Đánh giá về hiệu quả của các bài tập nghe hiểu trong sách giáo khoa Tiếng Anh lớp 10 tại trường THPT Quảng Xương I Thanh Hóa M A Thesis Linguistics

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

LÊ THỊ GIANG

AN EVALUATION ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF LISTENING
COMPREHENSION TASKS IN THE TEXTBOOK ENGLISH 10 AT
QUANG XUONG I HIGH SCHOOL, THANH HOA
Đánh giá về hiệu quả của các bài tập nghe hiểu trong sách giáo khoa Tiếng
Anh lớp 10 tại trường THPT Quảng Xương I Thanh Hóa

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY
CODE: 60140111

Hanoi, 2014


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

LÊ THỊ GIANG

AN EVALUATION ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF LISTENING
COMPREHENSION TASKS IN THE TEXTBOOK ENGLISH 10 AT
QUANG XUONG I HIGH SCHOOL, THANH HOA

Đánh giá về hiệu quả của các bài tập nghe hiểu trong sách giáo khoa Tiếng
Anh lớp 10 tại trường THPT Quảng Xương I Thanh Hóa

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY
CODE: 60140111
SUPERVISOR: NGUYỄN THỊ MINH TÂM, PhD.

Hanoi, 2014


CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT

I hereby certify that the thesis entitled

An evaluation on the effectiveness of listening comprehension Tasks in the
textbook English 10 at Quang Xuong I High School, Thanh Hoa

is the result of my own research for the degree of Master of Arts at University of
Languages and International Studies- VNU, and that this thesis has not been
submitted for any degree at any other university or tertiary institution.

Hanoi, August 2014
Student’s signature

Lê Thị Giang

i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my deepest gratitude towards my supervisor Nguyễn
Thị Minh Tâm, Ph.D for her valuable suggestions, instructions and corrections
without which I can hardly fulfil this thesis.
I am also particularly indented to the lecturers of the Foreign Language
Faculty of National University for their enthusiastic help.
I wish to convey my thanks to the teachers and students at Quang Xuong I
high school who were willing to take part in the surveys and interviews.
Finally, my appreciation and gratitude are also extended to my family,
friends and other people for their assistance, support and encouragement during the
development of this study. All have enabled me to fulfil my thesis.

ii


ABSTRACT
This study aims at evaluating on the effectiveness of listening comprehension
tasks in the textbook English 10 to improve students’ listening comprehension. The
subjects involved in the study are students and three teachers at Quang Xuong I
High School, Thanh Hoa.
The thesis primarily aims at the emphasis of this research work is largely
practical in the light of theoretical aspects through literature review, results of task
evaluation, interview and some suggested activities to improve students’ listening
skill.
Findings from task evaluation and interview show the effectiveness of
listening comprehension tasks in teaching English listening skill at Quang Xuong I
high school in Thanh Hoa province.
Based on the results of the research, it is hoped that the findings as well as
suggestions will be helpful for designers who design English textbook and teachers

when using the new sets of English textbook in general and English 10 in particular
so as for them to improve their students’ listening comprehension.

iii


LIST OF CHARTS

Chart 1: Information sources in comprehension
Chart 2: A framework for analysing communicative tasks
Chart 3: Framework for evaluating communicative tasks
Chart 4: Criteria of an effective task
Chart 5: Results of analysis listening comprehension tasks

iv


TABLE OF CONTENT
Candidate’s statement ................................................................................................... i
Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................... ii
Abstract ......................................................................................................................... iii
List of charts .................................................................................................................. iv
Table of contents ........................................................................................................... v
PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale ................................................................................................................. 01
2. Aim of the study ...................................................................................................... 02
3. Research questions .................................................................................................. 02
4. Significance of the study ......................................................................................... 02
5. Scope of the study ................................................................................................... 03
6. Methods of the study ............................................................................................... 03

7. Organization of the study ........................................................................................ 04
PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1:

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE

REVIEW
1.1 Listening comprehension ...................................................................................... 04
1.1.1 The nature of listening comprehension .............................................................. 04
1.1.2 The listening skill ............................................................................................... 06
1.2. Listening process .................................................................................................. 07
1.2.1 Bottom-up process of listening comprehension ................................................. 07
1.2.2 Top - down process of listening comprehension ............................................... 08
1.3 Task in ELT ........................................................................................................... 10
1.3.1 Definition of task................................................................................................ 10
1.3.2 Structure of task ................................................................................................. 11
1.3.3 Framework for evaluating listening comprehension Tasks ............................... 12
1.4 Role of textbook and textbook evaluation ............................................................ 14
1.4.1 Role of textbook ................................................................................................. 14
v


1.4.2 Role of textbook evaluation ............................................................................... 15
1.4.3 Types of textbook evaluation ............................................................................. 15
1.5 Review of previous studies ................................................................................... 16
CHAPTER 2: METHODS AND PROCEDURES OF THE STUDY
2.1. Context of study ................................................................................................... 18
2.2 Method of the study .............................................................................................. 18
2.3. Data collecting instrument and Procedures of data collection and analysis ....... 19
2.3.1 Task evaluation ................................................................................................. 19

2.3.1.1 Purpose ........................................................................................................... 19
2.3.1.2 Task evaluation framework ............................................................................ 19
2.3.1.3 Procedures of data collection and coding scheme ......................................... 20
2.3.1.4 Summary of findings ...................................................................................... 20
2.3.2 The interview ..................................................................................................... 22
2.3.2.1 Purpose ........................................................................................................... 21
2.3.2.2 Participants ...................................................................................................... 22
2.3.2.3 The Interview questions ................................................................................. 23
2.3.2.4 Procedures of data collection and analysis ..................................................... 24
CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
3.1 Answer to research question 1: To what extent are Listening Comprehension
tasks effective in the textbook English 10 at Quang Xuong I high school? ............... 25
3.1.1 Goal and rationale .............................................................................................. 25
3.1.2 Activities ............................................................................................................ 26
3.1.3 Grading and integration...................................................................................... 27
3.1.4 Other factors ....................................................................................................... 27
3.2. Answer to Research Question 2: What are suggested activities to improve
listening skill for grade 10 students? ........................................................................... 32
3.2.1 Suggestions to improve the goal and rationale of the listening tasks in English
10
..................................................................................................................................... 32
vi


3.2.2 Suggestions to improve the activities of the listening tasks in English 10 ........ 33
3.2.3 Suggestions to improve the grading and integration of the listening tasks in
English 10 .................................................................................................................... 34
3.2.4 Suggestions to improve the other factors of the listening tasks in English 10 .. 34
PART C: CONCLUSION
1. Recapitulation of the study ..................................................................................... 38

2. Implications of the study ........................................................................................ 38
3. Limitations of the study ......................................................................................... 39
4. Suggestion for further studies ............................................................................... .39
REFERENCE ............................................................................................................ 40
APPENDICES
APPENDIX 1. The specific assessment table of sixteen units in Tieng Anh
10textbook ................................................................................................................... I
APPENDIX 2.
The Interview questions in English ............................................................................. X
The Interview questions in Vietnamese ...................................................................... X
APPENDIX 3. Notes of interview ........................................................................... XII

vii


PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
Vietnam is in the process of integrating into the world and English is the
international means of communication. Especially, after Vietnam became one of the
official members of WTO, English has become an important factor in many fields
of the social life such as: tourism, politics, trade etc. In fact, without English it is
difficult to get jobs in multinational companies which are common nowadays.
Moreover, English is the important means for people to surf webs on the Internet
because the main language used there is English. Therefore, since 1990s English
has become a compulsory subjects at most high schools and the target of teaching
English to students is to help them to communicate in English. However, one of the
problems Vietnamese students are encountering is that they have many difficulties
in listening and comprehending what the native speakers of English say, it would
lead to the obscurity in communication. There are many causes to this problem.
First of all, students do not understand the necessity of English listening, so they do

not have motivation in studying it. Secondly, English listening is considered as the
most challenging skill, as the results, it is often ignored or taught carelessly in
classes, especially in large classes. Thirdly, schools do not have sufficient
technological materials such as lab rooms, headphones. Therefore, it is difficult for
teachers to conduct a listening lesson.
Obviously, listening is an important part in the process of teaching, learning
English as well as communicating internationally. So, the researcher chooses the
topic “An evaluation of the effectiveness of listening comprehension tasks in the
textbook English 10 at Quang Xuong I high school, Thanh Hoa” for her master
thesis because this could be a contribution to her teaching profession on the
continuum of its development, and with the hope that the study can be useful for
teachers who are using English 10.
2. Aims of the study:

1


For the above reasons, the study aims at making a measurement of to what
extent listening comprehension tasks are effective in the textbook English 10 at
Quang Xuong I high school and then suggests some activities to improve listening
skill for grade 10 students. More specifically, it focuses on the following objectives:
(1) Investigating the effectiveness of using listening comprehension tasks in the
textbook English 10 in teaching and learning listening skill for students at Quang
Xuong I high school
(2) Suggesting activities to enhance the positive impacts and to minimize the
negative effects of teachers' teaching and students' learning.
3. Research Questions
To meet the objectives mentioned above, the two following research
questions are answer:
(1) To what extent are listening comprehension tasks effective in the textbook

English 10 at Quang Xuong I high school?
(2) What are suggested activities to improve listening skill for grade 10 students?
4. Significance of the study
The study provides a reliable and profound background on the matter, which
can be used as reference for future studies on similar topics. Besides, it helps the
researcher gain more knowledge and skills in this field during the research process.
Practically, the study provides an insight into evaluating on the effectiveness
of listening comprehension tasks in the textbook English 10. The study focuses on
the effectiveness of using listening comprehension tasks in the textbook English 10
in teaching and learning listening skill for students at Quang Xuong I high school
and then proposes ways to enhance the positive impacts of listening comprehension
tasks and to minimize the points which negatively influence the effectiveness of the
tasks of listening comprehension tasks in English 10. The study is also expected to
be useful for all the researcher's colleagues and anyone who is concerned about the
matter of teaching and learning listening comprehension in general.
5. Scope of the study
2


The study is limited to the evaluation on the effectiveness of listening
comprehension tasks in English 10 at Quang Xuong I high school, Thanh Hoa. The
reasons for this choice are as follow:
Firstly, in the first semester, the students are totally new to the high school. It
takes time for them to get acquainted with their classmates, their teachers' teaching
methods, their learning contents, the assessment practices and to generate their
learning styles. Most of them are from countryside of Thanh Hoa. So, while a
number of students possess quite ordinary listening abilities, many others are
completely strange to the skills as they have never done it in their learning at
secondary schools. Some are even afraid of it. Therefore, it seems very difficult for
students to learn listening skill well.

Secondly, students 10th at Quang Xuong I high school, Thanh Hoa have just
passed the entrance examination of high school so they would definitely be the most
suitable group to date to be studied for the purpose of this research.
6. Methods of the study
The study is approached qualitatively. Evaluation task and semi-structured
interviews are used as data collection tools. The collected data are then analysed
qualitatively. Participants for the interview are three teachers as respondents to
interview.
7. Organization
The study is divided into three main parts: Part I is the Introduction to the
study. Part II is the Development with three chapters. Chapter I reviews Literature
review on listening process, listening comprehension, task in ELT, role of textbook
and textbook evaluation and review of previous studies. Chapter 2 describes the
methods and procedures of the study. Chapter III presents, analyses data collected
from task evaluation and interview. Part III presents conclusion of effectiveness of
listening comprehension tasks, implications, limitations, and suggestions for further
studies.

3


PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND
LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1 Listening comprehension
1.1.1 The nature of Listening comprehension
These days, English language is often described as the international language
and the status of listening skill is quite significant. People find that there are many
occasions in which they want to use this skill. As globalization proceeds, the
speakers of English in every corner of the world are getting closer and closer. The

need for communication between groups of people now, of course, increases.
Steilet. al. (1983: 216) suggests that listening comprehension always plays an
important role in the communication process, it is essential for interaction. A learner
can express himself orally, but never be able to communicate with speakers of
English if unable to understand what is said to him.
Nunan (1991) suggests that listening used to be considered the Cinderella
skill in second language teaching and learning, the question puts forward here is
how listening comprehension can be defined; or in other words, what is the nature
of listening comprehension? The traditional view looks at the listener as a taperecorder since the way that he takes in and stores aural information is very much
like a tape-recorder. Meanwhile, the alternative view regards listeners as active
model builders. This type of listener can actively combine the new information with
his previous known knowledge and experience to acquire its meaning to the full.
Such a view is supported by many scholars, initially Alderson and Lynch (1988).
In line with the alternative view, O'Malley and Chamot conclude from their
study that "listening comprehension is an active and conscious process in which the
listener constructs meaning by using cues from contextual information and existing
knowledge, while relying upon multiple strategic resources to fulfil the task
requirement" (O'Malley &Chamot 1989, p.420).

4


Another popular definition of listening comprehension in both narrow and
broad senses is that proposed by Clark and Clark (1977):
"Comprehension has two common senses. In its narrow sense it denotes the mental
processes by which listeners take in the sounds uttered by a speaker and use them to
construct an interpretation of what they think the speaker intended to convey.
Comprehension in its broader sense, however, rarely ends here, for listeners normally put
the interpretations they have built to work."
(Clark and Clark 1977, p.43-44)

Lynch and Mendelsohn (cited in Schmitt, 2002) describe the unique features of
listening as follows:
Its usually ephemeral, one-shot nature.
The presence of a rich prosody (stress, intonation, rhythm, loudness and more), which is
absent from the written language.
The presence of characteristics of natural fast speech, such as assimilation, making it
markedly different from written language, for example /gammt/ for "government". The
frequent need to process and respond almost immediately.
(Schmitt 2002, p.194)

Above mentioned definitions and features of listening comprehension show
that listening comprehension is an active and conscious course that requires the
listener to process given aural information and respond to it almost immediately.
The response might be in spoken form or written form, or it might simply be
thorough grasp of the message meaning.
In sum, there are different views on the nature of listening comprehension.
The traditional one considers listeners as tape-recorders which just do the work of
recording and storing the given message. Meanwhile, the alternative view
emphasizes the need for listeners' ability to handle the heard message, utilizing their
background knowledge and experience together with their understanding of the
language being spoken, i.e. the knowledge of morpheme, phoneme, lexis and syntax
of the language. The latter one has recently gained more support from researchers
and laid the foundation for them to divide listening comprehension into sub-skills
for ease of helping learner's acquisition of the skill.
5


1.1.2 The listening skill
Listening is the ability to identify and understand what others are saying.

This involves understanding a speaker's accent or pronunciation, his grammar and
his vocabulary, and grasping his meaning Howatt and Dakin (1989). An able
listener is capable of doing these four things simultaneously.
Listening has become an essential element of communication. It is essential
for interaction. A learner can express himself orally but never be able to
communicate with speakers of English if unable to understand what is said to him.
As Rivers (1996), a champion for further attention to listening comprehension,
observes "Speaking does not of itself constitute communication unless what is said
is comprehended by another person" (Rivers 1996, p.146). It is, in fact, used far
more than any other single language skill in our daily lives. On average, we can
expect to listen twice as much as we speak, four times more than we read, and five
times more than we write Rivers (1981) and Weaver (1972). We can not, under any
circumstances, underestimate its importance. In fact, it is worthy of early
consideration. It is understandable because listening is the activity of paying
attention to get meaning from something we hear Underwood (1989). If we want to
be able to listen successfully, we will have to make effort to work out what speakers
mean. Grant (1987) states "listening skills include everything from learning
particular sounds to comprehending complicated messages. Without this skill,
communication can break down. Therefore, successful communication really
depends on listeners or receivers of messages" (Grant 1987, p.95). Steil (1983) also
suggests that this skill is a major communication activity.
Listening as well as reading has been traditionally considered a "passive
skill". This is a false characterization. Anderson and Lynch (1988) reject a
nationalization of this as a passive skill, calling it a "listener-as-tape-recorder"
(Anderson and Lynch 1988, p.215) explanation of this process. They say that such
conceptualization of listening ignores the interpretations listeners make as they
listen to the spoken text according to their own purposes, their expectations, and
6

their own background knowledge. As Brown (1994) states "this skill is not a oneway street. It is not merely the process of a unidirectional receiving of audible
symbols. Listening is the factor which is not only active but also very demanding. It
is an act of information processing in which the listener is involved in both one-way
communication and two-way communication" (Brown 1994, p.83). "It is a receptive
skill and it involves active participation on the part of listeners" (Rubin 1994, p. 52,
Hedge 2000, p.172). Listeners seem to be inactive while listening, but they actually
engage in the activity of constructing a message. This view is shared by Underwood
(1989), who claims that while listening can be thought of as a passive condition, it
is an active process. If wishing to understand the message, listeners need to apply
both their knowledge of language usage, that is the language system and the
appropriate use of the language communicate.
Therefore, listening can be defined broadly as everything that impinges on
the human processing which mediates between sounds and the construction of
meaning. When listening, listeners are expected to attend to what they hear to
process, to comprehend, to interpret, to evaluate, and to respond to the incoming
data, so they have to become involved and active listeners.
1.2. Listening process:
1.2.1 Bottom-up process of listening comprehension:
The bottom-up processing assumes that listening is a process of decoding the
sounds that one hears in a linear fashion, from the smallest meaningful units
(phonemes) to complete texts. Nunan (1988) claims that "Bottom-up processes
work on the incoming message itself, decoding sounds, words, and sentences"
(Nunan 1988, p.25). Stress, rhythm and intonation also play a role in bottom-up
process. According to this view, phonemic units are decoded and linked together to
form words, words are linked together to form phrases, phrases are linked together
to form utterance, and utterances are linked together to form complete meaningful
texts. In other words, the process is a linear one, in which meaning itself is derived
as the last step in the process. Anderson and Lynch (1988) share this view with
7

Nunan, but they regard bottom up processing view as "Listener as tape recorder",
they suggest that the listener takes in and stores messages sequentially, in much the
same way as a tape recorder, one sound, word, phrase, and utterance at a time.
In brief, we can summarize that bottom-up processes include the following
as the suggestion of Richards (1985)
- Scanning the input to identify familiar lexical items.
- Segmenting the stream of speech into constituents, for example in order to
recognise that "a book of mine" consists of four words.
- Using phonological cues to identify the information focus in an utterance.
- Using grammatical cues to organise the input into constituents, for
example, in order to recognise that in "The book which I lent you", "The book" and
"Which I lent you" are major constituents, rather than "the book which I" and "lent
you".
1.2.2 Top - down process of listening comprehension:
Top-down processing view refers to utilizing background knowledge to
derive meaning from the message. In addition to the linguistic skills, the listener
must have a variety of non linguistic knowledge. This knowledge can consist of an
appropriate purpose for listening, appropriate social and cultural knowledge,
appropriate background knowledge which is termed as "knowledge of the context
and situation within which the listening takes place to make sense of what he or she
hears. Anderson and Lynch (1988) point out:
"In order to listen successfully we have to construct our own coherent interpretation of
any spoken message. Both parts of this term are important. First, it needs to be coherent
both with what we already know about the speaker, the sense that it is our version of what
the speaker meant, as far as we are able to assess that meaning."
(Anderson and Lynch 1988, p. 11)

We do not simply store the language like a tape recorder, but we interpret what we
hear according to our purpose in listening and out background knowledge.

According to this view, the listener has to play an active role in listening process,
the listener actively reconstructs the meaning of the speaker by using incoming
8


sounds as clues, and by applying what he knows to what he hears and trying to
understand what the speaker means.
An important theoretical view to the top-down approach is schema theory.
As Nunan (1998) argues that schema theory is based on the notion that past
experiences lead to the creation of mental framework that helps us make sense of
new experience. Figure 1 illustrates the relationship between two principles sources
of information we may have in the process of comprehension. Widdowson (1983)
refers to them as systematic or linguistic knowledge (knowledge of phonological,
syntactic and semantic components of the language system) a schematic or nonlinguistic information.
It is generally recognised that bottom-up and top-down process are necessary
for the learners. In developing materials, and lessons, it is important, not only to
teach bottom-up process to give learners confidence in accurate hearing and
comprehending components of the language, but it is also important to help learners
use what they already know to understand what they hear. The top-down approach
starts from the opposite end: it sees understanding as starting from the listener’s
background knowledge of the non-linguistic context and of working down towards
the individual sounds. Listeners will actively interpret what they hear in terms of
their understanding of the situation and the world in general. Nunan (1991) claims
"Successful listeners use bottom-up and top-down strategies in reconstructing
messages". In short, listening is making sense of what we hear, is a constructive
process in which the learner is an active participant. In order to comprehend,
listeners need to reconstruct original intention of the speaker by making use of
bottom-up and top-down processing strategies and by drawing on what they already
know to make use of new knowledge.
Background knowledge

schematic → → → C

- factual
- socio-cultural

knowledge

procedural knowledge

↑↓
9

O
M


- how language is used in discourse

↑↓

P

Knowledge of situation

↑↓

R

- physical setting, participants, etc

↑↓

E

Knowledge of co-text

context

H

- what has been/ will be said (written)

↑↓

E

Knowledge of the language system

↑↓

N

- semantic

↑↓

S

- syntactic

↑↓

I

- phonological

systemic
knowledge

→ O
→ N

Figure 1: Information sources in comprehension
Nunan (1998)
1.3 Task in ELT
1.3.1. Definition of task
After consulting the definition of task from Long (1985), the author shows as
follows:
"a task is a piece of work undertaken for others, freely or some reward. Thus,
examples of tasks include painting a fence, dressing a child, filling out a form, buying a
pair of shoes, making an airline reservation, borrowing a library book, taking a driving
test, typing a letter, weighing a patient, sorting letters, taking a hotel reservation, writing a
schedule, finding a stress destination and helping someone across a road. In other words,
by "task" is meant the hundred and one things people do in everyday life, at work, at play,
and in between."
(Long 1985, p. 89)

This definition is a non-technical, non-linguistic one. In fact, as the author
points out, it describes the sorts of things that non-linguists would tell you they do if
they were to be asked. Moreover, some of the examples provide from this definition

may well not involve language (For example: someone can paint a fence without
talking). Finally, the tasks may be subsidiary components of a larger task: for
10


example, the task of "weighing a patient" may be a sub-component of the task
"giving a medical examination".
Breen (1987) claims "{...} any structured

language learning endeavour

which has a particular objective, appropriate content, a specified working
procedure, and a range of outcomes for those who undertake the task. 'Task' is
therefore assumed to refer to a range of work plans which have the overall purpose
of facilitating language learning - from the simple and brief exercise type ,to more
complex and lengthy activities such as group problem-solving or simulations and
decision making".
(Breen 1987, p. 23).
These are different definitions of a number of tasks researchers. However,
the researcher decides to do her research based on the definition of Long (1985).
The reason the researcher decides to choose this definition for the purpose of
implementing in her thesis because the researcher thinks the definition of Long
(1985) has authenticity and closest elements the researcher needs to research and
implement it in her thesis.
1.3.2 Structure of task:
Candlin (1987) makes the structure of task as follows:

Goals
Teacher role
Input

TASKS

Activities

Learner role

Settings

A framework for analysing communicative tasks

11


The language learning task requires specification of four components: the
goals, the input (linguistic or otherwise), the activities derive from this input and
finally the roles imply for teacher and learners.
Candlin (1987) suggests that tasks should contain input, roles, settings,
actions, monitoring, outcomes and feedback. Input refers to the data presented for
learners to work on. Roles specify the relationship between participants in a task.
Setting refers to the classroom and out-of-class arrangements entailed in the task.
Actions are the procedures and sub-tasks to be performed by the learners.
Monitoring refers to the supervision of the task in progress. Outcomes are the goals
of the task, and feedback refers to the evaluation of the task.
1.3.3 Framework for evaluating listening comprehension tasks
Candlin's paper (1987) proposes the framework for evaluating listening
comprehension tasks as follows:
FRAMEWORK FOR EVALUATING COMMUNICATIVE TASKS
Goals and rationale
- To what extent is the goal or goals of the task obvious a) to you b) to your students?
- Is the task appropriate to the learners' proficiency level?

- To what extent does the task reflect a real-world or pedagogic rationale? Is this appropriate?
- Does the task encourage learners to apply classroom learning to the real world?
- What beliefs about the nature of language and learning are inherent in the task?
- Is the task likely to be interesting and motivating to the students?
Input
- What form does the input take?
- Is it authentic?
- If not, is it appropriate to the goal of the task?
Activities
-Are the activities appropriate to the communicative goals of the task?
-If not, can they be modified to make them more appropriate?
-Is the task designed to stimulate students to use bottom-up or top-down processing skills?
-Is there an information gap or problem which might prompt a negotiation of meaning?
-Are the activities appropriate to the input data?
12


-Are the activities designed in a way which will allow learners to communicate and
cooperate in groups?
Roles and settings
-What learner and teacher roles are inherent in the task?
-Are they appropriate?

.

.

-What levels of complexity are there in the classroom organization implicit in the task?
-Is the setting confined to the classroom?
Implementation

-Does the task actually engage the learners' interests?
-Do the activities prompt genuine communicative interaction among students?
-To what extent are learners encouraged to negotiate meaning?
-Does anything unexpected occur as the task is being carried out? What type of language is
actually stimulated by the task?
-Is this different from what might have been predicted?
Grading and integration
-Is the task at the appropriate level of difficulty for the students?
- If not, is there any way in which the task might be modified in order to make it either
easier or more challenging?
-Is the task so structured that it can be undertaken at different levels of difficulty?
-What are the principles upon which the tasks are sequenced?
-Do tasks exhibit the "task continuity" principle?
-Are a range of macro skills integrated into sequence of tasks?
-If not, can you think of ways in which they might be integrated?
-At the level of the unit or lesson, are communicative tasks integrated with other activities and
exercises designed to provide learners with mastery of the linguistic system?
-If not, are there ways in which such activities might be introduced?
-Do the tasks incorporate exercises in learning-how-to-learn?
-If not, are there ways in which such exercises might be introduced?
Assessment and evaluation
- What means exist for the teacher to determine how successfully the learners have performed?
- Does the task have built into it some means whereby learners might judge how well they had
performed?
-Is the task realistic in terms of the resources and teacher- expertise it demands?

Framework for evaluating communicative tasks
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The framework for evaluating listening comprehension tasks used in this
study will be based on Candlin's framework for evaluating communicative tasks to
find out a criteria to access the listening comprehension tasks in Tieng Anh 10
textbook is suitable or not. They adapt task evaluation framework will be presented
in chapter II.
1.4 Role of textbook and textbook evaluation
1.4.1 Role of textbook
Textbook materials play a very important part in language teaching and
learning. Allwright (1990) emphasizes that materials control learning and teaching.
It is true that in many cases teachers and students rely heavily on textbooks, and
textbooks determine the components and methods of learning, that is, they control
the content, methods, and procedures of learning. Students learn what is presented
in the textbook, and the way the textbook presents materials is the way students
learn it. For language students, and especially those who have limited or no contact
with native speakers, the textbook is one of the main learning and reference tools
due to its pervasive use inside and outside the classroom as a guide to proper
language use. Most of the language that students will acquire during their schooling
in English will be from either their teacher or their textbook. Theoretically, the
materials are the center of instruction and one of the most important influences on
what goes on in the classroom Kitao (1997).
Richard (2001) also states that textbooks are a key component in most
language programs. In some situations, they serve as the basis for much of the
language input learners receive and the language practice that occurs in the
classroom. They may provide the basis for the content of the lessons, the balance of
skills teaches and the kinds of language practice the students take part in. In other
situations, the textbook may serve primarily to supplement the teacher's instruction.
For learners, the textbook may provide the major source of contact they have with
the language apart from input provided by the teacher. In the case of inexperienced

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teachers, textbooks may also serve as a form of teacher training - they provide ideas
on how to plan and teach lessons as well as formats that teachers can use.
1.4.2 Role of textbook evaluation
Textbook evaluation plays a key role in education and it is important for the
teacher since it can provide valuable information for the future going of the
classroom practice, for the planning of courses and for the management of learning
tasks and students. Tomlinson (1998) defines materials evaluation as the systematic
judgment of the value of materials in relation to the aims of the materials and the
learners who are using them. In addition, Hutchinson & Waters (1987) see
evaluation as "a matter of judging the fitness of something for a particular purpose"
Hutchinson & Waters (1987, p.96). They share with Tomlinson (1987) that "the
evaluation process should be systematic" and add that it "is the best seen as a
matching exercise, matching your analysed needs to available solutions" Tomlinson
(1987, p.105). The essence of this definition is its attention to the students' needs in
evaluating materials and therefore is adopted in this thesis.
1.4.3 Types of textbook evaluation
Regarding types of textbook evaluation in particular, and material evaluation
in general, Tomlinson (1988) indicates that for each dimension of evaluation, there
are certain types of evaluation. These dimensions include: approach, purpose, focus,
scope, the evaluators, the timing and types of information.
Cunningsworth (1995) points out that there are three types of material
evaluation, i.e. pre-use evaluation, in-use evaluation and post-use evaluation. This
classification is similar to Ellis (1997) with different names, i.e Preliminary,
formative and summative evaluation respectively. The first type, pre-use evaluation
is carried out before a course begins in order to select the most relevant and suitable
materials for a particular group of learners. This is probably the most difficult kind
as there is no actual experience of using the course book. In-use evaluation is a kind
of evaluation for suitability, involving "matching the course book against a specific

requirement including the learner's objectives, the learner's background, the
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resources available, etc." (Cunningsworth 1995, p.14). The third type, postevaluation refers to an assessment of a textbook's fitness over a period of continual
use. Evaluation of this kind can be practical in helping to decide whether to use the
same textbook on the future occasion.
The aim of this paper is evaluating all the listening comprehension tasks so
that we could find out the good points which can be applied in teaching English and
the bad points which should be adapted. This will help the students’ listening
comprehension skills be improved. Basing on all above analysis, task evaluation in
this thesis belongs to post-use evaluation.
1.5 Review of previous studies
The researcher has found out that there are some previous studies related to
the study.
Lê Thị Huệ’s M.A thesis named "an evaluation of the textbook English 11
taught at Phan Dinh Phung secondary school in Ha Noi". That study aims at
investigating the effectiveness in using the textbook English 11 for the students at
Phan Dinh Phung secondary school in Hanoi. The results of the study show that the
textbook English 11 is suitable for the students at Phan Dinh Phung secondary
school in Hanoi or not and measuring the extend of the effectiveness in using it.
From the results of the study, she suggests reducing the negative points.
Phạm Thị Yến’s study in 2010 focuses on teaching listening comprehension
to the 10th form students at Ly Thuong Kiet High School - Bac Giang. This
linguistics thesis only mentions that teaching listening comprehension is suitable
for the 10th form students at Ly Thuong Kiet High School - Bac Giang or not and
measuring the extend of the effectiveness in using material.
Nguyễn Thị Minh Nguyệt's study focuses on evaluating of the material
"reward" for students at Hai Phong Private University. That study aims at
investigating the effectiveness in using material "reward" for students at Hai Phong

Private". The first-year non-English major students at Hai Phong Private University
participate in this study. The results of the study show that the material "reward" is
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