Đánh giá giáo trình English for pharmaceutical course dành cho sinh viên năm thứ hai Trường Trung cấp Y, Dược Văn Hiến

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figures Figure 1: Materials Evaluation Process of Hutchinson and Waters 1987 Figure 2: Materials Evaluation Model of McDonough and Shaw 1993 Tables Table 1:

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

===========   ===========

NGUYỄN THỊ THẢO

AN EVALUATION OF THE COURSEBOOK

“ENGLISH FOR PHARMACEUTICAL COURSE”

FOR THE SECOND - YEAR STUDENTS AT VĂN HIẾN MEDICAL

AND PHARMACEUTICAL SCHOOL

(Đánh giá giáo trình “English for pharmaceutical course” dành cho sinh

viên năm thứ hai Trường Trung cấp Y, Dược Văn Hiến)

M.A PROGRAM PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60 14 10

HA NOI- 2013

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

===========   ===========

NGUYỄN THỊ THẢO

AN EVALUATION OF THE COURSEBOOK

“ENGLISH FOR PHARMACEUTICAL COURSE”

FOR THE SECOND - YEAR STUDENTS AT VĂN HIẾN MEDICAL

AND PHARMACEUTICAL SCHOOL

(Đánh giá giáo trình “English for pharmaceutical course” dành cho sinh

viên năm thứ hai Trường Trung cấp Y, Dược Văn Hiến)

M.A PROGRAM PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60 14 10

SUPERVISOR: Dr NGÔ HỮU HOÀNG

HA NOI - 2013

ABBREVIATIONS

BA - Bachelor of Arts

ELT - English Language Teaching

ESP - English for Specific Purposes

HUT - Hanoi University of Technology

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figures

Figure 1: Materials Evaluation Process of Hutchinson and Waters (1987)

Figure 2: Materials Evaluation Model of McDonough and Shaw (1993)

Tables

Table 1: Types of information in the teachers and students‟ questionnaires

Table 2A: The teachers‟ opinions about the aims of the materials ( Q1 - 6)

Table 2B: The students‟ opinions about the aims of the materials ( Q1 - 6)

Table 3A: Students‟ opinions on the skills of the material ( Q7 - 11)

Table 3B: Teachers‟ opinions on the skills of the material ( Q7 - 11)

Table 4A: Students‟ opinions on the language points and text types of the material

( Q12 - 16)

Table 4B: Teachers‟ opinions on the language points and text types of the material

( Q12 - 16) Table 5A: Students‟ opinions on the topics of the material ( Q17 - 20)

Table 5B: Teachers‟ opinions on the topics of the material ( Q17 - 20)

Table 6A: Students‟ opinions on the tasks/exercises of the material (Q20 - 25) Table 6B: Teachers‟ opinions on the tasks/exercises of the material (Q20 - 25) Table 7A: Students‟ opinions on the teaching - learning techniques of the material

( Q25 - 30) Table 7B: Students‟ opinions on the teaching - learning techniques of the material

( Q25 - 30)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1.Background and Rationale of the study 1

2 Aims of the study 2

3 Significance of the study 3

4 Scope of the study 3

5 Organization of the study 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT……….5

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEREOTICAL BACKGROUND 5

1.1 Previous studies……… …5

1.2 Materials in Language Teaching and Learning 6

1.2.1 Roles of Materials 6

1.2 2 Types of Materials 7

1.2.2.1 Textbooks ……… 8

1.2.2.2 In - house materials………8

1.2.2.3 ESP materials……….9

1.3 Materials Evaluation …….11

1.3.1 Definitions of Materials Evaluation 11

1.3.2 Reasons of Materials Evaluation 12

1.3.3 Types of Materials Evaluation 13

1.3.4 Principles of Materials Evaluation 14

1.3.5 Models of Materials Evaluation 14

1.3.5.1 Evaluation by Hutchinson and Waters (1987) ……… 14

1.3.5.2 Evaluation by McDonough and Shaw (1993)……… 16

1.3.5.3 Evaluation by Ellis ( 1997)……… ……… …17

1.3.6 Criteria for Materials Evaluation…… …….18

1.4 Research instruments in materials evaluation……… …… … 19

1.4.1 Document analysis……… … 19

1.4.2 Questionnaires……… … ….19

1.4.3 Interviews……….… …20

1.4.4 Records……… ……… …….….20

1.4.5 Assessment……… ……….….21

1.4.6 Checklists……….……… 21

1.5 Summary …21

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 22

2.1 Research questions restated……….……….………… ……… 22

2.2 Data collection instruments……….……… ….22

2.2.1 Document analysis……….…… 23

2.2.2 Questionnaires ……… … …24

2.3 Subjects……… ……… 25

2.3.1 The teachers……….25

2.3.2 The students……… 26

2.4 Data collection procedures……… 26

2.5 Summary……….………… 27

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 28

3.1 The results from the evaluation of aims……… …28

3.1.1 Aims of the course……… … …28

3.1.2 Results from the analysis of material aims and questionnaires…… …28

3.2 The results from the evaluation of the content……….….30

3.2.1 ESP material analysis……… ….30

3.2.2 Teachers and students‟ opinion on the content of the material…… ….32

3.2.2.1 Skills……… … 32

3.2.2.2 Language points and text types……… ….33

3.2.2.3 Topics……… ….35

3.3 Results from the evaluation of the methodology……… ………… 36

3.3.1 Methodology implied in the material in terms of tasks/ exercises ……36

3.3.2 Methodology implied in the material in terms of teaching - learning techniques ……….……….38

3.4 Summary……… ……….…….39

CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION….……… ….40

4.1 Recommendations for the material improvement……… 40

4.2 Limitations of the study and suggestions for further study……… 42

4.3 Conclusions of the study……….42 References ………I Appendixes …… V

Appendix 1: Hutchinson and Waters‟s criteria checklist for materials evaluation………V Appendix 2: Questionnaire for students ….XIV Appendix 3: Questionnaire for teachers XX Appendix 4: A sample unit XXVII

PART A INTRODUCTION

In part A, I will introduce rationale, aims, significance, scope and organization of the study

1 Rationale of the study

English has been the main language of international communication, which has become an integral part of most modern professions Along with this trend, branch of English Language Teaching (ELT) – English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has been focused on more Harding (2007: 6) puts it: “in ESP – English for Specific Purposes – the purpose for learning the language is paramount and relates directly

to what the learner needs to do in their vocation or job”

ESP material for pharmaceutical students at Van Hien School is designed to help students get effective knowledge related to their job in the future This material has been introduced to students since 2009 It has been officially used as the core material for the students of Pharmacy at Van Hien School English is a compulsory subject at this school English course for pharmaceutical students is divided into two stages The first stage consists 60 class hours of general English with the

coursebook Headway Elementary written by Liz and John Soars (2000) And in the

second part (the third semester), they have 30 class hours of ESP with English for Pharmacy It was designed by two first teachers but they moved to other school This material contains 25 units Each unit includes one reading text and pronunciation of new words The reading text introduces the theme of unit related to pharmacy The second one is the list of new words with pronunciation

Teachers and students feel dissatisfactions with this material because of many reasons Until now, no research on the course book evaluation has been carried out to examine how well the material being in use match the course requirements in terms of aims, content and methodology And based on those

reasons, the researcher decides to evaluate this material named “English for pharmaceutical course” with the hope that it will help to improve the material‟s

quality and get better learning efficiency as well as stimulate students‟ interest in language learning to meet the students‟ needs and the course requirements

2 Aims of the study

This study is to evaluate the ESP material “English for pharmaceutical

course” to determine how the material satisfies the requirements in terms of aims,

content and methodology and what the material effects on students From the evaluation, some suggestions for using the material will be shown to change and improve the effectiveness of the material for the better use

This study aims at answering the following questions:

1 What effects does the material “English for pharmaceutical course” have on

students in terms of aims, content and methodology?

2 What are students and teachers‟ attitudes towards this material?

3 Significance of the study

The findings of the study are expected to be useful not only to the researcher, the English teachers who are teaching English but also to the second year pharmaceutical students at Van Hien Intermediate School Besides, the evaluation results will show the suitability and unsuitability of the ESP material in use, so that the researcher will make some suggestions to improve the material to be better use

in the nearest time

4 Scope of the study

In textbook and evaluation, many criteria need to be examined like layout, cultural bias, audience, aims, content, methodology, and so on However, because

of limited time, the researcher bases on the Hutchinson and Waters‟ (1987) criteria

for evaluation with focus on the three following criteria: aims of the material, content of the material (in term of language points covered, skills, text types, and topics), and methodology ( in terms of types of tasks and exercises, and teaching -

learning techniques) And the researcher only investigates the attitude of the second year pharmaceutical students and English teachers at Van Hien Intermediate School based on their feedback

5 Organization of the study

The study is organized into two parts as follows:

Part A discusses about rationale, aims, significance, scope and organization

in materials evaluation such as: definitions, reasons, types, principles, models as well as criteria of materials evaluation The chapter ends with research instruments

in materials evaluation

Chapter 2 describes the choices of methodology adopted in the study, the

data collection instruments, the subjects as well as the data collection procedures

Chapter 3 presents the results of the study and the discussion of those results,

data analysis and the findings of the study, pointing out the strengths and weaknesses of the material

Chapter 4 shows recommendations of the study, the limitations of the study,

suggestions for further study and conclusion of the study

PART B DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

Chapter 1 aims to provide the background information about materials and materials evaluation The first part reviews previous studies In the second one, some main points of materials in ELT will be presented The third part is about the specific points about materials evaluation such as: definitions, reasons, types, principles, models, criteria of materials evaluation The chapter ends with research instruments in materials evaluation

1.1 Previous studies

Until now, there have been many studies carried out to evaluate materials in general and ESP material in particular, such as Litz (2001), Akin and Guceri ( 2001), Nguyễn Thị Phương Dung ( 2002), Võ Thị Anh Đào ( 2003), Nguyễn Thị Bích Liên ( 2004), Trần Thị Thúy Nga ( 2005)

The first example is the study of Nguyễn Thị Phương Dung (2002) In her own study, she recommends criteria for the adaptation of the reading material for the fourth - year students of Electronics and Telecommunications at Hanoi University of Technology after conducting a questionnaire survey for teachers and students, using Hutchinson and Waters‟ (1987) framework for materials evaluation Four criteria are focused on that study: the audience, the aims, the content and the methodology The subjects of the study are 80 students and 11 teachers of HUT The questionnaires are well - organized and able to help her to collect necessary information She concludes that the existing material basically meet the requirements of the course However, the material has some weaknesses which should be modified and added

Võ Thị Anh Đào ( 2003) also chooses the criteria proposed by Hutchinson and Waters ( 1987) to evaluate ESP materials for students of Husbandry and veterinary Science at Tay Nguyen University in terms of language level, aims, content and methodology The subjects of the study are 40 second year students and four teachers The methods used in the study are document analysis, questionnaires for students and interview for teachers The study is well presented After collecting information from the document analysis and the survey questionnaires, she concludes that the material is difficult for students in terms of grammatical structure and lexical items However her thesis reveals some weaknesses And it should be implemented some parts

From the above mentioned studies, it can be concluded that the major purpose of conducting an evaluation of materials is to evaluate the effectiveness of the material in use and its suitability to the course requirements It is also found that the criteria proposed by Hutchinson and Waters (1987) are chosen in almost studies Document analysis, questionnaire and interview seem to be popular methods to collect data for materials evaluation

1.2 Materials in English Language Teaching and Learning

Roles of materials, Types of materials will be shown in this section

It means that materials are “basis for the content of the lesson, balance of skills taught, and the kind of language practice students take part in” (p 251) Brown (1995:139) defines materials as “any systematic description of the techniques and exercises to be used in classroom teaching” It emphasizes that teaching materials

are crucial component in the language classroom and there is hardly any class

without teaching materials

Dudley - Evans and St John (1998) point out four functions of teaching

materials: a source of language, a learning support, a source of motivation and

stimulation, and a source for reference As a source of language, materials need to

present in real language as it is used in real situations and they must be suitable to a

wide range of needs of the students As a learning support, materials need to be

reliable, that is to say, the materials need “to work, to be consistent and to have

some recognizable patterns” (p 171) As a source of stimulation and motivation,

materials need to be “challenging yet achievable; to offer new ideas and information

whilst being grounded in the learners‟ experience and knowledge (p 172) As a

source of reference, materials help the learners to make “efficient use of the

resources in order to facilitate self- discovery (Tomlinson, 1998:11) For this

function, Dudley - Evans and St John (1998:172) shows that materials need to be

“completed, well laid out and self - explanatory” The roles of ESP materials are shown more clearly According to Hutchinson

(1987:107), the language learning process is facilitated by “providing a path

through complex mass of the language to be learnt” As Prabhu (1994: 94)

emphasize: “The fact that materials need to be used as sources rather than as

pre-constructed courses should not be regarded as a weakness of task-based teaching; it

can in fact be a strength for any form of teaching”

ESP materials are used in almost Vietnamese Universities and Colleges In

Van Hien School, ESP material is the main component which provides the content

of the lesson, the skills and the activities in the class Because they believe that

materials “represent the visible heart of any ELT program” (Sheldon, 1988:238)

1.2.2 Types of materials

In the broad sense of the concept, „materials‟ as defined by Tomlinson

(1998) is “anything which is used to help to teach language learners.” 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 Materials of these kinds can obviously

be exploited effectively for language learning Because of the limited scope of the study, only three types of materials concerned with materials evaluation, especially

in ESP are presented They are textbooks, in-house materials, ESP materials

1.2.2.1 Textbooks

Tomlinson (1998:9) states that:

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

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 taught 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 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

Much of the language teaching that occurs throughout the world today could not take place without the extensive use of commercial textbooks Learning how to use and adapt textbooks is hence an important part of a teacher's professional

knowledge

1.2.2.2 In - house materials

In-house materials will provide students with activities that suit the specific needs of their future or current jobs or, as Sheerin (1989: 25) points out: “In-house produced material is extremely valuable as it is inevitably more precisely geared to the needs of students than published material” When determining what tasks to include in ESP materials, teachers should thus above all strive to select and/or design tasks that will simulate the learner‟s real-life business situations as closely as possible

When designing in- house materials, teachers can rely on some general considerations that can also be used when deciding on the appropriate textbook According to Haycraft (1987: 127), some of the most important considerations are

as follows:

- The length of the course and the target audience of the course;

- The appropriate structural grading: students should be taught what they need

to know “in the right order with the right priorities”;

- The vocabulary should be useful and in current use;

- The appropriate idiomatic English;

- The materials should be “visually alive” and “well presented”

1.2.2.3 ESP materials

Materials selection, adaptation, or writing is an important area in ESP teaching, representing a practical result of effective course development and providing students with materials that will equip them with the knowledge they will need in their future business life

One of the most important issues regarding ESP materials selection and/or writing is whether the materials selected should be solely or primarily subject specific and what the most appropriate ratio of general materials to subject-specific materials is General materials focus on one‟s general ability to communicate more effectively, while subject-specific materials focus on a particular job or industry (Ellis and Johnson, 1994)

According to Prabhu (1994: 94), another important issue regarding materials

is that they should be used as sources: “The fact that materials need to be used as sources rather than as pre-constructed courses should not be regarded as a weakness

of task-based teaching; it can in fact be a strength for any form of teaching”

To sum up, after analyzing learner needs and setting objectives for the course, the ESP teacher has to select materials that will help the students achieve the course objectives (Ellis and Johnson, 1994) These materials should also relate closely to the learners‟ specific skills and content needs, which is an important precondition for full exploitation of the materials as well as the learners‟ motivation

1.3 Materials Evaluation

Materials evaluation is an important part of materials selection as well as the materials development process In both cases, evaluation is primarily “concerned with relative merit There is no absolute good or bad – only degrees of fitness for the required purpose” (Hutchinson and Waters, 1994: 96) An evaluation of printed ESP materials will thus above all serve to locate the materials that will best suit the learners‟ needs with regard to their future or current work area When no suitable printed materials are found, the evaluation of existing materials can serve as a springboard for development of in-house produced materials In-house materials themselves should also be evaluated in order to provide the basis for their revision with a view to improving their quality and their suitability to the target learners‟ needs

1.3.1 Definition of Material Evaluation

Many definitions of evaluation exist Most definitions refer to program evaluation; some refer to project or policy evaluation Some definitions use one term to refer to all types of evaluation, for example including policy and program evaluation under the umbrella title of policy evaluation This section provides a number of examples of evaluation definitions

Evaluation is often defined as an activity that judges worth For example, evaluation is:

 …the determination of merit, worth, or significance… (Scriven 2007)

 a course of action used to assess the value or worth of a program (Farell et

al 2002)

Some definitions include the notion of improvement For example:

 [Evaluation is] a set of research questions and methods geared to reviewing processes, activities and strategies for the purpose of improving them in order to achieve better results (Kahan & Goodstadt 2005)

 The real purpose of an evaluation is not just to find out what happened, but

to use the information to make the project better (Community Tool Box undated)

From those definitions of evaluation, it can be inferred that materials evaluation involves the activity of the worth judge, the notion of improvement

1.3.2 Reasons of materials evaluation

This section will discuss about some reasons of materials evaluation Sheldon (1988) has suggested several reasons for textbook evaluation He states that the selection of a textbook is indicator of an educational decision in which there is considerable professional, financial, and even political investment Through evaluation, teachers will become familiar with the content of available textbooks and recognize the weaknesses and strengths of each

Tomlinson (1999a: 11) lists the following reasons for evaluating materials:

1 To select a textbook for a course

2 To select materials to supplement a course book

3 To select materials from different sources in an eclectic manner

4 As a basis for adaptation of materials in order to make them more suitable for a particular course

5 As a basis for improving materials (trialling or piloting materials)

6 In order to edit materials produced by others

7 In order to review proposed materials for a publisher

8 In order to review published materials for a journal

9 In order to help teachers or trainee teachers develop their understanding of methodology and/or materials writing

Evaluation is considered as the confirmation of practice if the practice is good In the other case when there is any problem with the practice Evaluation is for the consideration of ways to innovate or change the practice for a better one

The material at Văn Hiến Intermediate School, “English for pharmaceutical course”, is used every school year It has both advantages and disadvantages So it

is necessary to evaluate this material, which becomes the main purpose for carrying out this research of the author

different terms are used to indicate types of materials evaluation, these terms are basically similar:

 Pre-use (preliminary) evaluation: The material is evaluated before it is

taught, and it is the most common type of evaluation But even a meticulous pre-use evaluation can be unreliable, as there may not be adequate information about the impact of the material in the classroom

 In-use (formative) evaluation: This is done while using the material in the

classroom but it is seldom done in a methodical way If the whilst-evaluation

is done with planning and focus it can generate useful data

 Post-use (summative) evaluation: Post - use evaluation takes place at the end

of the course or when the course is finished Therefore, it does not affect the course The purpose of Post-use evaluation is to assess a mature project‟s

success in reaching its stated goals and makes improvement in subsequent

versions of the course or materials

Each type has its own characteristic So choosing a suitable type depends on the

aims of the study This study is carried out after finishing the course of the second

year pharmaceutical students so it belongs to post - use evaluation

1.3.4 Principles for materials evaluation

Cunningworths (1995) indicates four general principles based on good language

teaching practice to help teacher to evaluate materials The first principle is that

teaching materials should match the aims and objectives of the language learning

program The second one is that teaching materials should correspond to students‟

needs Next, teaching materials should be selected in order to help students to use

language effectively for their own purposes And the last principle is that teaching

materials should mediate between the target language and the learners They should

have a clear role as a support for learning

1.3.5 Models of materials evaluation

There are a lot of models for materials evaluation However, the most

commonly adopted models are suggested by Hutchinson & Waters (1987),

McDonough & Shaw (1993), and Ellis (1997)

1.3.5.1 Evaluation by Hutchinson and Waters (1987)

Hutchinson and Waters (1987) divides the evaluation process into 4 stages

(Figure 1): defining criteria, subjective analysis, objective analysis, and matching

They further add that to make the best choice, different parts involved in the course

have to be considered: teachers, students, and sponsors This is a perfect macro-

evaluation

Figure 1: Materials Evaluation Process of Hutchinson and Waters (1987:98)

 The first step is to determine criteria for evaluation In this step, the different

evaluators have different purposes for evaluation so the selection of evaluation has

to base on what the materials will be judged and which criteria the evaluators choose for their evaluation

 The second step, the subjective analysis, is the analysis of the course in terms of

materials requirements under the defined criteria so the evaluator should describe

in detail for the learners and the course According to them, subjective analysis should not be considered as a fixed set of requirements The evaluator should use

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

MATCHING How far does the material match your needs?

What realization of the criteria

do you want in your course?

the materials evaluation process as a means of questioning and developing his own ideas as to what is required

 The third step is to determine the objective analysis, that is, analyses the materials

in terms of the selected criteria

 The last one is the matching process, which finds out how far the material matches

the course requirements

Hutchinson and Waters (1987) also suggest their own checklist ( appendix 1)

of criteria for objective and subjective analysis The purpose of the checklist is for evaluating teaching material by focusing on big issues like audience, the aims, the content, and the methodology

1.3.5.2 Evaluation by McDonough and Shaw (1993)

McDonough and Shaw suggests a model for textbook evaluation which involves three stages: external evaluation, internal evaluation, and overall evaluation (figure 2) This is a combination of macro- and micro- evaluation

Macro- evaluation inappropriate/ potentially appropriate

Figure 2: Materials Evaluation Model of McDonough and Shaw (1993:75)

 Firstly, external stage (macro - evaluation) that examines the organization of

materials stated by the author or the publisher including claims made on the cover page and information in introduction and table of contents This kind of evaluation gives information about the intended audience, the proficiency level, the context

of use, presentation and organization of materials, and authors' opinion about

language and methodology, use of audio-visual materials, vocabulary list and index, cultural aspects, tests and exercises included in the book

 Secondly, internal stage ( Micro - evaluation) in which the following factors

are examined: a) the presentation of the skills, b) the grading and sequence of the materials, c) authenticity or artificiality of the listening materials, d) authenticity or artificiality of the speaking materials, e) appropriateness of tests and materials, and f) appropriateness of the materials for different learning styles and claims made by the authors for self-study

 The last stage is overall evaluation in which usability, adaptability, and flexibility

factors are examined

1 Choosing a task to follow;

2 Describing the task with specification of input, procedures, language activities, and outcomes;

3 Planning the evaluation with reference to the dimensions above;

4 Collecting information before, while and after the task was used, and what and how the task was performed;

5 Analyzing the information collected;

6 Reaching conclusions relating to what has been discovered, and making recommendations for the future teaching;

7 Writing the report

In summary, these models are very useful in the process and nature of the purpose So the evaluators have to base on the purposes of evaluation, time available, facilitates and the context in which the evaluation takes place to decide

which model will follow In this study, a material evaluation is carried out to

identify the suitability of the ESP material, English for pharmaceutical course, used

for Pharmaceutical students to the course requirements The model designed by Hutchinson and Waters (1987) is used in this study because it is the clearest and the most suitable to the specific context at Văn Hiến Intermediate School

1.3.6 Criteria for materials evaluation

According to Tomlinson (1998:220), criteria are what evaluators use to

“reach a decision regarding what need to be evaluated” Criteria for materials evaluation depend on what is being evaluated and why they need to be evaluated There are numerous criteria proposed by different authors

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

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

items and skills

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

system

 Grammar criteria: offer meaningful situations and a variety of techniques

for teaching structural units

 Vocabulary criteria: distinguish the different purposes and skills involved in

the teaching of vocabulary

 Reading criteria: provide guidance on the initial presentation of passages for

reading comprehension

 Writing criteria: demonstrate the various devices for controlling and guiding

content and expression in composition exercises

 Technical criteria: contain appropriate pictures, diagrams, tables, etc…

According to Hutchinson and Waters (1987), there are four main criteria for materials evaluation any evaluator should concern: the audience, the aims, the content, and the methodology

 The audience of the materials: the evaluator should obtain information about

and from learners to find out whether the materials are suitable to the students‟ age, knowledge of English, interest and so on

 Aims of the materials: the evaluator has to check if the materials match the

aims and objectives of the course

 Content of the materials: the evaluator has to check whether the materials‟

language points, macro-skills/ micro-skills, and topics suit the learners‟ needs

 Methodology of the materials: the evaluator has to find out if techniques,

aids, guidance provided in the materials satisfy the learners and the teachers

of the course

In conclusion, from these criteria presented above, I decide to choose the criteria suggested by Hutchinson and Waters (1987) to this research because they are the most suitable with specific context at Văn Hiến Intermediate School These criteria

do not only help the evaluator with a logical insight of the material but also create the flexibility in the conduction of a detailed material analysis

1.4 Research instruments in materials evaluation

Brown (1995), Hutchinson and Waters (1994), Robinson (1991) claim that most materials are evaluated using one or more of the following instruments: document analysis, questionnaires, interview, records, assessment and checklists

1.4.1 Document analysis

Document analysis is an important source which the data are collected Document analysis is the use of content analysis and other techniques to analyze and summarize printed materials and existing information

Nunan (1993) states that this instrument is used to collect qualitative data that concerned with qualities and non-numerical characteristics In evaluation, the analysis of existing documents can provide useful information One of the biggest advantages of document analysis is that in some situations, a document represents a reflection of reality, so it is useful for determining value, interest or public attitudes

1.4.2 Questionnaires

Questionnaire is one of the most common tools to collect data Brown (1989) indicates that “Questionnaires are any written instruments that present respondents with a series of questions or statements to which they are to react either by writing out their answers or selecting from among existing answers” The best advantage of this instrument is that it provides an easy quick form of data collection Therefore, data can be collected on a large scale and reach a geographically dispersed sample

of a population

Moreover, it is economical because it involves only duplication or mailed expenses (Creswell, 2005) Besides advantages, questionnaire also has disadvantages Creswell (2005:361) claims that “individuals may lack any personal investment in the study and decide not to return the instrument” Besides, the researchers do not have a means for explaining questions so respondents may misinterpret items in the questionnaires ( Creswell, 2005)

Questionnaires items can be relatively open ended and closed ended An open item is one in which the respondent can decide what to write and how to say (Nunan, 1992) Open ended questions include items where the actual question is not followed by response option for the respondent to choose from but rather by some blank space to fill A closed item is one in which the range of possible responses is determined by the researcher Closed ended question is one in which the respondent

is provided ready made response options to choose from by encircling or ticking or

by putting an x in the appropriate slot/box

1.4.3 Interviews

According to Creswell (2005:360), interview is “a form, on which the researcher asks questions from an interview guide, listens for answers or observes behavior, and records responds on the survey”

Depending on the evaluation goals and the specific evaluation context, the evaluators can make use of the following three types of qualitative interview format: the structured, semi-structured, and unstructured (Patton cited in Lynch, 1996) Interview may be face - to - face, voice - to - voice, or screen - to - screen But it is time - consuming

1.4.4 Records

According to Robinson (1991:71), “records form an essential part of the data for the evaluation exercise” In the materials evaluation, records include teacher‟s lesson records, teachers, and students‟ diaries for their experience on the materials This instrument allows the perspectives of different writers to be compared

1.4.5 Assessment

Assessment includes tests and examinations By using this instrument, the evaluators can collect a wealth of information to assess knowledge, skill, and performance However, designing a test with high quality is not easy ( Brown, 1995)

1.4.6 Checklists

Williams (1983:252) has noted a checklist cannot be a static phenomenon, evidenced by a wide range of checklists over the years The categories in all materials evaluation instrument or observation schedule are a much reflection of the time at which they were conceived and of the belief of their designers as are published materials themselves Thus, an “off-the-shelf” checklist is likely to need tailoring to suit a particular context

In short, each type of instrument has its own advantages and disadvantages to collect data in the process of materials evaluation Based on the specific situation in Van Hien Intermediate School and the aims of this study, I decide to use material analysis, questionnaires for my study

1.5 Summary

This chapter has been stressed the important information of materials evaluation It must be mentioned that materials evaluation plays a significant role in language teaching and learning, as an appropriate material contributes a great deal

to the success of any course Previous studies are presented clearly The main issues related to materials evaluation such as: definitions, reasons, types, principles, models, criteria of materials evaluation are discussed In this part, evaluative criteria and process of materials evaluation are chosen Research instruments in materials evaluation are selected to collect data

CHAPTER 2 METHODOLOGY

This is survey research and this chapter will describe the choices of methodology adopted in the study, the data collection instruments, the subjects as

well as the data collection procedures

2.1 Research questions restated

This study is conducted to find the answer to the following questions:

1 What effects does the material “English for pharmaceutical course” have on

students in terms of aims, content and methodology?

2 What are students and teachers‟ attitudes towards this material?

The questions can be broken into the following specific ones:

 Do the aims of the material meet the aims of the course?

 Is the material appropriate to the content requirements of the course?

 Is the material appropriate to the methodology of the course?

As mention in 1.3.5.1, the model suggested by Hutchinson and Waters (1987) presents the most logical and clearest procedure and the most suitable with the specific context at Văn Hiến School Therefore, this model is chosen in the study However, regarding the audience a detailed study on student profiles with details such as educational backgrounds, knowledge of specialism, status/role with respect to specialism, sex is impossible Another reason to exclude these details is that they are not given in the book itself or any supporting material So, the researcher only chooses three suitable criteria: aims, content and methodology to

this study

2.2 Data collection instruments

In 1.4, there are six types of instruments to collect data in the process of

materials evaluation To evaluate the material “English for Pharmaceutical

course”, the researcher decides to mix 2 methods: document analysis and

questionnaire to collect and analyze information This section discusses what each tool is used for, why it is chosen, and how it is designed

2.2.1 Document analysis

Document analysis is an effective method to collect the data for the study As Robinson (1991: 57) said it can provide useful information and “form an essential part of the data for an evaluation exercise” Therefore, this instrument was used in

this study with the ESP material, English for pharmaceutical course

The material analysis is conducted after the curriculum analysis is finished The material itself is analyzed objectively under the same three criteria used in curriculum analysis above Then twenty five units are analyzed to give a detailed description of the material‟s contents so that comparison between the material and the requirements of the course could be made

Material analysis is broken into sub- criteria as follows:

 Aims of the course

- Kinds of exercises/ tasks

- Teaching- learning techniques

As mention in 1.3.6, I decide to choose the criteria defined by Hutchinson and Waters (1987) to evaluate this material in this study It consists of the aims, content and methodology In the document analysis, I will focus on the following points: the suitability of the material in term of aims; the suitability of content in terms of language points and text types, skills and topics; the suitability of methodology in terms of types of tasks/ exercises and teaching - learning techniques

used Therefore, the statements of the aims for teaching ESP for the second year students of Van Hien Intermediate School were investigated

2.2.2 Questionnaires

It is a popular method of collecting data In this method a questionnaire containing a set of questions or statements is sent to the respondents with a request to answer those After answering the questions, the respondents return it to the researcher The form of questions in a questionnaire may be either closed (i.e „yes‟, „no‟ or multiple point type questions) or open-ended questions (i.e Inviting free response), and they are typed out and printed

As mentioned in 1.4.2, questionnaire has disadvantages so it is considered the most common tool to gather information

The purpose of questionnaires in this study is to investigate the pharmaceutical students and teachers‟ opinions and attitudes towards the material

English for pharmaceutical course they has studied in terms of aims, content and

methodology The questions in the questionnaires in this study are mostly closed - ended questions which are designed on a 5 - point Likert scale (in which 1 = strongly agree, 2 = agree, 3 = not sure, 4 = disagree, 5 = strongly disagree) They are asked to express their agreement on each required item by choosing the appropriate number of rating scale The combination of closed - ended questions and open - ended questions could gather both the respondents‟ general assessment and their personal opinions about the material

Two questionnaires are conducted, one for pharmaceutical students and other for English teachers at Văn Hiến Intermediate School who have taught this ESP material All questions in two questionnaires are translated into Vietnamese to help students and teachers get ideas easily and help the researcher collect data clearly

The questions for the students consist of 30 closed - ended questions and divide into three parts as follows:

Part Types of information Question

I The aims of the material in relation to the aims of the course Q 1- 6

Table 1: Types of information in the teachers and students’ questionnaires

Like the students‟ questionnaire, the teachers‟ questionnaire is designed to investigate the teachers‟ opinions and attitudes with this material in terms of aims, content and methodology It also consists of three parts like students‟ questionnaire but it is added one more part The questions in the last part are designed with open - ended questions They aim to ask English teachers about their experiences when teaching this ESP material and their suggestions to improve this material

or four years They have BA in English They are two men and two women whose age ranges from 30 to 35 years old They have been dealing with this material at least one year (one teacher) and four years (three teachers) as this material has been used since 2009 They have used this material to teach the second year students of different classes Therefore, their judgments about this material are reliable

The researcher of this study is also an English teacher at Văn Hiến School with two years teaching experience and has also used this material to teach the second year students

2.3.2 The students

60 second year pharmaceutical students from class 4A, 4B take part in this study They are both men and women and their ages range from 18 to 25 In the first year, they complete 60 class hours of general English with the course book Headway Elementary written by Liz and John Soars (2000) In the first semester of

the second year, they have 30 class hours of ESP with English for pharmaceutical course

By the time they were asked to complete the questionnaire, they have just finished the ESP program

2.4 Data collection procedures

In this study, Hutchinson and Waters‟ (1987) model is employed to analyze the data collected by using two instruments: document analysis and questionnaires

Firstly, the criteria were defined (appendix 1)

Secondly, the in - house material “English for pharmaceutical course” was

analyzed to collect information for the evaluation in terms of aims, content and methodology The material analyzed in the study has been used since 2009 at văn Hiến School This material has been applied to the English teaching and learning for the third semester of the course It includes 25 units

Thirdly, the researcher develops survey questionnaires for teachers and

students The researcher chooses two periods, which lasts an hour and a half to give questionnaire for students The researcher explains about the purpose of the study and the meaning of each question to help students answer and clarify them The questions are then collected immediately, checked for completeness by the researcher The questionnaire for teachers is given to teachers after that and collected after three days because it had one more part to ask about teachers‟

experience and their suggestion to improve the material All questions are translated into Vietnamese to avoid misunderstanding and to be easy to collect data

Finally, the information collected from the two different sources was

summarized for the analysis From the respondents, the researcher analyzes the strong and weak points of the material and gives some suggestions to improve it for the better use in the future

2.5 Summary

This chapter has given a detail description of the subjects of the study, means

of data collection and procedure of the study The study involves two groups of subjects: K4 students of pharmaceutical course who have learnt the material; English teachers, who have been using the material since the first day of publication The questionnaires for students and teachers and the analysis are all based on the criteria defined by Hutchinson and Waters ( 1987) in the checklist, they are: material‟s aims, material‟s content and material‟s methodology

CHAPTER 3 DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

In this chapter, the results of the study and the discussion of those results are presented The judgment is categorized into the analysis and discussion of the aims, content and methodology And the last part is the summary of this chapter

3.1 The results from the evaluation of aims

3.1.1 Aims of the course

The ESP course at Van Hien School is to provide students with necessary English reading skill and strategies so that later they can use them to obtain information from their specialist materials; to equip students with specialized vocabulary as well as structures commonly used in pharmacy context The course also helps students develop writing skill by giving opportunities to write meaningful sentences and a summary of the text, to write a report, application letter, etc Besides, the course aims to provide students the opportunity to develop speaking skills by giving group discussion, describing the charts and diagram in the field of pharmacy The material also helps students to develop their listening skills by listening to get specific and main idea related to pharmacy

The material, English for pharmaceutical course, is designed especially for

this specific group of students, claims to embrace these aims: develop all four skills for students, grammar and pronunciation

3.1.2 Results from the analysis of material aims and questionnaires

(1 strongly agree; 2 agree; 3 not sure; 4 disagree; 5 strongly disagree) From the table 2A, 2B, it is clear that 100% students and students share the same opinions about listening skill, speaking skill and writing skill They strongly

disagreed about these items Because in this material (English for pharmaceutical

course), it does not have any tasks and exercises related to these skills They

suggested that the material should contain enough skills‟ activities and strategies which help students develop their English level

The material supports your students an opportunity

to practice:

1 Listening skills that students need 0% 0% 0% 0% 100%

2 Speaking activities to develop speaking skills

related to students‟ career

3 Reading skills and strategies that students need 0% 0% 0% 50% 50%

4 Variety of wring activities 0% 0% 0% 0% 100%

5 Grammatical structures revision 0% 0% 0% 0% 100%

6 English vocabulary used in Pharmacy 0% 25% 0% 50% 25%

Table 2A: The teachers’ opinions about the aims of the materials

The same opinions with the grammatical points are shown Because the units in this material do not connect together with grammatical structures such as: verb tenses, passive voice, relative pronouns and so on These points are not found in the text and it does not exist any exercises and task about grammar

The material supports you an opportunity to

1 Listening skills that students need 0% 0% 0% 0% 100%

2 Speaking activities to develop speaking skills

related to students‟ career

3 Reading skills and strategies that students need 0% 0% 27% 62% 11%

4 Variety of wring activities 0% 0% 0% 0% 100%

5 Grammatical structures revision 0% 0% 0% 0% 100%

6 English vocabulary used in Pharmacy 0% 23% 18% 37% 22%

Table 2B: The students’ opinions about the aims of the materials

Items 3 of Table 2A and Table 2B show the teachers and students‟ assessment about the reading skill 27% students keep neutral ideas in this aspect Two teachers (50%) and 62% students think that the reading skills are not relevant