Đánh giá giáo trình “New Cutting Edge – Elementary” dành cho sinh viên năm thứ nhất chuyên ngành kế toán trường Cao đẳng nghề Bách Nghệ Hải Phòng

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES ĐỖ THỊ QUỲNH CHÂM AN EVALUATION OF THE COURSE BOOK “NEW CUTTING EDGE – ELEMENTARY” FOR THE FIRST - YEAR ACCOUNTING STUDENTS OF HAIPHONG POLYTECHNICS COLLEGE (Đánh giá giáo trình “New Cutting Edge – Elementary” dành cho sinh viên năm thứ chuyên ngành kế toán trường Cao đẳng nghề Bách Nghệ Hải Phòng) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: Code: English Teaching Methodology 60 14 10 HANOI, 2012 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ĐỖ THỊ QUỲNH CHÂM AN EVALUATION OF THE COURSE BOOK “NEW CUTTING EDGE – ELEMENTARY” FOR THE FIRST - YEAR ACCOUNTING STUDENTS OF HAIPHONG POLYTECHNICS COLLEGE (Đánh giá giáo trình “New Cutting Edge – Elementary” dành cho sinh viên năm thứ chuyên ngành kế toán trường Cao đẳng nghề Bách Nghệ Hải Phòng) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10 Supervisor: Phạm Minh Hiền, MA HANOI, 2012 TABLE OF CONTENTS Certificate of originality of the thesis i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii Table of contents iv Abbreviations……………………………………………………………………………vii List of tables, figures and charts……………………………………………………….viii PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rational of the study Aim of the study Method of the study Scope of the study Significance of the study Design of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: Literature Review 1.1 Materials in language teaching and learning 1.1.1 Definitions 1.1.2 Role of materials in General English Course 1.2 Material evaluation 1.2.1 Definitions of material evaluation 1.2.2 Purposes of material evaluation 1.2.3 Types of materials evaluation 1.2.4 Methods of materials evaluation 1.2.5 Criteria for materials evaluation 1.2.6 Materials evaluation procedure 10 1.3 Materials adaptation 11 Chapter 2: Research Methodology 12 iv 2.1 An overview of current English Teaching and Learning at HPPC 12 2.1.1 Context 12 2.1.2 Course objectives 13 2.1.3 Content 13 2.1.4 Material description 14 2.2 Research method 15 2.2.1 Research question 15 2.2.2 Participants 15 2.2.3 Instruments 16 2.3 Data collection procedure 17 2.4 Data analysis procedure 18 Chapter 3: Analysis of data and suggestions for materials adaptation 19 3.1 Evaluation of students‟ needs 19 3.1.1 Students‟ English level and Ranking of assumed purposes in learning GE 19 3.1.2 Evaluation on the needs the course book meets 21 3.2 Evaluation on the Objectives of the Course 22 3.2.1 Vocabulary improvement 22 3.2.2 Students‟ speaking tasks completion 23 3.2.3 Language Proficiency 24 3.2.4 General evaluation of students‟ progress 25 3.3 Evaluation on the format of the course book 26 3.4 Evaluation on the content of the course book 27 3.4.1 Proportion of the four macro-skills 27 3.4.2 Topics in the course book 28 3.4.3 Vocabulary in the course book 29 3.4.4 Practice in the course book 30 3.5 Evaluation on the methodology of the course book 31 3.5.1 Methodological Criteria 31 3.5.2 Effect of the teaching aids 32 3.6 Evaluation findings 32 v 3.6.1 Evaluation on the learners‟ needs 33 3.6.2 Evaluation on the course objectives 33 3.6.3 Evaluation on the format of the course book 33 3.6.4 Evaluation on the content of the course book 34 3.6.5 Evaluation on the methodology of the course book 34 3.7 Recommendation for the course book‟s adaptation 35 3.7.1 Supplementing 36 3.7.2 Editing 36 3.7.2 Expanding 37 3.7.3 Personalizing 38 3.7.4 Localizing or modifying cultural/situational content 38 3.7.5 Simplifying 38 PART C: CONCLUSION 40 Summary of the study 40 Limitations of the study 41 Suggestions for further studies 42 References: 43 Appendices I Appendix 1: I Appendix 2:…………………………………………………………………………… VII Appendix 3:…………………………………………………………………………… VIII Appendix 4: ……………………………………………………………………………XIV Appendix 5:… ………………………………………………………………………XVIII vi ABBREVIATIONS CLT: Communicative Language Teaching ELT: English Language Teaching GE: General English HPPC: Haiphong Polytechnics College NCEE: New Cutting Edge Elementary Ss: Students Ts: Teachers ULIS, VNUH: University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi vii LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES AND CHARTS TABLES Table 1: Teachers and students‟ ranking of the purposes of GE Course Table 2: Evaluation on the needs satisfied by the course book Table 3: Students‟ speaking tasks completion Table 4: Evaluation on the format of the course book Table 5: Proportion of the macro-skills Table 6: Student‟s level of proficiency in language points Table 7: Teachers and students‟ opinion on the Practice of the course book Table 8: Evaluation on the methodology of the course book FIGURES Figure 1: The material process by Tomlinson and Alan Waters (1987, p.97) CHARTS Chart 1: Students‟ English level at the beginning of the course Chart 2: Students‟ vocabulary improvement Chart 3: Evaluation on the students‟ progress Chart 4: Evaluation on the vocabulary of the course book viii PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study Course books are the mostly used in teaching and learning materials for both teachers and the learners They not only provide a framework for teachers in achieving the aims and objectives of the course but also play an important role as a guide to the teacher in conducting the lesson On behalf of the learners, a course book truly affects their attitudes and performance to the lesson throughout the course It is a fact that when learners like their course books, they like the course as well and become active participants to the lesson Thus, using a course book is probably the most common way of teaching English today Having a course book in the trend of teaching and learning is a vital element and is looked upon as an indispensable mean; consequently, selecting a proper book or providing a course book is of great importance, too However, now with a variety of textbook available on the market each with a different methodology and syllabus, it can be much more difficult to choose the best suitable book for a particular teaching situation In fact, there is no course book can be absolutely ideal for a particular group of learners (Cunningsworth,1995); evaluation and selection of suitable material would be essential and important issues for language teachers A thorough evaluation will pave the way for teaching staff of each organization and policy makers to have this ability to discriminate among all the available books in the market and considering weak as well as strong points of each book educators can choose the most appropriate book Therefore, in order to take the advantage of the materials, it is necessary for individuals, especially language teachers, to carefully examine all aspects of the materials The course book “New Cutting Edge- Elementary” is used for teaching PreESP for the first year accounting students at the Economics Faculty since 2008 and also had both positive and negative response from both students and teachers However, up to now, no research on the course book evaluation has been conducted to recognize its strength and weakness as well as how suitably the course book matched the goal of the course In response to the problem, it is an urgent demand to carry out an evaluation of the course book to determine its appropriateness for students at our college then provide the adaptation for the better use This is also the reason for the writer to choose the material evaluation for the thesis: “An evaluation of the course book “New Cutting Edge – Elementary” for the first - year accounting students of Haiphong Polytechnics College” Aims of the study The study is carried out to improve the effectiveness of teaching the course book – NCEE for the first-year accounting students of HP Polytechnics College So the specific purposes of the study are as follow: - To investigate the English teaching and learning context at HPPC - To evaluate the currently adopted course book New Cutting Edge Elementary from the viewpoints of both teachers at Foreign Language Faculty and the first year accounting students of Haiphong Polytechnics College - To offer the suggestion for the course book‟s adaptations Methods of the study For this study, two main instruments are applied to collect data: - Survey questionnaires are designed for both teachers and the first - year accounting students at Haiphong Polytechnics College - Formal interviews are conducted to look for students‟ and teachers‟ opinions to the course book basing on their experience in using it Scope of the study The course book New Cutting Edge –Elementary has been used for teaching Pre-ESP for the first year students of Economics Faculty as well as Navigation Faculty at Haiphong Polytechnics College However, due to the limitation of a minor thesis, this study just mainly focuses on generally evaluating the course book New Cutting Edge – Elementary for only accounting students at Economics Faculty in term of Learner‟s Demand, Format, Objective, Content and Methodology to evaluate the suitability of the material to the real Pre-ESP teaching and learning at HPPC Significance of the study Firstly, the finding of this study will help the teachers to identify the strength and weakness of the course book to adjust their teaching method and adapt the material so as to provide students with the most effective lessons Furthermore, it is expected that the result of research, to some extent, could become the reference material for those interested in the field of material evaluation Design of the study The thesis consists of three parts: Part I: Introduction states the rational, aim, scope, methods and design of the study Part II: Development is divided into three main chapters: Chapter provides the readers with literature review on the aspects relating to material evaluation such as: materials in language teaching and learning, materials evaluation, and evaluation types, as well as methods and criteria, purpose of materials Besides, in this chapter, materials adaptation for the better use has been presented Chapter deals with an overview of current English teaching and learning situation at Economics Faculty of HPPC, research method as well as description of data collection procedure and data analysis procedure which involve in the research process Chapter presents and reports the analysis of the study and encloses suggestions for the course book adaptation Part III: Conclusion summarizes the major findings, limitation of the study and suggestions for further research ... BOOK “NEW CUTTING EDGE – ELEMENTARY” FOR THE FIRST - YEAR ACCOUNTING STUDENTS OF HAIPHONG POLYTECHNICS COLLEGE (Đánh giá giáo trình “New Cutting Edge – Elementary” dành cho sinh viên năm thứ chuyên. .. giáo trình “New Cutting Edge – Elementary” dành cho sinh viên năm thứ chuyên ngành kế tốn trường Cao đẳng nghề Bách Nghệ Hải Phịng) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology... use This is also the reason for the writer to choose the material evaluation for the thesis: “An evaluation of the course book “New Cutting Edge – Elementary” for the first - year accounting students