VII LIST OF CHARTS, AND TABLES Charts Chart 1: Overall rating of the textbook Chart 2a: Students‟ overall evaluation of the topics Chart 2b: Students‟ detailed evaluation of the topics
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgements i
Candidate‟s statement ii
Abstract iii
Table of contents iv
List of abbreviations v
List of figures, charts and tables vi
INTRODUCTION 1
1 Statement of problem and the rationale for the study 1
2 Aims of the study 3
3 Significance of the study 3
4 Scope of the study 4
5 Methods of the study 4
6 Design of the study 5
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 6
1 Textbook in EFL teaching and learning 6
1.1 Definition of term “textbook” 6
1.2 The role of textbook in teaching and learning English 6
1.3 Textbook evaluation 7
1.4 Textbook adaptation 8
2 Context in textbook 8
2.1 The term “context” 8
2.2 Lead- in context 9
2.3 The role of context in learning English 10
3 Need analysis 10
3.1 Definition of needs 10
3.2 Need analysis in language teaching 11
4 Description of the study‟s settings 11
4.1 The current English syllabus 11
4.2 The teachers 12
4.3 The learners 12
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CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 13
1 Subjects of the study 13
2 Data collection and procedure 13
3 Method of data analysis 14
CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 15
1 An overview of lead- in contexts in textbook New Headway elementary 15
2 General evaluation about the textbook New Headway elementary 15
3 Detailed evaluation about the textbook 18
3.1 Students‟ attitudes towards the topics and lead- in contexts 18
3.2 Teachers‟ observation on students‟ reflections 20
3.3 The rate on average 22
4 Teachers‟ use of contexts in the textbook 23
5 Student need analysis 24
6 Conclusion 27
CHAPTER 4: ADAPTING CONTEXTS IN TEXTBOOK NEW HEADWAY ELEMENTARY 28
1 Criteria for the adaptation 28
2 Method for the adaptation 28
3 Problematic lead- in contexts and the adaptations 29
3.1 Context 1 29
3.2 Context 2 32
3.3 Context 3 32
3.4 Context 4 36
3.5 Context 5 36
CONCLUSION 39
1 Summary of the study 39
2 Implications from the study 39
3 Limitations of the study 40
4 Suggestions for further study 40
REFERENCES 41
APPENDICES
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LIST OF ABREVIATIONS
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LIST OF CHARTS, AND TABLES Charts
Chart 1: Overall rating of the textbook
Chart 2a: Students‟ overall evaluation of the topics
Chart 2b: Students‟ detailed evaluation of the topics
Chart 2c: Students‟ attitude toward unfamiliar contexts
Chart 3a: Teachers‟ overall observation about students‟ reflection on topics
Chart 3b: Teachers‟ detailed observation about students‟ reflection on topics
Chart 3c: Teachers‟ attitude toward unfamiliar contexts
Chart 4a: Students‟ overall evaluation about the topics (in average)
Chart 4b: Students‟ detailed evaluation about the topics (in average)
Chart 5a: Students‟ overall evaluation about the lead- in contexts
Chart 5b: Students‟ detailed evaluation about the lead- in contexts
Chart 5c: Students‟ attitude toward unfamiliar lead- in contexts
Chart 5d: Students‟ attitude toward unfamiliar lead- in contexts
Chart 6a: Teachers‟ overall observation about students‟ reflection on lead- in contexts Chart 6b: Teachers‟ detailed observation about students‟ reflection on lead- in contexts Chart 6c: Teachers‟ attitude toward unfamiliar lead- in contexts
Chart 7a: Students‟ overall evaluation about the lead- in contexts (in average)
Chart 7b: Students‟ detailed evaluation about the lead- in contexts (in average)
Chart 8a: Teachers‟ overall use of lead- in contexts
Chart 8b: Teachers‟ detailed use of lead- in contexts
Chart 9: Student age demographic
Chart 10: Student sex demographic
Chart 11: Students‟ living place
Chart 12: Students‟ English learning experience
Chart 13: Students‟ knowledge analysis
Chart 14: Students‟ learning motivation
Chart 15: Students‟ learning purpose
Chart 16: Students‟ using material
Chart 17: Students‟ preferred lead- in activities
Chart 18: Students‟ type of context
Chart 19: Students‟ most difficult facing with the textbook
Chart 20: Students‟ attitude toward foreign and Vietnamese contexts
Tables
Table 1: English syllabus for VIC intermediate training level
Table 2: An overview of lead- in contexts in the course book New Headway elementary
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INTRODUCTION
1.7 Statement of problem and the rationale for the study
"You can only learn what you already know”- Sufi Proverb
Reading in many documents and learning from reality, It can be recognized that I
English now a day has no longer been the language of English speaking countries but it has
been becoming the dominant global language This has been changing considerably views
and beliefs of teachers and learners in teaching and learning the language If the traditional
belief that learning English must follow a “standard language” of native speakers and the
culture of them must be integrated into learning materials as a rigid principle, it is now
considered to be more flexible The context issue of the teaching and learning has never
been taken into account so thoroughly like that before The appearance of the terms such as
“teaching in context”, “learning in context”, “from communicative to context- based” etc
are evidences Consequently, teaching and learning in local areas should be reviewed,
especially the use of course book as the central and nearly unique material in many
colleges currently should be changed toin some extents
Course book, also called textbook has been used commonly as the only learning
material in English classrooms in most Vietnamese colleges until now Viet- Hung
Industrial College (VIC) is also among those A pilot survey showed that there is 56% of
students at the college use the textbook as the unique learning material It was seen through
observations that 90% of the classes used this material alone in acquiring English in class
contents, has been causing many problems in teaching and learning The contexts in the
unrealistically have resulted in low effectiveness in learning
While teachers “tend to teach the textbook itself, rather than use it as a resource for
creativity and inspiration, a learning tool for their learners and a means to an end in their
teaching (Cunningsworth, 1995: 139) is a big problem, there are many researchers who
make clear various problems with the material O‟Neill (1982: 153) suggests that the
textbook can only provide props and framework for classroom teaching; and no textbook
can expect to appeal to all teachers or learners at a particular level McDonough and Shaw
(1993: 83) also propose that textbooks, internally coherent although they may be, they may
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not be totally applicable Swales (1980) contends that any given course book will be incapable of catering for the diversity of needs which exists in most language classrooms Allwright (1981: 9) also maintains that given the complexity of the whole business of the management of language learning, even with the best intentions no single textbook can possibly work in all situations Sheldon (1988: 239) addresses lack of cultural appropriateness of some textbooks, i.e the thinking underlying the textbook writing may
be different from or in conflict with the assumptions held by the teachers It is obviously that using textbook as unique teaching materialhave been recognizing the being more important role day by day of English as a global language is no longer the good choice Indeed, although the teachers at the college have tried to apply new teaching methods as well as improve their techniques in class teaching, their students still and I have shared with my students this experience each time I come to class I have tried my best to help them learn this language by applying all methodological knowledge of communicative approach that I learned from books and my training course but the result
build their communicative skills which I have made every effort to correct in writing and speaking.The boring and stressful atmosphere often covers most English classes of students at intermediate level, who have low English proficiency when they enter the college and always show less motivation to learn it A pilot survey by the researcher showed that one of the big difficulties for the students of this level is the context of the lessons Most of them said that they feel the context of the language is like something coming from the sky and they cannot understand why they have to learn these strange things, what they are going to do with these knowledge as they are looking forwards to finding a job as a worker or a staff in a national company or factory
Therefore the problem should be concerned by the teachers among many other problems related to the ineffectiveness in English teaching More specifically, textbook adaptation should be considered an important and indispensable issue during language teaching process because it is the teachers but not language experts who have “direct personal knowledge of their classroom teaching” can understand their learners most and know the most suitable ways to meet the learners‟ demand
In addition, adapting their materials allows the teachers to achieve more compatibility and fitness between the textbook and the teaching environment, and
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maximize the value of the book for the benefit of their particular learners and for the most
effective teaching outcomes to achieve It would consequently lead to the improvement of
the textbook in the sense of being able to suit the particular situation and empowering and
reskilling the teachers (Apple and Jungck, 1990; Shannon, 1987) Richards (1998: 135)
argues that teachers should approach textbooks with the expectation that deletion,
adaptation, and extension will be normally needed for the materials to work effectively
with their class
Within the background above, the research was conducted to find out more effective
way to adapt the textbook in order to fit the particular learners‟ learning Through
investigating on the students and teacher‟s evaluation on the textbook, truth could be
revealed and used as a basis for the adaptations at present and in the future “In every
problem there is a gift”, the saying of Jean Zukowski/ Faust in a journal by Alan Seaman,
Ph.D also an inspiration for the author to choose this topic The study really gives the
researcher a chance to make theories into practice, improve her skills in making teaching
plans, and most of all make her teaching more effective
Especially, their ability to speak also showed less improvement And the results
that showed in strictly in writing tests have made me really disappointed
I stared to mind the problem and tried to think about the reasons If what I resisted
many years agobefore that the teacher was the unique creator of the world and that it was
only necessary to have a good teacher in the learning process of students, now it have
changed my view The only learning materialdocument my students hold in their hands,
the textbook, have has aeffected on their learning a lot This enforces me to take effort in
studying and finding out some easier ways for my students to access language knowledge
while using this chief leaning document
A pilot survey helped me recognize one of the big difficulties for the students of
intermediate vocational training level in learning English is the context of the lessons
Most of them said that they feel the context of the language is like something whatcoming
from the sky and they cannotcan‟t understand why they have to learn these strange things,
what they are going to do with these knowledge as they are looking forwards to finding a
job as a worker or a staff in a national company or factory
On the other hand, I have learned in my teacher training course that it is the
teachers, but not the experts, who are the most suitable for doing adaptation in their
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language teaching because it is them who can understand best their learners and who know
how to make their learners achieve the expecting goals I have also learned from a saying
of Jean Zukowski/ Faust in the journal by Alan Seaman, Ph.D that “In every problem there
is a gift” This saying makes me more confident to do the research
All the above reasons have inspired above enforce me to choose this topic for
study The results of the study will enable, firstly to give myself a chance to make theories
into practice, secondly to improve my skills in making teaching plans and of course finally
to make my teaching more effective and my students‟ learning better
2.8 Aims and objectiveso o f the study
way to adapt the textbook in order to fit the learning of these particular learners The
specific aims of the research are as follows:
To create suitable contexts for the current textbook in order to help the learners
access the material more easily
In order to To reduce student‟s difficulties in learning Englisha foreign language
To improve the quality of teaching and learning in the college
To find out more effective methods in teaching English for particular learners
To practice studying and researching into an important field of material development in
foreign language teaching
To achieve these aims and objectives above, the study mustmust answer three3
questions:
1 How do contexts in the current textbook cause difficulties for the learners?
2 What are the suitable contexts for the students to learn effectively?
3 How areto adapt these existingavailable contexts adapted?ts to meet the
students‟ interests?
3.9 Significance of the study
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au giữa aims và objectives, như vậy không nên gộp
cả aims và objectives vào như thế này Có thể bỏ đi objectives
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đủ: How are the existing contexts adapted / hoặc What are the ways of adapting the existing contexts
to ?
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Int is an attempt to bring scientific theories into practice in a particular teaching
environment and for particular learners, t
Theis study iswill makeone a great contribution to the non- stop innovation in teaching
methodology in the college It brings new theoretical insights intoto the use of materials,
not yet been any research into textbook adaptation aapplied in the college so far There
isn‟t a textbook adaptation that bases on methodological theory in the college
On the other hand, Ithe study can alsot brings practical benefits to English teaching
and learning in the college It provides useful and specific clues on designing suitable
contexts for presenting new language to the teachers who teach English for the learners of
vocational training at intermediate level This It creates a very important skill of adapting
college
4.10 Scope of the study
As many language experts said, when we use a textbook for particular learners, there
will be so many inappropriateness of it that teachers should consider to adapt For example,
there are common adaptations applied to textbook focus on activities, skills, methodology,
texts etc This thesis aimed at studying the contexts of the course book which is currently
used in the college of the researcher However, recognizing that the research topic is too
large with so many types of contexts designed in the textbook as well as the limitation of
time allowed and the limited number of pages, the study can only cover the kind of
contexts that are used at the beginning of each lesson to present new language And
because the contexts are used in the lead- in stage of each lesson, the author
contemporarily calls them “lead- in contexts” and presumes to use this term throughout the
next parts of the thesis The study concerns these issues:
Briefly review the topic as well as the lead- in contexts of the textbook
Survey teachers‟ use of the lead- in contexts in the textbook
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nghĩa đại loại như câu cô gợi ý
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viết thành đoạn văn, tốt hơn là gạch đầu dòng thế này
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tiếp nhé!
11 Method of the study
According to Huchinton and Waters (1987), the best methodology for studying the
needs of any particular group of students is to use such method as questionnaires, follow-
up interviews, and collection of authentic texts Therefore, in order to find out answers to
the research questions mentioned above, survey question about naires, a quantitative
method in research was exploited to collect opinions about the course book as well as the
teachers and students‟ attitudes towards the contexts, used to teach new language at the
beginning of each lesson in the textbook New Headway elementary Through the data
collected from the questionnaire, truth value of persuasive statistics concerning the
investigated issues could be obtained In addition, a follow- up interview, a qualitative
method in research, was undertaken to make the data clearer and more valuable
On the other hand, information from other sources such as the Internet, journals and
books was collected, summarized, analyzed and synthesized Collecting information and
analyzing data from other sources also equipped the researcher with background
knowledge and literature of the investigated issues
Through analyzing the information and data collected, the researcher have flexibly
taken advantages of all the above mentioned methods as a source of evidence to enhance
the persuasive value of the study
12 Design of the study
The paper includes four chapters altogether
Chapter 1- Literature Review reviews theoretical background on which the whole
study is based on, including theoretical issues of using contexts in presenting new
language
Chapter 2- Methodology describes in detail the methods and procedures that the
researcher use in conducting this research
Chapter 3- Data analysis and findings presents the results collected together with the
author‟s discusses findings and possible inferences from such findings
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Chapter 4- Adapting contexts in the textbook New Headway elementary provides
some criteria for adapting the lead- in contexts of the textbook, some sample adapted
contexts and some suggestions for further study
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter reviews the theories related to textbook evaluation and adaptation in
general and context in particular In addition, it also concerns theories about need analysis
And as an exception, a description of the study‟s setting is presented in this part All of
these serve as the basis for an investigation into students‟ evaluation on the textbook and
their need on suitable contexts for the textbook which is carried out and presented in the
next chapter
1 Textbook in EFL
1.1 Definition of terms “textbook” in the study
The term „textbook‟ is defined as „books that are used to teach students; in the past,
textbooks only referred to printed books, but nowadays the term also includes various kind
of materials such as discs, visual media (video, film footage), and electronic publications
http://www.textlib.net/ctm/english/user/tour/tour001_View01.jsp?menu_code=TOUR&sub_type=001 ) In this paper
textbook or course book will be used interchangeably to refer to books intended by their
producers to be used as core teaching materials
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1.2 The role of textbook in teaching and learning English
Textbooks are key component in most language programs In some situations, they
serve as the basis for much of the language input the 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 the skills taught and the kind of the language practice the students
take part in In other situations, the textbooks may serve primarily to supplement the
teacher‟s instruction For learners, the textbooks may provide the source of contact they
have with the language apart from the 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 the formats that teachers can use
Much of the language teaching that occurs through out 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 teacher‟s professional knowledge (Richards, 2001:
254-256),
However, textbooks also have limitations They may contain inauthentic language, they
may distort the content, they may not reflect the students' needs, they can deskill teachers,
and they are expensive (Richards, 2001) Therefore, the teachers should evaluate the
teaching materials before using it in teaching
1.3 Textbook evaluation
However the material also contains many disadvantages so it should be necessary to
evaluate textbook before applying it into teaching and learning
Cunningsworth (1995) proposes four criteria for evaluating textbooks: (1) They
should correspond to the learner's needs They should match the aims and objectives of the
language- learning program; (2) They should reflect the uses (present or future) which the
learners will make of the language Textbooks should be chosen so that they will help
equip students to use language effectively for their own purposes; (3) They should take
account of students' needs as learners and should facilitate their learning processes, without
dogmatically imposing a rigid "method"; and (4) They should have a clear role as a support
for learning Like teachers, they mediate between the target language and the learner
Based on Tomlinson‟s (1998) conception of what constitutes effective language
teach-ing materials, a good textbook is believed to have the followteach-ing features:
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achieve communicative purposes
Textbooks should take into account that the positive effects of language teaching are
usually delayed
Textbooks should take into account that students differ in learning styles
Textbooks should take into account that students differ in affective factors
Textbooks should maximize learning potential by encouraging intellectual, aesthetic
and emotional involvement which stimulates both right and left brain activities
1.4 Textbook adaptation
Despite the great effort that textbook writers make to meet the needs of the intended
users, textbooks are subject to adaptation when they are actually used in the classroom
After all, most commercial textbooks are not written for any particular class Maley
(1998:281 in Tomlinson, 1998) suggested the following options to adapt materials:
Omission: the teacher leaves out things deemed inappropriate, offensive, unproductive,
etc., for the particular group
textbooks, either in the form of texts or exercise material
Reduction: where the teacher shortens an activity to give it less weight or emphasis
Extension: where an activity is lengthened in order to give it an additional dimension
(For example, a vocabulary activity is extended to draw attention to some syntactic
patterning.)
Rewriting/modification: teacher may occasionally decide to rewrite material,
espe-cially exercise material, to make it more appropriate, more “communicative”, more
demanding, more accessible to their students, etc
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Replacement: text or exercise material which is considered inadequate, for whatever
reason, may be replaced by more suitable material This is often culled from other
resource materials
is not suitable for their students They can then decide to plot a different course through
the textbooks from the one the writer has laid down
Branching: teachers may decide to add options to the existing activity or to suggest
alternative pathways through the activities (For example, an experiential route or an
analytical route.)
2 Context in textbook
2.1 The term „context”
Nowadays, the phrase “teaching language in context” is no longer strange to teaching
methodologists and modern teachers It implies that when teaching language, the teachers
should bear in mind not only showing students what language means (language
knowledge), but they also have to show them how it is used (language
use/communication)
The simplest definition comes from the Wiktionary, „context‟ is defined as „the text in
which a word or passage appears and which helps ascertain its meaning; On the other hand,
the communicative language teaching approach sees context as “a dynamic, not a static
concept: it is to be understood as the surroundings, in the widest sense, that enable the
participants in the communication process to interact, and that make the linguistic
expressions of their interaction intelligible” (Kirsten Malmkicer and John Williams, 1998
cited from Mey, 1993: 38)
However the explanation of the term, which supports best for the study, should be
in the theory of Harmer (1996) Here it is defined as “„the situation or body of information
that causes language to be used” In this theory, Harmer points out that the context for
introducing new language should have such characteristics as: (1) It should show what the
new language means and how it is used, (2)It should be interesting for the student, and (3)
It should provide the background for a lot of language use
For example, in the textbook New Headway elementary, to introduce the verb BE (am/
is/ are) at the present simple tense, a context of two friends Paula and Rosa greeting and
giving their self introduction in an office is offered Similarly, a collect of 12 everyday
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objects is used as context to present singular and plural nouns; read and listen to the
telephone numbers is context of teaching numbers; reading personal information in Keesha
Anderson‟s identity card is the context to use verb BE (am/ is/ are) in questions and
negative, etc
Base on this theory and on the difficulties that the students have faced with during
learning English in unfamiliar contexts available in the textbook, the researcher would try
to design more suitable contexts for her students to help them understand the language
more easily and to use it more effectively in communicative situations
2.2 Lead- in context
In Harmer's theory, a model for introducing new language is offered which has five
components: Lead-in, Elicitation, Explanation, Accurate reproduction, and immediate
creativity During the lead-in the context is introduced and the meaning or use of the new
language is demonstrated This is the stage at which students may hear or see some
language (including the new language) and during which students may become aware of
certain key concepts The key concepts are those pieces of information about the context
that are vital if students are to understand the context and thus the meaning and use of the
new language Because the scope of this thesis is to study the contexts which are used to
present new language at the lead- in stage of each lesson, the researcher presume to use the
term “lead- in context” to imply the contexts offered at the beginning of each lesson to help
students recognize the meaning of situation in which learning structure is used
2.3 The role of context in learning language
The key to understanding language in context is to start not with language, but with
context (Hymes 1972: xix) The role of context is central in language learning It‟s
common that EFL students don‟t really understand the various meanings of new words in
different contexts That‟s why EFL students don‟t know how to apply the words they have
learned practically in various contexts It‟s fundamental for teachers to provide a rich
context for students‟ language learning and practice For instance, linguistic contextual
information enhances adolescents‟ interpretation of idioms (Nippold & Martin, 1989) The
contextual cues surrounding a particular word can help readers get that‟s meaning In
contrast, context-reduced language will be hard for readers to tolerate (Brown, 2001)
Consequently, it‟s more effective for EFL students to learn language in meaningful
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Trang 16All courses are based on a perceived need of some source Richterich (1973) considers
language needs as “the requirements, which arise from the use of a language in the
multitude of situation, which may arise in the social lives of the individuals and groups”
By analyzing the language needs of a specific group of learners, we should be able to
identify those notions and functions that will be most valuable to teach
Another definition comes from goal- oriented perspective, needs can be defined as
what students should be able to do at the end of their language course or “what the user-
institution or society at large regards as necessary or desirable to be learnt from a program
of language instruction” (Mountfort, 1981:27)
In this thesis, the definition of Brindley (1984: 28) would be employed According to
him, needs refer to wants, desires, demands expectations, motivations, lacks, constrains,
and requirements From this point of view, the needs of students may be in a great
harmony or in opposition to the requirements of the course designers
3.2 Need analysis in language teaching
A needs analysis is the method by which a teacher finds out and records what it is that
a student wants or needs to study in their class According to Iwai et al (1999), the term
needs analysis generally refers to the activities that are involved in collecting information
that will serve as the basis for developing a curriculum that will meet the needs of a
particular group of students
Conducting a needs analysis may just about be the most important thing to do for
language class This applies particularly to smaller groups or individuals So what is it?
Basically, it‟s a way of finding out what the students want and need to learn It consists of
gauging their current ability level, and what they want to achieve It goes back in part to
finding out the reason why the students are learning English If the answer they give to this
question is too generic to be useful, some well-pointed questions will help to get the most
from them A needs analysis can be conducted either in conversation or by getting the
students to fill out a form The study utilizes questionnaires to collect data of this type
4 Description of the study‟s setting
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4.1 The current English syllabus
The syllabus was designed by a group of teachers, approved by the Board of Deans of
the Foreign Language Department , and then applied for all classes of the intermediate
training level in the college Its title is „Basic English for elementary learners‟ The class
time takes 120 periods (90 hours) and it is separated into 2 parts, one part for the first term
of the first year students and another for the second term in the same year It is assigned as
a compulsory subject in the college
The objectives of the course is to provide students with basic grammar knowledge to
help them develop communicative skills such as listening, speaking, reading and writing at
level A (according to the ranking of English proficiency in Vietnam)
The content of the syllabus is based closely on the textbook It includes 14 lessons of
which each lesson focuses on particular grammatical structures, functional speech, and
specific language skills After every four lessons, there‟s a test which is usually in the
format of reading and writing, applied to collect the students‟ feedback on learning and to
assess their learning progress These progress tests account for 25 percent of the total mark
The final test is carried out in the writing format at the end of the course It makes up 50
percent of the whole assessments (See detail content in appendix 1 on page I)
4.2 The teachers
The teaching staff includes 14 teachers who are aged from 28 to 50, with their teaching
experiences ranging from 4 to 25 years, among whom 12 are female teachers Most of
them have BA degree in language teaching; only 4 have been trained in MA courses The
fact that the teachers are mostly females causes many disadvantages in their jobs because
they are at the age of having and raising small children So they don‟t have enough time
investing in their jobs
As the result, most teachers mainly choose traditional way of teaching in their classes,
which is direct- instructions, a very common teacher- centered approach Here „the teacher
is seen as the source of all knowledge and controls the flow of information‟ (Holly Boyko-
http://www.tesolcourse.com/tesol-course-articles/teaching-styles/article-01-hb.php) These teachers are used
to grammar- translation methods and form- focused instructions Another reason for
choosing this teaching style is the limited time designed in the syllabus With this reason, it
is not surprised that the teachers have chosen the less time- consuming teaching method
Comment [P7]: Em có cho là người thông qua
chương trình giảng d y l à trưởng khoa/ BCN khoa/ hay trường???
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Most of the teacher said they usually use cassette player as teaching aid in their class
because there are listening parts in the textbook Other while, they don‟t use teaching aids
(such as additional pictures, projector or videos etc) because it takes time to edit and plan
the lessons The main teaching materials are textbook New Headway elementary, teacher‟s
prefer using available texts, tasks and exercises in the textbook during the class time
4.3 The learners
Although this is a technical college, the
number of female students is approximately
equal to the number of male students The
students isare aged from 18 to 25 and they
mainly live in rural areas These students have
learnt English since they wereas at school
assessed that the students‟ English proficiency in this training level is very low Survey on
student self evaluation also showed that (figures in chart 4.3) Other while, it seems that the
learning motivation in these learners is not high because most of them prefer focusing their
learning on profession Only few of them focus on learning English for academic purpose
According to the researcher‟s observation, most students have passive learning styles
They commonly choose individual learning Their shyness in learning foreign language
makes them rarely show their opinions in class which is very difficult for teachers to carry
out speaking activities in class However they show a lot of excitements on the topics
related to their interests such as sport, entertainment, food, music, etc It is obviously that
what knowledge the students know well, they will be willing to talk about it
There is also a fact that many students pay too much attention on driving their learning
to an end of examinations This strategy may be affected by the improper requirements of
the syllabus and assessment methods The tests designed in writing format may make them
focused on learning grammatical structures rather than building skills As the result, the
language program objectives achieved are very low
On using learning materials, it can be seen that most students in this training level use
textbook as the main and only document during their learning process, both using it for
learning new language knowledge in class and doing exercises at home Some of them also
Chart 4.3 Students' self evaluation about English proficiency
13.5
0 10 20 30 40 50
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Trang 19XXII
use English- Vietnamese Dictionary but very few of them use Vietnamese- English
Dictionary which limits their chance to increase their vocabulary a lot
CHAPTER II METHODOLOGY
1 Subjects of the study
The research is conducted to meet English learning demand of the students at
intermediate vocational training of the college, so the students at this level were defined as
the participants In addition, the teachers of the college‟s English department were also
chosen to be the participants because they are people who work directly with the students
during the learning process Therefore the results of the study could be reliable
Following the design above, 200 first- year students were selected randomly in 4
classes that the researcher teaches Their ages ranged from 20 to 22 They have just
finished learning the textbook New Headway elementary, so they could give the best
evaluations on the material Besides, the survey was also carried out with the participation
of 14 teachers in English department They were between 28 and 50 years old, with their
teaching experiences ranging from 4 to 25 years The follow- up interview was undertaken
with 15 students chosen randomly among 200 students above
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2 Data collection and procedure
This study utilized both quantitative and qualitative research method to collect data
because their instruments such as questionnaire and interview were considered to be
relatively precise and time saving to do in educational researching (Nunan 1992: 140) By
this method the research could obtain a “snapshot” of conditions, attitudes and beliefs of
the learners and teachers toward using the current textbook at the college Specifically, a
series of questionnaires were used to gather information about students and teachers‟
evaluation of the textbook New Headway elementary in such aspects as overall rating the
course book, topic evaluation, lead- in contexts evaluation and teacher‟s adaptation with
the contexts In addition, other questionnaires were also delivered to the students to survey
their need in English learning Following, the researcher carried out a group interview
among students and teachers to make the data clearer and more reliable
Firstly, the survey questionnaire was conducted The questionnaires were divided
into two parts The first part surveyed background information about learners such as their
sexes, ages, living places, experiences, purposes, motivations and interests in learning
English Closed questions were mainly used because they were considered to be easier to
collate and analyze in the later research stage There were two open questions used to find
more about student difficulties in learning and using the material Other series of questions
skill and communicative contents, especially focused on the contexts of each lesson The
criteria chosen above were based on the checklist of analyzing the learning and teaching
situation for the best course book selection of Cunningsworth (1995)
The second part of the questionnaire was designed to finds out about learners and
contexts of the book, especially lead- in contexts The purpose was to know about the
learners‟ attitudes toward the contexts of textbook Similar to the first part, most questions
were closed types There were only two open questions designed to learn more about the
reasons why the negative feedbacks happened The designed questions were based on
closed question types in survey questionnaires model by Nunnan (1992: 143), cited in
Youngman (1986)
Following, a follow –up group interview was undertaken after the questionnaire
survey results were found out The research issues which are unclear and specific were dug
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deeper to find out how the contexts cause difficulty for the students and what kind of
changes they expect to be done in the textbook
All the data collection methods and duration above was believed to help the
researcher find out appropriate suggestions for her research problem in the following part
of the study
2 Methods of data analysis
This study utilized quantitative and qualitative method in analyzing the data
Quantitative analysis processes the data in the form of numbers and statistics According
to that, the data collected from questionnaires was coded into charts of different
categories such as the attitudes of students towards the topics of the textbook, the
teachers‟ observation on student reflections on the lead- in contexts of the textbook etc
The qualitative analysis is carried out with the data in form of words after the fulfillment
of the quantitative analysis The result of the follow- up interview was analyzed in depth
to learn more about the reasons of problematic contexts emerged during the quantitative
data collection These methods were applied because they were believed to be effective
instruments to find out valuable and reliable research results Another reason is that they
are not time- consuming methods
CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS
1 An overview of lead- in contexts in the course book New Headway
(See the appendix on page )
2 General evaluations about the textbook New Headway elementary
In order to have a general view on how contexts in the current textbook cause
difficulties for the learners, overall evaluations which focus on rating the whole book, its
topics and its lead- in contexts of each lesson will be demonstrated and discussed
evaluation according to the
survey, the course book New
commonly rated „good‟ by
0 42 75
45.5 25 3.5 0
0 20 40 60 80 100
Chart 1 Overall rating of the textbook
Percentage of students Percentage of teachers
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students (46.6%) (Figure in chart 1) This can be inferred that the book, to some extent,
hasn‟t gained the students‟ interest yet Most students and teachers in the group interview
said that they are most pleased with the design and organization of the book, but 30% of
students argued that there seems to have some problems with the content For instance,
some lessons offer irrelevant contexts with students‟ background knowledge The
vocabulary necessary for students to express ideas in their particular situations is not
enough This is not surprising because most commercial course books are not designed for
particular learners
Secondly, it can be seen
that the topics of the lessons
haven‟t really attracted the
students yet There are only
40.5% of students like the
topics while 41.5% of them
keep neutral attitude (Figure
in chart 4a)
Separately, the result shows that most students rate the topics „normal‟ while the
teachers observed that most of them like the topics (48.8%) (Figure in charts 2a and 3a)
Most students (57%) agree that the topics they don‟t like the topics partly because they
don‟t understand the situations inside (Figure in chart 2c), while the 92% of teachers agree
with the reason above (Figure in chart 3c)
Chart 2a Students' overall evaluation of the topics
Chart 4a Students' ovarall evaluation about the topics (average)
9.6
0.0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
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Trang 23Finally, for the purpose and scope of the study, the lead- in contexts of each lesson is
taken into consideration in this survey The result shows that most students are neutral in
this evaluating (36.4%) Especially, the following level of the evaluation is dislike which
takes 16.7% (Figure in chart 7a) This may be inferred that most lead- in contexts of each
lesson are not attractive enough for
the students
Separately, the students‟ overall
evaluation on lead- in contexts
demonstrates neutral level at 30.4%
and dislike level at 12.6% while
teachers‟ overall observations show
student neutral level at 34.5% and
dislike level at 20.8% (Figure in charts 5a and 6a) Most students agree that they don‟t like
the lead- in contexts which are far unfamiliar with their background knowledge (53%), and
that they are more willing to learn if the situations are familiar to them (82%) (Figure in
charts 5c and 5d) Detailed analysis of students‟ neutral and dislike attitudes will be
demonstrated in the following parts
17.0
32.0 38.4
Chart 5a Students' overall evaluation about the lead- in contexts
12.5
32.1 34.5
20.8
0 10 20 30 40
Quite like Like Neutral Dislike
Chart 6a Teachers' overall observation on students' reflection with lead- in contexts
Chart 7a Students' overall evaluation about the lead- in contexts (average)
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Trang 243 Detailed evaluations about the textbook
3.1 Students‟ attitudes toward topics and lead- in contexts
In detailed evaluation on each lesson of the textbook, although most students show
slightly interest in all the topics, the noticeable demonstrations are neutral attitudes The
topics which get common favorite are those of easy accessible ones or interesting to the
students and the less favorite topics are those of more difficult to say about Here are the
top five topics of each type (Figure in chart 2b):
Topic 1 Greeting and introduction
Topic 4 Weekday and weekend activities
Topic 6 Speaking about abilities
Topic 9 Food and drinks
Topic 12 Future plans
Topic 2 Introduction about other people Topic 3 Talking about jobs
Topic 7 Telling about the life in the past Topic 8 Events happened in the past
Topic 11 Describing people
Chart 2b Student's detailed evaluation about the topics
25
10
6
18 14 19
27
15 12 22
40
36 30
35 38 30
20 20
47
28 27 43 27 34 32
48 53
38 40 39 40 40
22
47 49 36 47 35
Topi4
Topi5
Topi6
Topi7
Topi8
Topi9
Topi10
Topi11
Topi12
Topi13
Topi14
Quite like Like Neutral Dislike
In evaluating about the lead- in contexts, it can be seen that the most interesting
contexts are those of easy and accessible or interesting ones to the students because
they like to talk about what they know well about Here the contexts are as follows:
Context 1 Paula and Rosa introduce to each other about name and country
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Trang 25XXVIII
Context 6 People‟s abilities in work and sport
Context 9 Everyday food and drinks
Context 10 Comparing life in city and the country
In contrast, the common unfavourite contexts are those which sound unattractive to
the students or unfamiliar to their background knowledge These contexts usually result
in a situation that students keep silent during all the class time Five top unfavourite
contexts are as follows (Figure in chart 5b):
Context 2 Keesha‟s personal identity cards
Context 7 The life of poetess Mattie Smith
Context 11 Describing people and activities happening
Context 12 Rosie and her teachers‟ plan for the future
Context 14 Talking about countries you have ever been to
Chart 5b Students' detailed evaluation about the lead- in contexts
22
10
15 15 13
20 15 21 28 19 13 10
22 18
48
41 41 41
36 44
31 26 33
19 19 11 19
Con
text 4
Con
text 5
Con
text 6
Con
text 7
Con
text 8
Con
text 9
Taking the five contexts above into consideration in term of relevance with their
topics, we can infer some possible findings For instance, contexts 2, 7 and 11,
belonging to topics 2, 7 and 11 which get most neutral evaluations and rather high
interested evaluations, show that both topic and lead- in context are unattractive ones to
the learners; However, topics 12 and 14, while considered unfavourite, belong to
topics which have most interest or rather high percent of interest This is understood
that while students may like the topic very much, the uninterested contexts can
relatively reduce their motivation in learning
3.1 Teachers‟ observation on student reflections
It can be seen that there is a relative difference between the direct survey results
from students and those from teachers on the same issue The teachers‟ observation on
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Trang 26XXIX
their students‟ reflection show that there is a rather high percent of interested responses
and rather low percent of uninterested responses It can be seen in figures in chart 3b
Topic 1 Greeting and introduction
Topic 4 Weekday and weekend activities
Topic 5 Describing living places
Topic 6 Speaking about abilities
Topic 7 Telling about the past
Topic 2 Introduction about other people Topic 10 Comparisons
Topic 11 Describing people Topic 13 General knowledge quiz Topic 14 Talking about experiences
Chart 3b Teachers' detailed obsevation about the students' reflection on topics
58 58 33
50
42 42 50 25 42
8
58 50 25 33
42 42 50 33
To pi 4
To pi 5
To pi 6
To pi 7
To pi 8
To pi 9
To pi 10
To pi 11
To pi 12
To pi 13
To pi 14
Quite like Like Neutral Dislike
So the coincidental rate between the students‟ figure and teachers‟ figure may be
counted for 40% and it shows that the difference is considerable Despite that, the
figures still reflects factual dominant numbers of students feeling less attracted with
these topics Demonstration is shown in the figures from students‟ evaluation chart on
topics 10, 13 and 14 which are 55%, 62% and 45% respectively
In the survey of teachers‟ observation on student reflections with the lead- in
contexts, the result shows that the students response their common interests in the
contexts such as
Context 1 Paula and Rosa introduce to each other about name and country
Context 5 Describing Helen‟s living room
Context 6 People‟s abilities in work and sport
Context 9 Everyday food and drinks
Context 10 Comparing life in city and the country
In contradiction, they show much less interest in such contexts as
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Trang 27XXX
Context 2 Keesha‟s personal identity cards
Context 4 Bobby‟s weekdays and weekends
Context 7 The life of poetess Mattie Smith
Context 8 Appearance of remarkable events such as Coca cola, camera
Context 11 Describing people and activities happening
Context 14 Talking about countries you have ever been to
8 8
25
8 8 8
17 8
33 33
50
33 42 33
17 17
50
25 50
33 33
17 17 17
25 17
Conte 3
Conte 4
Conte 5
Conte 6
Conte 7
Conte 8
Conte 9
Conte
10
Conte
11
Conte
12
Conte
13
Conte
14
Quite like Like Neutral Dislike
The coincidental rate between the students‟ figure and teachers‟ figure is now
higher at 67%, showing that the figures above can reflect the same fact with students‟
figures The percent of responses of the students to the contexts presented in Chart 6b
are 63%, 53%, 60%, 44%, 64%, 55% respectively
3.2 The rate on average
Base on the synthesis of the teachers‟ figures and students‟ figures in the survey
and the purpose of the data analysis to find out how the lead- in contexts in the
textbook can cause difficulty for the students, five top unfavourite lead- in contexts that
are considered problematic are as follows:
Context 2 Keesha‟s personal identity cards
Context 7 The life of poetess Mattie Smith
Context 11 Describing people and activities happening
Context 12 Rosie and her teachers‟ plan for the future
Context 14 Talking about countries you have ever been to
(Figure in chart 4b and 7b)
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Trang 2849
35 3446
26 38
49 47
2 4 6 5 5
7 17
0 6
13 14
4 20
Topi6
Topi7
Topi8
Topi9
Topi10
Topi11
Topi12
Topi13
Topi14
Quite like Like Neutral Dislike
Chart 7b Students' detailed evaluation about the lead- in contexts (average)
28
5 8
11 1523
12 1427
14
10 9
19 13
25
35 36 43
29 3233
22 26
49
33
45
33 30
43 36
8 10
18 18 14 30
Con
text 5
Con
text 6
Con
text 7
Con
text 8
Con
text 9
These lead- in contexts then will be taken into consideration of adapting and will be
analyzed and discussed in more details in chapter 4
4 Teachers‟ use of contexts in the textbook
The survey on teacher‟s use of lead- in contexts in the textbook to present new
language is conducted to study more about the teachers‟ attitude in using this factor in their
classes to achieve the teaching goals
In the survey on how teachers use the course book contexts in their class teaching, the
researcher have found out that most teachers choose the original contexts of the textbook to
present new language at the beginning of the lessons (71.4%) However, they tend to make
more changes in the following lessons of the textbook The greatest change happens in the
last lesson (Unit 14- Talking about countries you have ever been to) (Figure in chart 8a and
Trang 29Keep the original Make changes
Chart 8a Teachers' overall use of lead- in contexts
Chart 8b Teachers' detailed use of lead- in contexts
92
67
83 75 83
75 75
67 67
75 75 58 67
42
8
33
17 25 17
25 25
33 33 25 33 42 33 58
Cont
ext 11
Cont
ext 12
Cont
ext 13
Cont
ext 14
Keep the original Make changes
Through the interview, 74% of teachers believe that their students can understand all
the contexts, so they keep the contexts original 22% do not have enough time for editing
the lessons and want to spend time for practice activities Changes have been made when
the students show less response to the teaching because of improper contexts given
Specifically, 75% of teachers partly agree that their students often show less enthusiasm on
unfamiliar topics in class; 17% completely agree with this judgment; only 8% disagree and
there are no other views
In answering how they change the context of the lesson, most teachers said that they
tend to utilize Vietnamese situations which are close to the learners‟ everyday life or
belongs to their experiences, interests and background knowledge For instance, in lesson
14, the lead- in context is listening and saying about countries that learners have been to,
some teachers have changed this context into listening and saying about provinces or cities
in Vietnam that learners have been to This change has created really great motivation in
learning activities at the following stages
5 Students‟ need analysis
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Trang 30XXXIII
In any changes being made in teaching program, learner need has always been regarded
as the most important factor Therefore, when carrying out this study, the researcher
conducted a students‟ need survey on the aspects of leaning purposes, motivation, using
material, learning difficulties, preferred learning contexts, and favorite lead- in activities
Learning purpose
The survey results shows that the students learn English mainly to meet the demand of
their examination (24.7%) and to meet the demand of future job (41.3%) Other purposes
are traveling (5.6%), academic
learning (15.9%), and interests
(12.5%) (Figure in chart 15)
This relates closely to the
choosing what to learn and
how to learn So the teachers
must pay much attention to
this to build more proper
themes and contexts
Using material
The survey shows that there are 56% of students using the course book New Headway
elementary during their English learning 30% use the course book and other materials
such as dictionary, grammar book, hand book, etc There are only 8% using other materials
and 6% of them do not use any materials (Figure in chart 16) According to the
researcher‟s observation, most students who do not use any materials usually use their
teachers‟ lecturing in class to learn
Course book New Headway
Course book New Headway and other materials Other materials
Not any material
Learning difficulties
24.7 41.3
5.6
15.9 12.5
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
Ex am
tion
Fu tur
e j ob Tra ve
ling
Ac ade
mi c Int ere st
Chart 15 Students' learning purpose (percent of respondent)
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Trang 31XXXIV
The reason that causes difficulty for the students in English class mainly comes from
learning vocabulary 37.5% of them agued that there are too many new words and also said
that the vocabulary is difficult to remember; 22.5% face with difficult contexts; and 28%
often get confused with grammar structures; 12% have no ideas (Figure in chart 19) In the
interview, 30% of students said that there is not enough necessary vocabulary in every
lesson for them to express their ideas
in the same theme This shows that
when creating more familiar contexts
to practice English, the teachers should
provide more suitable vocabulary in
those contexts
Preferences in learning context
The figures in the survey indicate that 44% of students prefer learning with both
foreign and Vietnam contexts; 27% like to learn with Vietnam contexts; only 15% of them
are interested in foreign contexts; 16% of them have no ideas (Figure in chart 18)
15 27 44
No response
In asking about their attitudes toward more familiar contexts, 47% of students agreed
that they want many contexts in an English course book to be familiar with their everyday
life; 33% strongly agree with the above idea; 16% disagree and only 5% neutral While,
other figures show 55% of ideas agree with learning English in foreign contexts to widen
their knowledge about the world; 16% strongly agree; 25% disagree and 5% neutral
(Figure in chart 20) This shows that both contexts are important to the students and each
context brings different benefits to them in learning
Chart 19 Students' most difficult facing with the textbook
Vocabulary Contexts Grammar No response
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Trang 32In the group interview, 80% of students argued that learning English in habitual themes
and familiar contexts usually make them more excited than in strange themes and foreign
contexts Their favorite themes usually are:
However, 20% of the students said that even though they like Vietnamese contexts the
teachers try to create in English lessons, they still want to learn English in foreign contexts
because they want to know more about the world This is not a new issue as far as the
author is concerned It touches a problem of teaching culture along with teaching language
in an EFL class Therefore, in the author‟s opinion, both types of context should be used,
necessary to consider the proportion and the suitability In this thesis, the researcher just
desire to adapt the textbook by adding Vietnamese contexts to the available themes in the
book, not tend to replace all the foreign contexts in it
Students’ interest in lead-in activities
The survey shows that most students are interested in listening and speaking activities
in class 32.6% of them would like to learn speaking; 26.9 of them want to learn listening;
only 22.2% like learning reading and 18.8% choose writing (Figure in chart 17) This
obviously reflects their needs in
learning English for future job use
as shown in figure of chart 15
Chart 17 Students' prefered lead- in activity
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Trang 33XXXVI
However, many students said that they feel afraid of practicing with these types of
activities because they often make mistakes The mistakes usually come from
pronunciation and structure
In the group interview, 85% of students choose reading and writing as lead- in
activities for each lesson The reason is that they want to learn vocabulary of the context
before using the vocabulary for listening and speaking activities They think this would set
up more confidence for them in reaching the target skills of listening and speaking
6 Conclusion
In this chapter, general evaluations as well as detailed evaluations on the textbook New
Headway concerning topics and lead- in contexts has been analyzed, so this has really
brought in some conclusions Although the course book gets most students and teachers‟
favorite, the percent of neutral and uninterested attitudes toward the topics and lead- in
contexts are rather high, especially it is the most dominant in direct survey with students
Through a direct group interview, these neutral responses have been inferred to the
meaning that there is unattractiveness from the contexts of each lesson This has answered
the research question of how contexts in the current textbook cause difficulties for the
learners Five lead- in contexts 2, 7, 11, 12, and 14 have been considered to bring into the
adaptation due to their high percent of unfavourites More ever, the results in student need
analysis have helped to define the criteria that students take care of, such as learning
purpose, material, type of lead- in contexts, type of interested lead- in activities This has
answered the research question of what are the suitable contexts for the students to learn
effectively This also helps the researcher find out proper adaptations to the textbook in the
next chapter
CHAPTER 4: ADAPTING CONTEXTS IN THE TEXTBOOK NEW HEADWAY
ELEMENTARY
1 Criteria for the adaptation
In order to create effective lead- in contexts for learning new language, the study
focus mainly on its student‟s sneeds interest and background knowledge Further more,
the author also would like to enrich and encourage her students in learning by
integrating foreign aspects
In chapter I (Literature review), the study has concerned with Cunningsworth‟s
criteria of evaluating textbook and Tomlinson‟s conception of what constitutes
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Comment [NX12]: Em có thể viết thêm một mục
nữa trong phần này về “the efects of contexts” students‟s learning and teachers‟ teaching, nhưng làm thế nào em có thể đo lường được những ảnh hưởng đó???
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Comment [NX13]: tiêu đề này dài quá Có thể
đơn giản lại là Adapting contexts hoặc context adaptation
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effective language teaching materials These criteria are considered firstly to the
adaptations Here the researcher also believes that in order to motivate learners, their
need should be taken into account The survey shows that most learners in at this level
want to achieve speaking and listening skill Therefore the contexts adapted should
help to facilitate the students‟ talking To obtain that point, they must both be
accessible to the students and “attract the students‟ curiosity, interest and attention”
The accessible criterion here is the familiar contexts which are understandable to
the learners who commonly have limited background knowledge about the world Here
the author of this thesis has chosen Vietnamese contexts to make them easier for
students to talk about In addition, the lead- in texts are also adapted with proper
grammar structures and vocabulary to suit learners‟ proficiency
However, to avoid the boredom when talking about familiar things, update,
authentic and remarkable events have been introduced Especially, besides utilizing
familiar contexts conveying Vietnamese culture, the author has tried to introduce into
the situations some international integrative aspects in an effort to call for foreign
language learning in the students
Finally, to ensure that the lead- in contexts which aims at facilitating students‟
discussion and talking at the beginning of the lesson do not take time of other activity
such as practice, the contexts are designed to introduce and discuss within 45 minutes
class
2 The method for the adapting
As shown in the literature review on textbook adaptation (chapter 1), the
adaptations here belong to level three, adaptation of specific activities in a unit The
activities here are presenting new language at the lead- in stage of a lesson The
technique chosen in this changing is addition New contexts are designed to add to
textbook in the form of pictures and texts printed in worksheets (these worksheets then
will be handed over to the learners in class for discussing and accessing to the new
language) The author utilizes the option “addition” because although the original
contexts cause difficult to the students these contexts are still useful for them In
addition, most students‟ ambition are learning English from both Vietnamese and
foreign contexts Therefore, the original contexts are still be used but with the aim of
extending
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3 Problematic lead- in contexts and the adaptations
3.1 Context 1
The first context which gets less students‟ interest is from Unit 2 with the topic of
introduction about other people The lead- in context here introduces a personal
identity card of a girl named Anderson with information such as surname, first name,
country, job, address, phone number, age, and married Then it asks students to fill in
questions with missing words This is not an understandable and difficult situation but
it seems that the situation can‟t attract the learners‟ attention Young Vietnamese
learners at local area tent to ignore image of unknown and foreign people who don‟t
arouse their curiosity So it is not surprising that the context attract less students‟
attention which usually leads to boring atmosphere in class learning (see the original
context 1 in appendix 8 on page XI)
The solution for this problematic context is to add a new context before it The
researcher has chosen some famous Vietnamese people to introduce in the situation
They are Dam Vinh Hung, one of “most wanted” singer by many young students now
and Pham Quynh Anh, a well-known girl recently with her song about Vietnam One
popular foreigner is also introduced, that is Ronandinho, a footballer With these
images about the people, students will have things to say and things to ask, which
encourage their reasons to talk and the most important is to make them feel interest in
speaking Therefore it is the good condition to introduce new language then (see the
adapted context 1 in page 33)
The adapted context 1
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3.2 Context 2
The second context is from Unit 7 with the topic of telling about the past Here it
offers a situation about a poetess‟s hard life named Matie Smith This is one difficult
situation for the researcher to adapt because it, on the pedagogical extent, is well
designed as it put the easy one onward; here the purpose of the section is to teach Past
Simple regular verbs However, because most students don‟t know about this poetess
they tent to have less interest with this context and as the result, the class fall into
reluctant responses and activities (see the original context 1 in appendix 8, page XIV)
In the adaptation, the researcher has collected information and written a passage
about To Hoai, a Vietnamese writer of children who is well- known in Vietnam
literature with the book “The Adventures of House Cricket” The reading text created is
not better in compare with the original text in term of pedagogy, as the researcher self
evaluate, but it can be interesting to the students and can call for their feelings of
meaningful learning (see the adapted context 2 in page 36)
3.3 Context 3
The third context is from Unit 11 with topic of describing people The context here
offers some pictures of foreign people having party, cooking, playing musical
instrument, talking, running, playing football and eating Again, these activities are not
unfamiliar to the students but they are still unimpressed with them In the interview,
most students always mention that one of their interests is hearing about famous people
especially in entertainment field Therefore these images can‟t make them interested in
talking about (see the original context 1 in appendix 8, page VXI)
The researcher has collected photos of current remarkable Vietnamese people and
some familiar- to everyday- life photos to show in the lead- in context to motivate
speaking activity in her students Especially in this context, some pictures conveying
particular features of Vietnamese traditional as well as modern culture has been
introduced This may encourage learners understanding more about integration into the
world of Vietnam, from that to have more motivation in learning English Here more
vocabulary about Vietnamese dress also introduced (see the adapted context 3 in page
37, 38)
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The adapted context 2
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