Teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards the piloted textbook english 10 the case of nghia hung upper secondary school, nam dinh city

GRADUATE STUDIESHOÀNG THỊ CÚC TEACHERS’ AND STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE PILOTED TEXTBOOK ENGLISH 10: THE CASE OF NGHIA HUNG UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL, NAM DINH CITY THÁI ĐỘ CỦA GIÁO VIÊ

GRADUATE STUDIES

HOÀNG THỊ CÚC

TEACHERS’ AND STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE PILOTED TEXTBOOK ENGLISH 10: THE CASE OF NGHIA HUNG UPPER

SECONDARY SCHOOL, NAM DINH CITY

THÁI ĐỘ CỦA GIÁO VIÊN VÀ HỌC SINH ĐỐI VỚI SÁCH GIÁO KHOA TIẾNG ANH 10 THÍ ĐIỂM: NGHIÊN CỨU TẠI TRƯỜNG TRUNG HỌC PHỔ THÔNG NGHĨA HƯNG A TỈNH NAM ĐỊNH

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

FIELD: Theory and Methodology of Teaching English

CODE: 60140111

HÀ NỘI - 2017

GRADUATE STUDIES

HOÀNG THỊ CÚC

TEACHERS’ AND STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE PILOTED TEXTBOOK ENGLISH 10: THE CASE OF NGHIA HUNG UPPER

SECONDARY SCHOOL, NAM DINH CITY

THÁI ĐỘ CỦA GIÁO VIÊN VÀ HỌC SINH ĐỐI VỚI SÁCH GIÁO KHOA TIẾNG ANH 10 THÍ ĐIỂM: NGHIÊN CỨU TẠI TRƯỜNG TRUNG HỌC PHỔ THÔNG NGHĨA HƯNG A TỈNH NAM ĐỊNH

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

FIELD: Theory and Methodology of Teaching English

CODE: 60140111SUPERVIOR: Hoàng Thị Xuân Hoa, PhD

HÀ NỘI - 2017

CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT

I certify that the minor thesis entitled: “Teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards the piloted textbook English 10: The case of Nghia Hung Upper Secondary School, Nam Dinh City.” is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the

degree of Master of Arts is the result of my own work, except where otherwiseacknowledge and that this minor thesis or any part of the same had not been submittedfor a higher degree to any other universities or institutions

Date:…….………

Signature: ………

During the process of writing this thesis, I have been fortunate to receivesupports and assistance from a variety of people.

First and foremost, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor,

Dr Hoang Thi Xuan Hoa, who allows me to draw fully on her wisdom and experience

in implementing this study Her guidance, encouragement and invaluable detailed

critical feedback have been most generous

I would like to convey my thanks to all my teachers of the Post graduate course

22 whose fundamental knowledge about language teaching and learning is of greatimportance to the achievement of my academic study

My heartfelt gratitude is also to the English teachers and students of NghiaHung Upper Secondary School for their tremendous supports in the collections of dataand information for my study

Finally, I wish to express my acknowledgments to other individuals who haveindirectly contributed to the completion of this thesis

To all these people I only hope that the achievement of my thesis will befavorable enough to satisfy their expectation

The textbook is an useful tool for teaching and learning second language andone of the most important components of any educational environment that lead tosuccess or failure of the teaching and learning language This is especially true aNghia Hung A Upper Secondary School where English teachers and students use thepiloted textbook English 10 in the course Also, the role of the teachers‟ and students‟attitudes affects teaching and learning second language According to Karahan (2007),

“positive language attitudes let learner has positive orientation towards learningEnglish” (p.84) Gardner, Masgoret, Tennant & Mihic (2004) claim that attitudesinfluence language learning As such, attitudes play a crucial role in language learningbecause they would influence students‟ and teachers‟ failure or success in theirteaching and learning Gardner and Lambert (1972) in their studies give evidence thatpositive attitudes toward language enhance proficiency It is also believed thatpositive attitudes alleviate language learning whereas negative attitudes act as spsychological barrier against it This study is therefore conducted with the hope toinvestigate the teachers‟ and students‟ attitudes towards the piloted textbook English

10 The study was conducted with 2 teachers and 80 students at 10T1 and 10T2-NghiaHung A Upper Secondary School The data was collected through interviews,observations and questionnaires to find out the attitudes of teachers and studentstowards the piloted textbook

The findings reveal that most of teachers and students have positive attitudestowards the topic and contents, the vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation, thephysical appearance and the social cultural contexts of the piloted textbook, they havehowever negative attitudes towards the language contents The findings also show thatthe teachers‟ and students‟ positive attitudes, knowledge and background arenecessary components affecting to the teaching and learning the piloted textbookEnglish 10

MOET: Ministry of Education Training

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

Table 1: The attitudes of students towards the topic and the content of the piloted

textbook English 10 25

Table 2: The attitudes of students towards the vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation of the textbook 26

Table 3: The attitudes of students toward language contents of the textbook 27

Table 4: The attitudes of students towards the physical appearance 28

of the textbook 28

Table 5: The attitudes of students towards social and cultural contexts of the textbook 29

Table 6: The attitudes of students’ towards teaching methods 29

Charts: Chart 1: The students’ preferences toward the piloted textbook English 10 30

Chart 2: The beliefs of the students about the students’ proficiency toward the textbook .30

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT i

ACKNOWLEGDEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF ABREVIATIONS iv

LIST OF TABLES v

TABLE OF CONTENTS vi

PART I: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale of the study 1

2 Aims of the study 2

3 Research questions 2

4 Scope of the study 2

5 Significance of the study 3

6 Methodology 3

6.1 Data collection 3

6.2 Data analysis 4

7 Design of the study 4

PART II: DEVELOPMENT 6

CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

1 Attitudes in teaching and learning foreign language 6

1.1 Definition of attitude 6

1.2 Components of attitude 8

1.2.1 Behavioral Aspect of Attitude 1 0 1.2.2 Cognitive Aspect of Attitude

1 0 1.2.3 Emotional Aspect of Attitude

1 1 1.3 The roles of attitudes in language learning 11

2 The textbook in teaching and learning language 12

2.1 Definition of the textbook 12

2.2 The roles of a textbook 13

2.3 The roles of a textbook in language learning 14

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 18

1 Practical situation of teaching and learning the piloted English 10 in Nghia Hung Upper Secondary School 18

1.1 Description of the English course and its objectives at Nghia Hung Upper Secondary School 18

1.2 Description of the students at Upper Secondary School 19

1.3 Description of the teachers at Nghia Hung Upper Secondary School 20

2 Overview of the textbooks 20

3 The Study 21

3.1 Participants 21

3.2 The Data Collection Methods 21

3.2.1 The questionnaire 21

3.2.2 The interview 22

3.2.3 The observation 22

3.3 Data collection and data analysis procedures 23

3.3.1 Data collection procedures 23

3.3.2 Data analysis procedures 24

4 Conclusion 24

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS 25

1 Data analysis 25

1.1 Data analysis of questionnaire 25

1.2 Data analysis of the interview 31

1.2.1 Teachers’ response 31

1.2.2 Students’ response 34

1.3 Data analysis of classroom observation 35

2 Findings 37

3 Discussion 41

PART III CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 43

1 Implications 43

2 Limitations of the study 43

4 Conclusion 44

REFERENCES 45 APPENDICES I

APPENDIX 1 IAPPREDIX 2 VAPPREDIX 3 V

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

It is argued that language learning is regarded as the cornerstone of humanexistence Knowing the language can help people to express their opinions, hopes,and even their dreams (Tavil, 2009) In recent years, English has become acompulsory subject for the students in all school levels, which urges the educatorsand the researchers to find out ways of teaching and learning effectively There aresome factors affecting teaching and learning foreign language such as personalcharacteristics, disposition, the background of the teachers and students, thedifficulty of the language, the lack of the instruction media and facilities to teach theEnglish language the appropriate classroom environments, the content of theEnglish course, and the teachers' satisfaction with their job as EFL teachers, etc Inforeign language learning context, there are various factors that influence theteaching and learning process such as motivation, attitudes, anxiety, learningachievements, aptitudes, intelligence, age, personalities, etc (Gardner, 1960;Lehmann, 2006, cited in Shams, 2008) The attitudes of teachers and students have astrong impact on the success or failure of teaching and learning language Attitudeshad a strong impact on teaching and learning language, which affects the success orfailure of teachers and learners Also, the textbook also played an important role inteaching and learning, it provides the framework for teachers and learners inachieving the aim of the course In fact, there are no studies about the pilotedtextbook English 10 Hence, the study looks into the concept of attitude as one ofthe major affective factors for success in teaching and learning a foreign language.Therefore, this research focused on the attitudes of teachers and learners towards thepiloted textbook English 10

Being a teacher of English in Upper Secondary School, I realize that theattitudes of the teachers and students towards the piloted textbook could affect theresults of teaching and learning the language Hence, I would like to do an

investigation with a hope to elucidate the roles of attitudes in teaching and learningL2 so that I have carried out the study entitled:

Teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards the piloted textbook English 10: The case of Nghia Hung Upper Secondary School, Nam Dinh City.

2 Aims of the study

The present study aims to investigate the attitudes of the teachers and

students in the piloted textbook English 10

The following were the objectives of this study:

- To find out the teachers‟ and students‟ attitudes towards the pilotedtextbook English 10

- To find out the feelings of teachers and students in the classroom toward the piloted textbook English 10

4 Scope of the study

The new piloted English 10 textbook is not common because it is the pilotedprogram in the small extent of the quantity of the schools and the subjects in thepiloted program, so the study will focus on the attitudes of teachers and studentstowards the piloted textbook However, this study only focuses on the attitudes ofteachers and learners towards employing the piloted textbook English 10,particularly with 80 students and 5 teachers chosen for this program at Nghia Hung

Upper Secondary School Therefore, it cannot be said that the result of the study aregeneralized to all students and teachers who piloted this new textbook.

5 Significance of the study

One of the major theoretical issues that have been paid attention to is theattitudes of teachers and students because they affect to the behaviors and responses

of the teachers and students According to Ajzen and Fishbein (1980), attitudesexert a direct influence on behavior An individual‟s attitudes towards somethingwill influence his or her overall patterns of responses to it The study was conductedwith the expectation that its results would be useful for the teachers and students.Firstly, a deeper understanding of teachers‟ and students‟ attitudes towards teachingand learning the piloted English 10 textbook will be gained Secondly, the resultsfrom this study can help teachers‟ and students‟ attitudes toward teaching andlearning language Thirdly, the information from the study can benefit teachers andstudents conceive the need to develop positive attitudes toward teaching andlearning second language and control the attitudes to achieve the effectiveness oflanguage teaching and learning

6 Methodology

6.1 Data collection

In the research of language attitude, two theoretical approaches are used andthey are „behaviorist view‟ and „mentalist view‟ (Fasold, 1984) According tobehaviorist view, the attitudes are dependent variables which must be studied byobserving users‟ responses to certain languages, i.e their use in actual interactionswhereas according to mentalist view, attitudes are internal mental state whichcannot be observed directly but have to be inferred from users‟ behavior or theirself -reported data The cognitivists (metalists) maintain that learning cannot beequated with behavior because observed behavior is only the outward manifestation

of internal changes, which the organism may have undergone as a result of learning,

and these internal changes are not in themselves observable The behaviorist theoryemphasizes the importance of verbal behavior and operates the principle:behaviorist theory is the habit formation theory of language teaching and learning.This research will use 3 methods to collect the data: observation, andquestionnaires, interviews Classroom observation is useful to researchers in avariety of ways, which provides researchers to check for nonverbal expression offeelings, determine who interacts with whom, grasp how participants communicatewith each other, and check for how much time is spent on various activities.

Interviews may be useful ad follow-up to certain respondents toquestionnaires The questionnaire is one of the most common methods of gatheringdata It is also time-saving and conductive to reliable results Data were collected bymeans of survey questionnaires for 80 students at Nghia Hung Upper SecondarySchool The questionnaires included closed- ended questions, open- endedquestions Other sources for data collection came from classroom observation, aninterview two teachers and 10 students

6.2 Data analysis

To order to fulfill the task mentioned above, this study will employ twoapproaches of data analysis: quantitative and qualitative methods The quantitativemethod is used to collect data through survey questionnaire; the qualitative method

is used to gather information through informal interviews and observation fromteachers and students in the classroom

7 Design of the study

The thesis consists of three parts:

Part one is the INTRODUCTION which presents the rationales, theobjectives, the method and the design of the study It expresses the reason why theauthor decided to choose this study and the methods for the fulfillment of the study

Part two, DEVELOPMENT, includes three chapters

Chapter One deals with a historical overview of literature It starts with thetheoretical issues on attitudes of teachers and students towards the piloted textbook,which consist the definition, components of attitudes, the relationship amongperception, belief and attitude, the relationship between attitude and motivation, theroles of attitudes in language learning, language attitude in teaching and learning inthe piloted curriculum The next part discusses about the definition of textbook, theroles of the textbook in teaching and learning L2.

Chapter Two emphasizes the study methodology Also, in this chapter theauthor would like to provide some information about the findings of the study.Chapter three suggests some recommendations to improve the teaching and learningthe piloted English 10

Part three, CONCLUSION, summarizes the thesis with key issues in thestudy, makes some suggestions for further study

PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW

1 Attitudes in teaching and learning foreign language.

1.1 Definition of attitude

Attitude has recently received considerable attention from both first andsecond language researchers It is defined within the framework of socialpsychology as a subjective or mental preparation for action It defines outward andvisible postures and human beliefs It determines what each one will see, hear,think, and do Attitude in Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and AppliedLinguistics written by Richards (2002) is defined as, expressions of positive ornegative feelings towards a language These expressions may reflect impressions oflinguistic difficulty or simplicity, ease the difficulty of learning, degree ofimportance, elegance, social status, etc

Attitude is an important concept which is defined as a complex mental stateinvolving beliefs and feelings Attitude has also been defined as a mental andneutral state of readiness, organized through experience, exerting a directive ordynamic influence upon the individual‟s response to all objects and situations withwhich it is related Furthermore, attitude means the individual‟s prevailing tendency torespond favorably or unfavorably to an object (Morries and Maisto,2005) According toHallorah( 1967), attitudes represents an individual‟s like and dislike of an item.Attitudes are positive, negative and neutral views of an “attitude object” i.e a teachingstyle, person, situation or event People mean that they simultaneously possess apositive and a negative bias towards the attitude in question In Gibb‟s opinion (1988)attitude is generally defined as a state of mind, which is influenced by feelings,experiences of the world and belief And the attitudes and behavior of teachers towardtheir profession can be portrayed in a positive or negative way which can have an effect

on the achievement of the students Both negative and positive attitudes have a strongimpact on the success of language learning and teaching This means when teacherswith positive attitudes experience success in

the language teaching behavior, the attitudes are reinforced, whereas teachers withnegative attitudes may fail to progress language teaching In short, attitudes have astrong impact in teaching and learning language, which affects the success or failure

of teachers and students

There is close ties among belief, perception and attitude According toRichard R Bootzin, Gordon H Bower, Elizabeth Hall (1991), belief and perceptionare just inside the brain, they are not in action Belief is the root or foundation of aperson‟s way of thinking In normal life, people do not question or filter their belief.They take their beliefs as it is Perception is the method or way of thinking or point

of view Attitude is what people act or react How people perform their thinking istheir attitude Their action is depending on their attitude They usually do not seetheir own action Their action is just a show-off of their perception and their belief

In summary, three components has a close relationship, they can influence othersthrough their own change in attitude, their action or the reaction They are valuablethat help the researchers develop the aims of the study

Attitudes and motivation play a primary role on language learning situationsand in second language acquisition contexts Therefore, attitudes and motivation arethe most important determinant factors in the learning or acquisition of secondlanguage Gardner (1985:9-12) makes clear distinctions between two terms:Attitudes are considered to show an evaluative reaction to some referent (e.g theteacher, the EFL classroom, the textbook,…) inferred on the basis of the learner‟sbeliefs X the referent ( e.g opinions, feelings, emotional reactions, etc.) Attitudescontain three basic factors:

- cognitive: the learner‟s belief structure

- affective: affective reactions

- conative: tendency to behave in a certain way

Motivation contains favorable attitudes As used by Gardner, it is a combination of effort, desire and positive attitudes towards the learning of the

second/ foreign language It includes: effort, want, affect on the one hand and it isalso goal directed (cognitive component).

In learning a second language, it is important that students have highmotivation and positive attitude towards the target language This is because manylinguists have proven that motivation and attitude are closely related in determiningthe success of second language learning (Gardner & Lambert, 1972) Higher levels

of motivation and positive attitude will produce more successful language learnersand vice versa Brown (2000) states that a language learner benefits from positiveattitude and that negative attitude may lead to decrease in motivation; andconsequently it leads to unsuccessful attainment of proficiency

Gardner‟s argument presented a comprehensive definition of the attitudeconcept He classified the term “attitude” into three interrelated componentsnamely, cognitive, affective and behavioral The cognitive component involves thebeliefs, thoughts or viewpoints about the object of the attitude The affectivecomponent refers to the individual‟s feelings and emotions towards an object,whether he/she likes or dislikes The behavioral component involves the tendency toadopt particular learning behaviors Gardner (1985) also points out that attitude is anevaluative reaction to some referent or attitude object, inferred on the basis of theindividual‟s beliefs or opinions about the referent “Attitude is thus linked to a

person‟s values and beliefs and promotes or discourages the choices made in allrealms of activity, whether academic or informal.”

Fishbein and Ajzen (1975) propose a conceptual framework of attitudeconstruct which consists of four categories: cognition, affect, conation, and

behavior Brown (1994), in his book „Principles of Language Learning and Teaching’ adds:

Attitudes, like all aspects of the development of cognition and affect in human beings, develop early in childhood and are the result of parents’ and peers’ attitudes, contact with people who are different in any number of ways, and interacting affective factors in the human experience(p.168)

“Attitude is determined by the individual‟s beliefs about outcomes orattributes of performing the behavior (behavioral beliefs), weighted by evaluations

of those outcomes or attributes Thus, a person who holds strong beliefs thatpositively valued outcomes will result from performing the behavior will have apositive attitude toward the behavior Conversely, a person who holds strong beliefsthat negatively valued outcomes will result from the behavior will have a negativeattitude.” Attitude concept can be viewed from these three dimensions Each one ofthese dimensions has different features to bring out language attitude results Fazio(1986) states that attitude comprises of three components: “an affective componentinvolving feelings about and evaluation of the object, a cognitive componentinvolving belief about the object and a behavioral intentions component.”Accordingly, the attitude concept has three components i.e., behavioral, cognitiveand affective The behavioral aspect of attitude deals with the way one behaves andreacts in particular situations In fact, the successful language learning enhances thelearners to identify themselves with the native speakers of that language and acquire

or adopt various aspects of behaviors which characterize the members of the targetlanguage community Briefly, attitudes have three main components: affective,behavioral and cognitive The affective components are easily assessed bymonitoring physical signs such as heart rate whereas the behavioral aspects may be

assessed by direct observation On the other hand, the cognitive aspects of attitudesare generally measured by interviews, survey and other reporting methods Thisstudy concentrates on affective and cognitive components It relates to teachers‟ andstudents‟ feelings and belief towards the piloted textbook English 10.

1.2.1 Behavioral Aspect of Attitude

The behavioral aspect of attitude deals with the way one behaves and reacts

in particular situations In fact, the successful language learning enhances thelearners to identify themselves with the native speakers of that language and acquire

or adopt various aspects of behaviors which characterize the members of the targetlanguage community Positive attitudes lead to the exhibition of positive behaviorstoward courses of study, with participants absorbing themselves in courses andstriving to learn more Such students are also observed to be more eager to solveproblems, to acquire the information and skills useful for daily life and to engagethemselves emotionally

1.2.2 Cognitive Aspect of Attitude

According to Gardner (1985), affective factors which determine or influencelearner‟s attitudes to language learning can be divided into two categories: (a)factors prior to the learner‟s approach to the second or foreign language study and(b) factors that develop during the learning process This aspect of attitude involvesthe beliefs of the language learners about the knowledge that they receive and theirunderstanding in the process of language learning The cognitive attitude can beclassified into four steps of connecting the previous knowledge and the new one, creatingnew knowledge, checking new knowledge, and applying the new knowledge in manysituations

1.2.3 Emotional Aspect of Attitude

Attitude can help the learners to express whether they like or dislike theobjects or surrounding situations It is agreed that the inner feelings and emotions of

FL learners influence their perspectives and their attitudes towards the targetlanguage

In conclusion, the concept “attitude” is defined as the way in which a personthinks, feels and intends to behave towards something Attitude is the summation ofthe three components: cognitive component, affective component and behavioralcomponent that is emphasized for determining the overall attitude

1.3 The roles of attitudes in language learning

Attitudes and learning go hand in hand According to Garder and Lamber(1972) all agree that “success in mastering a foreign language would depend notonly intellectual capacity and language aptitude, but on one‟s attitudes towardsrepresentatives of that language as well” Attitudes play an important role instudents‟ learning, if they maintain the positive attitudes, they will carry out theirlearning to the best ability Therefore, attitudes affect on the classroom behavior,learning results Lightbrown and Spada (1990) state that attitude is fundamental tothe success or failure, depending on the learners‟ attitudes Also, Brown (1994) saysthat language learners benefit from positive attitudes while negative attitudes maylead to unsuccessful attainment of proficiency Moreover, favorable attitudes would

be expected to result in better performance than negative attitudes (Garderner;1985) Marzano et all (1994) mentioned that “without positive attitudes andperceptions or holding negative attitudes towards the learning, learners have littlechance of learning proficiently, if at all” In conclusion, it is clear that attitudes play

an important role in learning, so learners can be evaluated themselves achievinggreater in language learning

2 The textbook in teaching and learning language

The choice of language teaching materials can determine the quality oflearning-teaching procedure As a part of the materials used in the languageclassroom, the textbook can often play a crucial role in students‟ success or failure

2.1 Definition of the textbook

Textbook is one of the important components in most language programs( Skowronski, 2000 and Hinchman, 2002) Textbooks in the teaching and learningprocess might function as the main language input that is received by the students or

as the media for the students to have language practice ( Tomlinson, 1998) It is thefact that textbook is regarded as “any visible heart of any ELT program” (Sheldon,1988) and that “the textbook is an almost universal element of ELT teaching.”(Hutchinson 1994) Jan Amos Comenius defined the communicative values of acoursebook in order that it can be a good teaching- learning material In the 20thcentury, Zujev (1986: 56) considered a coursebook to be “a final project in theapplication of the content of learning…” Textbooks are considered the keycomponent of most language programs ( Richards, 2001) and provide the necessaryinput into classroom lessons through different activities, readings and explanations (Tomlinson, 2002) According to Cunningsworth (1995) the textbooks serve thelanguage course as a source for material presentation, activities for learner practiceand communicative interaction, stimulation and ideas for classroom activities, and areference source for learners on grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation On theother hand, Prucha pointed that a coursebook is inseparable from the teaching-learning process because it is a means of classroom management for the teacher andself- direction of learner‟s own learning ( Prucha 1984:18) And, in his recentpublication, he considers a coursebook to be “a curricular object, the source ofknowledge for students and teaching material for teacher” In a survey conducted byRichards, it was reported that textbooks were one of the primary sources of teachingmaterials The wide use of textbooks in the local ELT classroom is understandable

as given that fact that, “materials [textbooks] are not simply that every day tools ofthe language teacher, they are an embodiment of the aims, values, and methods ofthe particular teaching/ learning situation” (Hutchinson, 1987) According to Riazi(2003, p.52), “textbook play a very crucial role in the realm of language teachingand learning and are considered the next important factor in the second/ foreignlanguage classroom after the teacher” O‟Neill (1982) presents four reasons for theuse of coursebooks Firstly, most parts of coursebook materials are appropriate forstudents‟ needs, even they are not specially designed for them Secondly, they make

it possible for students to plan for future learning and also review the previousmaterials or lessons Thirdly, coursebooks provide students with high qualitymaterials at a reasonable price Finally, suitable coursebooks allow teachers to adaptand modify them to meet the learners‟ needs and also allow for natural interaction

to happen In short, a textbook is a crucial material which helps teachers andlearners define the objectives in teaching and learning process L2 Coursebook isuseful because it is regarded as a starting point as well as a finishing point, studentsknow exactly what they learn during the lesson and what they need to revise for thenext lesson The teachers who are utilizing the coursebook are able to achieve theaims, the methods and values of the teaching program

2.2 The roles of a textbook

Textbooks are considered the key component of most language programs( Richards, 2001) and provide the necessary input into classroom lessons throughdifferent activities, readings and explanations ( Tomlinson, 2002) Regarding themultiple roles of the textbooks in ELT, Cunningsworth (1995) identifies a textbook

as a resource in presenting the material, a source for learners to practice and do theactivities and providing the learners with a reference source on grammar,vocabulary and pronunciation What is more, textbook serve as a syllabus and aself- study source for learners and support for the beginning teachers who have yet

to gain in confidence Thus, it can be said that the fundamental role of textbooks is

to be at the service of teachers and learners but not their boss Clandfield (2010)asserts that textbooks are useful tools for ELT in which they provide a structure forteachers and students to follow, provide attractive, motivational, colorful anddiverse content and provide a source of ideas and methodology for them.

In conclusion, textbook has a great influence on teaching and learning L2,which motivates and supports the teachers and learners in using it easily or governthe teaching and learning styles and strategies

2.3 The roles of a textbook in language learning

In practice, there is no single textbook which can suit the learning needs ofall students ( Hutchinson & Torres, 1994) Tomlinson (1998) explains in choosing atextbook, teachers need to take into account the abilities, needs and interests of theirstudents , as well as the quality of the book Based on him, teachers should note theextent to which textbook need to be adapted and combined with the additionalmaterial Richards ( 2001) stated that “Textbook is considered the key component ofmost language programs.” And, it provides the necessary input into classroomthrough different activities, readings and explanation According to Cunningswoth(1995), textbook served the language course as a source for material presentation,activities for learners practice and communicative interaction, stimulation and ideasfor classroom activities and a reference source for learners on grammar, vocabularyand pronunciation Clandfield (2010) asserts that textbooks are the useful tools ELT

in that they provide a structure for teachers and students to follow, provideattractive, motivational, colorful and diverse content, serve as a great timesaver forteachers, and provide a source of ideas and methodology for them

In spite of these strengths, there are potential negative effects of usingtextbooks Textbooks may provide learners with inauthentic language includingdistorted content or ignoring student‟s needs or deskilled teachers (Richards, 2001).Due to the limitations, many language experts believe that the perfect book does not

exist, however “the best book available for teachers and students does exist” (Grant,

1987, p.8) This is the book that suits the needs, interests and abilities of both thelearners and the teacher To be able to find the best book available, materials is stillinnovated to revolutionize the developments of teaching materials so that thetextbook should meet the needs of the students by attending to their interests andabilities and it should be in agreement with the teaching style of a teacher (Grant,1987)

Textbooks play a crucial role in shaping social attitudes and molding thebehavior of the learners Textbooks are the mostly used teaching and learningmaterials for both teachers and students, they provide a framework for teachers inachieving the aims of the course and serve as a guide to the teachers Also, thetextbook affects the students‟ attitudes and performance to the lesson through thecourse It is true that when the learners like their textbooks, they like the course aswell and become active participants to the lesson Textbooks can affect the attitude

of a learner including the structure, the organization, the presentation format and etcwhich contribute to like or dislike, interest or disinterest, attraction or repulsion andincrease positive or negative attitudes of learners and users Kochhhar (1985) made

a comprehensive list of attributes a textbook consisting of: the contents of thetextbook, the physical appearance, the suitability for the capability of the users.According to Aggarwal(2001), the psychological attributes of textbook tend toaffect the attitude of the learners Maxwell (2008) stated that the teacher‟sunderstandings in using textbook influence their behavior and their teachingperformance Hence, the attitudes to the textbook play an important role in languageteaching and learning, which can stimulate or cause a barrier toward teaching andlearning second language

3 Related Studies

Many studies have been conducted to explore the nature of students‟attitudes towards learning foreign language in general and EFL in particular,

compared with the studies concerning the attitudes of ESL learners during the pastthree decades (Al-Zahrani, 2008) For instance, Shams (2008) conducted a studyattempting to investigate students‟ attitudes, motivation and anxiety towards thelearning of English The findings underlined that the students had affirmativeattitudes and high enthusiasm towards English This also highlighted that most ofthem showed positive attitudes towards English language and its learning which, inturn, emphasized the value of English language efficiency in the daily life Thefindings show that students had positive attitudes and extreme eagerness towardsteaching and learning English and they also valued the importance of Englishlanguage efficiency in the daily life Momani (2009) also investigated the secondarystage students‟ attitudes towards learning English as a foreign language and theirachievements in reading comprehension The findings showed that the respondentshad neutral positive attitudes toward learning English Also, there was a strongcorrelation between the students‟ attitudes toward learning English and theirperformance in reading comprehension The findings of study by AlTamimi andShuib (2009) on Petroleum Engineering students‟ motivation and attitudes towardslearning English revealed that they had positive attitudes towards the use of English

in the Yemeni social and educational contexts They also showed affirmativeattitude towards the culture of the English speaking world In terms of the year ofstudy variable, AlZahrani (2008) conducted a study to determine the attitudes ofSaudi students towards English The statistical analysis revealed that there was notany clear difference among the three years in their attitudes towards LearningEnglish as the descriptive statistics showed that the respondents in the three yearshad the same level of attitude Regarding the gender variable, Fakeye (2010)investigated the correlation between attitude and achievement in English among 400senior secondary students selected randomly from five secondary schools Thefindings revealed that there was a significant relationship between attitude andachievement Additionally, it was explored that students‟ attitude is not gender-related Thus, there was not a statistically significant difference in the attitudes of

male and female students At Vietnam National University, Hanoi College ofForeign Languages, there are also many M.A these on students‟ and teachers‟attitudes towards various aspects in English learning and teaching such as learningand teaching English language skills or teachers‟ techniques used in teachingEnglish skills as well as the contents of textbooks For example, N.T.T Hang(2006), T.T Phuong (2007), N.H Tuyet (2009), N.T Chung (2010) investigatedstudents‟ and teachers‟ attitudes towards teaching and learning grammar H.T.BThuy (2008), T.T Van (2010), etc investigated teachers‟ and students‟ attitudestowards teaching and learning different language skills Or, N.T.B Hang (2009)conducted the study about the implementation of the new English textbook forgrade 10 innovation; however, that study focused on using the new textbook whenthe textbook was complemented in all schools Among these studies, there is notany a study on attitudes of teachers and students towards teaching and learning thepiloted textbook English 10 So, this study will focus on the attitudes of teachersand students with the piloted new textbook English 10 which is being modeled insome high schools in Vietnam.

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

1 Practical situation of teaching and learning the piloted English 10 in Nghia Hung Upper Secondary School.

In the previous chapter, the theoretical matters related to the topic have beencovered However, in order to see how they work in real teaching and learning, apractical research was carried out The research underwent the following steps:

1 Designing survey questionnaires, observation and interview

2 Delivering questionnaires to the pilot informants

5 Proposing some remarks and comments from the results of the

questionnaires and giving suggestions

In this chapter, only the first four steps will be mentioned The last step will

be presented in the next chapter

1.1 Description of the English course and its objectives at Nghia Hung Upper Secondary School.

Nghia Hung Upper Secondary School has been known as one of the ranked schools in Nam Dinh Province Any students who passed the entranceexamination to Nghia Hung School must study English as a compulsory subject.Students learn this subject during two terms at school and take all the exams.However, in the schoolyear, there were two classes which studied the pilotedEnglish 10, before students were asked to study this new textbook, they could bechosen through the marks in the entrance exam and their expectations There aretwo classes who study this piloted book: 10T1 and 10T2 Each term lasts 54periods (45 minutes per period) equivalent to one semester based on administers‟MOETs

top-English 10 is the first of a three- level top-English language set of textbooks forthe Vietnamese upper secondary school It follows the systematic, cyclical andtheme-based curriculum approved by the Ministry of Education and Training on

23rd November 2012 The aim of this set of textbooks is to develop students‟communicative competence in listening, speaking, reading and writing so thatwhen finishing upper secondary school, students will achieve level three of theVietnamese Foreign Language Competence Framework (equivalent to B1 in theCommon European Framework for Languages)

(MOET, 2012)

The objectives of Nghia Hung Upper Secondary School:

After the 10th school year, students will be able to:

- Develop the proficiency of language so that they can adopt the demand ofthis subject

- Develop the skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking

- Achieve B1 level after graduating the school and use L2 in practice fluently

- Achieve the high results in the exam

1.2 Description of the students at Upper Secondary School

All students in Nghia Hung Upper Secondary School have to pass the entranceexam with the high marks in total All students studied English from the Junior

Secondary School Most of the students in two classes (class 10T1 & 10T2) are

chosen according to the total marks and their aspirations Two classes chosen tocomplement the piloted textbook English 10 contains 40 students each class Mostlystudents study English as a second language when they were in the secondaryschool However, almost learners concentrate on part of grammar and are choseninto two classes based on the evaluation of written test

1.3 Description of the teachers at Nghia Hung Upper Secondary School.

If students are the most important factor in the learning process, teachers are themost important factor in the teaching process At Nghia Hung Upper SecondarySchool, there are 9 teachers teaching English, almost they achieve the C1 level inCommon European Framework of Reference Especially, two teachers chosen toparticipate in complementing the piloted textbook English 10 have the teachingexperiences and proficiencies in the second language Two teachers also have anopportunity in participating in the course of training the teachers utilizing the newtextbook as well as the new method in the summer break

2 Overview of the textbooks

The piloted English 10 are required to teach in a few high schools, they weredeveloped based on the new national curriculum The textbook is compiledfollowing the program of the primary school and junior school The methodologiesthat the books follow are “learner-centered approach and the communicativeapproach with theme-based curriculum”

Each book includes 10 teaching units and four review units Each teachingunit covers a topic and is sub-divided into five sections: Reading, Speaking,Listening, Writing and Language Focus in eight 45-minute lessons These theme-based units are designed to provide students with memorable lessons and enjoyablelearning experience Each review lesson provides revision and further practice ofthe preceding units, taught in two 45-minute lessons Glossary provides phonetictranscription of the new words in the units and their Vietnamese equivalents Thenew textbook satisfies the requirements of Vietnam‟s MOETs _ appropriate to thestudents‟ educational psychologies as well as the students‟ cultural background andthe cultural features of Vietnam and all over the world, especially the speakingcountries in the world

3 The Study

3.1 Participants

In order to achieve the purpose of the study and to facilitate data collection andanalysis, the author chooses 8 teachers (ranging from 30 to 40 years old) and allstudents in 2 classes ( 10T1 and 10T2) who are taking part in teaching and learningthe piloted textbook to participate in completing the survey questionnaires,observations and interviews

The eight teachers had been teaching both the old textbook and the pilotedtextbook They have at least seven years of English teaching experience at differenthigh schools Most of the teachers attended a short in-service training workshoporganized by the MOET on using the new textbook They were willing to co-operate with this research, they agree with my plan in the collecting data They wereready to participate in the interviews and gave me warm welcome in the classroomobservation

Like teachers, the learners in two classes were eager with my plan They filledinto the survey questionnaire completely and took part in the interview withoutrefusal They were ready to express their attitudes about this textbook Especiallymost of the students have intention of pursuing this language to register into theuniversity or college

3.2 The Data Collection Methods

The data was obtained with three instruments: observation, interview andquestionnaire

3.2.1 The questionnaire

In this study, there was a questionnaire for students about attitudes towardsthe piloted textbook English 10 The questionnaire for students consists of 15questions and is divided into three parts Part I includes short questions on personalinformation of the participants Part II contains the questions about the beliefs or

thoughts of students toward the piloted textbook It comprises the categories: thetopic and content, vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation, language contents,physical appearance and social and cultural contexts Part III consists of thequestions to investigate the teachers‟ and students‟ feelings for the piloted textbookBoth part II and part III were designed for students to give the response with thefour degree scale ( strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree) All the threeparts of the questionnaire employed a Likert-type scale format Questionnaire forstudents was transcribed into Vietnamese and distributed 80 students Thetranscription of the questionnaire was done to make sure that all the studentsunderstood all the questions.

3.2.2 The interview

The aim of the study was to investigate the attitudes of teachers and studentstowards the piloted textbook, it is of naturalistic inquiry by nature The aim of theinterviews was to understand the rationale of the teachers‟ and students‟ behaviorand feelings in the classroom I conducted the interview with the two teachers and

15 students after the questionnaire in week 13th with the interval of 10 minutes foreach student The language of the interview was Vietnamese to ensure mutualunderstanding between the teacher, the students and myself The interview were notrecorded, their responses were taken notes during the interviews Both the studentsand teachers were interview through the semi- structured format

3.2.3 The observation

Classroom observation is an important way of looking at the application ofany class activities, teaching material, textbook, etc For this study, the researcherattended different English classes at Nghia Hung Upper Secondary School at thefirst term To collect the data for this study, the researcher attended totally twoclasses for two teachers In this study, I observed both two teachers and 80 studentswho have been teaching and learning in class 10T1 and 10T2 in week 15th of thefirst term And, I observed two lessons of two classes with two different teachers

with the aims of determining the attitudes of teachers and students through theirbehaviors in the classroom.

3.3 Data collection and data analysis procedures

This part of the thesis concerns with the treatment of all the data collectedfrom classroom observation, the interview between the researcher and two teachersand fifteen students, the survey questionnaires conducted with 80 students

3.3.1 Data collection procedures

The study was conducted in 6 weeks from the beginning of November Thesubjects are students and teachers from 2 classes The procedure to carry out thestudy was divided into three stages:

At the first stage_week 10, the questionnaire was distributed to 80 students in

order to find out the beliefs and feelings of students toward the piloted textbookEnglish 10 This questionnaire for students was conducted for 20 minutes after thestudents learned the English lesson

At the second stage_week 13, after collecting the questionnaire, theinterviews were conducted with both the teachers and the students with the aims ofcollating the results of the interview with the results of the questionnaire Theteacher was interviewed when they had an interval waiting for the next period andfor the students, interviews were fulfilled on Tuesday afternoon when the studentshad no lessons Especially, 15 students were randomly chosen to interview from twoclasses The students were interviewed one by one All the interviews were used theVietnamese in order for the participants to articulate their views without beingconstrained by the use of English or to avoid getting confused in understanding theEnglish question during the interviews

At the third stage_ week 15, the classroom observation was fulfilled withboth two classes in two periods The first classroom observation was at class 10T1with the lesson: “Unit 5: Inventions_ Lesson 3: Reading.” The second one was at