An evaluation of the appropriateness of english unlimited a1 coursbook to english beginners at thang long canon factory

I hereby certify that the thesis “An evaluation of the appropriateness of “EnglishUnlimited A1” course book to English Beginners at Thang Long Canon factory” is theresult of my own resea

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OFLANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST -

Thăng Long)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGYCODE : 60140111

HANOI – 2015

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OFLANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST -

tượng là người mới học tiếng Anh ở nhà máy

Canon Thăng Long)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGYCODE : 60140111

Supervisor: Prof NGUYỄN QUANG, Ph

HANOI – 2015

I hereby certify that the thesis “An evaluation of the appropriateness of “EnglishUnlimited A1” course book to English Beginners at Thang Long Canon factory” is theresult of my own research in the fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master

of Arts at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University,Hanoi The study has not been submitted for any other degrees

Signature:

Nguyễn Thị Nhất

Date: May 28th, 2015

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSThe study could not have been fulfilled without the help, encouragement andsupport of a number of people.

First and foremost, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor andpromoter, Prof Nguyen Quang, Ph He helped me with a lot of advice, comments,enthusiasm and experience of doing a research My special thanks also go to Mr Quangfor his friendliness, hospitality, kindness and enthusiasm

Besides, I would like to show my gratitude to all the teachers of the Faculty ofPost-graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, VietnamNational University, Hanoi whose lectures and guide helped me much while carrying outthis study I also acknowledge Dr Ngo Huu Hoang who suggested me this topic

Also, I am thankful to my colleagues teaching English at Thang Long Canonfactory helped me complete data collection I would like to say thanks to all the students– the workers and staff at Canon factory participating in the study with their enthusiasm and responsibility in the lessons in class as well as the questionnaire completion

Last but not least, my deepest gratitude goes to my family, especially my husband and friends who have always been supportive and encouraging to me

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this study was to investigate the appropriateness of the textbook

“English Unlimited A1” to beginners at Thang Long Canon factory Participants consisted

of 100 students at elementary level and 10 teachers directly teaching English at ThangLong Cannon factory The data collection instruments used in this study were studentquestionnaire, teacher interview and document analysis In this sequence, the materialanalyzed based on the criteria suggested by Hutchinson and Waters (1987) with theobjectives to find out the match of the textbook with students’ level and theappropriateness of the material in terms of aims, content and methodology to beginners at

TL Canon factory

The research results have revealed some strengths of the material which allowsthe author to conclude that the material is relatively suitable with the students’ level ofEnglish Also, the aims, content and methodology requirements of the course are quiterelevant to the learners, but some weaknesses are unavoidable Based on the findings, thethesis suggests some recommendations on materials adaptation such as addition, deletion,and combination that should be made to remedy the weaknesses of the material so that thestudents and teachers can benefit more from it in future courses

DECLARATION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ABSTRACT

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

PART A INTRODUCTION

1.Rationale

2.Aims of the study

3 Significance of the study

4.The research questions

5 The scope of the study

6 Overview of the study

PART B DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Textbooks, course books, and materials

1.2 Textbook evaluation

1.2.1 1.2.2 1.2.3 Methods of textbook evaluation

1.2.4 Models of material evaluation

1.2.5 Criteria for textbook evaluation

1.3 Textbook adaptation

1.3.1 1.3.2 1.3.3 Methods to adapt a textbook

1.4 Conclusion

CHAPTER TWO: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

1.1 An overview of current English Teaching and Learning at TL factory

2.1.1 Context of the thesis

2.1.2

1.2 Research methodology

1.2.1 2.2.2 2.2.3.1 Questionnaire

2.2.3.2 Interview

1.3 Data collection procedure

2.3.1 Document analysis

2.3.2 Student questionnaire

2.3.3 Teacher interview

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 The appropriateness of the material to the students’ level of English

4.1.1 Document analysis

4.1.2 Results from the survey

4.1.2.1 Teacher interview

4.1.2.2 Student questionnaire

4.1.3 Matching and discussion

4.2 The appropriateness of the material to the aims of the course

4.2.1 The appropriateness of the material to the aims of the course in terms of language aspects

4.2.2 The appropriateness of the material to the aims of the course in terms of language skills

4.3 The appropriateness of the material to content requirements of the course

4.3.1 The appropriateness of the content in terms of language aspects

4.3.2 The appropriateness of the content of the course book in terms of language skills

4.3.3 Matching and discussion

4.4 The appropriateness of the material to methodology requirements of the course

4.4.1 Material analysis and survey results

4.4.2 Matching and discussion

4.5 Recommendations for the course book’s adaptation

4.5.1 Addition

4.5.2 Deletion 40

4.5.3 Combination 41

PART C CONCLUSION 42

1 Conclusion of the study 42

2 Limitations and suggestions for future research 43 REFERENCES I APPENDICES III

Appendix 1 III HUTCHINSON AND WATERS’S CRITERIA CHECKLIST FOR MATERIALS

EVALUATION III

Appendix 2 VIII STUDENT QUESTIONNAIRE VIII

Appendix 3 XII TEACHER INTERVIEW XII

Appendix 4 XIII NOTE-TAKING OF THE TEACHER INTERVIEW XIII

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CLT: Communicative Language Teaching

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

ELT: English Language Teaching

ESL: English as a Second Language

GE: General English

TL: Thang Long

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLESFigures

Figure 1: Material evaluation model by McDonough and Shaw

Figure 2: Material evaluation model by Hutchinson & Waters

Tables

Table 2.1: Types of information in the student questionnaire

Table 4.1: Teachers’ opinions of the appropriateness of the material to the students’ level of English

Table 4.2: Teachers’ opinions of the difficulty of different parts in the material

Table 4.3: Students’ assessments of the difficult sections in the material

Table 4.4: Students’ opinions of the reasons why some sections are difficult

Table 4.5: Students’ opinions of the appropriateness of the material for the aims of the course in terms of language aspects

Table 4.6: Students’ opinions of the appropriateness of the material for the aims of the course in terms of language skills

Table 4.7: Students’ opinions of the appropriateness of the material to the content requirements of the course

Table 4.8: Students’ opinions of the appropriateness of the material to the methodology requirements of the course

PART A INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

With the rapid development of technology and means of mass communication,people are exposed to a lot of choices for learning resources As the result, some peoplebecome lazier because it is totally convenient and cheap even free to have an usefullearning document from the Internet However, we cannot deny that books always play

a vital role Many theorists have emphasized on the importance of textbooks in theclassroom to both teachers and students According to Sheldon (1998:237), textbooks

“represent the visible heart of any ELT program.” Textbook is like a teacher, a friend,and a source of helpful information for people to get knowledge from However, there

is a wide variety of textbooks, materials for teachers and students to select Thequestion of what, how and why a material is chosen for a course and a level of students

is difficult for teachers to answer Therefore, it is necessary for material evaluators toevaluate the appropriateness of each textbook for each class and students’ level

Being a teacher of Communicative English Programs for learners at TL Canonfactory, the researcher would like to find out the most effective teaching methodology

to help learners communicate successfully in daily situations at work In addition, thecourse book “English Unlimited A1” which has just been used to teach staff andworkers here in two courses, is a new material published in 2011 Hence, it is necessary

to have a critical view of this material to help teachers adapt and use the book the mosteffectively

2 Aims of the study

The purpose of the thesis is to evaluate the appropriateness of the material “EnglishUnlimited A1” in terms of audience, aims, content and methodology to the Englishbeginners at TL Canon factory In other words, it investigates the suitability of thematerial to the students’ level of English and looks into the appropriateness of

the material to beginners at TL Canon factory in terms of aims, content, andmethodology.

3 Significance of the study

The thesis will be useful not only for the researcher but also for the teachers andlearners at TL Canon factory It will contribute to the improvement of English learningand teaching quality at TL Canon factory In addition, the results of the thesis willprovide a basis for the adaptation and improvement of the material

Additionally, the thesis will theoretically contribute to the field of GE materialevaluation in general

4 The research questions

The study is carried out to achieve the following objectives:

To find out the appropriateness of the material to students’ level of English at

TL Canon factory

To identify the appropriateness of the material to beginners at TL Canon factory

in terms of aims, content, and methodology

Therefore, the following research question designed as follows:

1 How appropriate is the material “English Unlimited A1” to beginners at

TL Canon factory in terms of audience, aims, content and methodology?

5.The scope of the study

It is not doubtful that, to have an overall critical evaluation on a material, anevaluator ought to look at every specific aspect of the material According to Brown(1995), the process of material evaluation is to find out the effectiveness, efficiency,and attitudes of the interested party of the course Indeed, to measure the effectivenessand efficiency of materials, quantitative methods (an experiment with diagnostic andachievement test) are required while investigation of attitudes of the material can becarried out with qualitative methods (interviews, questionnaire,

observation, and document analysis, etc.) Although it is necessary to investigate thematerial from all the three aspects mentioned above, the limitation of time and scope of

a minor thesis does not allow the researcher to do as many jobs as expected Therefore,the evaluator of this research only investigates the attitudes of the learners and teachers

at TL Canon factory towards the following aspects of the material:

Audience (in terms of the students’ level of English), aims, content, and

methodology

6.Overview of the study

The INTRODUCTION comprises the rationale, the aims, the significance, thescope, and the design of the study

The DEVELOPMENT includes three chapters:

Chapter one – Literature Review – presents an overview of theoretical issues ofmaterial evaluation discussed and analyzed by ELT experts and researchers The focus

is on material evaluation and adaptation

Chapter two – Methodology – is divided into five sections The first one describesthe setting of the study The second one provides information of the material underevaluation Data collection methods is the third section of the chapter Next, the writerfocuses on the procedure of data collection Finally, the subjects of the research will bediscussed

Chapter three – Findings and Discussion – reports and discusses the results of thestudy as well as gives a summary of the major findings

The CONCLUSION provides a brief summary of what is discussed in the studyand recommends room for further research

PART B DEVELOPMENTCHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW

In this chapter, the researcher attempts to draw an overview of the theoreticalbackground of the study which is divided into three sub-parts First, the author willstate the definitions as well as the similarities and differences among textbooks, coursebooks and materials Next, the researcher will indicate in detail material evaluation thatprovides the fundamental basis to conduct this study including definition, types,methods, models and some other criteria The theoretical discussion of textbookadaptation will be presented in the last sub-parts

1.1 Textbooks, course books, and materials

1.1.1 Definition

In fact, the terms “textbooks, course books and materials” are most commonlyfound in learning and teaching Researchers, authors, teachers and learners usually usethem interchangeably However, what are similarities among these terminologies?

In a GE course, a textbook has the function of a source of language, a learningsupport, a source for stimulation and motivation, and also a source of reference, so itplays an important role in the success of the language course However, “there is nosuch a thing as a perfect textbook” (Brown, 1995: 166); sometimes textbooks should beevaluated to judge the appropriateness to the targeted students In many circumstances,teaching will be based on a single textbook although other materials may be used at theteacher’s discretion

The term “course book” is used to refer to a textbook which a course is based

on In ELT, Tomlinson (1998:9) defines it specifically as: “a textbook which providesthe core materials for a course Its aim is to provide as much as possible in one bookand is designed so that it could serve as the only book which the learners necessarily

use during a course Such a book includes work on grammar, vocabulary,pronunciation, functions and the skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking.”

There are various opinions of teaching materials defined by different authorsand researchers in language teaching and learning aspect Dudley – Evans and St John(1998: 170) give their viewpoint that “materials can be used as a source of language, alearning support for motivation and stimulation, and for reference” while Hutchinson(1987: 37) believes “materials are not simply the everyday tools for the languageteachers; they are an embodiment of the aims, values and methods of a particularteaching and learning situation.” Another opinion of Tomlinson (1982:2), languageteaching materials are anything which is used by teachers or learners to facilitate thelearning of a language “It can be in the form of a textbook, a workbook, a cassette, aCD-Room, a video, a photocopied handout, a newspaper, a paragraph written on awhite board, anything that presents or informs about the language being learnt”.Among them, textbooks are the most widely used in language teaching

In short, in this thesis, the researcher will use the terms “textbook, course bookand material” interchangeably for the convenience of analysis and explanation

1.1.2 The role of textbooks in EFL/ ESL classroom

According to Sheldon (1988: 237), textbooks not only “represent the visibleheart of any ELT program” but also “offer considerable advantages for both teachersand learners when they are being used in the EFL/ ESL classroom” Indeed, textbooksplay an significant role in training programs as well as in classroom, which not onlyprovide a teaching and learning structure for teachers and students to follow but alsohelp to standardize instructions The textbook in a course can assure the similarities interms of contents for different classes, so learners will be tested in the same way

Moreover, Cunningsworth (1995) explains that “textbooks provide a syllabusfor a program, thus support novice teachers, train them in methodology, and save theirtime and effort for more worthwhile pursuits than material production” Without

textbooks, they may think their learning is not seriously taken, so textbooks arepsychologically essential for students Textbooks may constitute an effective resourcefor learning in the classroom and self-directed learning A learner without a textbookmight be out of focus and teacher-dependent.

In addition, Garinger (2001: 34) supports these opinions by pointing out that

“textbooks play a pivotal role in language classroom in all types of educationalinstitutions – public school, colleges, and language schools – all over the world” Riazi(2003: 52) also agrees with that point of view and clarifies that “textbooks play a verycrucial role in the realm of language teaching and learning and are considered as thenext important factor in classrooms after the teacher”

Indeed, it has become increasingly clear that context-sensitive EFL instructionrequires teachers to take into account many anthropological and sociocultural factorswhich influence the conditions English is taught Currently, global textbooks producedfor teaching and learning English as a foreign language in many different countries arecriticized for paying too little attention to these, especially for largely failing to assistEFL teachers in teaching cultural background for students with the diversity ofEnglish-speaking target language cultures Because of these potential problems,textbooks should be carefully evaluated and selected before being used for a languageprogram

1.2 Textbook evaluation

1.2.1 Definition

Evaluation defined by Hutchinson and Waters (1987:96) “is a matter of judgingthe fitness of something for a particular purpose” In addition, evaluation is a completeprocess “which begins with determining what information to gather and ends withringing about changes in current activities or influencing future ones.” (Dudley – Evan

& St.John, 1998:128) Hence, textbook evaluation is considered as a kind ofeducational judgment

Also, according to Hutchinson and Waters (1987:97) “textbook evaluation isbasically a straightforward, analytically matching process: matching needs to availablesolution” Cunningsworth (1995) and Ellis (1997) suggest that textbook evaluationhelps teachers move beyond impressionistic assessments and acquire useful, accurate,systematic, and contextual insights into the overall nature of textbook material.Textbook evaluation, therefore, can potentially be a particularly worthwhile means ofconducting action research as well as a form of professional empowerment andimprovement Similarly, textbook evaluation can also be a valuable component inteacher training programs, which makes students, teachers be aware of the importantfeature to look for in textbooks.

According to Ellis (1997), there are two main reasons for carrying out materialevaluation First, there may be a need to choose among the materials available the mostsuitable one to use for a particular situation Second, there can be a need for materialevaluation to determine whether the materials which have been chosen for certainsituation are suitable or not

1.2.2 Types of textbook evaluation

Various researchers offer different ways of categorizing material evaluation.However, the offer by McGrath (2002) seems to be the most widely accepted Hedivides textbook evaluation into three stages:

Pre-use evaluation: establishes potential suit.

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

response, may stimulate preliminary reconsiderations

Post-use evaluation: uses data on incourse use and data on effects to accesses

suitability of selection

In short, there are different types of materials evaluation so when making anevaluation; the evaluators have to determine what type of materials evaluation will besuitable with their work As for the situation of the study, since the material has been

in use for two years, the researcher decided to use post-use evaluation with an aim todetermine whether this material is appropriate or not and offer some recommendationsfor further improvements of the material.

1.2.3 Methods of textbook evaluation

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

The impressionistic method.

The impressionistic method is concerned to obtain a general impression of thematerial According to Cunningsworth’s (1995:1), the term “impressionistic overview”suggests such an overview typically involves glancing at the publisher’s blurb (i.e thebrief description of the book on the back cover), and at the content page (for anindication of the syllabus type and coverage), and then skimming through the book,looking at organization, layout, topics, and visuals For that reason, this method issometimes called “first-glance evaluation.” This kind of overview is undoubtedlyinadequate if it constitutes the sole basis for textbook evaluation and selection

The checklist method

This method makes good use of a checklist to evaluate materials According toMcGrath (2002: 27), the checklist method has at least four advantages:

1 It is systematic, ensuring that all elements that are deemed to be

important are considered

2 It is cost effective, permitting a good deal of information to be recorded in

a relatively short space of time

3 The information is recorded in a convenient format, allowing for easy

comparison between competing sets of material

4 It is explicit, and, provided the categories are well understood by all

involved in the evaluation, offers a common framework for making

decision-The in-depth method

In-depth techniques “go beneath the publisher’s and author’s claims Itconsiders the kind of language description, underlying assumption about learning orvalues on which materials are based on” (McGrath, 2002: 27-28) In a broader sense,this method seeks to find out whether the materials are likely to live up to the claimsbeing made for them

Although, there are three kinds of methods of textbook evaluation, in the studythe author used in-depth method

1.2.4 Models of material evaluation

In the literature review, various authors have presented different models formaterial evaluation However, depending on purpose and kinds of materials needevaluating, the researcher has to find out the most appropriate model

1.2.4.1 Evaluation model by McDonough and Shaw (1993) (a combination of macro and micro evaluation)

In 1993, McDonough and Shaw suggested a three-stage model of materialevaluation called external evaluation, internal evaluation and overall evaluation (seeFinger 1) This model introduced based on the view that it is helpful and useful forteachers to perform an external evaluation of material so that they can gain anoverview of organizational principles, then move to detailed internal evaluation of thematerials to see how far the materials match up to what the author claims as well as tothe aims and objectives of a given teaching program Therefore, external evaluation isconsidered as a preliminary evaluation or a macro evaluation, which is an examination

of the claims made for the whole materials by the author or publisher These claims can

be made somewhere on the cover of the book, in the instructions, or even in the table ofcontents The evaluation at this stage helps to identify whether the material ispotentially appropriate

In contrast, the internal evaluation stage (micro evaluation) requires an in-depthlook into two or more units to examine what will actually be presented “inside” thematerials themselves and whether the claims made by the author are the one found ininternal evaluation.

The next step is overall evaluation of the materials, which aims to examine thesuitability of the material by many factors such as usability, generalizability,adaptation, flexibility This model will be shown in the following figure:

Macro – evaluation → inappropriate / potentially appropriate →

ExitMicro – evaluation → inappropriate / appropriate → adopt/ select

Exit

Figure 1: Material evaluation model by McDonough and Shaw (1993:75)

It can be clearly seen from Figure 1 that the internal stage will be carried outfirst when the materials have been evaluated to be potentially appropriate in theexternal evaluation On other words, if the findings at this stage show that materials arenot suitable, the evaluation will be finished

1.2.4.2 Evaluation model by Ellis (1997) (a micro-evaluation)

Ellis (1997) suggests that the evaluation of language teaching materials shouldfocus on the whole sets of materials Thus, he introduces a model that can be carriedout by a series of micro-evaluations In this model, a detailed empirical evaluation andevaluating tasks in language teaching are focused on, which aims to identify the matchbetween task planned and task in use In this model, he supposes some dimensionsused for macro evaluation such as approach, purpose, focus, scope,

evaluator, types of information that can be applied in micro evaluation process These are various steps in evaluating a task suggested by Ellis:

1 Choosing a task to evaluate: the task can be new and teachers want todiscover the effectiveness of using it in classroom The task can be already usedand teachers want to confirm whether it is as good as they think

2 Describing the task: it can be described in terms of objectives, input, process and outcomes

3 Planning the evaluation

4 Collecting the information: the information required to evaluate a task can be collected before, during or after the teaching of the task

5 Analyzing the information: the data can be analyzed either in a

quantitative way or in a qualitative way

6 Reaching conclusions and making recommendations

7 Writing the report

This model of evaluation is more manageable than a macro-evaluation.Nevertheless, in order to conduct a macro-evaluation, a series of micro – evaluationneed to be carried out, which consumes a lot of time and efforts

1.2.4.3 Evaluation model by Cunningsworth (1984)

Cunningsworth (1984) provides a checklist of criteria which aim to examinedifferent aspects for the course such as linguistic factors of the materials in terms oflanguage content, topics, skills, and methodology He states that examination oflanguage content should focus on the appropriateness of the grammars, structures,functions, and vocabulary presented in the material to the requirements Also, he thinksthat the topics should be interesting, various, and sophisticated in content and helpstudents to expand the awareness within their language level

Regarding the skills presented in the materials, the authors have to answer thequestions whether the four skills are adequately covered and whether they are suitablefor the course aims and syllabus requirements Furthermore, the questions about

methodology of the materials should find out whether they are appropriate to thelearning teaching situation, and what techniques are used for presenting new languageitems, how different skills are taught.

1.2.4.4 Evaluation model by Hutchinson and Water (1987) (a macro – evaluation)

According to Hutchinson and Water (1987), an evaluation ought to be done for acertain need to check the match between materials and detailed aims They define

“material evaluation as a matter of judging the fitness of something for particularpurposes” Basically, evaluation is a matching process between needs and availablesolutions In their opinions, this model is divided into four basic steps as follows (seeFigure 2)

Define criteria

On what bases will you judge materials?

Which criteria will be more important?

Subjective analysis

What realization of the criteria do

you want in your course?

Objective AnalysisHow does the material being evaluated to realize the criteria?

MatchingHow far does the material match your needs?

Figure 2: Material evaluation model by Hutchinson and Waters (1987)

It is clear that if the evaluator wants to evaluate something, he/she first has toanswer two questions that which criteria he/ she based on to evaluate and then amongdefined criteria, he/she will choose his/her own preferred ones to evaluate In thesecond step, he/she will identify the subjective analysis In other words, the

requirements of the course in aspects related to the criteria will be analyzed Also,Hutchinson and Waters (1987) point out that the subjective analysis should not beconsidered as a fixed set of requirements More importantly, the evaluator shouldutilize the material evaluation process as a means of questioning and developing hisown ideas Analyzing objectives is the next step carried out in this model This is thestage to analyze the materials in terms of selected criteria Finally, the evaluator willconsider the results through the evaluation process; the materials may not meet therequirements totally In this case, Hutchinson and Water (1987) suggest that theevaluator should think about the more important criteria for the different people andselect the easier criteria to adapt.

Besides, Hutchinson and Waters (1987) provide their own checklist of criteriafor subjective and objective analyses The checklist aims to evaluate English teachingmaterials by paying attention to such big issues as the audience, aims, the content, themethodology, price and availability

Audience

The authors suppose that one of the most important factors to evaluate islearners Indeed, the most vital purpose of a course or a training program is to meet therequirements of a particular group or learners For this reason, English teachingmaterials are designed and selected to serve these meets

There are a lot of questions related to audience’s needs such as age, sex,experience of English, education background, interests In addition, it consists of thestudents’ attitude towards learning English The information about learners should bethe first criterion mentioned before evaluating others

Aims

In a material evaluation process, it is vital to consider whether the aims of thematerials and the aims of the course match or not Therefore, the aims of the course arealways defined clearly in the first part of each training program

According to Hutchinson and Waters (1987), it is necessary to examine whetherthe content of the materials is suitable for the content prescribed in terms of languagepoints, macro-skills and their proportion, micro skills, as well as the kind of texts ornot Furthermore, the aspects of subject matter areas, learners’ level of knowledge, type

of topics and how those topics are introduced are also considered carefully Finally, it isalso important to evaluate the way the content is organized and sequenced within theunits and through the course

Methodology

Hutchinson and Waters (1987) indicate many aspects dealing with materialmethodology that need to be evaluated First, the evaluation has to show whether thetheories of learning which the course bases on are in the line with the ones of thematerial Second, the aspects of the learners’ attitude towards expectations aboutlearning English could be considered Third, it is necessary to identify whether thekinds of exercises and tasks included in the material are suitable for the courserequirements or not Teaching-learning techniques are another aspect that needsevaluating At this time, evaluators have to decide whether the teaching-learningtechniques that are used with the material are those required by the course and suitablefor the learners In addition, the material evaluation should take into consideration theaspects such as teaching aids, and guidance support for teaching Lastly, it is vital todetermine if the materials are flexible so that they can be used in different orders to suitthe teaching contexts

Other criteria

In addition to the criteria mentioned above, Hutchinson and Waters (1987)provide some other criteria such as the price, the availability of the materials, and theirattractiveness These issues are considered as practical concerns and they must beacknowledged They may be one of the deciding factors in textbook selection In fact,not all the textbooks can be purchased by students because of their high price

and scarcity in the local market Sometimes, it is the purchase that becomes economicburden students have to face.

1.2.5 Criteria for textbook evaluation

According to Dudley- Evans and St John (1998), in the evaluation process,evaluators must take evaluation criteria into account before any evaluation takes place.Criteria for material evaluation depend on what is being evaluated and why they need

to valuated

William (1983) suggests seven criteria for textbook adaptation:

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

2 Speech criteria: suggest aids for the teaching of pronunciation

3 Grammar criteria: offer meaningful situations and a variety of techniques for teaching structural units.

4 Vocabulary criteria: distinguish the different purposes and skills involved

in the teaching of vocabulary.

5 Reading criteria: provide guidance on the initial presentation of passages for reading comprehension.

6 Writing criteria: demonstrate the various devices for controlling and guiding content and expression in composition exercises.

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

The criteria suggested by William (1983) seem to be very useful and appropriatefor evaluating a course book However, such frameworks are more suitable for theselection of course books available in the market than for the examination of an in-house material to see whether they meet the intended objectives With its morecomprehensive content, the evaluating criteria defined by Hutchinson and Waters(1987), therefore, seems to be a more helpful tool to material evaluators They suggestfour main criteria for materials evaluation:

1 Audience: the evaluator should obtain information about and from learners to find out whether the materials are suitable to the students’ age,

knowledge of English, interest and so on

2 Aims: the evaluator has to check if the materials match the aims and objectives of the course.

3 Content: the evaluator has to check whether the materials’ language points, macro-skills/ micro-skills, and topics suit the learners’ needs.

4 Methodology: the evaluator has to find out if techniques, aids, guidance

provided in the materials satisfy the learners and the teachers of the course.Comparing the two sets of criteria presented above by William (1983) and byHutchinson and Waters (1987), it is obvious that the work of developing and choosingevaluative criteria is rather subjective and depends on what the evaluators consider to

be important In this evaluation research, the four criteria including audience, aims,content and methodology suggested by Hutchinson and Waters (1987) were adopted tosee how much “English Unlimited A1” match with the requirements in terms ofaudience, aims, content and methodology of the course

1.3 Textbook adaptation

1.3.1 Definition

Adaptation is a process of matching and its purpose is to maximize theappropriateness of teaching material in context, by changing some of internalcharacteristics of a course book or a set of materials to better suit the particularsituations Tomlinson (1998: 11) agrees that adaptation is referred to “reducing, adding,omitting, modifying and supplementing” Furthermore, textbook adaptation is to useparts of a textbook and make communicative activities This is helpful in makinglessons more communicative

In reality, a textbook can never totally be an effective tool for teachers to followwithout any adaptation Most teachers will adapt the material they use in order tomaximize the value of the book for their particular learners

1.3.2 Areas of adaptation

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

1 Lack of grammar coverage in general

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

3 Reading passages contain too much unknown vocabulary

4 Comprehension questions are too easy

5 Subject matters are suitable with learners of the age and intellectual level

6 Photographs and other illustrative materials are not culturally acceptable

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

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

9 No vocabulary list of a key to exercises provide

The reasons for adaptation presented above can be grouped into: aspects of language uses, skills, classroom organization and supplementary materials

1.3.3 Methods to adapt a textbook

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

1 Omission: The teacher leaves out things deemed inappropriate, offensive,unproductive, etc for the particular group

2 Addition: Where there seem to be inadequate coverage, teachers may decide to add to textbooks, either in the form of texts or exercise material

3 Reduction: Where the teacher shortens an activity to give it less weight oremphasis

4 Extension: Where an activity is lengthened in order to give it anadditional dimension (For example, a vocabulary activity is extended to drawattention to some syntactic patterning)

5 Rewriting/ modification: Teachers may occasionally decide to rewritematerial, especially exercise material to make it more appropriate, more

“communicative”, more demanding, more accessible to their students, etc

6 Replacement: Text or exercise material which is considered inadequate,for whatever reason, may be replaced by more suitable material This is oftenculled from other resource materials

7 Re-ordering: Teachers may decide that the order in which the textbooksare presented is not suitable for their students They can then decide to plot adifferent course through the textbooks from the one the writer has laid down

8 Balancing: Teachers may decide to add options to the existing activity or

to suggest alternative pathways through the activities

1.4 Conclusion

In short, to evaluate a textbook, the evaluator needs to examine each matched activity of each special book However, to use the textbook effectively,teachers have to choose and decide the most appropriate type of textbook for theirteaching needs and students’ learning needs Hence, textbook evaluation is a veryimportant step for each teacher to examine whether the material is suitable for theirteaching or not Depending on purpose and kinds of material evaluation, the authordecides to use the model of Hutchinson and Water (1993) as a framework to evaluatethe textbook “English Unlimited A1”

content-CHAPTER TWO: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

In this chapter, the author will present the detailed description of current Englishlearning and teaching at TL Canon factory in which the research is conducted Next,this chapter will mention the data collection procedure, and how to do the documentanalysis Finally, the researcher will discuss the questionnaires for the students andinformal interview for the teachers to find out whether the course-book is appropriate

to the learners or not

1.1 An overview of current English Teaching and Learning at TL factory

2.1.1 Context of the thesis

Canon is a big Japanese company which produces printers and cameras InVietnam, there are three factories namely, Thang Long, Tien Son and Que Vo Canon,which produce only printers All managers, staff, and workers communicate inJapanese or in English at work It is the reason why they continually opencommunicative English classes for the employees from elementary level to advancelevel classified by an entrance test “English Unlimited A1” course-book has beenchosen to teach beginners of English in three factories of the company Each courselasts 40 hours Students will have a mid-term test after they finish half of the course,and an end-of-term test at the end of the course Each test comprises three languageelements (vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation) and four language skills (speaking,listening, writing, and reading) If someone gets from 8 points in the final test, he orshe will achieve the scholarship of the company (which is the total tuition of thecourse)

2.1.2 Material description

The course book “English Unlimited A1” was written by Adrian Doff in 2010 It

is a GE course for students who have the English elementary level or start learning

English More importantly, English Unlimited is a course for adults, which is suitable

for the learners at TL Canon factory The textbook, which comprises 10 modules with

10 different topics relating to the real life such as people, things to buy, about you,every day, last week, going out gives students an all-round practical knowledge ofgrammar, skills, vocabulary and real-life functional language The book presentslanguage elements and language skill in detail as follows:

- Language elements: New grammar structures are presented by using pictures,

discussion questions or asking students to read or listen to a conversation Afterstudying the form, and the rule, students have chances to practice with a variety ofexercises Regarding vocabulary, the students are asked to predict new words and theirmeaning based on the words given with available pictures or small games After that,the students listen to the CD player/typescript for the pronunciation of these words Inpronunciation section, the students practice sounds under the directions of teachers;and then listen to the CD player to check, repeat to remember and pronounce smoothly

- Language skills: For each unit, different skills are paid attention to improve the

sections of language focus and vocabulary In speaking and writing sections, picturesand discussion are used to help the students activate their knowledge about the topic.The students practice speaking skills using conversation pieces in listening part In thereading and listening sections: the students can understand very short simple texts in asingle phrase, pick up familiar names, words and basic phrases as well as reread asrequired Then they can follow speech which is very slow and carefully articulated,with long pauses for him or her to assimilate meaning Finally, they must listen to the

CD player to check their ideas and listen more carefully to do some related exercises.1.2 Research methodology

1.2.1 Research questions

As mentioned in part A, the aim of this study is to evaluate the appropriateness

of the material “English Unlimited A1” to beginners at TL Canon factory Therefore,the following research question are designed to satisfy the aims of the research:

1 How appropriate is the material “English Unlimited A1” to beginners at

TL Canon factory in terms of audience, aims, content and methodology?

at school Furthermore, they have not been using English for a long time

Regarding English teachers, among 10 teachers of English participating in thesurvey, three of them hold M.A degree; three is pursuing M.A course in ULIS, VNU.The rest achieved Bachelor degree Their ages are from 26 to 36, and all of them haveexperienced in teaching this book for at least 2 years

2.2.3 Instruments

In order to evaluate the course book in terms of learners’ level, aims, content andmethodology, among the most popular methods or means of evaluation found in anumber of authors such as questionnaires, interviews, observation, discussion, recordsand assessment, three main techniques for data collection used in this study are studentquestionnaire, teacher interview and document analysis

them under no pressure As a result, they can express their thoughts freely In addition,close-ended questions are straight forward to answer (Gillham, 2000) In this study, onequestionnaire was used for students to collect their attitude and information onevaluation of the currently used material “English Unlimited A1” It is divided into 4sections with 32 questions answered according to five levels of agreement: stronglydisagreed, disagreed, neutral, agreed and strongly agreed.

Section 1 includes 8 questions to collect students’ opinions of the levels of difficulty of

the material and the reasons for their ideas

Section 2 with 10 questions aims at discovering the students’ statements as well as

evaluation on the aim requirements of the textbook

Section 3 with 8 questions tries to find out whether students satisfy with the content

presented in the material or not

Section 4 consists of 6 questions designed to gather students’ judgment about the

current course book in term of methodology

The questionnaire is summarized in detail as follows:

Sections

1

2

3

Table 2.1: Types of information in the student questionnaire

2.2.3.2 Interview

The purpose of the interview is to collect supplementary ideas of teachers after

collecting answers from the above student questionnaire Johnson (1992:115) states

that response rates from interview can be quite high, and respondents are more likely to

answer the questions presented because of their personal involvement with the

interviewer Therefore, the interviewer can obtain more meaningful information

because he or she can rephrase questions that are not clear to the respondents

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

The interview conducted with ten teachers of English at TL Canon factory consists of

eight questions carefully designed and selected in advance to find out the teachers’

opinions of the match of the textbook with students’ level and the appropriateness and

inappropriateness of the course book in terms of aims, contents and methodology to

beginners at TL Canon factory

1.3 Data collection procedure

2.3.1 Document analysis

Document analysis is an important instrument to collect data for the thesis

Although there are a lot of parts evaluated in the material, in the framework of the

study, the author pays much attention to the analysis of the course book “English

Unlimited A1” in terms of its relevance to the appropriateness of the material to the

students’ level as well as the aims, content, methodology requirements of the course

2.3.2 Student questionnaire

The research is carried out to collect the data by using the questionnaire forstudents First, the researcher developed the questionnaire basing on the criteriaselected with regard to three main aspects Then, the students’ survey wasadministrated in the end of class meeting of the course They were encouraged to givetheir true answers The students were requested to complete the questionnaire duringthe class time so that they were more willing to do it and could be clarified theambiguous questions (if any) and then could return all the questionnaires immediately

to the teacher Finally, data collected from questionnaire would be sorted and analyzedstatistically in the form of tables to get answers for two research questions

2.3.3 Teacher interview

Also, teachers are asked to answer interviewed questions directly with theresearcher Participants in the interview are 10 teachers teaching EnglishCommunicative course at TL Canon factory with the aim of collecting more data forthis study Each interview lasted appropriately 15 minutes, and the answers werecollected by note-taking The interview was conducted during the course, short breaks,after each lesson or in teachers’ meetings After collecting the data from teachers andstudents, it was summarized by hand and categorized under the tables

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONThis chapter discusses the results of the study through student questionnaire,teacher interview, and document analysis First, the author will present the answers ofthe first research question based on the results of three instruments Similarly, thefindings of the second research question will be analyzed and summarized in sectiontwo Finally, the researcher will suggest recommendations for the book’s adaptation.4.1 The appropriateness of the material to the students’ level of English

4.1.1 Document analysis

To examine whether the material is appropriate to students’ level or not, theresearcher has made a comparison between the level of the students and that of thecourse book’s intended audience

As mentioned in the previous chapter, the book “English Unlimited A1” isdesigned for an elementary level English course which is intended for adults who want

to learn English for communicative purposes Therefore, the material is quite agreeable

to the level of the targeted students at TL Canon factory who have attended the course.However, the levels of different learners are not similar due to the different background

of knowledge They could graduate from high school, from college, or from university.They have been arranged in an elementary class because they have the same result inthe entrance test In addition, staffs use English more frequently than workersespecially written English because they have to exchange information via email withtheir boss in English or write reports to hand in every week As a result, they have alittle chance to use verbal English

4.1.2 Results from the survey

4.1.2.1 Teacher interview

The results collected from the interview with ten teachers of English are shown

in the two tables below (Table 4.1 and Table 4.2):

No Teachers’ ideas

1 The material is for elementary level

2 The material is relevant to your students’

Grammar

Number of

choice

Percentage

Table 4.2: Teachers’ opinions of the difficulty of different parts in the material.

Table 4.2 indicates the teachers’ answers to question 4 in the interview It can beseen from the table that more than half of teachers (60% and 50% respectively) thoughtthat Listening and Reading are little difficult for students while they found other parts

of the material is relatively appropriate for the students’ level