VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
************************* TRÂ
̀
N MINH THA
̀
NH AN EVALUATION OF THE COURSEBOOK “ENGLISH FOR
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY I” FOR SECOND–YEAR
STUDENTS OF UNIVERSITY OF INFORMATION AND
COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY UNDER
THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY

(Đánh giá giáo trình “Tiếng Anh chuyên ngành Công nghệ thông tin I”
dùng cho sinh viên năm thứ hai Trƣờng Đại học Công nghệ Thông tin và
Truyền thông thuộc Đại học Thái Nguyên.)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60.140.111

Supervisor: Prof. Nguyen Hoa
Hanoi, 2014
i

DECLARATION
I – Tran Minh Thanh, a candidate for the Degree of Master of Arts (TEFL) hereby
state that I accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use
of Master‘s Graduation Paper deposited in the library.
In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the
library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance
with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or
reproduction of the paper.

Signature

Tran Minh Thanh iii

ABSTRACT

The ESP coursebook ―English for Information Technology I‖ compiled by four
teachers of English of ICTU has been employed as the teaching materials for the
second-year students of Faculty of Information Technology since 2009. However, up
to now, there has been no official research conducted to evaluate the relevance of the
coursebook to the learners‘ needs as well as its suitability to the desired objectives of
the course. The purpose of this study is to reveal the findings and information about
the coursebook evaluation from the perspectives of students and teachers of ICTU.
With this regard, the study tries to assess the relevance of the coursebook to the
students‘ needs in terms of content, format and methodology. Four teachers of
English and 80 second-year students participated in the survey. The findings show
that the coursebook is rather relevant to the needs of learners.


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii
ABSTRACT iii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS v

PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale of the study 1
2. Aims of the study 2
3. Research question 2
4. Methods of the study 2
5. Scope of the study 3
6. Significance of the study 3
7. Design of the study 4

PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1. Materials in language teaching and learning 5
1.1.1. Concepts of materials 5
1.1.2. Types of materials 6

3.2.2. The evaluation of the format 32
3.2.3. The evaluation of the methodology 34

PART C: CONCLUSION
1. Summary of the study 38
3. Some conclusions 38
3. Limitations of the study 39
4. Suggestions for further study 40
Reference 41
Appendices:
vii

Appendix 1: I
Appendix 2: VI
Appendix 3: XI
Appendix 4: XIII
Appendix 5: XIX

1

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1. Rationale of the study
In accordance with the innovation in education and training, English is considered an
important subject taught at both schools and universities in Vietnam. In universities
English courses are usually divided into General English (GE) course and English for
Specific Purposes (ESP) course. University of Information and Communication
Technology (ICTU) under Thai Nguyen university is not an exception.

In the curriculum for ICTU students, English courses account for 10 credits, which


Since the approved version of the coursebook “English for IT I” was put into use in
2009 for the second-year students, there has been no official evaluation of
researchers or lecturers conducted to evaluate or review the fitness of the coursebook
to ESP learning context of ICTU. In addition, some students still complain about the
problems when they use the coursebook. They say that they are not really interested
in some parts of the coursebook, especially writing section. Besides, some lecturers
still question the relevance of the coursebook to students‘ needs. Thus, a study to
evaluate the coursebook “English for IT I” is urgently needed.

2. Aims of the study
The study is carried out to evaluate the coursebook “English for IT I” which is used
as teaching materials for second-year students at ICTU to see how the coursebook is
relevant to the learners‘ needs. The findings of the study will help teachers to adjust
the exploitation of the coursebook so that they can optimize the strong points and
adapt or substitute weak points from other IT materials to meet the learners‘ needs.
Furthermore, it is expected that the results of research, to some extent, could become
the reference material for those interested in the field of coursebook evaluation.

3. Research question
This study aims to find out the answer to the following research question:
1. Is the coursebook “English for Information Technology I” relevant to the
learners’ needs in terms of content, format and methodology?

4. Methods of the study
To conduct this study, two main instruments were used to collect data:
- Survey questionnaires - were designed for both second-year students of Faculty of
Information Technology and four involved teachers of English at ICTU.
3


motivating for the students. I find it important to develop this project because our
teachers of English will have the opportunities to offer students suitable materials
according to their specific needs.

4

7. Design of the study
The study consists of three parts:
Part A: Introduction – presents the rationale, aims, scope, methodology and
significance of the study.
Part B: Development – includes three chapters:

Chapter I: Literature review – provides theoretical basis for the study. Firstly, some
most important notions related to teaching materials, such as concepts of materials,
types of materials and ESP are discussed. Secondly, this chapter reviews materials
evaluation. Readers are provided with concise understandings of the approaches,
types, purposes, criteria, methods, and models of evaluation.

Chapter II: Research methodology – describes the methods employed in this thesis.

Chapter III: Major findings and discussion - is devoted to the analysis of the survey
questionnaire and interview of the coursebook evaluation carried out at ICTU in
which description, data collection, and analysis are demonstrated in detail. This
chapter also reports main findings of the thesis to address the research questions.

Part C: Conclusion – summarizes the content of the thesis with regard to the
relevance of the coursebook in terms of three evaluated aspects, and points out some
limitations of the study.
been either designed for language learning and teaching, such as textbooks,
worksheets and computer software or authentic materials like off-air recordings and
newspaper articles; teacher-written materials and learner-generated materials. From
his point of view, the term ―coursebook‖ is used to refer to a textbook on which a
course is based.

According to Tomlinson (1998), coursebook is a textbook which provides the core
materials for a course. It aims to provide as much as possible in one book and is
designed so that it could be serve as the only book which the learners necessarily use
during a course. Such a textbook usually includes work on grammar, vocabulary,
functions and the skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking.

Ur (1996) has stated a less complex, but very useful definition which is easy to
understand (p. 18). This definition is quoted as follows:
6 The term “coursebook” means, a textbook of which the teacher and each
student has a copy and which is in principle to be followed systematically as
the basis for a language course. Therefore, from the above definition one can
get that a coursebook must have at least been available in the hand of students
and teachers, and used systematically in a course of study, and a course of
study in this article refers to an English course of study.

The term ―coursebook‘‘ is sometimes associated with text materials as it has been
specifically selected and exploited for teaching purposes by the classroom teacher
particularly in the local setting. Therefore, within this master thesis the terms
‗textbook‘, ‗text,‘ ‗coursebook,‘ and ‗materials‘ are used interchangeably.

In summary, it can be agreed that materials include anything which can be used to

However, these published materials do have some limitations. First, most textbooks
contain a lot of activities where students do ―questions and answers‖. After a few
lessons, many students may find the learning process boring and uninteresting. The
second issue that teachers should consider is student motivation. Most college
students expect their English courses to be something different from their high
school English classes. So when we give them textbooks that are similarly designed
as their past learning materials, the students may quickly lose their interest and
motivation to study. Finally, although most ESL textbooks are well organized with
many different kinds of activities, however, they do not provide enough details in
other aspects of language study.

Home-made materials
Home-made materials refer to those materials developed by teachers or practitioners
for their own students in their teaching context. There are also arguments for and
against the use of home-made materials. Firstly, Block (1991) argued that an
important advantage of home-made materials is contextualization. Home-made
materials are likely to be more specific and appropriate than published ones and to
have greater face validity in terms of the language deal with and the context it is
presented in. Secondly, home-made materials may be more flexible. In designing
their own materials teachers can also make decisions about the most appropriate
organizing principle or focus for the materials and activities. And this can be
changed over the course of the programme if necessary. A further advantage of
home-made materials is timeliness (Block, 1991). Teachers designing their own
materials can respond to local and international events with up-to-date, relevant and
high interest topics and tasks. In conclusion, the advantages of home-made materials
8

can be summed up in the idea that they avoid the ‗one-size-fits-all‘ approach of most
commercial materials.


9

utilitarian purposes (p. 2). The purposes they refer to are defined by the needs of the
learners, which could be academic, occupational, or scientific. These needs in turns
determine the content of ESP curriculum to be taught and learned. Mackay and
Mountford also added that ESP as a special language that is taught in specific
settings by certain participants. They stated that those participants are usually adults.
They focused on adults because adults are usually highly conscious of the reasons to
attain English proficiency in a determined field of specialization, and because adults
make real use of special language in the special settings in which they work.

Robinson (1980) defined ESP courses as the ones in which participants have specific
goals and purposes (again, academic, occupational, and scientific). She cited
Strevens (1977) to emphasize that the purposes language learners have for using
language are of paramount importance. She stated that those purposes must be
understood as the driving force of the curriculum in a way that would help teachers
and learners to not let irrelevant materials be introduced into the course. She also
placed the learners in the role of curriculum designers in order to make the
curriculum more learner-centered. Strevens also argued that ESP courses are those
that are almost strictly based on the analysis of the participants‘ needs - a key and
crucial element - in order to tailor the curriculum to meet its true purposes.

From the above definitions, it can be seen that ESP can but is not necessarily
concerned with a specific discipline (subject), nor does it have to be aimed at a
certain age group or ability range or in other words ESP can be applied to any subject
and any learner. ESP should be seen simple as an ‗approach‘ to teaching, or what
Dudley-Evans describes as an ‗attitude of mind‘. This is a similar conclusion to that
made by Hutchinson et al. (1987, p. 19) who states, ―ESP is an approach to language
teaching in which all decisions as to contents and method are based on the learner‘s
reason for learning‖.

course as it helps to identify particular strengths and weaknesses of the materials in
use. After being used for the language course in a certain time, teaching materials
need evaluating to see if they have worked well to meet the expectation of students.

Regarding the purposes of materials evaluation, Sheldon (1998) has offered several
other reasons for materials evaluation. He suggested that a thorough evaluation
would provide for a sense of familiarity with a book‘s content that assisting
educators in identifying the particular strength and weakness in textbook already in
use. This would help teachers make the optimum use of a book‘s strong points and
recognizing the shortcoming of certain exercises, tasks, and entire text.

11

According to Cunningsworth (1995), through evaluation, we can assess whether the
coursebook is the most appropriate for the target learners at various levels and in
various teaching settings.

Anderson (1992) sets out a list of purposes of materials evaluation as follow:
o To decide whether the materials have had the intended effect.
o To identify what affect materials have had.
o To vindicate a decision.
o To justify the future course of action.
o To compare approaches/methodologies.
o To identify the areas for improvement in the future use.
o To show the positive achievements of teachers and students.
o To motivate teachers.
o To allay suspicions among parents and sponsors.

1.3.3. Types of materials evaluation
There are many different types of materials evaluation offered by a number of

1.3.4. Methods of materials evaluation
1.3.4.1. The impressionistic method
According to Cunningsworth (1995, p. 2), the impressionistic method is designed to
be able to gain an impression of a book by looking rather more carefully at
representative features, such as the organization, topics, layout, visuals and the
design of a unit or lesson or more specific features, such as the treatment of
particular language elements. Therefore, this method is wide ranging but relatively
superficial due to the fact that ―techniques of impressionistic evaluation cover the
wide spectrum‖.

1.3.4.2. The checklist method
McGrath (2002) states that ―a checklist is likely to need tailoring to suit a particular
context, and this can involve a good deal more than simply deleting checklist items
which are in applicable. Moreover, William (1993, cited in McGrath, 2002, p. 27)
points out that ―checklist cannot be a static phenomenon‖. This means that the items
in all materials evaluation checklist reflect the time at which they are conceived.

1.3.4.3 . The in-depth method
In-depth method consists of a focus on specific features (Cunningsworth, 1995),
close analysis of one or more extracts (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987), or throughout
examination of two units using predetermined questions (McGrath, 2002). McGrath
13

also argued that besides its advantages, this evaluation method has certain
disadvantages. Firstly, samples selected for analysis may not be representative of the
book as a whole. Secondly, only a particular section of the material is focused.
Moreover, this method takes time and requires expert knowledge (McGrath, 2002, p. 28).

1.3.5. Criteria for materials evaluation
Criteria for materials evaluation is one of the most difficult problems for materials

The criteria suggested by Ur seem to be too much detailed but the framework for
evaluation of a coursebook is not given so that so it may make difficult for the
evaluator to begin the evaluation. With the more comprehensive and more brief
content, the evaluating criteria proposed by Hutchinson and Waters seems to be more
helpful tools to language materials evaluators.

Hutchinson and Waters (1987, p. 99) present their own checklist of criteria for
objective and subjective analysis, which is not an exhaustive list, and is based on the
following four aspects: audience, aim, content, and methodology.
The audience of the materials: The evaluator should obtain information about and
from the learners to find out whether the materials are suitable to students‘ age,
knowledge of English, interest and so on.
Aims of the materials: The evaluator has to check if the materials match the aims and
objectives of the course.
Content of the materials: The evaluator has to check if the materials‘ language
points, macro-skills/micro-skills, and topic suit the learners‘ needs.
Methodology of the materials: The evaluator must find out if the techniques,
guidance, aids provided in the materials satisfy learners and teachers of the course.

Comparing the above sets of criteria, I find that Hutchinson and Waters‘ (1987)
criteria are more practical and helpful for the evaluator as they provide the clear way
to conduct a study on materials evaluation. In addition to that, underpinned by
learner-centered approach, these criteria seem to be suitable with the scopes of this
study. As the result, I chose the criteria suggested by Hutchinson and Water to
evaluate the coursebook ―English for IT I‖ to see how much it is relevant to learners‘
needs in terms of content, format and methodology.

1.3.6. Materials evaluation models
There are several suggestions on developing a reliable framework for materials
evaluation. The popular frameworks are the ones proposed by Hutchinson and

you want in your course?
OBJECTIVE ANALYSIS
How does the material being
evaluated realize the materials?
16

1.4. Needs analysis
Materials should also be contextualized to the experiences, realities, needs and first
languages of the learners. Modern teaching methodology increasingly emphasizes
the importance of identifying and teaching to the individual needs of learners. Thus
teachers must ensure they know their learners well. English language classrooms are
diverse in terms not only of where they are situated, but also of the individual
learners. The starting point of any materials design should be a needs analysis,
which, in addition to revealing students‘ learning needs with regard to English
language skills, should also aim to determine the students‘ life and educational
experiences, their first language and levels of literacy in it, their interests, their
aspirations, and their purposes for learning English.

Hutchinson & Waters (1987) classifying needs as necessities, lacks and wants cover
a range of interpretations. Necessities can be described as what the learner has to
know to function effectively in the target situation, and are seen by Richterich (1973,
p. 32) as objective needs. Lacks are analysed in what is called a deficiency analysis
(Allwright & Allwright, 1977) where what a learner already knows is set against
necessities. Wants then are what learners feel they need in order to operate in a target
situation and are also called subjective needs. Hutchinson and Waters (1987) expand
on the idea of needs by classifying them into target needs (what the learner needs to
do in the target situation) and learning needs (1987, p. 58). Some researchers also
make reference to what they call objective and subjective needs (Richterch, 1980).
Berwick (1989) provides three categories of needs, which he termed the language
proficiency view of needs, the psychological view and the specific purposes view. In