An evaluation of the coursebook “Solutions Upper-intermediate” for tenth- grade English majors at Foreign Language Specialized School, ULIS, VNU is the results of my resear[r]
(1)VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
NGUYỄN THI ̣ PHƢƠNG
AN EVALUATION OF THE COURSEBOOK “SOLUTIONS UPPER-INTERMEDIATE” FOR TENTH-GRADE ENGLISH MAJORS AT
FOREIGN LANGUAGE SPECIALIZED SCHOOL, ULIS, VNU
(Đánh giá giáo trình “Solutions Upper-intermediate” dùng cho học sinh chuyên Anh lớp 10 trƣờng THPT Chuyên Ngoại Ngữ, Đại học Ngoại Ngữ,
Đại học Quốc Gia Hà Nội)
M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS
Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 6014.0111
(2)VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
NGUYỄN THI ̣ PHƢƠNG
AN EVALUATION OF THE COURSEBOOK “SOLUTIONS UPPER-INTERMEDIATE” FOR TENTH-GRADE ENGLISH MAJORS AT
FOREIGN LANGUAGE SPECIALIZED SCHOOL, ULIS, VNU
(Đánh giá giáo trình “Solutions Upper-intermediate” dùng cho học sinh chuyên Anh lớp 10 trƣờng THPT Chuyên Ngoại Ngữ, Đại học Ngoại Ngữ,
Đại học Quốc Gia Hà Nội)
M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS
Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 6014.0111
Supervisor: Prof Nguyễn Hòa
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CANDIDATE'S STATEMENT
I, Nguyen Thi Phuong, hereby certify that the thesis entitled:
An evaluation of the coursebook “Solutions Upper-intermediate” for tenth-grade English majors at Foreign Language Specialized School, ULIS, VNU is the results of my research for the degree of Master of Arts at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi and the thesis has not been submitted for any degrees at any other universities or tertiary institutions
Hanoi, 2016
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ACKNOWLEDEGEMENT
A thesis costs every researcher a lot of time to complete and mine does, too However, I could not finalize this study with personal efforts and without the assistance of some enthusiastic people who I want to send my deep thanks to
The first one, I want to sincerely thank is Prof Nguyen Hoa He is my supervisor His constructive comments helped me realize my mistakes and have the reasonable corrections In addition, his enthusiasm made each step in my research process easier and made me feel more comfortable and be under less stress caused by the great amount of work Nothing can totally and exactly express my gratitude to him I also acknowledge my gratitude to Dr Tran Thi Tuyet for her useful lectures on materials evaluation and development She also gives me valuable instructions, comments, and her kindly encouragement during the development of this thesis
Additionally, I would like to express my appreciation to many teachers,
especially Tran Thi Lan, (M.A), who is a head of English Division at FLSS and tenth-grade English majors at FLSS, ULIS, VNU for their cooperation as well as their help in the survey Without their support, the questionnaires and interviews which orientate the suggestions – the heart of my thesis – could not be completed as expected
(5)iii ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study is to gauge the suitability of a coursebook titled “Solutions Upper-intermediate” for students’ levels of English and general expectations in terms of the content and language skills Following that, the teaching-listening situation can be identified and unsuitable content will be adapted Quantitative and qualitative data are obtained through questionnaires with 70 students and semi-structured interviews with teachers, in which survey questions are developed based on the students’ general expectations and MOET’s criteria Quantitative data in the questionnaires are calculated manually into rounded percentages to answer two research questions Qualitative data from “Comments” in the questionnaires with the students and from interviewed teachers are used to contribute more information to the answers to the research questions
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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Rationale
In Vietnamese high schools, textbooks or coursebooks are an indispensable part in English teaching and learning For non-specialized high schools, they have used the standard textbooks set by Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) Nevertheless, in addition to the use of piloted textbooks, other schools like specialized high schools have selected coursebooks for their own students With the current numerous number of books, the decision to choose one coursebook cannot be taken lightly and whether it is acceptable or not is one challenging question Hence, teachers need to be knowledgeable enough to opt for the most suitable ones for their students through evaluating these materials based on the guidelines and criteria Foreign Language Specialized School (FLSS) is a specific instance which has chosen the coursebooks for their own students in learning English Teachers at English Division held a meeting and came to the conclusion that they selected “Solutions Upper-intermediate” as the core material for tenth-grade English major students, and this material has been used for three years A question that plagues the researcher is just whether this coursebook suits the students or not Nevertheless, there have been no strict criteria established or research on evaluating this coursebook carried out so far
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