Đánh giá tài liệu tiếng anh chuyên ngành english for international tourism dành cho sinh viên khoa du lịch trường đ

A survey on the teachers' and students' opinions about the extent to which the material meets the requirements of the course in terms of the aims, content and methodology is conducted..

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

-

NGUYỄN THỊ THÙY LINH

AN EVALUATION OF THE ESP MATERIAL “ENGLISH FOR INTERNATIONAL TOURISM” FOR STUDENTS OF TOURISM DEPARTMENT AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY

ĐÁNH GIÁ TÀI LIỆU TIẾNG ANH CHUYÊN NGÀNH “ENGLISH FOR INTERNATIONAL TOURISM” DÀNH CHO SINH VIÊN KHOA DU LỊCH

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC CÔNG NGHIỆP HÀ NỘI

M.A MINOR THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60 14 01 11

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

-

NGUYỄN THỊ THÙY LINH

AN EVALUATION OF THE ESP MATERIAL “ENGLISH FOR INTERNATIONAL TOURISM” FOR STUDENTS OF TOURISM DEPARTMENT AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY

ĐÁNH GIÁ TÀI LIỆU TIẾNG ANH CHUYÊN NGÀNH “ENGLISH FOR INTERNATIONAL TOURISM” DÀNH CHO SINH VIÊN KHOA DU LỊCH

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC CÔNG NGHIỆP HÀ NỘI

M.A MINOR THESIS

Hanoi, 2015

DECLARATION

I hereby, certify that the minor thesis entitled “An evaluation of the ESP

material ‘English for International Tourism’ for students of Tourism Department

at Hanoi University of Industry” is the result of my own research; and that it has

not been submitted for a higher degree to any other universities or institutions I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library can be accessible for the purposes of study and research

Hanoi, 2015

Nguyễn Thị Thùy Linh

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am, first of all, greatly indebted to my thesis supervisor, Dr Ngô Tự Lập, for encouraging me to complete this work Without his valuable instructions, comments, criticisms and corrections this thesis would be impossible Special thanks go to my lecturers of Post Graduate Department for their useful lectures

My appreciation and gratitude are also extended to all my colleagues and students who have stimulated and guided my thinking during the time I did this research

Last but not least, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my parents whose love and encouragement have been equally important to my educational endeavors, and especially to my husband and my son who has helped me to ease the burden of the work

ABSTRACT

Materials evaluation is very important for language teaching and learning since no textbook or set of materials is perfect This thesis was carried out to evaluate the ESP material which is currently in use for the students in Department

of Tourism at HaUI The research findings are expected to give suggestions for the adaptation of the material in the near future with an ambition to improve the effectiveness of the teaching and the learning English at HaUI

The data collection instruments in this study were questionnaires, interview and the document analysis The material in use is analyzed according to the criteria listed in Hutchinson and Waters’ objective analysis process A survey on the teachers' and students' opinions about the extent to which the material meets the requirements of the course in terms of the aims, content and methodology is conducted Finally, the findings from the analyses and the surveys are discussed

The result of the thesis revealed some strength and weaknesses of the material It was found that the material basically met the course objectives in terms

of aims, content and methodology

Based on the findings, the thesis suggests that adaptation should be made to overcome its weaknesses so that the students can benefit in the future course

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

Figure 1: Types of ESP (Kennedy and Bolitho, 1984)

Figure 2: The materials evaluation model proposed by McDonough & Shaw (1993:75)

Figure 3: The materials evaluation model proposed by Littlejohn (1998:3)

Figure 4: The materials evaluation model proposed by Hutchinson & Waters (1987:98)

Table 1: The students' opinions on the aims of the material

Table 2: Students' opinions on the difficulty of the material

Table 3: Students' opinions on the usefulness of the material

Table 4: Tourism teachers' opinions on the material

Table 5: English teachers' opinions on methodology

Table 6: Students' opinions on the activities

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ESP: English for Specific Purposes

GE: General English

ELT: English Language Teaching

HaUI: Hanoi University of Industry

EOP: English for Occupational Purposes

EAP: English for Academic Purposes

EST: English for Science and Technology

TABLE OF CONTENT

DECLARATION 1

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS v

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Practical background of the research 1

3 Aims of the study 2

4 Research question 2

5 Scope of the study 2

6 Methods of the study 3

7 Organization 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1.1 An overview of ESP 4

1.1.1 Definitions of ESP 4

1.1.2 Types of ESP 5

1.2 Materials evaluation 6

1.2.1 Definitions of materials evaluation 6

1.2.2 Reasons for materials evaluation 6

1.2.3 Types of materials evaluation 7

1.2.4 Approaches to materials evaluation 8

1.2.4.1 Cunningsworth’s approach 8

1.2.4.2 McDonough and Shaw’s approach 8

1.2.4.3 Littlejohn’s approach 9

1.2.4.4 Hutchinson and Waters’s approach 10

1.2.5 Summary 12

1.2.6 Criteria for materials evaluation 13

1.3 Previous studies 14

1.4 Summary 16

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 18

Chapter 2 begins with the description of the research method It then specifies the data collection tools, the subject, and the data collection procedures 18

2.1 Data collection instruments 18

2.1.1 Document analysis 18

2.1.2 Questionnaires 18

2.1.3 Interview 19

2.1.3.1 Interview questions for English language teachers 19

2.1.3.2 Interview questions for teachers in department of Tourism 19

2.2 Subjects 19

2.3 Data collection process 20

2.4 Summary 21

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 22

3.1 The appropriateness of the material to the aims of the course 22

3.1.1 Aims of the course 22

3.1.2 English teachers’ interview results 22

3.1.3 Students’ questionnaire result 22

3.2 The appropriateness of the material to the content requirements of the course 24

3.2.1 Material analysis results 24

3.2.2 The content requirements of the course 25

3.2.3 Teachers’ interview results 25

3.2.4 Students’ questionnaire results 26

3.2.4.1 The difficulty 26

3.2.4.2 The usefulness 27

3.2.5 Tourism teachers’ questionnaire results 29

3.3 The appropriateness of the material to the methodology requirements of the course 29

3.3.1 Methodology implied in the syllabus 29

3.3.2 Methodology implied in the material 30

3.3.3 Teachers’ interview result 30

3.3.4 Students’ questionnaire result 31

3.4 Suggestions for the material improvement 32

3.4.1 Teachers’ interview result 32

3.4.2 Students’ questionnaire result 33

3.5 Summary 33

3.5.1 Strengths 33

3.5.1.1 Good selection of authentic texts of different topics 33

3.5.1.2 Grammatical structures and grammar 34

3.5.1.3 Writing skills 34

3.5.2 Weaknesses 34

3.5.2.1 Language skills 34

3.5.2.2 Supporting materials 35

3.5.2.3 Methodology implied in types of tasks/exercises: 35

PART C: CONCLUSION 36

1 Summary of the study 36

2 Recommendations 37

2.1 On the ESP materials 37

2.1.1 Areas for adaptation 37

2.1.2 Techniques for adaptation 37

2.2 On the requirements of the course 38

3 Limitations and suggestions for further study 38

REFERENCES 40 APPENDICES I APPENDIX 1 II APPENDIX 2 VIII APPENDIX 3 XI APPENDIX 4 XII APPENDIX 5 XIV APPENDIX 6 XX

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Today, English is used in a wide variety of fields such as technology, medicine, education, science, economics, etc, so it is becoming more and more important In Vietnam, English has been taught as a subject in schools and there are also a large number of English materials being used In recent years, Vietnam is applying the student-centered approach in language teaching As a matter of fact, curriculum, materials, teaching methods, and evaluation should all be designed for learners and their needs As a result, English for Specific Purposes (ESP) materials relating to different fields become more and more popular

Materials determine both learning and teaching, so choosing an appropriate material is very important However, the more various the ESP materials are, the more difficult it is to choose an appropriate material for the teaching and learning Different materials have different strengths and weaknesses, so evaluation is a necessary process to help teachers also learners select a good material to follow Therefore, evaluation plays as a key role in educational research and development

As a matter of fact, English materials used to teach the non- English major students

at HaUI have never been evaluated Although at the beginning of each new school year, there are always some activities for clarifying aims of the textbooks and the target results of teaching and learning, many parts in the lessons do not match with HaUI’s teaching and learning condition Many students complaint that while they expect to improve their four English skills - listening, speaking, reading and writing, English materials used as ESP material for the ESP course of Tourism department at

HaUI “ English for International Tourism” focuses much on speaking and listening

In addition, the last year students are required to take TOEIC test (which consists of reading and listening only) and get 450 TOEIC score to graduate from the university These concerns arising from the researcher’s teaching experience, which

encourages the researcher to carry out the following research: “To what extent does

the “English for International Tourism (pre-intermediate)” satisfy the requirements of an English language course at HaUI in terms of aims, content and methodology?”

2 Practical background of the research

 The English programs of Tourism department at Hanoi University of Industry (HaUI)

The English courses for the non-major students at HaUI are divided into four stages: In the first year (the first two semesters), they have to complete 120 forty-

five minute periods of general English with the course book “New Headway-

elementary” written by Liz and John Soars In the second year, they have other 120

forty-five minute periods of general English with “New Headway-pre-

intermediate” written by Liz and John Soars In the third year, they had 120

forty-five minute periods with the books “Real listening and speaking 2” and

“Understanding English pronunciation” For the last year, the students need to finish 75 forty-five minute periods with the book “English for International

Tourism- Pre Intermediate” written by Dubicka and O’Keeffe (2003)

 The English teaching material

For the last year students of tourism department at HAUI, “English for International Tourism Pre- Intermediate” written by Dubicka and O’Keeffe (2003) has been used as the principal material since 2012 It contains 15 units; each unit is organized by a set pattern of components: language focus, vocabulary, and professional practice The first component, language focus, introduces some useful grammatical structures In the vocabulary section, a number of words on different topics are given in reading, listening and speaking tasks In addition, the students also have to practice pronunciation with sounds, word stress, ending sounds or intonation In the last component, professional practice, the students are offered opportunities to practice in situations related to tourism

3 Aims of the study

The main purpose of this study is to evaluate the ESP material “English for

International Tourism Pre- Intermediate” to determine whether it satisfies the

requirements of the ESP course at HaUI in terms of aims, contents and methodology, which implies what changes to be made to improve the effectiveness

of the material for future use

4 Research question

To achieve the aims of the study, the answers to the following question were

sought: To what extent does the book “English for International Tourism”

satisfy the requirements of an English language course at HaUI in terms of aims, contents and methodology?

5 Scope of the study

Evaluating a material relies on a number of criteria such as audience, aims, content and so on Given that the target learners and the pedagogical conditions at HaUI are clearly specified, for this study, the researcher focuses on the following criteria:

- Aims of the book

- Content

- Methodology (in terms of tasks and teaching - learning technique)

Due to the limited scope of a minor thesis, the researcher will invite 60 last year students to fulfill the survey questionnaires, 7 teachers (4 from the English department and 3 from the Tourism department) for interviewing (See more in the Chapter 2 - Methodology)

6 Methods of the study

The study applies both qualitative and quantitative methods In order to achieve the research’s aims, document analysis, questionnaires for the students and interview to teachers are also exploited

7 Organization

This thesis includes three parts: Introduction, Development, and Conclusion Part A: The introduction provides the rationale, the practical background, the aims, the research question, the scope, the methods and organization of the thesis Part B: The development consists of three chapters:

Chapter one: Literature Review begins with an overview of ESP in language

teaching, and then presents major issues in materials evaluation, including definition of materials evaluation, reasons for materials evaluation, types of materials evaluation and approaches to materials evaluation Research instruments employed in materials evaluation are also discussed The chapter ends with a picture

of previous works, both abroad and in Vietnam, on the topic

Chapter two: Methodology - describes the choice of methodology adopted

in the study, the data collection instruments, the subjects, as well as the data collection procedures

Chapter three: Data Analysis and Discussion - discusses the findings of the

study, pointing out the strengths and weaknesses of the material

Part C: Recommendations and Conclusion - suggests solutions to improve the material, as well as directions for further research and concludes the study

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW The first part of this chapter is an overview of the ESP, theories concerning the evaluation of the ESP material In the first part, an overview of the ESP course

is introduced The next part defines materials evaluation and discusses reasons for materials evaluation, types of materials evaluation, as well as approaches to materials evaluation The chapter ends with the review of some previous evaluation projects

1.1 An overview of ESP

The growing demand for teaching and learning of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) often comes from groups of learners who have already completed a general course and want to learn English for particular reasons connected to their studies and their jobs However, there is still confusion between teaching English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and teaching specialist subjects due to the lack of understanding what ESP means and what characterizes the ESP For this reason, some concepts related to ESP should be made clear before the designing of an ESP course

1.1.1 Definitions of ESP

There are various definitions of ESP made by researchers with focuses on the elements that characterize ESP Focusing on the primary needs in ESP related to the learners, the language required and the learning context, Hutchinson & Waters (1987) see ESP as an approach, but not as a product While discussing what is criteria to ESP, Robinson (1991, p.3) points out that an ESP course is based on a needs analysis, which aims to specify as closely as possible what exactly it is that students have to do through the medium of English Actually, learners’ aim of learning ESP is not only for a general examination but also for their own study The learners of ESP usually study to perform a role In other words, they are considered

to be successful in ESP if they can perform convincingly a role and works well in their job

All in all, the authors above agree that ESP can be seen as an approach to teaching which specifies what the learners need and take the learner’s needs into consideration Therefore, in my opinion, an ESP course also should be designed in such a way that the teachers have to take much concern on the learners’ needs so that the learners are able to study English purposefully and efficiently

1.1.2 Types of ESP

There are many types of ESP A major distinction is often drawn between EOP (English for Occupational Purposes), EAP (English for Academic Purposes), and EST (English for Science and Technology)

In discussing EOP, Kennedy and Bolitho (1984) point out:

English for Occupational Purposes (EOP) is taught in a situation in which

learners need to use English as a part of their work or profession Instances

of EOP students would be doctors in casualty or technicians servicing equipment They need English in the first case, to talk and respond to patients and other staff, and in the second, to read technical manuals (p.5)

English for Academic Purposes (EAP) is taught generally within educational

institutions to students in need of English for their studies The language taught may

be based on particular disciplines at high levels of education when students are specializing (in - study) or intends to specialize (pre- study) in a particular subject For example, an overseas student studying for a high degree at a British University will need to master language skills such as listening to lectures, taking notes, writing reports, and reading text books so that these skills will help him understand the subject matter easily and precisely

English for Science and Technology (EST) is an important aspect of ESP

program The term EST presupposes a stock of vocabulary items, grammatical forms, and functions which are common to the study of Science and Technology

Below is a classification of ESP quoted by Kennedy from Strevens (1977)

To sum up, a large number of various types have painted an overall picture

of the main groups of learners who certainly take much concern of teachers The diagram shows the first step for the teachers to analyze and design an ESP course 1.2 Materials evaluation

1.2.1 Definitions of materials evaluation

Materials evaluation is one of the key components of the process of curriculum development So far, a number of definitions of materials evaluation have been made by different researchers They all have tried to provide a more comprehensive and inclusive definition

Materials evaluation is a process with "attempts to measure the value of materials" or "the systematic appraisal of the value of materials in relation to their objectives and to the objectives of the learners using them" (Tomlinson, 1998:3) In other words, materials evaluation can be considered as a principle process of providing useful information about the targeted materials in order to select and develop them in a reliable and valid way

Material evaluation is a complete process "which begins with determining what information to gather and ends with bringing about change in current activities

or influencing future one" (Dudley-Evans and St John, 1998:128)

In general, materials evaluation involves the determination of what needs to

be evaluated, the objectives and requirements of the materials and the judgments of the value of the materials being evaluated in relation to the objectives and requirements determined

1.2.2 Reasons for materials evaluation

There may be various reasons why materials should be carefully evaluated According to Cunningsworth (op cit.), for example, there are two reasons for evaluation: (1) the intention to adopt new coursebooks; (2) identifying the points of strengths and weaknesses

According to Ellis (1997), firstly, there may be a need to select among the resources available the most suitable materials to use for particular group of students in a particular context Secondly, there can be a need to determine whether the selected or designed material works well to fulfill the intended purposes after being used for a period of time

In short, the purposes of materials evaluation are to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the materials to select or develop the materials Because materials are

considered as a key component of the language-teaching program, it is obviously necessary that materials be evaluated periodically so that they do not become stale with the particular program involved In this research, materials evaluation aims at pointing out the strength, weaknesses of the materials and also the appropriateness

of using the material in teaching at HaUI

1.2.3 Types of materials evaluation

Based on the discussion of various scholars, Robinson (1991:59) classifies materials evaluation into three types: preliminary, summative and formative The first two are more likely to focus on published or at least completed materials and the third focuses on in-house materials

According to Robinson (1991), preliminary evaluation takes place before an ESP course begins and involves selecting the most appropriate from the publications that are available It is obviously useful in this case to have some sort

of checklist of features which one wants the textbook to have and to rank these in order of priority

In contrast to preliminary evaluation, summative (performance evaluation) takes place at the end of the course and addresses the question of whether the materials have been effective Other methods include use of a checklist and use of questionnaires

Formative or revision evaluation is conducted while the course is on-going,

so that modification can be made to the materials Revision evaluation of language teaching materials has received very little attention in the past, and relatively little is known about the usefulness of certain techniques This still seems to be the case The main techniques used with performance evaluation are tests and questionnaires, plus interviews

Ellis (1997) introduces two new terms related to types of materials evaluation: predictive and retrospective Predictive evaluation is design to make a decision regarding what materials to use while retrospective evaluation examines the materials that have actually been used

Recently, Tomlinson (1998:3) has referred to three notions; pre-use, use and post-use when classifying types of materials evaluation Pre-use evaluation predicts whether or not materials will work While-use evaluation examines how materials really work in the classroom and post-use evaluation aims to find out how actually effective they are

All in all, although different terms are used to indicate the types of materials evaluation, they are basically similar Of these evaluation types, the formative and summative materials evaluation can only be meaningful determined after a period of classroom use In this study, the researcher uses formative or revision evaluation to evaluate the book “English for International Tourism” while it is on-going at HaUI 1.2.4 Approaches to materials evaluation

Because of the importance and necessity of materials evaluation, an urgent question has been raised: How to evaluate materials systematically and accurately?

So far there have been different approaches of materials evaluation proposed by different authors Each one has its own strengths and weaknesses

1.2.4.1 Cunningsworth’s approach

Cunningsworth (1995) suggested that teaching materials should be investigated from the following perspectives: language content; selection and grading of language items, presentation and practice of new language items, developing language skills and communication abilities; supporting materials; and motivation and the learners

According to Cunningsworth, evaluating the material’s language content means finding out what aspects of language system (form, function, etc), language skills, and language styles are taught in the material as well as the social context

Checking the presentation and practice of new language items means finding out how the new grammatical and lexical items are presented and practiced in the material as well as the comments on these presentation and practice

As for developing language skills and communicative abilities, it is necessary to find out the comments made on the material about the nature of reading texts or listening material with accompanying exercises or natural of writing exercises included in the material Moreover, activities carried out during the lesson such as activities for free production of spoken English or integrating language skills must also be taken into account

1.2.4.2 McDonough and Shaw’s approach

McDonough and Shaw (1993) suggest that materials evaluation can be carried out in two complementary stages called external and internal stages The purpose of the first stage - external evaluation - is “to gain an overview of the organization principles involved The evaluating criteria for this first stage are intended audience, proficiency level, language context, presentation of language

items, role and availability of teachers” books, table of content, inclusion of vocabulary list, use of visuals and presentation, cultural specificity, and so on

After the first stage, the authors suggest moving on to a detailed internal evaluation which examines such criteria as: the treatment and presentation of the skills, sequencing and grading of the materials, types of macro skills (reading, listening, etc) contained in the materials appropriateness of tests and exercises, self-study provision, and teacher - learner “balance” in use of the materials

The purpose of the second stage is to see how far the materials in question match up to what the author claims and to the aims and objectives of a given teaching program Based on the analysis of the claims made on the above criteria by concerned people like the author, the publisher, teachers, students, sponsors, etc, teachers’ conclusions regarding the suitability of the materials for specific groups or individuals can then be reached

From figure 2, it can be seen that if the external evaluation shows that the materials are potentially appropriate, the internal stage will be carried out, which is time-saving If the external stage show that the materials are inappropriate, it is not necessary to conduct the next stage However, when the claims made by the author are not detailed enough, an internal evaluation also needs to be carried out though the external stage shows that the materials are not appropriate

aspects of design and aspects of publication The next stage is matching and evaluation which helps the evaluator to figure out how appropriate the aspects of design and aspects of publication to the target situation of use are In the action stage, what can be done to improve the materials such as materials adoption, reject, adaptation, supplementation, etc will be carried out

Analysis of the target situation of use

The culture context

The institution

The course (proposed aims, content,

methodology and means of evaluation)

The teachers

The learners

Materials analysis From analysis:

* What is their explicit nature?

* What is required of users?

* What is implied by their use?

To description:

Aspects of design Aspects of publication

Match and evaluation How appropriate are the aspects of design and aspects of publication to the target situation of use?

Action Adopt the materials Reject the materials Adapt the materials Supplement the materials Make the materials a critical object

Figure 3: The materials evaluation model proposed by Littlejohn (1998:3)

1.2.4.4 Hutchinson and Waters’s approach

Hutchinson and Waters (1987) divide the evaluation process into four major steps: Defining criteria; Subjective analysis; Objective analysis; Matching

In the first step, the criteria for evaluation are determined In other words, it

is making clear from which perspectives the material will be looked at Obviously, different evaluators with different evaluative purposes will need to use different sets

of criteria as discussed in the previous part Thus, the selection of criteria would

focus much on these features so as to make the evaluation more accurate and pertinent to the given context

The second step - subjective analysis - is the analysis of the course in terms

of materials requirements under the defined criteria As suggested by Hutchinson and Waters (1987) the course can be analyzed in terms of its learners (age, English level, educational background, interests, etc) and its objectives Then from the results the requirements of the material are specified in terms of content and methodology With such types of learners and to meet such goals, the material should follow what kind of language description, cover what language points and skills, in what proportion, in what sequence, etc Also from the analysis of the course’s learners and objectives, the requirements of the material’s methodology are made clear, for example, the kinds of tasks and exercises needed, kinds of teaching techniques to be used, aspects of learners’ attitudes to and expectation about learning to be taken into consideration, etc In other words, the subjective analysis brings a detailed description of the ideal material for the learners and the course

The next step - objective analysis - is the analysis of the materials being evaluated under the defined criteria Once again the questions about the target learners, aims, content and methodology are answered not for the sake of course analysis but for the sake of the material analysis (What exactly are there in the material? What are its actual aims? What are there in its content? What teaching

methodology is used in the material) From the answers to these questions, there comes a detailed description of the material

In the last step of the process the two analyses are put into comparison to find out whether they match up to each other and if not, to what extents they do not match up Based on the results, good aspects as well as problematic parts of the material can be identified, which may suggest necessary modifications of the material to make it as close to the ideal material as possible Figure 4 can illustrate the process:

1.2.5 Summary

The four approaches presented above suggest four options to carry out materials evaluation Certainly, which model to choose depends upon the evaluators' purposes

McDonough and Shaw’s procedure comprises the external and internal

evaluation, which urges evaluators to use their model to select appropriate teaching materials through the external and internal evaluation Whereas the external evaluation provides an overview of the materials organization, the internal evaluation performs an in-depth investigation in the materials to analyze the extent

to which the materials match the aims of the materials or the objectives of a given teaching program

Littlejohn’s approach requires evaluators to both examine different sections

of the materials and move through three different levels of analysis His model proposes an open procedure in which the evaluators can investigate the internal character of the materials and the situation in which they will be used, making their own personal judgment and act accordingly Consequently, the model helps administrators; teachers and learners take more control over the materials

Hutchinson and Waters (1987) suggest the model for materials evaluation that is composed of subjective analysis and objective analysis The most distinguishing point in the model is the clear-cut description of the stages and criteria which are presented more systematically than McDonough and Shaw's working model and more simply than Littlejohn's framework It can help evaluators

to visualize what must be done to analyze the materials in comparison with the course requirements In addition, the guidelines offer a straightforward analytical matching process to those who are going to do evaluation research In the ESP

teaching and learning context, this model proves to be more appropriate than the others

For this reason, the approach of Hutchinson and Waters (1987) will be

applied in this study However, since the target material was designed for students

of Tourism, its audience is rather clearly defined The evaluation, therefore, put more priority on material’s aims, content and methodology

1.2.6 Criteria for materials evaluation

Evaluation means making judgment, so there must be checklists for comparative purpose Checklists for materials evaluation determine which perspectives of the materials should be taken into consideration Up to now different checklists have been developed in order to make the task of evaluating materials more efficient and accurate Brown (1995) emphasizes that whether materials are developed, adapted or adopted, thorough study is very important and necessary to determine the suitability of the materials for a course Thus he shows a very helpful checklist for evaluating textbooks used in a course The most crucial criteria listed

in the checklist are the fitness of the textbook to the curriculum of the program including approach, syllabus, general language needs, goal and objectives, and language content, its logistical characteristics containing price, usability, and availability, and its teachability including teachers’ editions, review, and acceptability among learners The evaluators should begin considering the extent to which the materials agree with the overall approach and syllabus of the curriculum Next, s/he can focus on the degree to which the materials match the language needs

of students in a general way After that, the specific language needs and situation needs of the students should be considered After considering the most important criteria of the textbook, the evaluator can go on to examining their logistical characteristic and teachability

Another checklist for evaluation and selection of course books also given by Cunningsworth (1995) He suggests examining such aspects provided in the textbook as language content, topics, skills, methodology Examination of the language content should focus on the appropriateness of the main grammar structures and vocabulary provided in the materials to the students’ needs As for examination of skills presented in the materials, there should be answers to the questions about whether language skills are adequately covered and whether sub-skills are suitable to the course aims and the students’ level and so on According to

him, the topics of the materials should be interesting, various, able to help expand students’ awareness and enrich their experience, but not too sophisticated and unfamiliar within the students’ language level Except for examination of language content, skills and topics, questions about methodology of the materials should be found out whether they are appropriate to the learning and teaching situation of the program, what techniques, aids are used for presenting new language items, how different skills and kinds of exercises are taught

The similar checklist for materials evaluation, which the researcher will apply to this study, is given by Hutchinson and Waters (1987) These are more specific and in more detail According to Hutchinson and Waters (1987) there are four main criteria for materials evaluation which any evaluator should concern: The audience, the aims, the content, the methodology

The audience of the materials (the evaluator should check different

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

Aims of the materials (the evaluator has to check if the materials match the

aims and objectives of the course)

Content of the materials (the evaluator has to check whether the materials’

language points, macro-skills and micro-skills, topics suit the learners’ needs)

Methodology of the materials (the evaluator has to find out if techniques,

aids, guidance provided in the materials satisfy the learners and the teachers of the course

1.3 Previous studies

Until now, there have been a certain number of studies carried out by researchers on evaluating teaching materials, many of them focus on evaluating ESP materials, such as those by Saeid Najafi Sarem, Hadi Hamidi, Rezvan Mahmoudie (2013), Vo Thi Anh Dao (2003), Nguyen Thi Bich Lien (2004) and Tran Thi Thuy Nga (2005)

The most remarkable study on materials evaluation is that of Saeid Najafi Sarem, JHadi Hamidi, Rezvan Mahmoudie (2013) In this research, the authors use

case study method to evaluate the book “ English for International Tourism Pre

Intermediate” written by Dubicka and O’Keeffe (2003) for pre-intermediate

students majoring in Tourism The authors based on the evaluation checklist constructed by Daoud and Celce-Murcia (1979) to evaluate the book The checklist

analyzes and evaluates the book in five sections: subject matter, vocabulary and structures, exercises, illustrations and physical make-up Basing on this checklist, the authors evaluated the book in details with both the pros and cons The authors consulted the book with some other qualified teachers of English and piloted some activities and exercises of the book with some students, at the same level of language proficiency with that the book has determined, in Sharif Language Institute in Asadabad, Hamedan as well The results from the study lead the authors

to the decision of keep using the book for the students of Tourism Department in Sharif Language Institute in the future In order to get these results, the authors worked hard to evaluate the book in every aspects and details The strength of the study is that the authors chose a suitable checklist for evaluation However, the authors use qualitative descriptive analyses only in evaluating the book; or in other words, the evaluation of the book primarily bases on the checklist Although the authors claim that they consult the book with some teachers and also pilot the exercises with the students of pre- intermediate level, there is no interview or questionnaires employed in the study so the results of the study are not very persuasive and practical

Vo Thi Anh Dao (2003) chose the criteria proposed by Hutchinson and Waters to evaluate ESP materials for students of Husbandry and Veterinary Science

at Tay Nguyen University in terms of language level, aims, content and methodology The subjects of the study were forty second-year students and four teachers The methods used in the study were document analysis, questionnaire for students and interviews with the teachers The study was well-presented, evaluated the suitability of the materials in use to the course aims, content and methodology After collecting information from the document analysis and the survey, she concluded that the materials, when compared with the course requirements, were difficult for the students in terms of grammatical structures and lexical items However, her thesis revealed some weaknesses Her document analysis was rather simple The interview questions seemed to follow the format of a questionnaire And it would be much better if she had paid much more attention to examine the methodology used at the university

Another study that also based on criteria proposed by Hutchinson and Waters was carried out by Nguyen Thi Bich Lien (2004) The purpose of the study was to find out whether the course book Lifelines Pre-intermediate was appropriate to the

program and the students' needs in terms of aims, content and methodology The subjects of the study were 100 third-year students and seven teachers of Foreign Languages Department in Hanoi Junior Teachers' Training College The author realized that after matching, actions of adopting, rejecting, adapting, supplementing are important for a complete evaluation process So a combination model of Littlejohn and Hutchinson was the most suitable one for her study The methods used in the study were document analysis, questionnaire for the students and interviews with the teachers

Tran Thi Thuy Nga (2005), in her own thesis, recommended criteria for the adaptation of the English material for the first and second-year marine students at NhaTrang navy academy after carrying out document analysis and conducting a questionnaire survey for teachers and students, using Hutchinson and Waters's framework for materials evaluation She concluded that the materials generally satisfied the requirements of the course However, the materials still revealed several weaknesses that need modification The biggest mismatch of the material in relation to the course requirements is the inappropriate treatment of the reading component A number of reading texts followed by easy comprehension questions

do not help the students to develop their reading skills The reading tasks do not offer the students the opportunity to make use of their personal knowledge, ideas and opinions to tackle the texts The next mismatch of the material falls into the treatment of pronunciation elements including sounds, stress and intonation

The strength of Tran Thi Thuy Nga's study is that her research methodology helps ensure the reliability of the evaluative results through using document analysis and questionnaires

From the above-mentioned studies, it can be concluded that the major purpose of conducting an evaluation of teaching materials is to evaluate the effectiveness of the material in use or its suitability to the course aims It is also found that the criteria for evaluation may differ to some extent from situation to situation but generally they can be grouped into the five criteria defined by Hutchinson and Waters: Audience, Aims, Content, Methodology and Other criteria

It is also found out that Document analysis, Questionnaire and Interviews seem to

be popular methods to collect the data for materials evaluation

1.4 Summary

This chapter has dealt with different theoretical issues, which should be taken into consideration in the work of evaluating ESP materials The instructional approaches to materials evaluation are the focus in this chapter Issues related to

material evaluation which work out the role of material in ELT, the definition and types of evaluation, reasons for evaluating material are discussed It is also made clear in this part the evaluative criteria and process to carry out an evaluation of a teaching material It is certain that this review can help the author of this study to do

an evaluation research on materials evaluation

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY Chapter 2 begins with the description of the research method It then specifies the data collection tools, the subject, and the data collection procedures 2.1 Data collection instruments

To evaluate the book “English for International Tourism”, the employment

of document analysis, questionnaires and interview is used

2.1.1 Document analysis

The ESP material being used by students of Tourism department at HaUI,

“English for International Tourism”, will be analyzed based on the defined criteria

to give a description of what are there in the material The material includes 15 units and is used for the last year students of Tourism department at HaUI The analysis

is based on the criteria for materials evaluation established by Hutchinson and Waters (1987) In the first step, the author analyses the aims set in the course book

as well as the content of the book Another examination point is methodology focusing on the activities set in the book and teaching/learning techniques suggested

by the author of the book

The questionnaire explores students’ opinions on the Aims of the material, Content, Methodology and material improvement It employs likert scales (1= strongly agree, 2 = agree, 3 = not sure, 4 = disagree, 5 = strongly disagree) in most

of the key questions The first six questions investigate the aims of the material The next part aims to find out what the students think about the difficulty level and the usefulness of the material In the third part, questions related to the teaching/learning techniques are presented and the last part is about suggestions for the material improvement The language used in the questionnaires is English

because the respondents are the last year students in department of Tourism so their English is good enough to understand the questionnaires However, to avoid unexpected misunderstanding, before delivering the questionnaires to the respondents, the author went through the questions with the respondents and gave help when necessary

2.1.3 Interview

Interview is employed to get information from teachers of Tourism faculty and English language teachers All questions for interviewing teachers of Tourism and English department are in English

2.1.3.1 Interview questions for English language teachers

The interview questions for English language teachers are composed of four parts (Appendix 3) Part one investigates the aims of the materials in relation to the course aims Part two is concerned with their opinions about the content of the material Part three searches the information on the methodology implied in the materials While part four asks for suggestions for the content and methodology improvement

2.1.3.2 Interview questions for teachers in department of Tourism

There are two questions for the interviews with Tourism teachers (Appendix 4) The first questions are concerned with the teachers' opinions about the relevance

of the topics in the material while the next one asks the subjects to evaluate how to-date the content of the texts is

up-2.2 Subjects

The subjects/evaluators of the research include three groups, (1) the students responding the questionnaire, (2) English teachers, (3) teachers in department of Tourism attending the interviews

The first group:

English language teachers: HaUI has a staff of 120 English language

teachers, aged from 23 to more than 40 but only four of them teach this ESP

material The four teachers have taught English for International Tourism for two

years They have already had several academic meetings discussing the issues related to the ESP syllabus and the material; therefore they are a very reliable source of data

The second group:

The teachers in the department of Tourism: One male and two female

teachers of Tourism department, who are forty, thirty six and thirty respectively,

take part in this study The youngest teacher has three years of teaching experience while the others have nine years All of them have Master degrees and have much experience because one also works for travel agents as a part- time job and the others runs travel companies

The third group:

The students: The third group of the participants consisted of 60 last year

students of Tourism department These students are from two classes which the researcher teaches, their ages range from twenty one to twenty four and most of them are females In the first year (the first two semesters) they completed 120

forty-five minute periods of general English with the course book “New Headway-

elementary” written by Liz and John Soars In the second year, they had other 120

forty-five minute periods of general English with “New Headway-pre-

intermediate” written by Liz and John Soars In the third year, they had 120 class

hours with the books “Real listening and speaking 2” and “Understanding English

pronunciation” By the time of this study, the students are going to finish 75 class

hours with the book “English for International Tourism- Pre Intermediate”

2.3 Data collection process

At first, some copies of the questionnaires were distributed to pilot subjects

to check their suitability with students and with the research purposes As all the pilot subjects understood the questions and gave complete answers, copies of the questionnaires then were distributed to the 60 students in class Tourism 1.1 and Tourism 1.2 The questionnaires were delivered to the students at the beginning of the class hour on May 20th, 2014 They were asked to return the questionnaire in the next lesson on May 22nd, 2014 After getting the questionnaires, the students were required to read through all the items and identify any points causing comprehension problems and encouraged to raise questions, then the researcher provided explanation

On the same day (May 20th, 2014), the four English teachers were interviewed to give their opinions on the material The interviews were taken place

at the English department’s office after class hours The interviews were also carried out separately with two teachers of Tourism department They were invited

to “Café Việt” near HaUI where the researcher provided them with “English for

International Tourism” and a short introduction of the content of the book This

was intended to prepare them better for the coming interviews The data from the

interviews together with the data collected from the material analysis and the questionnaires was then analyzed and discussed to give a full and detailed evaluation of the material

The researcher decided to use Vietnamese as the language of communication with the teachers in department of Tourism so the interviewees would feel more comfortable when expressing their opinions about the material During the interviews, the interviewer took notes the answers of the interviewees The interviews were not recorded because recording devices may cause hesitation among participants

2.4 Summary

This chapter has given a detailed description of the subjects of the study, means of data collection and procedure of data collection on formative evaluation The study involves four groups of subjects: (1) the last year students of Tourism department who has used the material; (2) teachers of English, who have been using the material, (3) the teachers of Tourism department and (4) the material itself The questionnaires, interviews and analysis are all based on the criteria defined in the checklist, which consists material’s aims, material’s content and material’s

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter presents and discusses the results from the document analysis, teachers' interviews and students' questionnaires The data is classified, analyzed and then discussed in terms of the Aims, Content, and Methodology

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

3.1.1 Aims of the course

The aims of the ESP course for the students of Tourism department at HaUI

as stated in the curriculum is to provide students with knowledge to apply in communication situations of Tourism such as providing guests with information about tours, answering phones, writing responds to the guests, arranging tours, etc 3.1.2 English teachers’ interview results

When asked about the aims of the material, all the four English language teachers at HaUI shared the opinion that the material aimes at providing the students

with the opportunity to practice basic grammatical structures (present simple,

present continuous, model verbs, etc) in context and vocabulary related to Tourism

(fly-drive holiday, cruise ship,…) All of four English teachers agreed that listening and speaking are the focus of the material as it is said in the Introduction of the

book “English for International Tourism” However, two out of four teachers thought that the book has not helped the students improve their listening and speaking skills because of long listening and difficult speaking tasks The other two teachers had the idea that the students have chances to practice listening and speaking tasks with life-like situations

In short, the teachers agreed that aims of the material, to some extent, matches the aims of the course, which focuses on helping the students improve their speaking and listening but relevant modifications are needed Reading tasks should

be paid more attention so that the students can improve their reading skills

3.1.3 Students’ questionnaire result

The items in the questionnaires require the students to indicate the extent to which they agreed or disagreed with the effectiveness of the material in relation to the course aims The number of copies delivered was 60; the number of copies received was 58 Two copies were not collected because the students were absent

on the day the researcher collected the questionnaires

The aims of the

material

Strongly Agree Agree

Not sure Disagree

Strongly disagree

1 The material offers

you opportunity to learn

grammar in context

0 (0%)

50 (86,2%)

8 (13,8%)

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

2 The material offers

you opportunity to

enrich vocabulary

related to tourism

15 (25,9%)

43 (74,1%)

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

3 The material offers

you opportunity to

improve your listening

with topics related to

tourism

0 (0%)

5 (8,6%)

8 (13,8%)

42 (72,4%)

3 (5,2%)

4 The material offers

you opportunity to

practice reading skills

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

50 (86,2%)

8 (13,8%)

5 The material offers

39 (67,2%)

7 (12,1%)

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

6 The material offers

you opportunity to

improve your speaking

with topics related to

tourism

0 (0%)

3 (5,2%)

0 (0%)

52 (89,7%)

3 (5,2%)

Table 1: The students' opinions on the aims of the material

Table 1 reflects that the students, to some extent, had the similar perceptions about the aims of the material as the teachers 86,2% of the students thought that the material was successful in providing the opportunity to learn grammar in context Moreover, 100% of the respondents agreed that they could enrich their vocabulary related to tourism However, a large number of students disagreed that they

improved their listening and speaking through the tasks in the book, only 8,6% of the students thought that they could improve their listening and only 5,2% of them agreed for speaking However, nearly 100% of the students strongly agreed and agreed that the book offered them opportunity to practise life-like situations related

to tourism A very high percentage of the students (86,2%) thought that they did not have opportunity to practise reading skills because in their opinions, the reading tasks are not diverse

3.2 The appropriateness of the material to the content requirements of the course

3.2.1 Material analysis results

The material analysis will be presented under Organization, Skills and Topics

The content is organized around topics of tourism with fifteen units such as

all in a day’s work, fly- drive holiday, table for two, city tours, water cities, cruise ships… In each unit there is language focus which includes many grammar

structures, vocabulary which provides words in exercises and reading texts, professional practice with functional language which provides frameworks for key customer service encounters Moreover, reading skills, speaking skills and writing skills are integrated in three main sections above After each five units, there is a consolidation which reviews language, specific vocabulary and also offers extra skill practice At the end of the book, there is a writing bank which offers detail instructions of writing some writing types and sample writings Besides, there are pair work files with role play tasks, grammar reference with structures and grammar rules However, in every unit, sections and tasks do not follow a fixed order For example, in the first lesson we come across with Speaking, Reading and Vocabulary while in the second lesson we have Speaking, Listening and Reading

“English for International Tourism” is specially used for the students who

are interested in tourism; therefore the author of the book focuses on developing communicative competence of the students rather than grammatical competence

However, in each unit, there is a section named language focus presenting

grammatical structures and grammar is always presented in context and extensively practiced speaking Reading and writing skills are paid little attention while listening and speaking skills are the focuses of the book In each unit, there are at least two listening and speaking tasks Moreover, each unit consists of professional

practice with authentic tasks, pronunciation with sounds of English and vocabulary sections also help much for speaking and listening skills

The treatment of topics in the material is appropriate in comparison with the

course requirement As the material “English for International Tourism” is

especially designed for students specialized in tourism, topics are all related to

tourism such as Fly-drive holiday in unit 2, City tours in unit 4 or Winter holiday in

unit 12 The topics deal with specialist knowledge relevant to the students’ subject

matter To take Unit 4 as an example, this unit presents exactly the subject matter

areas needs for students of Tourism in which students have to acquire such skills as give directions, give a Guided Tour and Describe a Building Thus, it can be seen that the treatment of ESP topics meets the requirement of the course

3.2.2 The content requirements of the course

According to the syllabus designer, the ESP English course at HaUI aims to equip the students with grammatical structures and vocabulary which are often used

in Tourism Moreover, throughout the book, the students can develop listening, speaking, reading, writing skills and also interpreting skills After the course, the students can use their knowledge in situations in Tourism such as providing information of tours, answering telephones, arranging tours, etc However, the content requirements in the syllabus are taken totally from the table of content in the book There is no specific syllabus given to the teachers so the content requirements

in the syllabus are not very clear In short, at a glance, the book “English for

International Tourism” seems to be perfect for the teaching and learning English at

department of Tourism at HaUI but there are some mismatches inside

3.2.3 Teachers’ interview results

This section presents the teachers' opinions on the material content categorized into Organization, Skills and Topics

Giving opinion about the organization of the materials, all the teachers agreed that the book is sensibly organized around the subject matter Each unit shows clear focus on listening and speaking skills with at least two listening and speaking tasks with communicative practice and vocabulary which facilitate the listening and speaking tasks effectively

As far as skills are concerned, all the four teachers expressed dissatisfaction with the reading skills provided because of the absence of important reading skills such as understanding author’s attitudes or differencing All of the subjects felt that

it is difficult for the students to develop speaking skills as well As the teachers said, there are just some guides for expression in the book while there are a lot of things

to do before the students can do the speaking tasks For example, there should be some model expressions in dealing with the guest’s complaints, taking the booking tours, answering the phones, etc Two teachers interviewed had the idea that more listening with the content related to the speaking tasks should be included in each unit In other words, more skill-integrated work needs to be taken into consideration As for the writing sections, all teachers agreed that the writing skill were not paid much attention in this book; however, the writing tasks were interesting with practical tasks such as writing a CV, writing a fax, writing a letter

of apology

As for the topics, all the teachers thought that most topics in the book met the learners’ interests and proficiency level Moreover, according to the teachers, the subject matter was presented topically with communicative practice such as hiring a car, planning a holiday, dealing with complaints, etc, which students most probably encounter and need to know in everyday world of tourism However, three out of four (3/4) teachers thought that some topics were not very suitable with Vietnamese

situations Take unit 12 as an example, this unit is about Winter holiday providing

the students with ski equipment, ski resorts which are not popular in Vietnam 3.2.4 Students’ questionnaire results

3.2.4.1 The difficulty

As can be seen from table 2, nearly 100% of the students thought that the grammatical structures used in the material are not difficult to understand According to the students, the grammatical points are put in contexts so the students found it easy to catch the points More than half of the students (62,1%) agreed that there were many difficult specific terms in the book but 37,9% claimed that the specific terms in the book were not difficult As for reading texts, all the students disagreed that the reading texts were long with difficult tasks They commented that the reading texts were short with quite simple exercises Moreover, 100% of the students also thought that vocabulary exercises were not difficult with mostly matching - type exercises However, a majority of the students agreed that listening tasks were long and difficult so they complained that they hardly caught all the key ideas to complete the tasks Many of the students (43,1%) found the speaking tasks complex while 25,9% thought the speaking tasks were not complex at all and the

other students (31%) were not sure whether the tasks complex or not Those 31% of the students commented that some speaking tasks with clear instructions and familiar topics were simple but the others were not Some other students claimed that they did not have enough time and vocabulary to practice the speaking as required

The difficulty of the

material

Strongly agree Agree

Not sure Disagree

Strongly disagree

1 The grammatical

structures used in the

material are difficult to

understand

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

56 (96,6%)

2 (3,4%)

2 There are many new

and difficult specific

terms

0 (0%)

36 (62,1%)

0 (0%)

22 (37,9%)

0 (0%)

3 The reading texts are

long and difficult to

understand

0 (0%)

0

32 (55,2%)

26 (44,8%)

4 The vocabulary

exercises are difficult

0 (0%)

58 (100%)

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

5 The listening is long

and difficult

35 (60,3%)

23 (39,7%)

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

6 The speaking sections

are complex

0 (0%)

25 (43,1%)

18 (31%)

15 (25,9%)

0 (0%)

Table 2: Students’ opinions on the difficulty level of the language practice

3.2.4.2 The usefulness

As shown in table 3, all the students interviewed agreed that the vocabulary

in the material corresponded to their language needs However, only 27,6% of the students agreed that the book offered opportunities to revise grammar items they have learnt before They commented that because of limited time so the teachers did