Adapting New Interchange Intro used at Hai Phong Foreign Language Center - Hai Phong University = Điều chỉnh giáo trình New Interchange Intro sử dụng tại Tr

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES ------ NGUYỄN THỊ PHƯƠNG LOAN ADAPTING “NEW INTERCHANGE INTR

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

- -

NGUYỄN THỊ PHƯƠNG LOAN

ADAPTING “NEW INTERCHANGE INTRO” USED

AT HAIPHONG FOREIGN LANGUAGE CENTER –

HAIPHONG UNIVERSITY

(Điều chỉnh giáo trình “New Interchange Intro” sử dụng tại Trung tâm Ngoại ngữ Hải Phòng, Đại học Hải Phòng)

M.A MINOR THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY

CODE: 601410

HA NOI - 2010

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

- -

NGUYỄN THỊ PHƯƠNG LOAN

ADAPTING “NEW INTERCHANGE INTRO” USED

AT HAIPHONG FOREIGN LANGUAGE CENTER –

HA NOI - 2010

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declaration

Acknowledgements

Abstract

List of figures, tables, and charts

PART A: INTRODUCTION ………

I Rationale……… ………

II Aims………

III Scope……… …

IV Research questions ………

V Research methodology……… ……

VI Design of the study ………

PART B: DEVELOPMENT ………

Chapter 1: Literature review ……… ………

1 Materials in language teaching ………

1.1 The notion of materials ……… … …… …………

1.2 Limits of materials in EFL/ESL class ………

1.3 Roles of materials in EFL/ESL class………

2 Materials evaluation ……… ………

2.1 Definition ……….…… ………

2.2 Reasons for materials evaluation……… ……… …

2.3 Types of materials evaluation……… …… ………

2.4 Criteria for materials evaluation……… …

3 Material adaptation ……….……

3.1 Definitions of adaptation………

3.2 Purposes of adaptation………

3.3 Reasons for adapting………

3.4 Objectives of adapting ……….………

3.5 Categories of adaptation………

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3.5.1 Adaptation as addition ………

3.5.2 Adaptation as change ………

3.6 Techniques for adaptation……….…

3.6.1 Adding; extending and expanding ……… …

3.6.2 Deleting; subtracting and abridging……….………

3.6.3 Simplifying ……… ………

3.6.4 Reordering ……… ………

3.6.5 Replacing ……….………

3.7 A frame work for adaptation ………

Chapter 2: The study … ……… ……… …………

1 Background ………

1.1 An overview on Haiphong Foreign Language Center, Haiphong University

1.2 Teachers and teaching method ………

1.3 Students ………

1.4 Materials ………

1.5 Materials evaluation ……….…

1.5.1 Guideline 1 ………

1.5.2 Guideline 2 ………

1.5.2.1 Syllabus type ……… …………

1.5.2.2 Language input ……… …

1.5.2.3 Skills syllabus ……… …

1.5.3 Guideline 3 ………

1.5.4 Guideline 4 ………

1.5.5 Summary and overall evaluation ………

2 Research methodology ………

2.1 Subjects ………

2.2 Data - collection method ………

2.3 Procedure ………

2.3.1 Attitude of the teachers and students towards the syllabus …………

2.3.2 Attitude of the teachers and students towards the lessons and tasks

2.3.3 Evaluation on the objectives of the textbook ………

2.3.4 Evaluation on the content of the textbook ………

2.3.5 The extra activities for the textbook chosen by the teachers …………

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3 Implications………

4 Samples of Adaptation ……….………

4.1 Supplementing …… ………

4.2 Extending ………

4.3 Replacing ………

PART C: CONCLUSION……… ………

1 Conclusion ………

2 Limitations of the study……… ………

3 Suggestions for further research……… ………

References ……….………

Appendices ………

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LIST OF FIGURES, TABLES, AND CHARTS

Figure 1: A framework for adaptation (McDonough and Shaw, 1993)

Figure 2: New Interchange Intro’s receptive skills syllabus (Richards, J.C, 2000)

Figure 3: New Interchange Intro’s writing syllabus

Table 1.1: Evaluation on the students’ needs

Table 1.2: Evaluation on the needs the textbook meets

Table 2: Applied activities to the textbook

Chart 1: The viewpoint of the teachers and students towards the syllabus

Chart 2.1: The viewpoint of the teachers and students towards the lessons and the tasks Chart 2.2: Viewpoint of the teachers and students towards the difficulties of the lessons and tasks

Chart 3: Evaluation on the content of the textbook

Chart 4.1: Use of the book viewed by teachers

Chart 4.2: Use of the book viewed by students

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION

I Rationale

The role of English language as a lingua franca makes it a unique language in the world This distinctiveness does not only refer to the language itself, but also to the ways it is taught as a foreign language In Vietnam, English has gained its popularity in teaching and learning over the last few decades Demand for learning English even gets stronger when Vietnam fosters its international relations English, in parallel with the knowledge of some other fields, turn out to be a key to open the door into the bustling world In any walk of life

in Vietnam, you can find people use English, from the big cities to mountainous areas, from the international conferences to daily conversations, or just few pidgin words with the foreign tourists People learn and use English with different purposes, but there is a fact that they are trying to learn English with the hope that they can use it effectively

To learners of English at Haiphong Foreign Language Center – Haiphong University, this is not an exception Every learner, naturally and obviously, wants to become the masters of all the four skills Though there are some who propose what they need is speaking a fluent English, therein they consider listening a tool for the realization of their goal, there are also some who say writing is necessary because documenting reports, letters, memos, etc is what they daily deal with in their office, learning to read effectively remains the top in the targets

of them

Due to the above points, English is taught at A, B, C level with the objectives of introducing effective communicative language teaching techniques, providing students with basic knowledge of English (especially grammar and vocabulary) and training them to be capable

of the four skills, integrating grammatical elements with language skills so as to make the grammar genuinely functional and communicative, creating more opportunities for interaction between teachers and students and among students themselves

Therefore, the textbooks used in most of these courses are the series New Interchange The

primary goal of the books is to teach the ability to communicate according to the situation, purpose, and roles of the participants

In the limitation of the thesis, the researcher wishes to give some adapted activities to the

first level book – New Interchange Intro – which is designed for beginners and for learners

needing a thorough review of basic structures and vocabulary in order to make it really suitable to learners‟ needs As a result, the thesis title goes as:

“Adapting „New Interchange Intro‟ used at Haiphong Foreign Language Center, Haiphong University”

II Aims of the study

The study is ultimate aimed at producing some samples of adaptation for elementary students at HFLC The specific aims are as follows:

 Investigate the teaching and learning context at HFLC

 Analyze teachers and learners‟ viewpoints towards the use of the textbook

 Collect and analyze teachers and learners‟ evaluation on the textbook

 Adapt some activities in the textbook New Interchange Intro

III Scope of the study

The researcher is well aware that in order to have suitable material adaptation, a great number of criteria such as the audience, the content, the methodology, etc should be taken into consideration Also, each criterion needs taking into account a variety of aspects However, due to the limitation of this minor thesis, only the following issues are touched upon:

 Teachers and learners‟ evaluation on the textbook New Interchange Intro

 Adapting some activities for the textbook New Interchange Intro to make students more active and interested in lessons

IV Research questions

The minor thesis tries to investigate the following questions:

 What are the HFLC teachers and students‟ evaluation and viewpoints towards the textbook?

 Should the textbook be adapted to suit the objectives and content of the course?

 What should be adapted to suit the objectives and content of the course?

V Research methodology

To conduct the research, survey questionnaires are used Questionnaires are delivered to

100 students and 10 teachers to identify their attitudes towards the textbook, the need of applying these activities Collected data from questionnaires are then analyzed, the findings are critically discussed, and some activities are adapted

VI Design of the study

The thesis includes three parts:

Part I: INTRODUCTION presents an overview of the study with rationale, aims, scope, research questions, and methodology of the study

Part II: DEVELOPMENT consists of two chapters:

Chapter one: Literature briefly presents the notions of materials, materials evaluation, and

materials adaptation, and introduces techniques for adaptation textbooks

Chapter two: Research methodology elaborates the analysis of current situation of teaching

and learning in HFLC Time and efforts have been spent on accumulating information about teachers and their teaching methods applied Then an attempt has been made to evaluate the strong points and weak points of the textbook Also, in this chapter, survey is conducted to

identify the HFLC teachers and students‟ evaluation and viewpoints towards New Interchange Intro, and find out if the textbook should be adapted to suit the objectives,

content, and methodology of the course, if so, what should be adapted to suit the objectives, content, and methodology of the course? An analysis of data collected based on the instrumentation of survey questionnaires will be given Last but not least, the researcher focuses on the adapted samples for the textbook

Part III: CONCLUSION gives a summary of main findings, limitations of the study and suggestions for further research

PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT Chapter one: Literature Review

The review of literature for this thesis will give a theoretical base for materials evaluation and focus on some important aspects of adaptation The first issue addressed in this chapter relates to teaching materials with regards to their merits and demerits in language teaching and types of materials The second one presents some main issues in materials evaluation such as definition, reasons for materials evaluation, types of materials evaluation, and criteria for evaluation The chapter will end with some theoretical discussions about materials adaptation

1 Materials in language teaching

1.1 The notion of materials

In the EFL/ESL class, materials are the important aspect of the curriculum They are the most observable feature of a teacher‟s methodology, and can contribute greatly to a course‟s syllabus They “include anything which can be used to facilitate the learning of a language

… can be linguistic visual, auditory or kinaesthetic” (Tomlinson, 2001: 66) Thus, the notion of materials does not lie only in a conventional boundary, but in various types as well

However, such a notion of materials is too large to deal with For the purpose of this thesis, the researcher wishes to focus on text materials (textbooks) only It is the “visible heart of any ELT program” (Sheldon, 1988: 237); “an almost universal element of teaching” (Hutchinson and Torres, 1994: 315); and a guide for a teacher, a memory aid for the pupils,

a permanent record or measure of what has been learnt This indicates that a textbook can be both a boon and burden Majority of teachers take it as a tool to facilitate their teaching whereas others consider it as a burden to get through, but it largely depends upon the attitude of the people who handle it Those who take it as a helpful tool use it flexibly and

“combine with other resources” (ibid)

1.2 Limits of materials in EFL/ESL class

Most experts agree, however, that heavy dependence on a single coursebook is not good for students‟ needs, (Swales, 1980; Nunan, 1991; Allwright, 1981; Cunningsworth 1995) Allwright (1981: 8) emphasizes that “content (potential intake) is not predictable It

is something that emerges because of the interactive nature of classroom events.” Although

a textbook may assist in some way, it cannot determine the over-all content of a language program

A strong alliance placed on the textbook by the teacher can reveal his considerations, or lack of, toward the over-all learning/teaching process Additionally, to those teachers who have no input toward the materials used in their teaching context, there may be no distinction between syllabus, methodology and the textbook used All may be intertwined into an officially approved publication from which personal creativity is void

Cunningsworth (1995) provides four disadvantages to an approach which is heavily dependent on a single textbook First, there can be a lack of variety in teaching procedures Second, innovations toward individual student‟s needs are reduced Third, spontaneity and flexibility are diminished and last, there can be a lack of creativity in teaching techniques and language use

Other theorists such as Porreca (1984), Florent and Walter (1989), Clarke and Clarke (1990), and Renner (1997) have criticized textbooks for their inherent social and cultural biases Many EFL/ESL textbooks still contain rampant examples of gender bias, sexism, and stereotyping

The scholars seem to be in the same boat regarding the limitations of the textbooks It is true that every language class in developing countries comprises of varied groups of learners As such, addressing their needs and interest is a Herculean task for a textbook writer Including the need of all individual learners in a single volume will make it an encyclopedia However, in the mean time, exclusion of the need of the learners of the particular linguistic proficiency will demotivate them as well

1.3 Roles of materials in EFL/ESL class

Many theorists such as O‟Neill (1982), Sheldon (1988), Cunningsworth (1995), Edge and Wharton (1998), and Richards (2001) state the following advantages for the use of textbooks:

 Textbooks fulfill a wide range of practical needs, particularly in contexts where English is being taught in a non-English-speaking environment and where teachers either lack training or sufficient time to analyze each group‟s needs

 The textbook helps provide a route map for both teachers and learners, making it possible for them to look ahead to what will be done in a lesson as well as to look back

on what has been done

 Textbooks provide structure and predictability, which help give participants in social interactions like lessons a safe base, a platform for negotiation and exploration

 Textbooks provide teachers, especially those lacking in training and experience, with a sense of self-confidence and security

 Most textbooks are designed and developed by experts in the field, conversant with current theoretical approaches and methodological practices The quality of sophistication in their design, content, and organization would be difficult to match with home-grown materials

 Textbooks can act as agents of change, allowing innovative ideas to be introduced within their structured framework in a way that enables teachers and learners to develop

in harmony with these new ideas Indeed, Edge and Wharton (1998) see the ELT textbook functioning as a genre of mass communication, where its authors can enter into positive dialogue with teachers and students on a number of issues of current significance to ELT professionals

 By dealing with a certain amount of routine work for teachers, the textbook frees them to attend to more important aspects of lesson planning (including materials adaptation and supplementation), and to concentrate on using their creative skills

In conclusion, textbooks should be accessible to a variety of students, regardless of their learning goals, as well as being adaptable to the diversity of teachers and teaching styles, and adaptability and supplemental materials are supportive additions

2 Materials evaluation

2.1 Definition

Evaluation is a part of planning and implementation of a language course (the other parts are needs analysis, course design, teaching/learning process, and assessment) Though in theory there should be a circular movement and linear sequence of those parts, in practice evaluation stands in close interaction and independence relationship with the teaching/learning process and course design Evaluation is a matching process (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987: 97) designed to establish the degree of match between the needs and available solutions And “materials evaluation is a procedure that involves measuring the value (or potential value) of a set of learning materials It involves making judgements about the effect of the materials on the people using them.” (Tomlinson, 2003) Tomlinson points out the following aspects to measure:

 the appeal of the materials to the learners;

 the credibility of the material to the learners, teachers and administrators;

 the validity of the materials;

 the reliability of the materials;

 the ability of the materials to motivate the learners;

 the value of the materials in terms of short-term learning;

 the value of the materials in terms of long-term learning;

 the learners‟ perceptions of the value of the materials;

 the teachers‟ perceptions of the value of the materials;

 the assistance given to the teachers in terms of preparation, delivery and assessment;

 the flexibility of the materials – the extent to which it is easy for a teacher to adapt the materials to suit a particular context

 the contribution made by the materials to teacher development;

 the match with administrative requirements

2.2 Reasons for materials evaluation

According to Sheldon (1988), textbook evaluation is necessary because the selection of an ELT textbook often signals an important administrative and educational decision in which there is considerable professional, financial, or even political investment A thorough evaluation, therefore, would enable the managerial and teaching staff of a specific institution or organization to discriminate between all of the available textbooks on the market Moreover, it would provide for a sense of familiarity with a book‟s content thus assisting educators in identifying the particular strengths and weaknesses in textbooks already in use

One additional reason for textbooks evaluation given by Cunningsworth (1995) and Ellis (1997) is that textbooks evaluation helps teacher move beyond impressionistic assessments and acquire useful, accurate, systematic, and contextual insights into the overall nature of textbooks (Litz, 2005) From this, textbooks evaluation can be a particularly worthwhile means of conducting action research as well as a form of professional empowerment and improvement It is through the evaluation of a textbook that a teacher knows the content of the book, the style in which it is written, and its strength and weaknesses, which facilitate him to adapt it to suit the course aims, learners‟ needs, and the teachers‟ beliefs

2.3 Types of materials evaluation

Cunningsworth (1995: 42,44) suggests that there are three different types of materials evaluation which are “predictive” or “pre-use”, “in-use”, and “retrospective” or “post-use” (reflective)

He argues that the most common form is probably the “predictive” or “pre-use” evaluation that is designed to examine the future or potential performance of a textbook The other types of textbooks evaluation are the “in-use” evaluation designed to examine material that

is currently being used and the “retrospective” or “post-use” (reflective) evaluation of a textbook that has been used in any respective institution

2.4 Criteria for materials evaluation

As there are many textbooks available commercially these days, systematic criteria have to

be developed or adapted from the ones available in the literature to evaluate them „It is clear that course book assessment is fundamentally a subjective, rule-of-thumb activity, and that no neat formula, grid, or system will ever provide a definitive yardstick,‟ (Sheldon, 1988: 245) Sheldon further makes it clear that „ELT books are frequently seen as poor compromise between what is educationally desirable on the one hand and financially viable

on the other‟, (p 237) A number of scholars (Candlin & Breen, 1979; Williams, 1983; Breen et al., 1987; Hutchinson and Waters, 1987; Sheldon, 1988; Cunningsworth, 1995; Littlejohn, 1996; to name but a few) have offered criteria for textbooks evaluation These invariably deal with:

 External criteria (extra-linguistic: authenticity of language, availability of supplementary materials, adequate instructions for the student and guidance for the teacher, appropriate level of integration into the course of study, quality of editing and publishing, price)

 Internal criteria (related to language: pronunciation, grammar, content)

3 Materials adaptation

There is a wide range of adapting textbooks in the ELT world these days It is done because different countries teaching English practice different cultures, traditions, customs, and above all, use different text materials and methodologies The materials designed keeping in view a particular country and culture may not be equally suitable for others Therefore, they have to be adapted to suit to the local needs and linguistic proficiency of the learners in questions

3.1 Definitions of adaptation

Many definitions of adaptation have been given by scholars for long According to Madsen and Bowen (1978), “every teacher is in a very real sense an adapter of the material he uses”, and adaptation is a process of employing “one or more of a number of techniques: supplementing, editing, expanding, personalizing, simplifying, modernizing, localizing, or modifying cultural/situational content” Meanwhile, Ellis (1986: 47) mentions the processes

of “retaining, rejecting, reordering, and modification” In 1998, Tomlinson refers to adaptation as “making changes to materials in order to improve them more suitable for a particular type of learner Adaptation can include reducing, adding, omitting, modifying, and supplementing”

Whatever the definitions they give, adaptation can be understood as a process of matching so as to maximize the appropriacy of teaching materials in context, by changing some of the internal characteristics of a textbook or a set of materials to better suit a specific situation

3.2 Purposes of adaptation

The two most frequently cited purposes for adaptation are as follows:

 To make the material more suitable for the circumstances in which it is being used, i.e to mould it to the needs and interests of learners, the teacher‟s own capabilities and such constraints as time, or, as McDonough and Shaw (1993: 85) put it: „to maximize the appropriacy of teaching materials in context, by changing some of the internal characteristics of a coursebook to better suit our particular circumstances‟

 To compensate for any intrinsic deficiencies in the material, such as linguistic inaccuracies, out-of-datedness, lack of authenticity (Madsen and Bowen, 1987) or lack

of variety (Tice, 1991)

3.3 Reasons for adapting

It is obvious that no matter how careful the teacher is in choosing the textbook, how well

she knows students in class, she will have to adapt the materials either consciously or subconsciously

McDonough and Shaw (1993) give a list of reasons for adaptation, which clearly reflects a concern that communicative language teaching implies an unsystematic approach to grammar presentation and a belief that a systematic approach to grammar presentation is necessary

 Not enough grammar coverage in general

 Not enough practice of grammar points of particular difficulty to these learners

 The communicative focus means that grammar is presented unsystematically

 Reading passages contain too much unknown vocabulary

 Comprehension questions are too easy, because the answers can be lifted directly from the text with no real understanding

 Listening passages are inauthentic, because they sound too much like written material being read out

 Not enough guidance on pronunciation

 Subject matter inappropriate for learners of this age and intellectual level

 Photographs and other illustrative material not culturally acceptable

 Amount of material too great/ too little to cover in the time allocated to lessons

 No guidance for teachers on handling group work and role play activities with large

a class

 Dialogues too formal, and not really representative of everyday speech

 Audio material difficult to use because of problems to do with room size and technical equipments

 Too much or too little variety in the activities

 Vocabulary list and a key to the exercise would be helpful

 Accompanying tests needed

According to Cunningsworth (1995), adaptation depends on such factors as: the dynamics

of the classroom; the personalities involved; the constraints imposed by syllabuses; the availability of resources; the expectations and motivations of the learners

Adaptation is also appropriate when materials are not ideal in (a) methods; (b) language content; (c) subject matter; (d) balance of skills; (e) progression and grading and (f) cultural content

Candlin and Breen (1980)‟s list implies that published materials are limited in that they do not provide many opportunities for real communication; instead they simply provide oral practice of linguistic structures:

 Communicative materials do not provide enough opportunities for negotiation (personal or psychological) between the learner and the text

 Communicative materials do not provide enough opportunities for interpersonal or social negotiation between all participants in the learning process, between learners and teachers, and learners and learners

 Activities and tasks do not promote enough communicative performance

 Activities and tasks do not promote enough metacommunicating opportunities

 Activities and tasks do not promote co-participation Teachers and learners are not involved as co-participants in the teaching-learning process

In addition, Helgesen (2005) gives the avoidance of PARSNIPS – variations on the theme of: Politics, Alcohol, Religion, Sex, Nudity, Israel, Pork, and Smoking, which is seen as one

of the most notorious things that occur in textbooks There may be good reasons to avoid most of these when a book is aimed at an international audience, but many of these reasons simply are not relevant in a known class of known students, and indeed include many important aspects of life that must be included in an English course For example, how could a business English course achieve an aim of helping business people socialize with their Australian counterparts without mention of alcohol? How could intercultural

understanding be achieved without mention of religion? A course without some aspects of PARSNIPS will not just be a very bland course; it will also be an incomplete and inadequate course Phillipson (2004) goes a step further and mentions that avoiding PARSNIPS in real classrooms is, in most cases, unethical

As for the teachers themselves, their individual teaching and life experiences, styles, areas

of expertise and weakness, all add an inevitable uniqueness to each lesson As Charles Sandy (2002) said, “no two teachers interact with a language textbook in the same way Teachers also give meaning to a textbook by who they are and what they‟re capable of as they guide students through it” This may or may not be conscious adaptation, but is still adaptation

From the above reasons for material adaptation, it can be referred that the number of classroom situations when materials adaptation is advisable is uncountable

3.4 Objectives of adapting

It is important to have clear adaptation objectives for the materials, because knowing what

“works” for your class will help guide your choice of adaptation techniques as well as decide the suitable content or language choice

McDonough and Shaw (1993) point out that greater attainment of appropriacy from materials means adapting to personalize, individualize, localize, and modernize

Personalizing refers to increasing the relevance of content in relation to learners‟ interests and their academic, educational, or professional needs Individualizing will address the learning styles both of individuals and of the members of a class working closely together Localizing takes into account the international geography of English language teaching and recognizes that what may work well in Mexico City may not do so in Edinburgh or in Kuala Lumper Madsen and Bowen (1978) include a further category of “modernizing”, and comment that not all materials show familiarity with aspects of current English usage, sometimes to the point of being not only out of date or misleading but even incorrect

Islam and Mares (cited by Tomlinson, 2003) expand this list into:

 Add real choice

 Cater for all sensory learners styles

 Provide for more learner autonomy

 Encourage his higher-level cognitive

 Make the language input more accessible

 Make the language input more engaging

3.5 Categories of adaptation

3.5.1 Adaptation as addition

 Extemporisation: In adaptation process it is not necessary for a teacher to involve in so much extra work, because the most natural form of adaptation is extemporisation, which is a spontaneous on the part of the teacher to a problem or an opportunity (Madsen and Bowen

1978, McDonough and Shaw 1993) Extemporisation may be carried out by the substitution

in a textbook example of the familiar for the unfamiliar; the paraphrase of a textbook instruction or explanation that has not been understood; or reference to previously taught items (structures, vocabulary, phonemes, functions) when teaching new items

 Extension: Extension seems to have been largely ignored in the literature (McDonough and Shaw, 1993: 88 – 90) It refers to the provision by the teacher of additional material in order to enhance understanding or learning such as further examples of a rule or further items in an exercise

 Exploitation: Exploitation is “the creative use of what is already there (e.g text, visual, activity) to serve a purpose which is additional to that foreseen by the textbook writer” For example, a text accompanied by a photograph may intend to develop comprehension skills and linguistic resources but a teacher might use it for some additional purposes such as to predict the content or brainstorm related vocabulary; the topic and language of the text might provide the basis for discussion of students‟ own experiences

 Supplementation: Supplementation is quite common among teachers According to Ian

We can supplement a textbook in one of two ways:

a By utilizing items, such as exercises, texts or activities, from another published

 What does the exercise actually get the learner to do?

 What do I want the learner to do?

 How can get the exercise to do what I want it to do for the learner?

 What is the objective of the activity?

When asking themselves the four questions, starting with the objective of the activity, then the methods and the content and topic, teachers may find the problem of “the textbook straightjacket” Tice (1991: 23) provide some flexible ways to make a change:

Many coursebook adopt a very similar format for each unit and include a rather limited range of exercise types… You can also set up role-plays and sketches based

on the reading and listening tests Grammar exercised can be adapted; for example, supply the answers to an exercise to half the class, and let them work with a partner who doesn’t have the answers Or supply the answers to an exercise; some wrong, and then do a sentence auction (in groups, learners bid for correct sentences

McDonough and Shaw‟s description of the purpose of adaptation mentions two processes which are involved in adaptation: the evaluation of materials against contextual criteria and the tailoring of the materials to suit these criteria What teachers of ELT have to pay much attention to is the foci and the forms of this kind of change The foci would include “(1) language – the language of explanations, examples, texts, exercises and the language that students are expected to produce; (2) the contexts and content to which the language relates; and (3) procedure and classroom management – who does what with whom and how this is organized

The fourth kind of change – restructuring might be an attempt to make the order more logical Examples of this would include resequencing activities such as cutting up a text and asking students to put it together again, presenting a picture story in jumbled order…

3.6 Techniques for adaptation

According to McDonough and Shaw (1993), there are a number of points to bear in mind regarding the techniques that can be applied to bring about change First, techniques are selected according to the aspect of the materials that needs alteration Second, content can

be adapted using a range of techniques; or, conversely, a single technique can be applied to different content areas Third, adaptation can have both quantitative and qualitative effects Finally, techniques can be used individually or in combination with others, so the scale of possibilities clearly ranges from straightforward to rather complex McDonough and Shaw (1993) suggest five main techniques for adaptation: adding, deleting, modifying, simplifying, and reordering Other scholars such as Cunningsworth (1995), Tomlinson (1998), and McGrath (2002) share the same boat about the techniques with just a little difference in terms Tomlinson (1998) gives five techniques: adding (extending and

expanding), deleting (subtracting and abridging), simplifying, reordering, and replacing material McGrath (2002) gives four techniques: selecting, rejecting, adding, and changing

3.6.1 Adding; extending and expanding

When adding to published materials, the teacher is supplementing the existing materials and providing more material The teacher can do this by either extending or expanding Extending is to supply more of the same type of materials, thus making a quantitative change in the material For example, an activity may practice a particular grammar point by asking the learner to complete a sentence with the missing verb in the correct form, such as the simple past The textbook may have provided ten sentences for this treatment, but the teacher may value this type of activity for her particular class and adapt the textbook by adding five more sentences with missing verbs

Meanwhile, expanding is to add something different to the materials, so the change is qualitative For example, when teaching the simple past, the teacher may feel her students need to be made aware of the different sounds of verb endings but the textbook does not address this phonetic issue Consequently, she may add an activity or series of activities that deal with the phonetics of the past simple

It is important to note that additions to materials can come at the beginning, at the end or in the middle of the materials being adapted

3.6.2 Deleting; subtracting and abridging

As with the technique of adding, material can be deleted both quantitatively (subtracting) or qualitatively (abridging) Adding and deleting work together in the sense that part of a text

or an exercise may be taken out and then replaced with something else of the same types Moreover, a task may be deleted and compensated by a more suitable one to meet the objectives of the whole unit So it is necessary to take into account the balance of the lesson

as well as the time allocation when these techniques of adaptation are applied

3.6.3 Simplifying

When simplifying, the teacher could be rewording instructions or text in order to make them more accessible to learners, or simplifying a complete activity to make it more manageable for learners and teachers It is worth pointing out here that there is a distinct danger of distoring language when attempting to simplify a text and thus making the text inauthentic McDonough and Shaw (1993) suggest simplification could be in the following forms:

 Sentence structure: sentences are reduced in overall length, or complex sentence is rewritten as a number of simple ones

 Lexical content: so that the number of new vocabulary items is controlled by reference to what students have already learnt

 Grammatical structures: for example, passives are converted into actives, simple past to simple present, etc

3.6.4 Reordering

This technique refers to “the possibility of arranging the parts of a textbook in a different order This can be the adjustment of the sequence within a unit, or even the arrangement of different units in a textbook” (McDonough and Shaw, 1993) Nevertheless, there are limits

to the scale of what teachers can do, and too many changes may result in almost complete reworking of a textbook The technique of reordering can be used in the following situations:

 Materials typically present “the future” by “will” and “going to” For many learners, especially at intermediate level and above, it is helpful to show the relationship between time reference and grammatical tense in a more accurate way

 The length of teaching program may be too short for the textbook to be worked through from beginning to end Apparently in this case, the students‟ need of language will determine the sequence in which the material will be taken There is little point in working systematically through a textbook if key aspects of grammar, vocabulary, or communicative function are never reached

 “Reordering” can include separating items of content from each other as well as regrouping them and putting them together

3.6.5 Replacing

When replacing material, a teacher may decide that a more appropriate visual or text might serve an activity better than the ones presented in a published material This is often the case with culturally specific or time-specific activities A teacher may decide to replace an illustration for one that students could identify with more closely or use information concerning a popular figure with what the students are familiar rather than the one presented

in the published materials Teachers may also decide to replace a whole activity depending

on the goals of a particular class or lesson For example, a reading activity might be replaced with a listening activity

To sum up, the ability to be able to adapt textbooks in these ways is an essential skill for teachers to develop Through the process of adaptation, the teacher personalizes the text making it a better teaching resource as well as individualizes it for a particular group of learners Normally this process takes place gradually as the teacher becomes more familiar

with the book since the dimensions of the text which need adaptation may not be apparent until the book is tried out in the classroom

3.7 A framework for adaptation

Need to

Localize Individualize etc

By means of Techniques

Adding Deleting Modifying Simplifying Reordering

Applied to Content areas

Language practice Texts Skills Classroom management etc

Figure 1: A framework for adaptation (McDonough and Shaw, 1993)

In conclusion, the literature review has examined various studies and issues concerning adapting materials in EFL/ ESL class Brief discussions from the researcher have also given out with the review In order to have a practical view deep into the problem, a research methodology is vital This would be dealt in the next chapter

Chapter two: The Study

To realize the objectives of the thesis, this chapter first starts with an overview on HFLC, in which background, facility, trend of development of the Center is briefly presented In addition, an analysis on teachers, students, materials, and material assessments will be very

Match or congruence

“External” criteria “Internal” criteria

Personalize

important for the realization of the study, for without them the author will find it impossible

to sort out reasonable adaptation of the material

1 Background

1.1 An overview on Haiphong Foreign Language Center, Haiphong University

Haiphong Foreign Language Center (HFLC), Haiphong University was established in 1976 and has become a reliable address for those who are eager to learn foreign languages The scale of study is widely expanded for learners, from elementary (A level), pre-intermediate (B level), intermediate (C level), and to upper-intermediate (tertiary level) from the year of

1990

HFLC has currently over 170 classes with nearly 7,000 students Generally, in the Center, students at A level classes occupy the largest proportion, next come students at B level, and the smallest is students at C level There have been an increasing number of learners attending tertiary education from 6 classes annually in 1990 to 30 classes in 2010 These figures show that it is potential for teachers at this Center to access to students of various levels, different competence, and variable requirements, thereby can develop their teaching methods as much as they can

1.2 Teachers and teaching method

In the Center, there are 24 official teachers of English and nearly 100 contracted teachers In classes of A, B, or C level, each teacher is responsible for one class separately This means he/she has to perform his/her task with four skills simultaneously Hence it is not easy at all for a teacher to do well all the time with four different skills

In addition, most of the teachers especially who used to be teachers of Russian and had informal or in-service ELT training courses though experienced enough still reveal their limitations in language knowledge and are not used to applying communicative approach in their teaching They often attach themselves to the traditional teaching method, in which grammar and vocabulary always become the focus of their attention every lesson and three teaching stages: presentation, controlled practice, and free-practice are dominantly used In all three stages of the lesson, teachers remain the center of the class

1.3 Students

The students of English at HFLC are quite different in age, sex, and learning purposes Some of them are still very young, and they learn English sometimes under the pressure of their parents In such cases, the motivation is not strong and clear enough There are also many school children attending English classes to get a good ability of English grammar to

do well in their examinations So apart from grammar, other skills are not paid much

attention to To adult learners, all of the four skills are essential both in communication and working management The learners are, therefore, strongly activated Also, there are a considerable number of teachers from different primary or secondary schools in Haiphong whose English knowledge needs upgrading regularly These learners have certainly experienced certain methods of teaching and learning English before joining the lessons in the Center

With learners of various ages, language competence, learning purposes, etc, it is hard for teachers in the Center to find the best way to give their lectures, especially when four skills

of English are interwoven and required simultaneously but only one teacher takes the class

1.4 Materials

English, as mentioned above, is taught at different level (A, B, C level, and tertiary

education) At A, B, C level, the books Streamline English – Departure, Connection, and Destination by Bernard Hartley & Peter Viney are mainly used in evening classes At the same time, the series books New Interchange by Jack C.Richards are used for some instant

classes in the mornings and afternoons

Being a textbook, Streamline English provides reading passages of various topics but not

theme-based Mainly they are designed for the aims of teaching grammar more than reading skill, oral skill and writing skill From the combination of the four skills in one text, and probably poor organization of the book, teachers at the Center find it hard to develop

intensively each skill separately Therefore, the appearance of the series New Interchange

has put a new way in teaching and learning English at the Center, despite of its small-scale

usage The reason for this is that New Interchange is a multi-level textbook which covers

the four skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing, as well as improving pronunciation and building vocabulary Particular emphasis is placed on listening and speaking The primary goal of the book is to teach the ability to communicate according to

the situation, purpose, and roles of the participants The language used in New Interchange

is American English; however, the book reflects the fact that English is the major language

of international communication and is not limited to any one country, region, or culture

In the limitation of the thesis, the author wishes to give some evaluations on the first level

book – New Interchange Intro – which is designed for beginners and for learners needing a

thorough review of basic structures and vocabulary Then some samples of adaptation will

be given out

1.5 Material evaluation

New Interchange Intro contains 16 six-page units, each divided into two topical/functional

“cycles,” as well as four review units Full level of New Interchange Intro contains between

90 and 120 hours of class instruction time The amount of time spent on Interchange Activities, Reading, Optional Activities, and the Workbook can be increased or decreased depending on specific classes‟ time

As Sheldon (1988: 247) suggests, no general list of criteria can ever really be applied to all teaching and learning contexts without considerable modifications, most of these standardized evaluation checklists contain similar components that can be used as helpful starting points for ELT practitioners in a wide variety of situations

A number of textbook evaluation checklists and guidelines have been studied for the present

thesis to evaluate the textbook New Interchange Intro For the purpose of the minor thesis,

the author would like to apply the four-guideline approach proposed by Cunningsworth (1995: 15-17) These guidelines are broad principles that underlie much longer and more familiar checklists of the type commonly used in “predictive” evaluations, i.e those done when choosing a book for a certain course (Ellis, 1997: 36) By themselves, however, the guidelines support the thesis by allowing detailed comment on the syllabus and methodology employed They also follow a logical progression from general to particular

1.5.1 Guideline one: Coursebooks should correspond to learners‟ needs They should match the aims and objectives of the language learning program

 Statement of audience, aims, and objectives

Needless to say, each textbook has an explicit set of objectives The textbook is composed with those objectives in mind and its ultimate aim, or purpose, becomes the fulfillment of

those objectives According to the author, New Interchange Intro is meant for use by adult

and young adult learners and provides about 120 hours of class instruction time The author claims that the course “has an integrated, multi-skills syllabus that links topics, communicative functions, and grammar.” Grammar is presented communicatively, with controlled accuracy-based activities leading to fluency - based communicative practice In this way, there is a link between grammatical form and communicative function

This combination of the traditional and the communicative appears to be the key to the New Interchange Intro philosophy The underlying premise seems to be that traditional

approaches are effective in developing formal competence but in themselves are not

enough This idea has a strong history among methodologists and coursebook writers New Interchange Intro‟s author presents the equation as simple: make up for the deficiencies of

one approach by supplementing from another

As pertains to the textbook under study here, the objective is to teach non-major students English This, of course, is easier said than done as fulfilling this particular objective is predicated on a very accurate understanding of the student group‟s English proficiency level and must be informed by theory Added to that, the textbook‟s objectives must be explicit and the degree to which it satisfies them must be measurable

 General organization

Further insight into the aims and objectives of the book can be gleaned from the contents

“map”, which illustrates the general organization of the material (see Figure 3 for the two sample units)

As can be seen, meaning is put in the second with the establishment of a topic or theme for each unit, which threads through the various strands of content Meanwhile, the importance

of form is also made obvious by the prominent placement of grammar in the third column The contents have been divided into functions, grammar, listening/pronunciation, writing/reading, and interchange activities This is a pattern represents what Cunningsworth calls a combination of “rules-based” and “performance-based” approaches The

accuracy/fluency continuum mentioned in the aims stated by New Interchange Intro‟s

author can be “neatly encompassed by linking accuracy to grammatical understanding and fluency to language practice and skills work.” (Cunningsworth, 1995: 19)

Insofar as the book‟s simple goal of a balance of accuracy and fluency matches that of our program at the Center, the two appear to be generally compatible The book provides plentiful opportunities for “activation” through skills work and communicative tasks, while the “traditional” grammar instruction allows for accuracy development and may also have the appeal of familiarity to some students A closer look at the language included, to see if it

is appropriate to the needs of a general English course, will be the focus of the next section

1.5.2 Guideline two: Coursebooks should reflect the uses (present and future) which learners will make of the language Select coursebooks which will help

to equip students to use language effectively for their own purposes

1.5.2.1 Syllabus type

A brief glance at the inside cover will be enough to identify New Interchange Intro as an

example of task-based approach to syllabus specification – one which views language holistically White has classified this as a Type B syllabus, one which asks the question,

“How is it to be learned?” In Type B syllabuses the specification of items would not include grammar or functions but rather tasks or topics, with the aim being to “involve learners in the exchange of meanings as soon as possible.” (Willis, 2000: 19)

1.5.2.2 Language input: New Interchange Intro divides up its language input

into three major categories: topics - vocabulary, functions, and grammar (see Appendix 3)

 Vocabulary

According to the author, New Interchange Intro deals with contemporary topics that are of

high interest and relevant to both students and teachers” because they “have been selected for their interest to both homogeneous and heterogeneous classes.” The topics presented in

New Interchange Intro vary for everyday situations and purposes related to school, social

life, work, and leisure

It is also shown that New Interchange Intro does not require students to recall linguistic or

non-linguistic items from previous units These items may be grammatical rules which the student has encountered in previous units, etc These kinds of tasks help students feel continuity in the textbook and also help them review the items which they have learned before The textbook, however, is not benefiting so much from this type of mental operation and this may lead to students not having sense of continuity

As stated in the book‟s introduction, New Interchange Intro is designed “to teach the ability

to communicate” (New Interchange Intro: iii) Priority thus was given to the process of developing second language competence The book does not require students to initiate or respond It encourages students to use the language and more importantly they more often require them to express themselves than to be a listener It is apparently that when students get more opportunities to express themselves in L2 they are more likely to learn it more

successfully Therefore, New Interchange Intro seems to be quite successful in this regard

 Grammar

It is the system of rules for the formation of correct sentences and it is essential that learners

are able to both understand and use the rules of grammar In New Interchange Intro, the

new grammar of each unit is presented in color boxes and is followed by controlled and freer communicative practice activities These freer activities often have students use the grammar in a personal context In this way, grammar is always presented communicatively, with controlled accuracy-based activities leading to fluency-based communicative grammatical form and communicative function Although this is not an inductive approach toward teaching grammar, it provides opportunities for students to work with words in as many interesting ways as possible, so that their competence and creativity in the use of language can be enhanced

 Variety of English

One very important additional aspect of the language input is the variety of English used in

New Interchange Intro – the book is clearly meant for learners who wish to study American

English Most students overwhelmingly prefer an American variety of English, both in the accent spoken by their instructors and in the teaching materials employed This consensus has the potential to create great excitement among learners

1.5.2.3 The skills syllabus

1.5.2.3.1 Receptive skills Working backwards from the items in the skills development portion of the contents map

(see Appendix 3) we can outline New Interchange Intro‟s receptive skills syllabus as below

in Figure 2, in terms of the subskills they are meant to develop

 Skimming (all units)

 Scanning (all units)

 Note-taking and summarizing

 Reading for inference (all units)

 Appreciating literature and art

 Listening for gist (all units)

 Listening for detail (all units)

 Note-taking

 Perception listening (discriminating sounds)

 Making inferences

Figure 2: New Interchange Intro‟s receptive skills syllabus (Richards, J.C, 2000)

There appear to be an adequate variety of sub skills addressed here True to the authors' claims, the book contains at least one listening exercise in each unit, and there are authentic reading passages which are followed by reading comprehension apart from the first three units Many units contain two listening tasks with the aim to develop listening skill Charts

or graphics often accompany these task-based exercises to lend support to students

Not only the variety of task types is impressive, the same can be said of the choice of text types Much of the selection of the reading material seems to have been made on the basis

of interest topic, while interest is important for motivation As has been noted, most learners

at the HFLC are young students, who are eager to access to what familiar to them

1.5.2.3.2 Productive skills

 Speaking

Without exception, the speaking tasks in New Interchange Intro follow on from, or serve as

warm-up material for, the language presentations and other skills work in each chapter The types of tasks included are discussions, role play, a class survey, a short talk/presentation

On the one hand, this is admirable in that speaking practice is so well integrated and the book can boast many opportunities for personalization, which Cunningsworth says is an important responsibility of coursebook writers (1995: 19) On the downside, however, Cunningsworth says activities such as those above “do not actually teach how to organize conversation in English” (1995: 70)

While the discussions which predominate in New Interchange Intro are useful for

developing fluency, it can be argued that an approach which also incorporates speaking subskills or strategies is warranted in the case of Vietnamese learners When faced with limits in their ability to communicate intended meanings, Vietnamese learners tend to make most frequent use of “disengagement strategies” which involve going outside the interaction for help, and made the least use of “engagement strategies” (e.g circumlocutions and asking their interlocutor for clarification) which allow the interaction to continue

 Writing

Cunningsworth (1995: 80) says that most writing activities in general English coursebooks are of a controlled or guided kind “where a model is given and the students‟ task is to produced something similar, usually based on additional information given.” In addition to teaching the mechanics of writing at sentence level, the coursebook writer should also include material to familiarize learners with discourse structure and the relationship between type of writing and conventions for organization and expression These are both addressed

in New Interchange Intro, as are certain subskills of writing, as illustrated in the table

below

Sentence- and

paragraph-level discourse features

Exploring different reasons for

writing

Writing sub skills

 Position of adverbials

 Contrasting ideas

 Joining sentences with

conjunctions and adverbs

 Word order and focus of

attention

 Describing a career

 Health, sports, travel

Figure 3: New Interchange Intro‟s writing syllabus

1.5.3 Guideline three: Coursebooks should take account of students‟ needs as learners and should facilitate their learning processes, without dogmatically imposing a rigid “method.”

As noted earlier, the author claims to have combined the best of traditional approaches (e.g

“in-depth treatment of grammar” and “thorough practice activities”) with communicative approaches (e.g letting learners work out rules for themselves and express personal opinions) Further, the authors employ an approach they call language for authentic communication, where “students are presented with natural and useful language” and “have the opportunity to personalize the language they learn, make use of their own knowledge and experiences, and express their ideas and opinions.” Grammatical “is always presented communicatively, with controlled accuracy-based activities leading to fluency-based communicative practice.”

Let us examine a sample to see this methodology at work

 Language in context

It is revealed that New Interchange Intro encourages the learners more often to produce

meaningful language of their own This kind of tasks enables students to express their ideas

or feelings via the foreign language and in this regard these activities are both motivating in that they offer opportunities to express themselves and demanding, as the learner should draw on all his/her linguistic and world knowledge to produce a piece of meaningful discourse

 Emphasis on grammar rules

The study also shows that the tasks in New Interchange Intro focus on grammatical

structures or other points related to form marginally more than the amount they focus on

form-meaning relationships Instead, New Interchange Intro tries to draw on meaning as the

basis for the learning task This could be one sign of success for the selected textbook, since one major objective of the book has been developing a communicative competence which is achieved via enhancing “comprehension” of the language, and comprehending the language necessitates attention to meaning

 Production-based practice

The results of the study show that New Interchange Intro‟s tasks more often encourage the

students to use the language Moreover, these tasks require them to express themselves than

to be a listener Also, the fact that the textbook includes less tasks which do not require the

learners to initiate or respond (i.e “Not required”), shows that New Interchange Intro caters

for more involvement of the learners in the classroom events

 Inductive learning

This study may well imply that the textbook surprisingly does not apply an inductive approach toward teaching grammatical structures and other teaching points, or if it applies this is not that obvious within its task structure

 Adaptability

As noted above, New Interchange Intro‟s practice activities are controlled accuracy-based

ones, which lead to fluency-based communicative practice This allows students to extend and personalize what they have practiced and learned in each unit However, these activities are often closely integrated with the presentation material While this renders the textbook more coherent, it also makes it harder to adapt away from a presentation-style approach Teachers and students may find this quite restrictive

1.5.4 Guideline four: Coursebooks should have a clear role as a support for learning Like teachers, they mediate between the target language and the learner

 Organization, layout, and presentation

New Interchange Intro is attractively laid out, with glossy pages and liberal use of color and

photographs Sections are clearly labeled and modularly placed on the page to minimize distraction There are headings or labels for each section and exercises and activities are always introduced with clear instructions The table of content at the beginning of the book

is a helpful means of access into the content of the book It also shows that the plan of the book, the division of the book into sections, and its graphic illustrations are satisfactory enough Moreover it shows that the selected textbook is supported with ample appendices The strong visual element is likely to attract students, whom to be consistently visual in their learning styles Importantly, the visual material is often integrated into the language or task focus, unlike many textbooks where it simply serves as window dressing The biggest complaint to be made here is that very little space is provided for learners‟ written answers

 Opportunities for reinforcement, revision, and self-study

This study shows that New Interchange Intro does not require students to recall linguistic or

non-linguistic items from previous units These items may be grammatical rules which the student has encountered in previous units, etc These kinds of tasks help students feel continuity in the textbook and also help them review the items which they have learned

before The textbook, however, is not benefiting so much from this type of mental operation and this may lead to students not having sense of continuity

It is also revealed that New Interchange Intro tries to relate the new teaching points to the

previous ones in the unit and also to the points which they have learned in prior units This characteristic gives the textbook more consistency and continuity Furthermore, it helps the students associate the new information to the old information in their minds

There is also a workbook which provides a great deal of additional practice and language input, coordinated with the material in the student‟s book While building on the main language input, the workbook also includes additional material on phrasal verbs, prepositions, and phonology In fact, it has proved useful both in class and for homework assignments

 Subject content, social values, and topics

The author seems to have taken pains to avoid cultural offense Women and minority groups are presented respectfully The topics of the texts (i.e., the themes of the units and the related activities are fairly interesting, effectively motivating, and intellectually engaging

1.5.5 Summary and overall evaluation

One key reason for a retrospective appraisal of materials is to provide insight into organizational principles, and therefore make apparent possible techniques for adaptation

(McDonough and Shaw 1993:65) Through the multi-syllabus approach followed in New Interchange Intro, students receive a merging of two broad procedures; that of a view of

language as use, including categories of function, context, and language skill, and a more formal linguistic syllabus comprising elements of grammar and vocabulary (McDonough and Shaw 1993: 51)

The results show that New Interchange Intro has the following weaknesses:

 The fact that the majority of tasks in require learners to “respond” and a much

smaller proportion require students to “initiate” using the language This is not satisfactory if we desire to have an active learner-centered class

 Activities which focus on both the form and meaning are not that frequent in the

selected textbook

 New Interchange Intro does not require students to recall linguistic or non-linguistic

items from previous units Hence, it lacks the tasks which help students feel continuity in the textbook

 Activities which use auditory and visual channels for giving input to learners are not

proportional, are not so popular in this textbook

 The selected textbook surprisingly does not apply an inductive approach toward

teaching grammatical structures and other teaching points, or if it applies this is not that obvious within its task structure Thus, the discovery-learning activities of this type are ignored

 The supra-sentential level for both the input and the output is ignored

 Learners or the teacher do not participate in providing the content and selecting the

topic of content as source of input to classmates

The strengths of New Interchange Intro are as follow:

 Tasks more often encourage students to use the language and more importantly they

require them to express themselves than to be a listener

 New Interchange Intro tries to draw on meaning as the basis for the learning task

This could be one sign of success for the selected textbook, since one major objective of the book has been developing a communicative competence which is achieved via enhancing “comprehension” of the language

 The author of the selected textbook has given importance to pair/group work in their

The survey was conducted with the participation of two groups The first group includes 10

teachers who use the book New Interchange Intro at HFLC They are all female teachers

ranged from 24 to 35 and have at least two years teaching experience Among these there are 8 M.A, 2 are attending M.A courses

The second group includes 100 learners (aged 14 – 45) at 5 A-level classes in 2010 All of

them have finished the courses using the book New Interchange Intro 25 of the learners are

from 14 to 18 years old; 20 are from 31 to 45, and the rest from 18 to 30 The youngest group (from 14 to 18) is attending secondary and upper secondary school education, and the oldest (from 30 to 45) are holding certain positions in many offices and they have ever graduated from universities or colleges What is more, there is one thing in common between them, which is that they all officially or unofficially experienced at least three years learning English These figures show that the data collected from the survey will surely be reliable because the learners are well aware of their mission

All of the participants were told that their responses to the questionnaires were anonymous This was to secure the most honest and accurate responses from the participants

2.2 Data - collection method

To obtain the data of the HFLC teachers and students‟ evaluation and attitudes about the

textbook New Interchange Intro, the author chooses survey questionnaires the main method

to reach the answer to the research questions for some advantages First, the respondents can answer the questions under less pressure than when they take part in interviews which require immediate response Second, closed ended questions in the questionnaires are often straightforward to answer Another advantage of questionnaires is that they are cheap and helpful in collecting ideas of many participants at the same time

These questionnaires are closed questions The contents of the questionnaires are crucial to the thesis as they have direct relations to the research questions and objectives The questions also have to be brief, clear, and unambiguous

To ensure the accuracy of the data, there are two types of questionnaires designed: one for the teachers and one for the students However, the content of these two types of questionnaires is similar The questionnaires focus on the following categories:

 The viewpoint of the teachers and students towards the syllabus

 The viewpoint of the teachers and students towards the lessons and the tasks

 The evaluation on the objectives of the textbook

 The evaluation on the content of the textbook

 The extra activities for the textbook chosen by the teachers

2.3 Procedure

As above-mentioned, there were 100 survey questionnaires delivered to students in 5 classes The students were given 20 minutes to finish their answers; therefore, they had enough time to think of the answers carefully

There are eight questions in teachers‟ questionnaires which were similar to those in students‟ questionnaires The main criteria were also accessibility Questionnaires were only delivered when the author was with the participants to clarify anything they might confuse The survey was carried out at the end of May, 2010

After doing the survey among the teachers and the students, it was the task of the author to work with the data There was a comparison between the results collected from teachers and from students The data was categorized in this way simply for reaching the answer to the research questions The data was then analyzed both descriptively and interpretively Besides, the author also synthesized and compared the data collected from the teachers and

which from the students The quantitative data were presented in the form of charts and tables

2.3.1 The viewpoint of the teachers and students towards the syllabus

Chart 1: The viewpoint of the teachers and students towards the syllabus

From the above statistics it is found that only 10% students consider the syllabus is heavier than their need; while 30% students disagree and 60% students strongly disagree with this Meanwhile, an impressive number of 90% teachers find the syllabus is not heavier than their students‟ need, just 10% teachers claim the opposite It can be seen that the opinions of students strongly correlate the comments of the teachers

It may be mentioned that merely the size of syllabus cannot impact a great deal in learning English, rather syllabus with appropriate lessons/exercises and authentic materials can help students learning English It is obviously that selecting texts that are relevant to the life experiences and culture of learners can facilitate cognitive and language development Syllabus and contents of syllabus should be based on needs of English; otherwise, irrelevant syllabus hampers students‟ progress in learning a language

2.3.2 The viewpoint of the teachers and students towards the lessons and the tasks

Chart 2.1: The viewpoint of the teachers and students towards the lessons and the tasks

It is found that 60% teachers consider the lessons and the tasks interesting fairly much, while 20% teachers tick for a little, whereas 10% teachers find the lessons and the tasks very much interesting, the same number of teachers finds the lessons and the tasks not at all interesting 60% students term the lessons and the tasks fairly much interesting, while 17% students enjoy a little, 20% learners enjoy very much, though 3% students enjoy not at all