AN EVALUATION OF THE TEXTBOOK “ADVANCED BUSINESS INTERPRETATION TRANSLATION” FOR THE FOURTH YEAR STUDENTS OF ENGLISH AT a UNIVERSITY IN HO CHI MINH CITY

VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES Hồ Như Minh Nghi AN EVALUATION OF THE TEXTBOOK “ADVANCED BUSINESS INTERPRETATION & TRANSLATION” FOR THE FOURTH YEAR STUDENTS OF ENGLISH AT A UNIVERSITY IN HO CHI MINH CITY MA THESIS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE HO CHI MINH CITY, 2021 VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES Hồ Như Minh Nghi AN EVALUATION OF THE TEXTBOOK “ADVANCED BUSINESS INTERPRETATION & TRANSLATION” FOR THE FOURTH YEAR STUDENTS OF ENGLISH AT A UNIVERSITY IN HO CHI MINH CITY Field: English Language Code: 8.22.02.01 Supervisor: Phạm Lan Anh, Ph.D HO CHI MINH CITY, 2021 DECLARATION BY AUTHOR I, the undersigned, hereby certify that the thesis entitled “An evaluation of the textbook Advanced Business Interpretation & Translation for the fourthyear students of English at a university in Ho Chi Minh City” is the result of my own research for the Degree of Master of Arts in English Language The substance of the thesis has not, wholly or in part, been submitted for any other degree to any other universities or institutions Except where reference has been made in the text, this thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person The study reported in this thesis was approved by the Graduate Academy of Social Sciences Author’s Signature Hồ Như Minh Nghi Approved by SUPERVISOR Phạm Lan Anh, Ph.D Date:…………………… ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In order to complete the thesis “An evaluation of the textbook Advanced Business Interpretation & Translation for the fourth-year students of English at a university in Ho Chi Minh City”, the author has been supported by many people Through this opportunity, I would like to express my gratitude to these people for helping me finish this thesis First of all, I would like to express my genuine appreciation to Ms Phạm Lan Anh, Ph.D, my supervisor, for her considerate guidance and her passionate inspiration as well as her thorough explanation on my research paper Secondly, I would like to thank Mr Nguyễn Đức Châu, my teacher at HUFLIT University - Department of Foreign Language for supporting me during my research Thirdly, I am very thankful for all the participants of this study, who have cooperatively taken part in taking questionnaires as well as contributed their opinions on the textbook and the course In addition, I would like to thank all of the lecturers who gave me interesting lessons, dedication and advice during my study at Graduate Academy of Social Sciences Last but not least, I must express my appreciation to my superior at my workplace who has encouraged me to continue my learning path and has always believed in my ability to complete this thesis and to have a brighter future iii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION BY AUTHOR ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii ABSTRACT iv LIST OF TABLES v LIST OF CHARTS vi TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS vii Chapter INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Aims of the study 1.3 Research questions 1.4 Scope of the study .3 1.5 Significance of the study .4 1.6 Research methods 1.7 Structure of the study Chapter LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 The role of textbooks in ELT classroom .6 2.1.1 Definition of textbook 2.1.2 The role of textbooks in ELT 2.2 Materials evaluation 10 2.2.1 Definition of materials evaluation 10 2.2.2 Reasons for materials evaluation 11 2.2.3 Types of materials evaluation 12 2.2.4 Approaches and Criteria for materials evaluation 14 2.2.5 Popular models of materials evaluation 17 2.3 Previous studies on ELT textbook evaluation 21 2.4 Review of the textbook “Advanced Business Interpretation & Translation” 25 2.4.1 Review of the textbook 25 2.4.2 Overview of students' needs 27 2.5 Summary of Chapter .27 Chapter METHODOLOGY 29 3.1 Research question 29 3.2 Research participants 29 3.3 Research method .29 3.4 Data collection instruments .31 3.4.1 Document analyses .32 3.4.2 Questionnaires 33 3.5 Summary of Chapter 35 Chapter FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 36 4.1 Data analysis .36 4.1.1 The suitability of the textbook to the aims of the course .36 4.1.2 The suitability of the textbook to the course contents 46 4.1.3 Students’ recommendations 58 4.2 Summary of findings and discussion 60 4.2.1 General conclusion 60 4.2.2 Strengths and weaknesses of the textbook .61 4.3 Summary of Chapter 63 Chapter RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION 64 5.1 Recapitulation 64 5.2 Concluding remarks 65 5.3 Implications .66 5.4 Limitations and suggestions for further studies 68 REFERENCES 69 APPENDIX 1: Questionnaires by David Litz (2005) I APPENDIX 2: Questionnaires by David Litz (2005) - Vietnamese version II APPENDIX 3: The questionnaire for students .III APPENDIX 4: The questionnaire for students - Vietnamese version IV ABSTRACT The aim of the study is to evaluate the textbook Advanced Business Interpretation & Translation currently being used by the th year students and teachers of Department of Foreign Language - Interpretation and Translation major at HUFLIT to investigate whether this textbook suitably meets the requirements of the curriculum in terms of aims and contents In order to achieve enough data for the study, selected 20 of 4th year students of the Department of Foreign Language - Translation and Interpretation were given questionnaires The researcher also used document analysis to conduct the evaluation of the content of Advanced Business Interpretation and Translation and the subject content in the university’s curriculum plan The result of the survey showed that the textbook Advanced Business Interpretation and Translation has highly met the course’s requirements in terms of aims On the other hand, the students had some feedback on the textbook’s content’s lack of excitement or shortage of complicated terms and structures However, in general, most of the students stated that the textbook is suitable with their English level iv LIST OF TABLES Table 4.1: Output standard of English - Vietnamese Professional Translation 38 Table 4.2 Output standard of English - Vietnamese Professional Interpretation 39 Table 4.3 4th year English major students’ opinion on the aims of the textbook Advanced Business Interpretation & Translation 43 Table 4.4 Plans and curriculum of Business Interpretation 45 Table 4.5 Plans and curriculum of Business Translation 48 Table 4.6 Units of lesson in the textbook 51 v LIST OF CHARTS Chart 4.1 Students’ opinions on proficient vocabulary and special terms for each field 41 Chart 4.2 Students’ opinions on their translation skill improvement after the course 42 Chart 4.3 Students’ opinions on their interpretation skill improvement after the course 42 Chart 4.4 Students’ opinions on the skills 52 Chart 4.5 Students’ opinions on the language type of the textbook 54 Chart 4.6 Students’ opinions on the Subject and Content of the textbook 56 vi TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS ELT HUFLIT ESL EFL CLO English Language Teaching Ho Chi Minh City University of Foreign Languages - Information Technology English as a Second Language English as a Foreign Language Course Learning Output vii accents which are difficult to hear Secondly, in terms of content of the material, most of the students confirmed that the textbook provides an appropriate balance of language skills from basic main skills to other sub-skills such as sentence analyzing skill, note-taking skill, listening skill, flexible using authentic terms in translation, etc They also said that the language of the textbook was appropriate to their English level Nevertheless, few students still found it too advanced in comparison with their English ability It also offered students various text types including articles, emails, contracts, news, legal documents, etc., but they are not intriguing enough to motivate students to learn From all of these findings, this study was able to answer the research questions: “To what extent are the contents of the textbook Advanced Business Interpretation & Translation suitable for senior students with different level of English and their major knowledge?”; “To what extent the aims of textbook Advanced Business Interpretation & Translation meet the requirements of the curriculum?” It can be easily seen that the textbook Advanced Business Interpretation and Translation has highly met the course’s requirements in terms of aims Moreover, although there were some complaints about the textbook’s content’s lack of excitement or shortage of complicated terms and structures, most of the students stated that the textbook in general is suitable with their English level 5.2 Concluding remarks This research paper was conducted to answer the research questions: “To what extent are the contents of the textbook Advanced Business Interpretation & Translation suitable for senior students with different level of English and their major knowledge?”; “To what extent the aims of textbook 65 Advanced Business Interpretation & Translation meet the requirements of the curriculum?” The researcher has evaluated the textbook Advanced Business Interpretation & Translation using research methods: document analysis and questionnaires Through document analysis method, the researcher evaluated the textbook based on the model of Hutchinson and Waters (1987) including subjective and objective analysis For the questionnaires, the researcher invited 20 of 4th year students of English to take part in the survey After all of the evaluation and survey, the researcher was able to confirm that the textbook has completely met the course’s demand on aims and content The textbook provides students with a variety of business topics, a sufficient source of business vocabulary, lots of practical samples of translated written forms and intonation practice according to the course’s requirements to help improve students’ translation skill in both oral and written forms as well as improve their other soft skills Furthermore, the content of the textbook was considered appropriate to their English level in terms of language, skills of translation and interpretation On the other hand, there are also some drawbacks about the textbook Some students said that few complicated new words are not mentioned in the list of vocabulary in the textbook Some lessons have difficult accents which make it hard for students to note down the main idea during interpretation Some topics are not intriguing enough for students to actively take part in the class practice 5.3 Implications According to the data analysis results of the textbook Advanced Business Interpretation and Translation, the textbook has met the curriculum’s 66 requirements Moreover, the content of the textbook is also considered suitable with student’s knowledge However, in order to improve the quality and the use of the textbook in teaching and learning, the researcher has some implications for teachers and 4th year students of English at HUFLIT as follows: Firstly, there are some complaints that there is too little time to practice many skills at a time or the textbook only focuses on some skills that other skills are ignored To fix this problem, teachers should arrange the lessons logically so that each unit can focus on at least different skills For example, when learning unit of translation, students will learn how to analyze complex sentences, skim the text for the main ideas, rewrite the sentence in target language and read aloud for the whole class to share their work Teachers can save some time to fix the students’ pronunciation and intonation On the other hand, when learning unit of interpretation, students can practice their listening skill, note-taking skill, and try to translate orally as naturally as they speak, not reading their translation Teachers can have students sit in pairs and take turns to practice translating a whole speech sentence by sentence, and after that, have the whole class listen to one group to recommend some better translation Secondly, the textbook is said to be too advanced and contains lots of difficult vocabulary In this case, teachers should have students prepare the lessons before the class, so they can look up the unknown words or terms Each book is provided with a DVD/CD, so students can totally learn at home before school if they want to improve themselves faster Finally, some units are considered monotonous It is not compulsory to teach all the lessons within the textbook Teachers could use other supplementary materials relating to all kinds of fields in daily life However, teachers have to assure that the knowledge is equivalent to the lessons within 67 the book Teachers can choose to teach the main lesson first and finish it fast by having students prepared at home, so in the remaining time, teachers can have the students translate other kinds of texts or conversations, for example, a song, a fashion article, a short clip from a famous movie, etc 5.4 Limitations and suggestions for further studies Doing this research paper, the researcher cannot avoid the limitation due to lack of time and ability Although the researcher assured that all the questionnaires have been done honestly and seriously, this study was limited to only 20 students, so the results were not very subjective For that reason, further research about Interpretation and Translation textbook evaluation can be done more precisely with a larger number of participants Another limitation about this study was the research methods There were only research methods which are document analysis and questionnaire because there was too little time to conduct the study The study would be more trustworthy if there were interviews with teachers Some professional teachers might propose better recommendations For that reason, it would be better if the future researchers of the same study can conduct survey on both students and teachers The last limitation is that the textbook is evaluated only in terms of aims and content Although aims and content are the main factors to evaluate a textbook, other aspects should be considered for further research and for more reliable findings such as time allocation, activities, methodology of the material Hopefully, this study provides a strong foundation for future researchers of the same subject to help improve the major of Translation and Interpretation 68 REFERENCES Foreign authors Allison, D (1999) Language Testing and Evaluation: An Introductory Course Singapore: Singapore University Press Awasthi, R J (2006) Textbook and its evaluation Journal of NELTA 11(1-2): 1-10 Byrd, P (2001) Textbooks: Evaluation for selection and analysis for implementation In M Celce-Murcia (Ed.), Teaching English as a second or foreign language (3rd ed.), 415-427 Boston, US: Heinle & Heinle Cunningsworth, A (1995) Choosing your Textbook London, UK: Longman Dudley-Evans, T., & St John, M (1998) Developments in English for Specific Purposes A Multi-Disciplinary Approach Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press Ellis, R (1997) Second language acquisition research and language teaching Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press Gelfman, E., A Podstrigich, and R Losinskaya (2004) On the problem of typology and functions of school texts, Discussion Group 14, Focus on the Development and Research of Mathematics Textbooks ICME X, Copenhagen, Denmark, July Grant, N (1987) Making the most of your textbook London, UK: Longman Inc Harmer, J (1991/2001) The practice of English Language Teaching Harlow, Essex: Longman 69 Hashemi, S., & Borhani, A., (2015) Textbook Evaluation: An Investigation into “American English File” Series IJSELL 3(5), 47-55 Horsley, K and M Laws (1992) Education equality? Textbooks in New South Wales government and non-government secondary schools Curriculum perspectives, 12 (3), 7-17 Hutchinson, T., & Waters, A (1987) English for Specific Purposes A learning-centred approach Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press Hutchinson, T & Torres, E (1994) The textbook as agent of change ELT Journal, 48(4), 315–328 Hycroft (1998) An introduction to English Language Teaching Longman Littlejohn, A (1998) The analysis of language teaching materials: Inside the Trojan horse In B Tomlinson (Ed.), Materials development in Language teaching, 190-216 Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press Litz, D R A (2005) Textbook Evaluation and ELT Management: A South Korean Case Study Asian EFL Journal Retrieved from http://www.asian-efljournal.com/Litz_thesis.pdf Mackey, A., & Gass, S (2005) Second language research: Methodology and design Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum McDonough, J., & Shaw, C (2003) Materials and Methods in ELT Oxford, UK: Blackwell McGrath, I (2002) Materials Evaluation and Design for Language Teaching Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press Mikk, J., (2000), Textbook: Research and Writing Oxford: Lang 70 Mukundan, J (2009) ESL textbook evaluation A composite framework Köln, Germany: Lambert Academic Publishing Nunan, D (1992) Learner-Centered curriculum The UK: Cambridge University Press O’Neill, R (1982) Why use textbooks? ELT Journal, 36/2, 104–111 Richards, J C (2001) Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching The UK: Cambridge University Press Robinson, P C (1991) ESP Today: A Practitioner’s Guide Hemel Hempstead: Phoenix Sewall, G T (1992) Textbook organisation and writing: today and tomorrow In J G Herlihy (Ed.), The Textbook Controversy: Issues, Aspects and Perspectives New Jersey: Ablex Publishing Corporation, 27-32 Sheldon, L E (1988) Evaluating ELT textbooks and materials ELT Journal, 42 (4), 237-246 Tomlinson, B (1998) Materials Development in Language Teaching Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press Tomlinson, B (2003) Developing Materials for Language Teaching London, UK: Continuum Ur, P (1996) A course in language teaching: Practice and theory Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press Valverde, G and W Schmidt (1998) Refocusing U.S math and science education Issues in Science and Technology Vasiljevic, Z (2011) ‘The Predictive Evaluation of Language Learning Tasks’ English language teaching Vol 4, No 1; March 2011 71 Vietnamese authors Nguyễn Đức Châu (2017) Advanced Business Interpretation & Translation Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh: Nxb Thanh niên Phạm Vũ Hổ (2017) Evaluation of the course-book “Steps to conduct your research” designed and employed at the Faculty of Foreign Languages of Ho Chi Minh City Open University Journal of Science Ho Chi Minh City Open University, 1(9), 39-53 Đỗ Thanh Loan (2016) An evaluation of the textbook "Mechanical Engineering" used for the third-year students of Engineering at Hanoi University of Industry Hanoi, Vietnam, Hanoi University MA: 82 Đào Thị Sang (2014) An evaluation of the textbook New English File Pre-intermediate for the first- year non-English majored students at University of Social Sciences and Humanities suggestions for book use and adaptation, 11(229), 24–28 72 Appendix 1: Questionnaires for materials evaluation by David Litz (2005) STUDENT TEXTBOOK EVALUATION FORM ***PLEASE NOTE: A/ The materials include and focus on the skills that I need to practice 6 Language Type: The language used in the textbook is authentic - i.e like real-life English 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 6 10 10 10 10 10 The subject and content of the materials is interesting, challenging and motivating There is sufficient variety in the subject and content of the textbook 14 The subject and content of the textbook is generally realistic 13 The subject and content of the textbook is relevant to my needs as an English language learner 12 10 Subject and Content: 11 The language represents a diverse range of registers and accents C/ The language functions exemplify English that I will be likely to use in the future The grammar points were presented with brief and easy examples and explanations 10 The progression of grammar points and vocabulary items is appropriate The language used is at the right level for my current English ability The textbook pays attention to sub-skills - i.e listening, note-taking, skimming for information, etc B/ The materials provide an appropriate balance of the four language skills 10 = HIGHLY AGREE Skills: =HIGHLY DISAGREE The materials are not culturally biased and they not portray any negative stereotypes I Appendix 2: Questionnaires for materials evaluation by David Litz (2005) - Vietnamese version Bảng câu hỏi để đánh giá tài liệu David Litz (2005) MẪU ĐÁNH GIÁ TEXTBOOK CỦA SINH VIÊN ***LƯU Ý: = Hồn tồn khơng đồng ý 10 = Hoàn toàn đồng ý A/ Kỹ năng: Tài liệu bao gồm tập trung vào kỹ mà cần rèn luyện 10 10 Tài liệu cung cấp bốn kỹ ngôn ngữ cách cân đối Tài liệu ý đến kỹ phụ nghe, viết ghi chú, đọc lướt lấy thơng tin chính, v.v 10 10 B/ Loại ngôn ngữ: Ngôn ngữ sử dụng tài liệu giống tiếng Anh đời thực Ngôn ngữ sử dụng trình độ phù hợp với khả tiếng Anh 10 10 Việc tăng dần điểm ngữ pháp từ vựng phù hợp 7 Các điểm ngữ pháp trình bày với ví dụ giải thích ngắn gọn, dễ hiểu 10 Các chức ngôn ngữ thể tiếng Anh mà tơi sử dụng tương lai Ngôn ngữ dùng tài liệu có nhiều ngữ điệu quãng âm II 10 10 C/ Chủ đề Nội dung: 10 Chủ đề nội dung tài liệu phù hợp với nhu cầu với tư cách người học tiếng Anh 10 10 11 Chủ đề nội dung tài liệu nói chung thực tế 12 Chủ đề nội dung tài liệu thú vị, đầy thử thách có tính thúc đẩy 9 10 13 Chủ đề nội dung tài liệu đa dạng 10 14 Tài liệu khơng thiên vị văn hóa khơng mô tả định kiến tiêu cực III 10 Appendix 3: The questionnaire for students Textbook “Advanced Business Interpretation & Translation 4” Evaluation Form The purpose of this questionnaire is to collect your opinions on the textbook “Advanced Business Interpretation & Translation 4’’ that you have learned Your opinions and recommendations for the following questions is indispensable to my research Thank you for your cooperation! To respond to this questionnaire, please check (✔) in the appropriate choice as follows: 1(strongly disagree) 2(disagree) 3(undecided) 4(agree) 5(strongly agree) Statements Choice No I Aims of the material The material provides students with necessary vocabulary, special terms suitable with each field The material helps improve students’ translation skill in both oral and written forms The material helps improve students’ interpretation skill with proper pronunciation, intonation and fluency Other comments: II Content of the material A Skills The material includes and focuses on the translation and interpretation skills: sentence analyzing skill, note-taking skill, listening skill, flexible using authentic terms in translation Other comments: B Language and text type An adequate vocabulary list or glossary is included Text types are various including articles, emails, contracts, news, legal documents, etc IV Other comments: C Subject and content The subject and content is relevant to students’ needs The subject and content of the material is contextualized as in Vietnam Other comments: V Appendix 4: The questionnaire for students - Vietnamese version Bảng câu hỏi dành cho sinh viên Đánh giá tài liệu “Phiên dịch & Biên dịch Kinh doanh Nâng cao 4” Mục đích bảng câu hỏi thu thập ý kiến bạn tài liệu “Phiên dịch & Biên dịch Kinh doanh Nâng cao 4” mà bạn học Ý kiến đề xuất bạn cho câu hỏi sau thiếu nghiên cứu Cảm ơn bạn hợp tác! Để trả lời bảng câu hỏi này, vui lòng đánh dấu (✔) vào lựa chọn thích hợp sau: (hồn tồn khơng đồng ý) (khơng đồng ý) (bình thường) (đồng ý) Câu trả lời STT Lựa chọn I Mục đích tài liệu Tài liệu cung cấp cho sinh viên vốn từ vựng cần thiết, thuật ngữ đặc biệt phù hợp với lĩnh vực Tài liệu giúp cải thiện kỹ dịch sinh viên dạng nói viết Tài liệu giúp cải thiện kỹ diễn giải học sinh với cách phát âm chuẩn, có ngữ điệu trơi chảy Ý kiến khác: II Nội dung tài liệu A Kỹ Tài liệu bao gồm tập trung vào kỹ biên dịch phiên dịch: kỹ phân tích câu, kỹ ghi chú, kỹ nghe, sử dụng linh hoạt thuật ngữ xác thực dịch Ý kiến khác: B (hoàn tồn đồng ý) Ngơn ngữ kiểu văn VI 5 Một danh sách từ vựng bảng giải thích hợp Các loại văn đa dạng bao gồm báo, email, hợp đồng, tin tức, văn pháp lý, v.v Ý kiến khác: C Chủ đề nội dung Chủ đề nội dung phù hợp với nhu cầu học sinh Chủ đề nội dung tài liệu biên soạn theo ngữ cảnh Việt Nam Ý kiến khác: VII ... collecting data and necessary information about the way of performing the task and the results of this performance and the opinions of teachers and students about the tasks; qualitative and quantitative... certify that the thesis entitled ? ?An evaluation of the textbook Advanced Business Interpretation & Translation for the fourthyear students of English at a university in Ho Chi Minh City? ?? is the result... aims on the textbook Advanced Business Interpretation & Translation a Overview of Advanced Business Interpretation & Translation: The textbook Advanced Business Interpretation & Translation is