Vietnam national university, Hanoi
University of language and International studies
Faculty of Post- graduate studies
************** Lê thị ca sơn Appropriateness of the textbook
American headway 1 for the first year students at
ho chi minh city university of industry based in
thanhhoa province

(Nghiên cứu tính phù hợp của giáo trình American Headway 1 dùng cho
sinh viên năm thứ nhất của Đại Học Công Nghiệp TP Hồ Chí Minh cơ sở
Thanh Hoá)

M.A. Minor thesis Field: English teaching methodology
Code: 601410
HANOI- 2010



Table of contents

Page
Declaration
i
Acknowledgements
ii
Abstract
iii
Table of contents
iv
List of ABBREVIATIONs
vii
List of Tables and charts
viii
Part A: Introduction
1
1. Rationale………………………………………………………………………
1
2. Aims of the study…………………………………………
1
3. Research questions……………………………………………
2
4. Significance of the study………………………………
2
5. Methods of the study……………………………………………………………
2
6. Scope of the study………………………………………………………………
2

1.2.2.2. Writing……………………………………………………………………
11
1.3. Language elements………………………………………………………
12
1.3.1. Grammar…………………………………………………………………….
12
1.3.2. Vocabulary…………………………………………………………………
12
1.3.3. Pronunciation………………………………………………………………
13
1.4. Summary……………………………………………………………………….
13
Chapter 2: An overview of the textbook and current

Situation of using textbook at HUI
14
2.1. Current situation of using textbook……………………………………………
14
2.1.1. Brief introduction of HUI……………………………………………………
14
2.1.2. Teachers and teaching methods……………………………………………
15
2.1.3. Students and their background………………………………………………
16
2.2. An overview of the textbook…………………………………………………
17
Chapter 3: Methodology………………………………………………
19
3.1. Setting………………………………………………………………………….
19

4.2.3. Modification…………………………………………………………………
37
4.2.4 Braching……………………………………………………………………
38
4.2.5. Addition……………………………………………………………………
39
Part C: Conclusion………………………………………………………
40
1. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………….
40
2. Limitation of the study and suggestions for further studies…………………….
40
Reference……………………………………………………………………
42
Appendices


viii
List of Tables and charts
TABLES
Table 1: Content of the textbook “American Headway 1”
Table 2: The teachers’ experience of teaching
Table 3: The role of the textbook in teaching and learning English
Table 4: Teachers’ opinions about the presentation of four skills in the textbook
Table 5: Students’ opinions about the presentation of four skills in the textbook
Table 6: Teachers’ opinions and students’ opinions about the difficult degree of four
skills in the textbook
Table 7: Teachers’ opinions and students’ opinions about skill development
Table 8: Teachers’ opinions and students’ opinions about the level emphasis on the four
macro skills of each unit in the textbook
Table 9: Teachers’ opinions and students’ opinions about the location of time for four
macro skills
CHARTS
Chart 1: Students’ history of learning English
Chart 2: Students’ time of learning English
Chart 3: Teachers’ satisfaction of the textbook
Chart 4: Students’ satisfaction of the textbook
Chart 5: Teachers and students’ attitudes towards grammar points in the textbook
Chart 6: The approach to grammar in the textbook
Chart 7: The stage of PPP approach paid most attention
Chart 8: The number of techniques of PPP approach is used in each unit
Chart 9: The quantity of new words in every unit
Chart 10: Students’ vocabulary after learning the textbook

To this end, I have decided to carry out a study entitled “Appropriateness of the textbook
“American Headway 1” for the first year students at HUI based in Thanh Hoa Province.
2. Aims of the study
The study aimed at:
- Evaluating "American Headway 1" in the terms of its methodology and
practicality. Specifically, it seeks to answer such a question as how the four
language skills and language elements are taught and practiced.
- Finding out the strengths and the weaknesses of the textbook
- Suggesting changes to enhance the textbook's appropriateness for the first year
students' needs at HUI based in Thanh Hoa Province

2
3. Research questions
The research is carried out with an attempt to find out the answer to the following
research questions:
- Is the textbook “American Headway 1” suitable for the students‟ level and the
teachers at HUI based in TH Province in terms of language skills and language
elements?
- What suggestions should be offered to help teachers and students to overcome
the weaknesses of the textbook?
4. Significance of the study
In order to serve the purpose of teaching and learning effectively, the textbook needs to
be professionally designed, fits the curriculum and closely corresponds with the aim of
the teaching program and the needs of the students. Thus, teachers and learners working
with the textbook might experience considerable difficulty in achieving the ultimate
goal of their teaching and learning program, which is developing students‟
communicative competence. The current study helps to identify the problem and
suggests ways of improving them. This contribution would be of practical value to
textbook authors, teachers and students.
5. Methods of the study

context of the study, participants and the instruments and data collection procedures.
Chapter 4 deals with data analysis and some suggestions

Part C (Conclusion) summaries the study and offers some suggestions for further
research. 4
Part B: development
Chapter 1: Literature review
1.1. Textbook
1.1.1. Definition of textbook
Textbook is one type of material. It can be referred to as a book that treats a
subject comprehensively and is a basic for study. In GE course, a textbook has the
function of a source of language, a learning support, a source for stimulation and

standardize instruction and assessment. That is, by giving students in different classes the
same textbook, teacher can teach and test them in the same way (Richarchs 2005).
Textbooks also provide syllabus for program, thus supporting novice teachers, training
them in methodology and saving their time and effort for more worthwhile pursuits than
material production (Cunningsworth 1995). Without textbooks, they may think their
learning is not taken seriously, thus textbooks are psychologically essential for student.
Textbooks may constitute an effective resource for learning in the classroom and self-
directed learning (Cunningsworth 1995). A learner without a textbook might be out of
focus and teacher dependent.
In spite of the aforementioned positive view of textbook use, however,
there have also been certain reservations about this use. One of the most cited concerns is
that textbooks are often implicitly prescriptive and thus might control the method,
processes, and procedures of classroom practice and „deskill‟ teacher (Allwright
1982).Another concern is that since textbooks are often written for global markers, they
may out suit all classrooms and might require adaptation to better meet student‟ true
needs (Richarch 2005). More importantly, recent criticisms have been targeted at the
quality of the textbooks. It has been repeated shown that many English testbooks
represent biased views of gender and stereotyping (Clarke and Clarke 1990; Carrell and
Korwitz 1994; Renner 1997). Other researchers such as Prodromou (1988) and Alptekin
(1993) pointed out that textbooks are often cultural artifacts because it is impossible to
teach a language without embedding it in its culture base.
It is owing to these potential problems that textbooks should be carefully
evaluated and selected before being used for a language program. Despite that fact,
textbooks have a vital and positive role play in teaching and learning process in schools
in Vietnam.
1.1.3. Textbook evaluation
1.1.3.1. Definition
Hutchinson and Waters (1987:96) point out that „Evaluation is a matter of judging
the fitness of something for a particular purpose‟. Evaluation is a complete process
“which begins with determining what information to gather and ends with ringing about

- Post-use evaluation: uses data on in course use data on effects to assess suitability
of selection.
1.1.3.3. Textbook evaluators
Dudley – Evans & St. John (1998); Tomlinson (1998); Robinson (1991) and Richarchs
(2001) agree that the evaluation of materials can be conducted by outsides (those who are
not involved in the program, for example
1.1.3.3.1. Textbook evaluation by outsiders

7
As many researchers believe, the advantages of having outsiders involved in the
textbook evaluation are obvious. They can bring “fresh” and “objective” perspectives into
the evaluation. However, there may be some disadvantages; outsiders as evaluators will
have their own views on language teaching methods. They may not obtain a full
understanding of the teaching and learning situation in which the evaluation is being
carried out.
1.1.3.3.2. Textbook evaluation by insiders
Textbook evaluation by insiders has some advantages as indicated by Tomlison
(1998). Because insiders have already been involved in the program, they will understand
the teaching and learning situation better than anyone else. However, the insiders “may
be too close and involved” (Dudley-Evan and St. John, 1998: 131), the evaluation may be
influenced by their teaching experience and their subjective points of views.
1.1.3.4. Methods of textbook evaluation
McGrath (2002:25) refers to three basic methods of textbook evaluation: The
impressionistic method, the checklist method and the in-depth method.
1.1.3.4.1. The impressionistic method
The impressionistic method is concerned to obtain a general impression of the
material and involves glancing at the publisher‟s blurb (i.e. the brief description of the
book on the back cover) and content pages of each textbook (for an indication of the
syllabus-type and coverage), and then skimming though out the book looking at various
features of it such as organization, topics, layout and visuals. This kind of overview is of

prescribed for used in Iranian high school by the Ministry of Education and then the
study gives some suggestion to alleviate some of the shortcomings encountered in the
textbook.
The research of this study has the same purpose to evaluate the effectiveness of
the material in use and offers suggestions to improve the material in use.
1.1.4. Textbook adaptation
1.1.4.1. Definition
Adaptation is a process of matching and its purpose is to maximize the
appropriateness of teaching material in context, by changing some of internal
characteristics of a course book or a set of materials to better suit our particular situations.
According to Madsen and Bowen (1978: ix), adaptation is an action of employing
“one or more of a number of techniques: supplementing, expanding, personalizing,
simplifying, modernizing, localizing, or modifying cultural/situational content”.
Similarly, from Tomlinson‟s point of view (1998: xi), adaptation is referred to “reducing,
adding, omitting, modifying and supplementing”
In reality, a textbook can never totally be an effective tool for teachers to follow
without any adaptation. Most teachers adapt materials every time they use a textbook in
order to maximize the value of the book for their particular learners.

9
1.1.4.2. Areas of adaptation
According to McDonough and Shaw (1993), the following are the possible areas which
are often taken into account in adaptation:
1. Lack of grammar coverage in general
2. Lack of practice of grammar points of particular difficulty to these learners
3. Reading passages contain too much unknown vocabulary
4. Comprehension questions are too easy
5. Subject matters are inappropriate for learners of this age and intellectual level
6. Photographs and other illustrative materials are not culturally acceptable
7. Amount of material is too much / too little to cover

1.2.1.1. Listening
Listening is an essential element of communication and it is also essential for
interaction. A learner can express himself orally but never be able to communicate with
speaker of English if he is unable to understand what is said to him.
Listening is an invisible mental process, making it difficult to describe. Listeners must
discriminate between sounds, understand vocabulary and grammatical structures, interpret stress
and intention, retain and interpret this within the immediate as well as the large socio-cultural
context of the utterance (Field, 1989:38)
Grant (1987,page 19) states that the listening skill includes everything from
learning particular sounds to comprehending complicated message. Without this skill,
communication can break down. Therefore, successful communication really depends on
listeners or receivers of messages. Steil & Watson (1983:22) also suggested that listening
is a major communication activity.
1.2.1.2. Reading
The term “reading” has been used in different ways.
Dean (2000:2) mentions Anderson‟s view of reading as “the process of
constructing meaning from written texts. It is a complex skill requiring the coordination
of a number of interrelated sources of information”
Anderson (1999:1) states that “reading is an active, fluent process which involves
the reader and the reading material in building meaning”
Goodman (1988: 135) shares this view as he defined reading as “a
psycholinguistics process by which the reader, a language user, reconstructs, as best as he
can, a massage which has been encoded by a writer as a graphic display”.
In short, reading is an active process in which the reader utilizes his background
knowledge and experience to understand the author‟s thought. Reading is not separated
from comprehension. Reading comprehension involves communication as it is the
process of encoding and decoding between the sender, who has messages in mind,
encodes them into a written or spoken text and the receiver, who decodes the text into his
mind.


Another researcher, Lannon (1989), looked at writing in a more complicated
process relating to research. It is “a process of transforming the material discovered by
research inspiration, accidents, trial and error, or whatever into a message with a
definite meaning…writing is a process of deliberate decision” (p9)
In short word “writing” itself may imply an act, a process or a skill, which needs practice
and study to develop. It requires both physical and mental powers from the writer.

12

1.3. Language elements
1.3.1. Grammar
Oxford Advanced Learner‟s dictionary defines grammar as “rules for forming
words and combining them into sentences (1993:394). As explained in the dictionary,
grammar is what language teachers introduce to learners and helps the practice regularly.
Jeremy Harmer provides a similar view: “Grammar is the way in which words
change themselves and group together to make sentences. The grammar of a language is
what happens to words when they become plural or negative, or what word order is used
when we make questions or join two clauses to make one sentence” (1981:1)
A broader idea about grammar is explained by Penny Ur: “grammar may be
roughly defined as the way a language manipulates and combine words (or bits of words)
in order to form longer units of meaning” (1988:4). She clarifies the term “grammar: in
the book „A course in language teaching”: “Grammar is a set of rules that define how
words (or parts of words) are combines or changed to form acceptable units of meaning
within a language” (1996: 87)
All the ideas given above agree on a point that grammar is a set of rules of
forming words and making sentences from words. This help to orient language teachers
to the focus of grammar teaching.
1.3.2. Vocabulary
The term "vocabulary" appears to be a very simple concept but in fact, we can find
it extremely difficult to give an exact definition of vocabulary. Based on different

reference to acts of speaking”
1.4. Summary
This chapter has reviewed theories related to the textbook and the role it plays in
the process of teaching and learning as well as important issues of textbook evaluation
that need to be considered when conducting textbook evaluation. It has also reviewed
some of the previous research on textbook evaluation in different contexts in the world
and some theoretical discussions about textbook adaptation. The next section of this
chapter presents the theories of language skills and the theories of language elements that
have reviewed through its definition. All these serve as a basis for carrying out an
evaluation of the textbook at a specific school presented in the next chapter.
14
Chapter 2: An overview of the textbook and
current situation of Using textbook at HUI
2.1. An introduction of the context of using textbook “American Headway 1” at
HUI
2.1.1. Brief introduction of Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry based in Thanh
Hoa Province
Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry based in Thanh Hoa Province (HUI) has
been in operation for 2 years in Thanh Hoa Province. Before that, its name is Thanh Hoa
Teachers' Training School (THTTS) and its duty was to train only elementary school
teachers, so English serves as a means that provides students with basic knowledge about
grammar and vocabulary. Since October, 2008, HUI joined with THTTS to become Ho
Chi Minh City University of Industry based in Thanh Hoa Province. There are many new
branches have been opened such as Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering,

National University, Hanoi. The oldest teacher has more 15 years of teaching experience
and the youngest teacher has got one year. Most of them have little chance to access to
the latest alteration of language teaching methods. They have to face with many
difficulties, of which the gap of content knowledge and the choice of appropriate teaching
methodology as well as textbook seem to be the major concerns.
However, the teaching staff at HUI is energetic and willing to devote their time
and energy to teaching. In terms of language teaching, an information exchange among
these teachers shows that they usually employ the traditional method of teaching even
though the teachers are always aware of the importance of the new trend in teaching
method nowadays: learner- centered approach, communicative approach when teaching
English to the first students of the general knowledge. They try to give their students
independence in studying by asking them to work through the text or discussing subject
matters in groups, giving them some instructions before asking them to make
presentation or role play in front of the class, students at the time play the key role in the
lesson and they feel highly motivated in learning. However, only one or two teachers can
sometimes do these and the amount of time spent on such activities is not much.
Actually, all teachers in our college and I, myself included have to work harder
and make our best effort to respond to the requirement of the new teaching situation.
At HUI, English teaching and learning activities are mostly carried in fixed
classrooms that make it difficult for teachers to make a change in applying new ideas of
new teaching methods in language teaching. What‟s more, there are often more than 50
students in each class. It is not easy to carry out a communicative task in a mixed ability
and large classroom.
16
2.1.3. Students and their background
Students of HUI come from all parts of Thanh Hoa province (Thanh Hoa city,
districts and mountainous areas). Students from Thanh Hoa city and towns (Bim Son,

language proficiency levels. Thus, the large number of first year students at HUI must use

17
the textbook “American Headway 1”. As a teacher of HUI for over 2 years, I have
already found many inappropriate features of this textbook for my first year students.
2.2. Overview of the textbook “American Headway 1”
Following is the description of the currently used course book for first year students at
HUI
 Book Information: John and Liz Soars. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001. ISBN-
10: 0-19-435375-3.
 Book title: “American Headway 1”. One of the recent additions to Oxford is a revised
version of the Headway series that is centered on American English; hence the name
American Headway.
 Book objectives:
- “American Headway 1” combines the best of traditional methods with more
recent approaches to make the learning of English stimulating, motivating, and
effective.
- “American Headway1” can be sued by both true and false beginners. It provides a
foundation in the structure of language, gradually building students‟
understanding of the basic grammar, vocabulary, and function of English
 Book content: The student‟s book is in use with 14 units under different topics: Hello
everybody, Meeting people … American Headway 1 is geared toward students at the
elementary level.
The teaching contents for each unit are summarized in a book map which is provided on
the first page of each book. Each of the textbook is accompanied with cassettes tapes,
student‟s workbook and teacher‟s manual.
There are 14 teaching units. American Headway 1, the level reviewed here, is an
integrated skills textbook that focuses mainly on grammar and vocabulary. Each unit
consists of five sections, Starter, Practice, Vocabulary, and Integrated Skills. In addition,
there are scattered Pronunciation and Everyday English sections throughout the book.
2. Meeting
people
- Verb to be: Questions
and negatives
- Negatives and short
answers
- Possessive “s”
- The family
- opposite adjectives
- Food and drink
Reading and listening: A letter from
America

3. The world
of work
- Present simple 1:
he/she/it
- Questions and negatives
- Verbs
- Jobs
- Reading: Seamus Mc Sporran - the man
with thirteen jobs
- Listening and speaking: Seamus‟ s day

4. Take it
easy!
Present simple 2:
I/they/we/you

English?
- Can/can‟t
- Was/were
- Could
- was born
- Countries and language
- Verbs
- Words that sound the
same
- Speaking: questionnaire: what can you
do?
- Reading and speaking: super kids

7. Then and
now
- Past simple 1: regular
verbs/irregular verbs
- Time expressions: Last,
ago. Yesterday…
- Verbs
- Spelling and silent
letters
- Speaking: what did you do at the end of
the 20
th
century?
-Reading and speaking: Two famous
firsts: George Washington and Nelson
Mandela



10. Bigger and
better!
- Comparatives and
Superlatives
- Have got
- City and country
adjectives
- City and country nouns
- Speaking: Maria‟s the youngest
- Reading and speaking: Three musical
cities

11. Looking
good!
- Present continuous
- Whose is it?
- Possessive pronouns
- Clothes
- Describing people
- Words that rhyme
- Phonetic symbols
- Tongue twisters
- Listening and speaking: Who‟s at the
party? / a song

12. Life‟s an
adventure!
- Going to
- Infinitive of purpose


Table 1: Content of the textbook “American headway 1” (language skills and language elements)