An Evaluation of the coursebook “English for Information Technology I” for second–year students of University of Information and Communication Technology under Thai Nguyen University

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ************************* TRẦN MINH THÀ NH AN EVALUATION OF THE COURSEBOOK “ENGLISH FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY I” FOR SECOND–YEAR STUDENTS OF UNIVERSITY OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY UNDER THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY (Đánh giá giáo trình “Tiếng Anh chuyên ngành Công nghệ thông tin I” dùng cho sinh viên năm thứ hai Trƣờng Đại học Công nghệ Thông tin Truyền thông thuộc Đại học Thái Nguyên.) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.140.111 Hanoi, 2014 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ************************* TRẦN MINH THÀ NH AN EVALUATION OF THE COURSEBOOK “ENGLISH FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY I” FOR SECOND–YEAR STUDENTS OF UNIVERSITY OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY UNDER THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY (Đánh giá giáo trình “Tiếng Anh chuyên ngành Công nghệ thông tin I” dùng cho sinh viên năm thứ hai Trƣờng Đại học Công nghệ Thông tin Truyền thông thuộc Đại học Thái Nguyên.) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.140.111 Supervisor: Prof Nguyen Hoa Hanoi, 2014 DECLARATION I – Tran Minh Thanh, a candidate for the Degree of Master of Arts (TEFL) hereby state that I accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master‘s Graduation Paper deposited in the library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper Signature Tran Minh Thanh i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My deepest gratitude goes to Professor Nguyen Hoa, my supervisor, for his valuable instructions, comments and criticisms as well as his kind encouragement during the development of this thesis I am deeply indebted to the teachers and students at ICTU for their generous cooperation and enthusiasm from which I have benefited a lot during my study Finally, I wish to express my sincerely thanks to my wife for her understanding and supports for me throughout the preparation and development of the thesis ii ABSTRACT The ESP coursebook ―English for Information Technology I‖ compiled by four teachers of English of ICTU has been employed as the teaching materials for the second-year students of Faculty of Information Technology since 2009 However, up to now, there has been no official research conducted to evaluate the relevance of the coursebook to the learners‘ needs as well as its suitability to the desired objectives of the course The purpose of this study is to reveal the findings and information about the coursebook evaluation from the perspectives of students and teachers of ICTU With this regard, the study tries to assess the relevance of the coursebook to the students‘ needs in terms of content, format and methodology Four teachers of English and 80 second-year students participated in the survey The findings show that the coursebook is rather relevant to the needs of learners iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS English for IT I English for Information Technology I ESL/EFL English as a Second Language/ English as a Foreign Language ESP English for Specific Purposes ICTU University of Information and Communication Technology IT Information Technology iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION .i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv TABLE OF CONTENTS v PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study Aims of the study Research question Methods of the study Scope of the study Significance of the study Design of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Materials in language teaching and learning 1.1.1 Concepts of materials 1.1.2 Types of materials 1.2 English for specific purposes 1.3 Materials evaluation 1.3.1 Definition of materials evaluation 1.3.2 Purposes of materials evaluation 10 1.3.3 Types of materials evaluation 11 1.3.4 Methods of materials evaluation 12 1.3.5 Criteria for materials evaluation 13 1.3.6 Materials evaluation models 14 v 1.4 Needs analysis 16 CHAPTER II: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 2.1 An overview of current ESP teaching and learning at ICTU 17 2.1.1 Context 17 2.1.2 The objectives of the ESP course ―English for IT I‖ 17 2.1.3 The coursebook description 18 2.2 Research methods 19 2.2.1 Research question 19 2.2.2 Participants 19 2.2.3 Data collection instruments 20 2.2.4 Data collection procedure 21 CHAPTER III: MAJOR FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 About learners 23 3.1.1 Learners‘ background of learning English 23 3.1.2 Learners‘ levels of English 23 3.1.3 Learners‘ purposes and expectations of learning the ESP course ―English for IT I‖ 24 3.1.4 Learners‘ needs of learning the ESP course ―English for IT I‖ 25 3.2 Learners‘ and teachers‘ evaluation of the coursebook ―English for IT I‖ 27 3.2.1 The evaluation of the content 27 3.2.2 The evaluation of the format 32 3.2.3 The evaluation of the methodology 34 PART C: CONCLUSION Summary of the study 38 Some conclusions 38 Limitations of the study 39 Suggestions for further study 40 Reference 41 Appendices: vi Appendix 1: .I Appendix 2: .VI Appendix 3: .XI Appendix 4: XIII Appendix 5: XIX vii PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study In accordance with the innovation in education and training, English is considered an important subject taught at both schools and universities in Vietnam In universities English courses are usually divided into General English (GE) course and English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course University of Information and Communication Technology (ICTU) under Thai Nguyen university is not an exception In the curriculum for ICTU students, English courses account for 10 credits, which are distributed into two phases: General English (GE) and English for Specific Purposes (ESP) General English consisting of two courses (a total of six credits) aim to train students in four general skills of English The two courses of General English explore a variety of topics related to real life situations ESP including two courses with four credits in total is designed to teach students English language for specific purposes, such as English for Electronics and Telecommunications, English for Automation Technology and English for Information Technology The role of an ESP course is to bring to the learners what they desperately need in real life Students of Faculty of Information Technology are introduced with ESP courses in the second academic year These ESP courses are divided into two modules using two coursebooks ―English for Information Technology I‖ and ―English for Information Technology II‖ In ICTU, coursebooks are mostly used as teaching and learning materials for both teachers and learners They not only provide a framework for teachers in obtaining the objectives of the course but also play an important role as a guide to the teacher in conducting lessons From the perspective of learners, a coursebook truly affects their attitudes and performance on lessons throughout the course It is true that when learners like their coursebook, they like the course as well, and become active participants to the lessons Therefore, the appropriate choice of a coursebook is an issue of great concern and is paid much attention to by both administrators and lecturers of English here However, most of the textbooks in the market are written by native speakers or other lecturers coming from other universities rather than from Phần 4: PHƢƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC Câu 8: Thầy cô đánh cần thiết mức độ đáp ứng giáo trình tiêu chí sau so với nhu cầu người học? Sự cần thiết: Khơng cần thiết Tình trạng thực tế: Hoàn toàn thiếu Tương đối cần thiết Kém Cần thiết Trung bình Mức độ Tiêu chí Giáo trình có đầy đủ loại hoạt động nghe, nói, đọc, viết, luyện ngữ âm, củng cố ngữ pháp Các hoạt động khuyến khích luyện tập với mục đích giao tiếp Các hoạt động bao gồm cách làm việc lớp, theo nhóm, cặp cá nhân độc lập Các hoạt động khuyến khích sáng tạo độc lập Giáo trình tạo hội cho người học luyện phát âm cách tự nhiên Chân thành cảm ơn quý thầy cô! X Tốt Sự cần thiết Cần thiết cao Rất tốt Tình trạng thực tế Appendix III: A FRAMEWORK FOR ANALYZING LEARNING NEEDS Why are the learners taking the course? - compulsory or optional; - apparent need or not; - Are status, money, promotion involved? - What learners think they will achieve? - What is their attitude towards the ESP course? Do they want to improve their English or they resent the time they have to spend on it? How the learners learn? - What is their learning background? - What is their concept of teaching and learning? - What methodology will appeal to them? - What sorts of techniques are likely to bore/alienate them? What resources are available? - number and professional competence of teachers; - attitude of teachers to ESP; - teachers‘ knowledge of and attitude to the subject content; - materials; - aids; - opportunities for out-of-class activities Who are the learners? - age/sex/nationality; - What they know already about English? - What subject knowledge they have? - What are their interests? - What is their socio-cultural background? XI - What teaching styles are they used to? - What is their attitude to English or to the cultures of the English- speaking world? Where will the ESP course take place? - are the surroundings pleasant, dull, noisy, cold etc? When will the ESP course take place? - time of day; - every day/once a week; - full-time/part-time; - concurrent with need or pre-need XII Appendix IV: HUTCHINSON AND WATERS’ EVALUATION CHECKLIST XIII XIV XV XVI XVII XVIII Appendix V: SAMPLE OF A UNIT IN THE COURSEBOOK XIX XX XXI XXII XXIII XXIV ... “ENGLISH FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY I” FOR SECOND–YEAR STUDENTS OF UNIVERSITY OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY UNDER THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY (Đánh giá giáo trình “Tiếng Anh chuyên ngành... are the answers to the question whether the coursebook “English for IT I” is relevant to the needs of second-year students of Faculty of Information Technology at ICTU in terms of content, format... course and English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course University of Information and Communication Technology (ICTU) under Thai Nguyen university is not an exception In the curriculum for ICTU students,