime of the survey so 86 copies of questionnaires were returned from theforth-year students

Finally, the formal interviews with the four ESP teachers are conductedafter the students’ questionnaires collection The researcher designed thechecklist of questions for interviews and it was given to the teachers to getthem well prepared for the interviews While the participants are interviewed,the researcher write down their answers briefly on the interviewee format.The interviews are conducted with the help of the recorder, which could makethe result of interviews reliable

All the raw data collected from the questionnaires was kept in a file,and the interviews were kept in the other one Then the data was analyzed bythe

researcher with the help of Microsoft Excel, which helped the researcher tosave a lot of time and have correct data for the study.

Although the survey was conducted to students, who had finished thecourses and the ESP teachers, the questionnaires and the structure ofinterviews are used in Vietnamese in order to avoid problems ofmisunderstanding

3.2.4. Data analysis methods

The data were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively For analysis ofthe questionnaires, the Likert scale was used and necessary calculations werecarried out For the analysis of the semi-structured interviews and the open-ended questions in the questionnaires, qualitative techniques were used tocategorize the data

Evaluating materials is considered as one of the necessary stages inteaching and learning language to improve the effectiveness of materials inuse However, failure or success the study could bring to each evaluatordepends on the research method In this chapter, the researcher has presentedthe data collection instruments and the procedure for data analysis used in thethesis The participants of the study are also mentioned The researcher hopesthat applying the data instruments mentioned above and choosing the rightevaluators participating in this study would help her have a critical look at thecoursebook under study The findings of the study would be clearly presented

in the next chapter

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

In this chapter, the researcher presents and discusses the results from the

questionnaires and interviews to find out whether the coursebook “A based ESP Course for Pharmacy Students” is suitable to the course in terms

Text-of the course aim, students’ needs and current teaching and learning methods

Background information about learners such as their age, years oflearning English as well as their current English levels or the English coursesthey have attended is very important for educational institutions to build upthe appropriate curriculum and decide on the suitable coursebook for students

to study The charts below summarize some major information of the learners

at HUP

Learners’ English learning background

The three pie charts below presents students’ age and their background of learning English as the result collected from students’ questionnaires

Chart 4.1: Students’ age

years old years old

Students'age

8%

92%