0237 teachers and students perceptions on the 11th grade english textbooks nhận thức của giáo viên và học sinh về sách tiếng anh 11 mới luận văn tốt ngh

RATIONALE

Itc a n b e d e n i e d t h a t t e x t b o o k s p l a y a p i v o t a l r o l e i n t e a c h i n g i n a l l types of educational institutions - public or private schools, colleges, anduniversities - all over the world.

Textbooks play a very crucial role in therealmoflanguageteachingandlearningandareconsideredt h e n e x t important factor in the second/foreign language classroom after the teacher.Textbooks also provide the syllabus for a program, thus supporting noviceteachers, training them in methodology, and saving their time and effort formore worthwhile pursuits than material production (Cunningsworth, 1995) Insome situations, textbooks serve as the basis for much of the language inputstudents receive and the language practice that happens in the classroom.Learning how to use and adapt textbooks is hence an important part of ateacher‟sprofessionalknowledge(Richards,2001).Forlearners,usingatextbook as instructive tool helps them practice and study themselves. Thetextbooksmayprovidethemainsourceofcontacttheyhavewitht h e languageapa rtfrominputprovidedbytheteacher.Inthecaseofinexperiencedteachers,textbooks mayalsoassistasaformofteachertraining

– they provide ideas on how to plan and presentlessonsaswellasf o r m a t s that teacherscanuse.

Afewofstudieshaveinvestigatedontheteachers‟andstudents‟attitude of the English textbooks in ESL/EFL classroom (Wen-Cheng et al.,2011);(Kirkgửz,2009); (Rahimi&Hassani,2012);(Khodabandeh&Mombini, 2018) These studies discussed a textbook evaluation checklist forstandardized use at the elementary level Furthermore, under the

Vietnamese Upper Secondary Schools was implemented at some piloted highschools on the 23 rd November 2012 by Ministry of Education and Training(MOET, 2012) With the renovation of English textbooks, a research wascarried out to investigate Vietnamese upper secondary school EFL teachers‟useofthesetofEnglishtextbooksTiengAnh11asr e s o u r c e s f o r achie vementtests(HaLinh&Le,2020).Thefindingsofthisresearchindicated the teachers‟ practicing in using the set of English textbooks TiengAnh11asresourcesforachievementtests.Anotherstudywasdone(Tran,P

N T., & Tran, 2020) to explore EFL teachers‟ and students‟ perspectives oncommunicativeskillsrepresentedinthe11 th gradeEnglishtextbooks.

Uptonow,thoughthesetEnglishtextbooksundert h e N a t i o n a l ForeignL anguage2020projecthavingbeenpilotedinVietnameseHighSchools, some schools have just implemented this set of textbooks for the firsttime Hence, there has been little investigation of the perceptions of teachersand students who directly work with the textbooks Moreover, few studies areconducted the new “English 11” textbooks In addition,t h e i n v e s t i g a t i o n o f the English textbooks under the National Foreign

Language 2020 project isquitechallenging.Forthatreason,Ichoosethisstudywiththeaimatunderstanding how teachers and students perceive on the new English 11textbooks so that some contributions in improving textbook task or activitiescanbe achieved.

AIMSANDOBJECTIVES

Aims

Theaimofthestudyistofindoutteachers‟andstudents‟perceptionsonthephysicalapp earanceandformat,thecontent(units,activities,exercises,skillsandsub- skills),andtherolesofthe11 th gradeEnglishtextbooksissuedin2014asaresultoftheNation alForeignLanguage2020project(MOET,2013).

Objectives

+ To investigate the perceptions of the teachers onthe physical appearanceand format, the content (units, activities, exercises, skills, and sub-skills), andtherolesofthe11 th g r a d e E n g l i s h textbooks.

+Toexaminethestudents‟perceptionsofthephysicalappearancea n d format, the content (units, activities, exercises, skills, and sub-skills), and therolesofthe11 th gradeEnglishtextbooks.

RESEARCHQUESTIONS

The following research questions are proposed in order to determine theperceptions of the teachers and the students on eight sections of the

1 What do high school teachers in Song Cau town perceive the

2 What do high school students in Song Cau town perceive the

SCOPEOFTHE STUDY

Thedesignofthe11 th –gradeEnglishtextbooksconsistofe i g h t headings in each unit Due to limited time, ability and research conditions, Iwould like to investigate the perceptions of the teachers and the students onphysical appearance and format, language (Vocabulary, Pronunciation, andGrammar) and skills (Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing), and roles of thetextbook of the

11 th grade English textbooks The participants are 10 teachersand 100 students who are teaching and learning in some high schools in SongCau town.

SIGNIFICANCEOFTHESTUDY

This research is assumed to discover ways in which teachers and studentsperceived the textbooks as appropriate or inappropriate sources for Englishteaching and learning at some high schools in Song Cau Town It contributedmorepracticallyforactualteachingandlearningsituationsathighschools.

ORGANIZATIONOFTHESTUDY

Chapter1“Introduction”,presentstherationale,aimsandobjectives,researchques tions,thescope ofthestudy,the significanceof thestudyandtheorganizatio nof the study.

Chapter 2 “Literature Review”, briefly reviews the literature of previousstudies on teachers‟ and students‟ perception on the English textbooks relatedto this study This chapter also provides the theoretical background textbookevaluationofthephysicalappearanceandformat,thecontent( u n i t s , activiti es,exercises,skills,andsub-skills),andtheroles ofthetextbooks.

Chapter 3 “Research Methodology”,deals with the research methods, thedescription of the data, data analysis and research procedures This chapteralsopresentsthe reliabilityandvalidityof thedata.

Chapter 4“ F i n d i n g s a n d D i s c u s s i o n s ” , focuses on describing, analyzinganddiscussingtheperceptionsoftheteachersandthestudentsoneightsectionso f the11 th grade Englishtextbooks.

Chapter 5 “Conclusion and Implications”, reveals a summary of the resultsof the study It also offers implications for making the effective ways toimplement these books and mentions the limitations of the study and thesuggestions for further research.

This chapter presents a review of the relevant literature and research thatformsthebackgroundoftheteachers‟andstudents‟perceptionsofthetextbooks. Firstly, I will specify the current teaching English and the changingthe content of English textbooks in Vietnam Secondly, the importance ofperceptionin le ar nin ga nd te ac hi ng wi ll b e pr ov id ed Then,I wi ll point o uttherolesoftextbooksinlearningandteachingEnglish.Next,Igiveabackgroundeval uationofthetextbooks.

TEACHING ENGLISH AT THE GENERAL EDUCATION LEVELINVIETNAM

The7-yearsetofEnglishtextbooks

OwningtothedevelopmentofEnglishasagloballanguage,theteaching of English in Vietnam has concerned with the roles and the places ofthe learners as a central role in learning English Hence, the teachers are afacilitator who provides creative contexts for language teaching To deal withthis situation, the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training (MOET)organized the design of the curriculum and the writing of English textbooksforallschools undertheDecreeN 0 14/2001TC-

TTGontheRenovationof the Vietnamese General Education Curriculum (Hoang, V V., 2010) In early2008,all highschoolsapplied the7–year setofEnglishtextbooks.

Thebookconsistsof16teachingunitsandsixreviews.Eachteachingunitis structured into five sections: Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing, andLanguageFocus.Eachsectionistaughtin45minutes(Minh,N.T.T.,2007).

In a reading lesson, it begins withBefore you readactivities. Theseactivities aim to introduce students to the topic and motivate them to read andelicitnewwords.Then,itisfollowedbytwoorthreeWhileyour e a d activities in order to develop reading skills and strategies such as scanning,skimming, and guessing meaning in context Finally,After you readactivitiesaretorequirestudentssomefurtherpractice,andwrittenlanguageproducti on.

The Speaking section includes three or four activities The first andsecond activities give language input and develop specific language functionssuch as expressing opinions, agreements, and disagreements The remainingactivities aretasksforstudentstopractice.

The Listening section is similar to the Reading section with three stagesBefore you listenactivities,While you listenactivities, andAfter you listenactivities The Writing section may begin with a model to help students withmodel analysis, language work, and guided writing The produce of eachwriting lessonis awritingtext of students.

The Language Focus section consists of two parts, Pronunciation andGrammarandVocabulary.ThePronunciationcomponentfocusesonthepractice of sounds (vowels, consonants, and clusters) that might help studentsdefine and know how to pronounce correctly The Grammar and Vocabularycomponent aims to consolidate the target forms covered in the unit.StudentsmustdoexercisestopracticethestructurepointsintheGrammarandVocabul arycomponent.

The six review units called “Test Yourself”, aim to help students goover vocabulary, grammar, and structure which were studied in each unit Thereview units are sample tests for teachers when designing 45-minute tests fortheir classes There are four main components: Listening, Reading,

TherenovationofthetextbooksinVietnam

Inthecontextofglobalizationandthedemandforteachinga n d learningEnglis hasaninternationallanguage,thestudyofEnglishi s enhanced and the quality of English teaching and learning in Vietnam is alsopromoted to keep up with the tendency of globalization For that reason, theVietnamesePrimeMinisteroftheSocialistRepublicofVietnamsignedDecisionN 01400/QĐ-

TTGtopromulgatetheNationalProjectentitled“TeachingandLearningForeignLang uagesintheNationalE d u c a t i o n System,Period2008-

2020(henceforth2020Project)onthe30 th o f September, 2008 (MOET, 2008) The general goal of the

2020 project is “ By 2020 most Vietnamese students graduating from secondary, vocationalschools,collegesanduniversitieswillbeabletouseaforeignlanguageconfide ntlyintheirdailycommunication,theirstudyandworkinanintegrated,multi- culturalandmulti-lingualenvironment,makingforeignlanguages a comparative advantage of development for Vietnamese people inthecauseofindustrialization and modernizationforthecountry”.

In2008MOETissuedanewcurriculumtoimplementaten– yeareducationprogramonteachingandlearningaforeignlanguage(MOET,2008) It describes the tasks for ELT at the secondary school level as enablingstudents to:

2 Constructandissueadetailedandunifiedlanguageproficiencyframework that consists of 6 levels This framework is compatiblewith other common international language proficiency levels andused as a reference when writing curriculums and teaching plans.Basedonthisframework,criteriaofevaluationaresetupfordiffere nt learning and training levels, ensuring interconnection inlanguagetrainingbetween schoollevels.

3 Construct and implement a new program on compulsory languagetrainingatdifferentschoollevelsasfollows:qualifyKNL NNlevel1 when graduating primary school; qualify KNLNN level 2 whengraduatingsecondaryschool;qualifyKNLNNlevel3whengraduatingh ighschool.”

WiththeissueofDecision1400 0 ,theVietnameseMinistero f Education and Training appointed Hoang Van Van as chief author of the ten- yearEnglishtextbookseriesforVietnameseschoolsundertheNationalForeign

Language 2020 Project (Hoang, V V., 2015) Three teams (primary,lower secondary, and upper secondary) of 15 Vietnamese textbooks writers,along with English textbook writers of MacMillan Education and PearsonEducation – two leading international foreign language textbook publishersproduced the ten-year English textbook series (from grade 3 to grade 12) forVietnameseschoolsin the process of writingtextbooks.

For that reason, on the 23 rd November, 2012, the Minister of EducationandTraining signed Decision 5209/QĐ-BGDĐT on the Approval ofChươngtrình giáo dục phổ thông môn tiếng Anh thí điểm cấp trung học phổ thông(PilotEnglishCurriculumforVietnameseUpperS e c o n d a r y S c h o o l s )(MOET,2012).

Itc a n b e d e n i e d t h a t t h i s d e c i si o n b r i n g s p o si t i v e e f f e c t s o n t e a c h i n g and learning English through the new set of English textbooks under the 2020project, whereas it also has some challenges and difficulties for teachers andstudents inimplementingthetextbooks.

In this research, I will investigate the 11 th grade English textbooks inPilotEnglish CurriculumforVietnameseUpperSecondarySchools.

TEXTBOOKS

Definitionoftextbook

CambridgeDictionarydefinesa“textbookasabookthatcontainsdetailed information about a subject for people who are studying that subject”.Thetextbookisasourceofteaching- learningmaterialsthatis usedbothbythe studentsandt e a c h e r f o l l o w i n g t h e c u r r i c u l u m d e v e l o p m e n t

M o r e o v e r , the teacher uses textbooks to manage the lesson in teaching and learningprocess Textbooks are considered a source of direction and thought banks forteachers abouthowlessons aredelivered(Tomlinson,2008).

Similarly, Hutchinson and Torres (1994, p 315) state that “the textbookis an almost universal element of (English language) teaching Furthermore,textbooks also work as schedules that have been methodically arranged andcreated (Richards, 2001) By the given definition, EFL textbooks are usefulmaterials that aim at supplying students with essential knowledge, languageskills, and information about English- speaking countries and preparing themfor interaction with people from foreign countries and of different culturalbackgrounds It can be clear that each textbook gives students informationrelating to grammar and vocabulary, as well as communicative competencies.Forthatreason,studentscandeveloptheirlanguageskillsbyusingthete xtbookasausefultooltoencouragestudentsinacquiringlanguagecompetences.

TheroleoftextbooksforEFLteachersandstudents

EnglishhasbecomeanindispensablepartoftheeducationalcurriculuminVietnamese schools Teaching and learning English as a foreign language is achallenging task in developing countries in general and in our country inparticularly.Generallyspeaking,theprocessofteachingandlearningEnglishasa foreign language at school has to base on main aids and materials. Hence,textbookisoneofthemostessentialmaterialsfortheEFLteachingandlearningproc essesasitbringsbenefitsfornotonlyteachersbutalsostudents.Textbookisabookcontaini ngtheinformationofthesubjectmatterintheschool.

English is utilized and learnt as a second language in many countries ofthe world Vietnam has been concerned with teaching and learning Englisheffectively Therefore, English textbooks may even constitute the main andperhaps only source of language input that students receive and the basis forlanguagepracticethathappensbothinsideandoutsidethec l a s s r o o m Richar ds (2001) stated that textbooks play an integral role in many languageclassrooms.Moreover,textbooksfunctionascoursesthathavebeensystematicall yplannedanddeveloped(Day,J.,&Krzanowski,2001).“Textbooks remain a staple within school curricula worldwide, presentingteachers and students with the official knowledge of school subjects as well asthe preferred values, attitudes, skills, and behaviors of experts in those fields.”(Wen-Chengetal.,2011).Radić-

Bojanić&Topalov(2016)investigatedtextbooks in the EFL classroom They claimed that textbooks can serve as agrammatical and functional framework that students can apply to adapt andinteractinthe classroom.

Similarly, O‟Neill points out four purposes for the use of course books.First,using course book materials bring benefits to students‟ needs Second,thestudents canhaveaprogramfortheir futureand an assessmentofprevious course books Third, students can acquire precious and reasonable materials.At last, the teachers can have chances to change and adapt the course booksbasedonstudents'needs(O‟Neill,1982).Otherwise,thecontentofanytextbook saffectsthe teacher how toteachandthe learner how tolearn.RegardlessofthecontentofEnglishtextbooks,textbookevaluationisnecessar y to define the appropriate material before being used for a languageprogram.Furthermore,evaluatingtextbookshelpsteachersselectthetextbo oksthatareprofessionallydesigned,fitthecurriculumandlocaleconomy and correspond with the aims of the teaching program and the needsofthestudentsineachschool.

Thus,teachersandlearnersuseEnglishtextbooksasaguidebookbecause of providing explicit frameworks in order to fullfill what they havedone and what they will do According to Tomlinson (2008), textbooks can bealso the foundations of direction and idea suggestions for teachers about howlessons can be planned Tomlinson considers materials evaluation as “thesystematic appraisal of the value of materials inr e l a t i o n t o t h e i r o b j e c t i v e s andtotheobjectivesofthelearnersusingthem”(Tomlinson,2011).In addition, Richards and Rodgers (2006) say that textbooks are constructed insuch a way that their tables of contents suggest a gradual development oflanguageformsandfunctions,goingfromthemostbasictothem o s t complex.I n E n g l i s h t e x t b o o k s , t h e y c o n t a i n p i c t u r e s a n d g r a p h i c m a t e r i a l s that may help students be more efficient than the teacher‟s descriptions Asstated by Ahour and Ahmadi (2012),

"textbooks are the main sources that canconveytheknowledgeandinformationtothelearnersinaneasyandorganized way" (p.176) Textbooks bring a lot of positive effects which weredefinedbyBrown(1995)asasourceoflanguage,learningsupport,inspiration,s t i m u l a t i o n , a n d r e f e r e n c e F o r t h a t r e a s o n , t e x t b o o k s a r e considered the most important resources utilized to reach the aims of a coursewhich arefollowedof thelearners'needs.

Textbooks are needed tools in enhancing learning and teachingEnglishand supporting teachers to carry out their responsibility satisfactorily.Thestudents and teachers use the EFL textbooks frequently so their opinionstoward textbooks should be collected and analyzed On the one hand,teachersuse textbooks as a supporting tool in their teaching in the classroom.Hence,usingoradaptingtextbooksisacriticalpartofteachers'professionalknowledge.

Adescriptionofthe11 th –gradeEnglishtextbooks

The textbooks were developed based on the new national curriculum,which was under the National Foreign Language 2020 Project The content ofthe textbooks was designed following the Common European Framework ofReferenceforLanguages:Learning,Teaching,Assessment(CEFR)framework and Threshold Level English The teaching contents for each unitare summarized in a book map which is provided on the fourth and fifth pagesof each book Each of the textbooks is accompanied with cassette tapes, astudent‟sworkbook,andteacher‟smanual.Thelanguageelementsarerequired such as pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar, and the teachingand learning process targets skills of listening, speaking, reading, writing andthelearner‟s culturalcompetenceaswell(Hoang,V.V.,2016).

Thereare10teachingunitsand4reviewunitsineachbook.Aperiodat upper secondary levels lasts for 45 minutes and each unit in the textbookconsistsofeightheadings:GettingStarted,Language(Vocabulary,Pronunciati on, and Grammar), Skills (Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing),Communication &

Culture, and Looking Back & Project (MOET, 2012).

Theunits t r u c t u r e a n d t h e t e a c h i n g p e r i o d ( s ) a l l o c a t e d f o r e a c h component/heading in the unit are summarized in Table 2.2 Each unit beginswith a dialogue about the topic which incorporates phonological and lexicalitems related to the topic, specific functions and notions, and grammaticalstructures realizing them (MOET, 2012) The book covers four themes: OurLives,OurSociety,OurEnvironment,and Our Future(seeTable2.3).

Table 2.2 Book structure, unit structure, component headings, and time allocated foreachheading(Hoang,V V., 2015)

Numberofcomponents per unit 8 Componentheading GettingStarted

Communication&CultureLookingBack&ProjectTimeallocatedforeach heading 1period

Table2.3 Thetopics inthe11 th gradeTextbooks(MOET, 2012)

Theme OurLives OurSociety OurEnvironment OurFuture

The Getting Started heading begins with a dialogue about the topicwhichincorporatesphonologicalandlexicalitemsrelatedtothet o p i c , specifi c functions and notions, and grammatical structures realizing them. TheGettingStartedconsistsoffouractivitiessuchaslistenandreadtheconservation,andt hreepracticingexercises.Thefirstactivityaimstointroducestudentsthetopic,practice listeningskills,a c t i v a t e t h e i r backgroundk n o w l e d g e o f t h e t o p i c , e n c o u r a g e s t u d e n t s t o r e a d , a n d e l i c i t new vocabulary Three following practicing exercises are to develop readingskills and strategies such as scanning, skimming by doing exercises (Hoang,V.V.,2015).

TheLanguageheadingincludeslanguageelementsandlanguagefunctions and notions such as vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar Thevocabulary component aimstoconsolidate the vocabulary coveredin theGetting Started heading The pronunciation component focuses on practice ofsentences that help students practice rhythm and intonation, strong and weakforms of words,elision of sounds, linking sounds, and stress patterns Thegrammar component aims to practice and expand the grammar structure givenintheGettingStarted(MOET,2012).Furthermore,theLanguageheadi ngis to practice and expand the vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar beforestudentsaretaughtfourmacro–skills(reading,speaking,listening,andwriting) (Hoang,V.V.,2015).

TheSkillsheadingconsistsoffourmainskillssuchasreading,speaking, listening, and writing The reading section is structured according tothec o n v e n t i o n a l s t a g e s o f a r e a d i n g l e s s o n I t b e g i n s w i t h o n e a c t i v i t y , t h e aimo f w h i c h i s t o i n t r o d u c e s t u d e n t s t o t h e t o p i c I t t h e n p r e s e n t s a t e x t (length between 250 – 280 words) followed by three activities, the aim ofwhich is to develop reading skills and strategies such as scanning, skimmingand guessing meaning in context The section ends with one activity to offerstudents further practice, oral or written language production The speakingsectionconsistsoffourorfiveactivities.Thefirstandsecondactivitiesprovidela nguageinputanddevelopspecificlanguagefunctionssuchasexpressingopinions,agr eement,anddisagreements.Thethirda c t i v i t y involves short talks or conversations on a specific topic possibly with orwithout prompts The remaining activities are to give or seek personal viewsand opinions in discussion with friends Like the reading section, the listeningsectionisalsostructuredintofourorfiveactivities.Thefirstors e c o n d activityai mstomotivatestudentstolisten,backgroundknowledge,andprovide vocabulary. Two or three following activities develop such macro –skills as listening for general understanding, listening for specific or detailedinformationandtaketheformofthegap–fillingexercises,matchingexercises,True–False questions, note–taking information, and multiple choicequestions The last activity is often discussion exercise to develop speaking orwriting skills The writing section has three or four activities The first orsecondac ti vi ti esma y beginw it ha wri ti ng mo de la nd vocabulary relate dto thetopic.Theremainingactivitiesguidestudentsthroughthewritingprocess such as guided writing and language work After the writing lesson, studentshave to practice writing a personal letter, e-mail messages, diaries or blogsdescribing experiences and impressions on familiar topics and events (e.g. afilm,a book,or aconcert)(MOET,2012).

TheCommunicationandCultureheadingconsistsoftwopartscommunication and culture The aim of this lesson is to develop students‟competencyaboutcommunicativeskillsandculturalawareness.Thecomm unication part has one or two activities, the aim of which is to supplyinformation about the various topics and develop students‟ discussion skills.Theculturepartcomprisestwoorthreeactivitiesthathelps t u d e n t s understa nd the culture and give ideas about the culture through reading thetext, answering the questions or deciding true – false exercises, and discussingthetopics.

TheLookingbackandProjectsectioninvolvespronunciation,vocabulary,gra mmarexercises,andtheprojectpart.Theaimo f pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar exercisesistor e v i e w a n d c o n s o l i d a t e the target forms covered in the unit The project lesson requires students todiscussandpreparetotalkaboutthetopic.Studentshavetofindoutinformation and apply vocabulary and grammar components to present theiroutcomes By completing the project activity, students can develop four mainskills (reading, speaking, listening, and writing) and the skills of pairs-workand group-work.

The four review lessons aim to help students assess their own progressand serve as sample tests for teachers when designing 45-minute tests for theirclasses.Eachreviewhasfivemaincomponents:Language(Vocabulary,Pronunciati on,andGrammar),Reading,Speaking,Listening,andWriting.

PERCEPTION

Definitionofperception

The concept of perception has been defined differently in many ways bymanytheorists.

InTheCambridgeAdvancedLearner'sDictionaryandThesaurus,perception is defined as a belief or opinion, often held by many people andbased on how things seem (definition of belief); the quality of being aware ofthings through the physical senses, especially sight or someone‟s ability tonoticeandunderstandthingsthatarenotobvioustootherpeople(definitio nofsight);anawarenessofthingsthroughthephysicalsenses,esp.sight(definition of awareness); the way that someone thinks and feelsabout acompany, product, service, etc (definition of business English).Similarly,perception refers to “ a particular way of understanding or thinking aboutsomething, the ability to notice something by seeing, hearing, smelling etc.and the ability to understand and make good judgments about something” asdetermined in Macmillan English dictionary for advanced learners (2 nd ed.)(Rundell, 2007) According to Richard and Schmidt

(2010), perception is therecognition and comprehension of events, objects, and stimuli using one'ssenses(sight,hearing,touch,ect).Therefore,perceptionistheactofperceiving,o pinions,beliefs,attitudes,andjudgmentstowardsomethingaround the environment.

According to Norman (2002), perception is a cognizant mindfulnessreaction to items and events in the beneficiary's current circumstance Searle(2015)definedand examined perception throughvisualc o n s c i o u s n e s s H e also stated that “The relationship between perceptual experiences and the realworld- o f w h i c h v i s i o n i s t h e m o s t i m p o r t a n t t y p e o f e x p e r i e n c e - w a s a majorpreoccupation,onemayevensaythemajorpreoccupation,ofWestern philosophyforthethreecenturiesafterDescartes.” (Searle,2015).

By having some definitions of perception above, it can be summarizedthat perception is the process of clarifying information taken from humanreceptor organs or instruction about items and event to create meaning to theenvironment.

Importanceofperceptiononlearningandteaching

In teaching and learning processes, the role of the teacher and studentsis extremely essential and important influence on educational system Teacheris considered as a controller, adviser, class disciplinarian, mentor, counselor,role model, and planner who are able to develop both the students‟ ability inlearning and the students‟ behavior. Razmjoo (2007) claims that students canbe confident, and their acquiring the content of curriculum is accelerated bythe use of textbooks Teachers‟ perception create a substantial element to setthe environment of the learning process (Windiarti et al., 2019) McDonald(2011:2) claims that perception is the way how people view a phenomenonhappenedintheworld.Itisdependedonthebackgroundknowledgeofsom eonebecausesomeonecangiveherorhisownpointofvieworinterpretationofvaluating something fromwhatsheorhehas known.

Another expert says that perception is divided into two types: positiveand negative, which is the result of interaction between person and object(Irwanto,

2002) Positive perception is clarified as a personal's assessment ofan object or information with an optimistic viewpoint or in accordance withwhat is expected of an object being measured or of an existing rule Negativeperception, on the other hand, is an individual's perception of specific objectsor information with pessimistic views that differ from what is expected of theobjects being measured or of existing rules Lee & Tsai (2005) stated thatteachers‟ perception createasubstantialelementtosettheenvironmentofthe learningprocess.Itmeansthattheroleofteachers‟perceptioncangiveinfluence on the student‟s behavior Moreover, King (2000) believes that alinguistic attitude is visualized as a “specific aspects of a particular language”.Therefore, students‟ attitude toward the use of textbooks can evaluate thestudents‟competencein learningprocess.

On the other side, textbooks are also ane s s e n t i a l r o l e i n t e a c h i n g , which has a big impact on classroom activities Teacher uses the textbooks asasourcebookormajormaterialinteaching.Furthermore,teacher‟sperceptions concern on how teachers solve their weak points during teachingsituations (Moloi, 2009) For that reason, the teachers‟ views have an impacton the learning procedures, techniques, strategies, methods, materials, and theclassroom situations Another research on textbook pedagogical aids pointedthatthedesignoftextbookmeetsthestudents‟needsandinstructors‟perceptio ns may be less important than students‟ perceptions (Weiten et al.,1996).Hence,students‟viewsofthetextbooksarenecessarytoinvestigate.

Tos u m up,p e r c e p t i o n pl ay s a c r u c i a l r o l e i n th ep r o c e s s of t e a c h i n g and learning in EFL classroom due to the fact that it provides significantinsightintomanyfieldsof education.

EVALUATIONOFTEXTBOOKS

EvaluatingthedesignofELTtextbooks

Evaluating the design of a textbook pertains to the physical appearance,layout,andformatandotherfeatures.Formatandotherfeaturesarethepresentatio n of illustrations, the tablesandfigures in at e x t b o o k M o r e o v e r , the cover durability and the attractiveness of textbook elements such as thecover, page appearance and the binding are two items relating to the physicalappearanceofthetextbook(Celce-

Murcia,2001).Inaddition,itisalsoessential to investigate whether the size and weight of textbook is appropriateforstudenttouse(Sheldon,1988);(Celce-Murcia,2001).AccordingtoWilliams(1983),heclaimsthatitiscapableofcheck ingwhetherthedesign reflects the features of recent technological developments Thus, one of themostcrucialaspectsofthetextbookdesignisillustration.Regardinga colorful and appealing selection of the pictures, Sheldon (1988) suggests thatattracting students‟ attention in the language learning process is effective.Furthermore, the illustrations in a course book wherein visual need is given toa particular gender, class, race and culture (Graves, 2000) The simplicity ofthe illustrations is of vital importance since, in most cases, the information inthe significant material is transferred by the use of pictures If the picturesportray the authority of a specific gender (in most cases man) and culturallyoffensivescenes,thissituationwouldresultinnegativereactionsofthelangu agelearners.

EvaluatingthelanguagecontentofELTtextbooks

2004) Regarding to learner factors, he concentrates onfactorssuchasrangeofage,proficiencylevelinthetargetlanguage,reasonsforstudying the target language, sex distribution and so on Following the learnerfactors is a list of learner needs, for example dialect, language-skill emphasis,language-system emphasis (grammar, vocabulary, phonology) and attention tomechanics(spelling,punctuation).Asfortheteacherfactors,languagecompetence,met hodologicalcompetence,awareness,andexperienceofteachingare focused According to Cuningsworth (1995), the language skills in ELTtextbooks consist of the four main language skills in language learning Hepointsoutsixcriteriaforevaluatinglanguageskillsinatextbook:

- Do the materials provide background information, questions, andactivitiesinordertoenhancestudents‟comprehension?

Considering the presentation of grammatical issues in textbooks, thegrammaticalitemsareselectedby takingintoconsiderationthelearner‟slanguageneeds(Cunningsworth,1995).Thestr ucturalissuesneedtobepresented in short units or modules to facilitate the language learning process.Similarly,Williams(1983)suggeststhattheESLtextbookshouldoffermeani ngful situations and a variety of techniques for teaching structural units.It is also essential to question whether the need is given to the language formor language use (meaning) and this will be followed by examining the balancebetweenthestructuralandmeaningful presentations Additionally, grammaris considered as a bridge which should be constructed in such an organizationconsidering the design of the exercises Hence, this bridge also encourage thestudents to make clear the structures in context with the aim of performingboth the structures and communicative meaning because one of the goals ofteaching grammar is to help the language learners to make sure the learningfromthe form- focusedaccuracytofluency.

Ontheotherhand,relatingtothepresentationofvocabulary,thevocabulary load ought to be consistent with the intended level of the learners.Therefore,definingthevocabularyitemsisnecessarytoachievea systematic algradation.Itisessentialtoquestiononwhichcriteriathevocabulary items are selected (Celce-Murcia, 2001) Additionally, Ur

(1999)proposesa l i s t w h e r e i n t h e r e c o m m e n d e d t h i n g s c o n c e r n i n g t h e s e l e c t i o n process of the lexical units exists She claims that definition of words whichcan be provided similar to the explanations in dictionaries is various Newwords can also be performed by the utilization of explanations and pictures.Furthermore, vocabularies are taught with the use of antonyms, synonyms andcollocations or applying in a context such as sentences, paragraphs and texts.Besides, Cunningsworth (1995) proposes the checklist for vocabulary in orderto evaluatethelexicalpresentationin ELTmaterials:

- Isvocabularylearningmaterialincluded onits ownright?If so,howprominentisit?Isitcentraltothe courseorperipheral?

- Is there any distinction of between the active and passivevocabulary,or classroomvocabulary?

- Arelearnerssensitizedtothestructuresofthelexiconthroughvocabulary learningexercisesbasedonsemanticrelationships,formalrelationships, collocationsandsituation-basedwordgroups?

- Does the material enable students to expand their own vocabulariesindependentlybyhelpingthemtodeveloptheirownlearnin gstrategies?(p.46)

Theuseofexercisesalsoplaysanimportantroleinteachingandlearning English The importance of the selection procedures and criteria areconsidered as the principal types of activities and tasks consistent with aspecific language program (Richards, 1990) The aim of textbook exercises istoh e l p s t u d e n t s i m p r o v e t h e i r c o m p r e h e n s i o n s k i l l s , a c h i e v e t o t e s t m a i n ideasandthedetailedaspectsintherelevantmaterial.Moreover,the utilizationof e xe rc ises insignificantcontexts t o provideauthentic communication,theexercisesoughttobeconsistentwiththestudents‟backgroundkn owledge,experienceandcurrentsituation(Graves,2000);(Celce-Murcia,2001).

In teaching and learning English, the cultural issues in ELT textbookscan be problematical for students to acquire the unfamiliar input of targetlanguage culture The EFL students have difficulties in acquiring culturalaspects because their own cultural norms may cause their obstacle in learninga foreign language. Hence, textbook plays an important role to help studentsaccustom with the new values of L2 by presenting the familiar issues at thefirst stages of language learning Besides, students‟ intercultural knowledge isevoked by making comparisons across different cultures in order to confrontmisunderstandings concerning the target language representations (Alptekin,1993) According to Cunningsworth (1995) the familiarity of the characters,social and cultural context for effective language learning are also proposed.Moreover, Sheldon (1988) considers the evaluation of cultural issues in ELTtextbooks under the heading of „cultural bias‟ and the proposed criteria are asfollows:

- Aredifferentandappropriatereligiousandsocialenvironmentscatered for, both in terms of the topics/situations presented and ofthoseleftout?

- Are students‟ expectations in regard to content, methodology, andformat successfullyaccommodated?

- If not, would the book be able to wean students away from theirpreconceivednotions?

- Doesthecoursebookenshrinestereotyped,inaccurate,condescendingo roffensiveimagesofgender,race,socialclass,or nationality?

- Are accurate or „sanitized‟ views of the USA or Britain presented;areuncomfortablesocialrealities(e.g.unemployment,povert y,familybreakdowns,racism)leftout?(p.244).

Intextbooks,thelinguisticcontentiscombinedtotheparticularstructural aspects of the language Additionally, the thematic content suggestscrucial contents and topic to reinforce the language instruction In this study,the subject matter is concerned on the topics in the textbook Despite the factthat the aim of designing language textbooks is to improve language learning,it cannot be taught as a single subject because language occurs under realsituationsinourlives(Cunningsworth,1995).Thetopicshavetobeinteresting,live ly,amusing,andchallengingforstudents.Moreover,t h e topicsinthetextbooksmigh treflectdifferentfeaturesofreallifebymentioning to authenticity; in addition, they would start interactions amongstudentstoacquirecommunicativeskillsasexpressingopinions,drawconclusi ons and transferring those conclusions into other platforms (p.86). Ontheonehand,thetopicsoftheunitsoughttobeexaminedinordertodetermine whether the suggested topics are essential and the time devoted forthe presentation of these topics is adequate Additionally, the most necessaryareasinvolvesinpreparingthematerialsthepriority.Richards( 2 0 0 1 ) su ggeststhatthereflectedareaswouldbeappropriatetothestudents‟expectations in order tohelpthemto attainthelearningoutcomes.

REVIEWOFRELATEDEMPIRICALSTUDIES

There are some relevant studies about the teachers‟ challenges towardpilot textbook used to be a model and reference to support this research Thefirst research was carried out by Nguyễn, T T T (2018) which studied thehigh- schoolteachers‟difficultiesontheimplementingthetextbook.Itwasa case study of high school teachers from the North of Vietnam This studyaimed to explore high-school English teachers‟ perceptions of challenges inteaching with the set of English textbooks in their province and give possiblesolutions proposed by teacher trainers and textbook authors The research wasinvestigated on five English teachers in different high schools in a NorthernProvince in Vietnam and two teacher trainers who directly participated inwriting and editing the set of English textbooks The results of this researchshowed that teachers who directly accessed to textbooks encountered with sixchallenges namely (1) a wide range of difficult and unfamiliar topics or textgenres, (2) inadequate time and program allocation, (3) lack of references forteachers, (4) mismatch between learning and testing, (5) mixed-level classes,and (6) students‟ low motivation In addition, teacher trainers and textbookauthors proposed possiblesolutions todealwiththechallenges.

Thesecondresearchisaresearchonhighschoolteachers‟andstudents‟perspec tivesoncommunicativeskillsrepresentedinEnglishtextbook investigated by Tran,

P N T., & Tran, Q T (2020) in the newEnglish textbook grade 10 The aim of the study is to explore EFL teachers‟andstudents‟perspectivescommunicativeskillsrepresentedinthenewEng lish textbook grade 10 This study consisted of 42 students in answering aquestionnaire and 5 teachers in responding the interview questions at Bui ThiXuanHighSchool,LamDongProvince.Thefindingsofthisresearchindicated that participants believed that the new English textbook grade 10could improve theircommunicative skills.

Teachers‟perceptionofinterculturalcommunicationcompetenceandwhetherperce ptionswerepracticed in their language teaching in high school settings (Minh, T.

Q et al.,2019).Thisstudyconsistedofforty- fiveseniorstudentsinEnglisheducation department studying at a School of Foreign Language of Can Tho Universityin the MekongD e l t a r e g i o n , V i e t n a m d u r i n g t h e y e a r o f

2 0 1 7 - 2 0 1 8 T h e result of the study indicated that their willingness to practice

Another study aims at exploring the teacher and learner perceptions ofEFL textbooks in Hong Kong Secondary schools in terms of suitability andparameters (Chow, 2004) The study consisted of 555 teachers and 2,535learnersfrom52schoolsinHongKong.Theresultssuggestedt h a t statistically different perceptions exist among the inter-groups (e.g. learnersandteachers)andtheintra- groups(e.g.subjectstreams,learningstages,teacherqualificationsandexperience).T hestudyproposedgreatercollaborativeeffortamongthetextbookstakeholdersrelatin gtotextbookdevelopmentandevaluationasamethodtoachievegreatert e x t b o o k suita bilityandusersatisfaction.

Inanotherresearch,Nguyet,H.T.T.,&VanLong,N.( 2 0 2 0 ) compared the two sets of textbooks used at senior high school in Vietnam andevaluate the effectiveness of the new one, centering on lexical resources atwordlevel,particularlyindividualwordsandphrasalverbs.Theresultsrevealed a quantifiable evaluation of the lexical resources, tapping into themutual and exclusive words, as well as examining lexical complexity of thetwo setsoftextbooks.

Besides, Srakang (2013) did a study on investigating how

10 th GradeEnglishteachersperceivedtheuseofEnglishtextbooks.Therewere12Engli shteachersfrom10 th GradelevelinMahaSarakhamProvinceparticipating in this study Questionnaires, classroom observations and semi- structuredi n t e r v i e w s a r e u s e d f o r c o l l e c t i n g d a t a T h e f i n d i n g s s h o w e d t h e effectsofusingEnglishtextbooksinteachingintermsofteachers‟perceptions toward using English textbooks, the roles of English textbooks inclassroompractice,andproblems concerningtheuseofEnglishtetxbooks.

Moreover,Seda Aytuğ (2007)examined English teachers‟ attitudestowards the evaluation of the textbook New Bridge to Success for

9 th GradeNewbeginners(NBS)andteachers‟perceptionsconcerningmaincharacteri stic of a model ELT textbook designed for high school students inAnkara.Thisstudyconcluded60Englishteachersfrom1 3 d i f f e r e n t Anatolia n High Schools in Ankara during June 2006 The findings showed thedescriptionofagreementanddisagreementofteachers‟evaluationsthatconsidered the featuresofthe textbookNBS.

Another research on students‟ perceptions related to textbook layoutand organization and their evaluation of the textbook simplicity of learningwas examined by Hoshangabadwala (2015) He explored whether the layoutdynamicsofschooltextbooksmakedifferenceinstudents‟interesti n studying and subject understanding The research consisted of 73 studentsfrom various private schools of Pakistan‟s cosmopolitan The results of theresearch indicate that students rank print and color above paper quality andthereisnospecificconnectionbetweenabookdesignandthegenuineutilization of textbooks.

KhodabandehandMombini(2018)evaluatedthen e w E n g l i s h textbook entitled “Vision 1”, developed for the Iranian first grade high schoolstudents.The participants of the study consisted of 30 teachers teaching thisbook and 70 students studying in the first grade high school in Baghmalek inKhuzestan province The findings indicated that teachers and students wereinterestedin thebookin all criteriaexceptcultural considerations.

In short, this chapter has reviewed the overview of teaching English atthe general education level in Vietnam, the roles of textbook in teaching andlearning,astheissuesintextbookevaluation Inaddition,somerelevantstudies were represented in this chapter The next chapter will focus on themethodology, presenting the participants of the study, the instruments,anddataanalysisprocedures usedinthestudy.

Thischapterdescribestheresearchdesign,thepopulationandparticipant selection, data collection, and data analysis It also mentions thereliabilityandvalidityof the data.

RESEARCHDESIGN

The research was mostly conducted following descriptive research withthe perception of teachers and students on the 11 th - grade English textbooks.Theresearchemployedbothaquantitativeapproachandaqualitativeappro ach to address research problems and provide a better understanding ofthe research problems (Creswell, 2014, p 565) The quantitative data werepresentedbymeasuringteachers‟andstudents‟perceptionswiththequestionnai res;whereasthequalitativeapproachwiththesemi- structuredinterviewswereappliedtoexamineteachers‟andstudents‟perceptionsonthe

POPULATIONANDPARTICIPANTSELECTION

Teachers

Inthisstudy,researcherchose10teachersteachingthe11 th gradeEnglish textbooks in Song Cau Town All of the teachers are certified asEnglish teachers in high school who have taught English for years They haveexperiencesinchoosingandapplyingtheEnglishtextbookinteaching.Therefor e,theteachershavemoreperceptionsabouttheuseofEnglishtextbook in the classroom The teachers were surveyed and interviewed usingquestionnaires and some questions related to the 11 th grade English textbooksused in teaching English at High School The background of the participantswereshowninTable3.1.

Years of teachingthe11 th – grade

7 0 % ) were females Moreover, most of the participants (90%) in this study haveexperiencedonetofiveyearsinteachingthe11 th gradeEnglishtextbooks.

Students

The researcher chose randomly 100 students studying the

11 th gradeEnglish textbooks at High Schools in Song Cau Town All students gavefeedbacks after using the 11 th grade English textbooks The students wereaskedtocompletethequestionnaireandinterviewedsomequestionsrelatedto their thoughts of the English textbooks The background of the participantswereshowninTable3.2.

It is obvious from table 3.2 more than half of the participants (56%)were females In addition, as illustrated from the table, fifty - eight (58%) ofthe participants had eight years of experience of learning English whereasforty – two (42%) of them had more than eight years of learning Englishexperience.

RESEARCHINSTRUMENTS

Questionnaire

As stated by Gay, Geoffrey, and Peter (2011), a questionnaire is atechniqueforcollectingdatabyusingsurveyquestionsanditisansweredbyasel ectedgroupofresearchparticipants.Additionally,Richards(2001)explains that a questionnaire is an instrument generally applied to elicit dataaboutwiderangeofissues.Hence,theresearcherconductedtouseaquestionnaire as a primary tool for collecting data on perceptions of teachersand students.

1 Areviewofbasicconcepts,informationontheexistingphysicalappearance and format, the content (units, activities, exercises, skills,and sub- skills), and role of textbooks proposed by researchers fromVietnamand abroadas werepresented intheLiteratureReview.

2 Adraftingofthequestionnairewaspreparedbyadaptinganddeveloping questionnaires of Seda Aytuğ (2007) and Ladaporn Srakang(2013).Thequestionnairesoftworesearchersweredesignedfortextbo ok evaluation for users The questionnaire let participants sharetheir beliefs, attitudes, and ideas explaining their perceptions toward the11 th gradeEnglishtextbooks.Thequestionnaireincludedtwomainparts: (A) Background Information and (B) Teachers‟ Perceptions onthe11 th gradeEnglishtextbooks(seeAppendix1,page80–Questionnaire for teachers) and Students‟ Perceptions on the

This part contained 2 items designed to give information on thebackgroundteachersand s t u d e n t s including g e n d e r , y e a r so f te ac hi ng the1 1 th – g r a d e E n g l i s h t e x t b o o k s f o r t e a c h e r a n d y e a r s o f l e a r n i n g English forstudent.

-Teachers‟ and Students‟ Perceptions on the 11 th grade Englishtextbooks

Thissectionconsistedof30itemsdealingwithphysicalappearance and format, the content (units, activities, exercises, skills,and sub- skills), andr o l e s o f t h e t e x t b o o k s I n 3 0 i t e m s , t h e y c o n s i s t e d ofcriteriaforassessingphysicalappearanceandformatwith6statements,19statementsforthecontentofunits,activities,exercis es, skills, and sub-skills, 5 statements for roles of English textbooks. Thefive-point Likert‟s scale (fromstrongly agreetostrongly disagree) wasusedtotheseitems.Theparticipantswereaskedtoidentifyeachstatement relating to their perceptions on a five-point scale from, (5)Strongly agree; (4) Agree; (3) Neutral; (2) Disagree; and (1) Stronglydisagree. The Cronbach‟s Alpha of the physical appearance and format,the content ofu n i t s , a c t i v i t i e s , e x e r c i s e s , s k i l l s , a n d s u b - s k i l l s i t e m s , andtherolesoftextbooksis.81,.89,and.80fort e a c h e r s ‟ questio nnaire and 73, 86, and 71 for students‟ questionnaire Thismeans that thereliabilityofthequestionnaireis acceptable.

6)areaboutthecover,thelayout,illustrations,headings, and instructions of the 11 th – grade English textbooks.

Thequestionsw e r e d e s i g n e d t o g a i n i n f o r m a t i o n a b o u t t h e a t t r a c t i v e n e s s anddurabilityofthetextbook‟scoverandlayout.Moreover,t h e generalorganizationofthetextbook,thepresentationoftheillustrations, headings,orinstructionswereexaminedtocollectdata.

Regardingitemsrepresentingthecontentofthe11 th –gradeEnglish textbooks, there were 19 questions (7-25) to gather informationaboutunits,activities,exercises,vocabulary,skills,andsub- skillspresented inthetextbook.

ImadeaminormodificationofAytuğ‟squestionnaire(2007)andSrakang‟s questionnaire (2013) The phrase “the textbook” was changed into“the11 th gradeEnglish textbooks”sothatit ismoreappropriateforthesurvey context.

Owning to backgrounds with different levels of proficiency in Englishof the participants, the questionnaire was translated into Vietnamese with thesupportofexperiencedEnglishteachersofmyschool.Forthec o n t e n t validity, the first version of questionnaires was sent to 20 students and 5teachers were totally in Vietnamese as a sample After receiving the responsesandhavingadjudgment,thefinalquestionnairessenttothesurveyparticipant s.Thereliability ofthequestionnaireswasreachedb y p i l o t i n g thembeforethemainstudyandcalculatingtheirCronbachAlphacoefficien ts.

Thew ho le process of c o n d u c t i n g thesurvey lasteda b o u t sixmont hs.

Semi–StructuredInterview

Gay, Geoffrey, and Peter (2011) define an interview as a conversationhaving question and answer between a researcher and participant relating to aresearch study Similarly,Merriam and Tisdell (2015) state that the mainpurpose of an interview is to gain a special kind of informationTherefore,using interview is aimed at seeking more understanding of people‟s opinions.Theinterviewquestionswerestructuredtoobtaininformationconcernin gthe

11 th grade English textbooks To ensure the safety during severe Covid- 19pandemic and to avoid the interference the participants‟ learning and teachingand give the respondent convenience, the researcher conducted individualsemi-structured interviews with the participants through their personal mobilephone The interview questions were translated into Vietnamese, and theywere arisen in the conditions of each interview The researcher carried outindividual interviews in Vietnamese after surveying the questionnaire Thereare8studentsand 3teachersparticipatinginthe interview.

The interview questions were structured to gain deeper answers andchecktheaccuracyofquestionnairedataaboutparticipants‟perceptionsofthe11 th – gradeEnglishtextbooks.Thecontentoftheteachers‟interviewquestions focused on

5 areas in 5 questions such as the physical appearanceand format, four mainEnglish skills, activities, exercises, and vocabulary Onthe other hand, the students‟ interview questions contained 4 areas in the firstfourquestionssuchasthephysicalappearanceandformat,activities,exercises,and vocabulary The last question was used to ask students abouttheirinterestsandchallengesduringlearningthe11 th –gradeEnglishtextbooks.

DATACOLLECTION

The data collection was conducted at the beginning of the academicsecond semester in January 2022 The researcher contacted with the teachersand the students in some schools of Song Cau Town to ask permission toconducttheresearchviaonlineGoogleFormthroughthelinkhttps://forms.gle/

SKa49B3176Wr4Dgn6 for teachers andhttps://forms.gle/bpJFt713UGVcLbQw9for students After permission wasgranted, the researcher scheduled the dates and times with each

11 th GradeEnglishteacherand11 th GradeEnglishstudentsfortheadministration ofthe questionnaires 10 teacher and 100 student participants were informed that bycompleting and returning the questionnaire, they had accepted to take part inthe study They were asked to response to the questionnaires by clicking on aboxcontainingone ofthefollowingcategories:(5)Stronglyagree;(4)Agree;

(2)Disagree;and(1)Stronglydisagree.Theresponsestoquestionnairesfromtheteach erandstudentparticipantswerethenquantitativelyanalyzed.

Asemi-structuredinterviewwasconductedinordertogaindepthinformation and to complement data from questionnaires Eight students andthree teachers from these participants who volunteered to have an interviewwiththeresearcher,wererandomlyselected.Eachteacherandstudentpartici pantwereindividuallyinterviewedwithopen- endedquestionsatdifferenttimesviaZaloapp.ThelanguageusedintheinterviewswasVietnamese Each interview took approximately 10 minutes All intervieweesagreed to have the interviews audio and writing versions so the smartphoneand laptop were used during the interview to record and take notes.The wholeinterviews were recordedand transcribedlater.

DATAANALYSIS

Thedatawereanalyzedquantitativelyandqualitatively.Thed a t a gainedfro mthequestionnairesandthesemi-structuredinterviewswereanalyzed and merged to fulfill the objectives of the study Statistical PackageforSocialSciences(SPSS)version26wasusedfortheanalysisofthequestion naires and necessary calculations were conducted Particularly, theFrequency,Mean,StandardDeviation,percentageswerecalculated.Themeans values wereinterpretedas follows(Srakang,2013):

The qualitative data gained from the interviews were analyzed. Theprocess began with the transcribing of dataf r o m a u d i o r e c o r d i n g i n t o t e x t s All interviewees were codeda s T 1 , T 2 , a n d T 3 f o r t e a c h e r p a r t i c i p a n t s a n d S1, S2, to S8 for student participants. Then the researcher read through thetranscribed data from audio recording to make notations which were relevanttot h e a n s w e r i n g o f t h e r e s e a r c h q u e s t i o n s T h e r e s u l t s f r o m q u e s t i o n n a i r e s andsemi- structuredinterviewswerecombinedtoanswertheresearchquestions.

RELIABILITYANDVALIDITY

ScaleReliabilityAnalysis

As described above, the researcher used the questionnaire and semi- structured interviews to collect the data for the research With the help ofStatisticalPackageforSocialScience (IBM SPSS;V e r s i o n 2 6 ) p r o g r a m , Scale Tests were run to check the reliability of the questionnaire. Table 3.4displaystheresultoftheScaleReliabilityStatisticsofthe questionnaire.

Sections Cronbach‟sAlpha Number ofitems

Thecontent ofunits, activities,exercises, skills,and sub-skills 89 86 19

It can be seen that the reliability of the questionnaire was acceptable(α>0.60) Accordingly, this questionnaire was reliable enough to be used asinstruments inthisresearch.

Validity

In terms of validity, the questionnaire adapted from Aytuğ (2007) incombination with the roles of textbooks by Srakang (2013)are used, so thequalityof the dataisquite valid.

Inthischapter,theresearcherpresentedtheresearchmethodologyconsistingof backgroundinformationabouttheresearchparticipantsandresearchinstrumentsanddat acollectionandanalysis.Thenextc h a p t e r tackles with data analysis of the questionnaire and the interviews carried outwith the highschoolteachers andstudents.

TEACHERS‟ PERCEPTIONS ON THE 11 TH GRADE ENGLISHTEXTBOOKS

Teachers‟perceptionontheappearanceandformatofthe11 th – gradeEnglishtextbooks

Asfor 6statementsrelated tothephysicalappearance andformat,Ta ble

Table 4.2 Teachers’ perception on the appearance and format of the 11 th – gradeEnglishtextbooks

Thephysicalappearanceandformat N Min Max Mean S.D Levelof agreement

1)Thecoverofthe11 th gradeEnglish textbooksisattractive 10 2 5 3.70 0.95 Agree

2)Thecoverofthe11 th gradeEnglish textbooksisdurable 10 3 5 3.70 0.82 Agree

4)Theillustrationsinthe11 th gradeEnglis htextbooksared i r e c t l y r e l a t e d tot h e c o n t e n t t o h e l p t h e l e a r n e r understandtheprintedtext.

5)M a i n h e a d i n g s a n d s u b h e a d i n g s i n the11 th g r a d e Englishtextboo ksare wellorganized.

6)Theinstructionsinthe11 th g r a d e English textbookshelpstudentsto comprehendtheitemsthoroughly.

Table4.2representsthemeanandstandarddeviationofteachers‟responsestoeachstateme ntinthefirst section.Thetotal mean was3.73,whichindicatesthattheteachershadapositiveperceptionofthephysicalappearanceof the11 th grade English textbooks According to the scale data, teachers tended to agreethat the physical appearance of the textbooks was attractive, and the format ofthetextbookwassuitableandeasytofollowinteaching.

As we can see from Table 4.2, statement 5 has the highest average meanscore of 4.10 This means that the teachers indicated their agreement about thewell- organizingofthemainheadingsandsubheadingsrepresentedinthe11 th

– grade English textbooks The rest of the statements regarding the layout, thecover and the instructions have the nearly same high average mean scoreranging from 3.70 to 3.80 In other words, teachers indicated that the 11 th – gradeEnglishtextbooksarecolorful,motivating,andattractivecover.Furthermore , the internal design of the textbook elements are illustrated withthe drawings and the photographs to help students understand the printed text.Statement6 r e g a r d i n g t h e c l e a r i n s t r u c t i o n g a i n s t h e l o w e s t m e a n s c o r e o f

3.40 This finding shows that teachers neither fully agree nor disagree withstatement number 6 In other words, some teachers still find it hard to helpstudents understandsome instructions.

Besides, the participants teachers in the interviews also expressed theirthoughts and interests concerning the headings and subheadings in questioninterview1“Whatmakepeopleimpressedmostwhenapproachinga n En glish textbook?” T1andT2indicated that a clearmain headingsandsubheadingsareimportanttohelpteachersfollowandgaintheg eneralviewof the textbook easily As T1 commented: “the clear format and headings areessential to help teachers follow easily.” Likewise, T2 believed that teachersreadthroughtheheadingsandsub- headingsto“obtainageneralviewofthe textbooks” As a result of the interview, the teachers illustrated that they givepriority to the visual aspects of a textbook such as the cover, illustrations, thelayout All three participant teachers said that visual aids are quite necessaryfor language teaching We can infer some information from all teachers‟answers Firstly, the cover of the textbooks should be attractive and colorful.Secondly, the cover would inspire teachers to consider the elements inside thetextbook such as clear format, layout, and illustrations so that teachers maybackgroundtheknowledgeindecidingtochoosethetextbooks.Morespecificall y, T1 said that “people are interested in the cover of the textbook,and the colorful layout of the textbooks if they are attractive.” In a similarvein,T2commentedthat“Ithink thatwhile selectinganE F L t e x t b o o k ,

I focusonthetextbook’slayout,instructions,andtopics.”.Moreover,T3confirmed the importance of selecting textbook basing on the cover of thetextbook by asserting that“the high-quality pictures and material play animportant for choosing the textbooks” T3 also added that visual aids

The findings about teachers‟ perception on the physical appearance andformatarelinewith theresultsofCelce-Murcia‟s(2001)andSheldon‟s(1988), who stated that cover durability and the attractiveness of textbookelementsareimportantissuestochoosethetextbookatthefirstview.Similarl y, in regard to the importance of this aspect, Gibson (2011) states thateven when students are provided with books that satisfy their interests, thefinal decision to read a book relies on visual appeal Furthermore, this findingis also corrected with claim made by Williams (1983) and Graves (2000) whogive a definition of illustrations of the textbook that illustration is one of themost crucialaspectsofthetextbookdesign.

Teachers‟ perception on the

Table 4.3 Teachers’ perception on the difficulty level and the unit organization of the11 th – gradeEnglish textbooks Thedifficultylevel andthe unit organization of the 11 th – grade

N Min Max Mean S.D Level ofagreeme nt

Englisht e xt b o o k s i sa p p r o p r i a t e t o t h e stude nts‟level.

12)The11 th gradeEnglishtextbooksinclud e informationa b o u t p e o p l e f r o m di f f e r e nt co untries.

13)The11 th gradeEnglishtextbook'scontent is prepared by considering the whole academicyear.

16)The11 th gradeEnglishtextbooks‟contentrefle ctst h e c u l t u r a l c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s o f t h e targetlanguage.

As can be observed from Table 4.3,the highest mean score is forcompability between students‟ needs and the content organization (M=4.10),which means that most of the teachers share the positive thinking about thecontentorganizationofthebook.Threeitemssharingsamemeanscore(M=4.00)a r e a b o u t t h e a p p r o p r i a c y o f t h e b o o k w i t h t h e s t u d e n t s ‟ l e v e l , cultural content, and the interesting level of the textbook In addition, thecultural characteristics made teachers face with the difficulty in explaining.Therestitemsincludingunitformat,well- preparedcontentanddiversecontent also take the high mean score (M=3.80, 3.70, and 3.50 respectively).As a result, the teachers gave their agreement of thoughts and ideas about theunit organization and topics relevant to students‟ needs and interests, and thecontentofthetextbookwasarrangedbytakingintoconsiderationtheacademic year period.

Interestingly, the answers from teachers during the interview were inline with this finding For example, T1 said that the textbooks were updatedtopics and various vocabulary to help students get more knowledge.

As T1commented“the content of the textbooks is updated with new and trendingtopics”.S i m i l a r l y ,T 3 c o n f i r m e d t h e u p d a t e d k n o w l e d g e b y a s s e r t i n g t h a t “The textbooks further provide more knowledge about the culture, customs,and people inthe world.”.

In short, each of statements related to the difficulty level and the unitorganizationhavethehighagreement(M≥3.50).Thismeansthatt h e teachers supportedthese aspects.

Thisfindingaboutthedifficultylevelandtheunito r g a n i z a t i o n supports the result from Khodabandeh and Mombini (2018), which show thatthe materials objectives were apparent to both teachers and students and thelanguageitems and activities werewellpresented and organized.

4.1.3 Teachers’ perception on the exercises and activities of the 11 th – gradeEnglish textbooks

As for the exercises and activities of the 11 th – grade English textbooks,table4.4illustratesthe results.

Table4.4.Teachers’perceptionontheexercisesandactivitiesof the11 th – gradeEnglishtextbooks

Theexercises andactivities of the11 th – gradeEnglishtextbooks

N Min Max Mean S.D Levelof agreement

15)Asaresultofusingthe11 th gradeEnglish textbooks,s t u d e n t s c a n u s e E n g l i s h a s a meansofcommunication.

English textbooks are appropriate forimprovingstudents‟readingskills.

English textbooks are appropriate forimprovingstudents‟writingskills.

English textbooks are appropriate forimprovingstudents‟speakingskills.

20)T h e l i s t e n i n g e x e r c i s e s i n t h e 1 1 th g radeEnglish textbooks are appropriate for improvingstudents‟listeningskills.

25) The exercises promote meaningful communication by referring to realisticsituations.

AsillustratedinTable4.4,teachers‟responsesdescribeaslightdiversityreferringtotheexer cisesandactivitiesofthe11 th –gradeEnglishtextbooks.

Althoughmoststatementswereconsideredbytheteachersthattheexercisesandactivities are appropriate to improve English skills, some other statementsindicatedtheneutralthoughtsfromteachers.Thismeansthatsomeexercisesandac tivities are not still suitable for students to practice Based on the analysis ofthescaledata,theteachersindicatedthattheytotallyagreedwiththeappropriateness of the speaking exercises to improve students‟ speaking skills(M= 4.50) Concerning the writing skills, teachers believed that the writingexercises and activities of the textbook are important and suitable to helpstudentsreinforceandimprovetheirwritingskills(M=4.30).Besides,statement23 have mean score of 4.00, which indicates that teachers appreciated theexercises of the textbook to help students improve their comprehension skills.Three items having nearly the same high mean score (M=3.70, 3.70, and

3.60respectively)areabouttherelevanceoftheexercisestostudents‟needs,theuseof English as means of communication, and the appropriateness of readingexercises Nevertheless, the rest items indicated have nearly the same mediummean scores of 3.20, 3.10, and 3.00 respectively The findings showed that theteachers neither agreed nor disagreed with these issues In other words, someteachersthoughtthatsomeexercisesarenotappropriateforstudentstoimprove. Correspondingly,theanswersfromteachersinthequestioninterview3supportedthi sfinding.Forinstance,T2indicatedthattheexercisesandactivitiesofthetextbookcanhe lplearnersstrengthentheirEnglishskillssuchasreading,speaking, and writing skills T2 commented that

“the textbooks have exercisesand activities to help students develop reading skills and speaking skills.”.Nevertheless, T1 and T3 believed that some exercise and activities as listeningskills are still hard for learners As T1 claimed that “They can practice doingexercisesandactivitiestoimprovetheirEnglishskillssuchasreadingcompre hension,andcommunication”.T1alsoaddedthat“somelisteningexercisesarenot ap propriateforstudent s’ levels.”, whichm e a n s thatsome exercises might not be easy for students In the same vein, T3 appreciated thatstudentscanapplyactivitiesandexercisesinrealsituations,however,sometimesexerci sesandactivities“arequitechallengingforstudents”.

All in all, most statements are concerning the activities and exercisesthathavehighagreementmeanscores.Thefindingsindicatedthatmostteachers hadapositiveperceptionoftheexercisesandactivitiesrepresented inthe11 t h–gradeEnglishtextbookstoimprovestudents‟Englishskills.

The findings about the teachers‟ perception on the exercise and activities ofthe textbooks support the result from Khodabandeh and Mombini (2018),which show that it is commonly agreed that English textbook is of a favorablestatus and provides a balance of variant activities that encourage students topractice communicatively The findings are in line with the idea of Tomlinson(2003)about activities andtasksin textbooksgenerally.

4.1.4 Teachers’ perception on the skills and sub-skills distribution of the11 th –grade Englishtextbooks

As for the section concerning skills and sub-skills, the results can befound inTable4.5.

Table 4.5 Teachers’ perception on the skills and sub-skills distribution of the 11 th – gradeEnglish textbooks

The skills and sub-skills distribution of the11 th – grade Englishtextbooks

11)Theunitsinthe11 th gradeEnglishtextbooks provide students coverage of fourmains k i l l s a n d o t h e r s u b - s k i l l s ( v o c a b u l a r y andgrammar).

Based on the analysis of the scale data, table 4.5 shows that the teachersbelieved that the 11 th – grade English textbooks covered four main skills andsub-skillsfullyineachunit(M=3.80).Inotherwords,theunitsint h e textbook provide students equal coverage of four main skills and other sub-skills (vocabulary, and grammar) The rest statements regarding vocabularyload and vocabulary graduation take a neutral mean score (M=3.20 and 3.10respectively),whichmeansthatsomevocabularyitemsmaynotb e appropriatefo rstudents‟levels.

The finding corresponds to the answers from teachers during the interview.In particularly, T2 indicated that the 11 th grade English textbooks perform andcover four main skills (reading, speaking, listening, and writing) equally T2commented that “It was a good balance of four main skills represented in thetextbooks.”.Similarly,T3confirmedtheequalityoffourmainskillsbyasserting answerthat“Eachskilllesson isdesignedtoteachinaperiod”.

Ontheotherhand,duringtheinterviews,thelastinterviewq u e s t i o n further performedtheresultofthevocabularyitems.T2illustratedtheopposite idea that the vocabulary in the textbooks represented from simple tocomplex As T2 commented: “most vocabularies in the 11 th – grade Englishtextbooks are designed from simple to complex.”.Yet, one participant statedthat the vocabulary may be hard for students to understand by asserting theidea“somevocabularythemesarequitemorechallengingfors t u d e n t levels.

” In addition, T1 stated that “sometimes when we think it was easy forus,thestudents'comprehension might not beas weexpectedittobe”.

To sum up, the findings show that the teachers undoubtedly perceived the11 th –gradeEnglishtextbooksaspresentinggoodcontentcontainingmainskills,sub- skills, vocabulary, grammar structures, and tasks However, it seems theiropinionisthatthevocabularyisnotstilleasyforstudentstounderstand.

The finding was likewise revealed in study made by Minh, N T T. (2007),whichshowed the overview of four main skills in the English textbooksequally.Inthe samevein,thisfinding also trackedfrom study madebyYasemin Kırkgửz (2009) who found that most EFL textbooks have a balanceddevelopment of four language skills as well as providing useful materials forindividual skilldevelopment.

Concerning the roles of the textbooks, most of the answers from teachersshowthattheyagreedwithalmostallthe items.

Rolesof Englishtextbooks N Min Max Mean S.D Levelof agreement

The analysis of the scale data indicates that the majority of the participantschose theNeutralandStrongly Agreeoptions regarding the roles ofEnglishtextbooks As seen in Table 4.5, the average mean score for all the roles ofEnglishtextbookitemsis4.02.Therefore,theresultsindicatethattheteachers valued using the 11 th – grade English textbooks, perceiving their roles asnecessary In brief, the teachers had positive perceptions toward the roles ofthe11 th – grade Englishtextbookstheyused.

The findings about the roles of textbook support the result from Srakang(2013), which show that textbooks play an essential role in teaching processand classroom practices Similarly, this finding is also correlated with claimmadebyO‟Neil(1982)andSheldon(1988)whoassertthattextbooksconsiderab ly reduce time in materials preparation In addition, Harmer (2001)believesthattextbooksareproductsofyearsofresearchsothey canbeeffectivesourceof knowledgefor teachersand learners.

In short, this part attempted to investigate teachers‟ perceptions on 5areas of the 11 th grade English textbooks such as physical appearance andformat, the difficulty level and unit organization, the exercises and activities,the skills and sub-skills distribution and the roles of the textbook The resultsindicated that teachers believed that the visual aspects of the textbook, thedifficultylevelandunitorganization,andtherolesofthetextbookareappropriate for students However, the result also showed that some exercisesand activities and vocabularyload are stillhard forstudents.

This part aims to answer the second research question: “How do highschool students perceive the 11 th grade English textbooks?”The researcheranalyzed the students' responses to the 30-statement questionnaire by usingdescriptive statistics of mean scores and Standard deviation (S.D) and level ofagreement Besides, to make sure of understanding the answer from studentscarefully,theresearcherinterviewed8students,whoseanswerswerequalitativel yanalyzed.

Table4.7.Students’perceptionofthe11 th gradeEnglishtextbooks

Clusters N Mean S.D Level of agreement

It can be observed from Table 4.6 that the total mean score of 3.63 indicatesthe students‟ agreement with the physical appearance and format and thecontent represented in the 11 th – grade English textbooks and the roles of thetextbooks in learning English The findings show that the students highlyappreciated with the physical appearance and format of the textbooks and theroles of the textbooks they used (M ≈ 3.80) whereas they had a neutral ideaabout the content covering the units, activities, exercises, skills, and sub-skillswith a mean score of 3.27 This means that the students may find it difficult tounderstandorpracticetheunits,activities,exercises,skills,andsub-skills.

4.2.1 Students’ perception of the physical appearance and format on the11 th grade English textbooks

Table4.8showsthedetailedresultsofthefirstsectioncontaining6 statementsaboutthe physicalappearanceand format.

Table 4.8 Students’ perception of the physical appearance and format on the

Thephysicalappearanceand format N Min Max Mean S.D Levelof agreement

2)Thecoverofthe11 th gradeEnglish textbooksis durable 100 2 5 3.81 0.75 Agree

3) The layout of the textbookmotivatess t u d e n t s t o p e r f o r m t h e tasks.

11 th gradeEnglish textbooks are directly relatedtoth e contentto h el p t h e lea rner understandthe printedtext.

5)Mainheadingsandsubheadingsin the1 1 th gradeE n g l i s h t e x t b o o k s a r e wellorganized.

4.1.3 Teachers‟perceptionon theexercisesandactivitiesofthe11 th – gradeEnglishtextbooks

Teachers‟perceptionoftherolesofthetextbooks

Concerning the roles of the textbooks, most of the answers from teachersshowthattheyagreedwithalmostallthe items.

Rolesof Englishtextbooks N Min Max Mean S.D Levelof agreement

The analysis of the scale data indicates that the majority of the participantschose theNeutralandStrongly Agreeoptions regarding the roles ofEnglishtextbooks As seen in Table 4.5, the average mean score for all the roles ofEnglishtextbookitemsis4.02.Therefore,theresultsindicatethattheteachers valued using the 11 th – grade English textbooks, perceiving their roles asnecessary In brief, the teachers had positive perceptions toward the roles ofthe11 th – grade Englishtextbookstheyused.

The findings about the roles of textbook support the result from Srakang(2013), which show that textbooks play an essential role in teaching processand classroom practices Similarly, this finding is also correlated with claimmadebyO‟Neil(1982)andSheldon(1988)whoassertthattextbooksconsiderab ly reduce time in materials preparation In addition, Harmer (2001)believesthattextbooksareproductsofyearsofresearchsothey canbeeffectivesourceof knowledgefor teachersand learners.

In short, this part attempted to investigate teachers‟ perceptions on 5areas of the 11 th grade English textbooks such as physical appearance andformat, the difficulty level and unit organization, the exercises and activities,the skills and sub-skills distribution and the roles of the textbook The resultsindicated that teachers believed that the visual aspects of the textbook,thedifficultylevelandunitorganization,andtherolesofthetextbookareappropriate for students However, the result also showed that some exercisesand activities and vocabularyload are stillhard forstudents.

STUDENTS‟ PERCEPTIONS ON THE 11 TH GRADE ENGLISHTEXTBOOKS