Efl teachers’ perspectives on the textbook “family and friends 5” (special edition) a study at primary schools in thu duc city

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY - LE THI HONG PHUC EFL TEACHERS’ PERSPECTIVES ON THE TEXTBOOK “FAMILY AND FRIENDS 5” (SPECIAL EDITION): A STUDY AT PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN THU DUC CITY Major: English Language Course code: 19SNA21 HO CHI MINH CITY, JULY 2022 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY - EFL TEACHERS’ PERSPECTIVES ON THE TEXTBOOK “FAMILY AND FRIENDS 5” (SPECIAL EDITION): A STUDY AT PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN THU DUC CITY 21 408 words Submitted to the Faculty of English Language in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in English Language Course code: 19SNA21 By LE THI HONG PHUC Supervised by NGUYEN THI KIEU THU, Ph.D HO CHI MINH CITY, JULY 2022 The thesis entitled EFL Teachers’ Perspective on the Textbook “Family and Friends” (Special Edition): A Study at Primary Schools in Thu Duc City was successfully defended and approved on … at Hochiminh City University of Technology (HUTECH) Academic supervisor: Nguyen Thi Kieu Thu, Ph D Examination Committee Le Vawn Tuyen, Ph.D Chair Nguyen Thi Quyen, Ph.D Reader Tran Quoc Thao, Ph.D Reader Nguyen Thi Nhu Ngoc, Ph.D Member Trinh Ngoc Thanh, Ph.D Secretary Member On behalf of the Examination Committee Chair Le Van Tuyen, Ph.D HCMC UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY POSTGRADUATE INSTITUTE HCMC, September 20th, 2021 MASTER’S THESIS REPORT Student name: Le Thi Hong Phuc Sex: Female Date of birth: September 2nd, 1984 Place of birth: Ninh Thuan province Major: English Language Student code: 1941900041 I- Thesis title: EFL Teachers’ Perspective on the Textbook “Family and Friends” (Special Edition): A Study at Primary Schools in Thu Duc City II- Objectives and contents: The thesis, as its title states, aims to investigate EFL teachers’ perspectives on the textbook “Family and Friends 5” (special edition) used at primary schools in Thu Duc city The thesis consists of two main objectives The first one is to survey the perspectives of teachers in Thu Duc city about the topics, language contents, skills, and methodology of the textbook “Family and Friends 5” (special edition) currently in use at primary schools by using a questionnaire Another objective is to explore teachers’ experience on how they adapt the textbook The analysis from data collected proved that Family and Friends (Special edition) is suitable for EFL teachers and students It is highly appreciated and of high quality although there exist some weak points The findings have led to conclusion that the textbook, although there exist some minor weaknesses, is evaluated to be a good choice of textbook for the population in consideration and can be used in other primary schools III- Starting date: March 20th, 2021 IV- Completing date: September 20th, 2021 V- Academic supervisor: Nguyen Thi Kieu Thu, Ph.D ACADEMIC SUPERVISOR Nguyen Thi Kieu Thu, Ph.D FACULTY DEAN Nguyen Thi Kieu Thu, Ph.D CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I certify my authorship of the Master’s Thesis submitted today entitled: EFL Teachers’ Perspective on the Textbook “Family and Friends” (Special Edition): A Study at Primary Schools in Thu Duc City In terms of the statement of requirements for Theses in Master’s programs issued by the Higher Degree Committee of Faculty of English Language, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology Ho Chi Minh City, September 2021 LE THI HONG PHUC i RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that I, LE THI HONG PHUC, being a candidate for the degree of Master of Arts (English Language) accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master’s Theses deposited in the library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my Master’s Thesis deposited in the library should be accessible for purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Librarian for the care, loan, and reproduction for theses Ho Chi Minh City, September 2021 Signature LE THI HONG PHUC ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My special thanks are due to all those who made great contributions to the preparation and completion of the thesis I would like to express my gratitude to the Faculties of English language, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, for their knowledge, experience and supporting me in completing the Master Program In addition, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the EFL teachers teaching at primary schools in Thu Duc city for taking time to answer my questionnaire and interview I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Dr Nguyen Thi Kieu Thu, my supervisor, for her patience, guidance, insightful advice, and constant encouragement through the whole research process Without her support and guidance, this thesis would have never been completed Last but not least, I warmly thank my family, friends and colleagues for their encouragement and help iii ABSTRACT A textbook designed for teaching and learning a language is a significant tool in ESL/EFL classrooms It is important to have a suitable textbook for learners to facilitate their language learning processes Textbook evaluation is to introduce a new textbook and recognize specific advantages and shortcomings in textbooks that are already in use The selected textbook in the present research is in “Family and Friends” series for primary students, that is, Family and Friends 5, (Naomi Simmons and Tamzin Thompson, special edition) 60 EFL teachers of males and 52 females participated These EFL teachers have been teaching the textbook for at least years and consequently are able to identify their strengths and weaknesses To conduct the study, an EFL textbook evaluation checklist consisting of 27 items served as the instrument in the present study The checklist was divided into four sub-parts as follows: Topic, Language Content, Skills, and Methodology, each directly related to a criterion and likewise, an important aspect of textbook evaluation The checklist is the adapted and modified version of Mc Donough and Shaw (1993) which provided an evaluating model for the study Frequencies and percentages were calculated for each item to describe the overall picture of how the teachers rated the textbook in terms of four criteria The finding indicated that the teachers were satisfied with a majority of the textbook’s features, such as the diversity of the topics, the compatibility with students’ ability, and the motivation that the textbook brings to learners Therefore, “Family and Friends 5” (special edition) is concluded as suitable to be used in primary schools in Thu Duc city and in similar contexts Keywords: Family and Friends (special edition), evaluation, teachers’ perspectives, EFL teachers, textbook evaluation iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Certificate of originality …………………………………………………… i Retention and use of the thesis……………………………………………… ii Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………… iii Abstract……………………………………………………………………… iv Table of contents……………………………………………………………… v List of tables………………………………………………………………… ix List of figures ……………………… ……………………………………… x List of abbreviations………………………………………………………… xi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background to the study 1.2 Statement of the problem 1.3 Aims and objectives of the study 1.4 Research questions 1.5 Scope of the study 1.6 Significance of the study 1.7 Definitions of the key terms 1.8 Organization of the thesis CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Types of the textbook 11 2.2 Quality standards for textbooks 12 2.3 The roles of the textbook 14 2.4 The roles of textbook evaluation 16 2.5 Criteria for textbook evaluation 17 v REFERENCES Ahmad, D H b A., Sungif, N A b M., & Mukundan, J (2014) Evaluation of Malaysian Primary English Language Textbooks Advances in Language and Literary Studies, 5(5), 5-9 Ahour, T., Towhidiyan, B., & Saeidi, M (2014) The evaluation of English Textbook taught in Iranian high schools from teachers’ perspectives English Language Teaching, 7(3), 150-158 Alavinia, P., & Siyadat, M (2013) A Comparative Study of English Textbooks Used in Iranian Institutes International Journal of Asian Social Science, 3(1), 150-170 Ansary, H., & Babaii, E (2002) Universal characteristics of EFL/ESL textbooks: A step towards systematic textbook evaluation The Internet TESL Journal, 8(2) Retrieved on December 18, 2017 from http://iteslj.org/Articles/Ansary-Textbooks/ Becerra, C Y (2006) Materials assessment: a shared responsibility among teachers and students Profile Issues in Teachers Professional Development, (7), 31-46 Bindak, R (2013) Relationship between Randomness and Coefficient Alpha: A Monte Carlo Simulation Study Journal of Data Analysis and Information Processing Brown, H D (2007) Teaching by principles (third ed.) London: Longman Byers-Heinlein, K & Lew-Williams, C (2013) Bilingualism in the early years: What the science says Learning landscapes, 7(1), 95 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6168212/ Cunningsworth, A., (1995) Choosing your coursebook Oxford: Macmillan Heinemann Daoud A, Celce-Murcia M (1979) Selecting and evaluating a textbook In M CelceMurcia and L McIntosh (Eds.), Teaching English as a second or foreign language (pp 302- 307) Cambridge, MA: Newbury House Publishers Deborah, L B and Sharon, F N., (1988) Using Textbooks and Teachers' Guides: A Dilemma for Beginning Teachers and Teacher Educators Taylor & Francis, Ltd Dudley, T., Evans and John, M J St., (1998) Development in English for Specific Purposes Cambridge University Press 78 Ellis, R (1997) The empirical evaluation of language teaching materials ELT journal, 51 (1), 36-42 Ehrman, M (1996) Second Language learning Difficulties: Looking Beneath the Surface Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Ghosn, I K (2003) Talking like texts and talking about texts: how some primary school coursebook tasks are realized in the classroom In Brian Tomlinson (ed.), Developing materials for language teaching London: Continuum, 291-305 Genesee, F., & Upshur, J A (1996) Classroom-based evaluation in second language education Cambridge Univ Press Gleason, H S Jr., (1961) An Introduction to Descriptive Linguistics New Delhi: Oxford and IBH Publishing Company Hadi, S., & Ameneh, D., & Melor, M Y (2014) Evaluation of an ESP Course of Qur’anic Sciences and Tradition Canadian Center of Science and Education Harmer, J., 2007 The Practice of English Language Teaching (fourth edition) England: Pearson Longman Harwood, N (2014) Content, consumption, and production: three levels of textbook research Palgrave Macmillan 1–41 Hatch, E & Lazaraton, A (1991) The research manual: Design and Statistics for applied linguistics Boston: Heinle & Heinle publishers Hoang, Van Van (2015) Teachers’ Evaluation of Primary English Textbooks for Vietnamese Schools Developed under the National Foreign Language 2020 Project: A Preliminary Internal Survey Paper presented at VietTESOL – the Second International VietTESOL Conference: Transforming English Language Education in the Era of Globalization: Pp: 19-38 Reprinted in VNN Journal of Science – Education Research Volume 31, N:4, 2015 Pp.1-15 Huang, S (2011) Ideal and reality of textbook selection: An interview-and questionnairebased investigation in the Taiwanese tertiary context University of Warwick, UK 79 Hutchinson, T., and Waters, A., (1987) English for Specific Purposes A learning-centred approach Glassgow: Cambridge University Press Jahangard, A (2007) Evaluation of EFL materials taught at Iranian public high schools Asian EFL Journal, 9(2), 130-150 Jahangard, A (2007) Evaluation of EFL materials taught at Iranian public high schools Asian EFL Journal, 9(2), 130-150 John, S (1998) The Analysis of Language Teaching Materials: Inside the Trojan Horse The UK: Cambridge University Press Karamoozian, F M., & Riazi, A (2008) Development of a new checklist for evaluating reading comprehension textbooks ESP World, 7(19), 19-39 Lightbown, P., & Spada, N M (2006) How languages are learned Oxford [england: Oxford University Press Lee, Icy (2005) English language teaching in Hong Kong special administrative region (HKSAR): a continuous challenge In George Braine (ed.), Teaching English to the world: history, curriculum and practice Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 35-46 Litz, D R A (2005) Textbook Evaluation and ELT Management: A South Korean CaseStudy Asian EFL Journal Retrieved from http://www.asian-efl- journal.com/Litz_thesis.pdf Marie, N (2016) EFL textbooks for young learners: a comparative analysis of vocabulary Luleå University of Technology McGrath, I (2002) Materals evaluation and design for language teaching Edinburgh University Press Mc Donough, J., and Shaw, C., 1993 Evaluating ELT materials Materials and methods in ELT, 63-81 Mohammed, R (2019) Seven characteristics of young learners Available from https://www.myenglishpages.com/blog/seven-characteristics-of-young-learners/ Mukundan, J., Hajimohammadi, R., & Nimehchisalem, V (2011) Developing an English language textbook evaluation checklist Contemporary Issues in Education Research, 4(6), 21- 28 80 Mukundan, J., & Ahour, T (2010) A review of textbook evaluation checklists across four decades (1970-2008) In B Tomlinson & H Masuhara (Eds.), Research for materials development in language learning: Evidence for best practice (pp 336352) London: Continuum Mukundan, J., Hajimohammadi, R., & Nimehchisalem, V (2011) “Developing an English Language Textbook Evaluation Checklist: A Focus Group Study” International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, vol 1, no 12, pp 100-106 Murcia, C (2001) Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language Thomson Learning family of companies Nimehchisalem, V., & Mukundan, J (2015) Refinement of the English language teaching textbook evaluation checklist Pertanika Journal Social Science and Humanities, 23(4), 761-780 Nguyen, Ngoc Bao Chau (2011) Textbook evaluation: A framework for evaluating the fitness of the HongKong new secondary school (nss) curriculum Available from https://www.academia.edu/13754295/textbook_evaluation_a_framework_for_eval uating_the_fitness_of_the_hong_kong_new_secondary_school_nss_curriculum?e mail_work_card=title Nguyen, Thi Huong Lan (2004) An Evaluation of the piloted “English 10” Textbook at Nguyen Tat Thanh High School Nguyen, Thi Nguyet Anh (2010) Teacher’s evaluation on “Let’s go 1A second edition” for grade at primary schools in North Vietnam Nunan, D., (1991) Teaching English to Speakers of other Languages- An introduction New York: Routledge Ozdemir, F E., (2007) An evaluation of Time for English 4, the 4th grade English coursebook for public schools English Language Teaching unpublished MA thesis Pham, Minh (2010) Evaluating and adapting materials for young learners Available from https://www.academia.edu/25303983/Evaluating_and_adapting_materials_for_yo ung_learners?email_work_card=thumbnail Piaget, J (1958) The growth of logical thinking from childhood to adolescence AMC 81 Razmjoo, S A (2007) Developing a Textbook Evaluation Scheme for the Expanding Circle Iranian Journal of Applied Language Studies, 2(1) Richards, J C (2006) Curriculum Development in Language Teaching New York: Cambridge University Press Riazi, A M., & Mosallanejad, N (2010) Evaluation of learning objectives in Iranian highschool and pre-university English textbooks using Bloom’s taxonomy TESL EJ, 13(4), 1-16 Riazi, A M (2003) What textbook evaluation schemes tell us? A study of the textbook evaluation schemes of three decades In W A Renanda (Ed.), Methodology and materials design in language teaching (pp 52-68) Singapore: SEAMEO Regional Center Rubdy, R (2003) Selection of materials In B Tomlinson (Ed.), Developing materials for language teaching (pp 37-57) London: Continuum Sabzalipour, B., & Koosha, M (2014) The Evaluation of Iranian High School English Textbook from the Prospective of Teachers Asian Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, 3(3), 215-228 Saeid, N S., & Hadi, H., & Rezvan, M (2013) A Critical Look at Textbook Evaluation: A Case Study of Evaluating an ESP Course-Book: English for International Tourism Science Explorer Publications Sheldon, L.E (1988) Evaluating ELT Textbook and Materials ELT Journal 42 (4) Skolverket (2006) The role ò teaching materials in teaching: Secondary school teachers’ choice, úe and evaluation of teaching materials in Arts, English and Social Sciences Stockholm: Skolverket Soori, A., & Jamshidi, T (2013) Textbook Evaluation for the Students of Speech Therapy Advances in Language and Literary Studies, 4(2), 159-164 Tomlinson, B (1998) Materials Development in Language Teaching (B Tomlinson, Ed.) Cambridge University Press Tomlinson, B (2003) Development Materials for Language Teaching London: Continuum 82 Touran, A., & Bayezid, T., & Mahnaz, S (2013) The Evaluation of “English Textbook 2” Taught in Iranian High Schools from Teachers’ Perspectives Canadian Center of Science and Education Tran, Minh Thanh, Nguyen, Thuy Linh, & Nguyen, Thi Bich Ngoc (2020) An evaluation of the coursebook “life elementary” used for students at university of information and communication technology: from teachers’ perspectives TNU Journal of Science and Technology Tran, Thị Chung Oanh (2010) An Evaluation on the Material "Lifelines" for the First year non-English Major Students at Hai Phong University Unpublished M.A Thesis, University of Languages and International Studies Ur, P (2012) A Course in English Language Teaching Cambridge: Cambridge University Press WEBSITES https://www.slideshare.net/ranimercy/curriculum-text-book https://sswm.info/planning-and-programming/decision-making/gathering-ideas/semistructured-interviews https://www.slideshare.net/LaljiBaraiya1/textbook-analysis-criteria-and-itsapplication?qid=a2a487f3-b28b-4076-8bcf2285a052d178&v=&b=&from_search=4 https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/blogs/david-petrie/david-petrie-adapting-yourcoursebook 83 APPENDICE Appendix A QUESTIONNAIRE EFL teachers’ perspectives on the textbook “Family and Friends 5” (Special edition) This questionnaire is designed to investigate the perceptions of EFL teachers at primary schools in Thu Duc city on the topic, language content, skills, methodology of the textbook “Family and Friends (special edition)” We hope that you will support this investigation by answering all items in this questionnaire Naturally, your responses are anonymous in order to have no impact on you in any circumstances Your responses will be and only be used in the current study and will not be used for any other purposes Thank you for your cooperation In the following section, from item #01 to item #27, the response options are formulated as follows according to your feelings towards the statement in the Item: - Strongly disagree – Disagree – Undecided – Agree - Strongly agree Please choose only ONE option among four options for each item by ticking the most appropriate one For the convenience of the study, we hope you will respond to all items in this questionnaire 84 Gender Age Years of teaching English Years of teaching FF5 Male  Female  Under 30  From 30 to 50  Over 50  Under years  Over years  years  Over years  85 I Topic The textbook covers a variety of topics from different fields The dialogues include a variety of interesting subjects Cultural sensitivities have been considered The situations created in the dialogues sound natural and real It is compatible with the background knowledge and level of students II Language content The grammar section equips students with the ability to create their own utterance Grammar points are introduced explicitly Grammar examples are informative Pronunciation is easy to learn 10 There are enough pronunciation practices III Skills 11 The textbook has appropriate listening tasks with welldefined goals 12 The listening instructions are clear 13 Listening tasks are authentic or close to real language situations 14 The speaking contents are well designed to equip learners for real life interaction 86 agree Strongly Agree Undecided Disagree disagree Strongly Please tick (✓) the best answer 15 Speaking activities are balanced between individual response, pair work and group work 16 Speaking activities motivate students to talk 17 Reading activities (read and gap-fill, read and answer, read and select an appropriate picture…) are suitable for learners’ levels 18 The length of reading texts is appropriate 19 Reading texts are interesting 20 Writing activities are suitable for learners in terms of amount of guidance 21 Writing tasks have achievable goals and take into consideration learners’ capabilities 22 Writing models are provided for different genres IV Methodology 23 The vocabulary is presented simply (in wordlists, in texts, with visuals) for learners to remember 24 There are too many new vocabularies in each unit 25 The activities encourage learners to use language creatively 26 The textbook accommodates different learning styles 27 Tasks move from simple to complex THANK YOU! 87 Appendix B The interview questions Are there any difficulties arising from this unbalance between speaking activities of individual response, pair work, and group work? With your experience, how you deal with this problem? What is your experience on giving solutions for the problem “too many new vocabularies in each unit”? What’s your opinion about culture factors in the books? Do you think the book sufficiently covers topics about culture around the world? What you think about the number of units? Do you think that the book contains some activities that interest primary students? Can you elaborate on your answer? What are the limitations that the book needs to improve? 88 Unit Starter: Back together! The Ancient Mayans Appendix C Contents of the textbook Family and Friends (Special edition) Words Grammar Phonics Skills Food words Telling the Alphabet time order Verbs Adjectives to describe things Simple past with regular verbs: affirmative, negative, and questions Long vowel sound u Our vacation Vacation things Time words be going to + Verb Words with oo The food here is great! The restaurant Words in context: breakfast time Simple present and present progressive Time markers: simple present and progressive Long vowel sounds: a and e The concert Words in context: “Festival Day” Simple past: have and be Simple past: regular verbs Time markers: simple past Long vowel sounds: i, o, and u Review We had a concert 89 Reading: an information poster: “Hammocks” Listening: identifying details about someone’s day Speaking: describing details of someone’s day Writing: using topic headings in paragraphs; writing about the Ancient Mayans Reading: a postcard Listening: identifying details about a boy’s vacation Speaking: discussing plans for the following week Writing: opening and closing remarks in an email or letter; writing an email to a friends Reading: a magazine article Listening: identifying details about family meals Speaking: talking about eating habits Writing: recognizing syllables in words; writing about my eating habits Reading: a poem Listening: identifying different musical activities Speaking: asking and answering questions about musical preferences and abilities Writing: the double consonant rule; writing a description of a picture The dinosaur museum The dinosaur museum Words in context: “Son Doong- The world’s largest cave” Simple past: irregular verbs with negatives Simple past: irregular verbs with questions Possessive pronouns Adverbs: +ly and irregular b, v, w, and p Whose jacket is this? Sports time Words in context:baske tball Review Go back to the traffic lights Directions Words in context: water puppets have to/ had to giving directions why/ because -s endings The best bed! Describing words Words in context: “The Ant and the Grasshopper” Comparatives and superlatives: long adjectives Soft c and g sounds Will it really happen? In space Words in context: life in 100 years The future with will Time markers: the future au and aw spellings Review 10 How much time we have? At the airport Words in context: my vacation Expressing quantity some/ any Simple past -ed endings ll endings rr words 90 Reading: a non-fiction text Listening: identifying favorite things on a school trip Speaking: asking and answering questions about school trips Writing: exclamation points; writing a webpage about my school trip Reading: a magazine article Listening: identifying children’s favorite sports Speaking: asking and answering questions about favorite sports Writing: It’s or Its; writing instructions for a sport Reading: an informative webpage Listening: understanding directions Speaking: giving directions Writing: instructions; writing a flyer for an event Reading: a fable Listening: identifying morals in a fable Speaking: telling a story from pictures Writing: identifying irregular plurals; writing a fable Reading: interviews in a magazine Listening: identifying children’s predictions Speaking: offering opinions about the future Writing: compound words; expanding notes into a text Reading: a letter Listening: identifying details about vacations Speaking: asking and answering questions about vacations 11 Somethin g new to watch! Audio-visual entertainment Words in context: TV shows Infinitive of purpose How often …? er and or endings 12 Let’s open this present first! Birthdays Words in context: sending emails Making suggestions Ordinal numbers ur and ir spellings Review 91 Writing: adressing envelopes; writing a letter about a vacation Reading: a TV guide Listening: identifying details about childen’s favorite TV shows Speaking: Talking about favorite TV shows Writing: the prefix un-; writing a TV guide Reading: online instructions Listening: identifying children’s parties Speaking: Talking about parties Writing: parts of speech; writing an invitation Appendix D Results of Plagiarism check 92