An evaluation of the course book english for navigation students for the students at navigation department, haiphong polytechnic college

TrÇn thÞ ngaAN EVALUATION OF THE COURSE BOOK “ENGLISH FOR NAVIGATION STUDENTS” FOR THE STUDENTS AT NAVIGATION DEPARTMENT, Haiphong polytechnic college §¸nh gi¸ gi¸o tr×nh “English for na

TrÇn thÞ nga

AN EVALUATION OF THE COURSE BOOK “ENGLISH FOR NAVIGATION STUDENTS” FOR THE STUDENTS AT

NAVIGATION DEPARTMENT, Haiphong polytechnic college

(§¸nh gi¸ gi¸o tr×nh “English for navigation students” dµnh cho sinh viªn khoa ®iÒu khiÓn tµu biÓn t¹i tr-êng Cao §¼ng nghÒ B¸ch NghÖ H¶i Phßng)

M.A Minor Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 60 14 10 Supervisor: TrÇn Thanh Nhµn, MA

hanoi - 2010

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declaration i

Acknowledgments ii

Abstract iii

Table of contents iv

Abbreviations vii

List of tables and charts … viii

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale for the study 1

2 Aims and objectives of the study 2

3 Significance of the study 2

4 Scope of the study 2

5 Methods of the study 2

6 Organization of the study 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1.1 An introduction 4

1.2 Textbook, course book, and materials 4

1.2.1 Definitions 4

1.2.2 A wide range of Maritime English materials 5

1.2.3 The roles of materials in a language program 6

1.3 Materials evaluation 7

1.3.1 Definitions of materials evaluation 7

1.3.2 Purposes of materials evaluation 8

1.3.3 Types of materials evaluation 9

1.3.3.1 Pre-use evaluation 9

1.3.3.2 In-use evaluation 9

1.3.3.3 Post use evaluation 10

1.3.4 Methods of materials evaluation 10

1.3.4.1 The impressionistic method 10

1.3.4.2 The checklist method 11

1.3.4.3 The in-depth method 11

1.3.5 Criteria for materials evaluation 11

1.3.5.1 What should be included in the criteria checklist? 11

1.3.5.2 The individualized checklist 13

1.4 The roles of materials evaluation to adaptation of the course book “English for navigation students” 13

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 15

2.1 The current ESP teaching and learning situation at HPPC 15

2.1.1 The context 15

2.1.2 The course objectives 16

2.1.3 General description of the material 17

2.2 Research questions 18

2.3 Research method 18

2.4 Participants 18

2.4.1 The ESP teachers 19

2.4.2 The subject teachers 19

2.4.3 The students 19

2.5 Instruments 20

2.5.1 Questionnaire 20

2.5.2 Interview 20

2.6 Data collection procedure 22

2.7 Data analysis procedure 22

CHAPTER 3: ANALYSIS OF THE RESULTS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR MATERIALS ADAPTATION 23

3.1 The realization of each criterion in the course book “English for navigation students” 23

3.1.1 Format and organization 23

3.1.2 Maritime content 25

3.1.3 Language content 27

3.1.4 Language skill 30

3.1.5 Methodology 32

3.2 Suggestions for materials adaptation 33

3.2.1 Format and organization 33

3.2.2 Maritime content 34

3.2.3 Language content 35

3.2.4 Language skill 35

3.2.5 Methodology 36

PART C: CONCLUSION 37

1 Conclusion 37

2 Limitations and suggestions for further study 38

References: 39

Appendix 1: Evaluation checklist for the students (in English) i

Appendix 2: Evaluation checklist for the students (in Vietnamese) v

Appendix 3: A sample of an original unit ix

Appendix 4: A sample of a newly-adapted unit xv

Studies,

List of charts and tables

Table & chart 3.1: The realization of the format and organization criteria Table & chart 3.2: The realization of the maritime content criterion Table & chart 3.3: The realization of the language content criterion Table & chart 3.4: The realization of the language skill criterion

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale for the study

English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has developed to become one of the most prominentareas of ELT teaching The growth of ESP has also led to an increasing number ofspecialized materials Maritime English materials are not an exception The importance ofmaterials is undeniable due to its important role in the curriculum as Nunan (1988, cited inPritchard, 2003:1) states that “…materials, in fact, are an essential element within thecurriculum, and do more than simply lubricate the wheels of learning At their best theyprovide concrete models of desirable classroom practice, they act as curriculum models,and at their very best they fulfill a teacher development role.” Moreover, materials,whether commercially developed or teacher-produced, are considered a key component inmost TEFL programs essential for both teachers and learners Obviously, most teachers usematerials as their primary teaching resource in providing the content of the lessons andclass room practice In some situations, however, materials are only used to supplement theteacher‟s instruction For learners, materials generally serve as the basis for the languageinput they receive and the language practice they take part during their classes Materialsare also considered a reference source for learners on various aspects of language such aspronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, etc Nevertheless, as Swales (1980) points out thatmaterials exhibit problems and in extreme cases are examples of educational failure.Although materials are a core element in most ESP classes, there has been little materialsevaluation made Therefore, in order to exploit the materials at best, it is necessary forindividuals, especially language teachers, to carefully examine all aspects of the materials.The course book “English for Navigation Students” was designed for the second and third-year students at Navigation Faculty with the greatest effort of the teachers at the EnglishDepartment It has been used at Haiphong Polytechnic College (HPPC) for nearly 3 years,however, since then there has been no evaluation to the course book by the collegeadministrators prior to the introduction of the course book to recognize its strengths andshortcomings, and to see how much the course book meets students‟ occupational purposesand needs, and the employers‟ requirements For this reason, the researcher decided tochoose materials evaluation as the theme for this thesis

2 Aims and objectives of the study

This study is carried out with the aim of improving the quality of the teacher-generatedmaterial “English for Navigation Students” to meet the students‟ occupationalrequirements In order to achieve this aim, the objectives were worked out below:

- To evaluate the material “English for Navigation Students” from the view points

of the ESP teachers, subject teachers and students at Navigation Faculty to identify its strengths,deficiencies and weaknesses;

- To offer suggestions for adaptation of the materials basing on the major findings

First of all, the study will provide the findings which are not only useful to the researcherherself but also to the course book designers and the teaching staff These findings helpthem to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the course book so that they can makeoptimum use of the book‟s strengths and adjust the shortcomings of certain tasks and everyunit throughout the course book

In addition, the findings will be the foundation for enhancing the quality of the in-housematerial “English for Navigation Students” in order to meet the students‟ occupationalrequirements

Lastly, it is expected that the results of the study would serve as a useful source ofreference for teachers who are in charge of teaching ESP and/or interested in materialsdevelopment for ESP, especially Maritime English

4 Scope of the study

The study mainly focuses on evaluating the course book “English for Navigation Students”from the view points of the ESP teachers, subject teachers and students at NavigationFaculty in terms of format and organization, subject content, language content, languageskill, and methodology among a great number of criteria for materials evaluation

5 Methods of the study

The accomplishment of this thesis is first based on the review of materials in the area ofevaluation to build up a theoretical background for the research

Survey research will be exploited with two principle instruments to collect data for this study as follows:

- Survey questionnaire is designed for the second-year students at Navigation Faculty, who have worked with two-thirds of the course book;

- Interviews are conducted with the ESP teachers who have experienced usingand teaching the course book, and with the subject teachers who both have taken part in lectures

at college and have worked on board a ship on worldwide routes for years alternately

This study consists of three parts as follows:

Part A will provide general information about the rationale for choosing the theme, aimsand objectives, significance, scope, methods, and organization of the study

Part B is divided into three main chapters In order to provide readers with literature reviewrelevant to this study, the important notions of materials, materials evaluation, types,methods, and criteria for materials evaluation are discussed in chapter one Also in thischapter, the significant role of materials evaluation to adaptation of the course book ispresented

The next chapter will give the readers an overview of the current ESP teaching andlearning situation at Navigation Faculty, HPPC, and a detailed analysis of methodologiesemployed in the study, research procedures and participants involved in the researchprocess

Based on the collected data, chapter three will analyze and discuss the findings of thestudy, and give suggestions for adaptation of materials evaluation

Part C will summarize the major findings, reveal the limitations remaining in the study, andoffer some suggestions for further study on the same topic

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 An introduction

Materials evaluation is part of a language course and plays an important role in a materialsdevelopment; and teaching and learning process Therefore, this issue has not only become

a topic of great interest among foreign researchers but also Vietnamese ones Being aware

of its importance, in Vietnam, as Tran Thanh Nhan (2006) stated that “only recently hasevaluation confirmed its vital role in guaranteeing educational quality Its significance stillholds true within the scope of materials evaluation.” Hence, this research field has drawnattention to numerous postgraduates at ULIS, VNUH, who chose and wrote their theses onmaterials evaluation, especially evaluation of ESP materials The following researchers areworthy to be mentioned: Nguyen Do Thu Hoai (2004); Tran Thanh Nhan (2006); Giap ThiYen (2008) and Nguyen Thi Xuan Thuy (2008), etc They made a great deal ofcontribution to the post-graduate research field of materials evaluation at ULIS, VNUHand their previous works help lay a reliable foundation for this study Although each thesiswas carried out with different aims, contexts and participants, and based on varioustheories of linguists abroad, fundamentally they shared the framework for materialsevaluation namely: types, purposes, methods, models and criteria In this present study, theresearcher is going to exploit the framework for evaluation of the course book “English forNavigation Students” which is currently used at Haiphong Polytechnic College

1.2 Textbook, course book, and materials

1.2.1 Definitions

As the theme of this thesis is the evaluation of the course book “English for NavigationStudents” that is being exploited for teaching and learning at HPPC, the researcher wouldlike to start the literature review by considering and clarifying the three basic terms:textbook, course book, and materials These terms are commonly used in discussingmaterials evaluation

As defined in Longman Dictionary (1998:1394), textbook is a book which containsinformation for the study of a particular subject, for example, a history textbook or a

literature textbook, especially one that is used by students because it is generallyconsidered as providing information that can be trusted.

Course book, as defined by Tomlinson (1998: ix), is referred to “a textbook which providesthe core materials for a course It aims to provide as much as possible in one book and isdesigned so that it could serve as the only book which the learners necessarily use during acourse Such a book usually includes work on grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation,functions and the skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking.”

Meanwhile, in a broader sense, the term “materials”, as defined by McGrath (2002:7) andTomlinson (1998:11), is something which is deliberately used to raise the learner‟sknowledge and experience of the language Thus, materials can be anything that is used bylearners or teachers to facilitate language learning It can be “in the form of a textbook, aworkbook, a cassette, a CD-Rom, a video, a photocopied handout, a newspaper, aparagraph written on a whiteboard…” Whatever they are, materials can be the ones whichhave been specially designed and published for teaching and learning or they can be whatteachers have carefully selected, exploited, or designed specially for teaching purpose inclassroom, not excluding learner-generated materials

To serve the purpose of the study, the three basic terms mentioned above will be usedinterchangeably throughout this thesis

1.2.2 A wide range of Maritime English materials

As a subset of ESP, Maritime English not only shares the same characteristics of ESP butalso has its own characteristics According to Pritchard (2003), Maritime English materialspossess general features as follows:

- There is rarely a comprehensive, all-inclusive Maritime English textbook or other

a) General (i.e comprehensive) Maritime English course book; i.e conventionaltextbooks following the methodology of materials design and development in ELT, EFL, andESP;

b) Register/genre/job-specific materials in Maritime English, or, more specially, insub-specializations such as maritime law, shipping, maritime technology, marine electronics,maritime safety, etc.;

c) Visual and aural materials with textbooks, i.e video-taped materials, usually on a specified topic;

d) Courses on CD-ROM and multimedia;

e) Dedicated programmes, narrow-scope courses in maritime communication;

f) PC-based programmes and software;

g) Various types of specialized software obtainable from the internet;

h) Published vs in-house materials;

1.2.3 The roles of materials in a language program

Numerous theorists have discussed about the roles of materials so far We will find out thereasons why it is worth considering the roles that materials have played

According to Richards (2005), textbooks and instruction materials are a key component inmost language programs In some situations they serve as the basis of much of thelanguage input learners receive and the language practice that occurs in the classroom.They may provide the basis for the content of the lessons, the balance of skills taught andthe kinds of language practice the students take part in In other situations, the textbookmay serve primarily to supplement the teacher‟s instruction For learners, the textbook mayprovide the major source of contact they have with the language apart from input provided

by the teacher In the case of inexperienced teachers textbooks may also serve as a form of

teacher training – they provide ideas on how to plan and teach lessons as well as formats that teachers can use.

Referring to the roles of materials in a curriculum, Nunan (1991:209) states that

“Materials, whether commercially developed or teacher-produced, are an important

element within the curriculum, and are often the most tangible and visible aspect of it.” Materials do not only play an important role in general English but also seem significant in ESP context since they enhance students‟ motivation Therefore, Dudley-Evans & St John(1998:170) point out four convincing reasons for using materials in the ESP situation as follows:

1.3.1 Definitions of materials evaluation

Evaluation is an essential and indispensable part of planning and implementation of alanguage course, the other parts being the following: needs analysis, course design,teaching and learning process, and assessment Though in theory there should be a circularmovement and linear sequence of the above elements or stages of course planning, inpractice evaluation stands in close interaction and interdependence relationship with theteaching and learning process; and course design There are many theories we can drawupon on course book evaluation, which are dispersed in the works of such overseaslinguists as Sheldon (1988), Hutchinson and Waters (1987), Robinson (1991), McDonoughand Shaw (1993), Cunningsworth(1995), Tomlinson (1998), Dudley-Evans and St John(1998), etc Among them, the following should be taken into consideration

Hutchinson and Waters (1987: 96) point out that evaluation is a matching process designed

to establish the degree of match between the needs and available solutions It refers to theattempts to measure the value of materials and is aimed at assessing the fitness of e.g aMaritime English material for a particular purpose, e.g completing a diploma within amaritime college or university or for a particular certificate of competency on board ship(Deck Watch-keeping Officer on ships of 500 Gross Tonnage or more)

According to Tomlinson (1998: xi), materials evaluation is “the systematic appraisal of thevalue of materials in relation to their objectives and to the objectives of the learners usingthem.” He also suggests that “materials evaluation is a procedure that involves measuringthe value (or potential value) of a set of learning materials It involves making judgmentsabout the effect of the materials on the people using them…”

Dudley-Evans and St John (1998:128) define that “Evaluation is a whole process whichbegins with determining what information to gather and ends with bringing about change

in current activities or influencing future ones” This means that evaluation must be morethan collecting and analyzing data

In summary, although each linguist has his or her own way of giving opinions on materialsevaluation, materials evaluation must include the features such as systematicity andmeasurement of the value and fitness of materials

1.3.2 Purposes of materials evaluation

Regarding the purposes of materials evaluation, Sheldon (1988) has offered several otherreasons for textbook evaluation He suggests that a thorough evaluation would provide for

a sense of familiarity with a book's content thus assisting educators in identifying theparticular strengths and weaknesses in textbooks already in use This would help teachersmake the optimum use of a book's strong points and recognizing the shortcomings ofcertain exercises, tasks and entire texts

Another reason for materials evaluation is the fact that it can be very useful in teacherdevelopment and professional growth Cunningsworth (1995) suggests that textbookevaluation helps teachers move beyond impressionistic assessments and acquire useful,accurate, systematic, and contextual insights into the overall nature of materials Materialsevaluation, therefore, can potentially be a particularly worthwhile means of conductingaction research as well as a form of improvement

Moreover, materials play a significant role in foreign language teaching They are notsimply the everyday tools of the language teachers; they are an embodiment of the aimsand methods of the particular teaching and learning situation In the words ofCunningsworth (1995: 70), course book is “a resource in achieving aims and objectivesthat have already been set in terms of learner needs.” Through evaluation, the evaluatorscan assess whether the course book is the most appropriate for the target learners at variouslevels and in various teaching settings.

1.3.3 Types of materials evaluation

There are many different types of materials evaluation offered by a number of researchers.Robinson (1991: 59) divides materials evaluation into three types: preliminary, summativeand formative Whereas, Tomlinson (2003: 23-26) shares the same categories of materialsevaluation with McGrath (2002: 181-203) They classify materials evaluation into threestages namely: pre-use, in-use and post use evaluation In spite of the different terms used

to refer to types of materials evaluation, these terms are basically similar and discussed indetail as follows

1.3.3.1 Pre-use evaluation

According to Tomlinson (2003: 23), pre-use evaluation often takes place before thematerials are used to predict the potential value of materials for their users as well as toselect a course book for use with a particular class It seems that pre-use evaluation tends to

be the most difficult type since there is no actual experience of using the materials

1.3.3.2 In-use evaluation

The second type, in-use evaluation as its name suggests, is a kind of evaluation thatinvolves measuring the value of materials while using them or while observing them beingused In comparison with pre-use evaluation, it is more objective and reliable as this type

of evaluation makes use of measurement rather than prediction (Tomlinson, 2003: 24)Beside its strength mentioned above, Tomlinson (2003) also points out the limitation ofthis type In-use evaluation can measure “what is observable” and cannot measure “what ishappening in the learners‟ brains”

1.3.3.3 Post use evaluation

Post use evaluation refers to an assessment of a textbook‟s fitness over a period ofcontinual use According to Tomlinson (2003: 25), evaluation of this kind can be “the mostvaluable as it can measure the actual effect of the materials on the users.” Basing on thedata measured, evaluators can make reliable decisions about the use, adaptation orreplacement of the materials However, this type of evaluation is normally time-consuming

In summary, each type of materials evaluation has its certain advantages anddisadvantages Therefore, when making an evaluation, it is essential for the evaluators todetermine what type of materials evaluation will be suitable for their contexts As for aspecific context in Haiphong Polytechnic College, the researcher decided to exploit in-useevaluation to measure the merits and demerits of the course book and offer someimplications for further improvement of the material

1.3.4 Methods of materials evaluation

Most of advice on conducting evaluations can be found in publications of Cunningsworth(1995), McDonough and Shaw (1993), Sheldon (1988), Tomlinson (1998; 2003) Manymethods of materials evaluation suggested in these publications provide a useful startingpoint for any evaluators conducting a materials evaluation Among them, the followingthree basic methods: the impressionistic method, the checklist method, and the in-depthmethod are going to be mentioned below

1.3.4.1 The impressionistic method

Cunningsworth (1995: 2) states that the impressionistic method is designed to be able togain an impression of a book by looking rather more carefully at representative features,such as the organization, topics, layout, visuals and the design of a unit or lesson, or morespecific features, such as the treatment of particular language elements Therefore, thismethod is wide-ranging but relatively superficial due to the fact that „techniques ofimpressionistic evaluation cover a wide spectrum‟

1.3.4.2 The checklist method

In addition to the potential limitations of this method as McGrath (2002) argues that „achecklist is likely to need tailoring to suit a particular context, and this can involve a gooddeal more than simply deleting checklist items which are inapplicable‟ Moreover,Williams (1993, cited in McGrath, 2002:27) points out that “checklists cannot be a staticphenomenon” This means that the items in all materials evaluation checklists reflect thetime at which they are conceived The checklist 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 as well understood by all involved in the

evaluation, offers a common frame work for decision-making

(McGrath, 2002: 27)

1.3.4.3 The in-depth method

In-depth method consists of a focus on specific features (Cunningsworth, 1995), closeanalysis of one or more extracts (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987), or thorough examination

of two units using predetermined questions (McGrath, 2002) According to McGrath(2002: 28), beside its advantages, this evaluation method has certain disadvantages Firstly,samples selected for analysis may not representative of the book as a whole Secondly,only a particular section of the material is focused Moreover, this method takes time andrequires expert knowledge

In short, among the three methods of materials evaluation mentioned above, the checklistmethod seems to prevail over the rest Therefore, the researcher decided to adopt it as themajor method to gauge the course book ENS

1.3.5 Criteria for materials evaluation

1.3.5.1 What should be included in the criteria checklist?

Tomlinson (1998) asserts that it is extremely useful to develop a set of formal criteria foruse on a particular evaluation and then to use that set as a basis for developing subsequentcontext-specific sets Initially it is demanding and time consuming, but it not only helps the

evaluators to clarify their principles of language learning and teaching but also ensures thatfuture evaluations are systematic, rigorous and above all, principled.

Hutchinson and Waters (1987: 99) present their own checklist of criteria for objective andsubjective analysis, which is not an exhaustive list, and is based on the following fouraspects: audience, aims, content, and methodology

In addition to Hutchinson and Waters‟ checklist, Ur (1996, cited in Prichard, 2003:12-13)offers sixteen textbook evaluation criteria Among them, the following should behighlighted here:

- objectives explicitly laid out in an introduction, and implemented in the material

- systematic coverage of syllabus

- content clearly organized and graded (by difficulty)

- appropriate visual materials available

- varied topics and tasks so as to provide for different learners, learning styles,

interests, etc

- clear instructions

- periodic review and test sections

- plenty of authentic language

- good pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar explanation and practice

- fluency practice in all four skills

- encourage s learners to develop own learning strategies and to become independent

in their learning

- adequate guidance for the teacher

- audio cassette

Meanwhile Sheldon (1988) suggests that there is no general list of criteria which can really

be applicable to all teaching and learning contexts without considerable modification Inthe same vein, Cunningsworth (1995) assures that any selection procedure should bemodified to suit personal circumstances Therefore, selecting and modifying particularitems to produce an individualized checklist is the best method to make sure that it issuitable to the particular teaching and learning context

1.3.5.2 The individualized checklist

This individualized checklist was created basing on a number of the checklists mentionedabove and after having consulting from the supervisor and discussing with the researcher‟scolleagues at HPPC It was selected from the most important features suitable to theteaching context This checklist consists of five criteria namely format and organization,Maritime English content, language content, language skill, and methodology

One of the most useful starting points in any textbook evaluation is an analysis of formatand organization Format and organization should be clear, attractive, logic, sequential anduniform They should include a glossary and a table of contents where an overview oftopics, structures/grammar, vocabulary and skills within each unit can be found

Subject content is one of the features of an ESP course book Therefore Maritime Englishcontent has become an indispensable criterion in the checklist The subject content should

be sequenced from easier to more difficult in a logic order throughout the course book,from guided to free within a unit, and organized around the language points In addition,the subject matter areas should be practical and useful for the students‟ future jobs withvarious topics and themes, and diverse in non-text types

Language content is the third criterion in this checklist This criterion should consist ofbasic and main grammar points and vocabulary items which are organized in the level ofdifficulty and its content needs to be in various text types to attract and encourage thestudents

Another criterion that can not be deficient in the checklist is language skill The four skillsshould be well-integrated and distributed to serve occupational purposes, of which thespeaking and listening should be priority, then reading and speaking

The last criterion is methodology This should be designed basing on the communicativeapproach so as to meet the occupational requirements of the students In so doing, thecourse book should be designed with more pair and group work to improve the students‟communicative competence

1.4 The roles of materials evaluation to adaptation of the course book

“English for Navigation Students”

Before the course book “English for Navigation Students” was introduced in 2008, the ESPteachers had collected Maritime English materials from different maritime English course

books available to serve the ESP courses for navigation students at HPPC As a result,most of the graduates did not satisfy the occupational requirements when working on aforeign ship due to their poor Maritime English.

In great demand of the ESP teachers, the students at HPPC and the employers for aMaritime English course book which must serve as an effective tool for the navigationstudents studying at college and working well on foreign ships sailing around the world,the HPPC administrators assigned the Foreign Languages Department to design a coursebook of Maritime English This was really a challenging job for the ESP teachers as theywere not professional materials designers and did not receive any training in the skills andtechniques of materials writing After nearly one year, with the assistance of the subjectteachers from Navigation Faculty and the great effort of the ESP teachers, right after itsobjectives were set out, the course book ENS was designed, completed and exploited in theclasses However, after having been used for nearly three years, the course book receivedboth positive and negative feedback from the ESP teachers and nautical students as well.All these things call for the need to evaluate the material to identify its strengths and theweaknesses In order to conduct effectively the evaluation on the course book ENS fromthe view points of both the ESP teachers, subject teachers and students, the checklistmethod was exploited with two principal instruments for collecting data: questionnaire andinterview

Based on the evaluation results, the evaluators can either replace the course book in use toadopt the most suitable one or to adapt it However, in HHPC context, further adapting thecourse book in use is the best method as adapting the material can help the teachers toachieve more compatibility and fitness between the course book and teaching environment,and maximize the value of the book for their benefit of their particular learners and for themost effective occupational outcome to be achieved

In summary, this chapter has provided a brief review of literature on materials evaluation

It includes three sections The first section addressed major issues regarding the notions ofmaterials, their roles in a language program; and a wide range of maritime Englishmaterials The second section discussed major issues in materials evaluation includingdefinitions, purposes, methods, types and criteria for materials evaluation The last sectionmentioned the roles of materials evaluation to the adaptation of the course book ENS

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

In order to reach the objectives of the study, at first this chapter will describe the currentESP teaching and learning situation at Navigation Faculty, HPPC in which the study wascarried out The next concern of this chapter is going to discuss the choice of researchmethodology This will be followed by a reiteration of the research questions At the end ofthe chapter will be data collection procedure with description of stages in which the datawas collected

2.1 The current ESP teaching and learning situation at the Navigation Faculty, HPPC

2.1.1 The context

Haiphong Polytechnic College has become one of the leading vocational colleges in themaritime section since it was founded on the 11th July 2001 As a newly-establishedvocational college, it consists of six main faculties: Navigation, Marine Engine,Shipbuilding Technology, Information Technology, Economics, and Electricity andElectronics Among them the marine engine and navigation faculties can be said to be byfar the most important ones of HPPC These two faculties train students to become deckofficers, engineer officers, deck ratings and engine ratings After graduating from HPPC,the students will work not only on domestic ships but also on foreign ones sailing aroundthe world A ship crew is divided into two departments: deck department and enginedepartment Deck crew normally use more spoken and written English than engine crewbecause they are responsible for communicating with other ships, agents, pilot stations,coastguards, port authorities, ship owners, etc Their English plays an extremely importantrole in safe and economical navigation of the ship Because of this, HPPC leaders alwaysconsider English to be the key subject for the students of the two faculties

As for navigation students, most of them come from rural areas Before entering HPPC,some of them learned English for six years, some learned English for three years and somelearned Russian or French The problem is that quite few students have a good knowledge

of general English because most of them may have paid almost no attention to learningEnglish at school

In a three-year course for students of Navigation Faculty, English subject is taught in fivesemesters in the whole course with totally 315 school periods The first two semesters forgeneral English occupy 120 periods and the next three semesters for ESP occupy 195periods in total with the course book “English for Navigation Students” The third semestermakes up ninety periods, the fourth semester sixty periods and the fifth semester forty-fiveperiods After 120 periods – in two semesters, the students have to complete twelve units in

the textbook New Cutting Edge - Elementary by Peter Moor and Chris Redston in 2005,

which provides the students with general knowledge of English with the integration of fourskills equivalent to elementary level In the next stage, the course book “English forNavigation Students” provides a step-stone to enable them to cross from knowledge ofgeneral English to a position where they can start to get to know the sort of textbooks andinstructions within themes relevant to maritime studies During a term, depending onnumber of periods, the students have two or three mid-term tests and at the end of eachterm, they have to take an oral test

2.1.2 The course objectives

In maritime field, English has been considered as “the language at sea” Being aware of theimportance of English to this field, the International Maritime Organization points inStandards of Training, Certification and Watch-keeping Convention (1978) that deckofficers are required knowledge of written and spoken English adequate to understandcharts, nautical publications, meteorological information and messages concerning theship's safety and operation, and adequate to communicate with other ships and coaststations and multilingual crew, and use the International Maritime Organization‟s StandardMaritime Communication Phrases Moreover, the deck officers who are required to complywith standards of competence for Global Maritime Distress and Safety System radiooperators and obtain General Operator Certificates will require knowledge of English, bothwritten and spoken, for the communication of information relevant to the safety of life atsea In addition, recommendatory guidance in Part B of the Standards of Training,Certification and Watch-keeping Convention (1978) concerning basic training for seafarerswith designated safety or pollution prevention duties suggests that flag states shouldconsider ensuring that seafarers have an ability to use at least an elementary Englishvocabulary with an emphasis on nautical terms and situations

Therefore, English language requirements to Deck Officers stipulated in the Standards ofTraining, Certification and Watch-keeping Convention by the International MaritimeOrganization had been taken into thorough consideration before the ESP teachers workedout the main objectives of the Maritime English course with the assistance of the subjectteachers from Navigation Faculty as follows:

At the end of the three- semester course, the students should be able to achieve:

- listening skills: listening and understanding common orders on board a ship

- speaking skills: communicating with multilingual crews on board vessels, other ships,agents, pilot stations, coastguards, port authorities, ship owners during navigation at sea, in portapproaches, waterways and harbors

- reading skills: reading and comprehending manuals for operating equipment and nauticaldocuments

- writing skills: writing letters, messages and sea-protests

2.1.3 General description of the material

English for Navigation Students is an in-house material which was designed by the

teachers of English Department in 2007 All the dialogues and reading texts were excerpted

from different sources: Welcome on board published by All Japan Seamen‟s Union in

1998, English for Seafarers- Pack 1 published by Marlins in 1997, English at Sea - Module

1 published by Canadian Coast Guard College Press in 1995, Deck Cadet Course by Training and Seafarers Education Department – VINIC company in 2003; and Standard

Marine Communication Phrases by the International Maritime Organization The course

book consists of three parts Part one consists of six units, part two four units and part threefive units Each unit is typically divided into six sections, namely Vocabulary, Text orDialogue, Grammar Notes, Discussion, Reading Comprehension and Translation asfollows:

(i) Section one provides a list of new words, which is categorized into word formswith phonetic transcription, explanation in English with examples, and followed by a gap-fillingexercise

(ii) Section two consists of a reading text or a dialogue that is covered by a numeroustopics relevant to the maritime area Right after the text or dialogue is usually an exercise inform of answering questions or true/false

(iii) Section three presents main grammar points including uses, forms and rules with examples.

(iv) Section four is designed with speaking activities, normally in form of discussion inpair or group by answering one or more questions basing on the content in Section 2

(v) Section five normally offers topical reading texts

(vi) Section six includes one or two translation exercises mainly requiring learners to give the equivalent technical terms within a unit

2.2 Research questions

This study was conducted in order to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the coursebook so as to make the most effective use of the former and overcome the latter by makingadjustments In order to reach these objectives, the following questions were worked out

1 What are the strengths and weaknesses of the course book in the view of the

students and teachers?

2 What should be improved in the course book in order to get better outcomes to meet the future occupational requirements?

2.3 Research method

To achieve the research questions mentioned above, the research method exploited in thisstudy is the survey for a number of advantages The first reason for choosing this method isthat in order to get the judgments of the students and teachers on the course book, it isessential to collect data from a large number of respondents, therefore, survey research ismore feasible than other methods Secondly, using this method is cheap, time-saving andconvenient as the researcher can collect ideas of many respondents at the same time

2.4 Participants

According to Pritchard (2003:7), evaluation of materials are both needed and made by:

- The Maritime English teacher

- The Maritime English learner

- The Maritime English administrator (educational authorities, maritime

administrations, shipping companies, ports, etc.)

In a specific context of Haiphong Polytechnic College, however, beside the first twogroups of participants, the subject teachers from Navigation Faculty were chosen to takepart in the materials evaluation process instead of the Maritime English administrator Thefollowing sections will describe the three groups of participants in detail.

2.4.1 The ESP teachers

The structured interviews were carried out with the five teachers of English who are incharge of teaching English for the Navigation Faculty Two of them hold M.A degrees; twoare pursuing the Master course in ULIS, VNUH Although no ESP teachers have had anytraining in the skills and techniques of materials writing, they have a lot of experience withMaritime English Two of them have taught Maritime English for over ten years, the restnearly six years All of them have experienced teaching ENS for at least one year since itwas introduced in 2008 In addition, three of them took part in the design of the coursebook ENS in 2007

2.4.2 The subject teachers

Four subject teachers were invited to participate in this study They are not only theteachers who teach the subjects relevant to nautical studies at HPPC but also theexperienced navigators having worked on foreign ships on worldwide routes for years.This fact may lead to a conclusion that their judgments about ENS in terms of MaritimeEnglish content and language skill are reasonably reliable

2.4.3 The students

162 out of 448 second-year students from the Navigation Faculty at the college werechosen to take part in this study They are all male students in four classes: ĐKT02-CĐ1,ĐKT02-CĐ3, ĐKT02-CĐ5 and ĐKT02-CĐ10 and have the same English proficiencylevel At the time when the researcher did the data collection, these students were in thefourth semester All of them finished two semesters of General English course in which

they had to go through New Cutting Edge Elementary They have just worked with the

second-thirds of the course book ENS They were required to review thoroughly and ratethe course book according to the criteria basing on their own experience