Đánh giá về hiệu quả của các bài tập nghe hiểu trong sách giáo khoa Tiếng Anh lớp 10 tại trường THPT Quảng Xương I Thanh Hóa M A Thesis Linguistics

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* LÊ THỊ GIANG AN EVALUATION ON THE EFFECTIVEN

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

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

LÊ THỊ GIANG

AN EVALUATION ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF LISTENING COMPREHENSION TASKS IN THE TEXTBOOK ENGLISH 10 AT

QUANG XUONG I HIGH SCHOOL, THANH HOA

Đánh giá về hiệu quả của các bài tập nghe hiểu trong sách giáo khoa Tiếng

Anh lớp 10 tại trường THPT Quảng Xương I Thanh Hóa

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111

Hanoi, 2014

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

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

LÊ THỊ GIANG

AN EVALUATION ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF LISTENING COMPREHENSION TASKS IN THE TEXTBOOK ENGLISH 10 AT

QUANG XUONG I HIGH SCHOOL, THANH HOA

Đánh giá về hiệu quả của các bài tập nghe hiểu trong sách giáo khoa Tiếng

Anh lớp 10 tại trường THPT Quảng Xương I Thanh Hóa

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111

SUPERVISOR: NGUYỄN THỊ MINH TÂM, PhD

Hanoi, 2014

i

CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT

I hereby certify that the thesis entitled

An evaluation on the effectiveness of listening comprehension Tasks in the textbook English 10 at Quang Xuong I High School, Thanh Hoa

is the result of my own research for the degree of Master of Arts at University of Languages and International Studies- VNU, and that this thesis has not been submitted for any degree at any other university or tertiary institution

Hanoi, August 2014

Student’s signature

Lê Thị Giang

ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my deepest gratitude towards my supervisor Nguyễn Thị Minh Tâm, Ph.D for her valuable suggestions, instructions and corrections without which I can hardly fulfil this thesis

I am also particularly indented to the lecturers of the Foreign Language Faculty of National University for their enthusiastic help

I wish to convey my thanks to the teachers and students at Quang Xuong I high school who were willing to take part in the surveys and interviews

Finally, my appreciation and gratitude are also extended to my family, friends and other people for their assistance, support and encouragement during the development of this study All have enabled me to fulfil my thesis

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ABSTRACT

This study aims at evaluating on the effectiveness of listening comprehension tasks in the textbook English 10 to improve students’ listening comprehension The subjects involved in the study are students and three teachers at Quang Xuong I High School, Thanh Hoa

The thesis primarily aims at the emphasis of this research work is largely practical in the light of theoretical aspects through literature review, results of task evaluation, interview and some suggested activities to improve students’ listening skill

Findings from task evaluation and interview show the effectiveness of listening comprehension tasks in teaching English listening skill at Quang Xuong I high school in Thanh Hoa province

Based on the results of the research, it is hoped that the findings as well as suggestions will be helpful for designers who design English textbook and teachers when using the new sets of English textbook in general and English 10 in particular

so as for them to improve their students’ listening comprehension

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LIST OF CHARTS

Chart 1: Information sources in comprehension

Chart 2: A framework for analysing communicative tasks Chart 3: Framework for evaluating communicative tasks Chart 4: Criteria of an effective task

Chart 5: Results of analysis listening comprehension tasks

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TABLE OF CONTENT

Candidate’s statement i

Acknowledgements ii

Abstract iii

List of charts iv

Table of contents v

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale 01

2 Aim of the study 02

3 Research questions 02

4 Significance of the study 02

5 Scope of the study 03

6 Methods of the study 03

7 Organization of the study 04

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Listening comprehension 04

1.1.1 The nature of listening comprehension 04

1.1.2 The listening skill 06

1.2 Listening process 07

1.2.1 Bottom-up process of listening comprehension 07

1.2.2 Top - down process of listening comprehension 08

1.3 Task in ELT 10

1.3.1 Definition of task 10

1.3.2 Structure of task 11

1.3.3 Framework for evaluating listening comprehension Tasks 12

1.4 Role of textbook and textbook evaluation 14

1.4.1 Role of textbook 14

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1.4.2 Role of textbook evaluation 15

1.4.3 Types of textbook evaluation 15

1.5 Review of previous studies 16

CHAPTER 2: METHODS AND PROCEDURES OF THE STUDY 2.1 Context of study 18

2.2 Method of the study 18

2.3.Data collecting instrument and Procedures of data collection and analysis 19

2.3.1 Task evaluation 19

2.3.1.1 Purpose 19

2.3.1.2 Task evaluation framework 19

2.3.1.3 Procedures of data collection and coding scheme 20

2.3.1.4 Summary of findings 20

2.3.2 The interview 22

2.3.2.1 Purpose 21

2.3.2.2 Participants 22

2.3.2.3 The Interview questions 23

2.3.2.4 Procedures of data collection and analysis 24

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 Answer to research question 1: To what extent are Listening Comprehension tasks effective in the textbook English 10 at Quang Xuong I high school? 25

3.1.1 Goal and rationale 25

3.1.2 Activities 26

3.1.3 Grading and integration 27

3.1.4 Other factors 27

3.2 Answer to Research Question 2: What are suggested activities to improve listening skill for grade 10 students? 32

3.2.1 Suggestions to improve the goal and rationale of the listening tasks in English 10 32

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3.2.2 Suggestions to improve the activities of the listening tasks in English 10 33

3.2.3 Suggestions to improve the grading and integration of the listening tasks in English 10 34

3.2.4 Suggestions to improve the other factors of the listening tasks in English 10 34

PART C: CONCLUSION 1 Recapitulation of the study 38

2 Implications of the study 38

3 Limitations of the study 39

4 Suggestion for further studies .39

REFERENCE 40

APPENDICES APPENDIX 1 The specific assessment table of sixteen units in Tieng Anh 10textbook I APPENDIX 2

The Interview questions in English X The Interview questions in Vietnamese X

APPENDIX 3 Notes of interview XII

of the social life such as: tourism, politics, trade etc In fact, without English it is difficult to get jobs in multinational companies which are common nowadays Moreover, English is the important means for people to surf webs on the Internet because the main language used there is English Therefore, since 1990s English has become a compulsory subjects at most high schools and the target of teaching English to students is to help them to communicate in English However, one of the problems Vietnamese students are encountering is that they have many difficulties

in listening and comprehending what the native speakers of English say, it would lead to the obscurity in communication There are many causes to this problem First of all, students do not understand the necessity of English listening, so they do not have motivation in studying it Secondly, English listening is considered as the most challenging skill, as the results, it is often ignored or taught carelessly in classes, especially in large classes Thirdly, schools do not have sufficient technological materials such as lab rooms, headphones Therefore, it is difficult for teachers to conduct a listening lesson

Obviously, listening is an important part in the process of teaching, learning English as well as communicating internationally So, the researcher chooses the

topic “An evaluation of the effectiveness of listening comprehension tasks in the textbook English 10 at Quang Xuong I high school, Thanh Hoa” for her master

thesis because this could be a contribution to her teaching profession on the continuum of its development, and with the hope that the study can be useful for teachers who are using English 10

2 Aims of the study:

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For the above reasons, the study aims at making a measurement of to what extent listening comprehension tasks are effective in the textbook English 10 at Quang Xuong I high school and then suggests some activities to improve listening skill for grade 10 students More specifically, it focuses on the following objectives: (1) Investigating the effectiveness of using listening comprehension tasks in the textbook English 10 in teaching and learning listening skill for students at Quang Xuong I high school

(2) Suggesting activities to enhance the positive impacts and to minimize the negative effects of teachers' teaching and students' learning

(2) What are suggested activities to improve listening skill for grade 10 students?

4 Significance of the study

The study provides a reliable and profound background on the matter, which can be used as reference for future studies on similar topics Besides, it helps the researcher gain more knowledge and skills in this field during the research process

Practically, the study provides an insight into evaluating on the effectiveness

of listening comprehension tasks in the textbook English 10 The study focuses on the effectiveness of using listening comprehension tasks in the textbook English 10

in teaching and learning listening skill for students at Quang Xuong I high school and then proposes ways to enhance the positive impacts of listening comprehension tasks and to minimize the points which negatively influence the effectiveness of the tasks of listening comprehension tasks in English 10 The study is also expected to

be useful for all the researcher's colleagues and anyone who is concerned about the matter of teaching and learning listening comprehension in general

5 Scope of the study

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The study is limited to the evaluation on the effectiveness of listening comprehension tasks in English 10 at Quang Xuong I high school, Thanh Hoa The reasons for this choice are as follow:

Firstly, in the first semester, the students are totally new to the high school It takes time for them to get acquainted with their classmates, their teachers' teaching methods, their learning contents, the assessment practices and to generate their learning styles Most of them are from countryside of Thanh Hoa So, while a number of students possess quite ordinary listening abilities, many others are completely strange to the skills as they have never done it in their learning at secondary schools Some are even afraid of it Therefore, it seems very difficult for students to learn listening skill well

Secondly, students 10th at Quang Xuong I high school, Thanh Hoa have just passed the entrance examination of high school so they would definitely be the most suitable group to date to be studied for the purpose of this research

6 Methods of the study

The study is approached qualitatively Evaluation task and semi-structured interviews are used as data collection tools The collected data are then analysed qualitatively Participants for the interview are three teachers as respondents to interview

7 Organization

The study is divided into three main parts: Part I is the Introduction to the study Part II is the Development with three chapters Chapter I reviews Literature review on listening process, listening comprehension, task in ELT, role of textbook and textbook evaluation and review of previous studies Chapter 2 describes the methods and procedures of the study Chapter III presents, analyses data collected from task evaluation and interview Part III presents conclusion of effectiveness of listening comprehension tasks, implications, limitations, and suggestions for further studies

1.1.1 The nature of Listening comprehension

These days, English language is often described as the international language and the status of listening skill is quite significant People find that there are many occasions in which they want to use this skill As globalization proceeds, the speakers of English in every corner of the world are getting closer and closer The need for communication between groups of people now, of course, increases Steilet al (1983: 216) suggests that listening comprehension always plays an important role in the communication process, it is essential for interaction A learner can express himself orally, but never be able to communicate with speakers of English if unable to understand what is said to him

Nunan (1991) suggests that listening used to be considered the Cinderella skill in second language teaching and learning, the question puts forward here is how listening comprehension can be defined; or in other words, what is the nature

of listening comprehension? The traditional view looks at the listener as a recorder since the way that he takes in and stores aural information is very much like a tape-recorder Meanwhile, the alternative view regards listeners as active model builders This type of listener can actively combine the new information with his previous known knowledge and experience to acquire its meaning to the full Such a view is supported by many scholars, initially Alderson and Lynch (1988)

tape-In line with the alternative view, O'Malley and Chamot conclude from their

study that "listening comprehension is an active and conscious process in which the listener constructs meaning by using cues from contextual information and existing knowledge, while relying upon multiple strategic resources to fulfil the task requirement" (O'Malley &Chamot 1989, p.420)

(Clark and Clark 1977, p.43-44)

Lynch and Mendelsohn (cited in Schmitt, 2002) describe the unique features of listening as follows:

Its usually ephemeral, one-shot nature

The presence of a rich prosody (stress, intonation, rhythm, loudness and more), which is absent from the written language

The presence of characteristics of natural fast speech, such as assimilation, making it markedly different from written language, for example /gammt/ for "government" The

frequent need to process and respond almost immediately

(Schmitt 2002, p.194)

Above mentioned definitions and features of listening comprehension show that listening comprehension is an active and conscious course that requires the listener to process given aural information and respond to it almost immediately The response might be in spoken form or written form, or it might simply be thorough grasp of the message meaning

In sum, there are different views on the nature of listening comprehension The traditional one considers listeners as tape-recorders which just do the work of recording and storing the given message Meanwhile, the alternative view emphasizes the need for listeners' ability to handle the heard message, utilizing their background knowledge and experience together with their understanding of the language being spoken, i.e the knowledge of morpheme, phoneme, lexis and syntax

of the language The latter one has recently gained more support from researchers and laid the foundation for them to divide listening comprehension into sub-skills for ease of helping learner's acquisition of the skill

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1.1.2 The listening skill

Listening is the ability to identify and understand what others are saying This involves understanding a speaker's accent or pronunciation, his grammar and his vocabulary, and grasping his meaning Howatt and Dakin (1989) An able listener is capable of doing these four things simultaneously

Listening has become an essential element of communication It is essential for interaction A learner can express himself orally but never be able to communicate with speakers of English if unable to understand what is said to him

As Rivers (1996), a champion for further attention to listening comprehension, observes "Speaking does not of itself constitute communication unless what is said

is comprehended by another person" (Rivers 1996, p.146) It is, in fact, used far more than any other single language skill in our daily lives On average, we can expect to listen twice as much as we speak, four times more than we read, and five times more than we write Rivers (1981) and Weaver (1972) We can not, under any circumstances, underestimate its importance In fact, it is worthy of early consideration It is understandable because listening is the activity of paying attention to get meaning from something we hear Underwood (1989) If we want to

be able to listen successfully, we will have to make effort to work out what speakers mean Grant (1987) states "listening skills include everything from learning particular sounds to comprehending complicated messages Without this skill, communication can break down Therefore, successful communication really depends on listeners or receivers of messages" (Grant 1987, p.95) Steil (1983) also suggests that this skill is a major communication activity

Listening as well as reading has been traditionally considered a "passive skill" This is a false characterization Anderson and Lynch (1988) reject a nationalization of this as a passive skill, calling it a "listener-as-tape-recorder" (Anderson and Lynch 1988, p.215) explanation of this process They say that such conceptualization of listening ignores the interpretations listeners make as they listen to the spoken text according to their own purposes, their expectations, and

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their own background knowledge As Brown (1994) states "this skill is not a way street It is not merely the process of a unidirectional receiving of audible symbols Listening is the factor which is not only active but also very demanding It

one-is an act of information processing in which the lone-istener one-is involved in both one-way communication and two-way communication" (Brown 1994, p.83) "It is a receptive skill and it involves active participation on the part of listeners" (Rubin 1994, p 52, Hedge 2000, p.172) Listeners seem to be inactive while listening, but they actually engage in the activity of constructing a message This view is shared by Underwood (1989), who claims that while listening can be thought of as a passive condition, it

is an active process If wishing to understand the message, listeners need to apply both their knowledge of language usage, that is the language system and the appropriate use of the language communicate

Therefore, listening can be defined broadly as everything that impinges on the human processing which mediates between sounds and the construction of meaning When listening, listeners are expected to attend to what they hear to process, to comprehend, to interpret, to evaluate, and to respond to the incoming data, so they have to become involved and active listeners

1.2 Listening process:

1.2.1 Bottom-up process of listening comprehension:

The bottom-up processing assumes that listening is a process of decoding the sounds that one hears in a linear fashion, from the smallest meaningful units (phonemes) to complete texts Nunan (1988) claims that "Bottom-up processes work on the incoming message itself, decoding sounds, words, and sentences" (Nunan 1988, p.25) Stress, rhythm and intonation also play a role in bottom-up process According to this view, phonemic units are decoded and linked together to form words, words are linked together to form phrases, phrases are linked together

to form utterance, and utterances are linked together to form complete meaningful texts In other words, the process is a linear one, in which meaning itself is derived

as the last step in the process Anderson and Lynch (1988) share this view with

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Nunan, but they regard bottom up processing view as "Listener as tape recorder", they suggest that the listener takes in and stores messages sequentially, in much the same way as a tape recorder, one sound, word, phrase, and utterance at a time

In brief, we can summarize that bottom-up processes include the following

as the suggestion of Richards (1985)

- Scanning the input to identify familiar lexical items

- Segmenting the stream of speech into constituents, for example in order to recognise that "a book of mine" consists of four words

- Using phonological cues to identify the information focus in an utterance

- Using grammatical cues to organise the input into constituents, for example, in order to recognise that in "The book which I lent you", "The book" and

"Which I lent you" are major constituents, rather than "the book which I" and "lent you"

1.2.2 Top - down process of listening comprehension:

Top-down processing view refers to utilizing background knowledge to derive meaning from the message In addition to the linguistic skills, the listener must have a variety of non linguistic knowledge This knowledge can consist of an appropriate purpose for listening, appropriate social and cultural knowledge, appropriate background knowledge which is termed as "knowledge of the context and situation within which the listening takes place to make sense of what he or she hears Anderson and Lynch (1988) point out:

"In order to listen successfully we have to construct our own coherent interpretation of any spoken message Both parts of this term are important First, it needs to be coherent both with what we already know about the speaker, the sense that it is our version of what the speaker meant, as far as we are able to assess that meaning."

(Anderson and Lynch 1988, p 11)

We do not simply store the language like a tape recorder, but we interpret what we hear according to our purpose in listening and out background knowledge According to this view, the listener has to play an active role in listening process, the listener actively reconstructs the meaning of the speaker by using incoming

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sounds as clues, and by applying what he knows to what he hears and trying to understand what the speaker means

An important theoretical view to the top-down approach is schema theory

As Nunan (1998) argues that schema theory is based on the notion that past experiences lead to the creation of mental framework that helps us make sense of new experience Figure 1 illustrates the relationship between two principles sources

of information we may have in the process of comprehension Widdowson (1983) refers to them as systematic or linguistic knowledge (knowledge of phonological, syntactic and semantic components of the language system) a schematic or non-linguistic information

It is generally recognised that bottom-up and top-down process are necessary for the learners In developing materials, and lessons, it is important, not only to teach bottom-up process to give learners confidence in accurate hearing and comprehending components of the language, but it is also important to help learners use what they already know to understand what they hear The top-down approach starts from the opposite end: it sees understanding as starting from the listener’s background knowledge of the non-linguistic context and of working down towards the individual sounds Listeners will actively interpret what they hear in terms of their understanding of the situation and the world in general Nunan (1991) claims

"Successful listeners use bottom-up and top-down strategies in reconstructing messages" In short, listening is making sense of what we hear, is a constructive process in which the learner is an active participant In order to comprehend, listeners need to reconstruct original intention of the speaker by making use of bottom-up and top-down processing strategies and by drawing on what they already know to make use of new knowledge

Background knowledge

- factual schematic → → → C

- socio-cultural knowledge O

procedural knowledge ↑↓ M

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- how language is used in discourse ↑↓ P

Knowledge of situation ↑↓ R

- physical setting, participants, etc ↑↓ E

Knowledge of co-text context H

- what has been/ will be said (written) ↑↓ E

Knowledge of the language system ↑↓ N

by "task" is meant the hundred and one things people do in everyday life, at work, at play, and in between."

(Long 1985, p 89)

This definition is a non-technical, non-linguistic one In fact, as the author points out, it describes the sorts of things that non-linguists would tell you they do if they were to be asked Moreover, some of the examples provide from this definition may well not involve language (For example: someone can paint a fence without talking) Finally, the tasks may be subsidiary components of a larger task: for

11

example, the task of "weighing a patient" may be a sub-component of the task

"giving a medical examination"

Breen (1987) claims " { } any structured language learning endeavour which has a particular objective, appropriate content, a specified working procedure, and a range of outcome s for those who undertake the task 'Task' is therefore assumed to refer to a range of work plans which have the overall purpose

of facilitating language learning - from the simple and brief exercise typ e ,to more complex and lengthy activities such as group problem-solving or simulations and decision making "

(Breen 1987, p 23)

These are different definitions of a number of tasks researchers However, the researcher decides to do her research based on the definition of Long (1985) The reason the researcher decides to choose this definition for the purpose of implementing in her thesis because the researcher thinks the definition of Long (1985) has authenticity and closest elements the researcher needs to research and implement it in her thesis

1.3.2 Structure of task:

Candlin (1987) makes the structure of task as follows:

Goals

Teacher role Input

A framework for analysing communicative tasks

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The language learning task requires specification of four components: the

goals, the input (linguistic or otherwise), the activities derive from this input and

finally the roles imply for teacher and learners

Candlin (1987) suggests that tasks should contain input, roles, settings,

actions, monitoring, outcomes and feedback Input refers to the data presented for

learners to work on Roles specify the relationship between participants in a task

Setting refers to the classroom and out-of-class arrangements entailed in the task

Actions are the procedures and sub-tasks to be performed by the learners

Monitoring refers to the supervision of the task in progress Outcomes are the goals

of the task, and feedback refers to the evaluation of the task

1.3.3 Framework for evaluating listening comprehension tasks

Candlin's paper (1987) proposes the framework for evaluating listening

comprehension tasks as follows:

FRAMEWORK FOR EVALUATING COMMUNICATIVE TASKS

Goals and rationale

- To what extent is the goal or goals of the task obvious a) to you b) to your students?

- Is the task appropriate to the learners' proficiency level?

- To what extent does the task reflect a real-world or pedagogic rationale? Is this appropriate?

- Does the task encourage learners to apply classroom learning to the real world?

- What beliefs about the nature of language and learning are inherent in the task?

- Is the task likely to be interesting and motivating to the students?

-Are the activities appropriate to the communicative goals of the task?

-If not, can they be modified to make them more appropriate?

-Is the task designed to stimulate students to use bottom-up or top-down processing skills?

- Is there an information gap or problem which might prompt a negotiation of meaning?

-Are the activities appropriate to the input data?

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-Are the activities designed in a way which will allow learners to communicate and cooperate in groups?

Roles and settings

-What learner and teacher roles are inherent in the task?

-Are they appropriate?

-What levels of complexity are there in the classroom organization implicit in the task?

-Is the setting confined to the classroom?

Implementation

-Does the task actually engage the learners' interests?

-Do the activities prompt genuine communicative interaction among students?

-To what extent are learners encouraged to negotiate meaning?

-Does anything unexpected occur as the task is being carried out? What type of language is actually stimulated by the task?

-Is this different from what might have been predicted?

Grading and integration

-Is the task at the appropriate level of difficulty for the students?

- If not, is there any way in which the task might be modified in order to make it either easier or more challenging?

-Is the task so structured that it can be undertaken at different levels of difficulty?

-What are the principles upon which the tasks are sequenced?

-Do tasks exhibit the "task continuity" principle?

-Are a range of macro skills integrated into sequence of tasks?

-If not, can you think of ways in which they might be integrated?

-At the level of the unit or lesson, are communicative tasks integrated with other activities and exercises designed to provide learners with mastery of the linguistic system?

-If not, are there ways in which such activities might be introduced?

-Do the tasks incorporate exercises in learning-how-to-learn?

-If not, are there ways in which such exercises might be introduced?

Assessment and evaluation

- What means exist for the teacher to determine how successfully the learners have performed?

- Does the task have built into it some means whereby learners might judge how well they had performed?

-Is the task realistic in terms of the resources and teacher- expertise it demands?

Framework for evaluating communicative tasks

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The framework for evaluating listening comprehension tasks used in this study will be based on Candlin's framework for evaluating communicative tasks to find out a criteria to access the listening comprehension tasks in Tieng Anh 10 textbook is suitable or not They adapt task evaluation framework will be presented

in the textbook, and the way the textbook presents materials is the way students learn it For language students, and especially those who have limited or no contact with native speakers, the textbook is one of the main learning and reference tools due to its pervasive use inside and outside the classroom as a guide to proper language use Most of the language that students will acquire during their schooling

in English will be from either their teacher or their textbook Theoretically, the materials are the center of instruction and one of the most important influences on what goes on in the classroom Kitao (1997)

Richard (2001) also states that textbooks are a key component in most language programs In some situations, they serve as the basis for much of the language input learners receive and the language practice that occurs in the classroom They may provide the basis for the content of the lessons, the balance of skills teaches and the kinds of language practice the students take part in In other situations, the textbook may serve primarily to supplement the teacher's instruction For learners, the textbook may provide the major source of contact they have with the language apart from input provided by the teacher In the case of inexperienced

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teachers, textbooks may also serve as a form of teacher training - they provide ideas

on how to plan and teach lessons as well as formats that teachers can use

1.4.2 Role of textbook evaluation

Textbook evaluation plays a key role in education and it is important for the teacher since it can provide valuable information for the future going of the classroom practice, for the planning of courses and for the management of learning tasks and students Tomlinson (1998) defines materials evaluation as the systematic judgment of the value of materials in relation to the aims of the materials and the learners who are using them In addition, Hutchinson & Waters (1987) see evaluation as "a matter of judging the fitness of something for a particular purpose" Hutchinson & Waters (1987, p.96) They share with Tomlinson (1987) that "the evaluation process should be systematic" and add that it "is the best seen as a matching exercise, matching your analysed needs to available solutions" Tomlinson (1987, p.105) The essence of this definition is its attention to the students' needs in evaluating materials and therefore is adopted in this thesis

1.4.3 Types of textbook evaluation

Regarding types of textbook evaluation in particular, and material evaluation

in general, Tomlinson (1988) indicates that for each dimension of evaluation, there are certain types of evaluation These dimensions include: approach, purpose, focus, scope, the evaluators, the timing and types of information

Cunningsworth (1995) points out that there are three types of material evaluation, i.e pre-use evaluation, in-use evaluation and post-use evaluation This classification is similar to Ellis (1997) with different names, i.e Preliminary, formative and summative evaluation respectively The first type, pre-use evaluation

is carried out before a course begins in order to select the most relevant and suitable materials for a particular group of learners This is probably the most difficult kind

as there is no actual experience of using the course book In-use evaluation is a kind

of evaluation for suitability, involving "matching the course book against a specific requirement including the learner's objectives, the learner's background, the

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resources available, etc." (Cunningsworth 1995, p.14) The third type, evaluation refers to an assessment of a textbook's fitness over a period of continual use Evaluation of this kind can be practical in helping to decide whether to use the same textbook on the future occasion

post-The aim of this paper is evaluating all the listening comprehension tasks so that we could find out the good points which can be applied in teaching English and the bad points which should be adapted This will help the students’ listening comprehension skills be improved Basing on all above analysis, task evaluation in this thesis belongs to post-use evaluation

1.5 Review of previous studies

The researcher has found out that there are some previous studies related to the study

Lê Thị Huệ’s M.A thesis named "an evaluation of the textbook English 11 taught at Phan Dinh Phung secondary school in Ha Noi" That study aims at investigating the effectiveness in using the textbook English 11 for the students at Phan Dinh Phung secondary school in Hanoi The results of the study show that the textbook English 11 is suitable for the students at Phan Dinh Phung secondary school in Hanoi or not and measuring the extend of the effectiveness in using it From the results of the study, she suggests reducing the negative points

Phạm Thị Yến’s study in 2010 focuses on teaching listening comprehension

to the 10th form students at Ly Thuong Kiet High School - Bac Giang This linguistics thesis only mentions that teaching listening comprehension is suitable for the 10th form students at Ly Thuong Kiet High School - Bac Giang or not and measuring the extend of the effectiveness in using material

Nguyễn Thị Minh Nguyệt's study focuses on evaluating of the material

"reward" for students at Hai Phong Private University That study aims at investigating the effectiveness in using material "reward" for students at Hai Phong Private" The first-year non-English major students at Hai Phong Private University participate in this study The results of the study show that the material "reward" is

A common feature of these studies is the students’ effectiveness of listening comprehension tasks in different materials However, none of them focuses on evaluating listening comprehension tasks in English 10 Therefore, it is decided that this paper studies listening comprehension tasks in the textbook English 10 The paper is aim to investigate whether these tasks are effective in Quang Xuong I high school or not

These reviews form the theoretical base for the current study, the researcher conducts to evaluate listening comprehension tasks in the textbook English 10 for students at Quang Xuong I high school The next chapters report the research The researcher will investigate whether they bring more effect to a listening lesson than without them Especially, the researcher's main purpose is answering this question

"to what extent are listening comprehension tasks effective in the textbook English 10?"

with total 1.495 students and 194 teachers among which 9 are English teachers The

researcher only chooses three English teachers for her research because the researcher thinks the interview’s quality will be better when it is concentrated on a small group (three teachers) than that in a big one because when the researcher conducts the interviews, the researcher can have chance to interview each person one by one more time and pick up more detailed information Moreover, Quang Xuong is one of the poor farming districts in Vietnam Therefore, children here do not have enough good conditions and equipment to study English and the students’ English level at Quang Xuong I is just intermediate and under-intermediate level That’s why the students at Quang Xuong I are not very good at English This is shown evidently in the study result of students in the first and second semester at Quang Xuong I high school The researcher mainly focuses on studying the listening comprehension tasks in English 10 so that the researcher could find out the bad points of the exercises by analysing listening comprehension tasks and then adapt them better in order to help the students improve their listening comprehension ability at high school English 10 is designed based on English 6, 7,

8, and 9 at the level of high secondary school with 16 units, equivalent to 16 topics divided into 6 themes: personal information, education, community, health and the world around us In this textbook, tasks in listening section are placed the third, after reading and speaking lessons and they include dialogues or monologues concerning the topics of each unit In each listening lesson, there are 2 or 3 tasks For students grade 10 at this school, there are eight English periods per week in which there’s one listening comprehension period

2.2 Method of the study

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Qualitative method is used in this study and the researcher uses task evaluation and interview for three English teachers as data collecting instruments

2.3 Data collecting instrument and Procedures of data collection and analysis

In order to collect sufficiently reliable and valid data for the study, the researcher has exploited two instruments for her study: task evaluation and interviews These instruments help collect the validity and reliability of data Firstly, along with the knowledge acquired from the framework for evaluating listening comprehension tasks, the researcher investigates and analyzes English 10 textbook with claims about goals and rationale, activities, role, implementation, grading and integration and some other factors This enabled the researcherto have firstly the overview of the whole listening comprehension tasks programs and then a closer look into specific items to find out the suitable or unsuitable points based on framework for evaluating listening comprehension tasks

2.3.1 Task evaluation

2.3.1.1 Purpose

The researcher conducts task evaluation in order to investigate the effectiveness of using listening comprehension tasks in the textbook English 10 in teaching and learning listening skill for students at Quang Xuong I high school Thanks to task evaluation, the researcher can see the points which improve the effectiveness of the tasks, and the points which negatively influence the effectiveness of the tasks of listening comprehension tasks in English 10 The points which improve the effectiveness of the tasks of listening comprehension tasks will help the teachers who are using English 10 can apply the tasks better for teaching listening comprehension for the students at Quang Xuong I high school Besides, the researcher will propose ways to enhance the positive impacts of listening comprehension tasks and to minimize the points which negatively influence the effectiveness of the tasks of listening comprehension tasks in English 10

2.3.1.2 Task evaluation framework

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In this study, to evaluate the effectiveness of listening comprehension tasks

in English 10 the researcher adapts Candlin's framework into task evaluation framework as below:

Goals and rationale

-interesting and motivating to the students participate eagerly in doing Listening Comprehension exercises

Activities -The activities are designed in a way which will

allow students to cooperate in groups

Grading and integration -be integrated by different activities and exercises

designed to help learners to improve listening skill at the level of the unit or lesson

Other factors

-Task content based on the topic of each unit -The task should be arranged from easy to difficult level for students

-Clear instructions to students -Designing task based on criteria of bottom-up model

- Designing task based on criteria of top-down model

Criteria of an effective task

2.3.1.3 Procedures of data collection and coding scheme

The researcher conducts task evaluation for listening comprehension tasks based on the framework for task evaluation with 16 units in Tieng Anh 10 textbook

In evaluating process, if the task meets the requirement as describe in the framework, it is marked as () and if not, it is marked as (×) After analysing the listening comprehension tasks in the textbook with framework for evaluating listening comprehension tasks, the researcher creates a statistical table detail of the results as attached in appendices

2.3.1.4 Summary of findings:

 13 units

Activities -The activities are designed in a way

which will allow students to cooperate in groups

- Designing task based on criteria of down model

10 students They are all of Vietnam nationality, and from 26-35 years of age Most

of them, as required by the department, hold either graduate or post-graduate degree (bachelor or master) in EFL teaching The researcher intends to interview all 9 English teachers at Quang Xuong I high school but only three teachers accept her invitation During the term in which the research is undertaken, three teachers are asked to give their attitudes towards their teaching when using those activities The three teachers’ teaching activities are varied

The interview is semi-structured Semi-structured interviews are conducted with a fairly open framework which allows for focused, conversational, two-way communication They can be used both to give and receive information Unlike the questionnaire framework, where detailed questions are formulating ahead of time, semi structured interviewing starts with more general questions or topics Not all questions are designed and phrased ahead of time The majority of questions are created during the interview, allowing both the interviewer and the person being interviewed the flexibility to probe for details or discuss issues Semi-structured interviewing is guided only in the sense that some form of interview guide, such as the matrix described below is prepared beforehand, and provides a framework for the interview Before the interview, three teachers are suggested to review listening comprehension tasks in English 10 In the interview, some concepts "bottom-up, top-down" are to assist interviewees in answering interview questions To guarantee the confidentiality of interviewees' personal information and responses, the researcher codes them as teacher T1, T2, T3 instead of their real names The interviewees are interviewed in Vietnamese and they are encouraged to answer in English or Vietnamese for their convenience

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2.3.2.3 The interview questions

The interview questions consists of seven questions to interview three teachers at Quang Xuong I high school

+ Question 1 "What are your students' reactions/viewpoints about using all tasks in the textbook English 10 to teach students?" seeks for teachers' evaluation on their students' viewpoints about using all tasks in the textbook English 10 at Quang Xuong I high school

+ Question 2 "To what extent do the tasks fit your students' level?" seeks for teachers' evaluation on "goals and rationale" criteria and "other factors" criteria

+ Question 3 "Are all tasks content in the textbook English 10 suitable for the each unit? Why or why not?" seeks for teachers' evaluation on "task content based on the topic of each unit" of "other factors" criteria

+ Question 4 "Do you think all tasks in the textbook English 10 order from easy to difficult level? Why or why not?" seeks for teachers' evaluation on "the task should be arranged from easy to difficult level for students" of "other factors" criteria

+ Question 5 "Which on bottom-up or top-down process has the designers of textbook used in sixteen units and if they used only one process is good or not good?" seeks for teachers' evaluation on 4 criteria: "goals and rationale",

"activities", "grading and integration" and "other factors" criteria Before interviewing question 5, the researcher suggests more information about top-down and bottom-up model for the teachers:

- Top-down refers to the processing of stimulus in which information from the general context is used to help organize the stimulus Knowledge and memory play

a role in top-down processing

- Bottom-up refers to the processing of a stimulus in which information form a physical stimulus rather than from a general context Stimulus information arrives from the sensory receptors (the bottom level of processing) The combination of these simple features allows us to recognize more complex patters

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+ Question 6 "Do you think what some limitations, difficulties or barriers for using listening comprehension tasks are?" seeks for teachers' evaluation on 4 criteria: "goals and rationale", "activities", "grading and integration" and "other factors" criteria When interviewing question 6, the researcher proposes more suggestions to help teachers answer this question easier:

- Do Listening comprehension tasks follow from easy to difficult form or not?

- Do Listening comprehension tasks attract your students?

- Are instructions of listening comprehension tasks clear?

+ Question 7 "What suggestions do you want to do for improving students' learning listening comprehension tasks?" seeks for teachers' suggestions to improve students' learning listening comprehension tasks in English 10

2.3.2.4 Procedures of data collection and analysis

The researcher makes an appointment with three teachers at Quang Xuong I high school two days before in order to invite them join the interview about the effectiveness of the listening comprehension tasks The researcher intends to interview all 9 English teachers but only three teachers accept her invitation The researcher gets the information about teacher’s opinion and comments an interview will be carried out among these teachers, face-to-face interview As the study intends to discover and understand teaching and learning listening comprehension tasks for students in the textbook in English language classroom So, all teachers were interviewed in person The interviews last from fifteen to twenty minutes The interviews are digitally recorded, transcribed verbatim for data analysis

In brief, in chapter II, the researcher conducts some tasks as follows: Context of study, method of the study, data collecting instrument and procedures of data collection and analysis