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

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 nhất 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

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 nhất 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

1 Rational of the study 1

2 Aim of the study 2

3 Method of the study 2

4 Scope of the study 2

5 Significance of the study 2

6 Design of the study 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4

Chapter 1: Literature Review 4

1.1

Materials in language teaching and learning 4

1.1.1 Definitions 4

1.1.2 Role of materials in General English Course 5

1.2 Material evaluation 6

1.2.1 Definitions of material evaluation 6

1.2.2 Purposes of material evaluation 7

1.2.3 Types of materials evaluation 7

1.2.4 Methods of materials evaluation 8

1.2.5 Criteria for materials evaluation 9

1.2.6 Materials evaluation procedure 10

1.3 Materials adaptation 11

Chapter 2: Research Methodology 12

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

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

1 Summary of the study 40

2 Limitations of the study 41

3 Suggestions for further studies 42

References: 43 Appendices I

Appendix 1: I Appendix 2:……… VII Appendix 3:……… VIII Appendix 4: ………XIV Appendix 5:… ………XVIII

ABBREVIATIONS

NCEE: New Cutting Edge Elementary

ULIS, VNUH: University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam

National University, Hanoi

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

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 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 ESP 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

Pre-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”

2 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

3 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

4 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

5 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

6 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 1 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 2 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 3 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

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter has addressed the key notions about material and material evaluation These issues, where possible, have been supported by academic literature The first issue in this chapter concerns with materials in language teaching and learning The second one presents an overview of materials evaluation At last, the chapter will end

up with theoretical discussion about materials adaptation

1.1 Materials in language teaching and learning

1.1.1 Definitions

To do book evaluation in a correct way, first defining characteristics and giving a good

definition about textbook, course book and material are necessary

From his point of view, Tomlinson (1998) defines that a textbook provides the core

materials for a course It aims to provide as much as possible in one book and is designed so that it could serve as the only book which the learners necessarily use during a course Such a book usually includes work on grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, functions and the skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking

Richards (2001) stated that “Textbooks are a key component in most language

programs In some situations, they serve as the basic for much of the language input learners receive and the language practice that occurs in the classroom In other situations, the textbook may serve primarily to supplement the teachers‟ instruction”

It is assumed that a textbook is a teaching tool (material) which presents the subject matter defined by the curriculum A textbook has always been the most preferred instructional material in ELT They are best seen as a resource in achieving aims and objectives that have already been set concerning learner needs

According to Tomlinson (1998), course book is a textbook which provides the core

materials for a course It aims to provide as much as possible in one book and is designed so that it could be serve as the only book which the learner necessarily use during a course Such a book usually includes work on grammar, vocabulary, function and the skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking

Although the definition which Ur (1996: 183) has given is a simple one, it is very useful and easy to understand It reads as follows:

The term „course book‟ means, a text book of which the teacher and each student has a copy and which is in principle to be followed systematically as the basis for a language course Therefore, from the above definition one can get that a course book must have at least being available in the hand of students and teachers, and used systematically in a course of study, and a course of study in this article refers to an English course of study

The term “course book” is sometimes associated with text materials as it has been specifically selected and exploited for teaching purposes by the classroom teacher particularly in the local setting Frequently, a course book is considered core materials

of a certain course It may be accompanied with a variety of supplementary materials

Tomlinson (1998) identified materials as anything which is used to help to teach

language learners Materials can be in the form of a textbook, a workbook, a cassette, a

CD –Rom, a video, a photocopied handout, a newspaper, a paragraph written on a white board: anything which presents or informs about the language He also supposed

“the term is used to refer to anything which is used by teachers or learners to facilitate the learning of a language” In other word, they can be anything which is deliberately used to increase the learners‟ knowledge and/or experience of the language

Therefore, it is agreed that materials include anything which can be used to facilitate the learning of a language They can be instructional, experiential, exploratory, in that they can inform learners about the language, they can provide experience of the language use, they can stimulate language use or they can help learners to make discoveries about the language for themselves

1.1.2 Role of materials in General English Course

There are five important components involved in English language instruction namely students, teachers, materials, teaching methods, and evaluations among which essential constituents are the textbooks and instruction materials because these instruction materials provide the foundation for the content of the lesson, the balance of the skill taught, as well as the kinds of language practice the students engage in during class activities

The role of materials in language teaching has also been discussed by different authors with various points of view A textbook can serve different purposes for teachers: as a

core resource, a resource of supplementary materials, an inspiration for classroom activities and even the curriculum itself (Garinger, 2002)

Confirming the importance roles of teaching materials, Hutchinson and Torres (1994, p315) state:

“…No teaching – learning situations, it seems, is complete until it has its relevant textbook, adding that textbooks can support teachers through potentially disturbing and threatening change processes, demonstrate new and/or untried methodologies, introduced change gradually and create scaffolding upon which teachers can build a more creative methodology of their own”

Hence, learning how to use and adapt textbook is an important part of a teacher‟s professional knowledge Throughout this thesis, the three basic terms mentioned above will be used interchangeably in order to serve the purpose of the study

1.2 Material evaluation

1.2.1 Definition of material evaluation

A numbers of researchers have expressed their own points of view towards the definitions of material evaluation

According to Dudley 1998, “Evaluation is a whole process which begins with

determining what information to gather and end with bringing about the change in the current activities or influencing future ones”

In his overview, Tomlinson (1998, p3) claims that “this term refers to attempts to

measure the value of materials” In many cases, this is done impressionistically and

consists of attempts to predict whether or not the material will work, in the sense that the learners will be able to use them without too much difficulty and will enjoy the experience of doing so

Hutchinson and Waters (1987, 96) point out that evaluation is matching process designed to establish the degree of match between the needs and available solutions It refers to the attempts to measure the value of materials and is aimed at assessing the fitness Though each researcher has his own opinion on material evaluation, they still come to the conclusion that evaluation is the process of collecting data giving judgments based on the collected data, and the most importantly, evaluation must include action

1.2.2 Purposes of materials evaluation

Material evaluation plays an important part in the improvement of a language course

as it helps to identify particular strength and weakness of the material in use After being used for the language course in a certain time, teaching materials need evaluating to see if they have worked well to meet the expectation of students

Regarding the purposes of material evaluation, Sheldon (1998) has offered several other reasons for textbook evaluation He suggested that a thorough evaluation would provide for a sense of familiarity with a book‟s content that assisting educators in identifying the particular strength and weakness in textbook already in use This would help teachers make the optimum use of a book‟s strong points and recognizing the shortcoming of certain exercises, tasks, and entire text

According to Cunningsworth (1995), through evaluation, we can assess whether the course book is the most appropriate for the target learners at various levels and in various teaching settings

Anderson (1992) sets out a list of purposes of materials evaluation as follow:

- To decide whether the materials have had the intended effect

- To identify what affect materials have had

- To vindicate a decision

- To justify the future course of action

- To compare approaches/methodologies

- To identify the areas for improvement in the future use

- To show the positive achievements of teachers and students

- To motivate teachers

- To allay suspicions among parents and sponsors

1.2.3 Types of materials evaluation

There are many different types of materials evaluation offered by a number of researchers According to Cunningsworth (1995, p76) and McGrath (2002:14-15), there are three types of material evaluation: pre-use, in use and post use evaluation This classification is similar to Ellis (1997) with different names, ie Preliminary, Formative and Summative Evaluation respectively In spite of different terms used to refer types of materials evaluation, these terms are basically similar and discussed as containing three types

- The first type, pre-use evaluation: according to Tomlinson (2003:23) often takes place before the materials are used to predict the potential value of materials for their users to select a course book for use with a particular class It seems that pre-use evaluation tends to be the most difficult type as there is no actual experience of using the materials

- The second type, in-use evaluation is a kind of evaluation of suitability, involving

“matching the course book against a specific requirement including the learner‟s objectives, the learners‟ background, the resources available, etc” (Cunningsworth,

1995, p14)

- The third type, post-use evaluation refers to an assessment of a textbook‟s fitness over a period of continual use According to Tomlinson (2003:25), evaluation of this kind can be “the most valuable as it can measure the actual effect of the material on the users” Basing on the data measured, evaluators can make reliable decisions about the use, adaptation or replacement of the materials However, this type of material is normally time – consuming

Generally, each type of materials has its certain strength and weakness, so it is necessary for the evaluators to determine what type of materials evaluation will be the most suitable for specific context Basing on the current context of Haiphong Polytechnics College, the writer decided to choose the in – use evaluation to measure the appropriateness of the course book and offer some method of adaptation for its better use

1.2.4 Methods of materials evaluation

1.2.4.1.The impressionistic method

According to Cunningsworth (1995:2), the impressionistic method is designed to be able to gain an impression of a book by looking rather more carefully at representative features, such as the organization, topics, layout, visuals and the design of a unit or lesson or more specific features, such as the treatment of particular language elements Therefore, this method is wide ranging but relatively superficial due to the fact that

“techniques of impressionistic evaluation cover the wide spectrum”

1.2.4.2 The checklist method

McGrath (2002) states that “a checklist is likely to need tailoring to suit a particular context, and this can involve a good deal more than simply deleting checklist items

which are in applicable Moreover, William (1993, cited in McGrath, 2002:27) points out that “checklist cannot a static phenomenon” This means that the items in all materials evaluation checklist reflect the time at which they are conceived

1.2.4.3 The in-depth method

In-depth method consists of a focus on specific features (Cunningsworth, 1995), close analysis of one or more extracts (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987), or throughout examination of two units using predetermined questions (McGrath, 2002) McGrath also argued that besides its advantages, this evaluation method has certain disadvantages Firstly, samples selected for analysis may not be representative of the book as a whole Secondly, only a particular section of the material is focused Moreover, this method takes time and requires expert knowledge (McGrath, 2002:28)

1.2.5 Criteria for materials evaluation

Criteria for materials evaluation is one of the most difficult problems for materials evaluator during the process of materials evaluation

William (1983) suggests seven criteria, each of which has the following aspects:

- General criteria: give introductory guidance on the presentation of the language

items and skills

- Speech criteria: suggest aids for the teaching of pronunciation: e.g phonetic system

- Grammar criteria: offer meaningful situations and variety of techniques for teaching

- Writing criteria: demonstrate the various devices for controlling and guiding content

and expression in compositions exercises

- Technique criteria: contain appropriate pictures, diagrams, table, etc…

Hutchinson and Waters (1987:99) present their own checklist of criteria for objective and subjective analysis, which is not an exhaustive list, and is based on the following four aspects: audience, aim, content, and methodology

Meanwhile, Sheldon (1998) suggests that there is no general list of criteria which can really be applicable to all teaching and learning context without considerable

modification In the same opinion, Cunningsworth (1995) assures that any selection procedure should be modified to suit personal circumstances Therefore, selecting and modifying particular items to produce an individualized checklist is the best method to make sure that it is suitable to the particular teaching and learning contexts

1.2.6 Materials evaluation procedure

Hutchinson and Water (1987) provided the four steps of materials evaluation

Figure 1: The material process by (Tom Hutchinson & Alan Waters (1987, p.97))

The above figure shows a very logical model for materials evaluation It is obvious that there are four steps for defining the criteria At first, the evaluator has to define what bases the materials will be judged and which criteria the evaluator wants to include in the course The second step is to determine the subjective analysis, that is, to identify the requirements for materials so the evaluator should describe in detail on what criteria the course is based The third step is to determine the objective analysis, that is, to evaluate whether the existing materials realize the criteria set in the subjective analysis The last one is the matching process, which finds out how far the material matches the course requirements

1.3 Materials adaptation

Materials adaptation plays an important part in the process of language teaching and learning It makes the teaching materials more relevant to the needs of students and to objectives of the course, and therefore, would stimulate the effectiveness of teaching and learning There is a fact that no textbook is perfect Any textbook should be used judiciously, since it cannot be cater equally to the requirements of every classroom

Objective Analysis

How far does the material being evaluated realize the criteria?

Subjective Analysis

What realization of

the criteria do you

want in your course?

setting (William, 1983, p251) That is why the textbook should be adapted Teachers, with direct personal knowledge of their classroom teaching, should see textbook as their servants instead of master; as a resource or an “ideas bank” which can stimulate teachers‟ own creative potential (Cunningsworth, 1984, p65)

According to Madsen and Bowen (1978), “every teacher is in a very real sense an

adapter of the material he uses”, and adaptation is the process of employing “one or

more number of techniques: “supplementing, editing, expanding, personalizing,

simplifying, modernizing, localizing, or modifying cultural/situational content” At the

same time, Ellis (1986:47) mentions the process of “retaining, rejecting, reordering,

and modification”

Whatever the definitions give, adaptations can be understood as a process of matching

so as to maximize the strength of teaching materials in context, by changing some of the internal characteristics of a textbook or a set of materials to suit a specific situation

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

the detailed description of current learning and teaching English at the Economics Faculty of HPPC in which the research was conducted And in the next section, the writer will put forward an explanation of her understanding of the methods used in this research and also their advantages

2.1 An overview of current English Teaching and Learning at HPPC

2.1.1 Context

Haiphong Polytechnics College has become one of the leading vocational colleges in the Marine section since it was founded in 2001 As a newly – established vocational college, it consists of six main faculties: Navigation, Marine Engine, and Ship building Technology, Economics, Information Technology, Electricity and Electronics Among them, Economics Faculty can be seen to be the most important one with a large amount of students joining the course The students at HPPC generally learn English for two years For the first year, they will be provided with general English by using the course book “New Cutting Edge - Elementary” In comparison with the English level of the students in other Faculties, the accounting students are considered to be much better at language skills as most of them are female and they are often hard working and have positive attitude toward their future jobs However, it can also be assumed that as a vocational college, most students lack the knowledge of English and learning methods Therefore, the result showed that there is

a small number of students with acceptable English skill

In the general English course for the first - year accounting students, English subject is taught in the first semester with totally 120 periods During the course, the students have to complete ten modules in the course book “New Cutting Edge Elementary” by Peter moor and Sarah Cunningham in 2005 which provides the students with general knowledge of English with the integration of four skills equivalent to elementary level During the term, depending on the number of periods, the students have three or four mid-term tests and at the end of each term, they will have to take the final oral test

2.1.2 The course objectives

On the basis of the requirements set by Ministry of Labor – Invalids and Social Affairs and the factual situation of teaching and learning English in Haiphong Polytechnics College (HPPC), the following material requirements for a GE course for first year accounting students in the two terms have been officially approved in the Foreign Language Faculty‟s Curriculum and Syllabus, which are presented hereafter

- Use the simple grammar structures provided in the course book

- Be able to communicate in daily conversations in English

- Start and maintain conversations

- Express their feelings, thoughts and emotions

- Read and comprehend the short paragraphs fluently

- Write a short description of the required topic

2.1.3 Contents

In terms of content, the course book is set to achieve the following points At first, it is necessary to equip students with a variety of communicative situation Hence, the students need to get involved in different topics that they have chances to use their English in daily activities such as greetings, introducing themselves, talking about family, hobbies, jobs, favorite things, etc Besides, in each module, the book supplies the students with topic –based vocabulary which serves as the key factor to help them communicate successfully in English Afterwards, as regards the language points, the course book includes all the commonly – used grammatical items and structures in the manner that they are not too complicated and these grammatical patterns can be revised in the following lessons Ideally, the basic English grammar in the book could encourage the students to take part in real situations Also, the tasks and exercises are not too difficult because most of the students who are learning the book are at average English level and especially they are sufficient enough for the students‟ learning demand, that is to say they encourage students‟ language skills and enhance their self-study Similarly, four skills should be equally paid attention to Finally, the content of the material should be reasonably organized throughout the book as well as within each unit so as to avoid students‟ boredom and confusedness

2.1.4 The material description

The course book “New Cutting Edge – Elementary” is written by Peter Moor and Sarah Cunningham with Frances Eales in 2005 It consist of 15 modules with 15

different topics relating to our life such as greetings, introducing themselves, talking about family, hobbies, jobs, favorite things, etc New Cutting Edge Elementary gives students an all-round practical knowledge of grammar, skills, vocabulary and real-life functional language The new editions retain the ingredients that have made this course

so popular and also introduce useful new features

A typical module consists of the following sections:

- Language focus: New grammar structures are presented by using pictures, discussion

questions or asking students to read or listen to a conversation After the form, and the rule, students have chances to practice with a variety of exercises

- Vocabulary: the students are asked to predict new words and their meaning based on

the words given in the border together with several available pictures or small games After that, the students listen to the CD player/typescript for the way to pronoun Good dictionaries, such as the Longman Basic English Dictionary or Oxford Dictionary will also help students to raise their vocabulary

- Tasks (4 skills): For each module, different skills are paid attention to improve the

section of language focus and vocabulary

In the reading and listening sections: students can understand very short simple texts

in a single phrase at time, picking up familiar names, words and basic phrases and rereading as required Then they can follow speech which is very slow and carefully articulated, with long pauses for him/her to assimilate meaning Finally, they must listen to the CD player to check their ideas and listen more carefully to do some related exercises

In speaking and writing sections, pictures and discussion are used to help the

students activate their knowledge about the topic The students practice speaking skills using conversation pieces in listening part Finally, students must summarize the text‟s content to write a paragraph on the requirements of each one

- Pronunciation: the students practice sound under the direction of teachers; and then

listening to the CD player to check Finally, they repeat to remember and pronoun smoothly

There are three consolidation modules after every five modules (module 5, module

10, and module 15) which help the students to revise theories and practice more exercises

Transcription of difficult words and their meanings are presented at the end of the course book Besides, coming with this material are 3 CD‟s and the students‟ workbook

- What adaptations are needed for its better use?

review thoroughly and rate the course book according to the criteria basing on their own experience

2.2.3 Instruments

In order to evaluate the course book in terms of learners‟ need, objective, format, content and methodology, among the most usual methods or means of evaluation, found in a number of authors such as questionnaires, interviews, observation, discussion, records and assessment, two main techniques for data collection used in this study are questionnaires and formal interview

2.2.3.1 Questionnaires

Survey questionnaire is a popular instrument in the social sciences as it is helpful collecting opinions and would be extremely beneficial in specifying aims and analyzing the teaching and learning situation (Litz, 2005) They have a lot of advantages among which the most obvious may be the fact that the respondents can complete them without any pressure; as a result, they can express their thought freely Besides, closely ended questions are straight forward to answer (Gillham, 2000)

In this study, two questionnaires were used for teachers and students to collect their attitude and information on evaluation of the currently used material “New Cutting Edge - Elementary” Each questionnaire is divided into 6 sections:

Section 1 with three questions aims at discovering the students‟ English background,

their expectation as well as evaluation on the needs satisfied by the book from the English course at the college

Section 2 with four questions tries to find out whether students make any progress to

get

the objectives after the course

Section 3 is designed to gather students‟ judgment about the current course book in

term of format

Section 4 consists of four questions aiming at getting opinions about the content of the

materials including the topics, skills allocation in each lesson and practice exercise

Section 5 puts its focus on finding out the appropriateness of the methodology of the

assessed book

Section 6 with only one question is supposed to collect the general evaluation on the

course book in use and the suggestions for adaptation from the both teachers and students

2.2.3.2 Formal Interview

The purpose of the interview is to collect supplementary ideas for teachers and students after responding to the above questionnaires Johnson (D.M 1992:115) states that response rates from interview can be quite high and respondents are more likely to answer the questions presented because of their personal involvement with the interviewer Therefore, the interviewer can obtain more meaningful information because he/she can rephrase questions that are not clear to the respondent

For these reasons, the second method used in this study is structured interview This type of interview was conducted with 10 English teachers at HPPC The interview which consists of 15 questions thought carefully and selected in advance help to find out the appropriateness and inappropriateness of the course book in terms of learners‟ demand, objectives, formats, contents and methodology

2.3 Data collection procedure

The research carried out the data collection through questionnaire for both the teachers and the students First, research developed the questionnaire basing on the criteria she had selected with regard to five main aspects under study Then the student survey was administrated in the end of class meeting of the course The students were requested to complete the questionnaire during the class time so that they were more willing to do it and could clarify the ambiguous questions (if any) and last, but not least, could return all the questionnaires immediately

Also, the English teachers are invited to complete and return the questionnaires within two days to make sure that they are well-prepared to provide the detailed and accurate information

After collecting the data from teachers and students, it was summarized by hand and categorized in form of tables and charts where appropriate

2.4 Data analysis procedure

In this thesis, the data from questionnaire was processed by using descriptive statistics which are often reported in percentage

The data from the English teacher and student interviews were processed by doing transcript first, being quoted to compare support and challenge the findings during the course of analyzing data

In summary, this chapter has presented the overview of current English teaching and learning at Economic Faculty, HPPC The reasons for choosing the research methodology were discussed together with setting out the research questions Furthermore, the chapter also described the data collection as well as the analytical procedures which lead to the result of the survey as introduced in the next chapter

CHAPTER 3: ANALYSIS OF RESULTS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR

MATERIALS ADAPTATION

This chapter will discuss the results of the survey conducted through questionnaires and interview They are summarized in four categories followed by the five aspects concerned with the study: objectives, format, content, methodology and the other ordered aspects, accompanied with the comparison between the teachers‟ and students‟ answers towards each item in the questionnaires

3.1 Evaluation on the students’ need

3.1.1 Students’ English level at the beginning of the course and their ranking of assumed purposes in learning English

Before any courses, the identification of learner‟s level is often paid out much attention as it helps book writers to provide the most suitable content of knowledge, and then improve the learners‟ language skills

Chart 1: Students‟ English level at the beginning of the course

Chart 1 finds out both teachers and students have the same assessments on the students‟ level of learning English at the college, the level of average and under average are mostly chosen A little difference comes from the belief of students at themselves Even no students confirm that they are excellent at English but some suppose that before the course they are good at English (15%), and about 60% judge their English level is average and 25% admit that they are still too bad at the subject Teachers seem not to highly appreciate their students‟ English level when they claimed that none of their students had excellent or good background knowledge of English The levels of average (80%) and under average (20%) are also their choices So there

is an obvious fact that the students‟ English background in our school is average, it was also the warning fact of many vocational colleges in our country

It is really important for the book writer to get to know the students‟ relevant purpose so as to choose the most appropriate textbooks and teaching methods Some of the reasons for motivating students in learning English combining with their own choice are also suggested The answer to this question by teacher and student can be

summarized in the following table:

Pass the final examinations

Follow the hobbies (listening

Table 1: Teachers and students‟ ranking of the purposes of GE Course

Table 1 shows the differences between students and the teacher‟s purposes of learning English As it can be seen from this table, to prepare for their future work is the most important objectives of most students, with the highest percentage (60%) While many teachers insists that to pass the final examination with the high score is the main goal

of most of their students (50%) The teachers seem to be more pessimistic to claim that students study English for the reason that they desire to have good points after finishing the course The fact is that, however, students need English to build up their confidence at work Besides, table 1 summarizes both teachers and students share the same opinion on the least important target to study English - to follow the hobbies Hobbies are always changeable, especially for the youth, but if one day students do not remain their passion like listening to music or watching films, it leads to the result they immediately give up studying Luckily, most of students study English purposefully That is only a pity that teachers and students did not give any other opinions on the purposes of studying English to supplement the writer

3.1.2 Evaluation on the needs satisfied by the course book

It can be said that the identification of students‟ expectation can be seen the most important tasks before the course The question given here is whether teachers and students share the same opinion on their assessment of the needs the course book meets Let‟s see the following table:

Needs Teachers (%) Students (%)

Pass the final examination with the

Follow the hobbies (listening to music,

Table 2: Evaluation on the needs satisfied by the course book

Table 2 presents the figure regarding teachers and students‟ opinions about the needs that the course book satisfies As it can be seen from the table 3, students strongly believe that the course book NCEE could help them to prepare for their future jobs (62%) Most of them (88%) assure that the book may show them the way to overcome the examination The percentage of the students chooses “communicate with the foreigners” and “follow the hobbies (listening to music, watching TV…)” are comparatively low At the same time, there is a high agreement between the teachers and students‟ evaluation Some students also mention the other needs the book meets like: “understanding teachers‟ lectures, using the internet, reading English books or papers, ”

For teachers, they also share the opinion that NCEE is a very effective instrument for their

students to make well preparation for the future jobs And 70 % of them confirm that for being sufficiently trained by the book students have no difficulties in passing the examination Similar to their students, teachers definitely affirm that the needs of

“communicate with the foreigners” and “follow the hobbies (listening to music, watching TV…)” will not be achieved by students after the course

3.2 Evaluation on the Objectives of the Course

3.2.1 Vocabulary improvement

Results from teachers and students about the students‟ vocabulary enrichment can be summarized in the following chart:

Chart 2: Students‟ Vocabulary Improvement

Looking at chart 2, it can be seen that teachers and students do not completely make an agreement among the issue Even most of the teachers and students suppose that the course book helps students improve their vocabulary However, 26% of students have the positive response of the course when they confirm their vocabulary is much improved after the course, and only 10 % of teachers share the same idea with them The great amounts of teachers identify that students do not get much significant progress in vocabulary Luckily, only 10% of teachers and 12 % of students complain the course does not bring them any improvement of vocabulary Therefore, the collected data showed that students‟ vocabulary improvement matches the expected requirement

3.2.2 Students’ speaking tasks completion

Speaking tasks Teachers Students

Tell about an unforgettable memory in your

Ask in shops 60% 55%

Tell about the favorite tourist area in your

Table 3: Students‟ speaking tasks completion

Speaking skill may be considered to be the most important one in CLT Table 3 has pointed out the six typical speaking tasks appeared in the final oral test of the subject, among them 4 of 6 mentioned tasks are able to complete by the majority of students,

between 50%-100%, they are Introduce yourself and your family, Tell about your

hobbies Order food and drink, Ask in shops whereas the rest appeared not so

complicated Telling about an unforgettable memory in your childhood and the

favorite tourist area in your hometown seem to be the hardest topics with 30-32% of

students could do them As for the challenges in these tasks, they blame for the lack of vocabulary as well as their poor grammatical structures relating to past tense

Therefore, it is understandable which they face a lot of difficulties in these tasks

In regard of teachers‟ feedback, they confirm definitely their students could

overcome successfully with the tasks of Introduce yourself and your family, Tell about

your hobbies; Order food and drink, Ask in shops Similar to the tasks of Telling about

an unforgettable memory in your childhood and the favorite tourist area in your hometown were hardly completed by their students Furthermore, another reason

teachers provide in their class observation is that the students seem not to be interested

in talking about those topics because they are all beyond their needs and knowledge

3.2.3 Language Point Proficiency

Language Points

good

Not good at all

Table 4: Student‟s level of proficiency in language points

The data shown in the table prove that there is a close similarity between two groups

of respondents The result indicates that the Language Points that students can use well include: To be, Demonstrative Adj/Pronoun, can/ can‟t, there be, some/any, how

Comparatives/Superlatives The other structures as past simple tense, present continuous tense, present perfect tense, comparatives/superlatives appeared to difficult

to them., some students has been interviewed so as to find the explanation for this, they said that they could effectively use the structures as they are not too difficult to remember and put them in practice, and students honestly explained that at their high schools these language points were also taught, so these cannot be their matter, while the complication of verb and adjective form in Comparatives/Superlatives, Present Perfect tense or other structures are too difficult for them to use successfully For most teachers, they also believe that their students could manage skillfully with the

language points as mentioned above with the large proportion for the choices “very

good, good”; teachers also express their sympathy for students at vocational college

They share with the author the background knowledge of students, most of them are at average level, so the grammar structure like tenses, or Comparatives/Superlatives could be their challenges From the result of the study, we may find out the measure for deduction, that is, teachers should pay more attention to grammatical revision in the class so that students will have more time and effort to deal with those, and then

applying them into daily conversation This also involves in the changing of timetable

in each module

3.2.4 General evaluation on the students’ progress

Chart 3: Evaluation on the students‟ progress

As shown in the charts, most teachers believe that their students get progress after the course Among them, 80% are sure that students could be at least better than their language before Only 10 % of them, equivalent to one teacher in the survey are disappointed at the positive changes of his own students The figure outlines that even teachers are not really satisfactory with the book at some points, but they are proud of their students‟ progress

According to students, it is happy that they found themselves much progress after the course, when the evidence from the chart shows that 75% said they have achievement

in studying GE Beside their own effort and teachers‟ support, owning an appropriate book is also one of the most important elements in order to get the achievement

However, there is the fact that 25% of students do not accept the fact that they get nothing at all after the course finished For those students, they have to struggle with the final oral test with the great fear The reasons mainly come from their lack of knowledge at the high school Other factor is the loss of attention in class, or their refusal of taking part in group discussion or pair work because they only keep silent and work individually

3.3 Evaluation on the Format of the Course book

The course book provides images and pictures

The table of content includes content,

structures, and vocabulary in each module 90% 72% 10% 24% 0% 6% The book includes an adequate vocabulary list

The book contains an adequate set of

assessment and testing suggestions 20% 10% 50% 72% 30% 18%

Table 5: Evaluation on the format of the course book

From the data collected in table 5, the findings from the teachers and students indicate that they highly evaluate the course book in some aspects such as the appropriate format, effect organization, table content and illustration in each module Firstly, the course book is assumed to be clear and appropriate in format with the score of teachers (80%), and students (85%) This high positive feedback is understandable as at the first glance of the course book, any readers can easily realize that the layout is quite suitable and attractive Secondly, NCEE is also presented with a variety of pictures and images that really attracts lots of learners‟ attention and then promotes their visualization Visualizing strengthens

reading comprehension skills as students gain a more thorough understanding of the text they are reading by consciously using the words to create mental images That is why in the aspect of the images and pictures for illustration, nearly all of the teachers (100%) and students (95%) are satisfactory A full table of content which clearly clarifies different parts of each module is organized at the first beginning pages of the NCEE Looking at this, one could create good imagination of the book, as it was presented so clearly and effectively By this way, the useful table becomes one criteria

of format that get the high positive response at 90% of teachers and about 72% of students

However, the survey research from the teachers and students shows that both of the respondents are unsatisfied with some aspects of the course book due to the existence

of certain weakness At first, the modules are organized in various ways that motivate students‟ creativity, but the sequence of the content in each unit seems not to be systematic and easy to follow Besides, the vocabulary list received different opinions

from both respondents About half of the teachers and one-third students have positive assessment of vocabulary glossary Others suppose that the arrangement of new words

at the end of the book does not really bring about the advantages of observation for the viewers According to students‟ evaluation, more words should be added to support students while they do the tasks, and also they claim that the vocabulary list should be introduced together with teaching new words One more weakness arises from the shortage of assessment and testing suggestions With 120 periods of studying, there should be at least one assessment after 4 modules But in fact, the teachers always keep periodic tests, make copies and distribute them to their students; even there are reviews and consolidations after 5 modules, but it seems not to make notable effect as the restricted amount of consolidations, then results in 50% of teachers and 78% of students are disappointed at this aspect of format Deleting the weaknesses, as teachers suggested, the course book will be able to catch the students‟ attention and interest in term of format

3.4 Evaluation on the content of the course book

3.4.1 Proportion of the four macro-skills

Table 6: Proportion of the macro-skills

Looking at the figure above, we realize that 70% of teachers and 78% of students share the same opinion that listening skill is distributed in a good way, and they also think the proportion of reading skill is acceptable in the course book In contrast, skill of reading is only received the approval of 30% of teachers and 24% of students, and writing skill is considered not to be logical with percentage of teachers and students in turn about 40% and 37%

Proportion Skill

Therefore, as can be seen from table 6, the proportion of the four skills is distributed into two groups: reasonable and unreasonable While the proportion of listening and reading skills is considered to be acceptable with the high agreement of teachers and students, two skills left remain the negative response from the users

When being interviewed to explain for this result, two types of respondents supposed that the course book - NCEE seems to focus much on listening and reading skills, and then other skills are not paid attention adequately; as a result, the proportions of these ones are not much enough

3.4.2 Topics in the course book

As the findings of research, there is a great satisfactory of response to the question relating to the suitability of the topics in the course book 92% of students admitted that the topics are suitable whereas the number of students that had negative assessment is minimal, only taking 5%

For students of the first group, they said that many topics are suitable for their ability then help them have more skills in daily communication such as the topics: loves and hates (module 4), eating and drinking (module 6), buying and selling (module 9), etc, and other topics: people and places (module 3), extraordinary life (module 7) have good effect in learning as at their teenager they often admire someone famous, and these lessons come to them as the special gifts In regard of teachers‟ opinion, 7 of 10 teachers, making up 70% to share the same point of view that the topics in the textbook are appropriate your students‟ age, ability and hobbies and bring the latest information in many field To make the opinion of 30% supposing these topics are not appropriate, they honestly complain that as a country has their own cultural value and people of the country also have their typical hobbies or living manner in general, so it

is understandable that they can‟t sympathize with the overall topics mentioned in the course book by the authors

3.4.3 Vocabulary in the course book

With the aim of improving communicative skills in daily conversation, the vocabulary

is one of the most important elements to the success in the content of the course book According to the survey results, the majority of students and teachers said the vocabulary is familiar to their daily life and general communication

Chart 4: Teachers and students‟ evaluation on the vocabulary of the course book

They confirmed that there were not too many new words challenging them, then only few words rarely in use such as guava, tortilla That is why 53% of students and 70%

of teachers agreed that vocabulary provided in this book satisfied them However, about 35% of students have their own ideas about the words introduced in NCEE To give the explanation for this, some students were interviewed, when being asked they said that the book seemed to be very useful for the language learners; students also would like the language terms that have closer relation with Vietnamese characteristics and specialties, which may help students a lot at work when they want to introduce and

talk about their country

3.4.4 Practice in the course book

Teachers (%) Students

(%)

Sufficient enough to the students‟ learning

Table 7: Teachers and students‟ opinion on the Practice of the course book

It is probable that students pay much attention on the Practice of the book It should seem, therefore, further studies are needed to learn how difficult the Practice is for the students‟ ability As can be shown in the table 7, more than a half of students (66%)

stated that the practice in the book was easy; however, 67% added that they were not useful, only 35% said they were useful, and 34% of them claimed that Practice was too hard to fulfill Moreover, 88% affirmed that the practice exercises in the book were insufficient for their further study In detail, they also emphasized the amount of sentences in each Practice should be added more to help them use fluently the new words or structure they have just learnt Also, the students wish that the formats of Practice should be varied to attract their attention and improve their skills

Most of the teachers expressed their disappointment to the Practice in the book when 8

of 10 survey teachers chose that they are difficult, useless and insufficient to the students‟ learning demand They suggested that in some modules, the language focus needs providing much practice, however, the amount of sentences in each exercise is considered not adequately As a result, students lack their opportunities to practice their language skills when they learnt in class

3.5 Evaluation on the methodology of the course book

3.5.1 Methodological Criteria

In criteria of methodology, NCEE seems to make the same opinions from the teachers

and students For the first criteria, that is, the book helps to develop all skills are not

accepted by 70% of teachers and 61% of students This finding showed that the material writer should design a more comprehensive book focusing on the language skills that students wish to improve such as writing and speaking Regarding the aspect

of improving the ability for communication, 8 of 10 teachers, making up 80% approve

it, while 65% of students share the same idea One of the criteria that received the high positive comment from the informant is the activities for individual, pair –work and group –work provided in the book These teaching/learning techniques are mainly presented in speaking activities in Task or Further skill They are known as the important activities to promote communication skill when applying CLT approach

Table 9: Evaluation on the methodology of the course book

In term of the criteria - Language Points and vocabulary items are introduced in

motivating and realistic context, some teachers said that they almost based on the

context given in the book to teach their students; that is the reason they highly

appreciate the background of the book According to the students, only 45% of them satisfied with the item, as they strongly believe that more realistic and motivating

context would be performed to attract their attention With respect of learning

environment that welcomes the students‟ creativity and curiosity of the course book,

12% of students agreed with that while 60% of them insist on its negative effect in order to encourage their motivation in class The similarity came from the group of teachers which are clearly stated in the table From the survey result, both groups of respondents are not really happy with the methodological criteria in the material

3.5.2 Effect of the teaching aids applied in the course book

Of all the teaching aids mentioned in the Questionnaire, Pictures and Projector are

hardly used in class as they cost much time and effort for preparation, as the informants said, they bring much effectiveness to support teachers as well as attract students‟ attention In contrast, only a small number of teachers (20%) and students

(16%) considered CDs and Cassettes are useful because big classes prevented students from listening to the cassettes The high percentage is also put on the teaching aid

“songs and games” with the agreement of most teachers and students Games and songs, as their nature, motivate students in learning However, if one teacher takes

Criteria

Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss

The book helps to improve your

Language Points and vocabulary

items are introduced in motivating

and realistic context

The book provides the activities for

individual, pair –work and group –

work

them too much time in class, students may feel bored with the games used again and again such as Bingo, Crossword, etc Hence, there should be more teaching aids applied in the actual class to bring the interesting and effective lessons and help students to achieve the course objectives

3.6 Evaluation findings

This chapter has analyzed and evaluated the data from the questionnaires sending to both teachers and students In comparison with the course requirement and the real teaching and learning environment in HPC while applying the material in teaching GE for the accounting students of HPC, the findings from the collected data in the survey have revealed both appropriateness and inappropriateness of the course book – New Cutting Edge Elementary And the evaluation findings are to be presented as hereafter

3.6.1 Evaluation on the learners’ needs

In regard of course objectives, the book is considered to successfully fulfill its function when most students in the survey found the book a very effective tool to help them prepare for their future jobs and pass the examination with the high score The fact is, most of the students study the textbook with a view to communicate with others in English, which is a favorite to the young nowadays Therefore, it can be said that teaching and learning English at HPPC is communication oriented It is stated in the preface to the book New Cutting Edge –Elementary that the book provides opportunities for practicing the four skills of English language: speaking, listening, reading, and writing usually in an active mode, and the course book is to provide great opportunity for the students to use English for a variety of purposed in interesting situation

3.6.2 Evaluation on the course objectives

By learning the book, students could improve their communicative skills though the great variety of familiar topics such as family; food and drink, clothes, hobbies …, which could be seen as one of the appropriate points that meet the requirement of a general English course In addition, in this material a certain amount of vocabulary is introduced which are useful, effective and often used in particular daily situations As being mentioned as above, obviously, the course requirement and material content seem to comparatively match However, there are still some mismatches between the materials its self and the students‟ expectation that required much for improvements