Đánh giá sự phù hợp của giáo trình english unlimited a1 với đối tượng là người mới học tiếng anh ở nhà máy canon thăng long

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES *************** NGUYỄN THỊ NHẤT AN EVALUATION OF THE APPROPRIATEN

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

***************

NGUYỄN THỊ NHẤT

AN EVALUATION OF THE APPROPRIATENESS OF “ENGLISH UNLIMITED A1” COURSEBOOK TO ENGLISH BEGINNERS AT

THANG LONG CANON FACTORY

(Đánh giá sự phù hợp của giáo trình “English Unlimited A1” với đối tượng là người mới học tiếng Anh ở nhà máy

Canon Thăng Long)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE : 60140111

HANOI – 2015

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

***************

NGUYỄN THỊ NHẤT

AN EVALUATION OF THE APPROPRIATENESS OF “ENGLISH UNLIMITED A1” COURSEBOOK TO ENGLISH BEGINNERS AT

THANG LONG CANON FACTORY

(Đánh giá sự phù hợp của giáo trình “English Unlimited A1” với

đối tượng là người mới học tiếng Anh ở nhà máy

Canon Thăng Long)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE : 60140111

Supervisor: Prof NGUYỄN QUANG, Ph

HANOI – 2015

DECLARATION

I hereby certify that the thesis “An evaluation of the appropriateness of “English Unlimited A1” course book to English Beginners at Thang Long Canon factory” is the result of my own research in the fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master

of Arts at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi The study has not been submitted for any other degrees

Signature:

Nguyễn Thị Nhất

Date: May 28th, 2015

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The study could not have been fulfilled without the help, encouragement and support of a number of people

First and foremost, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor and promoter, Prof Nguyen Quang, Ph He helped me with a lot of advice, comments, enthusiasm and experience of doing a research My special thanks also go to Mr Quang for his friendliness, hospitality, kindness and enthusiasm

Besides, I would like to show my gratitude to all the teachers of the Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi whose lectures and guide helped me much while carrying out this study I also acknowledge Dr Ngo Huu Hoang who suggested me this topic

Also, I am thankful to my colleagues teaching English at Thang Long Canon factory helped me complete data collection I would like to say thanks to all the students – the workers and staff at Canon factory participating in the study with their enthusiasm and responsibility in the lessons in class as well as the questionnaire completion

Last but not least, my deepest gratitude goes to my family, especially my husband and friends who have always been supportive and encouraging to me

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to investigate the appropriateness of the textbook

“English Unlimited A1” to beginners at Thang Long Canon factory Participants consisted of 100 students at elementary level and 10 teachers directly teaching English at Thang Long Cannon factory The data collection instruments used in this study were student questionnaire, teacher interview and document analysis In this sequence, the material analyzed based on the criteria suggested by Hutchinson and Waters (1987) with the objectives to find out the match of the textbook with students’ level and the appropriateness of the material in terms of aims, content and methodology to beginners

at TL Canon factory

The research results have revealed some strengths of the material which allows the author to conclude that the material is relatively suitable with the students’ level of English Also, the aims, content and methodology requirements of the course are quite relevant to the learners, but some weaknesses are unavoidable Based on the findings, the thesis suggests some recommendations on materials adaptation such as addition, deletion, and combination that should be made to remedy the weaknesses of the material

so that the students and teachers can benefit more from it in future courses

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES viii

PART A INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Aims of the study 1

3 Significance of the study 2

4 The research questions 2

5 The scope of the study 2

6 Overview of the study 3

PART B DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1.1 Textbooks, course books, and materials 4

1.2 Textbook evaluation 6

1.2.1 Definition 6

1.2.2 Types of textbook evaluation 7

1.2.3 Methods of textbook evaluation 8

1.2.4 Models of material evaluation 9

1.2.5 Criteria for textbook evaluation 15

1.3 Textbook adaptation 16

1.3.1 Definition 16

1.3.2 Areas of adaptation 17

1.3.3 Methods to adapt a textbook 17

1.4 Conclusion 18

CHAPTER TWO: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 19

1.1 An overview of current English Teaching and Learning at TL factory 19

2.1.1 Context of the thesis 19

2.1.2 Material description 19

1.2 Research methodology 20

1.2.1 Research questions 20

2.2.2 Subjects 21

2.2.3.1 Questionnaire 21

2.2.3.2 Interview 23

1.3 Data collection procedure 23

2.3.1 Document analysis 23

2.3.2 Student questionnaire 24

2.3.3 Teacher interview 24

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 25

4.1 The appropriateness of the material to the students’ level of English 25

4.1.1 Document analysis 25

4.1.2 Results from the survey 25

4.1.2.1 Teacher interview 25

4.1.2.2 Student questionnaire 27

4.1.3 Matching and discussion 30

4.2 The appropriateness of the material to the aims of the course 30

4.2.1 The appropriateness of the material to the aims of the course in terms of language aspects 30

4.2.2 The appropriateness of the material to the aims of the course in terms of language skills 33

4.3 The appropriateness of the material to content requirements of the course 34

4.3.1 The appropriateness of the content in terms of language aspects 34

4.3.2 The appropriateness of the content of the course book in terms of language skills 35

4.3.3 Matching and discussion 36

4.4 The appropriateness of the material to methodology requirements of the course 37

4.4.1 Material analysis and survey results 37

4.4.2 Matching and discussion 39

4.5 Recommendations for the course book’s adaptation 40

4.5.1 Addition 40

4.5.2 Deletion 40

4.5.3 Combination 41

PART C CONCLUSION 42

1 Conclusion of the study 42

2 Limitations and suggestions for future research 43 REFERENCES I APPENDICES III

Appendix 1 III

HUTCHINSON AND WATERS’S CRITERIA CHECKLIST FOR MATERIALS EVALUATION III

Appendix 2 VIII

STUDENT QUESTIONNAIRE VIII

Appendix 3 XII

TEACHER INTERVIEW XII

Appendix 4 XIII

NOTE-TAKING OF THE TEACHER INTERVIEW XIII

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CLT: Communicative Language Teaching

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

ELT: English Language Teaching

ESL: English as a Second Language

GE: General English

TL: Thang Long

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figures

Figure 1: Material evaluation model by McDonough and Shaw

Figure 2: Material evaluation model by Hutchinson & Waters

Tables

Table 2.1: Types of information in the student questionnaire

Table 4.1: Teachers’ opinions of the appropriateness of the material to the students’ level of English

Table 4.2: Teachers’ opinions of the difficulty of different parts in the material

Table 4.3: Students’ assessments of the difficult sections in the material

Table 4.4: Students’ opinions of the reasons why some sections are difficult

Table 4.5: Students’ opinions of the appropriateness of the material for the aims of the

course in terms of language aspects

Table 4.6: Students’ opinions of the appropriateness of the material for the aims of the

course in terms of language skills

Table 4.7: Students’ opinions of the appropriateness of the material to the content requirements of the course

Table 4.8: Students’ opinions of the appropriateness of the material to the methodology requirements of the course

PART A INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

With the rapid development of technology and means of mass communication, people are exposed to a lot of choices for learning resources As the result, some people become lazier because it is totally convenient and cheap even free to have an useful learning document from the Internet However, we cannot deny that books always play a vital role Many theorists have emphasized on the importance of textbooks in the classroom to both teachers and students According to Sheldon (1998:237), textbooks “represent the visible heart of any ELT program.” Textbook is like a teacher, a friend, and a source of helpful information for people to get knowledge from However, there is a wide variety of textbooks, materials for teachers and students to select The question of what, how and why a material is chosen for a course and a level of students is difficult for teachers to answer Therefore, it is necessary for material evaluators to evaluate the appropriateness of each textbook for each class and students’ level

Being a teacher of Communicative English Programs for learners at TL Canon factory, the researcher would like to find out the most effective teaching methodology

to help learners communicate successfully in daily situations at work In addition, the course book “English Unlimited A1” which has just been used to teach staff and workers here in two courses, is a new material published in 2011 Hence, it is necessary to have a critical view of this material to help teachers adapt and use the book the most effectively

2 Aims of the study

The purpose of the thesis is to evaluate the appropriateness of the material

“English Unlimited A1” in terms of audience, aims, content and methodology to the English beginners at TL Canon factory In other words, it investigates the suitability

of the material to the students’ level of English and looks into the appropriateness of

the material to beginners at TL Canon factory in terms of aims, content, and methodology

3 Significance of the study

The thesis will be useful not only for the researcher but also for the teachers and learners at TL Canon factory It will contribute to the improvement of English learning and teaching quality at TL Canon factory In addition, the results of the thesis will provide a basis for the adaptation and improvement of the material

Additionally, the thesis will theoretically contribute to the field of GE material evaluation in general

4 The research questions

The study is carried out to achieve the following objectives:

 To find out the appropriateness of the material to students’ level of English at

TL Canon factory

 To identify the appropriateness of the material to beginners at TL Canon factory in terms of aims, content, and methodology

Therefore, the following research question designed as follows:

1 How appropriate is the material “English Unlimited A1” to beginners at

TL Canon factory in terms of audience, aims, content and methodology?

5 The scope of the study

It is not doubtful that, to have an overall critical evaluation on a material, an evaluator ought to look at every specific aspect of the material According to Brown (1995), the process of material evaluation is to find out the effectiveness, efficiency, and attitudes of the interested party of the course Indeed, to measure the effectiveness and efficiency of materials, quantitative methods (an experiment with diagnostic and achievement test) are required while investigation of attitudes of the material can be carried out with qualitative methods (interviews, questionnaire,

observation, and document analysis, etc.) Although it is necessary to investigate the material from all the three aspects mentioned above, the limitation of time and scope

of a minor thesis does not allow the researcher to do as many jobs as expected Therefore, the evaluator of this research only investigates the attitudes of the learners and teachers at TL Canon factory towards the following aspects of the material:

 Audience (in terms of the students’ level of English), aims, content, and methodology

6 Overview of the study

The INTRODUCTION comprises the rationale, the aims, the significance, the scope, and the design of the study

The DEVELOPMENT includes three chapters:

Chapter one – Literature Review – presents an overview of theoretical issues

of material evaluation discussed and analyzed by ELT experts and researchers The focus is on material evaluation and adaptation

Chapter two – Methodology – is divided into five sections The first one describes the setting of the study The second one provides information of the material under evaluation Data collection methods is the third section of the chapter Next, the writer focuses on the procedure of data collection Finally, the subjects of the research will be discussed

Chapter three – Findings and Discussion – reports and discusses the results of the study as well as gives a summary of the major findings

The CONCLUSION provides a brief summary of what is discussed in the study and recommends room for further research

PART B DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW

In this chapter, the researcher attempts to draw an overview of the theoretical background of the study which is divided into three sub-parts First, the author will state the definitions as well as the similarities and differences among textbooks, course books and materials Next, the researcher will indicate in detail material evaluation that provides the fundamental basis to conduct this study including definition, types, methods, models and some other criteria The theoretical discussion

of textbook adaptation will be presented in the last sub-parts

1.1 Textbooks, course books, and materials

1.1.1 Definition

In fact, the terms “textbooks, course books and materials” are most commonly found in learning and teaching Researchers, authors, teachers and learners usually use them interchangeably However, what are similarities among these terminologies?

In a GE course, a textbook has the function of a source of language, a learning support, a source for stimulation and motivation, and also a source of reference, so it plays an important role in the success of the language course However, “there is no such a thing as a perfect textbook” (Brown, 1995: 166); sometimes textbooks should

be evaluated to judge the appropriateness to the targeted students In many circumstances, teaching will be based on a single textbook although other materials may be used at the teacher’s discretion

The term “course book” is used to refer to a textbook which a course is based

on In ELT, Tomlinson (1998:9) defines it specifically as: “a textbook which provides the core materials for a course Its aim is to provide as much as possible in one book and is designed so that it could serve as the only book which the learners necessarily

use during a course Such a book includes work on grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, functions and the skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking.”

There are various opinions of teaching materials defined by different authors and researchers in language teaching and learning aspect Dudley – Evans and St John (1998: 170) give their viewpoint that “materials can be used as a source of language, a learning support for motivation and stimulation, and for reference” while Hutchinson (1987: 37) believes “materials are not simply the everyday tools for the language teachers; they are an embodiment of the aims, values and methods of a particular teaching and learning situation.” Another opinion of Tomlinson (1982:2), language teaching materials are anything which is used by teachers or learners to facilitate the learning of a language “It can be in the form of a textbook, a workbook,

a cassette, a CD-Room, a video, a photocopied handout, a newspaper, a paragraph written on a white board, anything that presents or informs about the language being learnt” Among them, textbooks are the most widely used in language teaching

In short, in this thesis, the researcher will use the terms “textbook, course book and material” interchangeably for the convenience of analysis and explanation

1.1.2 The role of textbooks in EFL/ ESL classroom

According to Sheldon (1988: 237), textbooks not only “represent the visible heart of any ELT program” but also “offer considerable advantages for both teachers and learners when they are being used in the EFL/ ESL classroom” Indeed, textbooks play an significant role in training programs as well as in classroom, which not only provide a teaching and learning structure for teachers and students to follow but also help to standardize instructions The textbook in a course can assure the similarities in terms of contents for different classes, so learners will be tested in the same way

Moreover, Cunningsworth (1995) explains that “textbooks provide a syllabus for a program, thus support novice teachers, train them in methodology, and save their time and effort for more worthwhile pursuits than material production” Without

textbooks, they may think their learning is not seriously taken, so textbooks are psychologically essential for students Textbooks may constitute an effective resource for learning in the classroom and self-directed learning A learner without a textbook might be out of focus and teacher-dependent

In addition, Garinger (2001: 34) supports these opinions by pointing out that

“textbooks play a pivotal role in language classroom in all types of educational institutions – public school, colleges, and language schools – all over the world” Riazi (2003: 52) also agrees with that point of view and clarifies that “textbooks play

a very crucial role in the realm of language teaching and learning and are considered

as the next important factor in classrooms after the teacher”

Indeed, it has become increasingly clear that context-sensitive EFL instruction requires teachers to take into account many anthropological and sociocultural factors which influence the conditions English is taught Currently, global textbooks produced for teaching and learning English as a foreign language in many different countries are criticized for paying too little attention to these, especially for largely failing to assist EFL teachers in teaching cultural background for students with the diversity of English-speaking target language cultures Because of these potential problems, textbooks should be carefully evaluated and selected before being used for

Also, according to Hutchinson and Waters (1987:97) “textbook evaluation is basically a straightforward, analytically matching process: matching needs to available solution” Cunningsworth (1995) and Ellis (1997) suggest that textbook evaluation helps teachers move beyond impressionistic assessments and acquire useful, accurate, systematic, and contextual insights into the overall nature of textbook material Textbook evaluation, therefore, can potentially be a particularly worthwhile means of conducting action research as well as a form of professional empowerment and improvement Similarly, textbook evaluation can also be a valuable component in teacher training programs, which makes students, teachers be aware of the important feature to look for in textbooks

According to Ellis (1997), there are two main reasons for carrying out material evaluation First, there may be a need to choose among the materials available the most suitable one to use for a particular situation Second, there can be a need for material evaluation to determine whether the materials which have been chosen for certain situation are suitable or not

1.2.2 Types of textbook evaluation

Various researchers offer different ways of categorizing material evaluation However, the offer by McGrath (2002) seems to be the most widely accepted He divides textbook evaluation into three stages:

 Pre-use evaluation: establishes potential suit

 In-use evaluation: gathers data on planning decisions, implementation and

response, may stimulate preliminary reconsiderations

 Post-use evaluation: uses data on incourse use and data on effects to accesses

suitability of selection

In short, there are different types of materials evaluation so when making an evaluation; the evaluators have to determine what type of materials evaluation will be suitable with their work As for the situation of the study, since the material has been

in use for two years, the researcher decided to use post-use evaluation with an aim to determine whether this material is appropriate or not and offer some recommendations for further improvements of the material

1.2.3 Methods of textbook evaluation

McGrath (2002:25) refers to three basic methods of textbook evaluation: The impressionistic method, the checklist method, and the in-depth method

The impressionistic method

The impressionistic method is concerned to obtain a general impression of the material According to Cunningsworth’s (1995:1), the term “impressionistic overview” suggests such an overview typically involves glancing at the publisher’s blurb (i.e the brief description of the book on the back cover), and at the content page (for an indication of the syllabus type and coverage), and then skimming through the book, looking at organization, layout, topics, and visuals For that reason, this method

is sometimes called “first-glance evaluation.” This kind of overview is undoubtedly inadequate if it constitutes the sole basis for textbook evaluation and selection

The checklist method

This method makes good use of a checklist to evaluate materials According to McGrath (2002: 27), the checklist method has at least four advantages:

1 It is systematic, ensuring that all elements that are deemed to be important

are considered

2 It is cost effective, permitting a good deal of information to be recorded in a

relatively short space of time

3 The information is recorded in a convenient format, allowing for easy

comparison between competing sets of material

4 It is explicit, and, provided the categories are well understood by all

involved in the evaluation, offers a common framework for making

decision-The in-depth method

In-depth techniques “go beneath the publisher’s and author’s claims It considers the kind of language description, underlying assumption about learning or values on which materials are based on” (McGrath, 2002: 27-28) In a broader sense, this method seeks to find out whether the materials are likely to live up to the claims being made for them

Although, there are three kinds of methods of textbook evaluation, in the study the author used in-depth method

1.2.4 Models of material evaluation

In the literature review, various authors have presented different models for material evaluation However, depending on purpose and kinds of materials need evaluating, the researcher has to find out the most appropriate model

1.2.4.1 Evaluation model by McDonough and Shaw (1993) (a combination of macro and micro evaluation)

In 1993, McDonough and Shaw suggested a three-stage model of material evaluation called external evaluation, internal evaluation and overall evaluation (see Finger 1) This model introduced based on the view that it is helpful and useful for teachers to perform an external evaluation of material so that they can gain an overview of organizational principles, then move to detailed internal evaluation of the materials to see how far the materials match up to what the author claims as well as to the aims and objectives of a given teaching program Therefore, external evaluation is considered as a preliminary evaluation or a macro evaluation, which is an examination of the claims made for the whole materials by the author or publisher These claims can be made somewhere on the cover of the book, in the instructions, or even in the table of contents The evaluation at this stage helps to identify whether the material is potentially appropriate

In contrast, the internal evaluation stage (micro evaluation) requires an depth look into two or more units to examine what will actually be presented “inside” the materials themselves and whether the claims made by the author are the one found in internal evaluation

The next step is overall evaluation of the materials, which aims to examine the suitability of the material by many factors such as usability, generalizability, adaptation, flexibility This model will be shown in the following figure:

Macro – evaluation → inappropriate / potentially appropriate →

Figure 1: Material evaluation model by McDonough and Shaw (1993:75)

It can be clearly seen from Figure 1 that the internal stage will be carried out first when the materials have been evaluated to be potentially appropriate in the external evaluation On other words, if the findings at this stage show that materials are not suitable, the evaluation will be finished

1.2.4.2 Evaluation model by Ellis (1997) (a micro-evaluation)

Ellis (1997) suggests that the evaluation of language teaching materials should focus on the whole sets of materials Thus, he introduces a model that can be carried out by a series of micro-evaluations In this model, a detailed empirical evaluation and evaluating tasks in language teaching are focused on, which aims to identify the match between task planned and task in use In this model, he supposes some dimensions used for macro evaluation such as approach, purpose, focus, scope,

evaluator, types of information that can be applied in micro evaluation process These are various steps in evaluating a task suggested by Ellis:

1 Choosing a task to evaluate: the task can be new and teachers want to discover the effectiveness of using it in classroom The task can be already used and teachers want to confirm whether it is as good as they think

2 Describing the task: it can be described in terms of objectives, input, process and outcomes

3 Planning the evaluation

4 Collecting the information: the information required to evaluate a task can be collected before, during or after the teaching of the task

5 Analyzing the information: the data can be analyzed either in a quantitative way or in a qualitative way

6 Reaching conclusions and making recommendations

7 Writing the report

This model of evaluation is more manageable than a macro-evaluation Nevertheless, in order to conduct a macro-evaluation, a series of micro – evaluation need to be carried out, which consumes a lot of time and efforts

1.2.4.3 Evaluation model by Cunningsworth (1984)

Cunningsworth (1984) provides a checklist of criteria which aim to examine different aspects for the course such as linguistic factors of the materials in terms of language content, topics, skills, and methodology He states that examination of language content should focus on the appropriateness of the grammars, structures, functions, and vocabulary presented in the material to the requirements Also, he thinks that the topics should be interesting, various, and sophisticated in content and help students to expand the awareness within their language level

Regarding the skills presented in the materials, the authors have to answer the questions whether the four skills are adequately covered and whether they are suitable for the course aims and syllabus requirements Furthermore, the questions about

methodology of the materials should find out whether they are appropriate to the learning teaching situation, and what techniques are used for presenting new language items, how different skills are taught

1.2.4.4 Evaluation model by Hutchinson and Water (1987) (a macro – evaluation)

According to Hutchinson and Water (1987), an evaluation ought to be done for

a certain need to check the match between materials and detailed aims They define

“material evaluation as a matter of judging the fitness of something for particular purposes” Basically, evaluation is a matching process between needs and available solutions In their opinions, this model is divided into four basic steps as follows (see Figure 2)

Figure 2: Material evaluation model by Hutchinson and Waters (1987)

It is clear that if the evaluator wants to evaluate something, he/she first has to answer two questions that which criteria he/ she based on to evaluate and then among defined criteria, he/she will choose his/her own preferred ones to evaluate In the second step, he/she will identify the subjective analysis In other words, the

Subjective analysis

What realization of the criteria do

you want in your course?

Matching How far does the material match your needs?

Define criteria

On what bases will you judge materials?

Which criteria will be more important?

Objective Analysis How does the material being evaluated to realize the criteria?

requirements of the course in aspects related to the criteria will be analyzed Also, Hutchinson and Waters (1987) point out that the subjective analysis should not be considered as a fixed set of requirements More importantly, the evaluator should utilize the material evaluation process as a means of questioning and developing his own ideas Analyzing objectives is the next step carried out in this model This is the stage to analyze the materials in terms of selected criteria Finally, the evaluator will consider the results through the evaluation process; the materials may not meet the requirements totally In this case, Hutchinson and Water (1987) suggest that the evaluator should think about the more important criteria for the different people and select the easier criteria to adapt

Besides, Hutchinson and Waters (1987) provide their own checklist of criteria for subjective and objective analyses The checklist aims to evaluate English teaching materials by paying attention to such big issues as the audience, aims, the content, the methodology, price and availability

Audience

The authors suppose that one of the most important factors to evaluate is learners Indeed, the most vital purpose of a course or a training program is to meet the requirements of a particular group or learners For this reason, English teaching materials are designed and selected to serve these meets

There are a lot of questions related to audience’s needs such as age, sex, experience of English, education background, interests In addition, it consists of the students’ attitude towards learning English The information about learners should be the first criterion mentioned before evaluating others

Aims

In a material evaluation process, it is vital to consider whether the aims of the materials and the aims of the course match or not Therefore, the aims of the course are always defined clearly in the first part of each training program

Content

According to Hutchinson and Waters (1987), it is necessary to examine whether the content of the materials is suitable for the content prescribed in terms of language points, macro-skills and their proportion, micro skills, as well as the kind of texts or not Furthermore, the aspects of subject matter areas, learners’ level of knowledge, type of topics and how those topics are introduced are also considered carefully Finally, it is also important to evaluate the way the content is organized and sequenced within the units and through the course

Methodology

Hutchinson and Waters (1987) indicate many aspects dealing with material methodology that need to be evaluated First, the evaluation has to show whether the theories of learning which the course bases on are in the line with the ones of the material Second, the aspects of the learners’ attitude towards expectations about learning English could be considered Third, it is necessary to identify whether the kinds of exercises and tasks included in the material are suitable for the course requirements or not Teaching-learning techniques are another aspect that needs evaluating At this time, evaluators have to decide whether the teaching-learning techniques that are used with the material are those required by the course and suitable for the learners In addition, the material evaluation should take into consideration the aspects such as teaching aids, and guidance support for teaching Lastly, it is vital to determine if the materials are flexible so that they can be used in different orders to suit the teaching contexts

Other criteria

In addition to the criteria mentioned above, Hutchinson and Waters (1987) provide some other criteria such as the price, the availability of the materials, and their attractiveness These issues are considered as practical concerns and they must

be acknowledged They may be one of the deciding factors in textbook selection In fact, not all the textbooks can be purchased by students because of their high price

and scarcity in the local market Sometimes, it is the purchase that becomes economic

burden students have to face

1.2.5 Criteria for textbook evaluation

According to Dudley- Evans and St John (1998), in the evaluation process,

evaluators must take evaluation criteria into account before any evaluation takes

place Criteria for material evaluation depend on what is being evaluated and why

they need to valuated

William (1983) suggests seven criteria for textbook adaptation:

1 General criteria: give introductory guidance on the presentation of language

items and skills

2 Speech criteria: suggest aids for the teaching of pronunciation

3 Grammar criteria: offer meaningful situations and a variety of techniques for

teaching structural units

4 Vocabulary criteria: distinguish the different purposes and skills involved in the

teaching of vocabulary

5 Reading criteria: provide guidance on the initial presentation of passages for

reading comprehension

6 Writing criteria: demonstrate the various devices for controlling and guiding

content and expression in composition exercises

7 Technical criteria: contain appropriate pictures, diagrams, tables, etc…

The criteria suggested by William (1983) seem to be very useful and

appropriate for evaluating a course book However, such frameworks are more

suitable for the selection of course books available in the market than for the

examination of an in-house material to see whether they meet the intended objectives

With its more comprehensive content, the evaluating criteria defined by Hutchinson

and Waters (1987), therefore, seems to be a more helpful tool to material evaluators

They suggest four main criteria for materials evaluation:

1 Audience: the evaluator should obtain information about and from learners to

find out whether the materials are suitable to the students’ age, knowledge of English, interest and so on

2 Aims: the evaluator has to check if the materials match the aims and objectives

of the course

3 Content: the evaluator has to check whether the materials’ language points,

macro-skills/ micro-skills, and topics suit the learners’ needs

4 Methodology: the evaluator has to find out if techniques, aids, guidance

provided in the materials satisfy the learners and the teachers of the course Comparing the two sets of criteria presented above by William (1983) and by Hutchinson and Waters (1987), it is obvious that the work of developing and choosing evaluative criteria is rather subjective and depends on what the evaluators consider to be important In this evaluation research, the four criteria including audience, aims, content and methodology suggested by Hutchinson and Waters (1987) were adopted to see how much “English Unlimited A1” match with the requirements in terms of audience, aims, content and methodology of the course 1.3 Textbook adaptation

1.3.1 Definition

Adaptation is a process of matching and its purpose is to maximize the appropriateness of teaching material in context, by changing some of internal characteristics of a course book or a set of materials to better suit the particular situations Tomlinson (1998: 11) agrees that adaptation is referred to “reducing, adding, omitting, modifying and supplementing”.Furthermore, textbook adaptation is

to use parts of a textbook and make communicative activities This is helpful in making lessons more communicative

In reality, a textbook can never totally be an effective tool for teachers to follow without any adaptation Most teachers will adapt the material they use in order

to maximize the value of the book for their particular learners

1.3.2 Areas of adaptation

According to McDonough and Shaw (1993), the following possible areas are often taken into account to adapt:

1 Lack of grammar coverage in general

2 Lack of practice of grammar points of particular difficulty to learners

3 Reading passages contain too much unknown vocabulary

4 Comprehension questions are too easy

5 Subject matters are suitable with learners of the age and intellectual level

6 Photographs and other illustrative materials are not culturally acceptable

7 Amount of material is too much or too little to cover

8 Lack of guidance of teachers on group work and role play

9 No vocabulary list of a key to exercises provide

The reasons for adaptation presented above can be grouped into: aspects of language uses, skills, classroom organization and supplementary materials

1.3.3 Methods to adapt a textbook

Maley (1998) suggests the following options to adapt materials:

1 Omission: The teacher leaves out things deemed inappropriate, offensive, unproductive, etc for the particular group

2 Addition: Where there seem to be inadequate coverage, teachers may decide to add to textbooks, either in the form of texts or exercise material

3 Reduction: Where the teacher shortens an activity to give it less weight or emphasis

4 Extension: Where an activity is lengthened in order to give it an additional dimension (For example, a vocabulary activity is extended to draw attention

to some syntactic patterning)

5 Rewriting/ modification: Teachers may occasionally decide to rewrite material, especially exercise material to make it more appropriate, more

“communicative”, more demanding, more accessible to their students, etc

6 Replacement: Text or exercise material which is considered inadequate, for whatever reason, may be replaced by more suitable material This is often culled from other resource materials

7 Re-ordering: Teachers may decide that the order in which the textbooks are presented is not suitable for their students They can then decide to plot a different course through the textbooks from the one the writer has laid down

8 Balancing: Teachers may decide to add options to the existing activity or to suggest alternative pathways through the activities

1.4 Conclusion

In short, to evaluate a textbook, the evaluator needs to examine each content- matched activity of each special book However, to use the textbook effectively, teachers have to choose and decide the most appropriate type of textbook for their teaching needs and students’ learning needs Hence, textbook evaluation is a very important step for each teacher to examine whether the material is suitable for their teaching or not Depending on purpose and kinds of material evaluation, the author decides to use the model of Hutchinson and Water (1993) as a framework to evaluate the textbook “English Unlimited A1”

CHAPTER TWO: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

In this chapter, the author will present the detailed description of current English learning and teaching at TL Canon factory in which the research is conducted Next, this chapter will mention the data collection procedure, and how to

do the document analysis Finally, the researcher will discuss the questionnaires for the students and informal interview for the teachers to find out whether the course-book is appropriate to the learners or not

1.1 An overview of current English Teaching and Learning at TL factory 2.1.1 Context of the thesis

Canon is a big Japanese company which produces printers and cameras In Vietnam, there are three factories namely, Thang Long, Tien Son and Que Vo Canon, which produce only printers All managers, staff, and workers communicate in Japanese or in English at work It is the reason why they continually open communicative English classes for the employees from elementary level to advance level classified by an entrance test “English Unlimited A1” course-book has been chosen to teach beginners of English in three factories of the company Each course lasts 40 hours Students will have a mid-term test after they finish half of the course, and an end-of-term test at the end of the course Each test comprises three language elements (vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation) and four language skills (speaking, listening, writing, and reading) If someone gets from 8 points in the final test, he or she will achieve the scholarship of the company (which is the total tuition

of the course)

2.1.2 Material description

The course book “English Unlimited A1” was written by Adrian Doff in 2010

It is a GE course for students who have the English elementary level or start learning

English More importantly, English Unlimited is a course for adults, which is suitable

for the learners at TL Canon factory The textbook, which comprises 10 modules with

10 different topics relating to the real life such as people, things to buy, about you, every day, last week, going out gives students an all-round practical knowledge of grammar, skills, vocabulary and real-life functional language The book presents language elements and language skill in detail as follows:

- Language elements: New grammar structures are presented by using pictures,

discussion questions or asking students to read or listen to a conversation After studying the form, and the rule, students have chances to practice with a variety of exercises Regarding vocabulary, the students are asked to predict new words and their meaning based on the words given with available pictures or small games After that, the students listen to the CD player/typescript for the pronunciation of these words In pronunciation section, the students practice sounds under the directions of teachers; and then listen to the CD player to check, repeat to remember and pronounce smoothly

- Language skills: For each unit, different skills are paid attention to improve the

sections of language focus and vocabulary In speaking and writing sections, pictures and discussion are used to help the students activate their knowledge about the topic The students practice speaking skills using conversation pieces in listening part In the reading and listening sections: the students can understand very short simple texts

in a single phrase, pick up familiar names, words and basic phrases as well as reread

as required Then they can follow speech which is very slow and carefully articulated, with long pauses for him or her to assimilate meaning Finally, they must listen to the

CD player to check their ideas and listen more carefully to do some related exercises 1.2 Research methodology

1.2.1 Research questions

As mentioned in part A, the aim of this study is to evaluate the appropriateness

of the material “English Unlimited A1” to beginners at TL Canon factory Therefore, the following research question are designed to satisfy the aims of the research:

1 How appropriate is the material “English Unlimited A1” to beginners at

TL Canon factory in terms of audience, aims, content and methodology?

1.2.2 Subjects

The target population for the thesis consists of 100 learners who come from

three classes Beginner TL 01, 03, 05 and 10 teachers who are currently teaching this course at TL Canon factory The research is carried out on only the students of the Communicative English course from October to December in 2013 Most of the learners are from eighteen to thirty years old, including male and female in a class, but there are much more female than male They come from different provinces in Vietnam They are workers or staff They had learnt English before when they were students However, they had just focused on Grammar for progress and entrance tests

at school Furthermore, they have not been using English for a long time

Regarding English teachers, among 10 teachers of English participating in the survey, three of them hold M.A degree; three is pursuing M.A course in ULIS, VNU The rest achieved Bachelor degree Their ages are from 26 to 36, and all of them have experienced in teaching this book for at least 2 years

2.2.3.1 Questionnaire

According to Litz (2005), survey questionnaire is a popular instrument in the social science as it is helpful in collecting opinions and would be extremely beneficial

in specifying aims and analyzing the teaching and learning situations There are a lot

of advantages, but the most obvious one maybe that the respondents can complete

them under no pressure As a result, they can express their thoughts freely In addition, close-ended questions are straight forward to answer (Gillham, 2000) In this study, one questionnaire was used for students to collect their attitude and information on evaluation of the currently used material “English Unlimited A1” It is divided into 4 sections with 32 questions answered according to five levels of agreement: strongly disagreed, disagreed, neutral, agreed and strongly agreed

Section 1 includes 8 questions to collect students’ opinions of the levels of difficulty

of the material and the reasons for their ideas

Section 2 with 10 questions aims at discovering the students’ statements as well as

evaluation on the aimrequirements of the textbook

Section 3 with 8 questions tries to find out whether students satisfy with the content

presented in the material or not

Section 4 consists of 6 questions designed to gather students’ judgment about the

current course book in term of methodology

The questionnaire is summarized in detail as follows:

Sections Types of information Question

4

The combination of learning theories Q 26 Kinds of tasks/ exercises Q 28, 29 Teaching and learning techniques Q 30 The language skills and methodology Q31 Methodological guidance Q 32

Table 2.1: Types of information in the student questionnaire

2.2.3.2 Interview

The purpose of the interview is to collect supplementary ideas of teachers after collecting answers from the above student questionnaire Johnson (1992:115) states that response rates from interview can be quite high, and respondents are more likely

to answer the questions presented because of their personal involvement with the interviewer Therefore, the interviewer can obtain more meaningful information because he or she can rephrase questions that are not clear to the respondents

For these reasons, the second method used in this study is informal interview The interview conducted with ten teachers of English at TL Canon factory consists of eight questions carefully designed and selected in advance to find out the teachers’ opinions of the match of the textbook with students’ level and the appropriateness and inappropriateness of the course book in terms of aims, contents and methodology

to beginners at TL Canon factory

1.3 Data collection procedure

2.3.1 Document analysis

Document analysis is an important instrument to collect data for the thesis Although there are a lot of parts evaluated in the material, in the framework of the study, the author pays much attention to the analysis of the course book “English Unlimited A1” in terms of its relevance to the appropriateness of the material to the students’ level as well as the aims, content, methodology requirements of the course

2.3.2 Student questionnaire

The research is carried out to collect the data by using the questionnaire for students First, the researcher developed the questionnaire basing on the criteria selected with regard to three main aspects Then, the students’ survey was administrated in the end of class meeting of the course They were encouraged to give their true answers The students were requested to complete the questionnaire during the class time so that they were more willing to do it and could be clarified the ambiguous questions (if any) and then could return all the questionnaires immediately

to the teacher Finally, data collected from questionnaire would be sorted and analyzed statistically in the form of tables to get answers for two research questions 2.3.3 Teacher interview

Also, teachers are asked to answer interviewed questions directly with the researcher Participants in the interview are 10 teachers teaching English Communicative course at TL Canon factory with the aim of collecting more data for this study Each interview lasted appropriately 15 minutes, and the answers were collected by note-taking The interview was conducted during the course, short breaks, after each lesson or in teachers’ meetings After collecting the data from teachers and students, it was summarized by hand and categorized under the tables

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION This chapter discusses the results of the study through student questionnaire, teacher interview, and document analysis First, the author will present the answers of the first research question based on the results of three instruments Similarly, the findings of the second research question will be analyzed and summarized in section two Finally, the researcher will suggest recommendations for the book’s adaptation 4.1 The appropriateness of the material to the students’ level of English

4.1.1 Document analysis

To examine whether the material is appropriate to students’ level or not, the researcher has made a comparison between the level of the students and that of the course book’s intended audience

As mentioned in the previous chapter, the book “English Unlimited A1” is designed for an elementary level English course which is intended for adults who want to learn English for communicative purposes Therefore, the material is quite agreeable to the level of the targeted students at TL Canon factory who have attended the course However, the levels of different learners are not similar due to the different background of knowledge They could graduate from high school, from college, or from university They have been arranged in an elementary class because they have the same result in the entrance test In addition, staffs use English more frequently than workers especially written English because they have to exchange information via email with their boss in English or write reports to hand in every week As a result, they have a little chance to use verbal English

4.1.2 Results from the survey

4.1.2.1 Teacher interview

The results collected from the interview with ten teachers of English are shown in the two tables below (Table 4.1 and Table 4.2):

No Teachers’ ideas Number of choice Percentage

1 The material is for elementary level 10 100%

2 The material is relevant to your students’

Grammar Vocabulary Pronunciation Speaking Listening Writing Reading

Number of

choice

Table 4.2: Teachers’ opinions of the difficulty of different parts in the material

Table 4.2 indicates the teachers’ answers to question 4 in the interview It can

be seen from the table that more than half of teachers (60% and 50% respectively) thought that Listening and Reading are little difficult for students while they found other parts of the material is relatively appropriate for the students’ level