An evaluation of the textbook kid’s box 5 for grade 5 at doan thi diem private primary school

To evaluate theappropriateness of the textbook to the students’ needs and objectives of the course,document analysis and questionnaires from the perspectives of teachers and students of

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOIUNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 60.140.111

HANOI - 2015

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOIUNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 60.140.111

Supervisor: Hoàng Thị Xuân Hoa, Ph.D

HANOI - 2015

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSFirst and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude and appreciation to

Dr Hoang Thi Xuan Hoa, my supervisor, for her guidance, advice, criticism,encouragements and insight throughout the research

I would like to show my gratitude to all lecturers of the Faculty of Post - GraduateStudies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam NationalUniversity, Hanoi for their precious lectures, and to Asso Prof Dr Le Van Canh forhis inspiring lectures on material evaluation and his support to my research

I am greatly indebted to the teachers and students at Doan Thi Diem Private PrimarySchool for their cooperation and enthusiasm when they participated in my research

Last but not least, thanks go to valued encouragements and helps from my family in

so many ways that gave me significant motivation, determination and passion to carry

on my thesis

ABSTRACTMaterials evaluation is important in language teaching and learning and it isnecessary to evaluate materials frequently This study is conducted to evaluate theappropriateness of the textbook “Kid’s Box 5” (by Caroline Nixon & MichaelTomlinson, Cambridge University Press, 2010 ) which has been in used for students

in Doan Thi Diem Private Primary School (DTDS) since 2011 To evaluate theappropriateness of the textbook to the students’ needs and objectives of the course,document analysis and questionnaires from the perspectives of teachers and students

of DTDS in term of aims, design and organization, content and methodology wereused The study adopted model by Hutchinson and Waters (1987) in which objectiveand subjective analysis were done to achieve the results of the study The findings ofthe study reveal that the textbook could be suitable to the students and courserequirements in terms of objectives, design and organization, topics, vocabulary,listening, reading and speaking components The textbook in general is appropriate tothe students’ needs and the course requirements However, the tasks and exercises ingrammar, writing and pronunciation sections need improving Based on the findings,the thesis suggests that adaptation should be made to overcome some weaknesses inorder to enhance the effectiveness of the book for future use

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declaration i

Acknowledgements ii

Abstract iii

Table of contents iv

List of Abbreviations vii

List of Tables viii

List of Figures ix

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale of the study 1

2 Aims of the study 2

3 Research question 2

4 Scope of the study 2

5 Significance of the study 3

6 Method of the study 3

7 Overview of the study 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Materials in teaching and learning 4

1.1.1 Definition of materials and types of materials 4

1.1.2 Roles of materials in language teaching and learning 5

1.2 Materials evaluation 6

1.2.1 Definition of materials evaluation 6

1.2.2 The importance of materials evaluation 7

1.2.3 Types of materials evaluation 8

1.2.4 Models for evaluation 9

1.2.5 Criteria for materials evaluation 11

1.3 Learning styles of and teaching styles for primary students 13

CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY

2.1 An overview of current English teaching and learning at DTDS 15

2.2 Research methods 16

2.2.1 Document analysis 16

2.2.2 Survey questionnaire 16

2.2.2.1 Teacher questionnaire 16 2.2.2.2 Student questionnaire17 2.3 Participants 17

2.4 Procedures 17

2.4.1 Document analysis 18

2.4.2 Questionnaires for students and teachers 18

CHAPTER III: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 Document analysis 19

3.1.1 The appropriateness of the material to the aims of the course 19

3.1.1.1 Objectives of the course 19 3.1.1.2 Objective of Kid’s Box 5 20 3.1.2 The appropriateness of the material to the content requirements of the course 20 3.1.2.1 Syllabus analysis 21 3.1.2.2 Material analysis 21 3.1.3 The appropriateness of the material to the methodology requirements of the course 23 3.1.3.1 Syllabus analysis 23 3.1.3.2 Material analysis 24 3.2 Survey results 28

3.2.1 The appropriateness of the material to the aims of the course 28

3.2.2 The appropriateness of the material to the design and organization of the course 30 3.2.3 The appropriateness of the material to the content of the course 32

3.2.4 The appropriateness of the material to the methodology requirement of

the course 36

PART C: CONCLUSION 1 Summary of major findings 39

2 Recommendations 40

3 Limitations of the study 41

4 Suggestions for further study 42

5 Conclusion 42

References 43 Appendices

Appendix 1: I Appendix 2: IV Appendix 3: VII Appendix 4: XII

Common European Framework of ReferenceEducational Services Overseas Limited

LIST OF TABLES

Table 7: Students’ and teachers’ evaluation on the aims of the book 29Table 8: Students’ and teachers’ evaluation on the design and organization

Table 9.3: Students’ and teachers’ evaluation on the language skills of the

34book

Table 10.1: Students’ and teachers’ evaluation on the tasks and exercises

36

of the book

Table 10.2: Students’ and teachers’ evaluation on the teaching and

38learning techniques of the book

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

The important role of textbooks is mentioned by Sheldon (1988: 237) as “the visibleheart of any ELT programme” and by that “The textbook is an almost universalelement of ELT teaching.” (Hutchinson, 1994: 315) In some situations textbooksserve as the basis for many language inputs that learners receive and for languagepractices that occur in the classroom They may provide the basis for the content ofthe lessons, the balance of skills being taught and the kinds of language practice thestudents take part in Despite the crucial roles of textbooks in teaching and learningthe foreign language the textbook used in a certain context do not always fit thecurriculum or closely correspond with the objectives of the course and the needs ofthe teachers and learners Therefore, the textbook should be evaluated based on theneeds and the context of the course Hutchinson and Waters (1987: 96) stated that

“evaluation is a matter of judging the fitness of something for a particular purpose.”Then, textbook evaluation helps the teachers select the most appropriate materials for

a certain course or have any adaptation for the materials in the next course

At Doan Thi Diem Private Primary School (DTDS), English has been a compulsoryand main subject for all students from the beginning of grade one With the typicalcharacteristic of a private school in choosing textbooks in foreign language, there hashardly an official textbook which is absolutely approved by the Ministry of Educationlike Government Schools The teachers and managers with their experience choosethe textbook which they believe that is appropriate to their students The famoustextbook Let’s Go by Ritsuko Nakata, Karen Frazier, Barbara Hoskins and CarolynGraham of Oxford University Press, published 2000 in which has been used in manyother primary schools in Viet Nam used to be the textbook in DTDS for fourteen

years, from 1997 to 2011 Then this has been substituted by the textbook called Kid’s

Box by Caroline Nixon and Michael Tomlinson of Cambridge University Press which

uses American English accent and is considered more interesting than Let’s Go at thisschool As a matter of fact, no evaluation of this textbook had been carried out to seekhow far it has suited the English course and the students’ needs in DTDS Therefore,this study was conducted to evaluate a

textbook Kid’s Box 5 in the series Kid’s Box for grade 5 students and suggest ways toimprove the suitability of the textbook and the course The author chooses Kid’s Box

5 because she is a grade 5 teacher in DTDS This can help her conduct the study moreconvenient in terms of working with grade 5 students and teachers, a d in findinginvolving materials In addition, the collected findings are useful to her and herstudents Moreover, grade 5 students are mature enough for the survey

2 Aims of the study

This study aims to evaluate Kid’s Box 5 to find out the appropriateness of thistextbook for the students and the context of teaching and learning of the teachers andgrade 5 students at DTDS in terms of aim, design and organization, content andmethodology Hopefully, the findings of this study will provide the teachers a usefuldata both strengths and weaknesses of this textbook as well as somerecommendations for these weaknesses so as to enhance the learning efficiency of thestudents

3 Research question

To what extent is the textbook Kid’s Box 5 appropriate for the courserequirements in terms of aims, design and organization, content and methodologyfor grade 5 students at Doan Thi Diem Private Primary School?

4 Scope of the study

Materials can be evaluated under different categories such as effectiveness, suitabilityand teaching ability of the material This study only focuses on evaluating thesuitability of the material Base on some main criteria in evaluating materials byCunningsworth (1984), Ur (1996), McDonough and Shaw (1998), this study focusesmainly on the aims, design and organization, content and methodology of thematerial Therefore, the textbook will be evaluated under certain categories above Inaddition, the research subjects are mainly confined to English teachers who haveexperience in working with this textbook Kid’s Box 5 and only grade 5 students’feedback when they have finished learning the book Kid’s Box 5 Finally, there aresome instruments for collecting data, but only two of them: document analysis andquestionnaires are used in this study

5 Significance of the study

The findings of this thesis give the teachers and students at DTDS usefulinformation about their textbook which helps to identify the problems and suggestssome recommendations to improve them Furthermore, it is hoped that those researchresults about this textbook will make some contributions related to materials to theteachers and teacher trainers or administrators in some other primary schools whosestudents and teaching context are the same to DTDS In addition, this particular studyfocuses on young learners and their textbooks This requires different considerations

in designing and implementing the study This study contributes to the literature inthis respect both by providing data about young learners and their textbooks, and withvaluable information about how to do research with young learners

6 Method of the study

To investigate the question, the survey research was applied The instrumentsemployed in this study included document analysis, teacher and student surveyquestionnaires The evaluation was conducted by using the model of Hutchinson &Waters (1987) The teacher and student questionnaires with closed questions helped

to collect both teachers and students’ opinions about the suitability of this textbook

7 Overview of the study

The study mainly consists of three parts as follows:

Part A is the general introduction with the reasons for choosing the topic, theaims, research question, scope, significant, methods and overview of the thesis Part

B is the development with three chapters: chapter one presents a review ofliterature, concentrating on the issues related to materials and material evaluation;chapter two deals with the research methodology applied in the study with the datacollection instruments, the subjects of the research and the data collectionprocedure; chapter three presents data analysis and discussion Part C states thefinding of the study based on the analysis of the data and some recommendations toimprove the material and conclusion which encloses practical suggestion for thefuture use of this textbook

PART B: DEVELOPMENTCHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEWThis chapter is allocated to review previous literature which aims to form atheoretical framework for this textbook evaluation The first part deals with materials

in language teaching and learning with their definition, role and types of materials.Then, the second part points out materials evaluation with related issues in whichreasons for materials evaluation, definition of materials evaluation, types of materialsevaluation, model and criteria for materials evaluation are explored

1.1 Materials in teaching and learning

1.1.1 Definition of materials and types of materials

Tomlinson (2001:66) defines materials as “anything which can be used to facilitatethe learning of a language.” Materials can be in forms of a textbook, a workbook, acassette, a CD-Rom, a video, a photocopied handout, and a newspaper All the thingsthat the teachers use in class to teach languages for their students can be considered asmaterials Shared with this opinion, Zohrabi, Sabouri & Behroozian (2012) statematerials can be in different forms of printed materials such as books, guidebooks andnon-printed materials like CDs, cassettes or audio materials In addition, McGrath(2002: 7) contends that “materials could include realia: real objects such as a pencil, achair or a bag and representations such as a drawing, a photograph of a person, house

or scene” Materials of these types can be used effectively for language teaching andlearning However, in the local setting, textbook seems to be the most widely usedmaterial in language program Therefore, it can be understood that textbook is a part

of material or a textbook is a material In this study, the term “textbook” and

“material” are used interchangeably

According to McGrath (2002), the materials can be classified into four main types:

Published materials: This type of materials includes books and reference materials

such as dictionaries, grammars, test practice materials, advice on language learning,tapes accompanying course books or supplementary books

Authentic materials: Authentic materials consists of newspaper, magazines, user

manuals, leaflets and brochures, foreign mission information, letters faxes, emails,videos ( films or documentaries), and songs They are those taken from real life

Adapting and supplementing published materials: Materials in this type are those that

have been adapted or supplemented in some ways These cut-up materials can be standing or deliberately designed to supplement the course books

self-Specially-prepared materials: self-Specially-prepared materials are considered to be

useful as there is always a need for material that is more precisely tailored to theneeds of students working on their own

The materials should be suitable to the objectives of the course and meet the need oflearners Therefore, when choosing materials, the teachers should consider factorssuch as learners’ needs, level, and the objectives of the course

1.1.2 Roles of materials in language teaching and learning

The important role of materials in language teaching program has been stated bymany authors There is a general view to see that materials play a positive part inteaching and learning second language According to Richards (2001), teachingmaterials can be considered as a key component in most language programs In spite

of any kinds of materials, teaching materials can serve as the basic for much of thelanguage input that the learners receive and as the source for much of the languagepractice that occurs in the classroom Richards clarifies that materials can also beused as a source of different classroom activities, content of the lessons, andmaintenance of the skill balance In some classrooms, they may apply mainly to addand make the teacher’s instruction complete For some learners, it can be the mainsource of having contact with the language, separate from information preparedthrough the teacher

Furthermore, materials are useful for language teachers when they can serve as “aform of teacher training” (Richards, 2001:215) Nunan (1991) shares the same idea:good teaching materials are of great help to experienced teachers or poorly trainedteachers Regarding beginner teachers, it can also be used as a source of teacherinstruction Tomlinson (2003: 39) believes that “A textbook helps provide a route

map for both teachers and learners, making it possible for them to look ahead to whatwill be done in a lesson as well as to look back on what has been done” Despite theimpact of new technologies, textbooks will doubtlessly continue to play an importantrole in language teaching and provide a useful source for both teachers and learners.They are seen as sources of achieving learners’ needs and matching the aims andobjectives of their needs They will help to equip students to use language effectivelyfor their own purposes Textbooks and other materials used in language learning,generally, present a certain way of looking at the world They fulfill an extremelyimportant role in the process of education and English language teaching Nunan(1999: 98) states that “a textbook is the main component of any instructional programand it is difficult to imagine a class without it ” Cunningsworth (1995: 7) believesthat textbooks have multiple roles in English language classes: they can help topresent the written and spoken materials, provide activities, promote interaction,serve as a reference of vocabulary and grammar, act as a source for classroomactivities, serve as a syllabus, and offer self-access work or self-directed learning.

To sum up, teaching materials or textbooks are important factors in language class.They provide the source of activities, skills and practice for both teachers andlearners However, O’Neill claimed “a textbook can best provide only a base or a core

of materials It is a jumping – off point for teachers and class.” (cited from Crawford,2002: 87) Therefore, to meet the objectives of the course and the needs of thelearners, material selection is necessary and sometimes they need to be evaluated tosuit the language program and the learners’ needs

1.2 Materials Evaluation

1.2.1 Definition of materials evaluation

There are many definitions of materials evaluation by the authors The termevaluation has been used to define a variety of processes in the field of appliedlinguistics Lynch (1996: 2) defines evaluation as “the systematic attempt to gatherinformation in order to make judgments or decisions” However, evaluation isdifferent from assessment as Harmer (2001: 301) states that “the assessment of acourse book is an out-of-class judgment as to how well a new book will perform in

class Course book evaluation, on the other hand, is a judgment on how well a bookhas performed in fact” In addition, most of the definitions agree that materialevaluation has given a great deal of attention because of their important role in ELT.Hutchinson and Waters (1987: 97) defines that evaluation is basically a “matchingprocess: matching the needs to available solutions” Murphy (2000) in his wordsagrees that evaluation is a key concept to “determine the extent to which aprogramme is worthwhile, and to aid decision-making through the purposefulgathering information”.

In general, material evaluation is the assessment of how well the materials areactually fulfilling the prescribed objectives Material evaluation includes the things to

be evaluated, the objectives of the materials and the relation of materials to theobjectives and requirements of a particular context

1.2.2 The importance of materials evaluation

Cunningsworth (1984) states that most teachers use published teaching materials atsome stages in their teaching career No matter where, what and to whom they teach,they use some published materials for it is time and money saving Therefore, theyhave to evaluate the materials to reach sound decisions about them

McDonough and Shaw (1998: 65) state that teachers may be “interested in evaluation

as a useful process in its own right, giving insight into the organizational principles ofthe materials and helping them to keep up with the developments in the field.” As aresult, all teachers evaluate the materials they use in the classroom at one point oranother

Hutchinson and Waters (1987), after stating that evaluation is “a matter of judgingthe fitness of something for a particular purpose” (1987: 96), continues with aclarifying statement that evaluation of materials is, then, concern with finding thebetter solution among the available resources by making use of a systematic checklist

of criteria which highlights the important variables Then, there is no one absolutesolution to fit the required purpose, but different degrees of fitness in materialsevaluation This is confirmed by Cunningsworth (1984): “No course book will betotally suited to a particular teaching situation The teacher

will have to find his own way of using it and adapting it if necessary.” (1984: 9)Therefore, it is important to find the best choice among the others for the requiredpurpose and a careful evaluation is the most effective way to ensure the effectiveness

of the choice made because it “can save a lot of expense and frustration” (Hutchinsonand Waters, 1987)

Ellis (1997) focuses on two reasons why language teachers should evaluate materials.The first one is to choose the most suitable material for a particular situation amongthe variety of ones This evaluation is often evaluated before the course takes place.The second reason is to assess whether the chosen material fit the purposes of thecourse for a period of time

In view of the above, it is, therefore, very important to conduct ELT textbookevaluation so as to ensure ELT textbooks can effectively facilitate the attainment ofour teaching objectives

1.2.3 Types of materials evaluation

In categorizing materials evaluation, different terms have been suggested by theauthors to divide the types of materials evaluation The classification stated byJohnson (1989) with three sub types: preliminary, formative, and summative Thisclassification is similar to Cunningsworth (1995) and McGrath (2002) with differentnames: pre-use evaluation, in-use evaluation, and post-use evaluation respectively

Preliminary or pre-use evaluation tends to be the most difficult kind since there is no

actual experience of using the course book This evaluation is carried out before acourse book and it is probably the most common

Formative or in-use evaluation is a kind of evaluation for suitability, involving

“matching the course book against a specific requirement including the learners’objectives, the learners’ background, the resources available, etc.” (Cunningsworth,1995:14) This type of evaluation refers to course book evaluation while the material

is in use to see whether it should be considered for replacement

Summative or post- use evaluation refers to an assessment of a textbook’s fitness over

a period of continual use Evaluation of this kind can be practical in helping to decidewhether to use the same textbook on future occasions

In this paper, formative evaluation is used with the aim to seek out the suitability ofKid’s Box 5 when it is in use for grade 5 students in DTDS.

1.2.4 Models for evaluation

There are certain kinds of models suggested for the evaluation of the languageteaching materials in the literature This paper presents several popular modelssuggested by Ellis (1997), McDough& Shaw (1993) and Hutchinson and Waters(1987)

Evaluation model proposed by Ellis (1997)

Ellis (1997) suggests a model in which he suggests the practice of a detailedempirical evaluation and focuses on evaluation at the task level with reference to itsactual teaching and learning context This model aims to identify the match betweenthe task planned and the task in use Seven steps below are in the process of thismodel: choosing a task to follow; describing the task with specification of input,procedures, language activities, and outcomes; planning the evaluation with reference

to the dimensions above; collecting information before, while and after the task wasused, and what and how the task was performed; analyzing the information collected;reaching conclusions relating to what has been discovered, making recommendationsfor the future teaching; writing the report

Evaluation model proposed by McDonough and Shaw (1993)

McDonough and Shaw (1993) suggest an evaluation model with three stages:

External evaluation, internal evaluation and overall evaluation

External evaluation offers, a brief “overview” of the materials from the outside Itconsists of an examination of the claims made on the cover of the students’ andteacher’s books, the introduction and the table of contents The evaluation, at thisstage, aims to find out whether the material is potentially suitable for more detailedanalysis It is claimed that this should be followed by an internal evaluation whichrequires “an in-depth investigation into the materials” (p 75) What is important forthe evaluator at this stage is finding out to what extent the factors mentioned at theexternal evaluation stage match up with the internal consistency and organization ofthe materials Finally, they state, “there

is a need to make an overall assessment of the material as to the suitability of thematerials by considering the parameters, namely the usability factor, generalizabilityfactor, adaptability factor and flexibility factor” (p.75).

Macro-evaluation

(External)

inappropriate/potentially appropriate

exitMicro-evaluationinappropriate/appropriate adopt/select (Internal)

purpose of selection and adaptation prior to classroom use

Evaluation model proposed by Hutchinson and Waters (1987)

According to Hutchinson and Waters (1987), there are four main steps in the process

of evaluation as define criteria They are presented as in the figure 1:

The first step is to define the criteria on which the evaluation will be based Then, thesecond step presents subjective analysis, specifically, to analyze the nature andunderlying principles of the particular teaching-learning situation The third step isthe objective analysis, that is, to analyze the nature and underlying principles of theavailable materials and test the analysis in the classroom The final step is thematching, which compares the findings of the two analyses, or finds out how far thematerial matches the course requirements It can be viewed that not only thesignificance of analyzing teaching/learning situation is emphasized but also thematerials required for it are emphasized in this model It includes logical steps whichcan help the evaluator know exactly what must be done to analyze the materials incomparison with the requirement

What realisations of How does the material

want in your course? realise the criteria?

MATCHINGHow far does thematerial matchyour needs ?

Figure 2: The materials Evaluation Model of Hutchinson and Waters (1987:98)

In summary all the evaluation models emphasize the need to define, select or develop

criteria that best serve the purpose of the evaluation aimed at

Depend on the evaluator’s purpose and other requirement, model by Hutchinson and

Waters (1987) was to this study to check whether the existing material is suitable for

the students at DTDS in terms of some criteria: aims, design and organization,

content and methodology through out the analysis and comparison between the

criteria in the course requirements and these of the material

1.2.5 Criteria for materials evaluation

Various scholars have suggested ways of helping teachers to be more systematic and

objective in their evaluative approach, by presenting evaluation “checklists” based on

supposedly generalizable criteria Criteria are what evaluators use to “reach a

decision regarding what needs to be evaluated” (Tomlinson, 1998:220) They base

upon these criteria to make their comments or judgments

Criteria defined by Crunningsworth (1984)

Cunningsworth (1984) offers a very detailed checklist of textbook evaluation that

consists of items about grading and recycling, presentation and practice

of new language items (approach, language learning process, grammar items,vocabulary, pronunciation), developing language skills and communicative abilities ,supporting materials, motivation and the learner (variety, interest, attractiveness,culture) and overall evaluation Under the heading of overall evaluation, he offers toask questions about the particular strengths and weaknesses, notable omissions, forwhich situations the textbook is suitable or unsuitable, and comparisons with othermaterials He also suggests reaching a general conclusion.

Criteria defined by Ur (1996)

Ur (1996) discriminates between general and course or learner-specific criteria.According to her, some criteria are basic in all of the evaluation processes while someare specific to a particular course or learners Examples of general criteria are “clearlayout and print” or “periodic review of test sections.” Examples of specific criteriaare “attractive and colorful illustrations” (for young learners) or “vocabulary and textsrelevant to the topic” (for students of science and technology) After making thisdiscrimination, she offers a checklist that consisted of titles like objectives, approach,layout and print, visual materials, interesting topics and tasks, variety of topics andtasks, clarity of instructions, fit with the syllabus, sequencing and grading, periodicreview and test sections, authentic language, the explanation and practice ofvocabulary, pronunciation and grammar, fluency practice, learner strategies andindependency, guidance for the teacher, availability and the supporting materials

Criteria defined by Hutchinson & Waters (1987)

In the evaluation process, Hutchinson and Waters (1987:99-104) offer five criteria forevaluation in their checklist in which criteria for subjective and objective analysis areincluded The checklist consists of audience, aims, content, methodology and other

criteria which are thoroughly stated in appendix 3 The first part is audience The

audience includes different information such as ages, sex, study or professionalfields, status with respect to professional fields, knowledge of English The second

part is aims The evaluation of a course book needs carrying out to find out if the

materials can satisfy the aims and objectives of the course The

third part is content The content in the materials is an important element Thus, the

evaluation aims to measure whether the content of the materials suits the contentprescribed in the course in relation to language description, language points, macro-

skills and their proportion, micro-skills and so on The fourth part is methodology.

Methodology including many aspects needs evaluating such as the theories oflearning, the learners’ expectations, the kinds of tasks and exercises, teaching andlearning techniques, teaching aids, guidance and support for running the course,

flexibility of the material The last part is other criteria like price and availability of

the material These criteria are clear and easy to follow They are suitable to thisstudy when the aim of the evaluator is to find out how much Kid’s box 5 match withthe aims, content, design and organization and methodology of the course However,there are some adaptations in which the author does not cover all criteria to suit to thepurposes and scope of the study

1.3 Learning styles of and teaching styles for primary Students

Children learn language in a different way from adults because of their young minds.Therefore, characteristics of young learners and their learning styles affect secondlanguage acquisition

Basic principles of teaching young learners

There are some basic principles of teaching young learners by different authors.Piaget (1970) says that “Children are active learners and thinkers.” That meanschildren construct knowledge from actively interacting with the physical environment

in developmental stages They learn through their own individual actions andexploration Vygotsky (1962) states different opinion “children learn through socialinteraction” Children construct knowledge through other people, through interactionwith adults Adults/teachers work actively with children in the Zone of ProximalDevelopment (ZPD) or the difference between the child's capacity to solve problems

on his own and his capacity to solve them with assistance The adult’s role is veryimportant in a child’s learning process Bruner (1983) shares Vygotky’s opinionwhen he focuses on the importance of language in a child’s cognitive development inwhich “children learn effectively through

scaffolding by adults.” He shows how the adult uses “scaffolding” to guide a child’slanguage learning.

Characteristics of young learners from 7-12 years old

According to Slatterly and Willis (2001), young learners at this age are learning toread and write in first language; are developing as thinkers; understand the differencebetween the real and the imaginary; can plan and organize how best to carry out anactivity; can work with others and learn from others; can be reliable and takeresponsibility for class activities and routines Therefore, the textbook used for youngchildren should take advantage of these characteristics to arouse their ability andencourage their interest

Ideas for teaching English to young learners

EFL teachers of young learners can take advantage of the flexibility of young mindsand the malleability of young tongues to grow better speakers of English Shin

(2006) states ten ideas for teaching to young learners:

Supplement activities with visuals, realia, and movement

Involve students in making visuals and realia.

Move from activity to activity.

Teach in themes.

Use stories and contexts familiar to students.

Establish classroom routines in English.

Use first language as a resource when necessary.

Bring in helpers from the community

Collaborate with other teachers in your school.

Communicate with other teaching English to young learners professionals In

general, young learners have different needs and characteristics when learning

languages so teaching English to young learners requires different approaches,

methodology and materials Therefore, choosing a material which suits to them and promotes their ability is necessary

CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGYThis chapter describes the context of teaching and learning English in DTDS Then the methodology and procedures carried out in this study will be explored.

2.1 An overview of current English teaching and learning at Doan Thi Diem

Private Primary School

English has been applied for primary students in the pilot program from grade 3 tograde 5 as an optional subject by the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) atmost of the public primary schools in Vietnam with two periods per week English inDTDS is much focused and students have a chance to learn English from grade 1 byboth Vietnamese and foreign teachers from six to eight periods per week Theteaching and learning condition is quite good The classrooms are equipped withdifferent facilities to support teachers and students in teaching and learning: boards,computers, projectors, computer lab rooms and CD players However, the class size israther big for an English class, from 29 to 32 students in each class

In terms of teachers, the foreign teachers are from different English speakingcountries such as England, America, Canada and Australia They are employed via acenter that is in charge of management and responsible for assessment of theirteaching ability as well as teaching certificates In spite of different methodologies ofteaching or even quality, the Vietnamese teachers in this school were all graduatedfrom universities and most of them achieved level B2 which is equivalent to theCommon European Framework decided by MOET The levels of students are quitedifferent when there are some students are much better than others because they areafforded to learn more English outside school time

Because DTDS is a private school, the Ministry of Education permits the school tochoose the materials for teaching English Kid’s Box is chosen because it isconsidered a perfect book for general use and also fully covers the syllabus of theCambridge Young Learners English (YLE) tests which are applied every year for thestudents in DTDS However, the differences in learning styles and different levels oflearning cause some difficulties for teachers to conduct their lessons effectively andarouse the learning interest among students

2.2 Research methods

A survey research was done to gather the information needed To collect the data,document analysis and survey questionnaires were employed Document analysisplays an important role which provided an in-depth analysis of the material underevaluation In this paper, Kid’s Box 5 and syllabus of course requirements analysiswere carried out Then, the survey questionnaires were used to collect the data fromthe students’ and teachers’ opinion The analysis of the data collected was used todraw conclusions related to the research questions already identified

2.2.2 Survey questionnaire

Survey questionnaires were used to evaluate textbook Kid’s Box 5 used for grade 5students basing on Hutchinson and Waters’ model in which the course requirementswere analyzed as subjective analysis, information was collected from questionnaire asobjective analysis Then the matching of two analyses was carried out All the itemsrequired the participants respond using a four- point Likert Scale Rating scale was

numerically coded: 1 was strongly disagree, 2 was disagree, 3 was agree and 4 was

strongly agree.

2.2.2.1 Teacher questionnaire

The teacher questionnaire was divided into four main sections with 27 items Section

I with 1 question was designed to seek the appropriateness of the textbook to the aims

of the course Section II had 8 questions from number 2 to 9 to seek the

teacher’s evaluation of the suitability of the material to the design and organization ofthe course requirements Section III including 14 items from number 10 to number 23surveyed teachers’ ideas of suitability of the materials to the content prescribed by thecourse Items from 10 to 14 were about the topics, items from 15 to 18 were aboutlanguage content, and items from 19 to 23 were about the language skills Section IVincluded 4 items from 24 to 27 collect teachers’ ideas of the methodology in thetextbook.

2.2.2.2 Student questionnaire

The student questionnaire consisted of the same categories as the teacherquestionnaire To avoid misunderstanding when answering in English, the studentquestionnaire was translated into Vietnamese, the learners’ mother tongue, and thelanguage was simple to help them understand easily

In this questionnaire, item number 1 is about the aims of the material, items 2-9 wereabout the design and organization of the book, items 10-14 dealt with the topics in thebook, items 15-18 investigated the students’ ideas on the appropriateness of languagecontent offered by the book, items 19-23 were about language skills mentioned in thebook, items 24-27 were about the methodology used in the book

2.3 Participants

The participants in this study include14 English teachers who have been teachingKid’s Box in DTDS Some teachers are in charge of teaching Kid’s Box 5, someteachers used to teach this book one or two years ago with different experience andyears in teaching At the time doing this research, there were 6 teachers who were incharge of teaching 18 grade 5 classes Therefore, the researcher randomly chose 6classes which were taught by these 6 teachers to give questionnaire to investigatetheir ideas They had finished learning Kid’s Box 5 at the time when they did thesurvey

2.4 Procedures

The data was collected at the end of the English course in May 2014 The researcherused document analysis and questionnaires to collect dada for the purpose of thestudy.

2.4.1 Document analysis

In order to obtain data for the research, the textbook was analyzed in terms of aims,design and organization, content and methodology These criteria were based on thematerials evaluation by Hutchinson and Waters (1987) Therefore, the modelsuggested by Hutchinson and Waters (1987) was used with subjective analysis andobjective analysis After conducting subjective analysis with the course requirementsand objective analysis with Kid’s Box 5 according to four criteria aim, design andorganization, content and methodology simultaneously, the matching of two analyseswas analyzed to seek out the results

2.4.2 Questionnaires for students and teachers

To collect the data, 192 grade 5 students and 14 English teachers at DTDS wereselected

The researcher went to 6 out of 18 classes of six English teachers who are in charge

of teaching grade 5 at the school year 2013-2014 and gave the questionnaire to thestudents After the introduction was made, the research topic was explained to thestudents in Vietnamese to have clear explanation and easy understanding for thestudents Moreover, difficult terms were explained The students were given 20minutes to complete the questionnaires

Nearly the same to the students, the researcher used a break time with all the Englishteachers in the room, however the questionnaires were delivered to English teacherswho used to be or are grade 5 teachers After the topic and purposes of the study wereexplained, the participating teachers took the questionnaires and they could finish atany time in the day and gave back to the researcher at the end of the school day

CHAPTER THREE: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 Document Analysis

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

By analyzing the course objectives and syllabus of material, the appropriateness of the material to the aims of the course was found out

3.1.1.1 Objectives of the course

After the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) isapplied as the standard evaluation for both teachers and students, the Ministry ofEducation and Training (MOET) issued the Decision No 3321/QĐ-BGDĐT on apilot program in English for primary school students on August 12th 2010 DTDSalso bases on the MOET programme According to the objectives of this programme,grade 5 students have ability to communicate simply in four language skills Theycan form basic and simple communication by every conversation at school andfamily This also provides students with basis and simple background of English such

as understanding of countries, human being, and cultures of English speakingcountries According to language focus, the students can get common words forfamiliar topics; acquire basic knowledge of grammar such as tenses, kinds ofsentences

In addition, as the characteristics of a private school with special elements, forexample, the school focuses much in English subject for students from grade 1 and it

is following high quality programme Beside the knowledge and language objectivesfor students as the MOET, the objectives of the programme in DTDS also base on theprogramme for the Young Learner English (YLE) tests as the particular objectives

Each of two levels in CEFR corresponds to one of the YLE tests These objectivesaccording to CEFR coincide with those of the Cambridge ESOL YLE Tests Afterfinishing grade 5 or primary school, the students can achieve level A2 or they can beconfident in taking part in Flyer test The objectives of A2 (Flyer) level are the ability

to handle social functions (greeting people, ask how they are and react to news;handle very short social exchanges; ask and answer questions about what

they do at school and in free time; make and respond to invitations; discuss what to

do, where to go and make arrangements to meet; make and accept offers.) and ability

to perform simple classroom tasks in English

From the combination of MOET programme and special programme of DTDS, thecourse is aimed at providing students with: ability to communicate simply in Englishrelating common topics in all four language skills speaking, listening, reading, andwriting ; opportunity to write short descriptive paragraph, letters, postcards to others;ability to understand a text about daily topics; knowledge about basic grammarstructures; general vocabulary for familiar topics and basic pronunciation; knowledgeabout culture, people in English speaking countries

3.1.1.2 Objectives of Kid’s Box 5

Kid’s Box 5 covers all the relevant language structures, presents and practises thevocabulary list which is too comprehensive to include all of lexical items in thePupil’s book Language is recycled throughout the units and pupils can practise thelanguage in different contexts Kid’s Box has followed the syllabus for the YLE tests

so that each cycle of two levels corresponds to one of the tests: Starter, Mover andFlyer Kid’s Box 5 is equivalent to Flyer (level A2) which aims at communicating insimple expressions or the students can express what they understand, their problem athome or school; understanding texts about everyday topics, even if they do not knowall the words; writing a short message on a postcard or in an email or writing abouthow they feel The aims of the material which were made on the aims of the syllabusobjectives for A2 (Flyer) level and they were detailed in twelve units of the material(See appendix 4)

In short, according to the above analysis, the material has basically met the aims ofthe course in covering all the skills and language points with their purposes as therequirement

3.1.2 The appropriateness of the material to the content requirements of the

course

In this part, the content of the material and the content requirements of the course

are compared and analyzed to find out the correspondence of the material to the

content requirement of the course

3.1.2.1 Syllabus analysis

The content syllabus of the course is presented in Table 3

2 Text - types Reading texts, dialogues, story, and song

3 Topics Familiar topics helping handle social function

4 Language points

Grammatical structures - Verb tense: present simple, present continuous,

past simple, past continuous, future with “ be goingto”, present perfect

- Complex sentences: clauses of time, place,reason, … ; wh-questions: what, when, how; yes/noquestions

- Modal verbs; Nouns; Adjectives; Adverbs-Connective: then, next, because

- Prepositions: by, on, in, at…

- Be made of/ in/ for/ by

Vocabulary Words are correspondent to themes

word stress , rhythm, intonation, syllable,

Pronunciation

homophones, some difficult phonemes, /ed/

5 Macro skills Basically, develop 4 language skills: reading,

writing, speaking, listening

Table 3: Content requirements of the course3.1.2.2 Material analysis

Theme: The themes covered in the book Kid’s Box are the same the content

requirements of the course They are friends, school, family and the world around.

However, the numbers of topics in each theme are not equal when there are a lot of

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Text-type: It can be seen that reading texts, stories appear in reading section;dialogues, survey are in speaking section, songs are in the listening section andwriting models are in writing section Compared to the requirements of the course,the text types used in the material are relevant to the course requirements.

Topic: The topics according to course requirements relate to familiar ones which helpstudents to handle social functions or communication All the topics presented in thematerials are common and they support for students a lot in communicative purposes.For example, the first unit help students learn how to greet people and introduce

themselves, time for television, city life, disaster provide students information to react

to news around

Language points: Grammar: In Kid’s Box 5, structures mainly focus on basicgrammar such as present simple, present continuous, past simple, past continuous,future - be going to, present perfect; noun; clauses of time, places, reason, wh-questions, yes-no questions; model verbs like should, could, preposition, connectivesbecause, when, so; be made of To compare with the content from table 3, it isobvious that the grammar components in the material nearly can meet the objectives

as stated in the syllabus except for adjectives, adverbs of manner and adverbs offrequency However, these grammar points are clearly shown in Kid’s Box 4.Grammar section provides knowledge about the combination of noun, adjectives andverbs but it is difficult for young learners when they have to distinguish an adjectiveand a noun from one original word In addition, present perfect tense which appears

in only unit 8 may cause difficult for students with limited time Thus, it is necessary

to locate more time for students to practice

Vocabulary: The vocabulary is given according to the certain topics in each theme.The vocabulary is words about common topics and they are interesting to students

For example, Introductory unit: Welcome to our ezine, Unit 1: Time for television, Unit 7: natural world, Unit 8: world of sport From this analysis, it can be seen that

the material could meet well with the course requirement in terms of vocabulary.Pronunciation: The material provides students with the knowledge about word

stress, syllable, homophones and some difficult phonemes in English like /ŋ/, /ʌ/, /z/

& /s/, /ə/ and past ending of “ed” in past verb As can be seen from the table above, thematerial meets the course requirement most parts of pronunciation However, the material doesnot mention to intonation and rhyme Each unit presents a different kind of matter which is notrepeated in another unit Thus, it is quite difficult for young learners to remember deeply Inaddition, learning some difficult morphemes like sounds /z/ & /s/, /ʌ/ does not make sense whenalmost young

students learn pronunciation of a word by imitating the teachers It’s difficult forthem to apply in different words In addition, there are few tasks or materials forstudents practice Therefore, pronunciation partly meets the methodologyrequirements

Language macro-skills: The aims of the course are to help students have basicknowledge to communicate in English through listening, speaking, reading andwriting As can be seen from table in appendix 4, four language skills are covered ineach unit and they are integrated to support each other That meets the requirement ofthe course as mentioned above

Time allocation: The textbook includes 8 units and 4 review units which are taught in

35 weeks with five periods a week Thus, there are 175 periods in the whole of thecourse which meets the requirement of the course

3.1.3 The Appropriateness of the Material to the Methodology Requirements of theCourse

3.1.3.1 Syllabus analysis

Table 4 shows the methodology requirements of the course

Contents Methodology requirement of the course

Listening Listen and complete ; listen and write the name; listen and

say "yes" or "no"; listen and say the letter; listen and choosethe answer; listen and order, listen and match

Reading Read and answer questions; read and choose the correct

answer; read and match; read and label the diagram; read andcomplete; read and correct the sentences; read and answer

"true" or " false"; read and order the events; read and choosethe best title

Writing Building sentences with given words; write a paragraph;

write a description; write a letter, a postcard; write a reportContents Methodology requirement of the course

Language points Integrated in four skills

Grammar Multiple choices; choose the correct word/ phrase to

grammatical structures; correct the grammatical error; givethe right tense of the verbs; reorder to make sentences; lookpictures and write sentences with grammar structuresVocabulary Match words with definitions; match words with pictures;

read and complete( use vocabulary in context); Look picturesand write words; listen and write words

Pronunciation Listen, find the sound/ phoneme and say "yes" or" no"

Odd one out; put words with certain sounds in the rightcolumns; find the words with the same sounds

Task/ exercises Encourage the creativities of students and communicative

purposes

B Learning –

teaching Work in individually, in pairs, in groups, whole-class

techniques

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The course requirements for methodology reveal the different types of tasks and

exercises and learning-teaching techniques in the classroom Regarding language

skills, the tasks and exercises are various with different types which are shown in

table 5 Various types of exercises appear in different units and they are integrated in

all units of the book

Types of tasks and exercises for Types of tasks and exercises for writing

Talking about opinion Units 5, 7 Write a letter, a No units

postcardTypes of tasks and exercises for listening Types of tasks and exercises for reading

Listen and complete Units 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, Read and answer All units

Listen and write the Introductory unit, Read and choose the Introductory unit,

Listen and say "Yes",

Units 1, 4, 5, 7 Read and match Units 1, 2, 4, 5, 7,

Listen and say the

Units 1, 8 Read and label the Units 1, 2, 4, 5, 7

Listen and choose the Units 1, 2, 3, 4,

Read and complete Units 1, 2, 3, 4

Listen and order Units 1, 2, 5 Read and correct the Units 3, 5, 6

sentences

Listen and label the

Listen and write Introductory unit, Read and choose the Units 4, 6, review

Listen and answer Units 6, 8

Table 5: Types of tasks and exercises for language skills

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By comparing table 5 with the table 4, it can be seen that the material has met to therequirement for the different types of the tasks and exercises of speaking, reading andlistening.

For writing, from table 4, it can be stated that the course requires some kinds of tasksand exercises such as building sentences with given words; write a paragraph; write adescription; write a letter, write a letter and a postcard However, from analysis of thematerial there are not any tasks or exercises of building sentences with purposes forwriting any kinds of paragraph and writing a postcard, letter is not mentioned in anyunits of the materials Therefore, the material has not offered enough types of tasksfor practicing writing as the course requirements

Regarding language points, it is found that the material could meet some of therequirements of the course in term of tasks and exercises

Tasks and exercises for grammar Tasks and exercises for vocabulary

Choose the correct Units 4, 5,

different definitions

Correct the grammatical Unit 4 Match words with Introductory

Order to make Units 2, 6, Use the vocabulary in Unit 5, 8,

Look pictures and write Units 1, 2,

Listen and write words Unit 6

Write sentences with Units 2,4,

Find words in texts Unit 2, 3, 7grammatical structures 5,6,7,8

Table 6: Tasks and exercises for language points

As can be seen from the analysis of the material in table 6, there are some types oftasks which are the same in course requirements, however, a number of tasks orexercises of separated grammar for each unit or grammatical structures are a few orpoor Most of grammatical structures are combined in language skills but they are not