An evaluation of the book target pet for the first year non english majors at vinh university from the perspective of teachers and students masters thesis in education

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY Pham Thi Luong Giang AN EVALUATION OF THE BOOK “TARGET PET” FOR THE 1ST YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJORS AT VINH UNIVESITY FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF TEACHERS AND STUDENTS Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Language (TESOL) Code: 60 14 01 11 MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Kim Anh, MA Vinh, 2014 i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I certify my authorship of the M A thesis submitted today entitled:“ An evaluation of the book Target Pet for 1st year non-English majors at Vinh university” in terms of the statement of requirement for the thesis and the field study reports in TESOL program has been performed and interpreted solely by myself, except where otherwise acknowledged and that this minor or any part of the same had not been submitted for any other form for the fulfillment of any other degrees or qualifications Vinh, August 27, 2014 Author‟s signature Pham Thi Luong Giang ii ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to evaluate the suitability of the book “Target Pet” to the non-English majors‟ needs, level and learning goals and the requirements of the course in relation to aims, content, and methodology from the perspective of students and teachers at Vinh university To achieve the above purpose, qualitative and quantitative research methods in forms of questionnaires, materials analysis are used In this sequence, the material in use is analyzed basing on the criteria suggested by Hutchinson and Waters‟ (1987) with an aim to determine how the material realizes the course requirements A survey on the teachers' and students‟ opinions about the extent to which the material meets the requirements of the course in terms of the aims, content and methodology is conducted Research results have revealed some strengths and weaknesses of the material which allows the author to conclude that to some extent the book has not fulfilled the course aims, content and methodology in improving listening and speaking skills Based on the findings, the study offers recommendations on material adaptation such as addition, deletion, and replacement that should be made to remedy the weaknesses of the material so that the students can benefit more from it in future courses iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Many people have helped me complete this thesis First, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Ms Nguyen Thi Kim Anh, for her patient guidance, helpful suggestions, encouragement and constructive supervision in the course of writing this research Without her help, this work would have been impossible My thanks also come to Dr Tran Ba Tien, the FLD‟s Dean, who gave me the chance and the time to come to the end of this study I also would like to acknowledge my gratitude to Ms Tran Thi Phuong Thao, who has been helpful and supportive to me during the completion of my thesis I would like to take this opportunity to express my thankfulness to all of my English colleagues and students at Vinh University for their great help and kind cooperation in completing the questionnaires for the thesis Finally, my special appreciation goes out to all the teachers who taught me during the two-year course iv TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i ABSTRACT iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iv TABLE OF CONTENTS v LIST OF FIGURES viii LIST OF TABLES ix LIST OF TABLES ix CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 RATIONALE OF THE STUDY 1.2 AIMS OF THE STUDY 1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY 1.5 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY .3 CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 2.1.1 What are language- learning materials? .5 2.1.2 Types of Materials 2.1.2.1 In-house materials 2.1.2.2 Commercial materials 2.1.3 Roles of teaching materials 12 2.1.4 Materials evaluation 15 2.1.4.1 Definitions of Materials Evaluation 15 2.1.4.2 Types of Materials Evaluation 15 2.1.4.3 Purposes of Materials Evaluation 18 2.1.4.4 Materials Evaluators 19 2.1.4.5 Models for Materials Evaluation .20 2.1.4.6 Criteria for Materials Evaluation .23 v 2.1.5 Materials adaptation 25 2.2 LITERATURE REVIEW .27 2.2.1 In the world 27 2.2.2 In Vietnam 29 2.3 SUMMARY 30 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 31 3.1 AN OVERVIEW OF CURRENT ENGLISH TEACHING AND LEARNING AT VINH UNIVERSITY 31 3.2 RESEARCH DESIGN 34 3.3 PARTICIPANTS 34 3.3.1 Teachers 34 3.3.2.Students .35 3.4 DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENTS 36 3.4.1 Questionnaires 36 3.4.2 Materials and syllabus analysis .388 3.4.3 Tests 38 3.5 DATA COLLECTION ANALYSIS 38 3.6 RESEARCH PROCEDURES 38 3.7 SUMMARY 39 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 40 4.1 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 40 4.1.1 Aims of the Course syllabus and “Target Pet” 40 4.1.1.1 Aims of the course syllabus 40 4.1.1.2 Aims of “Target Pet” 41 4.1.1.3 Comments on the material evaluation in term of aims .45 4.1.2 Content of the course syllabus and the book “Target Pet” .45 4.1.2.1 Content requirement of the course 45 4.1.2.2 Content of the book “Target Pet” 46 4.1.2.3 Comments on material evaluation in term of content 52 vi 4.1.3 Methodology Requirements of the Course and “Target Pet” 53 4.1.3.1 Methodology Requirements of the Course 53 4.1.3.2 Methodology Requirements of “Target Pet” 54 4.1.3.3 Comments on material evaluation in terms of methodology 56 4.1.4 Survey results analysis 56 4.1.4.1 Analysis of 1st year non-English majors‟ needs and English learning goals at Vinh University 56 4.1.4.2 The suitability of the book “Target Pet” to the students‟ needs and the English course aims at Vinh University 60 4.1.4.2 The suitability of “Target Pet” to the content requirements of the course and students‟ needs at Vinh University .62 4.1.4.3 Teachers‟ and students‟opinions the Suitability of the Material to Methodology Requirements of the Course .69 4.2 ANALYSIS OF TEST RESULTS 71 4.3 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR MATERIAL IMPROVEMENT 72 4.3.1 Addition 72 4.3.2 Deletion 73 4.3.3 Replacement .73 4.4 SUMMARY 74 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION .75 5.1 A SUMMARY OF FINDINGS .75 5.2 IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS 76 5.3 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY 77 5.4 SUGGESTION FOR FURTHER STUDY .78 REFERENCES 79 APPENDICES I vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Materials Evaluation Model of McDonough and Shaw (1993: 75) 21 Figure 2: Materials Evaluation Process (Hutchinson and Waters 1987: 98) 22 Figure 4.1: Students‟ interested topics in English learning 57 Figure 4.2: Language Point and Skill Importance Ranking 57 Figure 4.3: Students perceived Language Strengths and Weaknesses (By Percent of Respondents) .58 Figure 4.4: Language Points and Skills vs Class-Time Distribution .59 Figure 4.5: Preferred Type of Interaction .59 viii LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1: Distribution of Time and Units in Semesters 33 Table 3.2:Teachers‟ Background Information 35 Table 3.3: Students‟ Background Information 36 Table 4.1: The vocabulary list of unit (Target Pet, p 122) 42 Table 4.2: The content requirements of the course 45 Table 4.3: The methodology requirements of the course 53 Table 4.1: Subjects‟ Perception on the suitability of “Target Pet” to the aims of the course and students‟ needs 60 Table 4.2: Subjects‟ Perception on the suitability of “Target Pet” to the content requirements of the course and students‟ need in terms of macro skills and language type 63 Table 4.3: Subjects‟ Perception on the suitability of “Target Pet” to the content requirements of the course and students‟ need in terms of micro skills and language type 64 Table 4.4: Subjects‟ Perception on the suitability of “Target Pet” to the content requirements of the course and students‟ need in terms of topics, text types and organization and sequence of content .67 Table 4.5: Subjects‟ Perception on the suitability the organization and sequence of content in “Target Pet” 69 Table 4.6: Teachers‟ and students‟opinions the Suitability of the Material to Methodology Requirements of the Course .70 ix CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 RATIONALE OF THE STUDY Course books have a great effect on the process of language teaching and learning as suitable materials can stimulate effective teaching and learning Thus, to have a successful language- teaching program, it is essential to have good course books, especially in Vietnamese setting English has been taught at Vinh University for a long time, and English course books for non-English majored students have been changed from time to time to be appropriate for the training objectives as well as the students‟ needs Although many textbooks are available on the market, it is really difficult to choose the materials that meet the needs of non-English major students whose English proficiency is comparatively varied In 2008 Vietnam issued Government Decision 1400, the goal of which is: “To renovate thoroughly the tasks of teaching and learning foreign languages within the national educational system" Ministry of Education and Training's National Foreign Language 2020 Project, or Project 2020 for short, was created in 2010 to implement this national renovation Among the objectives of the project is establishing regional foreign language centers as a major strategy to address teacher development and language teaching quality throughout the country Under Project 2020, Vietnam expects to enable a majority of students to use a foreign language, especially English, confidently in their study, daily communication, and work by 2020 According to this project, non-English majored students when graduating from Vinh university are projected to achieve the thirdhighest level of English referring to the Vietnamese Language Proficiency APPENDIX THE SYLLABUS OF THE ENGLISH COURSE FOR THE 1st YEAR NONENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT VINH UNIVERSITY I Goals and Objectives Goals Provide students with Basic English grammatical structures and develop language points such as: - Tenses: present simple, present continuous, Past simple, Past continuous, present perfect, past perfect - Used to - Verbs of like and dislike - Comparative and superlative adjectives - such that and too / enough to - Passive and active - Agreeing, disagreeing and suggesting - Quantifiers - Adverbs and adverbial phrases - ed/-ing adjectives - Conjunctions - Comparative and superlative adverbs - Obligation, prohibition and permission - Relative pronouns VIII - Predicting the future - First conditional and unless - Second conditional - Modal passives - Adjective order - Have/ get something done - Reported speech - Improve four language skills including reading, listening, writing and speaking Objectives Upon successful completion of this course you will be able to: - Use English in a range of everyday situations with native or non-native speakers - Understand written texts from everyday life such as street signs and public notices, informal written notes and simple magazine and newspaper articles - Write communicative messages or texts on familiar topics - Express opinions and offer advices - Take part in a discussion and exchange factual information on familiar topics II Audience: - First year non- English major students at Vinh university, terms I & II - The students‟ English level is low- intermediate III Time allocation IX English I consists of credits (equivalent 45 credit periods; credit period = 50 minutes; periods/ day/ week) and is conducted during 15 weeks English II consists of credits (equivalent 60 credit periods; credit period = 50 minutes; periods/ day/ week) and is conducted during 15 weeks III Materials Required Materials: Ireland, Sue & Kosta, Joanna Target PET (Students' book) Richmond Publishing Ireland, Sue & Kosta, Joanna Target PET (Workbook) Richmond Publishing Hashemi, Louise & Thomas, Barbara PET Practice tests Longman Recommended materials: Mann, Malcolm & Taylore-Knoeles, Steve Destination B1 Grammar and vocabulary MCMillan Huddleston, R (1995) Introduction to the Grammar of English CUP Moutsou, E and Sparker, S (1998) Enter the world of Grammar – Use of English.MM Publications Murphy.(1998) English Grammar in use Oxford University Press Palmer, F (1990) Grammar The Penguin Group, England Thomson, A.J and Martinet, A.V (1986) A Practical English Grammar OUP Hancock, Mark & McDonald, Annie English results (Pre-intermediate) Oxford X APPENDIX STUDENT NEEDS ANALYSIS This survey is to explore the 1st year non-English majors‟ needs in English course at Vinh universitypoints The respondents are expected to answer all of the questions provided as honestly as possible, as a high response rate will result in the validity of the project, the accuracy of response is crucial to the success of the research There is guaranteed no risk occurred as the respondents choose to participate in the project Data gathered will be utilised for the purpose of the research only It will not be used for any other purpose including personal or commercial use Thank you for your cooperation Please provide your personal information -Your name: ………………………………………………………………………… - Your age: ………………… - Your gender:  Male  Female - Your placement test score: …………… - Years of English learning: …………….years Which following topics are you interested in? Sport  travel  education  job  computer  Movies  music  daily life  business  others: ……………………………………………………………………………… Order the following language skills from (important) to (unimportant): reading listening vocabulary writing speaking grammar pronunciation What percentage (%) of class time you think should be spent on each skill? …………………………………………………………………………………… XI What you expect to learn from this class? ……………………………………………………………………………………… What are your language strengths and weaknesses? ……………………………………………………………………………………… Do you prefer to learn individually, in pairs or in a group? ……………………………………………………………………………………… Do you like using a textbook? Why or why not? ……………………………………………………………………………………… XII APPENDIX STUDENT BOOK EVALUATION FORM This survey is to explore the points of view of students on Evaluating the book Target Pet for non-English majors at Vinh university The respondents are expected to answer all of the questions provided as honestly as possible, as a high response rate will result in the validity of the project, the accuracy of response is crucial to the success of the research There is guaranteed no risk occurred as the respondents choose to participate in the project Data gathered will be utilised for the purpose of the research only It will not be used for any other purpose including personal or commercial use Thank you for your cooperation Strongly Disagree Not disagree (2) sure (4) (1) (3) A/ Aims The book orients students to the format of exam B1 The book provides students with basic grammar points and a variety of vocabulary in common topics The book provides students with the opportunity to acquire and improve reading skills to complete the reading task- types XIII Agree Strongly agree (5) The book provides students with the opportunity to improve listening skills through a variety of listening activities The book provides students with the opportunity to improve writing skill with focus on writing complex sentences, notes, emails and stories The book provides the opportunity to improve pronunciation and practice in common speaking skill situations B/ Content The book structures of provides an grammar, adequate amount vocabulary, of language points including pronunciation The book provides students with an appropriate balance of the four language skills and the practice of individual skills is integrated into the practice of other skills XIV The book pays attention to sub-skills - i.e listening for gist, note-taking, skimming for information, etc 10 The reading passages are associated with pre/while/ post reading activities 11 The materials for listening in the book are accompanied by background information questions and pre/while/ post listening activities 12 The materials for spoken English are designed to equip learners for real life interaction 13 The book pays attention to developing sub-writing skills such as brainstorming ideas, transforming the sentences, using appropriate structures and vocabulary to express ideas when writing 14 The topic and content of the book is relevant to students' needs as an English language learner(s) XV 15 The topic and content of the book is interesting, challenging and motivating 16 The topic and content of the book is generally realistic 17 There is sufficient variety in the topic and content of the book 18 The language used in the book is authentic - i.e like reallife English 19 The language used is at the right level for students' current English ability 20 The content of „Target Pet” is organized effectively 21 The content is sequenced throughout the book availably C/ Methodology 22 The book provides a balance of tasks and activities 23 The activities encourage sufficient communicative and meaningful practice XVI 24 The activities incorporate individual, pair and group work 25 The activities promote creative, original and independent responses XVII APPENDIX This survey is to explore the points of view of teachers on Evaluating the book Target Pet for non-English majors at Vinh university The respondents are expected to answer all of the questions provided as honestly as possible, as a high response rate will result in the validity of the project, the accuracy of response is crucial to the success of the research There is guaranteed no risk occurred as the respondents choose to participate in the project Data gathered will be utilised for the purpose of the research only It will not be used for any other purpose including personal or commercial use Thank you for your cooperation TEACHER TEXTBOOK EVALUATION FORM Please provide your personal information -Your name: ………………………………………………………………………… - Your age: ………………… - Your gender:  Male  Female - Your qualification:  PhD - Years of teaching: years  M.A Strongly Disagree Not Agree Strongly disagree (2) sure (4) agree (5) (1) (3) A/ Aims The book orients students to the format of exam B1 The book provides students with basic grammar points and a variety of  B.A vocabulary in common topics The book provides students XVIII with the opportunity to acquire and improve reading skills to complete the reading task- types The book provides students with the opportunity to improve listening skills through a variety of listening activities The book provides students with the opportunity to improve writing skill with focus on writing complex sentences, notes, emails and stories The book provides the opportunity to improve pronunciation and practice in common speaking skill situations B/ Content The book structures of provides an grammar, adequate amount vocabulary, of language pronunciatio points including n The book provides students with an appropriate balance of the four language skills and the practice of individual skills is integrated into the practice of other skills XIX The book pays attention to sub-skills - i.e listening for gist, note-taking, skimming for information, etc 10 The reading passages are associated with pre/while/ post reading activities 11 The materials for listening in the book are accompanied by background information questions and pre/while/ post listening activities 12 The materials for spoken English are designed to equip learners for real life interaction 13 The book pays attention to developing sub-writing skills such as brainstorming ideas, transforming the sentences, using appropriate structures and vocabulary to express ideas when writing 14 The topic and content of the book is relevant to students' needs as an English language learner(s) 15 The topic and content of the book is interesting, challenging and motivating XX 16 The topic and content of the book is generally realistic 17 There is sufficient variety in the topic and content of the book 18 The language used in the book is authentic - i.e like reallife English 19 The language used is at the right level for students' current English ability 20 The content of „Target Pet” is organized effectively 21 The content is sequenced throughout the book availably C/ Methodology 22 The book provides a balance of tasks and activities 23 The activities encourage sufficient communicative and meaningful practice 24 The activities incorporate individual, pair and group work 25 The activities promote creative, original and independent responses XXI APPENDIX THE FORMAT OF THE FINAL ACHIEVEMENT TEST The final achievement test takes hour 30 minutes and consists of following sections Section 1: Vocabulary – Grammar It carries 20% total marks for the test Students choose the correct word from four choices to complete the space in the sentence 20 questions Section 2: Reading It carries 50% total marks for the test It consists of three following parts Part 1:Students read five short notices or messages and choose the correct answer questions Part 2:Students read a text and decide whether five statements are true or false questions Part 3:Students read a text and write the correct answer to each question questions Part 4:Students choose the correct word to complete the spaces in a text 10 questions Section 3: Writing It carries 30% total marks for the test It consists of two following parts Part 1:Students complete the second sentence so that it means the same as the first sentence questions Part 2:Students write an informal letter answering some questions or Students write a story using the title or the opening sentence given question XXII ... questionnaires investigate the students? ?? and teachers? ?? evaluation of the book ? ?Target Pet? ?? for non – English major students at Vinh University The test is designed in order to find an answer to the question:... teaching materials, including students? ?? book, workbook and teacher‟s book, the reasons for teachers? ?? changing textbooks and its consequences After data analysis, the main findings stated that teachers. .. Phuong Ngan (2010) investigated teachers? ?? and students? ?? evaluation of English textbook in use at Vietnam University of Commerce (VUC) The analysis indicated that both the teachers and the students