Đánh giá giáo trình “New Cutting Edge – Elementary” dành cho sinh viên năm thứ nhất chuyên ngành kế toán trường Cao đẳng nghề Bách Nghệ Hải Phòng

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES



ĐỖ THỊ QUỲNH CHÂM

AN EVALUATION OF THE COURSE BOOK “NEW CUTTING EDGE –
ELEMENTARY” FOR THE FIRST - YEAR ACCOUNTING STUDENTS
OF HAIPHONG POLYTECHNICS COLLEGE

(Đánh giá giáo trình “New Cutting Edge – Elementary” dành cho sinh viên năm thứ
nhất chuyên ngành kế toán trường Cao đẳng nghề Bách Nghệ Hải Phòng)




M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS


Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60 14 10


HANOI, 2012

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES


ĐỖ THỊ QUỲNH CHÂM


AN EVALUATION OF THE COURSE BOOK “NEW CUTTING EDGE –
ELEMENTARY” FOR THE FIRST - YEAR ACCOUNTING STUDENTS
OF HAIPHONG POLYTECHNICS COLLEGE

(Đánh giá giáo trình “New Cutting Edge – Elementary” dành cho sinh viên năm thứ
nhất chuyên ngành kế toán trường Cao đẳng nghề Bách Nghệ Hải Phòng)



M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS


Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60 14 10
Supervisor: Phạm Minh Hiền, MA




HANOI, 2012

iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Certificate of originality of the thesis i
Acknowledgements ii
Abstract iii
Table of contents iv
Abbreviations……………………………………………………………………………vii
List of tables, figures and charts……………………………………………………….viii
PART A: INTRODUCTION 1
1. Rational of the study 1
2. Aim of the study 2
3. Method of the study 2
4. Scope of the study 2
5. Significance of the study 2
6. Design of the study 3
PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4
Chapter 1: Literature Review 4
1.1 .
Materials in language teaching and learning 4
1.1.1. Definitions 4
1.1.2. Role of materials in General English Course 5
1.2. Material evaluation 6
1.2.1. Definitions of material evaluation 6
1.2.2. Purposes of material evaluation 7
1.2.3. Types of materials evaluation 7
1.2.4. Methods of materials evaluation 8
1.2.5. Criteria for materials evaluation 9

1.2.6. Materials evaluation procedure 10
1.3. Materials adaptation 11
Chapter 2: Research Methodology 12


v

2.1. An overview of current English Teaching and Learning at HPPC 12
2.1.1. Context 12
2.1.2. Course objectives 13
2.1.3. Content 13
2.1.4. Material description 14
2.2. Research method 15
2.2.1. Research question 15
2.2.2. Participants 15
2.2.3. Instruments 16
2.3. Data collection procedure 17
2.4. Data analysis procedure 18
Chapter 3: Analysis of data and suggestions for materials adaptation 19
3.1. Evaluation of students‟ needs 19
3.1.1. Students‟ English level and Ranking of assumed purposes in learning GE . 19
3.1.2. Evaluation on the needs the course book meets 21
3.2. Evaluation on the Objectives of the Course 22
3.2.1. Vocabulary improvement 22
3.2.2. Students‟ speaking tasks completion 23
3.2.3. Language Proficiency 24
3.2.4. General evaluation of students‟ progress 25
3.3. Evaluation on the format of the course book 26
3.4. Evaluation on the content of the course book 27
3.4.1. Proportion of the four macro-skills 27

3.4.2. Topics in the course book 28
3.4.3. Vocabulary in the course book 29
3.4.4. Practice in the course book 30
3.5. Evaluation on the methodology of the course book 31
3.5.1. Methodological Criteria 31
3.5.2. Effect of the teaching aids 32
3.6. Evaluation findings 32


vi

3.6.1. Evaluation on the learners‟ needs 33
3.6.2. Evaluation on the course objectives 33
3.6.3. Evaluation on the format of the course book 33
3.6.4. Evaluation on the content of the course book 34
3.6.5. Evaluation on the methodology of the course book 34
3.7. Recommendation for the course book‟s adaptation 35
3.7.1. Supplementing 36
3.7.2 Editing 36
3.7.2. Expanding 37
3.7.3. Personalizing 38
3.7.4. Localizing or modifying cultural/situational content 38
3.7.5. Simplifying 38
PART C: CONCLUSION 40
1. Summary of the study 40
2. Limitations of the study 41
3. Suggestions for further studies 42
References: 43
Appendices I
Appendix 1: I

Appendix 2:……………………………………………………………………………. VII
Appendix 3:…………………………………………………………………………… VIII
Appendix 4: ……………………………………………………………………………XIV
Appendix 5:… ………………………………………………………………………XVIII








vii




ABBREVIATIONS

CLT: Communicative Language Teaching
ELT: English Language Teaching
GE: General English
HPPC: Haiphong Polytechnics College
NCEE: New Cutting Edge Elementary
Ss: Students
Ts: Teachers
ULIS, VNUH: University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam
National University, Hanoi

viii



LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES AND CHARTS

TABLES
Table 1: Teachers and students‟ ranking of the purposes of GE Course
Table 2: Evaluation on the needs satisfied by the course book
Table 3: Students‟ speaking tasks completion
Table 4: Evaluation on the format of the course book
Table 5: Proportion of the macro-skills
Table 6: Student‟s level of proficiency in language points
Table 7: Teachers and students‟ opinion on the Practice of the course book
Table 8: Evaluation on the methodology of the course book

FIGURES
Figure 1: The material process by Tomlinson and Alan Waters (1987, p.97)
CHARTS
Chart 1: Students‟ English level at the beginning of the course
Chart 2: Students‟ vocabulary improvement
Chart 3: Evaluation on the students‟ progress
Chart 4: Evaluation on the vocabulary of the course book








1

PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale of the study
Course books are the mostly used in teaching and learning materials for both
teachers and the learners. They not only provide a framework for teachers in achieving
the aims and objectives of the course but also play an important role as a guide to the
teacher in conducting the lesson. On behalf of the learners, a course book truly affects
their attitudes and performance to the lesson throughout the course. It is a fact that
when learners like their course books, they like the course as well and become active
participants to the lesson. Thus, using a course book is probably the most common
way of teaching English today. Having a course book in the trend of teaching and
learning is a vital element and is looked upon as an indispensable mean; consequently,
selecting a proper book or providing a course book is of great importance, too.
However, now with a variety of textbook available on the market each with a different

methodology and syllabus, it can be much more difficult to choose the best suitable
book for a particular teaching situation. In fact, there is no course book can be
absolutely ideal for a particular group of learners (Cunningsworth,1995); evaluation
and selection of suitable material would be essential and important issues for language
teachers. A thorough evaluation will pave the way for teaching staff of each
organization and policy makers to have this ability to discriminate among all the
available books in the market and considering weak as well as strong points of each
book educators can choose the most appropriate book. Therefore, in order to take the
advantage of the materials, it is necessary for individuals, especially language teachers,
to carefully examine all aspects of the materials.
The course book “New Cutting Edge- Elementary” is used for teaching Pre-
ESP for the first year accounting students at the Economics Faculty since 2008 and
also had both positive and negative response from both students and teachers.
However, up to now, no research on the course book evaluation has been conducted to
recognize its strength and weakness as well as how suitably the course book matched
the goal of the course. In response to the problem, it is an urgent demand to carry out
an evaluation of the course book to determine its appropriateness for students at our


2

college then provide the adaptation for the better use. This is also the reason for the
writer to choose the material evaluation for the thesis:
“An evaluation of the course book “New Cutting Edge – Elementary” for the
first - year accounting students of Haiphong Polytechnics College”
2. Aims of the study
The study is carried out to improve the effectiveness of teaching the course book –
NCEE for the first-year accounting students of HP Polytechnics College. So the
specific purposes of the study are as follow:
- To investigate the English teaching and learning context at HPPC.

- To evaluate the currently adopted course book New Cutting Edge Elementary from
the viewpoints of both teachers at Foreign Language Faculty and the first year
accounting students of Haiphong Polytechnics College.
- To offer the suggestion for the course book‟s adaptations.
3. Methods of the study
For this study, two main instruments are applied to collect data:
- Survey questionnaires are designed for both teachers and the first - year accounting
students at Haiphong Polytechnics College.
- Formal interviews are conducted to look for students‟ and teachers‟ opinions to the
course book basing on their experience in using it.
4. Scope of the study
The course book New Cutting Edge –Elementary has been used for teaching Pre-ESP
for the first year students of Economics Faculty as well as Navigation Faculty at
Haiphong Polytechnics College. However, due to the limitation of a minor thesis, this
study just mainly focuses on generally evaluating the course book New Cutting Edge –
Elementary for only accounting students at Economics Faculty in term of Learner‟s
Demand, Format, Objective, Content and Methodology to evaluate the suitability of
the material to the real Pre-ESP teaching and learning at HPPC.
5. Significance of the study
Firstly, the finding of this study will help the teachers to identify the strength and
weakness of the course book to adjust their teaching method and adapt the material so
as to provide students with the most effective lessons.


3

Furthermore, it is expected that the result of research, to some extent, could become
the reference material for those interested in the field of material evaluation.
6. Design of the study
The thesis consists of three parts:

Part I: Introduction states the rational, aim, scope, methods and design of the study.
Part II: Development is divided into three main chapters:
Chapter 1 provides the readers with literature review on the aspects relating to
material evaluation such as: materials in language teaching and learning, materials
evaluation, and evaluation types, as well as methods and criteria, purpose of materials.
Besides, in this chapter, materials adaptation for the better use has been presented.
Chapter 2 deals with an overview of current English teaching and learning
situation at Economics Faculty of HPPC, research method as well as description of
data collection procedure and data analysis procedure which involve in the research
process.
Chapter 3 presents and reports the analysis of the study and encloses
suggestions for the course book adaptation.
Part III: Conclusion summarizes the major findings, limitation of the study and
suggestions for further research.













4

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter has addressed the key notions about material and material evaluation.
These issues, where possible, have been supported by academic literature. The first
issue in this chapter concerns with materials in language teaching and learning. The
second one presents an overview of materials evaluation. At last, the chapter will end
up with theoretical discussion about materials adaptation.
1.1. Materials in language teaching and learning
1.1.1. Definitions
To do book evaluation in a correct way, first defining characteristics and giving a good
definition about textbook, course book and material are necessary.
From his point of view, Tomlinson (1998) defines that a textbook 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 serve as the only book which the learners necessarily use
during a course. Such a book usually includes work on grammar, vocabulary,
pronunciation, functions and the skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking.
Richards (2001) stated that “Textbooks are a key component in most language
programs. In some situations, they serve as the basic for much of the language input
learners receive and the language practice that occurs in the classroom. In other
situations, the textbook may serve primarily to supplement the teachers‟ instruction”.
It is assumed that a textbook is a teaching tool (material) which presents the subject
matter defined by the curriculum. A textbook has always been the most preferred
instructional material in ELT. They are best seen as a resource in achieving aims and
objectives that have already been set concerning learner needs.
According to Tomlinson (1998), course book 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 learner necessarily use
during a course. Such a book usually includes work on grammar, vocabulary, function
and the skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking.
Although the definition which Ur (1996: 183) has given is a simple one, it is very
useful and easy to understand. It reads as follows:

5

The term „course book‟ means, a text book 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 course book
must have at least being 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 “course book” 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. Frequently, a course book is considered core materials
of a certain course. It may be accompanied with a variety of supplementary materials.
Tomlinson (1998) identified materials as anything which is used to help to teach
language learners. Materials can be in the form of a textbook, a workbook, a cassette, a
CD –Rom, a video, a photocopied handout, a newspaper, a paragraph written on a
white board: anything which presents or informs about the language. He also supposed
“the term is used to refer to anything which is used by teachers or learners to facilitate
the learning of a language”. In other word, they can be anything which is deliberately
used to increase the learners‟ knowledge and/or experience of the language.
Therefore, it is agreed that materials include anything which can be used to facilitate
the learning of a language. They can be instructional, experiential, exploratory, in that
they can inform learners about the language, they can provide experience of the
language use, they can stimulate language use or they can help learners to make
discoveries about the language for themselves.
1.1.2. Role of materials in General English Course
There are five important components involved in English language instruction namely
students, teachers, materials, teaching methods, and evaluations among which essential
constituents are the textbooks and instruction materials because these instruction

materials provide the foundation for the content of the lesson, the balance of the skill
taught, as well as the kinds of language practice the students engage in during class
activities.
The role of materials in language teaching has also been discussed by different authors
with various points of view. A textbook can serve different purposes for teachers: as a


6

core resource, a resource of supplementary materials, an inspiration for classroom
activities and even the curriculum itself. (Garinger, 2002)
Confirming the importance roles of teaching materials, Hutchinson and Torres (1994,
p315) state:
“…No teaching – learning situations, it seems, is complete until it has its relevant
textbook, adding that textbooks can support teachers through potentially disturbing and
threatening change processes, demonstrate new and/or untried methodologies, introduced
change gradually and create scaffolding upon which teachers can build a more creative
methodology of their own”.
Hence, learning how to use and adapt textbook is an important part of a teacher‟s
professional knowledge. Throughout this thesis, the three basic terms mentioned above
will be used interchangeably in order to serve the purpose of the study.
1.2. Material evaluation
1.2.1. Definition of material evaluation
A numbers of researchers have expressed their own points of view towards the
definitions of material evaluation.
According to Dudley 1998, “Evaluation is a whole process which begins with
determining what information to gather and end with bringing about the change in the
current activities or influencing future ones”.
In his overview, Tomlinson (1998, p3) claims that “this term refers to attempts to
measure the value of materials”. In many cases, this is done impressionistically and

consists of attempts to predict whether or not the material will work, in the sense that
the learners will be able to use them without too much difficulty and will enjoy the
experience of doing so.
Hutchinson and Waters (1987, 96) point out that evaluation is matching process
designed to establish the degree of match between the needs and available solutions. It
refers to the attempts to measure the value of materials and is aimed at assessing the
fitness. Though each researcher has his own opinion on material evaluation, they still
come to the conclusion that evaluation is the process of collecting data giving
judgments based on the collected data, and the most importantly, evaluation must
include action.
1.2.2. Purposes of materials evaluation


7

Material evaluation plays an important part in the improvement of a language course
as it helps to identify particular strength and weakness of the material 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 material evaluation, Sheldon (1998) has offered several
other reasons for textbook 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.
According to Cunningsworth (1995), through evaluation, we can assess whether the
course book 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:
- To decide whether the materials have had the intended effect.

- To identify what affect materials have had.
- To vindicate a decision.
- To justify the future course of action.
- To compare approaches/methodologies.
- To identify the areas for improvement in the future use.
- To show the positive achievements of teachers and students.
- To motivate teachers.
- To allay suspicions among parents and sponsors.
1.2.3. Types of materials evaluation
There are many different types of materials evaluation offered by a number of
researchers. According to Cunningsworth (1995, p76) and McGrath (2002:14-15),
there are three types of material evaluation: pre-use, in use and post use evaluation.
This classification is similar to Ellis (1997) with different names, ie. Preliminary,
Formative and Summative Evaluation respectively. In spite of different terms used to
refer types of materials evaluation, these terms are basically similar and discussed as
containing three types.


8

- The first type, pre-use evaluation: according to Tomlinson (2003:23) often takes
place before the materials are used to predict the potential value of materials for their
users to select a course book for use with a particular class. It seems that pre-use
evaluation tends to be the most difficult type as there is no actual experience of using
the materials.
- The second type, in-use evaluation is a kind of evaluation of suitability, involving
“matching the course book against a specific requirement including the learner‟s
objectives, the learners‟ background, the resources available, etc”. (Cunningsworth,
1995, p14)
- The third type, post-use evaluation refers to an assessment of a textbook‟s fitness

over a period of continual use. According to Tomlinson (2003:25), evaluation of this
kind can be “the most valuable as it can measure the actual effect of the material on
the users”. Basing on the data measured, evaluators can make reliable decisions about
the use, adaptation or replacement of the materials. However, this type of material is
normally time – consuming.
Generally, each type of materials has its certain strength and weakness, so it is
necessary for the evaluators to determine what type of materials evaluation will be the
most suitable for specific context. Basing on the current context of Haiphong
Polytechnics College, the writer decided to choose the in – use evaluation to measure
the appropriateness of the course book and offer some method of adaptation for its
better use.
1.2.4. Methods of materials evaluation
1.2.4.1.The impressionistic method

According to Cunningsworth (1995:2), 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”.
1.2.4.2. 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


9

which are in applicable. Moreover, William (1993, cited in McGrath, 2002:27) points
out that “checklist cannot a static phenomenon”. This means that the items in all
materials evaluation checklist reflect the time at which they are conceived.

1.2.4.3. 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
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, 2002:28).
1.2.5 Criteria for materials evaluation
Criteria for materials evaluation is one of the most difficult problems for materials
evaluator during the process of materials evaluation.
William (1983) suggests seven criteria, each of which has the following aspects:
- General criteria: give introductory guidance on the presentation of the language
items and skills.
- Speech criteria: suggest aids for the teaching of pronunciation: e.g phonetic system.
- Grammar criteria: offer meaningful situations and variety of techniques for teaching
structural units.
- Vocabulary criteria: distinguish the different purposes and skills involved in the
teaching of vocabulary.
- Reading criteria: provide the guidance on the initial presentation of passages for
reading comprehension.
- Writing criteria: demonstrate the various devices for controlling and guiding content
and expression in compositions exercises.
- Technique criteria: contain appropriate pictures, diagrams, table, etc…
Hutchinson and Waters (1987:99) 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.
Meanwhile, Sheldon (1998) suggests that there is no general list of criteria which can
really be applicable to all teaching and learning context without considerable

10

modification. In the same opinion, Cunningsworth (1995) assures that any selection
procedure should be modified to suit personal circumstances. Therefore, selecting and
modifying particular items to produce an individualized checklist is the best method to
make sure that it is suitable to the particular teaching and learning contexts.
1.2.6. Materials evaluation procedure
Hutchinson and Water (1987) provided the four steps of materials evaluation.










Figure 1: The material process by (Tom Hutchinson & Alan Waters (1987, p.97))
The above figure shows a very logical model for materials evaluation. It is obvious
that there are four steps for defining the criteria. At first, the evaluator has to define
what bases the materials will be judged and which criteria the evaluator wants to
include in the course. The second step is to determine the subjective analysis, that is, to
identify the requirements for materials so the evaluator should describe in detail on
what criteria the course is based. The third step is to determine the objective analysis,
that is, to evaluate whether the existing materials realize the criteria set in the
subjective analysis. The last one is the matching process, which finds out how far the
material matches the course requirements.
1.3. Materials adaptation

Materials adaptation plays an important part in the process of language teaching and
learning. It makes the teaching materials more relevant to the needs of students and to
objectives of the course, and therefore, would stimulate the effectiveness of teaching
and learning. There is a fact that no textbook is perfect. Any textbook should be used
judiciously, since it cannot be cater equally to the requirements of every classroom
Defining Criteria
On what bases will
you judge materials?
Which criteria will be
more important?


Matching
How far does the
material match your
needs?

Objective Analysis
How far does the
material being
evaluated realize the
criteria?


Subjective Analysis
What realization of
the criteria do you
want in your course?

11

setting (William, 1983, p251). That is why the textbook should be adapted. Teachers,
with direct personal knowledge of their classroom teaching, should see textbook as
their servants instead of master; as a resource or an “ideas bank” which can stimulate
teachers‟ own creative potential (Cunningsworth, 1984, p65).
According to Madsen and Bowen (1978), “every teacher is in a very real sense an
adapter of the material he uses”, and adaptation is the process of employing “one or
more number of techniques: “supplementing, editing, expanding, personalizing,
simplifying, modernizing, localizing, or modifying cultural/situational content”. At the
same time, Ellis (1986:47) mentions the process of “retaining, rejecting, reordering,
and modification”.
Whatever the definitions give, adaptations can be understood as a process of matching
so as to maximize the strength of teaching materials in context, by changing some of
the internal characteristics of a textbook or a set of materials to suit a specific situation.

12

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
With the aim of reaching the objectives of the research, this chapter will present
the detailed description of current learning and teaching English at the Economics
Faculty of HPPC in which the research was conducted. And in the next section, the
writer will put forward an explanation of her understanding of the methods used in this
research and also their advantages.
2.1. An overview of current English Teaching and Learning at HPPC
2.1.1. Context
Haiphong Polytechnics College has become one of the leading vocational
colleges in the Marine section since it was founded in 2001. As a newly – established
vocational college, it consists of six main faculties: Navigation, Marine Engine, and
Ship building Technology, Economics, Information Technology, Electricity and
Electronics. Among them, Economics Faculty can be seen to be the most important
one with a large amount of students joining the course. The students at HPPC
generally learn English for two years. For the first year, they will be provided with
general English by using the course book “New Cutting Edge - Elementary”. In
comparison with the English level of the students in other Faculties, the accounting
students are considered to be much better at language skills as most of them are female
and they are often hard working and have positive attitude toward their future jobs.
However, it can also be assumed that as a vocational college, most students lack the
knowledge of English and learning methods. Therefore, the result showed that there is
a small number of students with acceptable English skill.
In the general English course for the first - year accounting students, English subject is
taught in the first semester with totally 120 periods. During the course, the students
have to complete ten modules in the course book “New Cutting Edge Elementary” by

Peter moor and Sarah Cunningham in 2005 which provides the students with general
knowledge of English with the integration of four skills equivalent to elementary level.
During the term, depending on the number of periods, the students have three or four
mid-term tests and at the end of each term, they will have to take the final oral test.

2.1.2. The course objectives


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On the basis of the requirements set by Ministry of Labor – Invalids and Social
Affairs and the factual situation of teaching and learning English in Haiphong
Polytechnics College (HPPC), the following material requirements for a GE course for
first year accounting students in the two terms have been officially approved in the
Foreign Language Faculty‟s Curriculum and Syllabus, which are presented hereafter.
- Use the simple grammar structures provided in the course book.
- Be able to communicate in daily conversations in English.
- Start and maintain conversations.
- Express their feelings, thoughts and emotions.
- Read and comprehend the short paragraphs fluently.
- Write a short description of the required topic.
2.1.3. Contents
In terms of content, the course book is set to achieve the following points. At first, it is
necessary to equip students with a variety of communicative situation. Hence, the
students need to get involved in different topics that they have chances to use their
English in daily activities such as greetings, introducing themselves, talking about
family, hobbies, jobs, favorite things, etc. Besides, in each module, the book supplies
the students with topic –based vocabulary which serves as the key factor to help them
communicate successfully in English. Afterwards, as regards the language points, the
course book includes all the commonly – used grammatical items and structures in the

manner that they are not too complicated and these grammatical patterns can be
revised in the following lessons. Ideally, the basic English grammar in the book could
encourage the students to take part in real situations. Also, the tasks and exercises are
not too difficult because most of the students who are learning the book are at average
English level and especially they are sufficient enough for the students‟ learning
demand, that is to say they encourage students‟ language skills and enhance their self-
study. Similarly, four skills should be equally paid attention to. Finally, the content of
the material should be reasonably organized throughout the book as well as within
each unit so as to avoid students‟ boredom and confusedness.
2.1.4. The material description
The course book “New Cutting Edge – Elementary” is written by Peter Moor and
Sarah Cunningham with Frances Eales in 2005. It consist of 15 modules with 15


14

different topics relating to our life such as greetings, introducing themselves, talking
about family, hobbies, jobs, favorite things, etc. New Cutting Edge Elementary gives
students an all-round practical knowledge of grammar, skills, vocabulary and real-life
functional language. The new editions retain the ingredients that have made this course
so popular and also introduce useful new features.
A typical module consists of the following sections:
- Language focus: New grammar structures are presented by using pictures, discussion
questions or asking students to read or listen to a conversation. After the form, and the
rule, students have chances to practice with a variety of exercises.
- Vocabulary: the students are asked to predict new words and their meaning based on
the words given in the border together with several available pictures or small games.
After that, the students listen to the CD player/typescript for the way to pronoun. Good
dictionaries, such as the Longman Basic English Dictionary or Oxford Dictionary will
also help students to raise their vocabulary.

- Tasks (4 skills): For each module, different skills are paid attention to improve the
section of language focus and vocabulary.
In the reading and listening sections: students can understand very short simple texts
in a single phrase at time, picking up familiar names, words and basic phrases and
rereading as required. Then they can follow speech which is very slow and carefully
articulated, with long pauses for him/her to assimilate meaning. Finally, they must
listen to the CD player to check their ideas and listen more carefully to do some related
exercises.
In speaking and writing sections, pictures and discussion are used to help the
students activate their knowledge about the topic. The students practice speaking skills
using conversation pieces in listening part. Finally, students must summarize the text‟s
content to write a paragraph on the requirements of each one.
- Pronunciation: the students practice sound under the direction of teachers; and then
listening to the CD player to check. Finally, they repeat to remember and pronoun
smoothly.
There are three consolidation modules after every five modules (module 5, module
10, and module 15) which help the students to revise theories and practice more
exercises.


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Transcription of difficult words and their meanings are presented at the end of the
course book. Besides, coming with this material are 3 CD‟s and the students‟
workbook.
2.2. Research Method
2.2.1. Research question
As mentioned earlier, the aim of this study is to answer the two following research
questions:
- How do English language teachers and the first - year accounting students evaluate

the course book - NCEE provided at HPPC in terms of Learners‟ Need, Objective,
Format, Content and Methodology?
- What adaptations are needed for its better use?
2.2.2. Participants
2.2.2.1 Population
The target population for this study comprises 200 first year students at Economics
Faculty, and teachers of Foreign Language Faculty 1 of HPPC.
2.2.2.2 Sampling
The researchers used the convenience sampling as it is time-saving and cost effective,
therefore, the sample only included all of the 10 teachers in Foreign Language Faculty
1, and 120 out of 200 first - year accounting students were chosen to take part in this
study. They were both male and female students from 3 classes: KTD05-CD1,
KTD05-CD2, and KTD05-CD3.
2.2.2.3 Description
The teachers
Among 10 teachers in English Faculty participating in the survey, 3 of them hold M.A
degrees; one is pursuing the master course in ULIS, VNUH. Their ages are from 26 to
36, and all of them have experienced teaching this book for at least 2 years since it was
introduced in 2008.
The students
120 students of accounting major took part in the study. Most of them have been
learning English for 3 years with low English level. They were accounting students
from 3 classes: KTD05-CD1, KTD05-CD2, and KTD05-CD3. They were required to


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review thoroughly and rate the course book according to the criteria basing on their
own experience.
2.2.3. Instruments

In order to evaluate the course book in terms of learners‟ need, objective, format,
content and methodology, among the most usual methods or means of evaluation,
found in a number of authors such as questionnaires, interviews, observation,
discussion, records and assessment, two main techniques for data collection used in
this study are questionnaires and formal interview.
2.2.3.1. Questionnaires
Survey questionnaire is a popular instrument in the social sciences as it is helpful
collecting opinions and would be extremely beneficial in specifying aims and
analyzing the teaching and learning situation (Litz, 2005). They have a lot of
advantages among which the most obvious may be the fact that the respondents can
complete them without any pressure; as a result, they can express their thought freely.
Besides, closely ended questions are straight forward to answer (Gillham, 2000).
In this study, two questionnaires were used for teachers and students to collect their
attitude and information on evaluation of the currently used material “New Cutting
Edge - Elementary”. Each questionnaire is divided into 6 sections:
Section 1 with three questions aims at discovering the students‟ English background,
their expectation as well as evaluation on the needs satisfied by the book from the
English course at the college.
Section 2 with four questions tries to find out whether students make any progress to
get
the objectives after the course.
Section 3 is designed to gather students‟ judgment about the current course book in
term of format.
Section 4 consists of four questions aiming at getting opinions about the content of the
materials including the topics, skills allocation in each lesson and practice exercise.
Section 5 puts its focus on finding out the appropriateness of the methodology of the
assessed book.


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Section 6 with only one question is supposed to collect the general evaluation on the
course book in use and the suggestions for adaptation from the both teachers and
students.
2.2.3.2. Formal Interview
The purpose of the interview is to collect supplementary ideas for teachers and
students after responding to the above questionnaires. Johnson (D.M 1992:115) states
that response rates from interview can be quite high and respondents are more likely to
answer the questions presented because of their personal involvement with the
interviewer. Therefore, the interviewer can obtain more meaningful information
because he/she can rephrase questions that are not clear to the respondent.
For these reasons, the second method used in this study is structured interview. This
type of interview was conducted with 10 English teachers at HPPC. The interview
which consists of 15 questions thought carefully and selected in advance help to find
out the appropriateness and inappropriateness of the course book in terms of learners‟
demand, objectives, formats, contents and methodology.
2.3. Data collection procedure
The research carried out the data collection through questionnaire for both the teachers
and the students. First, research developed the questionnaire basing on the criteria she
had selected with regard to five main aspects under study. Then the student survey was
administrated in the end of class meeting of the course. The students were requested to
complete the questionnaire during the class time so that they were more willing to do it
and could clarify the ambiguous questions (if any) and last, but not least, could return
all the questionnaires immediately.
Also, the English teachers are invited to complete and return the questionnaires within
two days to make sure that they are well-prepared to provide the detailed and accurate
information.
After collecting the data from teachers and students, it was summarized by hand and
categorized in form of tables and charts where appropriate.
2.4. Data analysis procedure

In this thesis, the data from questionnaire was processed by using descriptive statistics
which are often reported in percentage.


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The data from the English teacher and student interviews were processed by doing
transcript first, being quoted to compare support and challenge the findings during the
course of analyzing data.
In summary, this chapter has presented the overview of current English teaching and
learning at Economic Faculty, HPPC. The reasons for choosing the research
methodology were discussed together with setting out the research questions.
Furthermore, the chapter also described the data collection as well as the analytical
procedures which lead to the result of the survey as introduced in the next chapter.