An evaluation of the esp coursebook for second year students at marine engine department vietnam maritime university (vimaru)

LIST OF CHARTS, FUGURES, AND TABLESChart 1: Students’ levels of English Chart 2: The aims of the material Chart 3: The usefulness of tasks and exercises in skill development Figure 1: St

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF

LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST –

GRADUATE STUDIES

  

LƯƠNG THỊ MINH THU

AN EVALUATION OF THE ESP COURSEBOOK FOR YEAR STUDENTS AT MARINE ENGINE DEPARTMENT- VIETNAM MARITIME UNIVERSITY (VIMARU)

SECOND-(Đánh giá giáo trình tiếng Anh chuyên ngành dành cho sinh viên năm thứ hai Khoa Máy Tàu Biển - Trường ĐH Hàng Hải Việt Nam)

M A MINOR THESIS

MAJOR CODE

: ELT METHODOLOGY : 601410

HANOI - 2012

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF

LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST –

GRADUATE STUDIES

  

LƯƠNG THỊ MINH THU

AN EVALUATION OF THE ESP COURSEBOOK FOR YEAR STUDENTS AT MARINE ENGINE DEPARTMENT- VIETNAM MARITIME UNIVERSITY (VIMARU)

SECOND-(Đánh giá giáo trình tiếng Anh chuyên ngành dành cho sinh viên năm thứ hai Khoa Máy Tàu Biển - Trường ĐH Hàng Hải Việt Nam)

M A MINOR THESIS

SUPERVISOR: PROF DR HOÀNG VĂN VÂN

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declaration i

Acknowledgements ii

Abstract iii

List of abbreviations iv

List of charts, figures and tables v

Table of contents vi

PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aims of the study 2

1.3 Research question 2

1.4 Scope of the study 2

1.5 Method of the study 3

1.6 Design of the study 3

PART 2: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Introduction 4

1.2 Textbook, course-book and material 4

1.2.1 Definitions 4

1.2.2 Roles of teaching materials in a language program 4

1.3 Course-book evaluation 6

1.3.1 Definition of course-book evaluation 6

1.3.2 Why course-book evaluation 6

1.3.3 Types of course-book evaluation 7

1.3.4 Course-book evaluation in ESP 9

1.3.5 Why students’ evaluation 10

1.3.6 Techniques for course-book evaluation 11

1.3.7 Models for evaluation 12

1.3.8 Criteria for evaluation 14

1.4 Previous studies on materials evaluation 14

1.5 Summary 16

CHAPTER 2 : THE STUDY 2.1 Introduction 17

2.2 The context of the study 17

2.2.1 An overview on Vietnam Maritime University and the Marine Engine Department 17

2.2.2 The course 16

2.2.3 The aims of the ESP course 18

2.2.4 The ESP course-book 18

2.2.5 The ESP teachers 19

2.2.6 The students 20

2.3 The study 21

2.3.1 Participants 21

2.3.2 Data collection instruments 21

2.3.2.1 Questionnaire 21

2.3.2.2 Interview 22

2.3.3 Procedure 22

2.4 Summary 22

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 Results and discussion 23

3.1.1 Learners’ attitude towards learning ESP 23

3.1.2 Learners’ evaluation of the current ESP course-book 25

3.1.3 Learners’ evaluation of the teachers’ exploitation of ESP materials 33

3.1.4 Students’ suggestions 34

3.1.5 Teachers’ views of ESP course-book 36

3.2 Major findings 37

3.2.1 The suitability of the course-book to the audience 38

3.2.2 The suitability of the course-book to the aims 38

3.2.3 The suitability of the course-book to the content requirements 38

3.2.4 The suitability of the course-book to the methodology 39

3.3 Recommendations 41

3.3.1 Content improvements 41

3.3.2 Layout improvements 42

3.3.3 Methodology improvements 43

3.3.4 Other recommendations 44

PART III: CONCLUSION 1 Summary of the study 45

2 Limitations of the study 47

3 Suggestions for further research 47

4 Conclusion 48

REFERENCE

APPENDIX 1 (Students questionnaire in English)

APPENDIX 2 (Students questionnaire in Vietnamese)

APPENDIX 3 (Teachers’ views as stated in the interview)

APPENDIX 4 (Checklist for evaluating ESP materials by Hutchinson and waters) APPENDIX 5 (A sample of an original unit

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ESP: English for Specific Purposes

GE: General English

VIMARU: Vietnam Maritime University

LIST OF CHARTS, FUGURES, AND TABLES

Chart 1: Students’ levels of English

Chart 2: The aims of the material

Chart 3: The usefulness of tasks and exercises in skill development

Figure 1: Stages in the ESP process

Figure 2: The material evaluation process

Table 1: Students’ time of learning English

Table 2: Students’ ranking of their purposes of learning ESP

Table 3: Students’ needs met by the ESP course-book

Table 4: Students’ attitude towards the content of the ESP course-book

Table 5: Students’ attitude towards time allocation for ESP

Table 6: Students’ attitude towards vocabulary and grammar

Table 7: Students’ attitude towards language skills covered

Table 8: Students’ attitude towards tasks and exercises

Table 9: Students’ satisfaction towards classroom activities

Table 10: Students’ suggestions

Table 11: Students’ opinions towards teacher’s use of language and the course-book

Table 12: Teachers’ views of content

Table 13: Teachers’ perceived limitations of the course-book

Table 14: Students’ reactions to the course-book as observed by teachers

Table 15: Challenges to the students in using the course-book as observed by teachersTable 16: Teachers’ self-reported challenges in using the course-book

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1.1 RATIONALE

It goes without saying that English is by far the most popular language of all.Since Vietnam began its open-door policy, the English teaching and learning hasstrongly developed More and more people learn English in order to have a better workopportunity In Maritime field, English has been considered 'the language of the sea'.This means English is the only language used by seafarers of all nationalities at sea andthis shows how important English is for seafarers

Vietnam Maritime University (VIMARU) has been the leading university inmaritime section After graduating from VIMARU, the students of NavigationDepartment and students of Engine Department work not only on board domestic shipsbut also on board foreign ships sailing around the world Moreover, Vietnam is now amember of WTO, Vietnamese seafarers will have golden opportunities to work onEuropean ships for higher payment if their English is good enough Because of this, theVIMARU leaders always consider English to be a very important subject

A ship crew is divided into two departments: Deck department and Enginedepartment When they work on a ship, it means that they live and work in aninternational environment English becomes their most important communicationinstrument to carry out their daily communication Especially, engine crews work inthe engine room and they need a good English for their marine engine major so that

they can operate all machinery on board well In other words, ESP (English for

Specific Purposes) plays a fundamental role in the success of the marine-enginestudents’ future occupation if they are to work on board the ship

It can’t be denied that materials in general and ESP materials in particular play

an important role in the process of language teaching and learning as appropriatematerials can stimulate effective teaching and learning Therefore, in order to have asuccessful language- teaching program, it is necessary to have good materials,

especially in Vietnamese setting The course-book “English for Marine Engine Students and Ship‟s Engineers” was designed for the second-year students at Marine

Engine Department _VIMARU with the greatest effort of teachers of EnglishDepartment This course-book has been used for nearly 15 years, however, no research

on the course-book evaluation has been carried out to see how much it meets thestudents’ needs For these above- mentioned reason, the researcher decided to choosematerials evaluation as the theme of this minor thesis titled as:

AN EVALUATION OF THE ESP COURSEBOOK FOR SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS AT MARINE ENGINE DEPARTMENT_VIETNAM MARITIME UNIVERSITY (VIMARU)

1.2 AIMS OF THE STUDY

The paper aims at evaluating the course-book English for Marine Engine Students and Ship‟s Engineers to see how far it is suitable to the second-year students

at the Marine Engine Department, VIMARU The specific aims are:

 to evaluate the appropriateness of the material to the course requirements in terms of aims, content, and methodology

 to offer some suggestions for further improvement of the course-book which is appropriate to the needs and expectations of the students

1.3 RESEARCH QUESTION

The following research question is raised for exploration:

To what extent does the ESP course-book English for Marine Engine Students and Ship‟s Engineers at Marine Engine Department-VIMARU meet the course requirements in terms of aims, content, and methodology?

1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The ESP course is only for the second year students at VIMARU, thus the studyfocuses on the evaluation of the second year students at Marine Engine Department-VIMARU on ESP course-book currently used

Hutchinson and Waters (1993) and many other language evaluation expertsagreed that evaluating a teaching material is a complicated process based on differentcriteria such as audience, content, physical appearance, cultural bias, needs…

However, because of the constraint of this kind of research, the researcher just focuses

on three criteria: aims, content, and methodology

1.5 METHOD OF THE STUDY

The study follows a quantitative research approach A Survey questionnaire isdesigned for 162 second-year students at Marine Engine Department, VIMARU, whohave worked with two-thirds of the course-book to evaluate the quality of the ESPcourse-book In addition, interviews are conducted with three ESP teachers who havebeen using the course-book to teach second-year students at VIMARU to gainadditional information about the quality of the course-book

1.6 DESIGN OF THE STUDY

There are three main parts in this study: introduction, development, and conclusion

The introduction provides the rationale, the aims, the research question, the scope,

and design of the thesis

The development consists of three chapters:

- Chapter 1, Literature Review, provides the relevant theories related to

textbook, course-book and material and course-book evaluation

- Chapter 2, Methodology, introduces the context of the study and describesthe methodology employed in the study, research procedures and the participants,instruments and the research procedures

- Chapter 3, Data Analysis and Discussion, presents and discusses the findingsthat arise from the data collected and recommendations

The conclusion provides a brief summary of all the contents studied, draws some

conclusions drawn and makes some suggestions for further research

PART II: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW1.1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter is concerned with the review of a theoretical base to develop aframework in which the study operates As a way of start, I will first explore the threenotions textbook, course-book and materials Then, I will present an overview ofcourse-book evaluation including definitions; why course-book evaluation; types ofcourse-book evaluation; course-book evaluation in ESP; why students’ evaluation;techniques, models and criteria for evaluation Last but not least, previous studies onmaterials evaluation are mentioned

1.2 TEXTOOK, COURSE-BOOK AND MATERIALS

1.2.1 Definitions

McGrath (2002, p.7) defines a course-book as “a textbook on which a course isbased” Tomlinson (1998: p.ix) shares similar point with McGrath when he considers acourse-book as “a textbook which provides the core materials for a course” In hisviewpoint, a course-book is used to provide as much as possible in one book and it isdesigned to serve as the only book which the learners necessarily use during a course

In Materials Development in Language Teaching (Littlejohn, 1998) the term

“materials” is defined as “anything which is used to help to teach language learners Itcan be in the form of a textbook, a workbook, a cassette, a CD-Rom, a video, aphotocopied handout, a newspaper, a paragraph written on a whiteboard.”(Tomlinson,1998: p.xi) Therefore, it can be pointed out that course-book is a type ofmaterials

1.2.2 Roles of teaching material in a language program

The relationship between materials and other components in language teachingsuch as students, teachers, teaching method and evaluation have been controversial for

many years Since the end of 1970s, there has been a movement to make learners ratherthan teachers the center of language learning According to this teaching approach,learners become the targets of teaching and learning process Therefore, materials,curriculum, teaching method and evaluation should be designed for learners and theirneeds For the teaching and learning English to be successful, besides teachers,learners, curriculum, method and evaluation, materials play a decisive part in languageteaching and learning The importance of teaching and learning materials cannot bedenied and so far, there have been a great number of discussions on differentperspectives on the role of materials in relation to other elements Teaching materialsare considered the essential components in most language courses because they helpstudents and teachers know teaching and learning content Discussing the importance

of English language teaching materials to learners, Allwright (1981) indicates thatmaterials help students know what to learn In addition, he says, they are resources forideas, activities for instruction and they give teachers rationale for what to do He alsoemphasizes that materials control learning and teaching It is undoubted that materialsare of importance in teachers’ language instruction Both experienced andinexperienced teachers rely on the materials O’Neill (1982) supports Wright’s ideasthat materials help learning and teaching It is true that in many cases, teachers andstudents rely heavily on materials and materials determine the components andmethods of learning They control the content, method and procedures of learning.Students learn what is presented in the textbook and the way the textbook presentsmaterials in the way the teacher teaches it Therefore, the materials become the center

of instruction and one of the most important influences on what goes on in the class

Obviously, good teaching materials are of great help to both inexperienced andexperienced teachers, especially the inexperienced or poorly trained teachers becausethey also provide models for teachers to follow in developing their own materials

(Nunan, 1998) Therefore, the first thing the teachers need to do when preparing hiscourse in his own situation is to select the appropriate materials.

In VIMARU, English for Marine Engine Students and Ship‟s Engineers was

designed by teachers of English Department Due to the unavailability of variousresources, the material was compiled from various texts and most of the exercises weredesigned by teachers After being used for 15 years, it is necessary to evaluate thematerial to see if it is appropriate or not

1.3 COURSEBOOK EVALUATION

1.3.1 Definition of course-book evaluation

Until now, there have been a number of materials evaluations of different author

in ELT According to Tomlinson (1998: p.3), materials evaluation is defined as “asystematic appraisal of the value of materials in relation to their objectives and to theobjectives of learners using them.” (Ellis, quoted in Figen, 2002, available athttp://www.metu.edu.tr./home/wwwsbe/thabs/2002/EDS.htm)

Hutchinson and Waters (1993: p96) also give definition of materials evaluation,

as “Evaluation is a matter of judging the fitness of something for a particular purposes.Given a certain need, and in light of the resources available, which is out of a number

of possibilities can represent the best solution?” In other words, “Evaluation isbasically a matching process: matching needs to available solutions.”

In conclusion, from the general definition of evaluation and the definition ofspecific area of materials evaluation, it can be inferred that materials evaluation involvethe determination of what needs to be evaluated, the objectives and requirements of thematerials, and the judgments of the value of the materials being evaluated in relation tothe objective and requirements determined

1.3.2 Why course-book evaluation

Evaluation plays a very important role in the development of materials

Robinson (1991) asserts the importance of evaluation as to provide theadvantages, disadvantages and the effectiveness of the being used materials so that thematerial can be decided to be reused, adapted to meet the needs of the particularteaching situation or changed.

Also, Ellis (1997) points out two reasons for materials evaluation Firstly,evaluation is carried out to choose among the available materials the most suitable one

to use for a particular situation and such valuation is taken before the course takesplace Secondly, evaluation is carried out to determine whether the material which hasbeen chosen works for that situation after it has been used for a period of time Thishelps to decide whether to continue using the material or to replace it with a bettermaterial

In the words of Cunningsworth (1995: p 7), course-book is “a resource inachieving aims and objectives that have already been set in terms of learner needs”.Through evaluation, we can assess whether the course-book is the most appropriate forthe target learners at various levels and in various teaching settings What is more, theevaluation process will involve elements of comparison, especially where existingmaterials are being challenged by newly produced materials

In summary, materials especially authentic materials play a significant role inforeign language teaching They are not simply the everyday tools of the languageteachers; they are an embodiment of the aims and methods of the particularteaching/learning situation Materials evaluation in general and course-book evaluation

in specific is very necessary and important It may be taken for two reasons: first, itconfirms the course-book and second, it adjusts the course-book Then, it will increasethe strengths and minimize the drawback of the course-book

1.3.3 Types of course-book evaluation

There are many different ways of dividing course-book evaluation according todifferent researchers

According to some scholars, material evaluation in general and course-bookevaluation in specific are divided into three main types depending on the reasons forevaluation, namely Preliminary, Formative and Summative.

The first type, Preliminary evaluation, is carried out by determining a set ofcriteria which are used to reach a decision regarding which book to adopt and how itneeds to be adapted (Ellis cited in Tomlinson, 1998); thus, it is done before thebeginning of a course The purposes of this type are to select “the most relevant andappropriate materials for a particular group of learners”, and identify “specific aspects

of the published materials” needed adapting to suit the purposes of the evaluators.(Ellis cited in Tomlinson, 1998: p.220)

The second type, Formative evaluation, is carried out during the course Thistype is aimed at shaping the material during its lifetime and suggesting theimprovement of the material in the future (Dudley-Evans & St John, 1998)

The third one, Summative evaluation, is carried out at the end of the course.According to Dudley-Evans & St John (1998: p.128), this type of evaluation isobtained to “assess impact and to provide information that can be fed into repeatversions” of the material In addition, they believe that summative evaluation isespecially valuable for durable courses Also, Richards (2001) claims that this type ofevaluation can determine the effectiveness of the material Findings will help to decidewhether to use the material again or not; which tasks and activities are suitable andwhich are not; which aspects of the materials need to be changed and how to modifythem to make the materials more effective and efficient for future use (Ellis, 1997) Inshort, summative evaluation is carried out to determine the worth and value of teachingmaterials after they have been used

In addition, there is another way of dividing materials evaluation introduced byTomlinson (1998) and McGrath (2002) These authors identify three types of materialsevaluation namely Pre-use, Whilst-use and Post-use

Tomlinson (1998: p.xi) who affirms that evaluation is “the systematic appraisal

of the value of materials in relation to their objectives and to the objectives of learners”distinguishes three types of materials evaluations as follows:

- Pre-use evaluation focuses on predictions of potential value

- Whilst-use evaluation focuses on awareness and description of what the learners are actually doing whilst the materials are being used

- Post-use evaluation focuses on analysis of what happened as a result of usingthe materials

McGrath (2002) shares the similar point with Tomlinson when he introducesthree concepts: Pre-use, In-use and Post-use From his opinion, McGrath (2002) claimsthat these three types and their purposes are interrelated

- Pre-use evaluation establishes potential suitability

- In-use evaluation gathers data on planning decisions, implementation and response; may stimulate preliminary reconsiderations of selection criteria

- Post-use evaluation uses data on in-course use and data on effects to access suitability of selection and selection procedures

In summary, although types of materials evaluation are indicated with differentterms, there is no difference in distinguishing evaluation process Preliminary or pre-use evaluation establishes potential suitability of the materials Formative or in-useevaluation examines how materials really work in by gathering data on planningdecisions, implementation and response Summative or post-use evaluation is used atthe end of the course in order to provide retrospective assessment and identify whichstrengths and weaknesses of the materials

1.3.4 Course-book evaluation in ESP

To meet the needs of learners, many ESP course-books have been designed and compiled for some specific fields However, there can be a need for materials

evaluation to determine whether the material which has chosen works for that situationafter it has been used for a period of time (Ellis, 1997).

According to Hutchinson and Waters (1993), a careful course-book evaluation

in ESP can save a lot of expense and frustration On the positive side, it can also help injustifying requests to sponsors or other members of an ESP team for money to buymaterials or time to write them

In ESP, evaluation in ESP has been viewed in the broad context of the teachingand learning process From the perspective of Dudley-Evans and St John (1998),evaluation does not stand alone, but occupies a prominent place in the ESP process,giving an ESP teacher a wealth of information on their needs, expectations andcomments about the material (see Figure 1)

teaching-Figure 1: Stages in the ESP process

(Dudley-Evans and St John, 1998: p 121)

Obviously, materials evaluation is an indispensable part of the key stages in ESP process (Dudley-Evans and St John, 1998) In other words, course-book over aperiod of being used needs to be evaluated to see whether it has worked well for the target situations and students

1.3.5 Why students’ evaluation

Together with the worldwide trend to learn ESP, many ESP course-books havebeen designed for some specific fields Course-book evaluation in ESP is anindispensable part of the key stages in ESP process (Dudley-Evans and St John, 1998),and students’ evaluation is really necessary and important because of the followingreasons.

Firstly, in addition to teachers, students are the most important users of thecourse-book ESP course-book is designed to provide the learners with some basicconcepts and knowledge relevant to their field and skills up to the expectation of theirfuture employment As a result, the students can give their own evaluative comments

on the course-book related to their own needs and expectation

Secondly, being the people who use directly the course-book, the learners willhave information of the strengths and weaknesses of the course-book Therefore, theywill give objective comments when they are not the course-book designers

In short, it is necessary to have the course-book “English for Marine Engine Students and ship‟s engineers” evaluated by the learners themselves at VIMARU to

see how far it meets the learners’ needs Also, this evaluation is valuable for theimprovement of the course-book in the coming years

1.3.6 Techniques of materials evaluation

There are three types of evaluation and each of them has their own method tocollect data (Robinson, 1991) The importance is that researchers should identify thesuitable methods in the study A lot of technique used to evaluate materials attract muchattention and have been discussed by many researchers According Hutchinson

& Waters (1993), Lynch (1996), Richards (2001), Robinson (1991), the usefulevaluation techniques are questionnaires, interviews, test results, discussion and otherinformal means The different methods used for evaluation have been mentioned butthey all have their possible advantages and limitations as follows:

 Questionnaires are the most popular methods of data collection They can beused to elicit students’ and teachers’ comments on a wide range of issues Theadvantage is that they can be given to a large group of respondents at the same timeand they are not expensive (Wallace, 1998) However, questionnaires need to becarefully designed to avoid respondents’ misinterpretation of questions.

 Interviews, as Robinson (1991) stated, are also a valuable method forevaluation They have advantages of in-depth information on specific questions but theproblem is that it is very time-consuming though they can provide the opportunity formore extended exploration of the issues than questionnaires

 Observation can focus on any observable aspect of the lesson and can provide

an objective eye to identify things that may not be very clear to the teacher However, it

is a specialized work and requires careful preparation

 Document analysis refers to any documents that are involved in evocation, suchas: curriculum description, policy statement, newspapers, and program brochures,correspondence and so on (Lynch, 1986)

To sum up, there has been a large number of different methods to collect data.The researcher should identify what types of these instruments to be used effectively intheir study According to Hutchinson & Water (1993) and Robinson (1991), employinginstruments in an evaluation project will depend on what suits the particular situation;the combination of two methods including questionnaires and interviews is applied fordata collection in this study

1.3.7 Models for evaluation

According to Hutchinson and Waters (1993), evaluation is a process of matchingneeds to available solutions The evaluation process is divided into four steps

as follows: Defining criteria; Subjective analysis; Objective analysis; Matching Theabove steps are presented in the following diagram as the following:

DEFINE CRITERIA

On what bases will you judge material?

Which criteria will be more important?

MATCHINGHow far does the material match your needs?

Figure 2: The material evaluation process( Hutchinson and Waters, 1993: p 98) In

Hutchinson and Waters’ view, a teaching material in general and a

course-book in particular has to suit the needs of a number of parties such as teachers,students, sponsors, so it is important that the subject factors should not be allowed toobscure objectivity in the early stages of analysis In order to have an objectivematching, it is advisable to look at the needs and solutions separately However, in thefinal analysis, any choice will be made on subjective ground

In summary, Hutchinson and Waters (1993) suggest the model for materialevaluation that presents a logical procedure This model also has a clear-cut description

of the stages and criteria, which are presented systematically Besides, it can help theresearcher knows exactly what must be done to analyze the material in comparisonwith the course requirements Therefore, in order to determine whether the existingmaterial is suitable for marine-engine students at VIMARU, the evaluation framework

by Hutchinson and Waters (1993) has been chosen

1.3.8 Criteria for evaluation

Various scholars have suggested different ways to help evaluators become more systematic and objective in their method of evaluation by using a checklist

Hutchinson and Waters (1993, p.99-104) suggest five evaluation criteria for objective and subjective analysis as follows:

- Audience: the learners and the materials intended for

- Aims: the aims of the course and the aims of the materials

- Content: language description, language points, proportion of work on eachmacro-skill, macro-skills, text-types, subject-matter areas, level ofknowledge, types of topics, treatment, organization of content within thecourse units, sequence of content throughout the course, sequence of contentwithin a unit

- Methodology: theory of learning, learners’ attitudes, kinds of exercises,teaching-learning techniques, aids, guidance/ support for teaching, theflexibility of materials

- Other criteria: price, quantities, availability

In summary, choosing appropriate criteria plays a very important in evaluatingthe suitability of the material in general and the course-book in particular to thelearner’s needs and expectations Together with the evaluation model by Hutchinsonand Waters, the list of criteria for evaluation introduced by them appears to be moresuitable to the ESP course-book at VIMARU

1.4 PREVIOUS STUDIES ON MATERIALS EVALUATION

Evaluation is obviously a world-wide activity which has been more and moreappreciated by teachers and researchers According to Brown (1989, p223), evaluation

is the systematic collection and analysis of all relevant information necessary topromote the improvement of a curriculum and assess its effectiveness and efficiency

Up to now, there have been many studies done in the field of evaluation of ESP

materials Many of these studies have brought about good improvement for thetextbooks or teaching materials themselves and for ESP courses We can count onFigen (2002), Griffiths (1995), James (2002) or Nguyen Thi Thai Ha (2004,), Vo ThiAnh Dao (2004), Tran Thi Thuy Nga (2005), Dong Thi Hien (2006) or Hoang ThiTham (2007) These evaluation had been done on different kinds of materials such asESP for engineering students, for Electronics and Telecommunications students, formarine students, for information technology students or medical students Vo Thi AnhDao (2004) made an evaluation on the ESP textbook used for the students ofHusbandry and Veterinary Science in 2000 Nguyen Thi Thai Ha (2004) evaluated theESP material used for freshman postgraduate students at Hanoi University ofTechnology in 1999 Vu Thi Lua (2005) had a critical look at the ESP course book forstudents of Business and Management at Hanoi UBM and then she made somerecommendations for a better use Dong Thi Hien (2006) made an evaluation of ESPmaterials used for the second year students of Security at People’s Security Academy.All of these researchers of ESP materials aimed at finding out the strengths and theweaknesses of the materials and then usually gave suggestions for improving thematerials As this thesis aims at evaluating the ESP course-book for second-yearstudents at Marine Engine Department-VIMARU in terms of aims, content andmethodology, to determine whether it meets students’ needs and the aims of the course,the researcher just want to review two Vietnamese studies that have the similar aspectsshall be reviewed in more detail.

Pham Thi Thu Huong (2006) carried out an evaluation of the ESP material

“English in medicine” for 3rd year students of medicine at the Military Academy ofMedicine (MAM) in terms of aims, content, methodology and to determine whether thematerial is suitable to the students with regards to their level of English The studyemployed a combination of two data collection instruments, namely questionnaires andinterviews for teachers and students Also a research on ESP material, Pham Thi Thanh

Huyen (2009) made an evaluation of the material for freshman postgraduate students ofGeneral Medicine which has been used as the official course book for the ESP courses

at ThaiBinh medical university since 2003 to see if it met the students’ language levels,the course’s aims, content and methodology She also followed the model of materialevaluation proposed by Hutchinson and Waters (1993)

From the studies on the material evaluation presented above, it is founded thatthe material evaluation model suggested by Hutchinson and Waters (1993) wasemployed by most of researchers, especially the Vietnamese ones This model seems tofit their teaching and learning contexts The data collection instruments includingquestionnaires and interviews were the most popular The review of the studies abovehave prompted the researcher to use Hutchinson and Waters (1993)’s model to carryout the material evaluation at Marine Engine Department-VIMARU

CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY2.1 INTRODUCTION

In this chapter, the current ESP teaching and learning situation at VietnamMaritime University (VIMARU) related to the study will be taken in close-up and thenthe research methodology will be discussed

2.2 THE CONTEXT OF THE STUDY

2.2.1 An overview on Vietnam Maritime University and the Marine Engine Department

Founded in 1956, The Vietnam Maritime University (VIMARU) has been aleading university of Vietnam in the maritime section With total number of nearly16,000 students who study 19 (nineteen) fields of education and constant-annualenrolment of 2,400 to 3,000 students, VIMARU nowadays has been being assigned foreducating higher education level graduates of nautical science, marine engineering,electrical and electronic engineering, shipbuilding, sea-transport economics, waterwayengineering and all the other fields relating to the national maritime sector Besides, theUniversity also educates postgraduates of Master of Science (Msc.) and Doctor ofPhilosophy (PhD.) in the fields of Nautical Science, Marine Engineering, EnergeticEngineering, Naval Architecture, Waterway Engineering, Sea-transport Economics, etc.Furthermore, VIMARU is in charge of training for upgrading and refreshing courses tomeet the STCW78/95 requirements of all levels of competent certifications (Master,Chief Engineer, Deck and Engine Officers, Chief Radio Operator, Chief Electrician,etc ) for the whole country

Marine Engine department and Navigation Department can be said to be twomost important departments of VIMARU These two departments train students towork on ships, not only on Vietnamese ships but also on foreign ships Because of this,English has become the key subject for the students of the two departments

2.2.2 The course

English is taught as a compulsory subject at Vietnam Maritime University Asfor marine-engine students, English as a subject is taught in five semesters in the wholecourse with totally 345 periods The whole curriculum of English for marine-enginestudents is divided into 2 stages as follows:

Stage 1 : Semester 1 consists of 75 periods of GE

Semester 2 consists of 75 periods of GESemester 3 consists of 75 periods of GE

Stage 2 : Semester 4 consists of 60 periods of ESP

Semester 5 consists of 60 periods of ESPThe first three semesters for GE occupy 225 periods and the course-book used

for GE are New Headway Elementary and New Headway Pre-intermediate (Third

Edition) by John and Liz Soars In the second stage, ESP are taught for 120 periods in

the fourth and the fifth semester with 14 units of the course-book “English for Marine Engine Students and Ship‟s Engineers”.

2.2.3 The aims of the ESP course

The aims of the ESP course is to provide the students with linguistic knowledge relevant to their field and skills up to the expectation of their future employment of working on board the ship At the end of the course, the students are able to achieve:

- Listening skills: listening and understanding common orders and instructions

on board the ship as well as in the engine room

- Speaking skills: communicating with multilingual crews on board vessels and

in the engine room

- Reading skills: reading and comprehending manuals for operating equipment and engineering documents

- Writing skills: writing letters, messages and engine log-book

2.2.4 The ESP course-book

The following is a description of the ESP course-book currently used:

- The course-book title: English for Marine Engine Students and Ship‟s Engineers

For many years, the English teachers at VIMARU used teaching materialsdesigned or selected by themselves for the 120 periods for ESP However, the demand

of a specially designed ESP material for an ESP training course of marine engine was

increasing, and English for Marine Engine Students and Ship’s Engineers was

compiled by the Dean of the Department of Foreign language, Mr Nguyen TuongLuan, who was the most experienced teacher with more than 25 years teaching English

at VIMARU This material has been officially used as the core teaching material forstudents of marine engine at VIMARU since 1998

- The course-book content: consists of five parts

 Part I: consists of 23 basic lessons but only 14 first lessons are taught in twosemesters for ESP Each lesson has 5 sections namely Reading, Vocabulary,Grammar Notes, Engine Telegraph orders, and Exercises It covers topics: dieselengine, pistons, cylinders, crankshafts, valve gear, cooling, kinds of fuel pumps,automatic warning units, direct current generators

 Part II : Practical business English conversation

 Part III : Glossary

 Part IV : Vocabulary

 Part V: International conversation on standards of training, certification and watch-keeping for seafarers

- Types of task and exercise in the course-book:

 Reading: comprehension questions, True-False sentences, gap filling

 Grammar: building sentences, sentence transformation and gap filling

 Translation: translating from English into Vietnamese and translating from Vietnamese into English

2.2.5 The ESP teachers

The teaching staff of English Department at VIMARU consists of 35 teachersaged between 25 and 50 There are 15 teachers who take the charge of teaching ESP ofall fields Only 3 teachers are responsible for teaching ESP for marine-engine students.Most of the ESP teachers have finished or are doing their MA degrees They always trytheir best to give their students attractive and interesting ESP lessons However, due totheir inexperience in ESP, they have to face with some difficulties in terms ofknowledge of the specific field and the teaching methodologies appropriate to ESP.

2.2.6 The students

The students whose evaluation this study focuses on are all the second-yearstudents of Marine Engine Department All of them are male ranging from 19 to 22years old Most of them are expected to learn English related to their field which willhelp them in studying materials for their jobs in the future Those factors seem to betheir advantages in learning English

However, those students have some disadvantages in learning English:

The first disadvantage is that most students of the Engine Department comefrom rural areas Before entering VIMARU, some students learned English for 6 years,some learned English for 3 years, some learned Russian or French It can be said thatmarine engine classes consist of students of mixed English levels and abilities.Moreover, classes are becoming bigger and bigger This is a challenge for the teachersteaching English to the students of the Marine Engine Department

The second disadvantage is about the students’ learning styles They do nothave the habit of learning independently and tend to depend much on teachers and thegiven course-book for knowledge Accordingly, it is difficult for them to follow a newlearning style which is used in learning English in general and ESP in particular Theteachers, therefore, have to help students be familiar with this new learning method

The third disadvantage is student’s limited time frame for ESP They do nothave much time in class, so they cannot learn much but only learn a few of marine-

engine terms or concepts in English Thus, the students find it hard acquire and developtheir English communicative competence to meet the needs of their future jobs.

2.3 THE STUDY

2.3.1 Participants

162 out of 448 second-year students from Marine Engine Department werechosen to take part in this study They are all male students from three classes MKT51DH1, MKT51DH3 and MKT51DH6 At the time when the survey was conducted,these students had finished three first GE semesters and were in the second semester ofthe ESP course

The other group was 3 respondents who are currently working as ESP teachers

of marine engine at VIMARU

2.3.2 Data collection instruments

2.3.2.1 Questionnaire

Questionnaire is used as an instrument to collect data for this study It isdesigned to collect students’ information on evaluation of the currently- used ESPcourse-book in Marine Engine Department at VIMARU The questionnaire includesfour sections with twelve items The researcher hoped to confirm the reliability of theinformation about the appropriateness of the material in terms of course aims, content,methodology The questionnaire (see Appendix 1) consists of four sections:

- Section 1 was designed to get the information of the learners: the time of learning English, the level of English, and their purpose of learning ESP

- Section 2 was designed to collect the information on the learners’ evaluation

of the current ESP course-book related to aims, needs met by the course-book, content, time allocation of ESP, vocabulary, grammar, skill development

- Section 3 was designed to gather the information about the learners’ evaluation

of the teachers’ exploitation of ESP course-book

- Section 4 was designed to collect the learners’ suggestions

2.3.2.2 Interview

To gather more information for the study, interview is also used as aninstrument To make the result of the interviews objective, three interviews wereconducted with three ESP teachers of Marine Engine at three points of time (seeAppendix 3 for the results of the interviews) The interviews were designed with thesame questions related to the following issues:

- The content of the course-book

- The teachers’ perceived limitations of the course-book

- The students’ reactions to the course-book as observed by teachers

- The challenges to the students in using the course-book

- The teachers’ self-reported challenges in using the course-book

2.3.3 Procedure

The questionnaires were delivered to the learners while they were in theirclassrooms The researcher guided to the students how to write the answersappropriately The researcher also helped them when necessary The students spentabout 30 minutes thinking and answering the questions After all the questionnaireswere collected, data was analyzed and results were then interpreted

In addition to questionnaires, three interviews were carried out with three ESPteachers of marine engine at three different points of time in the teachers’ classrooms.The researcher raised the same questions to each teacher and collected all the answers.All the answers were represented in five tables (see Appendix 3)

2.4 SUMMARY

This chapter has provided an overview of the current English teaching andlearning context at VIMARU The participants were second-year students at MarineEngine Department and ESP teachers of English Department, VIMARU Besides,questionnaire and interview being primarily based on three criteria: aims, content, andmethodology were employed as major research instruments

CHAPTER 3 DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION3.1 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The data analysis is presented in the following frame:

- Learners’ attitude towards learning ESP

- Learners’ evaluation on the current ESP course

- Learners’ evaluation of the teachers’ exploitation of ESP course-book

- Learners’ suggestions

3.1.1 Learners’ attitude towards learning ESP

As mentioned in the previous chapter, these learners are the second-yearstudents who finished three semesters of GE courses and are in the second semester ofESP course

Students’ time of learning English

162 students participating the research provided us with a variety of answers tothe question about their time of learning English:

Table 1: Students’ time of learning English

Most of them (51/162 = 33.9%) have learned English for 9 to 11 years, others(42/162 =25.9%) have been learning English for 7 to 9 years, 8.6% (14/162) have beenlearning English for 1 to 3 years (because they leant Russian of French at school andstarted learning English when entering VIMARU) Surprisingly, there are 17 students(10.5%) have learned English for more than 11 years The rest of the learners(34/162=21 %) have been learning English for 3-5 years, and 5-7 years

Students’ levels of English

Elementary Pre-intermediate Intermediater

Upper-intermeidate

Chart 1: Students’ levels of English (Total number of informants: 162)

Most of these learners (75.4%) are at Pre-intermediate level, only 9.8 % of thelearners are at Elementary level and 13% are at Intermediate level Only 3 students(1.8%) are at Upper-intermediate The difference in the time of their learning Englishand in levels of English, to some extend, lead to the difference in identifying theirpurposes of learning ESP

Students’ purposes of learning ESP

The following table shows a variety of purposes among these students:

Purposes

To improve English grammar

To widen ESP vocabulary

To read technical documents/

The figures in Table 2 indicate that the most important purpose of learning ESP

to many learners is to read technical documents and to widen ESP vocabulary inEnglish Reading technical documents in English is seen as the most important purpose

to most of the learners (51.3%) About 47% of the learners consider widening ESPvocabulary as their most important purpose when taking ESP course whereas only3.1% of them rank this purpose of the least importance Similarly, applying for a job onforeign ships seems to be the important purpose to these learners when 46.3% of themsee this purpose of any importance Besides, there are still 26.3% thinking thatimproving English basis grammar is the most important

Obviously, all the learners take part in the ESP course purposefully Althoughsome learners consider the purpose of learning ESP as a means of improving Englishbasis grammar, most of them are aware that ESP is really a means of broadeningtechnical vocabulary as well as specialized knowledge in English and applying forworking on board foreign ships

3.1.2 Students’ evaluation of the current ESP material

This part presents and discusses the information on learners’ evaluation of thecurrent ESP course-book in terms of its relevance and usefulness, its content, its timeallocation, vocabulary, grammar, skills development and exercises/ activities

Section 1: Students’ evaluation on the aims of the course-book

Your grammar is improved Skills forfuture jobs Other comments

Chart 2: The aims of the material (Total number of informants: 162)

All of students (100%) agreed that the course-book provides technical termsused in marine engine field Besides, most of them (142/162=87.6%) think that thecourse-book mainly focuses on training reading and translating skills However onlynearly one-third of informants which account for 31.5% (51/162) agree that readingand translating are integrated with other skills In addition, only 35 out of 162informants (21.7%) confirm that after learning the course-book your grammar isimproved Especially, only 25.3% agree that the course-book provides skills which areuseful for their future jobs.

Needs met by the ESP course-book

The students were asked to evaluate how much the course-book meet theirneeds This is shown in the following table:

Total number of informants: 162 (group 1: 58, group 2: 51, group 4: 53)

Table 3: Students’ needs met by the ESP course-book

As shown in Table 3, only 45 students( 27.8%) of 162 satisfied with the ESPcourse-book One noticed thing is that there is a significant percentage of the learners(46.3%) finding that the ESP course-book meets their needs little while only 29 of 162informants (17.9%) think that the ESP course-book meets their needs much

Obviously, the findings indicate that the ESP course-book does not really meetmost of the learners’ needs, and it should have some changes to be more appropriate tothe students and meet more their needs.

Section 2: Students’ evaluation on the content of ESP course-book

Total number of informants: 162 (group 1: 58, group 2: 51, group 4: 53)

Table 4: Students’ attitude towards the content of the ESP course-book

Topics covered in the ESP course-book

As can be seen from Table 4, no one thinks that the topics covered in the ESPcourse-book are very impractical and only 4.9% of the learners think that the topics areimpractical Most of the learners (50.6%) think that the topics covered in the ESPcourse-book are all right and 30.3% & 14.2% find that the topics are practical and verypractical respectively In general, those figures show that the majority of the learnerssatisfy with the topics in the ESP course-book However, it is a good idea to providemore interesting topics in order to satisfy more learners

Information in the ESP course-book

The figures in Table 4 indicate that no one in the three groups think theinformation in the ESP course-book is useless In addition, no one in group 1 and group

3 find that the information is not very useful There is only 4 out of 51 informants 0fgroup 2 (2.5%) think that the information is not very useful Most of the learners(62.3%) find that the information is useful (62% in group 1, 60.8% in group 2 and64.2% in group 3) This finding indicates that most of the learners are satisfied with theusefulness of the information given in the course-book

However, information in the ESP course-book should be paid more attention interms of its update Although there is a slight difference in the proportions of thelearners who think that the course-book should provide them with more updateinformation (58%) and 42% of them find that the information in the course-book isupdate More learners are not satisfied with the information given in the course-book.Accordingly, more up-to-date information should be added to the course-book to meetthe learners’ needs better

Section 3: Students’ evaluation on time allocation for ESP

Categories

Time for the course

Time for each unit

Table 5: Students’ attitude towards time allocation for ESP

As mentioned in the previous chapter, time allocated for an ESP course is 120periods and time allocated for each of 14 units in the ESP course-book is 8 periods Onanswering the survey question of time allocation for ESP course, most of the learners(46.3%) agree that it is little and the other (13.6%) think that it is too little Only 6 out

of 162 informants (account for 3.7%) find that it is too much and the other 4.9% findthat it is much With respect to time allocated for each of 14 units in the course-book,

more than a half of the learners (60.5%) claim that it is sufficient In most of thelearners’ opinion, time for an ESP course should be 180 periods, so the course-bookshould cover more topics with more various and interesting content.

Section 4: Students’ evaluation on vocabulary and grammar

Besides providing the learners a range of technical vocabulary through readingtexts, the ESP course-book introduces to the learners new grammar items andstructures The quantity of technical vocabulary and the level of difficulty in grammar

in each unit in the course-book are shown by the three groups of students in thefollowing table:

Total number of informants: 162 (group 1: 58, group 2: 51, group 4: 53)

Table 6: Students’ attitude towards vocabulary and grammar

Technical vocabulary

According to the informants’ assessment in Table 6, over a half of the learners50.6% feel satisfied with the quantity of technical vocabulary contained in each unit ofthe course-book 20.4% thinks that there is much technical vocabulary in each unit.Only 10.5% think that each unit provides too many technical words and phrases