The empirical evaluation of the coursebook english file beginner student’s book – third edition for non english major students at a preparatory school in viet tri

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OFPOST-GRADUATE STUDIES ********** VŨ THỊ HỒNG LUYẾN THE EMPIRICAL EVALUATION OF THE COURSEBO

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF

POST-GRADUATE STUDIES **********

VŨ THỊ HỒNG LUYẾN

THE EMPIRICAL EVALUATION OF THE COURSEBOOK “ENGLISH

FILE BEGINNER STUDENT’S BOOK – THIRD EDITION” FOR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS

AT A PREPARATORY SCHOOL IN VIET TRI

(Đánh giá thực nghiệm giáo trình “English File Beginner Student’s Book

- Third Edition” dùng cho học sinh Tiếng Anh không chuyên tại một trường dự bị đại học ở Việt Trì)

M.A MINOR PROGRAM THESIS

Field Code

: English Teaching Methodology : 8140231.01

Hanoi, 2018

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF

POST-GRADUATE STUDIES **********

VŨ THỊ HỒNG LUYẾN

THE EMPIRICAL EVALUATION OF THE COURSEBOOK “ENGLISH

FILE BEGINNER STUDENT’S BOOK – THIRD EDITION” FOR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS

AT A PREPARATORY SCHOOL IN VIET TRI

(Đánh giá thực nghiệm giáo trình “English File Beginner Student’s Book

- Third Edition” dùng cho học sinh Tiếng Anh không chuyên tại một trường dự bị đại học ở Việt Trì)

M.A MINOR PROGRAM THESIS

Field Code Supervisor

: English Teaching Methodology : 8140231.01

: Assoc Prof Dr Ho Ngoc Trung

Hanoi, 2018

I certify that the work contained in this thesis is the result of my ownresearch, and this thesis has not been submitted for any degrees at any otheruniversities or institutions

First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to mysupervisor, Assoc Prof Dr Ho Ngoc Trung for his useful comments andcontinuous support of my study, for his patience, encouragement, enthusiasmand immense knowledge His guidance helped me tremendously in all thetime of research and writing of this thesis

I would also like to thank my school leaders and colleagues for theirsupport and sharing the workload so that I could wholeheartedly focus on thestudy and get it completed

Finally, I would like to express my profound gratitude to my parents,

my spouse, and to all of my friends for providing me with unfailing supportand continuous encouragement throughout my years of study and through theprocess of researching and writing this thesis

This accomplishment would not have been possible without all ofthem Thank you!

Hanoi, November 2018

Signature

Vu Thi Hong Luyen

The present study evaluates the coursebook “English File BeginnerStudent’s Book – Third Edition” by Christina Latham-Koenig, Clive Oxenden(Oxford University Press, 2014) for non-English major students at apreparatory school in Viet Tri in terms its suitability to the objectives of thecourse, students’ needs and current teaching and learning method 150 non-English major students and 8 teachers who were using this coursebook wereinvited to answer the questionnaires, and two groups of three or four studentswere chosen randomly together with 8 teachers to take part in the interviews.Data were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively Findings revealedthat the coursebook fundamentally met the course’s objectives and students’needs, and fit in with the current teaching and learning method, though therewere still minor unsuitable parts that need adaptation The result of this studywould benefit both teachers and learners who work with this material forbetter use in the future

Key words: coursebook, textbook, material, coursebook evaluation,

empirical evaluation, English File Beginner Students’ Book, non-English major.

LIST OF TABLES

Table 4.1: Teacher’s assessment of students’ English level at the

beginning of the course 30

Table 4.2: Learners’ purposes of learning English 31

Table 4.4: Students’ ability to communicate in English about the topics in

Table 4.7: Students’ suggestions on the proportion of the skills 42

Table 4.8: Teachers’ suggestions on the proportion of the skills 42

Table 4.9: Effectiveness of the teaching and learning interactions used

with the coursebook 46

Table 4.10: The frequency of the teaching aids used with the coursebook 47

Table 4.11: Students’ and teachers’ evaluation on the methodology of the

coursebook 48

LIST OF CHARTS

Chart 4.1: Students’ age 28

Chart 4.2: Students’ background of learning English 29

Chart 4.3: Students’ self-assessment of their English level at the beginning

of the course 30

Chart 4.5: Students’ progress after the course 36

Chart 4.6: Students’ and teachers’ evaluation of the topics of the

coursebook 39

Chart 4.7: The appropriateness of the coursebook with students’ learning

purposes 43

Chart 4.8: Students’ and teachers’ overall rating of the coursebook 51

Chart 4.9: Students’ and teachers’ judgement on the time allocation for each

unit 52

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF TABLES iv

LIST OF CHARTS v

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aims of the study 2

1.3 Scope of the study 3

1.4 Research questions 3

1.5 Significance of the study 4

1.6 Structure of the study 4

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 Text book, coursebook and material 6

2.1.1 Definitions 6

2.1.2 Roles of materials in ELT classrooms 7

2.2 Coursebook evaluation 9

2.2.1 Definitions of coursebook evaluation 9

2.2.2 Approaches to coursebook evaluation 9

2.2.3 Criteria for coursebook evaluation 14

2.3 Needs analysis 17

2.4 Previous studies on coursebook evaluation 19

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 22

3.1 The setting 22

3.1.1 English teaching and learning context 22

3.1.2 Course material 23

3.1.3 Course objectives 23

3.1.4 Course assessment 24

3.2 Research methodology 24

3.2.1 Participants 24

3.2.2 Research instruments 25

3.2.3 Data collection procedure 26

3.2.4 Data analysis methods 27

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 28

4.1 About the learners 28

4.1.1 Learners’ English learning background 28

4.1.2 Learners’ English level 29

4.1.3 Learners’ purposes of learning English 31

4.1.4 Learners’ favorite learning styles 32

4.2 The suitability of the coursebook to the objectives of the course 33

4.2.1 Data collected from the questionnaire 33

4.2.2 Data collected from semi-structured interviews 37

4.2.3 Discussion and conclusion 38

4.3 The suitability of the coursebook to students’ needs 38

4.3.1 Data collected from questionnaires 38

4.3.2 Data collected from semi-structured interviews 44

4.3.3 Discussion and conclusion 45

4.4 The suitability of the coursebook to the current teaching and learning methods 46 4.4.1 Data collected from questionnaires 46

4.4.2 Data collected from semi-structured interviews 49

4.4.3 Discussion and conclusion 50

4.5 General evaluation and suggestion for further use of the coursebook 50

4.5.1 General evaluation 51

4.5.2 Suggestions for further use 52

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 54

5.1 Conclusion 54

5.1.1 The suitability to the objectives of the course 54

5.1.2 The suitability to students’ needs 54

5.1.3 The suitability to current teaching and learning methods 55

5.2 Limitations and suggestions for further studies 56

REFERENCES 57 APPENDIXES I APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS I APPENDIX 2: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS X APPENDIX 3: TRANSCRIPT OF TEACHER INTERVIEW XIX APPENDIX 4: TRANSCRIPT OF STUDENT INTERVIEW XXIII

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents a general overview of the study with specific references to the rationale, the aims of the study, research questions, scope of the study, significance of the study, and structure of the study.

1.1 Rationale

Coursebooks are generally considered as the core materials and “thevisible heart of any ELT program” (Sheldon, 1988) They play a lot of essentialroles in ELT such as a source of learning and teaching activities, a resource oflearners’ self-study, a syllabus, and a support for inexperienced teachers(Cunningsworth, 1984) However, coursebooks are usually designed and writtenfor the general market, thus they cannot fit in all teaching and learning contextswith possibly inappropriate cultural and social contents or teaching methods.That is the reason why selecting a suitable coursebook for a particular teachingcourse is a challenging It also takes on special importance because the chosencoursebook would determine the teaching and learning process and reflect thevalue of the educational institution Therefore, the need of evaluatingcoursebooks should also take on the same importance It helps identify the strongpoints and weak points of the materials so that future decisions can be madeabout whether or not to keep using the materials, or adapting them to better fitlearners’ needs and learning objectives However, very few of such aretrospective evaluation has been undertaken in comparison with the predictiveevaluation, which is carried out before using the materials to decide if they are to

be selected (Ellis, 1997) In terms of retrospective evaluation, the evaluation ofthe materials that have actually been used, there are two ways of evaluating:impressionistic and empirical evaluations While the former involves evaluationbased on observation of learners’ engagement and enthusiasm in

activities and contents of the book, it is more commonly conducted than thelatter one, which relates to collecting data in a more systematic way.

The importance and the inadequate quantity of empirical evaluations ofcoursebooks triggers a desire in the researcher to apply an evaluation of thistype to the coursebook “English File Beginner Student’s Book – ThirdEdition” for non-English major students in a preparatory school in Viet Tri.Since English was incorporated into the school program as a compulsorysubject, there has not been an official coursebook approved by the Ministry ofEducation for the school It is the teaching staffs who select the book that theyconsider best fit the objectives of the course and corresponds to students’needs based on predictive evaluation of the books The coursebook “EnglishFile Beginner Student’s Book – Third Edition” is currently used as the maincoursebook in the school after several choices of different materials After ayear of piloting the book, the researcher, also the teacher who has workedwith this book, finds it quite interesting to students with a lot of authenticvideos and meaningful tasks; however, it also reveals several problems whichrenders it difficult to meet students’ needs and achieve the ultimate goal ofteaching and learning program To present, there has not been any careful andsystematic evaluation of this material That is the reason why the researcherdesires to perform an empirical evaluation on this book to examine thevalidity of the predictive evaluation of the teachers in English groups of theschool and that of her personal impressionistic evaluation, as well as toevaluate the appropriateness of the book for learners, learning and teachingcontext and purposes

1.2 Aims of the study

This study mainly aims at evaluating the coursebook “English FileBeginner Student’s Book – Third Edition” by Christina Latham-Koenig, Clive

Oxenden (Oxford University Press, 2014), which is used for non-Englishmajor students at a preparatory school in Viet Tri to determine whether itmeets the requirements of the course in terms of the objectives, students’needs and methodology.

1.3 Scope of the study

In terms of book evaluation, Cunningsworth (1984) listed a number ofimportant evaluating criteria in the quick-reference checklist for evaluationsuch as: aims and approaches, design and organization, language content,skills, topic, methodology, teachers’ book, practical considerations Besides,evaluation can be conducted predictively or retrospectively for differentpurposes (Ellis, 1997) Due to the time constraint and the length limitation amaster’s thesis, the subject of the evaluation is narrowed down to one type ofretrospective evaluation, the empirical evaluation of the coursebook “EnglishFile Beginner Student’s Book – Third Edition” for non-English majorstudents at a preparatory school in Viet Tri with main focus its suitability tothe course’s objectives, students’ needs and current methodology

1.4 Research questions

The study will be conducted to answer the following three questions:

- To what extent does the coursebook “English File Beginner Student’s Book – Third Edition” meet the objectives of the course?

- To what extent does the book meet students’ needs?

- To what extent is the book suited to the current teaching and learning

methods?

1.5 Significance of the study

The findings of the thesis would contribute to the school’s decision ofusing the coursebook “English File Beginner Student’s Book – Third Edition”

or parts of the book again, or substituting and adapting inappropriate parts ofbook with more suitable ones, or replacing the book with another one Thus, itwould benefit both teachers and learners who work with the material.Teachers would have a chance to apply the most appropriate materials andteaching methods for their students with different levels whereas studentscould find the materials that best fit their needs and their learning purposes.The result will also be valuable for teachers and learners in other preparatoryschools in the country with similar teaching and learning context

1.6 Structure of the study

The study consists of five chapters:

Chapter 1: Introduction - presents a general overview of the study with

specific references to the rationale, the aims of the study, research questions,scope of the study, significance of the study, and structure of the study

Chapter 2: Literature Review - provides theoretical basis for the study with

the detailed discussion about some relevant theories related to textbook,coursebook, material, material evaluation and need analysis

Chapter 3: Research methodology – describes the methodology employed

in the study.

Chapter 4: Findings and discussion – includes a detailed description of the

findings as well as full explanation and interpretation of these findings

Chapter 5: Conclusion – gives conclusion and limitations of the study and

then provides suggestions for further study

1.7 Summary

Chapter 1 has introduced the rationale, aims and scope of the study.Research questions, significance and structure of the study were alsoincluded The importance of coursebook and coursebook evaluation, togetherwith the inadequate quantity of empirical evaluation of the coursebook

“English File Beginner Student’s Book – Third Edition” used for non-Englishmajor students at a preparatory school in Viet Tri have triggered theresearcher’ desire to conduct the study The main focus of the study is on thesuitability of the coursebook to the course objectives, students’ needs andcurrent teaching and learning methods Therefore, this study aims atevaluating this coursebook to find out if it meets the course objectives,students’ needs and current teaching and learning methods The findings ofthe study will help the school to make decision about keep using the book orreplace it or part of it by more suitable materials

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter provides theoretical basis for the study with the detailed discussion about some relevant theories related to textbook, coursebook, material, material evaluation and need analysis.

2.1 Text book, coursebook and material

2.1.1 Definitions

Teaching materials are an indispensable component of any languageteaching curricula There are a number of ways researchers defined this conceptbut they shared the same viewpoint that materials can be anything used tofacilitate language teaching and learning (Littlejohn 1998, Tomlinson 1998,McGrath 2002) Littlejohn (1998) and Tomlinson (2011) viewed materials invarious forms which can be students’ books, workbooks, teacher’s guides,videos, CDs, DVDs, lesson plans, website activities and more Similarly,McGrath (2002) provided a broad sense of materials in which he explained thatthey could be “realia” (real objects) or presentations (drawings or photographs)

He also added textbooks, worksheets, computer software and recordings assources of materials Among these forms, textbook is considered the officialmaterial and “the visible heart of any ELT programs” (Sheldom, 1988) It plays

an important role of teaching a particular subject in schools and colleges andserves a basis of study for students and a primary teaching instrument forteachers (Oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com, 2008)

As a type of teaching materials, a coursebook is defined as “a textbookthat students and teachers use as the basic of a course” (Collinsdictionary.com,2018) In other words, it is used to refer to a book “used by students when they

do a particular course of study” (Dictionary.cambridge.org, 2018) In accordancewith the dictionary definition, Ur (1996) and Tomlinson (2011)

explain that coursebooks function as the core materials for a learning course that a teacher and each student has a copy It aims to provide

language-as much language-as possible in one book and serves language-as the only book which learnersbasically use during a course A coursebook usually includes exercises notonly on language elements like grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation but also

on functions and skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking

From the above view of “materials”, “textbook” and “coursebook”, it can

be pointed out that text book and coursebook are types of materials and thesethree terms can be used interchangeably in ELT teaching and learning context

2.1.2 Roles of materials in ELT classrooms

According to Richards and Rogers (2001) as cited in Ulaş Kayapinar(2009), coursebooks play an indispensable part in the curriculum because theyspecify content and define coverage for syllabus items They play multiessential roles in ELT such as a source of learning and teaching activities withsystematic and standard knowledge of grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation,etc., a resource of learners’ self-study, a syllabus in accordance withdetermined learning objectives, and a support for inexperienced teachers(Cunningsworth, 1995) Coursebooks also help standardize instruction, framethe language contents, and provide language models and practice activities forteachers and students to follow in class (Ur, 1996) Ur adds more advantages

of coursebooks For example, they provide available and appropriate texts andexercises for most learners and classes They are also the most economic andconvenient ways of providing teaching and learning materials for bothteachers and learners Thus, the use of coursebooks is more and more popularamong universities, private schools and some state schools It is the ready-made syllabi in the ready-made coursebooks that are preferred by both schooladministrations and teachers of English Besides, coursebooks provide

opportunities for learners to practice the target language in the classroombefore they use it in real life situations.

However, coursebooks as preplanned instruction materials have somepossible disadvantages According to Richards and Renandya (2002), as cited

in Ulaş Kayapinar (2009), coursebooks fail to present real-life languagemodels and contextualize language activities They fail to address linguisticcompetence as well as to teach idioms in everyday language Lack of equity

in gender representation and the inadequate cultural understandingencouragement are also among the disadvantages of coursebooks Ur (1996)adds the following drawbacks of coursebooks Firstly, coursebooks areinadequate in that every class and learner has their own learning needs and acoursebook cannot supply these satisfactorily Secondly, coursebooks areirrelevant because the topics dealt within the books may not necessarily beinteresting for the class Coursebooks may lead to boredom and lack ofmotivation on the part of the learners Also, they do not cater for variety oflevels of ability and knowledge that exist in most classes Moreover, althoughcoursebooks are considered as the magical instruction tool for languageteachers, highly structured coursebooks may even lead to the de-skilling ofteachers (Hutchinson & Torres 1994 as cited in Osman Dülger 2016)

In conclusion, on one hand, coursebooks prove to be very advantageousfor both school administrations, language teachers and students with availablesyllabi and already designed texts and tasks which are suitable for a largeportion of language learners On the other hand, coursebooks reveal somelimitations such as inadequacy, irrelevance, inauthenticity That is the reasonwhy any coursebooks should be evaluated to see whether or not they matchthe school curriculum and learners’ needs and interests

2.2 Coursebook evaluation

2.2.1 Definitions of coursebook evaluation

Coursebook evaluation is of great significance as it seeks to identify thestrengths and weaknesses’ of the books and helps to make decisions aboutadapting the materials or adopting new ones In order to conduct theevaluation of a coursebook, it is necessary to understand what the process ofevaluation involves There are a number of definitions of evaluation provided

by researchers According to Tomlinson (2011), coursebook evaluation is anattempt to measure the potential value of the coursebooks It involves makingjudgements about the effects of coursebooks on such agents as learners,instructors, administrators who use them through such features of the books ascredibility, validity, flexibility, etc Coursebook evaluation is also defined byRea-Dickins and Germanie (1994) as “the means by which we can gain abetter understanding of what is effective, what is less effective and whatappears to be no use at all” Effective evaluation relies on asking appropriatequestions and interpreting the answers to them (Cunningsworth, 1995)

In summary, coursebook evaluation is the process of collecting data,giving judgement on the effectiveness of books based on the collected data tomake precise decisions of effectively using the materials or replacing them

2.2.2 Approaches to coursebook evaluation

Material evaluation is “a dynamic process which is fundamentally asubjective, rule-of-thumb activity" where "no neat formula, grid, or system willever provide a definitive yardstick" (Sheldon, 1988) There are a variety ofapproaches and criteria of coursebook evaluation which vary according to theELT contexts Administrators and instructors should choose the most suitable

criteria to evaluate coursebooks, considering the specific teaching andlearning contexts.

The following sets out a range of approaches to coursebook evaluationwhich all tend to evaluate coursebooks on four main aspects, including theinternal content, the aims and approaches, the supporting sources and thephysical appearance of the coursebook

Ellis’s approach (1997)

According to Ellis (1997), there are two main types of coursebookevaluation: predictive evaluation and retrospective evaluation A predictiveevaluation is designed to help teachers decide what coursebooks to use whereas aretrospective evaluation may be conducted once the book is used to find out ifthe material matches the learners’ need and current teaching methodology.Predictive evaluation, according to Ellis, can be carried out in two principalways One involves teachers relying on evaluations carried out by expertsspecializing in coursebook evaluation Alternatively, teachers can carry out theirown predictive evaluations by making use of various checklists and guidelinesavailable in the literature Another kind of evaluation – retrospective evaluation– is carried out while a coursebook is in use (whilst-use evaluation) or after it hasbeen used (post-use evaluation) There are two ways of retrospective evaluations:impressionistic and empirical one While the impressionistic evaluation is based

on observation of learners’ engagement and enthusiasm in activities and contents

of the book, empirical one relates to “collecting data in a more systematicmanner” (Ellis, 1997) To conduct empirical evaluation, teachers use “end-of-course questionnaires to judge the effectiveness of their teaching, including thematerial used”; therefore, it is often more objective and reliable than other kinds

of evaluation as it is based on users’ feedback Such an evaluation providesinformation that can be used to determine whether the material is worth usingagain In addition, Ellis (1997)

states that retrospective evaluation is a good way of testing the validity of apredictive evaluation.

Tomlinson’s approach (2003)

Another approach of evaluating coursebooks is proposed by Tomlinson(2003) with a three-stage process of evaluation: pre-use evaluation, whilst-useevaluation and post-use evaluation The first stage, pre-use evaluation, according

to Tomlinson (2003), is “impressionistic and consists of a teacher flickingthrough a book to gain a quick impression of its potential value” It involvesassessing the potential value of materials for their users, including a quick scan

of a book’s physical appearance and content pages to get an impression of itspotential value The second stage, whilst-use evaluation, involves evaluatingmaterials in use This can be more reliable than pre-use evaluation, as it involvesdeeper evaluation of the content of materials and makes use of classroomobservation and feedback from the users although, according to Tomlinson(2003), this stage includes controversial issues about what exactly can bemeasured The criteria seem to be general and some (e.g credibility of tasks,achievement of performance objectives, motivating power of the materials, etc.)are not easy to measure However, he also suggests that these criteria “can beestimated during an open-ended, impressionistic observation of materials in usebut greater reliability can be achieved by focusing on one criterion at a time”.They can be measured by different methods For example, to measure themotivating power of the materials he suggests ‘noting such features as studenteye focus, proximity to the materials, time on task and facial animation’(Tomlinson, 2003) In the last stage of evaluation in this approach, post-useevaluation, most evaluators tend to seek answers to such questions as: What isthe impact of the coursebook on learners? What is its impact on teachers? Andwhat is its impact on administrators? According to Tomlinson (2003), this stage

is probably the most valuable stage

in the evaluation process as it involves measuring the effects of the materials

on users after the coursebook has been used Also, as Cunningsworth (1995)points out, post-use evaluation is useful in helping to decide whether tocontinue using a coursebook or not in the future

Littlejohn’s approach (1998 & 2011)

The third major approach for coursebook evaluation is suggested byLittlejohn (1998 & 2011) He suggested a three-level evaluation checklistincluding: (1) What is there? (2) What is required of users? and (3) What isimplied? At the first level, there are questions about the physical properties ofthe coursebook These cover publication date, intended audience, physicalaspects (number of pages, paper quality, artwork, etc.), and are similar to theones in Tomlinson (2003) Level 2 focuses on the language learning activitiesand tasks in the coursebook to see what teachers and learners using thecoursebooks need to do It moves slightly deeper into an analysis of what isassumed to be the most important aspect of coursebooks At the third level,there are questions on the approach, philosophy and aims of the coursebook.Littlejohn points out that his levels of evaluation move from more objectivecriteria to less objective ones The first level is the most objective while thethird level is the least

‘in-– practical considerations, features evaluated in this step include: availability,cost, and the levels of the book which are available If these are judgedsatisfactory, the evaluation proceeds to step 2 – support for teaching and

learning Features assessed at this step include the teacher’s book and howwell it relates to the student book, supporting resources (e.g cassetterecordings, photocopiable worksheets, etc.) If all these are satisfied, theevaluator proceeds to step 3 - context relevance At this stage the evaluatorassesses the suitability of the coursebook in terms of aims, syllabus, lengthand its suitability for learners’ proficiency level, age and background If all ofthese meet the requirements, the evaluator goes further to step 4 - learnerappeal This step involves considering the appeal of the book to learners This

is mainly related to the appearance of the book The evaluation starts from thefirst sub-step If a coursebook meets all of the key criteria for each step, theprocess continues with the next one If it does not meet the key criteria in anysub-step, the process stops and the coursebook is rejected If all of the above-mentioned key criteria are met, the in-depth evaluation step is carried out toassess the coursebook in detail

According to McGrath (2002), the in-depth evaluation tends to addressthe following points:

- The aims and content of the book

- What they require learners to do

- What they require the teacher to do

- Their function as a classroom resource

- Learner needs and interests

- Learner approaches to language learning

- The teaching-learning approach in the teacher’s own classroom

McDonough and Shaw’s approach (1993 & 2003)

Another important approach for coursebook evaluation is suggested byMcDonough and Shaw’s (1993 & 2003) with three stages: external evaluation,internal evaluation and overall evaluation This implies that evaluation iscontinuous and never static, as the criteria can be changed to suit different

teaching and learning contexts External evaluation is similar to McGrath’s(2002) ‘first-glance evaluation’, Tomlinson’s (2003) ‘pre-use evaluation’ andLittlejohn’s (1998 & 2011) ‘level 1 evaluation’ It focuses on the intendedaudience, the proficiency level, the context, the organization and presentation

of units, the author’s views and methodology, the learning process and thelearner, and the physical appearance Issues of layout and design and localavailability, supporting resources (teacher’s book, audio-visual materials, etc.)are also included in this stage The internal evaluation is concerned with thecontent, including grading and sequencing This stage seems to resembleMcGrath’s (2002) ‘in-depth evaluation’ and Tomlinson’s (2003) ‘whilst-useevaluation’

In general, each approach to coursebook evaluation, as mentionedabove, has its own strengths and weaknesses Evaluators should choose oreven devise an approach which is the most principled, systematic and suitablefor their context In the researcher’s opinion, it is also important for evaluators

to combine approaches, in order to offset the weaknesses of one approachwith the strengths of others The present study uses a mixed approach, mainlybased on Ellis’s framework (1997), though modified, with evaluation criteriafrom other authors

2.2.3 Criteria for coursebook evaluation

From different approaches to the evaluation of coursebooks, there arealso different sets of criteria for evaluating coursebooks

Criteria proposed by Hutchinson and Water (1987)

Hutchinson and Water (1987) proposed a checklist of materialevaluation including items related to subjective and objective analysis of thebook such as: audience, aim, content, methodology, price and its availability

Audience: This part of the checklist consists of some questions related

to information about the learners such as their age, sex, nationalities, study or

work specialism, language background and interests

Aim: Evaluators need to consider if the aims and objectives of the

coursebook match those of the course/ school program

Content: The questions covered in this part involve the language

description, language point, macro-skill and their proportion, micro-skill,types, subject matter areas, topics, organization through the course,organization within the course unit, content sequence

Methodology: In this part, the checklist investigates methodology

including questions about the theory of learning, the attitudes or theexpectation of the learners about learning, exercises and tasks, teaching andlearning techniques used, teaching aids, teaching guidance needed and theflexibility of the material in different teaching situations

Criteria suggested by Cunningsworth (1995)

Cunningsworth (1995) proposed a number of criteria to consider thematerials, which was presented as a basic quick-reference checklist forevaluation and selection, including: aims and approaches, design andorganization, language content, skills, topic, methodology, teacher’s booksand practical considerations

Aims and approaches: Evaluators should take into consideration the

suitability of the aims of the coursebook with the aims of the teachingprogram and the needs of the learners as well as the suitability of the bookwith the learning/ teaching situation and styles

Design and organization: The components of the book package, the

organization of the content, the recycling and revision included in thecoursebook are concerned in this criterion

Language content: The language components such as grammar,

vocabulary, pronunciation is considered carefully through detailed questions

in Ellis’ checklist

Skills: The questions involved four skills are to be investigated in this set of criteria with regard to the adequacy, authenticity, integrity and

suitability of the skills in the coursebook with students’ level

Topic: Evaluators need to consider whether the coursebook provides

students with enough variety and range of topics of genuine interest tolearners; whether the topics equally address men and women as well as othergroups of various ethnic origin, occupation, disability; whether the social andcultural values are conveyed in the range of topics in the book

Methodology: Approaches to language learning presented in the

coursebook, the language presenting/ practicing techniques, the method toteach different skills and the guideline to students’ self-study are taken intoaccount in this set of criteria

Teachers’ books: The guidance, supporting materials and the answer key that the book provides for teachers as well as the teaching techniques,

language items and cultural content that they cover are to be evaluated

Last but not least, the practical considerations which involves the

price, the duration, the appearance of the book and the equipment it requiresare also considered

Criteria proposed by Wong Pak Wing Lawrence (2011)

Wong Pak Wing Lawrence (2011) proposed a self-constructedevaluation framework for evaluating curriculum fitness with the followingcriteria:

Use of task-based approach teaching and learning strategies: Evaluators

base on this set of criteria to check if the materials are designed with centered instruction, target-oriented English learning, integrative and creative

learner-language use, learning grammar in context, purposeful tasks and exercises aswell as extended tasks and project learning.

Integrated skills: In this part, the checklist examines if the four skills –

listening, speaking, reading and writing – are integrated in the book forauthentic purposeful communication

The teaching of language arts: Evaluators take into consideration the

place of language arts (i.e films, songs, lyrics, movies, dramas, novels, shortstories, etc.) in the English Language Curriculum and considerations forselecting language arts materials

Other criteria are to check if the book promotes independent languagelearning or provide information technology for interactive learning and life-wide learning

In summary, the criteria were set by both established materialevaluators like Hutchinson and Water (1987), Cunningsworth (1995) andnovice research scholars like Wong Pak Wing Lawrence (2011) for an in-depth and objective analysis of teaching materials They share some corefactors and the criteria listed may not always be effective in a specific context.Therefore, it is necessary to prepare “a new one or modify the existing ones inorder to cover all aspects of evaluation” (Cunningsworth, 1995) In thisregard, in this study the author used and modified ideas from these checklists

to design a set of criteria for the empirical evaluation of the coursebook

“English File Beginner Student’s Book – Third Edition” for non-Englishmajor students in a preparatory school in Viet Tri

2.3 Needs analysis

Needs analysis (also known as needs assessment) play a vital role in theprocess of designing and carrying out any language courses, and itsimportance has been acknowledged by several scholars and authors

The term “needs analysis”, according to Elaine Tarone and George Yule(2000), refers to the collection and evaluation of information to answer thequestion: “What aspects of the language does some particular group of learnersneed to know?” Mountford (1981) offers the definition that “needs” can bedefined as what students should be able to do at the end of their language course,

or “what the user institution or society at large regards as necessary or desirable

to be learnt from a program of language instruction” Another definition given byBrindley (1984) is that “needs” refers to wants, desires, demands, expectations,motivations, lacks, constraints, and requirements It is evident that coursedesigners may take students’ needs into consideration when designing a course.For Johns (1991), needs analysis is the first step in course design and it providesvalidity and relevancy for all subsequent course design activities Differentapproaches to needs analysis attempt to meet the needs of the learners in theprocess of learning a second language Among which, a modern andcomprehensive concept of needs analysis is proposed by Dudley-Evans and St.John (1998) with the concept of needs analysis as follows:

 Environmental situation – information about the situation in which the course will be run (means analysis)

 Personal information about learners – factors which may affect the way they learn (wants, means, subjective needs)

 Language information about learners – what their current skills and language use are (present situation analysis)

 Learner’s lacks (The gap between the present situation andprofessional information about learners): learner’s needs from the course – what iswanted from the course (short-term needs); language learning needs – effectiveways of learning the skills and language determined by the lacks

 Professional information about learners – the tasks and activitiesEnglish learners are/will be using English for (Target Situation Analysis andobjective needs).

 How to communicate in the target situation – knowledge of howlanguage and skills are used in the target situation (register analysis, discourseanalysis, genre analysis)

Different types of need analysis are presented in the below figure:Needs analysis jigsaw

As can be seen from the figure, these types of needs analyses are notexclusive but supplementary Each of them provide a piece to complete thejigsaw of needs analysis

2.4 Previous studies on coursebook evaluation

Up to now, there have been a number of studies on coursebook evaluation

In 2009, Ulaş KAYAPINAR conducted a study which revealed the

teachers’ views on the quality of foreign coursebook packages (from beginner

to intermediate level) widely used in the teaching process of Englishpreparatory classes in twenty-five different high schools In the study, widelyused (best-selling) coursebooks with the same sub-domains were chosen to beevaluated by teachers The data were gathered from the questionnaire results

of ninety-four teachers and standard open-ended interview results of fortyteachers who teach in English preparatory classes and use particularcoursebook packages in the classroom environment (n=134) The viewsrevealed that teachers did not have positive impressions about the coursebookpackages used in general Moreover, the general conceptions of the teacherssuggest that coursebooks should be developed and used to meet the needs ofthe learners in the national context In the same year, Azadeh Nemati carriedout a study to evaluate English Pre-University textbook of Karnataka state inIndia with respect to general criterion as well as vocabulary teaching Firstly,

a questionnaire was made with reference to some critical features extractedfrom different material evaluation checklists The prepared questionnaire wascompleted by 26 Pre-University teachers from 12 randomly selectedgovernmental and non-governmental schools Then strong points andweaknesses of the coursebook were discussed in detail In the second phase,

to analyze the vocabulary of the book systematically, some texts of the bookwere randomly selected, submitted to vocabulary profile to see if they aresequenced from the most frequently used words to the less used ones whichaccording to Nation (1990) is an important factor in vocabulary teaching

In Vietnam, Tran Minh Thanh (2014) conducted a study to evaluate thebook “English for Information Technology” for second-year students of auniversity in Thai Nguyen to see how the coursebook is relevant to the learners’needs in terms of content, format and methodology Survey questionnaires andsemi-structured interviews were employed to investigate both students and

teachers’ perception of the book The result revealed that the coursebook wasrelatively relevant to the needs of the learners and it should be further used bysecond-year students in the university with some changes and adaptation.

In 2015, Tran Thi Thuy carried out an evaluation of the coursebook

“New English File - Elementary” for the first year students at a university inHanoi The aim of the study is to evaluate the material to determine whether itmatches the course’s requirements in terms of the audience, content, aims andmethodology The criteria suggested by Hutchinson and Warter (1987)together with two data collection instruments: document analysis and surveyquestionnaires were selected The findings of the study showed that the bookbasically met the requirement of the Faculty of English Department of theuniversity besides some demerits to be changed and adapted

This study is also carried out to evaluate the coursebook “English FileBeginner Student’s Book – third edition”, but the evaluation is only focused onthe suitability of book to the aims and methodology of the course as well as theneeds of the students The researcher does not use a single model to conduct theevaluation but criteria from different evaluators are chosen and adapted for theevaluation by means of delivering questionnaire and interviewing both teachersand students It is hoped that the study will reveal reliable and valuable results

2.5 Summary

Chapter 2 has provided theoretical framework for the thesis Knownedge of text books, coursebooks and materials has been discussed and an agreement has been reached that these three terms can be used interchangeably Roles of coursebook, definition, approaches and criteria of coursebook evaluation were also provided together with related studies on coursebook evaluation In this thesis, the researcher uses mixed approaches, mainly based on Ellis’ framework (1997) together with a selection of different criteria by different evaluators to evaluate the coursebook “English File Beginner Student’s Book – Third Edition”.

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents a description of the research method employed in the study with four aspects including: the setting, participants, data collection instruments and data collection procedure.

3.1 The setting

3.1.1 English teaching and learning context

The preparatory school in which this study is conducted was founded in

1975 in order to prepare the necessary knowledge and skills for students whohave just graduated from high schools to enter university All of the studentsbetween the age of eighteen and twenty are from ethnic groups, mainly innorthern areas of the country Most of them have studied English for aboutseven or ten years but the non-English major students are almost at beginninglevel while those whose major is English are at elementary or pre-intermediate level They only study at the school for one year with twosemesters, each lasting three months

The school year 2017-2018 is the second year the coursebook “EnglishFile Beginner Student’s Book – Third Edition” officially used for non-Englishmajor students at the school At first, the coursebook “English Know-howOpener” was applied for non-English major students of blocks A, B, C, then itwas substituted by a new, state-of-the-art coursebook namely “New English FileBeginner”, and finally replaced by a new more updated version called “EnglishFile Beginner Student’s Book – Third Edition”, which is currently used as themain coursebook in the school The teaching and learning of English FileBeginner series follow communicative language teaching approach

3.1.2 Course material

English File Beginner was designed by Christina Latham-Koenig, CliveOxenden in 2014 It is the third edition of the original book “New English FileBeginner Student’s Book” The package of book “English File BeginnerStudent’s Book – Third Edition” includes a Student’s Book, a Teacher’s Book,one Workbook without keys for students and one with keys for teachers, EnglishFile Beginner iTools and MultiPACK, Class Audio CDs and DVD and the e-book version of the Student’s Book, Teacher’s Book and Workbook

The English File Beginner Student’s Book consists of twelve units/ filesdivided into two teaching sections Each file presents and practises grammar,vocabulary and pronunciation with a balance of reading and listeningactivities and lots of opportunities for speaking At the end of every two units,there is one “Practical English” section, which teaches useful, high-frequency,social English and everyday English with real-world In-The-Street interviews.There are also Practical English drama and documentary videos that motivateand engage students with English language and culture The Revise andCheck pages after every two units help students to consolidate and measuretheir progress Besides, at the back of the book includes additional resourcessuch as Grammar Bank, Vocabulary Bank and Sound Bank which offeradditional support for students

3.1.3 Course objectives

The English course provided by the preparatory school aims to review andreinforce basic English knowledge that students have learnt at high school aswell as prepare for students with essential knowledge and skills to enteruniversities/ colleges After the course, the students are expected to extend theirvocabulary of familiar topics such as our life, community, recreation and so on

Also, they are expected to be able to exercise and improve four skills:listening, speaking, reading and writing for basic communication Moreover,after finishing the course, students can develop skills of working individuallyand collaboratively in pairs or groups.

3.1.4 Course assessment

Because the coursebook “English File Beginner Student’s Book – Thirdedition” is applied for non-English major students, there is only one kind ofsummative assessment which includes two forty-five-minute end-of-term tests

3.2 Research methodology

3.2.1 Participants

The informants of the study were 150 non-English major students out of

356 students of the academic year 2017-2018 and 08 Vietnamese teachers ofEnglish who were using the coursebook “English File Beginner Student’s Book– Third edition” Of nine classes, four classes including 56 female students and

94 male students from eighteen to twenty years old were randomly chosen by theresearcher They all had just finished high school and most of them learnedEnglish for seven years or more However, they have different levels of Englishproficiency because they come from different places in Vietnam with differentbackground knowledge, though most of them are only at beginning level.Regarding English teachers, most of them have more than two years in teachingEnglish File at the school One teacher is taking the M.A course and three ofthem are M.A degree holders in teaching methodology or linguistics Moreover,all the teachers are willing and enthusiastic toward their teaching and theyalways pay attention to the improvement of the course Therefore, they show alot of interest in this study

3.2.2 Research instruments

To evaluate if the coursebook meets the requirement of the course interms of methodology, objectives and needs of the students, two instrumentsfor collecting data were used, which were questionnaires and semi-structuredinterviews

Questionnaires

In this study, both questionnaires were used for both teachers and students

to collect their attitude and evaluation of the currently used coursebook “EnglishFile Beginner Student’s Book – Third Edition” in terms of its suitability to theobjectives of the course, students’ needs and current teaching and learningmethod Each questionnaire is divided into five sections with student versionbeing written in Vietnamese and teacher version in English

Section 1 consists of four questions in questionnaires for students and one question in questionnaires for teachers While the students’ questionnaires

ask about students’ English learning background and their motivation, theteachers’ version aims at finding out learners’ level of English

Section 2 is to identify the suitability of the coursebook to the aims of the

course Three questions in both questionnaires for teachers and students aim

at investigating students’ progress after the course as well as the extent towhich the coursebook “English File Beginner Student’s Book – Third edition”meets the aims of the course

Section 3 includes five questions in both questionnaires for students and for

teachers which are to identify the suitability of the course to students’ needs.Questions about the topics of the book, the language elements and the skillstaught in the book are asked to collect data about its fitness to students’ needs

Section 4 is designed with three questions in both students’ and teachers’

questionnaires to measure the suitability of the coursebook to the currentteaching and learning methods through questions about the teaching and learningtechniques used in the book and the teaching aids required by the book

Section 5 is teachers’ and students’ general evaluation of the coursebook

as well their suggestions and expectations for the book adjustment if necessary

Semi-structured interviews

In order to get supplementary ideas besides those collected from thequestionnaires, the semi-structured interviews are designed for both teachersand students For teachers, there are four questions to clarify the strengths andweaknesses of the book, its suitability to the course aim, students’ needs andthe current teaching and learning methods, the difficulties teachers andstudents have when using the material and their suggestions for better use Forstudents, there are also four questions about what students like or dislikeabout the coursebook, their progress after the course, the suitability of thebook to their level, learning purposes and learning method, the difficultiesthey have using this material and their suggestion for future use

3.2.3 Data collection procedure

Data collection was carried out through questionnaires and semi-structuredinterviews for both teachers and students

- First, the researcher designed the questionnaires based on the criteria that she had carefully chosen and adapted from different evaluators

- Next, the questionnaires were distributed to the students and the teachers who are participants of the study They were returned on the same day

- Then, the semi-structured interviews were conducted All of eight teachers

from English group of the school were interviewed and coded as teacher

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 Two groups of students were selected randomlyfrom two classes, with one group including four students coded asstudent A, B, C, D and another group including three students coded asstudent E, F, G These interviews were carried out after synthesizingthe data collected from the questionnaire Their answers were collectedand analyzed to support the questionnaire results about the suitability ofthe coursebook to the course’s objectives, students’ needs and currentteaching and learning method.

- Finally, the data were processed manually and the results of the study would be revealed and discussed in the next chapter

3.2.4 Data analysis methods

The data were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively For analysis ofthe questionnaires, the Likert scale was used and necessary calculationswere carried out For the analysis of the semi-structured interviews and theopen-ended questions in the questionnaires, qualitative techniques wereused to categorize and analyze the data

3.3 Summary

Chapter 3 has presented the setting and methodology of the study.English teaching and learning context at the preparatory school where thestudy was conducted, course objectives and course assessment applied in theschool were discribed There were 150 students and 8 teachers answered thequestionnaires 7 of those 150 students and all of 8 teachers were interviewedafter the data collected from questionnaires were synthesized Finally, datawere processed and analyzed both quatitatively and qualitatively to reveal thefindings of the study

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

In this chapter, the researcher presents and discusses the results from the questionnaires and interviews to find out whether the coursebook “English File Beginner Student’s Book – third edition” is suitable to the course in terms of the course aim, students’ needs and current teaching and learning methods.

4.1 About the learners

Background information about learners such as their age, years oflearning English as well as their current English levels or their purposes oflearning is very important for educational institutions to build up theappropriate curriculum and decide on the suitable coursebook for students tostudy The charts and tables below summarize some major information of thelearners at the preparatory school

4.1.1 Learners’ English learning background

The two pie charts below present students’ age and their background oflearning English as the result collected from students’ questionnaires

20 years old 19 years old

8%

92%

Chart 4.1: Students’ age

As can be seen from Chart 4.1, a large majority of the students (92%)were nine-teen years old at the time of survey, which means that they enteredthe preparatory school right after they graduated from high school The rest(8%) who were twenty years old joined the school one year after high schoolgraduation.

15%

7 years

10 years More than 10 years

Chart 4.2: Students’ background of learning English

It is obvious from chart 4.2 that all students have been learning Englishfor a long period of time Almost half of them (57%) have spent 7 yearsstudying English while the other half have studied the subject for 10 years(28%) or more than ten years (15%) It means half of them started learningEnglish at primary school and the other half at secondary school

4.1.2 Learners’ English level

While chart 4.3 presents students’ self-assessment of their English level atthe beginning of the course, table 4.1 below shows teachers’ assessment of their

students’ level It can be seen that 74% of the students were at “poor” level,

which is consistent with teachers’ assessment based on the result of theplacement test at the beginning of the school year All teachers assessed that

from 70% to 90% of the students had “poor” result in English Nearly a quarter

of the students (21%) supposed that they were at “average” level and very few (5%) admitted that they were “good” at English This result is similar to

teachers’ assessment that from 10% to 30% of the students were at averagelevel and from only 1% to 10% of them were good Both teachers andstudents did not highly appreciate students’ ability in learning English when

none of them assessed the students were “excellent”.

Table 4.1: Teacher’s assessment of students’ English level

at the beginning of the course

74%

Excellent

Chart 4.3: Students’ self-assessment of their English level