Adaptation strategies on lessons of skills in pilot english textbook series for lower secondary schools under task based learning approach

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES DƯƠNG THỊ LOAN ADAPTATION STRATEGIES ON LESSONS OF SKILLS IN PILOT ENGLISH TEXTBOOK SERIES FOR LOWER SECONDARY SCHOOLS UNDER TASK-BASED LEARNING APPROACH CÁC CHIẾN LƯỢC ĐIỀU CHỈNH CÁC BÀI DẠY KĨ NĂNG TRONG SÁCH GIÁO KHOA TIẾNG ANH THCS THÍ ĐIỂM DƯỚI CÁCH TIẾP CẬN CỦA PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC NGÔN NGỮ DỰA VÀO NHIỆM VỤ M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8220201.01 HA NOI, 2020 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES DƯƠNG THỊ LOAN ADAPTATION STRATEGIES ON LESSONS OF SKILLS IN PILOT ENGLISH TEXTBOOK SERIES FOR LOWER SECONDARY SCHOOLS UNDER TASK-BASED LEARNING APPROACH CÁC CHIẾN LƯỢC ĐIỀU CHỈNH CÁC BÀI DẠY KĨ NĂNG TRONG SÁCH GIÁO KHOA TIẾNG ANH THCS THÍ ĐIỂM DƯỚI CÁCH TIẾP CẬN CỦA PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC NGÔN NGỮ DỰA VÀO NHIỆM VỤ M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8220201.01 Supervisor: Dr Nguyen Viet Hung HA NOI, 2020 DECLARATION I certify that the thesis entitled “Adaptation Strategies On Lessons Of Skills In Pilot English Textbook Series For Lower Secondary Schools Under Task-Based Learning Approach” is my own research requirement for the Degree of Master of Arts in English Teaching Methodology Program at the Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi Signature Duong Thi Loan i ABSTRACT This study sought to evaluate the appropriateness of skills lessons in Tieng Anh 6Thi Diem to weak students and techniques for adapting the skills lessons, using case study methodology The evaluation based on data collected from teachers and 71 students from two weak classes at a lower secondary school in Hanoi in the form of questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, and classroom observations Preadaptation questionnaires and interviews were to collect students‟ and teachers' evaluation of skills lessons in Tieng Anh 6- Thi Diem The findings showed that in order to fit weak student‟s needs at the lower secondary school in the research, some skills lessons needed some improvements in input and output relevance, text and illustration relevance, sequence of questions and activities, and scaffolding and recycling activities Therefore, Maley (1998) adaptation techniques were used under Nunan (1991 & 2004) Task-Based Language Approach principles to improve the skills lessons These adapted skills lessons were then delivered and then assessed by teacher and student participants All data from the findings indicated that adapted skills lessons satisfied teachers‟ and students‟ needs in the research Briefly, the study proposed some adaptation strategies on skills lessons under TBLA which teachers could utilize to increase the effectiveness of skills lessons when teaching Tieng Anh 6- Thi Diem in a particular teaching and learning context ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My research project has been completed with the support of a great number of people First, I am greatly indebted to my supervisor, Dr Nguyen Viet Hung for his support, encouragement, and valuable advice throughout this research With his excellent insights and patient guidance, this thesis has been made possible I also would like to especially thank anonymous participants who contributed data to this study Finally, I would like to express my special thanks to my family for their support and encouragement throughout my study iii TABLE OF CONTENT DECLARATION i ABSTRACT ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii TABLE OF CONTENT iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii LIST OF TABLES viii LIST OF FIGURES ix CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Aims of the study and research questions 1.3 Significance of the study 1.4 Scope of the study 1.5 Organization of the thesis CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Task-Based Learning Approach 2.1.1 Definitions of “task” 2.1.2 Frameworks for TBLA 2.1.3 Principles for TBLA 2.2 Textbook, textbook evaluation, and textbook adaptation 12 2.2.1 Roles of textbooks in ELT 12 2.2.2 Textbook evaluation 13 2.2.3 Textbook adaptation 15 2.3 Textbook Adaptation under TBLA 20 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 23 3.1 Research approach .23 3.2 Restatement of research questions .23 3.3 The setting of the study 23 3.3.1 The setting of the study 23 iv 3.3.2 Participants 24 3.4 Data collection instruments 25 3.4.1 Questionnaire 25 3.4.2 Interview 27 3.4.3 Classroom observation 28 3.5 Data collection procedures 28 3.6 Data analysis procedures 29 CHAPTER 4: THE FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION OF THE FINDINGS .31 4.1 Evaluation of skills lessons in Tieng Anh 6- Thi Diem before the adaptation 31 4.1.1 Teachers‟ opinions of the skills lessons before the adaptation .31 4.1.2 Students‟ opinions of the skills lessons before the adaptation 37 4.1.3 Summary of teachers‟ and students‟ opinions before the adaptation .44 4.2 Description of adapted skills lessons in Tieng Anh 6-Thi Diem under TBLA 44 4.2.1 Omission 45 4.2.2 Addition 45 4.2.3 Rewriting/Modification 46 4.2.4 Replacement 49 4.2.5 Re-ordering .49 4.3 Evaluation of skills lessons in Tieng Anh 6- Thi Diem after the adaptation 51 4.3.1 Overall opinion 51 4.3.2 Scaffolding 54 4.3.3 Task dependency .56 4.3.4 Recycling .59 4.3.5 Authentic materials 60 4.3.6 Summary of teachers‟ and students‟ opinions after the adaptation 61 4.4 Summary of the findings 61 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION .65 5.1 Summary of the research 65 5.2 Conclusion 65 v 5.3 Implications 66 5.4 Limitations of the study .67 5.5 Suggestions for further studies 67 REFERENCES 68 APPENDICES I Appendix 1: Nunan (2004) checklist for task evaluation I Appendix 2: McGrath (2002) checklist for textbook evaluation IV Appendix 3: Cunningsworth (1995) checklist for textbook evaluation VII Appendix 4: Questionnaire for Students before the Adaptation X Appendix 5: Questionnaire for Students after the Adaptation XVI Appendix 6: Semi-structured Interview Checklist Before the Adaptation (English and Vietnamese versions) XXI Appendix 7: Semi-structured Interview Checklist After the Adaptation (English and Vietnamese versions) XXIV Appendix 8: Written transcript of taped interviews (English Translation) XXVII Appendix 9: Classroom Observation Form XXIII Appendix 10: Guidelines for Classroom Observation XXIV Appendix 11: Lesson Observation Sheets XXV Appendix 12: Samples of students‟ writing XXXIV Appendix 13: Adapted skills lessons in Tieng Anh 6- Thi Diem XXXVI vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ELT: English Language Teaching MOET: Ministry of Education and Training N: Number of participants TBLA: Task-Based Learning Approach vii LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Salaberry‟s framework for TBLA (Salaberry, 2001) Table 2: Teacher participants‟ profile .25 Table 3: Summary of students‟ evaluation on activities‟ instructions 38 Table 4: Summary of students‟ evaluation on illustrations .38 Table 5: Summary of students‟ evaluation on pre-speaking and pre-writing activities 39 Table 6: Summary of students‟ evaluation on activities‟ sequence 39 Table 7: Summary of students‟ evaluation on questions‟ sequence in one activity 40 Table 8: Summary of students‟ evaluation on skills lessons 41 Table 9: Summary of students‟ evaluation on the familiarity of lessons‟ topic .42 Table 10: Summary of students‟ evaluation on the naturalness of language 42 Table 11: Summary of students‟ evaluation on adapted Skills 1-Unit 52 Table 12: Summary of students‟ evaluation on adapted Skills 2-Unit 52 Table 13: Summary of students‟ evaluation on scaffolding in adapted Skills 1-Unit 55 Table 14: Summary of students‟ evaluation on scaffolding adapted Skills 2-Unit 855 Table 15: Summary of students‟ evaluation on sequence in adapted Skills 1-Unit 57 Table 16: Summary of students‟ evaluation on sequence in adapted Skills 2-Unit 58 viii UNIT 7.1 Unit 7- Skills No adaptation is made in this part 7.2 Unit 7- Skills Figure 6: Unit 7- Skills before being adapted L In the listening session, the photo of a woman singing does not illustrate the audio tape In the audio, the reporter says “… And here are some interesting TV programmes for you The musical Green Green Summer on Channel starts at eight o‟clock” Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary defines “musical” as “a play or film in which part or all of the story is told using songs and often dancing” Therefore, that illustration should be replaced Below is the adapted photo for musical: Figure 7: Unit 7- The adapted illustration for “musical” LI UNIT 8.1 Unit 8- Skills No adaptation is made in this part 8.2 Unit 8-Skills Figure 7: Unit 8- Skills before being adapted LII Re-ordering, Addition, and Rewriting/ Modification techniques are employed to adapt the listening and writing activities in this skills lesson Re-ordering is used for Activity and Activity 3.Questions in Activity are more challenging than those in Activity because of the following reasons First, two out of five questions in Activity are paraphrased Question “Hai plays chess every Saturday” is paraphrased and modified from the original text “I often go cycling with my dad at the weekend” Students have to listen for the paraphrase of Saturday which is weekend in the audio Similarly, Question “'Angry Birds' is Bill‟s favourite game.” is paraphrased from “The game I like best is 'Angry Birds'” Second, in order to complete Activity students only need to fill in each blank with one word Besides, most students when being elicited can give the correct answer for Question (play) and Question (goes) of Activity without listening to the audio Additionally, there is no paraphrasing in Question 1, and of Activity Among those, Question is even made easier for students because they just need to listen for one of four names that are already shown after finishing in Activity Moreover, a sample paragraph is added through an error-checking activity as a scaffolding activity for the main writing task (Addition technique) This added activity is labeled 4a, and the main writing activity is called 4b Five unscrambled words represent key information that students should include in their writing A sample paragraph is added because there are not any activities that provide input for the main writing task throughout Unit To be more specific, in Communication lesson, students draw and talk about a famous sportsperson they like In Skills lesson, the reading text about life and career of a famous footballer is followed by a speaking activity that asks students to talk about their frequency of playing different types of sports Moreover, the listening text in Skills only prepares names of some sports for students, without describing any sport in detail Therefore, this added writing provides input to facilitate students‟ writing process, and save time for teachers as well LIII Since a short paragraph is added, there is not much space left, illustrations then are resized or added to make them more effective (Addition and Modification techniques) The writing bubble together with two pictures of swimming and ice skating is made smaller in size The space saved from the writing bubble is not only used for the added writing sample but also for some added sports mentioned in the listening activities These pictures also give students some ideas for their writing Finally, Rewriting/ Modification technique is used to adapt the guiding questions in the main writing activity Original guiding questions are: - Name of the sport/game - Is it a team or an individual sport/game? - How long does it last? - How many players are there? - Does it need any equipment? It can be noticed that some are Yes/No questions, some are Wh-questions, and even not in the form of a question (Name of the sport/game) These questions help students outline their writing but not provide much support in developing students‟ sentences Moreover, different types of questions will make students confused when they process their writing Teachers may see their students write “Yes, it need equipment” at the end of their writing as the answer for “Does it need any equipment?” Therefore, these suggesting bullet points are all turned into Whquestions More importantly, the writing task asks students to Write about a sport/game you like so there should be a question asking students to clarify their choice The guiding questions after being rewritten are presented below: - What is the name of the sport/game? - How long does it last? - How many players are there? - What equipment does it need? - How you play it? - Why you like it? LIV The adapted tasks using mentioned techniques are presented below: Figure 8: Unit 8- Skills after being adapted LV UNIT 9.1 Unit 9- Skills Figure 9: Unit 9- Skills before being adapted LVI “Addition”, “Omission”, “Reordering” and “Rewriting/Modification” are employed to adapt Activity in this skills lesson First, one lead-in question was added to ask students about what they usually send to their family and friends when they are on a holiday This brain-storming questions help familiarize students with the topic and activate their schema before reading Furthermore, two added vocabulary-building activities will be put before Activity with the purpose of helping facilitate students‟ reading comprehension The first activity requires students to scan for four vocabulary items This activity is followed by a matching activity in which students have to match each of four words with its definition The words which are chosen for two new activities are “fantastic, fika, rent, discover” The definitions are taken from Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary and Macmillan Dictionary and then simplified, except for “fika” whose definition is taken from Tieng Anh 6-Teacher‟s book Second, since students know the definition of “fika” through doing the added Activity (match the word with its definition), Question What you think „fika‟ mean? is omitted from Activity Therefore, the number of comprehension questions reduces from to Moreover, regarding comprehension questions, Question What has she done so far? (Suggested answer in Teacher‟s book: She has visited the Royal Palace and had „fika‟ in a café in the Old Town) should be rewritten because it is a difficult and confusing question It is hard for students to locate information for the question because while the question‟s tense is in the Present Perfect, the tense in the postcard is the Past Simple (had) and the Present Simple (is) (We had „fika‟ in a café in the Old Town The Royal Palace (pictured) is too beautiful for words) Therefore, Question makes students confused about the Present Perfect tense that they are newly introduced to in the previous lesson With the aim of effectively embedding the Present Perfect and preparing students for Speaking activities, Question is changed into “What have Mai‟s mother and father done?” This LVII information is clearly presented in the Present Perfect as “Mom and Dad have rented bikes” By answering this question, students have a chance to review the new word “rent” and know of its past form “rented” In relation to Activity that asks students to match the headings with the numbers in the postcard, the researcher finds that this activity should be put in the writing skills lesson This is because this activity helps students be aware of the organization of a postcard Moreover, by reordering this activity, teachers can save time for reading and speaking activities and therefore make this skills lesson more effective Since Activity is excluded from Skills 1- Unit 9, there is no need to keep numbers from to in the postcard These numbers can lead to students‟ misunderstanding that when writing a postcard they have to number their sentences Therefore, technique modification is utilized to adapt this postcard text Finally, a listening activity is designed and added to Speaking skills This listening activity works as a pre-speaking activity to provide students with useful languages for later speaking activities Students listen to the recording, make notes, and then answer the given questions As Activity3 which requires students to “Read the text again and match the headings with the numbers” is removed from this lesson, speaking activities are re-numbered The pre-listening activity is called Activity 3a, followed by Activity 3b which asks students to “Choose a city, imagine you have just arrived in that city and want to tell your friends about it Make notes below.” The adapted Skills lesson in Unit is presented below: LVIII Figure 10: Unit 9- Skills after being adapted LIX 9.2 Unit 9- Skills Figure 11: Unit 9- Skills before being adapted One pre-writing activity is added to this skills lesson This added activity is actually the comprehension one from Skills 1- Unit This activity is moved not only to save time for Skills 1-Unit but also help students figure out the organization of a postcard before writing one Below is the adapted lesson of Unit 9- Skills LX Figure 12: Unit 9- Skills after being adapted LXI 10 UNIT 10 10.1 Unit 10- Skills No adaptation is made in this part 10.2 Unit 10- Skills No adaptation is made in this part 11 UNIT 11 11.1 Unit 11- Skills No adaptation is made in this part 11.2 Unit - Skills No adaptation is made in this part LXII 12 UNIT 12 12.1 Unit 12- Skills Figure 13: Unit 12- Skills before being adapted LXIII Activity and Activity are slightly adapted by omitting one phrase and replacing two words First, the phrase “apart from” should be removed from given phrases that students have to find since “apart from” does not appear in the paragraph Second, “the Moon” in “Worker robots can build our houses and buildings; doctor robots can help sick people; and space robots can build space stations on the Moon and other planets” is replaced by “Mars” The reason for this modification is that “the Moon” is a satellite, not a planet Meanwhile, the phrase “other planets” implies that the Moon is a planet, which is not a fact These two activities are adapted as below: Find the following words/phrases in the text below What they mean? space robots space stations types planets Read the news report on the international robot show Then, answer the questions Today there is an international robot show in Ha Noi Many people are at the show They can see many types of robots there Young people are interested in home robots These robots can cook, make tea or coffee, clean the house, and the laundry The children like to see teaching robots These robots can help them study Teaching robots can teach them English, literature, maths, and other subjects They can help children improve their English pronunciation Other types of robots are also at the show These robots can many things Worker robots can build our houses and buildings; doctor robots can help sick people; and space robots can build space stations on Mars and other planets 12.2 Unit12- Skills No adaptation is made in this part LXIV ... Lessons Of Skills In Pilot English Textbook Series For Lower Secondary Schools Under Task- Based Learning Approach? ?? is my own research requirement for the Degree of Master of Arts in English Teaching... THE FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION OF THE FINDINGS .31 4.1 Evaluation of skills lessons in Tieng Anh 6- Thi Diem before the adaptation 31 4.1.1 Teachers‟ opinions of the skills lessons before the adaptation. .. in understanding and producing messages designed to communicate information and opinions); contain a gap of some kind (information, opinion, reasoning); allow the learners to use their own linguistic