An evaluation of the appropriateness of material elementary market leader for hanoi university of business and technology

NGUYEN THI THU HIENAN EVALUATION OF THE APPROPRIATENESS OF MATERIAL “ELEMENTARY MARKET-LEADER” FOR HANOI UNIVERSITY OF BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY ĐÁNH GIÁ ĐỘ PHÙ HỢP CỦA GIÁO TRÌNH “ELEMENT

NGUYEN THI THU HIEN

AN EVALUATION OF THE APPROPRIATENESS OF MATERIAL “ELEMENTARY MARKET-LEADER” FOR HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY

(ĐÁNH GIÁ ĐỘ PHÙ HỢP CỦA GIÁO TRÌNH “ELEMENTARY MARKET-LEADER” ĐỐI VỚI

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC KINH DOANH VÀ CÔNG NGHỆ HÀ NỘI)

M.A Minor Program Thesis

Field: Methodology Code: 601410

HANOI – JULY, 2009

NGUYEN THI THU HIEN

AN EVALUATION OF THE APPROPRIATENESS OF MATERIAL “ELEMENTARY MARKET-LEADER” FOR HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY

(ĐÁNH GIÁ ĐỘ PHÙ HỢP CỦA GIÁO TRÌNH “ELEMENTARY MARKET-LEADER” ĐỐI VỚI

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC KINH DOANH VÀ CÔNG NGHỆ HÀ NỘI)

M.A Minor Program Thesis

Field: Methodology Code: 601410

Supervisor: Dr DUONG THI NU

HANOI – JULY, 2009

1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY AND STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

2 AIMS OF THE THESIS

3 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE THESIS

4 THE RESEARCH QUESTIONS

5 THE SCOPE OF THE STUDY

6 OVERVIEW OF THE THESIS

DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 MATERIALS IN LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING

1.1.1 The Roles of Teaching Materials

1.1.2 Types of Materials

1.1.2.1 Textbooks

1.1.2.2 In-house Materials

1.2 MATERIALS EVALUATION

1.2.1 Reasons for Materials Evaluation

1.2.2 Definitions of Materials Evaluation

1.2.3 Types of Materials Evaluation

1.2.4 Models for Materials Evaluation

1.2.5 Criteria for Materials Evaluation

1.3 MATERIALS ADAPTATION

1.3.1 The Context of Adaptation

1.3.2 Reasons for Adaptation

1.3.3 Techniques for Adaptation

CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY

2.1 THE SETTING OF THE STUDY

2.2 THE MATERIAL ELEMENTARY MARKET-LEADER USED FOR FRESHMEN AT HUBT

2.3 DATA COLLECTION METHODS

2.4 DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURE

2.4.1 Document Analysis

2.4.2 Student Questionnaire

2.4.3 The Teacher Interviews

2.5 SUBJECTS OF THE RESEARCH

2.5.1 The students

2.5.2 The teachers

CHAPTER THREE: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 THE APPROPRIATENESS OF THE MATERIAL TO THE STUDENTS’ LEVEL OF ENGLISH.

3.2 THE APPROPRIATENESS OF THE MATERIAL TO THE METHODOLOGY REQUIREMENTS OF THE COURSE

3.2.1 Teaching and Learning Techniques

3.3.1 The Appropriateness of the Material to the Students’ Level of English.

3.3.2 The Appropriateness of the Material to the Methodology Requirements of the Course

CONCLUSION

1 ADAPTATIONS

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

EFL English as a Foreign Language

ESP English for Specific Purposes

ELT English Language Teaching

HUBT Hanoi University of Business and Technology

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

Students’ Level of English

CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter is aimed at providing a theoretical base to develop an operationalframework for the evaluation of the material “Elementary Market-Leader” currently usedfor first-year students of business majors at Hanoi University of Business and Technology(HUBT)

The first part in this chapter relates to teaching materials with regards to their roles

in language teaching and types of materials The second part presents the review ofliterature concerning major issues in materials evaluation, model for evaluation and criteriafor evaluation The third part discusses some important issues about materials adaptation

1.1 MATERIALS IN LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING

1.1.1 The Roles of Teaching Materials

Teaching materials are a key component in most language programs According toDudley Evans & St John (1998), materials are used in all teaching and their role in theprocess of language teaching and learning is of great importance

Nunan (1988) also mentions the vital role of teaching materials as follows:

“Materials are in fact an essential element within the curriculum, and do more than simply lubricate the wheels of learning At their best they provide concrete models of desirable classroom practice, they act as curriculum models for teachers to follow in developing their own materials.” (p.98)

The roles of teaching materials in language teaching in general and in ESP in particular will be discussed in more details in the next part of this section

 The Role of Teaching Materials in General English Course.

The important roles that teaching materials play in language teaching are mentioned

by different authors in the literature Richards and Rodgers (cited in Nunan, 1991) viewinstructional materials as detailed specifications of content, and guide to teachers on boththe intensity of coverage and the amount of attention demanded by

particular content or pedagogical tasks.

Richard and Rodgers’s perspective is supported and clarified by Richards (2001),who pointed out that teaching materials can serve as the basis for much of the languageinput that the learners received and as the source for much of the language practice thatoccurs in the classroom Richard further explains that materials provide a basic for thecontent of the lesson, the balance of skills taught, and the kind of language practicestudents take part in

 The Role of Teaching Materials in ESP Course

Dudley-Evans and St John (1998) have summed up four functions of teachingmaterials in ESP course: as a source of language, as a learning support, as a source ofmotivation and stimulation and as a source for reference

As a learning support:

As a learning support, materials need to be reliable, that is, to work, to beconsistent and have some recognizable pattern To enhance learning, materials mustinvolve learners in thinking about and using the language The activities need to stimulatecognitive, not mechanical processes The learners also need a sense of progression

As a source for stimulation and motivation:

In order to stimulate and motivate students, materials need to be “challenging yetachievable; to offer new ideas and information whilst being grounded in the learners’experience and knowledge” (Dudley-Evans & St John, 1998: 172) They further explainthat the input must contain concepts and/ or knowledge that are familiar to the learners, but

it must also offer something new, a reason for the learners to communicate and to getinvolved

As a source for reference:

Materials help learners to make “efficient use of the resources in order to facilitateself-discovery” (Tomlinson, 1998: 11) For this function, according to Dudley-Evans & StJohn (1998), the materials need to be “complete, well laid out and self-explanatory”(p172) In other words, the materials need to provide explanations, examples and practiceactivities that have answer and discussion key so that the students can use them for self-study What needs to be taken into account at this point is the difference in learning stylesamong the learners This means that activities should be “variable and should cater for alllearning styles” (Tomlinson, 1998: 17)

Obviously, teaching materials are a key and crucial component in any languageteaching contexts The teacher needs to take account of the roles as well as therequirements of teaching materials when designing and selecting materials for his or herown teaching situation to facilitate the most learning form students

1.1.2 Types of Materials

1.1.2.1 Textbooks

Textbooks refer to the commercially published materials The most obviousadvantage of these materials is its availability for use O’Neil (cited in Robinson, 1991)believes that no other medium is as easy to use as textbook More importantly, “a textbook

is complete not just in the physical sense but in the sense that the whole term’s or year’scourse is available to the students at once” (p58)

In some situations, textbooks serve as the basis for much of the language inputlearners receive and the language practice that occurs in the classroom They providestructures and syllabus for a program that has been systematically developed and planned.However, textbooks also have some limitations Ewer and Boys (cited in Robinson, 1991)present a strong attack on published textbooks that some really fundamental factors oftextbooks such as the validity of the linguistic content, the accuracy of the explanations andexamples given, the number and coverage of the exercises provided have been ignoredbecause the writers just focus on approach and methodology Moreover, as Swales (cited inRobinson, 1991) indicates published textbooks are “less-sufficient in practice materials and

in coverage of skill areas” (p57) so the textbooks need to be supplemented by other

1.1.2.2 In-house Materials

There are also arguments for and against the use of in-house materials According

to Robinson (1991), there are three advantages of in-house materials Firstly, in-housematerials are likely to be more specific and appropriate than public textbooks and to havegreater face validity in terms of the language dealt with and the context it is presented in.Secondly, in-house materials may be more flexible than published textbooks Finally, thewriter of in-house materials can make sure that methodology is suitable for the intendedlearners Despite advantages of in-house materials, there are some disadvantages Robinson(1991) indicates that making in-house materials is time-consuming and expensive, what isworst is that many locally produced materials “show a striking resemblance to thepublished materials that have been rejected” (Swales, cited in Robinson, 1991: 58)

1.2 MATERIALS EVALUATION

1.2.1 Reasons for Materials Evaluation

Materials evaluation cannot be apart from a language training program There aremany reasons that language course organizers and teachers worldwide are connected withwhen they conduct materials evaluation

On discussing the problem, Ellis (1997) points out that the need for materialsevaluation retrospectively takes on special importance Such an evaluation providesteachers with information which can be used to determined whether it is worthwhile usingthe materials again, which activities “work” and which do not, and how to modify thematerials to make them more effective for future use”

In ESP, according to Dudley-Evans and St John (1998), materials evaluation is anindispensable part of the key stages in ESP process (See Figure 1)

Teaching-learning

Figure 1: Stages in the ESP Process (Dudley-Evans and St John, 1998: 121)

In this figure, it is clear that need analysis is “the process of establishing theeffectiveness” (Dudley-Evans and St John, 1998:121) In other words, after being used inthe classroom, teaching materials need to be evaluated to see if they have worked well forthe intended situation and audience

Materials should be evaluated to identify particular strengths and weaknesses; itwill help to determine whether the materials are effective and efficient On that basis,decisions can be made on whether to use the materials or not and what should be changed

so that the materials can be well suited for the course

1.2.2 Definitions of Materials Evaluation

There is a wide range of different definitions of materials evaluation from differentresearchers This section is a review of the definitions from outstanding researchers inorder to bring an overview of materials evaluation

Brown (1987) states

“Evaluation is the systematic collection and analysis of all relevant information necessary to promote the improvement of curriculum and assess its effectiveness within the context of particular situation involved” (p.223)

Dudley-Evans & St John believe that evaluation is a complete process “whichbegins with determining what information to gather and ends with bringing about change

in current activities or influencing future ones” (p.128)

Of the most prominent definitions of evaluation is the one by Hutchinson & Waters(1987):

“Evaluation is a matter of judging the fitness of something for a particular purpose Given a certain need and in the light of resources available, which out of a number of possibilities can represent the best solution? Evaluation is, then, concerned with relative merit There is no absolute good or bad, only degree of fitness for the required purpose” (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987)

From the general definitions of evaluation and the definition of a specific area ofmaterials evaluation, it can be inferred that materials evaluation involves the determination

of what need to be evaluated, the objectives and requirements of the materials, thejudgment of the value of materials being evaluated in relation to the objectives andrequirements determined

1.2.3 Types of Materials Evaluation

Robinson (1991) suggests three types of materials evaluation: preliminary, summative, and formative It is noted that the first two types are likely to focus on

published or at least completed materials, and the third on in-house materials Preliminaryevaluation takes place before the course begins and involves selecting the most appropriatefrom the publications that are available Formative evaluation is conducted while thecourse is ongoing, so that modifications can be made to the materials Meanwhile,summative evaluation takes place at the end of a course and raises the question of whetherthe materials have been effective

Ellis (1997) introduces two new terms related to types of materials evaluation:

predictive and retrospective Predictive evaluation is designed to make a decision

regarding what materials to use while retrospective evaluation examines the materials thathave actually been used

Recently, Tomlinson (1998, p3) has referred to three notions pre-use, while-use and post-use when classifying types of materials evaluation Pre-use evaluation predicts

whether materials will work, and whether the learners will be able to use them without toomuch difficulty and will enjoy the experience of doing so While-use evaluation examineshow materials really work in the classroom Moreover, post-use evaluation aims to find outhow actually effective they are

Although the different terms are used to indicate the types of materials evaluation,

they are basically similar First, preliminary, predictive and pre-use evaluations involve a process to search for good materials Next, formative and while-use evaluations describe how materials are being exploited Certainly, summative, retrospective, and post-use

evaluations are all used to determine how effectively materials have been used

As Weir & Robert (1994) suggest, it was agreed that, owing to the aims ofevaluation, a formative style or on-going evaluation using qualitative data would be

suitable for evaluating the materials Thus, in this study, the researcher uses formative evaluation as the main type of materials evaluation.

1.2.4 Models for Materials Evaluation

There are a number of different ideas on designing a reliable framework ofmaterials evaluation The popular frameworks are the one suggested by Hutchinson &

Waters (1987), Littlejohn (1998), Mc Donough and Shaw (1993), Cunningsworth (1984)and Ellis (1997) However, in this thesis, I would like to focus only on Hutchinson &Waters’ model as I intend to use it for my evaluation.

Hutchinson & Waters (1993) define materials evaluation as a “matter of judging thefitness of something for a particular purpose” (p.96) In this view, the evaluation is dividedinto four major steps (see Figure 2):

On what bases will you judge materials?

Which criteria will be more important?

MATCHING

How far does the material match your

need?

Figure 2: Materials Evaluation Process (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987)

This model presents a logical procedure for materials evaluation To examinewhether the materials are suitable for a certain group of learners or not there must becertain criteria against which our judgment or evaluation are based It is also necessary todetermine the objectives or the requirements for the materials because we cannot measure

the success of a particular activity or a whole set of materials if there is no clear objectivefor it.

According to the diagram above, it is very important to set out the criteria for bothobjective and subjective analysis Hutchinson & Waters (1987) shows for basic criteria

with a number of specific points for evaluators to consider: intended audience, aims, content, and methodology.

The first point, intended audience, is the analysis of the learners’ personal

identification, such as the learner’s age, sex, interests, specialism, knowledge of English/specialism and their educational backgrounds

The next basic criterion deals with the aims of the course and the materials.

The third criterion, content, is the most important point since it helps evaluators to

have an overview of both course requirements for materials content and the contenttreatment of those materials When analyzing the content subjectively and objectively,researchers should focus on a number of such sub-criteria as language description,language points, macro-skills and their proportion, micro-skills, text types, subject matterareas, topics, content organization, and sequence

Methodology, the next criterion for both subjective and objective analysis concerns

the theories of learning, the learners’ attitudes to learning English, types of tasks/ exercises,teaching-learning techniques, learning facilities, guidance/ support for teaching, and theflexibility of the materials

1.2.5 Criteria for Materials Evaluation

Criteria are what evaluators use to “reach a decision regarding what needs to beevaluated” (Tomlinson, 1998: 220) In other words, they are the bases upon which theevaluators depend when making judgments Defining criteria for evaluation is one of thecrucial issues evaluators must take into account before any evaluation can take place

The following is the criteria suggested by Hutchinson and Waters’ checklist formaterials evaluation

Audience

According to Hutchinson and Waters (1993), in the learning-centered approach toESP, the overall aim of the ESP course is to meet the needs of a particular group of

learners ESP materials must therefore be designed or selected according to the needs of thespecific learners So the first criteria in materials evaluation is the audience of the materialswith regard to different kinds of information such as age; sex; study or professional fields;status with respect to professional fields; knowledge of English, of area of work or studyand of the world; educational background; interest and so on.

Aims

In any language course, a materials evaluation need to be carried out to find out ifthe materials can satisfy the aims and objectives of the course

Content

According to Hutchinson and Waters, it is really necessary to measure if the content

of the materials is suitable to the content requirements of the course in terms of languagedescription, language points, proportion of work, micro-skills, text-types, macro-skills andproportion In ESP, it is very important to take into consideration the learners’ subject-matters in terms of level of knowledge, types of topics, and how these topics are presented.Finally, these evaluations need to find out if the way the content is organized andsequenced within a unit and throughout the course is appropriate

Methodology

Many aspects in terms of materials methodology need to be evaluated First of all,the evaluation needs to indicate whether the theories of learning on which the course isbased are in line with the one of material under evaluation Secondly, evaluators need tomeasure whether the learners’ expectations about learning are the ones the materials areintended for Thirdly, it is necessary to determine whether the kinds of exercises/ tasksincluded in the materials are suited to the course requirements Another aspect to beevaluated is the teaching and learning techniques: whether the teaching-learning techniquesthat can be used with the materials are those required by the course and suitable to thelearners Furthermore, the evaluation needs to find out whether the materials supply theteachers with necessary guidance and support for teaching the course Finally, it isnecessary to determine if the materials are flexible so that they can be used in a differentorder to suit the teaching contexts

Within a small-scale study, the evaluator would like to concentrate on evaluating

the appropriateness of the material to the students’ level of English and to the requirements

of methodology of the course In other words, the researcher examines the suitability of thematerial “Elementary Market-Leader” with first-years students of HUBT on the followingpoints:

o Appropriateness of the material to the students’ level of

English: - The difficulty of the material

o Appropriateness of the material to the methodology requirements of the course:

- The suitability of the teaching and learning techniques of the material to the students

- The guidance and support from the material for teachers

1.3 MATERIALS ADAPTATION

According to Richard et al (1992, p.5), “adaptation is a process of making changes

to published texts or materials to make them more suitable or appropriate for a particularteaching needs” Certainly, there is no perfect textbook, which can be relevant to allteaching and learning context, thus, adaptation is a very necessary process to maximize theappropriacy of teaching materials in particular context by changing some of the internalcharacteristics of a textbook or set of materials to better suit our situation

1.3.1 The Context of Adaptation

Mac Donough and Shaw argue that with a wider perspective in mind, and as astarting point for thinking about the process of adaptation, it will be useful to extend littlethe criteria put forward to the heading of “external” and “internal”

External (what we have)

Learner characteristicsPhysical environmentResources

Class sizeExternal factors comprise both the over claims made about materials and moresignificantly for the present chapter, the characteristics of particular teaching situations.Internal factors are concerned with content, organization and consistency To adaptmaterials is to try to bring together these individual elements under each heading, or

combination of them, so that they match each other as closely as possible.

Adaptation is an essential process of matching Its purpose is to maximize theappropriateness for leading materials in context by changing some of the internalcharacteristics of a course book to better suit our particular circumstance We will now look

in more details at possible reasons for adaptation, and some of the procedures commonlyused

1.3.2 Reasons for Adaptation

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

1 There is not enough grammar coverage in general

2 There is not enough practice of grammar points of particular difficulty to these learners

3 Reading passages contain too much unknown vocabulary

4 Comprehension questions are too easy because the answers can be lifted directly from the text with no real understanding of the text

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

6 Photographs and other illustrative materials are not culturally acceptable

7 Amount of material is too much/ too little to cover in the time allocated to

lessons

8 There is no guidance for teachers on handling group work and role play activities with a large class

9 There is too much or too little variety in the activities

10 There is no vocabulary list or a key to exercises provided

The reasons for adaptation presented above can be grouped into (a) aspects oflanguage use, (b) skills, (c) classroom organization, and (d) supplementary materials McDonough and Shaw states that more adaptation areas can be added to this list; however, theareas should be identified according to certain contexts

1.3.3 Techniques for Adaptation

Wallace (1998, p.190) introduced two following ways to adapt materials:

“1 Retain the materials basically as they are, but teach them in a different way (i.e either different from the way you normally teach them, or from the way recommended in the Teacher’s book.

2 Change the materials in some ways, for example by devising new materials either instead of

or in addition to some parts of the existing materials.”

Mc Donough and Shaw (1993) suggest five main techniques for adaptation:

modifying, simplifying, adding, deleting, and reordering.

 Modifying

This technique can be applied to any aspect of content It is subdivided into two

specific ways: re-writing and re-structuring Re-writing refers to the modification of the

linguistic content For example, if easy end-of-text comprehension questions just requirethe students to use information directly from the text to answer, they can be modified sothat students have to interpret what they have read or relate different section of the texttogether Re-structuring, unlike re-writing, applies to classroom management, specifically,

to the structuring of the class For example, there are some role-play activities for groups ofcertain size in the materials If students are in a large class, it is necessary to assign one role

to a number of students at the same time

 Simplifying

Simplification is basically a re-writing activity of modification Many elements of amaterial can be simplified However, this technique has mainly applied to texts (readingpassages) The texts with their sentence structures, grammatical structures and lexicalcontents are often simplified in order to be closer to the proficiency level of a particulargroup of learners

 Deleting or Omitting

Addition and deletion work together in the sense that part of a text or an exercise

may be taken out and then replaced with something else of the same type Moreover, astask may be deleted and compensated by a more suitable one to meet the objectives of thewhole unit So it is necessary to take into consideration the balance of the lesson as well asthe time allocation when these techniques of adaption are applied.

 Re-ordering

This technique refers to the possibility of arranging the parts of a course book in adifferent order This can be the adjustment of the sequence within a unit, or even thearrangement of different units in a course book

In general, adaptation is a practical activity carried out by teachers in order to makethe teaching materials more relevant and appropriate for a particular group of learners Theresponsibility of the teacher is to decide which features of the material need to be changed,and choose the most suitable techniques to adapt the material in use

To sum up, this chapter has discussed the theoretical issues concerning materialsevaluation and adaptation It provides the ground for the following chapters of the thesis

CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY

This chapter provides a description of the setting of the study, the subjectsparticipating in the study, the instruments for collecting data including questionnaires andinterviews, and the procedure of data collection

2.1 THE SETTING OF THE STUDY

The study was conducted at Hanoi University of Business and Technology(HUBT) One questionnaire was distributed to 120 first-year students and collected at theUniversity during the survey The process or semi-structure interview was also carried out

at the same time among10 teachers of HUBT

Since the study was conducted at HUBT, it is necessary for the researcher to outlinethe current situation of teaching and learning the material “Elementary Market-Leader” atthe university as the setting for the study

The subjects of the study are first-year students at HUBT who have passed theentrance exam into the university, which was administered in accordance with theprinciples set by the Ministry of Education The students, however, have very differentbackgrounds Most of them come from the country while some others are from the cities.Some have learnt English for 7 years, while some others have had three years with English.Also, a number of them had quite focused on English for they chose to take the universityentrance exam with an English test whereas the rest took the exam without an English test

As a result, when they are grouped into the same class, they vary in not only Englishproficiency but also their learning styles

2.2 THE MATERIAL “ELEMENTARY MARKET-LEADER” USED FOR

FRESHMEN AT HUBT

“Elementary Market-Leader” is the first in the three-level set of course books ofbusiness English “Market-Leader” by three authors from London Metropolitan University -David Cotton, David Falvey and Simon Kent It consists of 12 units based on the topicsinvolved in international business The main course book is supported by some othercomponents like Practice File, Test File, and Teacher’s Resource Book, Audio Materials,

and the website www.market-leader.net

“Elementary Market-Leader” is used for first-year students of business majors atHUBT The twelve units in the book cover the whole academic year comprising of two 18-week semesters, so in each semester, the students study 6 units In class, teachers andstudents not only deal with students’ books but also other components of the set likePractice File (listening and pronunciation practice) and Text Bank (reading materials) In

each unit of the material, the language contents include starting up, vocabulary, listening, language focus, reading, skills, and case study The topics of the units are business-related topics ranging from basic topics like introduction, work and leisure, travel,… to more business-focused topics like sales, markets, companies, the Web,…

2.3 DATA COLLECTION METHODS

This section focuses on the instruments used for data collection including adiscussion of strength and weaknesses of the method chosen

According to Robinson (1991), many of basic procedures for data collection are thesame as those that can be used for need analysis and evaluation process: checklist,questionnaire, discussion, rating scales, interview, observation, record, and assessment

On discussing the methods for materials evaluation, Robinson (1991) states thattests, questionnaires, and interviews are the main techniques used for formative evaluation.Meanwhile, summative evaluation makes use of tests administered before and afterprogram in addition to checklists and questionnaires

In this study, questionnaires, interview, and document analysis have been chosen

as the main methods to collect data for the evaluation Questionnaires were designed tocollect the data that relate to the students’ attitudes and opinions towards the materials thatthey are studying Besides, interviews were conducted to seek the collaboration of teachers

in evaluating the material and to get their attitudes towards the material that they have beenusing

2.4 DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURE

2.4.1 Document Analysis

For materials evaluation, document analysis is an important channel to collect data

for the thesis Although there are many documents that can be used for evaluation such astextbooks, tests, audio and video materials, and recording of classroom activities, withinthe framework of this thesis, the writer pays much attention to the analysis of the coursebook “Elementary Market-Leader” in terms of its relevance to the students’ level ofEnglish and the suitability of the material to the methodology requirements in terms ofteaching-learning techniques, and guidance and support from the material for teachers.

2.4.2 Student Questionnaire

Beside the data collected by analyzing the material under study, the researchermade use of a questionnaire to investigate the students’ opinions and attitudes towards thematerial concerning their opinions on the level of difficulty and the relevance of themethodology of the course book The purpose of getting these data was to get moreinformation about the material

A questionnaire was randomly delivered to 120 students, and 107 copies werereturned 100 out of 107 were then randomly chosen for data analysis

The student questionnaire consists of two sections with 9 questions Section Iincludes 7 questions designed to find out the students’ perspectives on the difficulty level

of the material and the reasons why they think some certain sections of the material aredifficult Section II has 2 questions which aim at the students’ opinions on the methodology

of the material The students are asked to inform about the teaching and learningtechniques that their teachers use in class and how they like them Their answers areexpected to provide information of how the material methodology matches their learningstyles (See Appendix 1)

The questionnaire is translated into Vietnamese as the informants of the study areall first-year students and also to avoid any misunderstanding on the questions

2.4.3 The Teacher Interviews

In addition to the material analysis carried out by the researcher and thequestionnaire completed by the students, another data collection instrument that was usedwas interview with teachers who had been using this material for years The teacherparticipants were given the questions in advance so that they could prepare for theinterviews During the interview, besides the prepared questions they were also asked some

follow-up questions to identify their viewpoints more clearly The researcher decided to useVietnamese as the language of communication in the interview so that the teachers couldfeel comfortable at best to express their thoughts and opinions on the material.

During the interviews, the researcher took notes of answers The interviews werealso recorded to support the researcher in analyzing the information at the best possiblelevel

The interview questions were divided into 2 sections with 10 questions Section I,comprising 5 questions, deals with the teachers’ viewpoints on the appropriateness of thematerial to the student’s level of English and on the difficulty level of the material Section

II, which has another five questions, focuses on investigating the teachers’ evaluation ofthe guidance and support that the material provides them for teaching the course

2.5 SUBJECTS OF THE RESEARCH

2.5.1 The students

The informants of the study are first-year students majored in business They comefrom four different majors of HUBT: Business Administration, Finance & Banking, Trade,and Economics They are from different parts of Vietnam: cities, towns, and rural areas.They are all between 17 and18 years of age At the time of the survey, all of them are in themiddle of the second semester with HUBT More specifically, the students have alreadyfinished 9 out of 12 units in “Elementary Market-Leader”

2.5.2 The teachers

The research informants include 10 teachers who have been teaching English,especially Business English, at HUBT for many years comprising at least 2 years’ timedealing with the material Elementary Market-Leader Five of them have obtained MasterDegree in TEFL while the rest have just acquired Bachelor Degree As regards theirexperience in teaching Business English, six of them have involved in teaching otherBusiness English materials like International Express, Business Objectives before using

“Elementary Market-Leader” However, most of them admit they have limited knowledgeand experience in teaching Business English, which may prevent them from teachingeffectively Another problem is that most of the teacher-student communication in class is

in Vietnamese, which does not encourage students to use English during the lesson.

In summary, this chapter has identified the setting, instruments, and procedure ofthe study The next chapter will present the figures and data collected in the student surveyand teacher interviews, from which some initial conclusions about the questioned issues ofthe study start to take shape

CHAPTER THREE: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter is a detailed analysis of the material, a presentation and discussion ofthe results from the survey with the students and the interviews with the teachers The data

is analyzed to find out the appropriateness of the material to the students’ level of Englishand to the methodology requirements

3.1 THE APPROPRIATENESS OF THE MATERIAL TO THE STUDENTS’ LEVEL

OF ENGLISH.

3.1.1 Document Analysis

In order to determine whether the material is suitable to the student’s level ofEnglish or not, a comparison is made between the English level of the students and that ofthe audience for whom this material is intended

According to the Introduction in the course book, Market-Leader is an elementarylevel business English course which is intended for both business people and students ofbusiness The Course book’s Introduction says that the course is for finished beginners andelementary students of English

In comparison with the level of the targeted students at HUBT who attend thecourse, the intended level is, generally, quite agreeable Most of the first-year students ofbusiness majors (which are business administration, finance & banking, trade, andeconomics), on entering the course, have had at least three years with English at school.They are, therefore, supposed to have past the beginner level However, as mentioned inthe previous chapter, there is a mixture of student levels Also, most of them have verylittle chance to practice speaking and listening in English, which reflects the traditionalway of teaching English in most schools in Vietnam Furthermore, before starting thiscourse, hardly any of them had access to Business English as well as the knowledge ofBusiness as a subject of their major Thus, it is sometimes quite hard for them to catch thepurpose of some certain activities offered in the course book and carried out in class

3.1.2 Results from the Survey

3.1.2.1 Teacher Interviews

The information collected from the interview with ten teachers of English is presented intwo tables so that any analysis, observation and comparison on the data will be easier.(Table 4.1 and 4.2)

Teachers’ opinion

1 The material is for elementary level

2 The material is relevant to your students’

level of English

3 The material is difficult for your students

Table 4.1: Teachers’ Opinions of the Appropriateness of the Material to the Students’ Level of English

As can be seen from Table 4.1, most of the teachers interviewed agreed that the material isfor elementary level (80%) The other 20% said they found some parts of the material moredifficult than elementary level, and they mentioned Writing and Case Study as these parts.Also, as many as 7 teachers out of 10 perceived that the material was difficult for thestudents while only three said it was relevant to the students’ level of English

Grammar Number of

choice Percentage

Table 4.2: Teachers’ Opinions on the Difficulty of Different Parts of the Material

Table 4.2 is the synthesis of the data collected from the teachers’ answers toquestion 4 in the interview It is noticeable that Case Study and Writing are agreed to be themost difficult parts of the material by most of the teachers, and some of them find the parts

of listening, skills, and grammar hard for the students The following part is thepresentation of the reasons why the teachers think some parts of the material are difficult.The information was collected through question 5 in the interview

80% of the teachers interviewed thought that Case Study was very difficult for the

students Some of them also said this section was quite challenging even for them to teach.According to them, it was hard for several reasons Firstly, the students’ speaking skillswere almost zero before the course, which made them feel unconfident and uncomfortable