A survey on the effectiveness of teaching english for non majors at an giang university m a thesis

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES LAM THI THUY TIEN A SURVEY ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TEACHING ENGLISH FOR NON-MAJORS AT AN GIANG UNIVERSITY M.A THESIS Supervisor: VU THI PHUONG ANH, Ph.D 2009 DECLARATION I declare that this thesis entitled “A survey on the effectiveness of teaching English for non-majors at An Giang University” is the result of my own research except as cited in the reference The thesis has not been accepted for any degree and is not concurrently submitted for any other degree Signature: Name: Lam Thi Thuy Tien Date: March, 2009 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This M.A thesis has been completed thanks to the help of many people from whom I have received support I would like to express my deep attitude to all of them First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Dr Vu Thi Phuong Anh, my supervisor, for her support and guidance throughout the study My special thanks also go to my colleagues at An Giang University from whom I have received a lot of advice and encouragement The thesis could not have been possible without the participation of the students at An Giang University I am thankful to their participation in the study Finally, my special thanks are given to my family, especially my husband, who have shared my difficulties with love, care and tolerance ABSTRACT On consideration of the importance of evaluation to improvements in teaching, this study was an attempt to make an evaluation of the effectiveness of the English program for non-majors at An Giang University (AGU) It was also aimed at finding what affects the effectiveness of the program, both positively and negatively From the findings, recommendations will be made to enhance the positive factors, and to exclude the negative ones The study was a descriptive research The sample was 116 students and teachers at AGU The instruments for data collection included a test, structured interviews and questionnaires After the data analysis process, it can be concluded that the English program at AGU is not as effective as expected The factors that have good effects on the program are students’ self study, teaching and testing The factors that have opposite influences on the program are infrastructure, administration and lack of language environment To get higher quality in teaching, great efforts have to be made to change the current situation at AGU by strengthening the positive factors and reducing the negative ones Suggestions for improvement were consequently put forward in the study Chapter INTRODUCTION Rationale Nowadays, with the globalization, there is an increase in the need of learning languages Vietnam, since 1980s with the open-door policy, has reached impressive development in many fields, especially in economy Vietnam has attracted increasing investment from a number of foreign countries This investment results in a demand for learning foreign languages, for people cannot have good business without understanding their partner’s language Mastering at least one language is really necessary for business people Vietnam has become a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO); the need of language learning will be even more than double The usefulness of language learning does not only exist in the field of economy With the existence of the Internet, learning foreign languages is considered an important tool to access the huge source of information there Mastering foreign languages, therefore, is also necessary for anyone who always seeks for new and up-todate knowledge The role of language learning is really remarkable, that creates the popularity of foreign language learning in Vietnam Amongst the foreign languages to be learned in Vietnam, English is most chosen because of its widely international uses English has soon been one of the required language courses in the national syllabus for all levels of education Besides learning English as a required subject in school, people rush to learn English in an increasing number of language schools or centers throughout the country There have not been any official statistics on the number of people learning English in Vietnam, but it is believed that the number might be in great quantity While the quantity of language schools increases rapidly, the quality of teaching or the teaching effectiveness in those schools is still not under control This situation occurs in both state and private schools In October, 2006, Tuoi Tre newspaper raised a series of articles that attracted a lot of readers: “Vietnamese students cannot communicate in English after years studying the language.” This revealed two urgent problems that have existed for a long time: the English teaching is not as effective as expected and the effectiveness or the outcome of the teaching does not receive enough care as it should Evaluation of teaching effectiveness is carried out as a required activity in schools in the world It is required because it is an extremely essential step to ensure their quality of education People make evaluation in order to figure out positive and negative factors affecting their teaching Then, they develop conscious policies of their teaching improvement by strengthening the positive factors and improving the negative ones Therefore, evaluation is necessary for schools on the way to get perfect teaching quality While no one can deny the importance of evaluation in education, few schools in Vietnam care of carrying out evaluation in the process of their teaching This is an unacceptable contrary It is the time for this contrary to be changed Every school should have its teaching evaluated in order to get better teaching effectiveness Once the evaluation is carried out regularly, once the strength and the weakness in teaching are figured out, and considerable improvement is built, the education in Vietnam will be able to keep pace with that of the other countries in the world An Giang University (AGU) has been established in 2001 Through its eight years of existence, it has been training a number of students with different disciplines Nearly all the students take the program of English for non-majors and the program of ESP With a big number of the students to be trained, there have not been any evaluations of the outcome of its training, which shows the effectiveness of the English teaching in the school As mentioned above, it is the time for AGU to have a throughout look on the quality of its training in general and its English teaching in particular There should be regular evaluations on the English teaching In this study, it is not the researcher’s ambition to cover the evaluation of both of the two programs of English, because the evaluation of the ESP program needs further study before being carried out With a limited scope of a master thesis, this study only deals with the effectiveness of teaching English for non-majors (the English teaching, in short) at AGU To make that evaluation does not simply mean to judge how good the English teaching for non-majors at AGU is Evaluations always go with improvements Hence, there are a lot of things to be done in the process of the evaluation The first thing to be considered is to determine how effective the English teaching is in comparison to what is expected to get In addition, there must be an analysis of factors affecting the teaching Finally, there will be some policies for improvements The three ideas just mentioned serve as the basis for giving the research questions for the present study Research questions The present study is aimed at evaluating the English teaching for non-majors at AGU Therefore, it is included some issues of an evaluation process as discussed in the previous part The first issue is to access the quality of the English teaching in comparison to the objectives of effectiveness announced For the next issue, there is an analysis of positive as well as negative factors affecting the English teaching With the results from the analysis, some recommendations for improvement will be given Totally, the study has three specific objectives: effectiveness assessment, analysis of factors affecting the teaching and recommendations for effectiveness improvement To achieve these objectives, the study is intended to seek answers to the following questions: Research question 1: How far has the program of English for non-majors met the stated objectives? Research question 2: What factors affect the effectiveness of the program, both positively and negatively? Research question 3: How can the effectiveness of the English program at AGU be improved? Organization of the study Apart from the Acknowledgement, Abstract, and Reference, the study is composed of five chapters: Introduction, Literature Review, Methodology, Results and Discussion The first chapter, namely Introduction, sets the scene for the evaluation in the study This chapter states the reasons for choosing the topic and carrying out the thesis It also defines the objectives as well as the scope and the organization of the thesis This chapter provides an overview of the problem studied in the thesis The second chapter is the Literature Review This chapter includes two main sections The first section presents some terms and concepts related to the study The following section gives a short description of prior studies on the topic This chapter provides the theoretical background for this study Chapter three, entitled Methodology, presents how the research is carried out The chapter begins with information of the research design Then it goes with the most important issue of this study, the procedure for carrying out the study, including the following sections: Description of Population and Sampling, Instruments for Data Collection, and Data Collection and Analysis Chapter four, Results, reports all the results obtained from the analysis of the data collected Then, interpretation of the results is given, which serves as the basis for the conclusion in the last chapter The last chapter, Discussion, is constituted by three sections The opening section is for the most important issue: the discussion of the research questions The next section presents some limitations of the study The last section provides some suggestions for problems that require further research beyond the limit of the study Chapter LITERATURE REVIEW Chapter two is devoted to the background theory concerning the evaluation of teaching effectiveness This chapter is constituted by two sections It begins with the section presenting some terms and concepts related to the study The next section is a short review of some prior studies on the topic chosen to be studied in this thesis Terms and concepts related to the study The thesis deals with the evaluation of teaching effectiveness Therefore, there are two basic concepts to be clarified before going on: evaluation and effective teaching or effective schooling The following is the definitions of the two concepts with other related issues 1.1 Evaluation 1.1.1 Evaluation in social life According to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, the word “evaluation” itself means to access or form an idea of the amount, quality or value of something With that definition, people are more or less engaged in the evaluation of many aspects of their daily life such as weather, food, price or behavior of someone…Evaluation then as Rea-Dickins and Germaine stated “is a feature of social life.” However, evaluation in such a context is just a natural activity which may be undertaken spontaneously and unconsciously without any purposes That kind of evaluation has no criteria or the criteria “may be vague or ill-defined” (Rea-Dickins and Germaine, 1992) 1.1.2 Evaluation in education As mentioned above, evaluative judgments in our daily life are often made unconsciously and maybe no decisions are made after that evaluation However, evaluation in education is a systematic and scientific process with well-defined criteria that can help people have some decision-making In fact, in education evaluation, an evaluation of a teacher performance may affect his/her promotion; a text book evaluation may help people decide if it can continue to be used An evaluation in education may have different effects on the issues being accessed, and those effects almost always lead to some improvement for education 1.1.2.1 Evaluation and decision making There are a lot of definitions of evaluation from different authors Almost all of them share the idea of the relation between evaluation and decision-making The Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics defines evaluation in general as “the systematic gathering of information for purposes of decisionmaking.” Tankard (1974) observed that “in recent years, there has been a developing definition of evaluation which views evaluation information as vital to the decisionmaking.” More specifically, Gay and Airasian (2000) declared that evaluation is concerned with making decisions about the quality, effectiveness, or value of educational programs It can be said that in modern education, evaluation is considered extremely essential for improvement as discussed later in the next part 1.1.2.2 Evaluation and improvement Evaluation is often equated with the consideration of what is good and what is bad After that consideration, the good is appraised, the bad is excluded Hence, evaluation is often disliked and it becomes a “sensitive” activity to anyone who does not want to show their weakness This problem was noted by Rea-Dickins and As mentioned in the previous parts, the testing system does not work appropriately when all of the tests in the program not accessed the listening skill It is the time for the school to adjust the testing system so that it accesses enough skills of English from the students As a result, the students are more motivated to get thorough English learning because 81% of the students agree that what to be tested affects their priority of choosing skills to study Besides, the speaking test should be organized more scientifically The teachers who gave the oral topics to the students before the exam observed that most of the students learned by heart what they prepared at home for the topics and “read aloud” them in the exam Therefore, the teachers could not measure their students’ real speaking competence This problem should be excluded Moreover, there should be common criteria for all teachers, and the criteria should be used in all speaking tests so that the students’ speaking competence is evaluated consistently and fairly The last important thing to be done is the need of giving feedback to the students about how they did in the examination There were 79.3% of the students not receiving any feedback from their teachers after the examinations while feedback is crucial for the students’ improvement d Out-of-class activities or language environment should be created for the students to use their English knowledge Normally, the students’ English learning is supposed to take place inside the classroom only This stereotype should be excluded if there is a desire in getting real effectiveness in teaching and learning English Lack of language environment is one of the reasons accounting for Vietnamese students’ failing to use English in their real life It is the school’ responsibility to create the language environment for its students to apply and use the language they have learned in class The school can create the environment by organizing English speaking club, contests of eloquence in English or celebrating the English speaking camp, etc… In short, the students have a demand of having activities outside the classrooms for them to use their English language knowledge The students then are able to use it appropriately in authentic situations and they can remember the knowledge for a long time That means the English program can get its effectiveness and it can also leave long impact on the students 1.3.2.3 After the program a Evaluation of the program effectiveness needs to be carried out Evaluation is useful to have a look at the things happened in the program and to consider if they happened in a good way From the evaluation, the school will have feedback for their teaching, and then it will produce suitable policies for improvement to get higher quality in teaching b There should be creativity of motivations for the students to maintain their English knowledge Language environment is not only indispensable during the program, but also after the program The program of English for non-majors at AGU often last for the first three semesters while the students have at least years of studying at AGU How the students can maintain the English knowledge during the time at university is a big question to be answered The answer to that question is nothing but the language environment Besides the activities suggested in the previous part, the school needs to provide some required courses which are taught in English It is one of the ways that make the students always consolidate their English language knowledge and the knowledge can stay in the students’ mind for long Limitations of the study - The study would have been carried out with the experimental design With this design, there are pretests and posttests, so it will have a clearer view of the students’ progress in mastering English knowledge However, it would have taken one and a half years to finish the study because the English program lasted for three semesters With the limited time allowed for finishing a master thesis, following the experimental design was impossible - The study was more or less influenced by the author’s personal opinions because the author is also a member of the teaching staff in the program to be evaluated However, the author’s opinions were only involved in the design of the questionnaires All of the other data was statistically processed - Class observations should have included in the instruments of collecting data of the study to see what really happened in the classroom - Due to time limit and the big number of sample students involved, the test did not check the students’ speaking ability, so the evaluation of this skill was carried out indirectly from the interview with the teachers only Recommendations for further research The study has been an attempt to investigate the effectiveness of the program, figure out the factors affecting the effectiveness, to find out the ways to improve the effectiveness The last job of the study was done on the foundation of the results of the first two jobs Hopefully, the future research will lay emphasis on whether the suggested improvements really work in the program by carrying some experimental researches REFERENCE Achtemeier, S.D., Morris, L.V and Finnegan, C., Considerations for Developing Evaluations of Online Courses (downloaded from the website http://alt.usg.edu/research/Research/eval.phtml) Anderson, G (1990), Fundamentals of Educational Research, The Falmer Press Association for Effective Schools, Inc, Correlates of Effective Schools (downloaded from the website http://www.mes.org/correlates.html) Brown, H.D (2000), Principles of Language Learning and Teaching, Addison Wesley Longman, Inc Brown, J D (1988), Understanding Research in Second Language Learning, Cambridge University Press Evaluation Issues (downloaded from the website http://ctl.unc.edu/he3.html) Evaluation Methods (downloaded from the website http://www.umich.edu/evalctr/charter/illinois/ILmethos.html) Fink, L.D., Improving the Evaluation of College Teaching (downloaded from the website www.ou.edu/pii/tips/ideas/evaluation.htm) Gay, L.R and Airasian, P (2000), Educational Research, Prentice Hall, Inc 10 Harmer, J, (1991), The Practice of English Language Teaching, Longman Group UK Limited 11 Hutchinson, T (1999), Lifelines Oxford University Press 12 Leblanc, R (1998), Good Teaching: The Top Ten Requirements (downloaded from the website http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/to pten.htm) 13 Mills, G.E (2007), Action Research Pearson Education, Inc 14 Nunan, D (1999), Second Language Teaching and Learning, Heinle and Heinle Publishers 15 Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (1995), Oxford University Press 16 Rea-Dickins, P and Germaine, K (1992), Evaluation, Oxford University Press 17 Reading articles “The Man Booker Prize” and “The Hardest Language” (downloaded from the website: http://www.usingenglish.com/comprehension) 18 Richards, J C., (2003), Tactics for Listening, Oxford University Press 19 Richards, J C., Platt, J and Platt, H (1992), Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics, Longman 20 Six Sigma SPC’s Quality Control Dictionary and Glossary (from the website www.sixsigmaspc.com/dictionary/glossary.html) 21 Teddlie, C and Reynolds, D (2000), The International Handbook of School Effectiveness Research, Falmer Press 22 Trochim, W M K., Introduction to Evaluation (downloaded from the website http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/intreval.htm) 23 Tuoi Tre Newspapers (issues published in October, 2006) 24 Vu Thi Phuong Anh (2004), Đánh giá hiệu đào tạo tiếng Anh ngoại ngữ trường đại học địa bàn Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh 25 Vu Thi Phuong Anh (2006), Tiến đến tự động hóa quy trình soạn đề thi trắc nghiệm tiếng Anh (ETGA report) APPENDIX TEST Time allotted: 70 minutes (not including Listening part) I Listening comprehension Part A Some people are talking about Quebec Province in Canada Are the following statements True or False? Listen and write your answer on your answer sheet Montreal is the capital of Quebec Province The biggest city in the province is Montreal Only French is spoken in Montreal Montreal is the world’s third largest French-speaking city Many buildings in Quebec City date from the 15th and 16th centuries Part B Listen to people discussing different issues Which topic (a or b) are they discussing? Write your answer on your answer sheet For example: 1.a a transportation a overpopulation b housing b pollution a traffic safety a employment b crime b education a employment a climate b education b pollution II Reading Comprehension Part A Read the following article and choose the correct answer (a, b, c, or d) to the questions below The Man Booker Prize The Man Booker Prize for Fiction is awarded every year for a novel written by a writer from the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland and it aims to represent the very best in contemporary fiction The prize was originally called the Booker-McConnell Prize, which was the name of the company that sponsored it, though it was better-known as simply the ‘Booker Prize’ In 2002, the Man Group became the sponsor and they chose the new name, keeping ‘Booker’ Publishers can submit books for consideration for the prize, but the judges can also ask for books to be submitted they think should be included Firstly, the Advisory Committee give advice if there have been any changes to the rules for the prize and selects the people who will judge the books The judging panel changes every year and usually a person is only a judge once Great efforts are made to ensure that the judging panel is balanced in terms of gender and professions within the industry, so that a writer, a critic, an editor and an academic are chosen along with a well-known person from wider society However, when the panel of judges has been finalized, they are left to make their own decisions without any further involvement or interference from the prize sponsor The Man Booker judges include critics, writers and academics to maintain the consistent quality of the prize and its influence is such that the winner will almost certainly see the sales increase considerably, in addition to the £50,000 that comes with the prize Questions The Republic of Ireland _ a is in the Commonwealth b is not in the Commonwealth c can't enter the Man Booker Prize d joined the Booker prize in 2002 The Man group a was forced to keep the name 'Booker' b decided to include the name 'Booker' c decided to keep the name 'Booker-McConnell' d decided to use only the name 'Booker' Books can be submitted _ a by publishers b by writers c by judges d by the sponsors Who advises on changes to the rules? a The sponsors b The judging panel c The advisory panel d Publishers The judging panel a doesn't include women b includes only women c is only chosen from representatives of the industry d includes someone from outside the industry The sponsors of the prize a are involved in choosing the winner b are involved in choosing the judges c are not involved at all d choose the academic for the panel of judges The consistent quality of the prize a is guaranteed by the prize money b is guaranteed by the gender of the judges c is guaranteed by the make-up of the panel of judges d is guaranteed by the increase in sales of the winner Part B Read the following article and decide if the statements in the question part are True or False The Hardest Language People often ask which is the most difficult language to learn, and it is not easy to answer because there are many factors to take into consideration Firstly, in a first language the differences are unimportant as people learn their mother tongue naturally, so the question of how hard a language is to learn is only relevant when learning a second language A native speaker of Spanish, for example, will find Portuguese much easier to learn than a native speaker of Chinese, for example, because Portuguese is very similar to Spanish, while Chinese is very different, so first language can affect learning a second language The greater the differences between the second language and our first, the harder it will be for most people to learn Many people answer that Chinese is the hardest language to learn, possibly influenced by the thought of learning the Chinese writing system, and the pronunciation of Chinese does appear to be very difficult for many foreign learners However, for Japanese speakers, who already use Chinese characters in their own language, learning writing will be less difficult than for speakers of languages using the Roman alphabet Some people seem to learn languages readily, while others find it very difficult Teachers and the circumstances in which the language is learned also play an important role, as well as each learner's motivation for learning If people learn a language because they need to use it professionally, they often learn it faster than people studying a language that has no direct use in their day to day life Apparently, British diplomats and other embassy staff have found that the second hardest language is Japanese, which will probably come as no surprise to many, but the language that they have found to be the most problematic is Hungarian, which has 35 cases (forms of a noun according to whether it is subject, object, genitive, etc) This does not mean that Hungarian is the hardest language to learn for everyone, but it causes British diplomatic personnel, who are generally used to learning languages, the most difficulty However, Tabassaran, a Caucasian language has 48 cases, so it might cause more difficulty if British diplomats had to learn it Different cultures and individuals from those cultures will find different languages more difficult In the case of Hungarian for British learners, it is not a question of the writing system, which uses a similar alphabet, but the grammatical complexity, though native speakers of related languages may find it easier, while struggling with languages that the British find relatively easy No language is easy to learn well, though languages which are related to our first language are easier Learning a completely different writing system is a huge challenge, but that does not necessarily make a language more difficult than another In the end, it is impossible to say that there is one language that is the most difficult language in the world Questions The question of how hard a language is to learn is relevant to both first and second language acquisition Portuguese is definitely easier than Chinese A Japanese speaker may well find the Chinese writing system easier than a speaker of a European language The Hungarian alphabet causes problems for British speakers Hungarian is the hardest language in the world Hungarian has as many cases as Tabassaran Many British diplomats learn Tabassaran The writer thinks that learning new writing systems is easy III Grammar and Vocabulary Choose the letter (a, b, c or d) of the best answer I remember you before, but I have forgotten your name a to meet b met d meet d meeting He can’t buy that bicycle because he has money a a lot of b a little c little d few If I for an accounting firm, I would be working in a bank a wasn’t working b worked c hadn’t worked d weren’t working Today, many serious childhood diseases by early immunization a are preventing b can prevent c prevent d can be prevented You will not pass the exam working hard a unless b if c without d although Jane said she 18 the following week a was b is c will be d would be Each of you a share in the work a have b has c having d going to have What during the last few weeks? a did you b have you been doing c had you been doing d were you doing She French before she began studying English in 1990 a had studied b studied c studies d has studied 10 Please wait for him until he back a came b will come c coming d comes 11 Don’t forget tomorrow morning a turning in your assignment b turn in your assignment c to turn in your assignment d turn your assignment in 12 How since we school? a are you / left b have you been / have left c were you / left d have you been / left 13 Tim go fishing with his father when he was young a used to b is used to c has used to d was used to 14 The students sat quietly in the classroom, to their teacher a listen b listening c listened d listens 15 Many of us feel of the dark a frighten b frightening c frightened d to frighten 16 “Have you read his new book?” “Yes, it’s interesting than his first four book.” a the most b very much c much more d the more 17 “Who is the new teacher?” “He’s the man .” a which is talking to Ms Lan now b that talks to Ms Lan now c talk to Ms Lan now d talking to Ms Lan now 18 “Why are you working so hard?” “Because I a car, so I’m saving as much as I can.” a will buy b buy c have bought d am going to buy 19 This book is the other two books a as expensive than b the most expensive of c more expensive than d the most expensive of all 20 I took express train to Ho Chi Minh City a the / a b a / no preposition c an / no preposition d an / the 21 That’s a good idea to see your doctor regularly for a a revision b a control c an investigation d a check-up 22 The children love the old castle a discovering b exploring d hunting d detecting 23 She isn’t well with the new manager a getting on b going on c keeping on d taking on 24 I don’t like to ask people for help as a rule but I wonder if you could me a favour a make b find c d pick 25 Largely through the work of the World Health Organization, most developed countries brought malaria control a in b below c to d under 26 The doctor gave the patient examination to discover the cause of his collapse a a thorough b a universal c an exact d a whole 27 A glass of please I never drink alcohol a orange juice b whisky c lager d beer 28 Sue a great fortune from her parents a offered b had c inherited d got up 29 I’d like to an appointment to see the doctor a b say c organize d make 30 He looks very nervous He’s not a attentive b concerned c calm d puzzled IV Writing Write an essay about the advantages and disadvantages of using the Internet (Your essay is written in no more than 200 words APPENDIX QUESTIONNAIRE (FOR STUDENTS) This questionnaire is designed in order to get data for researching the effectiveness of the English program for non-majors at An Giang University The data collected will be used in the study only, not for any other purposes Please put a check into the box before the answer you choose for multiple choice questions, or write your answer to open-ended questions in the space under them Thank you for your help Student’s name: (optional) Class: _ Phone number: (optional) A Students’ English background information Total time of learning English before university: years years not learning English/ learning another language The English marks you got in the following examinations: a High school graduation: b End-of-term test of the first semester in university: _ c End-of-term test of the second semester in university: _ d End-of-term test of the third semester in university: Have you taken any English courses outside the university? Yes No B Information of the teaching of English for non-majors Before the beginning of the English classes in university, did your teacher tell you the goals of the English program for non-majors? Yes No The methodology of the teachers of English who taught you in university is Very good Good Rather good Not good The English knowledge of the teachers of English who taught you in university is Very good Good Rather good Not good Was the course book “Lifelines” at the elementary level suitable with your university income English level? Yes No In your opinion, is the course book “Lifelines” useful and interesting? Yes, it should be used for the next course No, it is essential to have another course book C Information of the conditions supporting the teaching of English for non-majors What you think about the school’s equipment supporting the English teaching? It is sufficient, so it helps the English teaching very much a b It is insufficient, so it causes difficulties for the English teaching How often did your English teachers use multimedia in their teaching? a Very often b Sometimes c Seldom d Never Are reference books for English at the school library sufficient? Yes No The average of the number of students in your English classes is With such a number of students, what you think about your classes? a My classes were too crowded, so the teachers could not control all of the students’ learning b The number of students in my classes was acceptable; every student had equal chances in practicing in class c The number of students in my class was too small, so the atmosphere in class was not interesting Which of the following statement is true about the level of the students in your English classes? The level of the students was varied a lot, so it caused difficulties for learning and a teaching The level of the students was varied, but it was acceptable because good students could b help weaker ones in learning c The level of the students was equal, so it helped the learning and teaching English very much Did the English tests in class and the end-of-term English tests access enough skills in English? Yes No Did the English tests in general affect your priority in choosing the skills to learn more in the English program? For example, if the tests often check your Reading and Grammar, you will train the two skills more than the others? Yes No After the English tests, did your teachers give you feedback for the result of the tests? Yes No Do you think the school creates enough language environments for you to use your English outside the classroom? Yes No D Evaluation of the English program for non-majors and suggestions for the program improvement Your evaluation of your progress of learning English after the program Markedly better a b Much better c Better, but not much Unchanged d Circle the number of effectiveness level on the scale of the program effectiveness measurement from number (= very good) to number (= very bad) 3 The following is the list of factors possibly affecting the effectiveness of the English program for non-majors at AGU; please put a check before ONE factor that you think most affecting the program positively a Students’ self-study b Teaching c Infrastructure supporting the program d Administration e Course book Language environment for using English f g Testing h Others: (please note down) The following is the list of factors possibly affecting the effectiveness of the English program for non-majors at AGU; please put a check before the ONE factor that you think most affecting the program negatively a Students’ self-study b Teaching Infrastructure supporting the program c d Administration e Course book f Language environment for using English Testing g h Others: (please note down) In your opinion, what can the English program for non-majors help students? a Research materials for other subjects Serve students’ future job b c Prepare for ESP learning d It does not help anything Should the students learn ESP without taking the program of English for non-majors? a Yes, because students have mastered basic knowledge of English in high school b No, because students need to consolidate basic knowledge of English before learning ESP No, because students need to receive more training of their communicative skills in c English Should the program begin with the elementary level? a Yes, because students’ English university income level is still low b No, because students have had some basic knowledge of English before entering the school Should there be a course book for non-English majors continuing the level of English designed in the national course book for grade 12? a Yes If the program begins with the elementary level, it is a waste of time and finance for both of the school and students No Because students’ English university income level is low, they need consolidation b of basic knowledge of English Please give ONE suggestion for improving the effectiveness of the English program for non-majors _ _ _ _ APPENDIX QUESTIONNAIRE (FOR TEACHERS) This questionnaire is designed in order to get data for researching the effectiveness of the English program for non-majors at An Giang University The data collected will be used in the study only, not for any other purposes Please put a check into the box before the answer you choose for multiple choice questions, or write your answer to open-ended questions in the space under them Thank you for your help Teacher’s name: Department: _ Phone number: (optional) A Information of the teaching of English for non-majors Before teaching a class, you collect information of your students’ income English level? Yes No Is the course book “Lifelines” at the elementary level suitable with your students’ university income English level? Yes No In your opinion, is the course book “Lifelines” useful and interesting? Yes, it should be used for the next course No, it is essential to have another course book C Information of the conditions supporting the teaching of English for non-majors What you think about the school’s equipment supporting the English teaching? a It is sufficient, so it helps the English teaching very much b It is insufficient, so it causes difficulties for the English teaching How often you use multimedia in teaching? Very often a b Sometimes Seldom c d Never Please note down the reasons: _ _ Are reference books for English at the school library sufficient? Yes No The average of the number of students in your English classes is With such a number of students, what you think about your classes? a The classes are too crowded, so the teachers cannot control all of the students’ learning The number of students in the classes is acceptable; every student has equal chances in b practicing in class c The number of students in the classes is too small, so the atmosphere in class is not interesting Which of the following statement is true about the level of the students in your English classes? a The level of the students is varied a lot, so it causes difficulties for learning and teaching b The level of the students is varied, but it is acceptable because good students could help weaker ones in learning The level of the students is equal, so it helps the learning and teaching English very c much Do the English tests in class and the end-of-term English tests access enough skills in English? Yes No After the English tests, your students receive feedback for the result of the tests? Yes No Do you think the school creates enough language environments for students to use their English outside the classroom? Yes No D Evaluation of the English program for non-majors and suggestions for the program improvement Please circle the number of effectiveness level on the scale of the program effectiveness measurement from number (= very good) to number (= very bad) 2 The following is the list of factors possibly affecting the effectiveness of the English program for non-majors at AGU; please put a check before ONE factor that you think most affecting the program positively a Students’ self-study b Teaching c Infrastructure supporting the program d Administration e Course book Language environment for using English f g Testing h Others: (please note down) The following is the list of factors possibly affecting the effectiveness of the English program for non-majors at AGU; please put a check before the ONE factor that you think most affecting the program negatively a Students’ self-study b Teaching c Infrastructure supporting the program Administration d e Course book f Language environment for using English g Testing h Others: (please note down) In your opinion, what can the English program for non-majors help students? Research materials for other subjects a b Serve students’ future job c Prepare for ESP learning It does not help anything d Should the students learn ESP without taking the program of English for non-majors? a Yes, because students have mastered basic knowledge of English in high school b No, because students need to consolidate basic knowledge of English before learning ESP c No, because students need to receive more training of their communicative skills in English Should the program begin with the elementary level? a Yes, because students’ English university income level is still low b No, because students have had some basic knowledge of English before entering the school Should there be a course book for non-English majors continuing the level of English designed in the national course book for grade 12? Yes If the program begins with the elementary level, it is a waste of time and finance a for both of the school and students No Because students’ English university income level is low, they need consolidation b of basic knowledge of English Please give ONE suggestion for improving the effectiveness of the English program for non-majors _ _ _ _