Đánh giá giáo trình English written proficiency - intermediate 1 dùng cho sinh viên năm thứ nhất tại khoa Ngoại ngữ, Đại học Thái Nguyên

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES **************** TRẦN THỊ THU TRANG AN EVALUATION OF THE MATERIAL “ENGLISH WRITTEN PROFICIENCY – INTE

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

****************

TRẦN THỊ THU TRANG

AN EVALUATION OF THE MATERIAL “ENGLISH WRITTEN PROFICIENCY – INTERMEDIATE 1” FOR FIRST YEAR STUDENTS OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

FACULTY, THAINGUYEN UNIVERSITY

(Đánh giá giáo trình “English Written Proficiency – Intermediate 1”

dùng cho sinh viên năm thứ nhất tại khoa Ngoại Ngữ,

Đại học Thái Nguyên )

M.A Minor Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10

Hanoi - 2011

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

****************

TRẦN THỊ THU TRANG

AN EVALUATION OF THE MATERIAL “ENGLISH WRITTEN PROFICIENCY – INTERMEDIATE 1” FOR FIRST YEAR STUDENTS OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

FACULTY, THAINGUYEN UNIVERSITY

(Đánh giá giáo trình “English Written Proficiency – Intermediate 1”

dùng cho sinh viên năm thứ nhất tại khoa Ngoại Ngữ,

Đại học Thái Nguyên )

M.A Minor Thesis

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CANDIDATE'S STATEMENT i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES vi

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aims of the thesis 2

1.3 Significance of the thesis 2

1.4 The research questions 3

1.5 Scope of the thesis 3

1.6 Methods of the thesis 3

1.7 Organization of the thesis 4

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Textbook, Course book, and Materials 5

2.1.1 Definitions 5

2.1.2 The roles of teaching materials in a language program 6

2.2 Materials evaluation 7

2.2.1 Definitions of materials evaluation 7

2.2.2 Types of Materials Evaluation 8

2.2.3 Purposes of Materials Evaluation 9

2.2.4 Materials Evaluators 10

2.2.5 Models for Materials Evaluation 11

2.2.6 Criteria for Materials Evaluation 14

2.3 The Writing Skill 14

2.3.1 Components of the Writing Process 14

2.3.2 Approaches to Teaching and Learning Writing 19

CHAPTER 3: THE STUDY 23

3.1 The Current Teaching and Learning Situation at the Faculty of Foreign Languages, TNU 23

3.2 Research methods 24

3.2.1 The questionnaire 24

3.2.2 The interview 25

Chapter 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 27

4.1 The Course Objectives 27

4.2 Data collation and analysis 27

4.2.1 Organization 27

4.2.2 Content 30

4.2.3 Methodology 33

Chapter 5: RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS 37

5.1 Recommendations 37

5.2 Conclusions 38

5.2.1 Results obtained 39

5.2.2 Suggestions for further study 39

APPENDIX 1 I APPENDIX 2 V APPENDIX 3 IX APPENDIX 4 X

APPENDIX 5 Error! Bookmark not defined.

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

Figure 1: The materials evaluation process (by Tom Hutchinson & Alan Waters (1987:98) 12

Figure 2: Producing a piece of writing by Raime A (1983:6) 16

Figure 3: Martin’s model of genre 21

Figure 4: The data of organization content 28

Figure 5: The data of content criteria 31

Figure 6: The data of methodology criteria 35

Table 1: Example of holistic scale for writing ability (Harris, M & McCann, P., 1994: 13) 18

Table 2: Example of analytic scale for writing ability (Hedge, 1988: 55) 19

Table 3: The data of organization criteria 28

Table 4: The data of content criteria 30

Table 5: The data of methodology criteria 35

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale

English language teaching materials in general and textbooks in particular, together with students, teachers, teaching methods and evaluation, are the five important components in language instruction Although some scholars argue that textbooks limit teachers and students’ creativeness, few teachers entering a classroom without a textbook which provides them with contents and learning activities to be conducted in the class According to Hutchinson and Torres (1994), a text book is “an important means of satisfying the range of needs that emerge from the classroom and its wider context.”

Since English was introduced in Vietnam, it has played an undeniably vital role in the society and become a compulsory subject at schools and universities Together with this fact, English textbooks and materials have made a big business for publishing houses However, not many attentions have been paid to the evaluation of such textbooks and materials Unlike the situations in high schools, where a textbook is used nationwide, university lecturers often compile teaching materials of their own by referring to different sources of English books; this leads to a fact that for the same objectives of the course, different universities use different learning and teaching materials It is believed that in so doing, students will study at their best levels Nevertheless, investigations on how and why materials are selected by lecturers are surprisingly little Most of the teachers are subjective

in the materials selection process and they may be unaware of how to judge which texts best suit their situation This has inspired me to choose materials evaluation as the theme for my master thesis

The second reason for this option lies in the fact that the material I choose to evaluate, “English Written Proficiency Intermediate 1”, has been in use for two years for freshmen of English in the Faculty of Foreign Languages (FFL), Thainguyen University, but there have been no feedbacks from both teachers and students on its effectiveness Meanwhile, students’ scores in the final exam on writing skills in previous years were way lower than their teachers’ expectations with myriad mistakes found on students’ exam papers It is essential, therefore, to establish and apply a wide variety of relevant and

contextually appropriate criteria for the evaluation of the material to assess its appropriateness and effectiveness

1.2 Aims of the thesis

The thesis is aimed at evaluating the material of current use at FFL in terms of organization, contents, teaching methods commonly used in classroom and at deciding whether the material is suitable for the students of the faculty with regards to their real level of English Hopefully, the findings of this research will provide useful data so that the researcher can make some decisions on whether to continue using the material for other generations of students or to make some changes to improve its effectiveness

1.3 Significance of the thesis

Despite some scholar’s arguments on the usefulness of textbooks to be employed as instructional material in language learning and teaching, their enormous popularity still undeniably maintains The language teachers will then have to assure that “the material selected closely reflects [the needs of the learners and] the aims, methods, and values of the teaching program” (Cunningsworth, 1995: 7) However, such a task will not be fulfilled if there is no thorough evaluation on the material

Under theoretical significance, this thesis will cater for the methods to evaluate a teaching material effectively The researcher will move from subjective assessments to objective ones Furthermore, this is the first time a teaching material used in FFL has been evaluated, so the theoretical background of the thesis will be of some help for other teaching materials evaluations in the future Besides, “even though teachers will not evaluate to adopt materials, they may well be interested in evaluation as a useful process in its own right, giving insight into the organizational principles of the materials and helping them to keep up with developments in the field” (Mc Donough and Shaw, 1993: 65)

Under practical significance, the findings of this study will be beneficial to both the researcher, the teachers who are teaching writing skills for first year students and the students themselves in FFL All the strengths and weaknesses of the “English written proficiency 1” are identified so that optimum use can be made of such strong points, whilst the weaker areas can be strengthened through adaptation

1.4 The research questions

This thesis is to find out the answers to the following questions:

1 Does the material “English written proficiency – intermediate 1” for first year students

at FFL meet the requirements of the course in terms

(i) Content and the suitability with students’ real level of English?

(ii) Methodology and the suitability with students’ real level of English?

2 Is the material attractively and logically designed?

3 What should be done to help improve the material?

1.5 Scope of the thesis

The focus of this thesis is the criteria set up for evaluators to assess the teaching material It includes criteria of format/organization, content and methodology

The subjects of this thesis are the freshmen of English who have finished their first term at Faculty of Foreign Languages, Thainguyen University The subject also includes the material called “English Written Proficiency – Intermediate 1”, which consists of four units – each unit is subdivided into two main parts: the reading part and the writing part The reading part aims at not only improving students’ reading skills and widening their vocabulary but also assisting the writing part by providing it with relevant input The writing part helps learners develop their competence in writing paragraphs of three types namely descriptive, narrative and expository

1.6 Methods of the thesis

In order to achieve the objectives of this thesis, the researcher applies qualitative research methods Data are collected through questionnaires and interviews with both teachers and students

Questionnaires are an important factor in the process of having an objective evaluation The questions are designed to gather data about the teachers’ and students’ ideas on the intended criteria

Information gained from interviews will be recorded, analyzed and used for reference in making recommendations to improve the quality of the material

1.7 Organization of the thesis

The thesis comprises five chapters:

Chapter one gives general introduction about reasons for choosing the topic of study, aims, significance, research questions, scopes, methodology and organization of the thesis

Chapter two is devoted to the literature review on materials evaluation Firstly, a clear distinction among textbook, course book and materials are made Then, it discusses the role of teaching materials in language programs In the next part, some major issues in the evaluation of teaching materials, including definitions of materials evaluation, approaches to materials evaluation, types of materials evaluation and the roles of evaluation in materials development are presented The chapter also mentions methods to evaluate materials and some criteria to be applied in materials evaluation In addition, as the book is mainly used to develop students’ writing skills, aspects such as components of the writing process and approaches to teaching and learning writing are also discussed

Chapter three presents an overview of the current teaching and learning at FFL, Thainguyen University and describes the methodology employed in this study, research methods, data collection procedure, participants, setting as well as data analysis

Chapter four expounds the collected data, analyzes them and discusses the findings

of the study

Chapter five offers conclusions on the results obtained and highlights some recommendations for developing the material

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter provides an overview of the theoretical background to the research It

is divided into three sections The first section, as the background to the study, briefly discusses the concepts as well as the distinctions among the term “textbook, course book and materials”; it also mentions the roles of teaching materials in a language program These are the initial steps that help the researcher get to know where to start The second section gives an overview of materials evaluation to provide the fundamental basis and important factors for the researcher to conduct this study The last section states the components of the writing process and some approaches to teaching and learning writing

2.1 Textbook, Course book, and Materials

2.1.1 Definitions

The terms textbook, course book and materials are most commonly found in learning and teaching Authors, teachers and learners use them interchangeably; however, are these terminologies the same?

Oxford Advanced Learners’ English-Vietnamese Dictionary explains textbook as books giving instruction in a subject This term is also defined by Microsoft Encarta (2005)

as a book that treats a subject comprehensively and is used by students as a basis for study For many teachers, textbooks are the instruments that help them to explain and express their teaching ideas In most courses, there is a single textbook used as the core, while teachers can supply other materials at their wishes

The term “course book” is used to refer to a textbook on which a course is based In English language teaching, it is defined more specifically by Tomlinson (1998) as:

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 serve as the only book which the learners necessarily use during a course Such a book includes work on grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, functions and the skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking

(Tomlison, 1998: ix)

There are different viewpoints about teaching materials According to Evans and Maggie Jo St John (1998: 170), materials can be used as a source of language, a learning support, for motivation and stimulation, and for reference

Dudley-In Tomlinson’s opinion (1982: 2), language teaching materials are anything which is used

by teachers or learners to facilitate the learning of a language “It 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 that presents or informs about the language being learned” Among these, in the local setting, textbooks are the most widely used materials in language teaching

Encyclopedia explains teaching materials as follows: 1) a system of knowledge and skill which is compiled and organized according to the task of a certain subject, and which has a certain extension and depth; 2) all the materials that are used by teachers to supervise the students’ study

Hutchinson (1987:37) asserts that materials are not simply the everyday tools of the language teacher; they are an embodiment of the aims, values and methods of a particular teaching/learning situation As such the selection of materials probably represents the single most important decision that the language teacher has to make

In this thesis, the terms “textbook”, “course book” and “materials” are used interchangeably for the convenience of analysis and explanation

2.1.2 The roles of teaching materials in a language program

Teaching materials have a significant role in a training program as well as in the professional lives of teachers According to Richards, there are several reasons why textbooks dominate what teachers teach and what learners learn Firstly, they provide structure for a program Without textbooks, a program may have no central core and learners may not receive a syllabus that has been systematically planned and developed Secondly, they help standardize instruction The inclusion of a textbook in one program can assure the similarity in terms of contents different classes may receive; thus students will be tested in the same way Thirdly, they can maintain quality if a well-developed textbook is used Teachers, whose first language is not English and who may be inexperienced in teaching, can use textbooks as media of initial teacher training

Harmer (1991: 257) also observes that where a course book is involved, there are advantages for both teachers and students For students, the course book allows them to look back and forward, giving them a chance to prepare for what is coming and to review what they have done For teachers, it helps them save time; thus, they can devote themselves more in improving their teaching quality

Other linguists also share the same opinions about the importance of teaching materials in a language program Hutchinson and Torres (1994:315) suggest that “No teaching-learning situation, it seems, is complete until it has its relevant textbook” Textbook is considered the “visible heart” of any program

Beside the aforementioned belief in the vital role of teaching materials, some researchers and practitioners hold the less favorable ideas on the issue Allwright (1982), for instance, suggests that textbooks are too inflexible and generally reflect the pedagogic, psychological, and linguistic preferences and biases of their authors

It is generally accepted that the role of the course book is to be at the service of teachers and learners, but not to be their master With the availability of teaching materials nowadays, teachers need to be knowledgeable enough to choose the most suitable ones for their students; after that, they should exploit these materials flexibly and effectively so that students can benefit the most in the teaching and learning process

2.2 Materials evaluation

2.2.1 Definitions of materials evaluation

Microsoft Encarta defines “evaluation” as “an assessment of value; the act of considering or examining something in order to judge its value, quality, importance, extent,

or condition” Linguistic researchers also have their ways of defining this term without changing the purposes of judging program’s accountability, and bettering curriculum when carrying out an evaluation

According to Tomlinson (1998), evaluation is “the systematic appraisal of the value

of materials in relation to their objectives and to the objectives of the learners using them” This definition is well aligned with the learner-centered approach, in which learners’ needs and goals are carefully put into consideration to see to what extent the learning points are

useful to them Evaluation is also defined as assessment by some linguists; however,

Nunan, D (Anthology Series 27, 1991: 46), differentiates the two terms In his opinion,

“evaluation” is a wider term than “assessment” In “evaluation”, not only information on what learners can do with the target language is gathered, additional processes designed to help us in analyzing and acting on the result of our assessment are also involved Additionally, he shares the idea with Hutchinson & Waters, A that “evaluation is not simply a process of obtaining information; it is also a decision-making process” Besides, from their point of view, Rea-Dickens and Germaine (1992) states that “evaluation is the means by which we can gain a better understanding of what is effective, what is less effective, and what appears to be of no use at all”, (Rea-Dickens, P & Germaine, K 1992:4) Other researchers who hold similar opinions to the ones mentioned above are

Dudley – Evans & St John According to them, evaluation is a complete process “which

begins with determining what information to gather and ends with bringing about change

in current activities or influencing future ones”, (Dudley – Evans & St John, 1998:128)

In general, we can conclude that evaluation is a process through which the usefulness and effectiveness of a language course, a teaching curriculum and a collection

of teaching materials are brought into light The information gathered from this process can

be used to create adjustments for future improvements in the teaching and learning activities The process of evaluation in general and materials evaluation in particular include both data collection and analyses as well as action In other words, the following

key questions must be seriously put into consideration (Tomlinson 1998: 192): What aspects (of materials) should we examine? How can we examine (materials)? and How can

we relate the findings to our own teaching contexts?

2.2.2 Types of Materials Evaluation

Depending on the circumstances and purposes of the materials evaluation, the process can take place before the materials are used, while they are being used and after they have been used Among these, the pre-use evaluation seems to be the most difficult since there is no actual experience of using the book in teaching and learning Tomlinson,

B (2003: 23), in categorizing types of materials evaluation, divides it into three types: use evaluation, whilst-use evaluation and post-use evaluation

pre Prepre use evaluation: this is about the predictions on the potential value of materials

for their users For example, in order to choose a course book for a subject, teachers may flick through some book to gain a quick impression of their potential values then choose the one which, in their opinion, is the most appropriate

- Whilst-use evaluation: this involves measuring the values of materials whilst using

them or whilst observing them being used Tomlinson suggests criteria to be included in this kind of evaluation as follows: clarity of instructions, clarity of layout, comprehensibility of texts, credibility of tasks, achievability of tasks, achievement of performance objectives, potential for localization, practicality of the materials, teachability

of the materials, flexibility of the materials, appeal of the materials, motivating power of the materials, impact of the materials, effectiveness in facilitating short-term learning

(Tomlinson, B 2003: 24)

- Post-use evaluation: this kind of evaluation seems to be the most valuable as it can

measure the actual effects of the materials on the users The actual outcomes and the data

gathered in order to make reliable decisions are measurable

The kind of evaluation in this thesis is post-use evaluation in alignment with qualitative approach It aims at validating the merits of the in-house writing material being used for freshmen at FLF and suggesting positive changes for future use

2.2.3 Purposes of Materials Evaluation

Basing on what purposes evaluation serves, Rea-Dickins, P and Germaine, K (1992) subdivide the process into different types with different characteristics

Firstly, evaluation may be undertaken for accountability “Accountability” simply

means evaluating something to see whether something is intrinsically a “good thing” or not The information interpreted from evaluation for purposes of accountability is not used for improving the curriculum Rather, it informs decisions as to whether something is to continue or be discontinued It is believed that any evaluation having such characteristics is

known as summative evaluation Another purpose of evaluation is to develop curriculum

In this process, information from teachers and other relevant English language teaching professionals will be collected over a period of time The teachers are the ones who know most clearly about their classroom contexts, they, therefore, have great contributions to

make in evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of all aspects of learning and teaching Such strengths and weaknesses are useful information and can be used as the basis for future planning and action For this reason, evaluation for purposes of curriculum

development is called formative evaluation The last general purpose of evaluation is for

teacher self-development Rea-Dickins and Germaine (1992) state that “evaluation of this kind is definitely not concerned with measurement” Through awareness-raising activities, teachers are involved in describing and better understanding their own contexts with a view to improving the teaching and learning process.” This type of evaluation is referred to

as illuminative one

An evaluation may focus on a variety of different parts of the language teaching of the language teaching curriculum; each kind of evaluation has its own purposes The important thing is when the subject of the evaluation is known, it is necessary to choose appropriate evaluation procedures in order to achieve such purposes

2.2.4 Materials Evaluators

So far, the term “evaluator” has been used without any definitions about what exactly it is Alderson (1992) and Dudley-Evans and St John (1998) hold the idea that evaluators can be outsiders or insiders Outsiders are those who are not involved in the program, such as consultants, inspectors, and administrators Insiders are those from within the program Examples for insiders are teachers, learners, course and materials designers The reasons for involving outsiders alone in an evaluation process are that outsiders can guarantee objectivity; they may have greater credibility or offer a fresh perspective This is possible as “outsiders can have great professional or public credibility and may see the issues in a different light (not necessarily clearer) than those in the inside” (Alderson, 1992:279) However, Alderson also argues about the guarantee of objectivity in outsiders’ evaluation In his opinion, all the decisions made in an evaluation process are based on judgments which are inevitably subjective In addition, there may be some disadvantages

of outsiders as evaluators Outsiders have their own views on language teaching methods They may not fully understand the teaching and learning situation in which the evaluation

is being carried out They, thus, may be unsympathetic and they may need more time to get

to know the local situation such as learners’ needs, facilities as well as constraints, Robinson (1991) As a result, their judgments may be unreliable, and their

recommendations may be unrealistic; even what they find may have already been found (Dudley – Evans & St John, 1998)

Insiders, on the other hand, are of great value in the evaluation process No one can understand the learning and teaching situations better than them as they are a crucial part of the program As Alderson (1992) addresses, “What is indisputable is that insiders have an experience and a knowledge of a program that can be invaluable to an evaluation” Richards (2002) also shares the same point of view “as a sequence, they (insiders) will have a greater degree of commitment to acting on its results” (p.296) He further suggests insiders, especially teachers, can “monitor” when the materials are being used They, therefore, can determine if and to what extent the materials “work” for their purposes and thus they can make modifications to improve the effectiveness of the materials However, insiders may suffer from disadvantage when they can be “too closed and involved, or lack expertise” (Dudley-Evans and St John, 1998: 131) This, in turn, can cause subjectivity in their judgments

Alderson and Scott (1992) believe that “both insiders and outsiders should be involved collaboratively in conducting evaluations at all stages in the process”

2.2.5 Models for Materials Evaluation

Tom Hutchinson and Waters (1987) recommend four main steps in an evaluation process:

Figure 1: The materials evaluation process (by Tom Hutchinson & Alan Waters (1987:98)

The model of these two authors is a macro evaluation which aims at assessing the workability of an entire set of materials As can be seen from the figure, this model presents a logical procedure in the materials evaluation process In order to test how suitable a material is to the target students, a system of certain criteria for judgments must

be carefully designed Furthermore, determining the objectives of the materials so that they can be used as the framework in testing the effectiveness of the material is a must

Apart from the model of Hutchinson and Waters, Ellis (1997) suggests a evaluation This evaluation is “best carried out in relation to task” Following Skehan, A task here is viewed as “an activity in which: meaning is primary; there is some sort of relationship to the real world; task completion has some priority; and the assessment of task performance is in terms of task outcome” Ellis indicates a series of steps in evaluating

micro-a tmicro-ask:

1 choosing a task to evaluate: the task here may be new to teachers, and they want

to discover the effectiveness of using it in classroom The task can also be the

DEFINING CRITERIA

On what bases will you judge materials?

Which criteria will be more important?

SUBJECTIVE ANALYSIS

What realization of the criteria

do you want in your course?

OBJECTIVE ANALYSIS How does the material being evaluated realize the criteria?

MATCHING How far does the material match

your needs?

one which has already been used; teachers want to confirm whether it works as well as they think it does

2 describing the task: it can be described in terms of objectives, input, procedures and outcomes

3 planning the evaluation

4 collecting the information: the information required to evaluate a task can be collected before, during or after the teaching of the task

5 analyzing the information: the data can be analyzed either in quantitative or in qualitative way

6 reaching conclusions and making recommendations

7 writing the report

This model of evaluation is more manageable than a macro-evaluation Nevertheless, in order to conduct a macro-evaluation, a series of micro-evaluations need to

be carried out, which consumes a lot of time and efforts

Another model of evaluation, which is a combination of macro-and evaluation, is also suggested by McDonough and Shaw (1993) In their points of view, there are three stages in the evaluation models: external evaluation, internal evaluation, and overall evaluation The external stage (macro-evaluation) is the examination of the claims made for the whole materials by the author The internal stage (micro-evaluation) requires

micro-an in-depth look at two or more units to find out the claims made by the author This second stage only happens if, in the first stage, the materials are proven potentially appropriate If not, there will be no second or third stage In the last stage, an overall assessment as to the suitability of the materials by considering whether they are usable (how far the materials could be integrated into a particular syllabus as “core” or supplementary), adaptable (can parts be added, extracted, used in another context for local circumstances?), flexible (can the materials be entered at different points or used in different ways?), McDonough & Shaw (1993)

In brief, all of the above models serve to evaluate the appropriateness of a set of materials to a certain situation or group of learners despite the various processes and purposes in each model Evaluators must then base on the purposes of the evaluation, time available, facilities as well as the constraints of the context where the evaluation occurs to

decide which model to follow The author of this thesis intentionally uses the model of Hutchinson and Waters (1993)

2.2.6 Criteria for Materials Evaluation

In order to make objective judgments, evaluators need a system of criteria Criteria are what evaluators use to “reach a decision regarding what needs to be evaluated” (Tomlinson, 1998: 220) Defining criteria is one of the initial steps to put into considerations before carrying any evaluation

Hutchinson and Waters (1987) suggest a checklist in the process of evaluating materials:

- Audience: the learners and the learners the materials intended for with regards to different information such as ages, sex, professional fields, knowledge of English, educational background, and so on

- Aims: the aims of the materials

- Content: language description, language points, macro-skills and their proportion, micro-skills, subject-matters in terms of level of knowledge, types of topics, organization and sequence of content

- Methodology: theories of learning, teaching-learning techniques, kinds of exercises, guidance for teaching, the flexibility of materials

- Other criteria: price, availability of the materials or their attractiveness

Beside the checklist of Hutchinson and Waters, evaluators may employ a set of criteria by Sheldon (1988) The set includes: rationale, availability, layout/graphic, accessibility, linkage, selection/ grading, physical characteristics, appropriacy, authenticity, cultural bias, educational validity, stimulus/ practice/ revision, flexibility, guidance and overall value for money In different situations, upgrading, modification and extension to these criteria are necessary to suit the specific requirements

In this thesis, the author mainly uses the five criteria given by Hutchinson and Waters in order to have unity and manageability

2.3 The Writing Skill

2.3.1 Components of the Writing Process

Writing in general and writing in a foreign language in particular is always one of the most challenging tasks a student has to cope with Even native speakers at university level often experience serious difficulties in showing a good command of writing This leads to the inclusion of teaching writing skills in a foreign language syllabus as these skills are considered essential for students’ academic success There are two sides of the learning and teaching written English: writing as a channel and writing as a goal of foreign language learning

In the first side, writing is widely used within foreign language courses as a convenient means for engaging with aspects of language other than the writing itself For example: writing exercises are given to consolidate what students have learnt and orally practice in terms of vocabulary, grammatical structures Apart from being used as a means

of getting the students to attend to and practice a particular language point, writing can be a convenient method of testing the language point The latter side indicates that students learn a language in order to communicate, both in spoken and written form For this reason, writing tasks should have whole pieces of information as their outcome, rather than isolated sentences in order to help them develop the skills of communicating in writing In other words, students should have practice writing at both micro-level and macro-level They may have to write reports, letters; give written instructions; fill out forms in their future jobs, so the writing skill is very necessary for them

The question one should ask here is “What do writers need to actually produce a piece of writing (clear, fluent and effective communication of ideas?” Raimes, A (1983) suggests a set of considerations in order to have an effective piece of writing shown in Figure 2

Why do learners need a purpose to write? Traditionally, narrative, descriptive, argumentative, and expository are the main types of writing Recently, some authors discuss other forms of written discourse, such as expressive, persuasive, literary, and referential For each of these types, learners need to have clear reasons when they are asked

to produce any piece of writing Teachers’ task here is to provide a context and make them clear of the purpose Writing with a purpose means writing to an audience In reality, we usually write something with a particular type of readers in mind, it is essential that learners also consider their audience when they write The writing task should specify not

only why they are writing, but also for whom When writers are concerned about their

audience, they should develop the content clearly and convincingly The ideas should be relevant and deal with the topic or purpose suggested, without including unnecessary points or losing track of their subject The ideas and information in sentences as well as paragraphs must be linked to make the writing coherent The audience will certainly appreciate a careful and efficient structure of the text The writer’s use of language should also be accurate: the rules for verbs, articles, pronouns, prepositions, sentence structures, word order should be specially paid attention to Moreover, punctuation and spelling are also essential elements, together with clear writing, margins, and consistent indentation

Figure 2: Producing a piece of writing by Raime A (1983:6)

In the above section, we mentioned macro- and – micro- levels for writing without going into any details In what follows, the author will present some linguists’ points of view in these two matters In terms of macro-level for writing, Palmer (1991) suggests a

set of sub-skills: (1) graphical or visual skills, which pay attention to students’ ability of organizing information, using punctuation, spelling, capitalization and format; (2)

grammatical skills, which refer to the ability to use successfully a variety of sentence

patterns; (3) expressive or stylistic skills, which consider students’ ability to express meanings in various styles or registers; (4) rhetorical skills, which are about students’ use

of linguistic cohesion device such as connectives, reference words, etc.; (5) organizational

ORGANIZATION

paragraphs, topics and

support, cohesion and unity

WORD CHOICE vocabulary, idiom, tone

PURPOSE the reasons for writing

AUDIENCE the reader/s

MECHANICS

handwriting, spelling,

punctuation

GRAMMAR

rules for verbs, agreement,

articles, pronouns, etc

SYNTAX sentence structure, sentence boundaries, stylistic choice, etc

CONTENT relevance, clarity, originality, logic, etc

THE WRITER’S PROCESS getting ideas, getting started, writing drafts, revising

clear, fluent, and effective communication of ideas

skills; which refer to the way students sequence, reject and summarize relevant points in

their writing

In terms of micro-skills, Brown (1994, p.327) introduces a list of the related skills for writing:

1 Produce graphemes and orthographic patterns of English

2 Produce writing at an efficient rate of speed to suit the purpose

3 Produce acceptable core of words and use appropriate word order pattern

4 Use acceptable grammatical system (e.g tenses, agreement, pluralization), patterns and rules

5 Express a particular meaning in different grammatical forms

6 Use cohesive devices in written discourse

7 Use the rhetorical forms and conventions of written discourse

8 Appropriately accomplish the communicative functions of written texts according to form and purpose

9 Convey links and connections between events and communicate such relations

as main idea, supporting idea, new information, given information, generalization, and exemplification

10 Distinguish between literal and implied meaning when writing

11 Correctly convey culturally specific references in the context of the written text

12 Develop and use a battery of writing strategies, such as accurately assessing the audience’s interpretation, using pre-writing device, writing with fluency in the first drafts, using paraphrases and synonyms, soliciting peer and instructor feedback, and using feedback for revising and editing

So far, we have looked at components and skills included in producing a piece of writing What the author wants to focus in the next section is how the piece of writing should be evaluated Harris and McCann (1994) develop a set of criteria which are arranged in holistic scales:

Table 1: Example of holistic scale for writing ability (Harris, M & McCann, P., 1994: 13)

The criteria should also be of analytic scale as the one suggested by Hedge (1988):

4 In general, grammatically correct sentences and phrases, but some errors which do not affect understanding Does not use appropriate vocabulary at all times Some difficulties with organization of text Some errors in spelling Good content and presentation Message mostly relevant

3 Grammatical errors and use of vocabulary affect understanding as does organization of text Many errors in spelling Satisfactory content and presentation Message not always relevant

2 Text understood with difficulty due to inaccurate grammar and inappropriate use of vocabulary Poor content and presentation Message generally lacks relevancy

1 Impossible to understand text due to frequency of grammatical errors and incoherence

of organization Poor spelling Message irrelevant

1 Organization of content (clarity, coherence, paragraphs) 20%

4 Accuracy of grammar, sentence structure, spelling and punctuation 30%

5 Fluency (feel for the language, appropriateness, use of idioms, etc.) 20%

100%

Table 2: Example of analytic scale for writing ability (Hedge, 1988: 55)

2.3.2 Approaches to Teaching and Learning Writing

It is said that there is no one answer to the question of how to teach writing in foreign language classes There are many answers as there are teachers and teaching styles

as well as learners and learning styles In the history of writing instruction, researchers and teachers have oscillated between focusing on the written product that students are meant to produce and focusing on the creative processes of writing (Galbraith and Rijlaarsdam, 1999)

The product approach

Pincas (1982a) provides the most explicit descriptions of product approach In her views, writing is primarily about linguistic knowledge, with attention focused on the appropriate use of vocabulary, syntax and cohesive devices (Pincas 1982b)

In this approach, learning to write involves four stages: familiarization, controlled writing, guided writing, and free writing The familiarization stage aims to make learners aware of certain features of a particular text In the controlled and guided writing sections, the learners practice the skills with increasing freedom until they are ready for the free writing section Robinson (1991, cited in Hutchinson, T & Warters, A., 1997: 116) summarizes this approach in the following way:

The strong points of this approach are that it recognizes the need for learners to be given linguistic knowledge about texts, and they understand that imitation is one way in which people learn However, White (1988) and Jordan (1997) argue that adopting such an approach not only does the very nature of the sequence provide little or no insight into the actual process involved in managing to arrive at the final product, but the students are also restricted in what they can write In other words, knowledge and skills learners bring to the classroom are undervalued

The process approach

Tribble suggests that process approach stresses

… writing activities which move learners from the generation of ideas and the collection of data through to the “publication” of a finished text (1996: 37)

Linguistic skills such as planning and drafting are seen as predominant in this approach There is much less emphasis on linguistic knowledge, such as knowledge about grammar and text structure

Tribble (1996) proposes a cyclical process in which writers may, for example, return to pre-writing activities after doing some editing or revising : prewriting, composing, revising (reorganizing/shifting emphasis/focusing information and style for your readership) and editing (checking grammar/ lexis/ surface features such as punctuation, spelling, layout, quotation, references)

Another model of the stages in writing is suggested by Tomlinson (1991) as follows:

The disadvantages of the process approach are that they often regard all writing as being produced by the same set of processes; that they give insufficient importance to the kind of texts writers produce and why such text are produced; and that they offer learners insufficient input, particularly in terms of linguistic knowledge, to write successfully The main advantages are that the importance of skills involved in writing is understood and the approach values what learners bring to the writing classroom as contributions to the development of writing ability

Writing task  Draft 1  Feedback  Revision  Input  Draft 2  Feedback  Revision  Draft 3

Model text  Comprehension/Analysis/Manipulation New Input  Parallel Text

The genre approach

In comparison to the above mentioned approaches, genre approach seems to be a newcomer to English language teaching However, it has strong similarities with the product approach

Like the product approach, it regards writing as predominantly linguistic, but, unlike the product approach, it emphasizes that writing varies with the social context in which it is produced So we have a range of kinds of writing - such as letters, research articles, reports, etc – linked with different situations (Flowerdew, 1993: 307) As not all learners need to operate in all social contexts, this view of text has implications for the writing syllabus

Swales (1990: 58) defines a genre as “a class of communicative events, the members of which share some set of communicative purposes” Genres are also influenced

by other features of situation, such as the subject matter, the relationships between the writer and the audience, and the pattern of organization Martin (1993: 120) offers a diagrammatic explanation of genre:

Figure 3: Martin’s model of genre

In English language teaching field, Dudley-Evans (1997:154) identifies three stages

in genre approach to writing First, a model of a particular genre is introduced and analyzed Learners then carried out exercises which manipulate relevant language forms and, finally, produce a short text This parallels the product approach very closely

The negative side of genre approach is that it undervalues the skills needed to produce a text and sees learners as largely passive More positively, it acknowledges that

Purpose [Genre]

Interlocutor relationship [Field] [Tenor]

Channel

Text

writing takes place in a social situation, and is a reflection of a particular purpose, and understands that learning can happen consciously through imitation and analysis

From what discussed above, we see that applying one approach in isolation is not enough as each of them has both advantages and disadvantages Raimes (1983:11) supports this idea when stating that “we will seldom find a classroom where a teacher is so devoted to one approach as to exclude all others” Thus, teachers need to combine these approaches in teaching writing so as to maximize the chances for learners’ success

In brief, it can be concluded that (a) writing means writing a connected text, not just single sentences, (b) writers write for a purpose of a reader, (c) the process of writing

is a valuable learning tool for all of our students, (d) teachers should utilize techniques from different approaches, which are believed to be appropriate to learners

CHAPTER 3: THE STUDY

This chapter consists of three sections The first section presents the current teaching and learning situation at the Faculty of Foreign Languages, Thainguyen University Section 2 gives the information about the methods of the research The last section describes the procedure of collecting data

3.1 The Current Teaching and Learning Situation at the Faculty of Foreign

Languages, TNU

The Faculty of Foreign Languages - Thainguyen University was a former member

of University of Education It has been in operation for 3 years with an approximate number of students of 3,000 coming from mountainous provinces in the North of Vietnam, and 120 lecturers, 30 of who are lecturers of English The students share different backgrounds when entering the faculty Each of them has their own preferred way of absorbing and learning new information Primarily, people learn through their sensory input via seeing, hearing or touching/doing Some students may learn best with images and visual aids; other students tend to silently observe and listen attentively; others like to move to learn Students who have been learning English for a long time may follow the new teaching methods with ease They actively participate in pair work and group work activities Meanwhile, students who are merely beginners prefer to sit silently and expect teachers to lecture so that they can note down something Such differences in learning styles prevent teachers from varying their lessons as well as arousing the learning atmosphere among students In the past few years, students’ scores for the university entrance exam, especially for the English subject, have been rather low, ranging from 3 to

7 on the ten-point scale This leads to a fact that students of multi-levels are put into one class Another thing is, apart from the small number of students coming from the cities, others, from rural areas, lack of skills such as searching information on the internet or looking for books in libraries for their own studies Most of them, especially those who are

in their first year at the university, rely on what teachers provide in class

As for teachers, a group of ten people are assigned to teach the writing subject for first year students So far they have been using the material for two years Among them, five teachers have obtained Master Degree in Hanoi National University, the others are

only bachelors All of these teachers are young (the oldest is thirty years old), and some of them are inexperienced in teaching They often deliver lectures in Vietnamese for fear that students will not be able to understand what they say Every four weeks, teachers of this group take turn attending classes of each other in order to give comments and feedbacks on the effectiveness of the lessons The biggest obstacle to these language instructors might be the lack of experience in designing materials None of them have been trained in this field, yet they still have to compile books (for in-house use only), which they think are suitable for their students The material “English written proficiency intermediate 1”, compiled by Nguyen Trong Du, is one example This book has been in use in FLF since 2010 It is to be learnt in one semester There are four units, each of which consists of two correlated sections, including reading and writing parts The main aim of the reading part is to provide the writing part with relevant language input The writing parts mainly focus on three types of paragraphs: descriptive, narrative, and expository Teachers are required to deliver these four units in 45 periods (50 minutes each) During the course, students will have two progress tests In their end-term test, lasting for ninety minutes, students have to complete two parts: one is about reading skills, the other is about writing skills

This material was compiled without having any surveys on the needs as well as on the real levels of English among students This leads to a desire to conduct an evaluation

on its effectiveness from both teachers and learners

3.2 Research methods

Tomlinson (1998: 224) states that evaluation should not “be restricted to outside evaluator”, especially when a material is evaluated for development In this case, inside evaluators can take advantage of their close understanding of the program, the learning and teaching situations to have a thorough evaluation For this reason, the author decided to get both teachers and students involved in the evaluation process as participants of the questionnaire and the interview

3.2.1 The questionnaire

The questionnaire is one of the most basic tools used to conduct surveys Gillham (2000) indicated a number of significant advantages of using questionnaires such as respondents suffer no pressure in answering questions; evaluators can design a set of