AN EVALUATION OF “INTERACTIONS ACCESS READING” USED AS a TEXTBOOK FOR EFL COLLEGE STUDENTS AT CA MAU COMMUNITY COLLEGE

1 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I certify that this thesis, entitled “An evaluation of Interactions Access Reading used as a textbook for EFL college students at Ca Mau Community College”, is my own work Except where reference is made in the text of the thesis, this thesis does not contain material published elsewhere or extracted in whole or in part from a thesis by which I have qualified for or been awarded another degree or diploma No other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the main text of the thesis Vinh City, November 2016 ABSTRACT The study evaluates the quality of the textbook Interactions Access Reading – Silver Edition for Ca Mau Community College The research was conducted in two stages: a theoretical evaluation and an empirical evaluation The theoretical evaluation was based on the researcher’s experience, expertise, and the literature on textbook evaluation The empirical evaluation was based on data collected from 11 teachers and 83 students at CMCC in the form of questionnaire and documents The questionnaire consisted of 22 grouped under main categories: the general appearance, design and illustration, accompanying materials, objectives, topic appropriateness, learning components, socio-cultural contexts, skills development, and teaching methods The evaluation sought to find out the users’ views on the textbook, its impact on users and the users’ recommendations for improvement The findings were generally in favor of the textbook except for the cover sheet, difficulty of the activities and tasks is appropriate at learners’ level, the material for listening, speaking and natural pronunciation The category that had the highest percentage was the one on teaching methods, while the category that had the lowest mean was the one on learning components The findings also revealed that there were no significant differences between the results of the two populations of the study - teachers and students And the study concluded with recommendations and suggestions for the improvement of the textbook ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Firstly, I would like to express my appreciation and deeply-felt words to all those concerned in my thesis Secondly, my sincere gratitude goes to my supervisor, Assoc Prof., Ph.D Ngo Dinh Phuong, who read my manuscript with great care and devotion, gave thoughtful and insightful comments, and provided me with invaluable support and relevant materials in the preparation and completion this thesis, thus asserting his indispensable role as a wholehearted supervisor I would not have finished my study without his enthusiastic guidance and constructive critical questions to help me think over the problems Then my special thanks are reserved for my LA classmates, who shared the happiness and difficulties with me during the course I will never forget the time I studied with them, as siblings in a nice family I am also grateful to the managing board, the English teaching staff, and the students in the academic year of 2015-2016 at Ca Mau Community College, whose willingness, enthusiasm, and encouragement supported me so much Last but not least, words cannot reveal my appreciation to my family Without their endless love, I could never overcome all the difficulties facing my life TABLE OF CONTENT LIST OF TABLES ABBREVIATIONS CLT: Communicative Language Teaching CMCC: Ca Mau Community college ELT: English language teaching IELTS: International English Language Testing System LA: Long An L1: First Language L2: Second Language MoET: Ministry of Education and Training PPP: Presentation – Practice – Production TOEFL: Test of English as a Foreign Language CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION This part will introduce the problem leading to the study, purpose, scope, method, and organization of the study 1.1 Rationale Since English is considered as today’s language of international commerce and transaction, Viet Nam cannot afford to be left out while its neighbors and countries around the world are improving their English literacy English enables people in the world to communicate with each other as well as business and establish diplomacy, irrespective of any political systems, races and religions Since 1986, the Vietnamese government initiated an “open door” policy to establish diplomatic relations with countries all over the world, English has been more important than ever Many English textbooks have been used in Viet Nam in general and in Ca Mau Community college in particular However, the question “How to make English teaching and learning effective?” remains a concern for the government, educational officials, administrators and teachers Most curriculum and textbooks reform over the years have required to make a critical re-examination of aims, goals, objectives, method and materials In fact, one school of thought in curriculum development states that the achieved curriculum is the effective one To determine whether or not the curriculum is achieved, evaluation is the measure Evaluation, therefore, is a key factor in curriculum development and implementation Besides, materials evaluation is an educational necessity because it shows how a textbook can be improved or justified Teaching materials have a direct influence on the process of learning and teaching Nunan (1988) states that: materials are, in fact, an essential element within the curriculum, and more than simply lubricate the wheels of learning At their best, they provide concrete models for desirable classroom practice They act as curriculum models and at their very best they fulfill a teacher development role (Nunan, 1988, p 98) The reasons above motivated the researcher to evaluate the English language textbook studied at CMCC The significance of this choice is that this textbook has been used at CMCC for a long time and evaluating it will be an urgent need and of a great value The evaluation can provide a reference for the subsequent revisions and improvement of certain aspects of this fundamental textbook and related material as well Another reason is that this book constitutes the curriculum for English language education in CMCC Although it is true that many studies have dealt with evaluating English textbooks, these are still inadequate, and there have so far been no studies evaluating this Interactions Access Reading textbook in CMCC The current study is an attempt to evaluate Interactions Access Reading textbook, which is the first in the series, for beginners of English; a related objective is to establish a basic foundation for the evaluation of the other textbooks in the series 1.2 Aims and objectives of the study Given the background together with its gap as identified and presented above, this study aims to investigate the strengths and weaknesses of reading materials in the Interactions Access Reading textbook to help improve the quality of English teaching and learning in CMCC 1.3 Research questions To achieve the aim articulated above, this thesis will try to find the information to answer the following research question: What is the quality of the textbook? Is it appropriate to language teaching and the learning context in CMCC? How teachers and students assess the quality of the textbook? What recommendations the teachers and students make for improving the textbook? 1.4 Methods of the study The study is carried out by using both qualitative and quantitative methods including questionnaires and interviews - Collecting information associated with reading skills and activities from the textbook - Investigating and analyzing the situation of teaching and learning reading skills and using activities in reading class at CMCC 10 - Synthesizing and analyzing the results gained in investigating duration to suggest suitable activities and materials for reading class 1.5 Scope of the study Due to a limitation of a graduation thesis, the study only concerns the texts on Interactions Access Reading and the subjects of the research are the teachers and students at Ca Mau Community College 1.6 Design of the study The thesis is structured as follows: Chapter problematizes the object of the study To this, it deals with the six parts of rationale, aims and objectives of the study, research questions, and methods of the study, scope of the study focus and design of the study Chapter contains the literature review, with a discussion of textbooks, textbook design, textbook evaluation and the evaluation criteria used in this research This chapter also reviews some previous research studies on textbook evaluation Chapter deals with research design and methodology employed to carry out the research It describes four main issues regarding the research site, participants, data types and methods of data collection, and analytical framework Chapter analyses and discusses the findings grounded in the data analyzed in the previous chapter Chapter will be summarized the main points and contents of the study based on the results of the study The 81 - The textbook satisfies teachers and students’ expectations regarding its teaching methods According to the majority of the participants, the teaching methods are up-todate, student-centered, and does allow various classroom activities Many kinds of tasks and activities are presented in the book in order to encourage pair/ group work - Learners’ autonomy is stressed throughout the textbook and the use of communicative activities is very obvious since students have to attempt these exercise first - While the textbook satisfies teachers and students’ expectations regarding language components, the level of language in the textbook is not appropriate to the students 5.3 Recommendations This section presents the recommendations derived from the interpretation and discussions of the results The recommendations are expected to be beneficial for any parties involving in the use of textbooks The detailed recommendations are as follow - Including a variety of attractive illustrations that can stimulate creativity - Including information about the inner lives of the characters used in the book as this can allow students to discuss the characters' personalities, behaviors, problems, attitudes and ways of thinking In addition, these characters can be examples for the students in their real lives 82 - Adding pronunciation exercises and activities such as group and pair work, games, puzzles and so on as these can help students carry out their communicative tasks in real life - It was clear from the research results that the textbook fails to satisfy the teachers and students’ expectations regarding its distribution of skills (Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing) in tasks and activities So, it is necessary to update these tasks, activities and make use of freer, student-centered approaches that can engage students affectively through excitement, fun and emotion - The level of language in the textbook is above the level of students This could be done by updating the language with academic and non-academic styles, for example - Curricula should be revised every three or four years There are two forms of change: Long-term change and shortterm change Long-term change is the change which is done to the curriculum every three or four years, as mentioned above Short term change is the change which is done to the curriculum at any time when such assessment necessitates or dictates the incorporation of new elements into the curriculum in the unit, or into a section, a minor change 5.4 Limitations and suggestions for further studies Though the study is done to the best understanding of the researcher, it is unavoidable for the study to have some limitations The survey questionnaires were only done by 83 English majored students of CMCC, so the researcher could 83 not touch deeper insights to the teaching and learning this textbook Also, if the researcher had a chance to a research on the pack of textbooks (Interactions Access Reading, Interactions Reading and Interactions Reading) taught for students in this school, the result would be clearer and more accurate That is why it is hoped that this study will encourage an extension of textbook research to larger and further scale It is proposed that more research will be conducted to evaluate a set of textbook Interactions Access Reading, Interactions Reading and Interactions Reading and conducted in all classes in CMCC Besides, further research could also make use of video recordings Video recording enables researchers to see what happens in the classrooms in detail, thereby making classroom observation data more reliable Last but not least, the future research should make a consideration of ideas or remarks of the academics, counselors or experts who have various experiences in this area That make the evaluation of the textbook more reliable and valuable 84 85 APPENDICES APPENDIX QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS In an attempt to evaluate the textbook Interactions Access Reading – Silver edition currently used at Ca Mau Community College, we would greatly appreciate it if you could respond to the questions below Your opinions would be very useful to this evaluation research and to the improvement of the textbook for future use Thank you very much for your valuable contributions Name: Age: Sex: Teaching experience: INSTRUCTION To respond to this questionnaire, please check (√) in the appropriate choice as follows: 1: strongly disagree 2: disagree 3: not sure 4: agree 5: strongly agree A Practical considerations, physical appearance and content pages N Statement o The book is easy to obtain The cover sheet is eye-catching with attractive and colorful pictures The paper quality is good The textbook looks attractive The aims and audience are clearly 86 2 stated There is a clear overview of content page (topics, functions, grammar, and skills) for each lesson The topics are interesting and suitable for my students What needs improving for the general appearance, practical consideration and content page? B Organization and structure The textbook is well-organized The lessons in the textbook are linked well to each other What needs improving in the organization structure? and C Activities The difficulty of the activities and tasks is relevant to my students’ level The amount of listening, speaking, reading and writing in tasks and activities is distributed appropriately What needs improving regarding the activities and tasks? D Methodology By teaching tasks in Pre-reading, you interest your students in the topics they are going to learn By teaching tasks in while-reading, you help your students acquire knowledge to understand the reading texts You taught tasks in post-reading easily because you only help your students consolidate what they have learnt You used the methods which allow students to talk more than teachers You used the methods which allow various class activities 87 2 E Level of language The language used in the textbook is at the right level for my students Students can read and understand the stories in the textbook comfortably What needs improving regarding the language level? F Skills The textbook includes and focuses on the skills that your students need to practice The textbook provides an appropriate balance of the four language skills The practice of individual skills is integrated into the practice of other skills The textbook highlights and practices natural pronunciation (stress and intonation) Thank you for your cooperation! APPENDIX QUESTIONNAIRES FOR STUDENTS In an attempt to evaluate the textbook currently used for English majored students at Ca Mau Community College, we would greatly appreciate if you could respond to the questions below Your opinions would be very useful to this evaluation research and to the improvement of the textbook for future use Thank you very much for your valuable contributions INSTRUCTION 88 To respond to this questionnaire, please check (√) in the appropriate choice as follows: 1: strongly disagree 2: disagree 3: not sure 4: agree 5: strongly agree A Practical considerations, physical appearance and content pages N Statement o The book is easy to obtain The cover sheet is eye-catching with attractive and colorful pictures The paper quality is good The textbook looks attractive The aims and audience are clearly stated There is a clear overview of content page (topics, functions, grammar, and skills) for each lesson The topics are interesting and suitable for my students What needs improving for the general appearance, practical consideration and content page? 2 B Organization and structure The textbook is well-organized The lessons in the textbook are linked well to each other What needs improving in the organization structure? C Activities The difficulty of the activities and tasks is relevant to my students’ level The amount of listening, speaking, and 89 reading and writing in tasks and activities is distributed appropriately What needs improving regarding the activities and tasks? 2 D Methodology By teaching tasks in Pre-reading, you interest your students in the topics they are going to learn By teaching tasks in while-reading, you help your students acquire knowledge to understand the reading texts You taught tasks in post-reading easily because you only help your students consolidate what they have learnt You used the methods which allow students to talk more than teachers You used the methods which allow various class activities E Level of language The language used in the textbook is at the right level for my students Students can read and understand the stories in the textbook comfortably What needs improving regarding the language level? F Skills The textbook includes and focuses on the skills that your students need to practice The textbook provides an appropriate balance of the four language skills The practice of individual skills is integrated into the practice of other skills The textbook highlights and practices natural pronunciation (stress and intonation) 90 Thank you very much for your cooperation! REFERENCES Acklam, R (1994) The role of the coursebook Practical English Teaching Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Brown, H.D (2000) Principles of language learning and teaching (4thed) New York: Addison Wesley Longman Bruder, M (1978) Evaluation of Foreign Language Textbooks In H Madsen & J Brown (Eds.), Adaptation in language teaching, 209-218 Massachusetts: Newbury House Publishers, Inc Byrd, P., (2001) Textbooks: Evaluation for selection and analysis for implementation, in M Celce-Murcia (ed.) 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