An Evaluation of the material New Headway_ Elementary for the first year non-English major students at Thai Nguyen College of Economics and Technology

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

*********************

BÙI THỊ HƢƠNG

AN EVALUATION OF THE MATERIAL “NEW HEADWAY –
ELEMENTARY” FOR THE FIRST YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR
STUDENTS AT THAINGUYEN COLLEGE OF
ECONOMICS AND TECHNOLOGY
Đánh giá giáo trình “New Headway_Elementary” dành cho sinh viên
không chuyên ngữ năm thứ nhất trƣờng Cao đẳng
Kinh tế - Kỹ thuật Thái Nguyên

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

*********************

BÙI THỊ HƢƠNG

AN EVALUATION OF THE MATERIAL “NEW HEADWAY –
ELEMENTARY” FOR THE FIRST YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR
STUDENTS AT THAINGUYEN COLLEGE OF
ECONOMICS AND TECHNOLOGY
Đánh giá giáo trình “New Headway_Elementary” dành cho sinh viên
không chuyên ngữ năm thứ nhất trƣờng Cao đẳng
Kinh tế - Kỹ thuật Thái Nguyên

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY
CODE: 60140111
SUPERVISOR: TÔ THỊ THU HƢƠNG, DR

Hanoi, 2014


i

DECLARATION
I certify the minor thesis is submitted entitled “An Evaluation of the
material New Headway_ Elementary for the first year non-English major
students at Thai Nguyen College of Economics and Technology” in partial
fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. I confirm that this
is the result of my own work, and that it has not been submitted for any other
degrees.
Signature

Bùi Thị Hương

ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My thesis has been completed with the supports of many people. I would like
to thank them for their thoughtful help.
First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my
supervisor, Dr. To Thi Thu Huong for her valuable guidance, thoughtful comments,
sympathy and encouragement. Without her help, I can not complete this thesis.
I am also grateful to all the professors and lecturers at College of Foreign
Language (CFL), Vietnam National University, Hanoi (VNUH) for their insightful
lectures and useful guidance during the course.
I would also like to express my thankfulness to all my English colleagues
and all the first year students in the class K9QLMT, K9KT, K9CNTT, K9QLĐ at
Thai Nguyen College of Economics and Technology (TNCET) for the great
cooperation in the collection of data for my study.
Finally, I am deeply indebted to my husband and my little daughter for their
love, encouragement and support, who helps me to accomplish this research.


iii

ABSTRACT

Material evaluation is an important task in the process of language teaching.
Within these regards, the thesis was carried out to evaluate the material "New
Headway_ Elementary" which is being used at Thai Nguyen College of Economics
and Technology in order to determine how the material is suitable for the needs of

students within the framework of the English program. Thanks to this, there are
some suggestions for material adaptation to make a more appropriate material with
the hope of improving the quality of teaching and learning English at Thai Nguyen
College of Economics and Technology.
The material is evaluated based on the criteria of Hutchinson and Waters
(1987) in terms of objective, content, and methodology by using two instruments to
collect the data from teachers’ and students’ opinions such as questionnaires and
interviews.
Research results show the strengths and weaknesses of the material, it also
reveals some inappropriate things to the needs of students. Based on these findings,
they help the researcher come up with some suggestions for material adaptations as
omission, addition and replacement to have a more appropriate material for the
following courses.


iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
VNUH:

Vietnam National University, Hanoi

CFL:

College of Foreign Language

TNCET

Thainguyen College of Economics and Technology

ELT:

English Language Teaching

T:

Teachers

S:

Students


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LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES
Figure 1:

The materials evaluation process (Hutchinson and Waters 1987, p. 98)

Table 1:

Students’ desire and achievement after finishing English course

Table 2:

The match of the material to the needs of students

Table 3:

Students’ interest on the material

Table 4:

Teachers’ opinions about students’ achievement after learning this
material

Table 5:

Students and teachers’ opinion about language point in this material

Table 6:

Students and teachers’ opinions about the proportion of four macroskills in this material

Table 7:

Teachers and students’ opinions about the integration of four macroskills in this material

Table 8:

Teachers and students’ opinions about the kinds of texts in this
material

Table 9:

Teachers and students’ opinions about the organization and sequence
of content in this material

Table 10:

Teachers and students’ opinions about topics of the material

Table 11:

Teachers and students’ opinions about each part of units in this
material

Table 12:

Teachers and students’ opinions about the number of new words in
each unit in this material

Table 13:

Teachers and students’ opinions about the variety of kinds of tasks/
exercises in this material

Table 14:

Teachers and students’ opinions about teaching and learning
interactions/techniques in this material

Table15:

Teachers and students’ opinions about teaching aids


vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART A: INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................1
1. Rational for the study ..............................................................................................1
2. Aims of the study ....................................................................................................2
3. Research questions ..................................................................................................2
4. Methods of the study ...............................................................................................2
5. Scope of the study ...................................................................................................2
6. Design of the study..................................................................................................2
PART B: DEVELOPMENT .......................................................................................4
CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW .....................................................................4
1.1.

Materials in language teaching and learning ....................................................4

1.1.1. Material and types of materials .........................................................................4
1.1.2. What are roles of material in language teaching and learning? ........................5
1.2. Material evaluation...............................................................................................5
1.2.1. What is material evaluation? .............................................................................5
1.2.2. Different types of material evaluation ..............................................................6
1.2.3. What are purposes of material evaluation? .......................................................7
1.2.4. Who are material evaluators? ............................................................................7
1.2.5. Models for material evaluation .........................................................................8
1.2.6. Different methods of evaluation .....................................................................10
1.2.7. What are criteria for material evaluation?.......................................................11
1.3. Material adaptation.............................................................................................13
1.3.1. Why should adapt materials? ..........................................................................13
1.3.2. Adapting techniques ........................................................................................13
CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY ............................................................................15
2.1. The current teaching and learning situation at TNCET .....................................15
2.1.1. Teaching and learning context ........................................................................15

2.1.2. General description of the material .................................................................15
2.2. Research methodology .......................................................................................16


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2.2.1. Participants ......................................................................................................16
2.2.2. Instruments ......................................................................................................16
2.2.3. Data collection procedure ...............................................................................16
2.2.4. Data analysis procedure ..................................................................................17
2.3. Summary ............................................................................................................17
CHAPTER III: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ......................................................18
3.1. Material analysis ................................................................................................18
3.1.1. The objective of the material...........................................................................18
3.1.2. The content of the material .............................................................................18
3.1.3. The methodology of the material ....................................................................20
3.2. Survey results .....................................................................................................21
3.2.1. The suitability of the objectives of the material to the needs of students within
the framework of the English program at TNCET ...................................................21
3.2.2. The suitability of the content of the material with the students’ needs within
the framework of the English program at TNCET ...................................................25
3.2.3. The suitability of the methodology of the material to the needs of students
within the framework of English program at TNCET ..............................................29
3.3. Major findings ....................................................................................................31
3.3.1. The suitability of the objectives of the material to the needs of students within
the framework of the English program .....................................................................31
3.3.2. The suitability of the contents of the material to the needs of students
withinthe framework of the English program ...........................................................32
3.3.3. The suitability of the methodology of the material to the needs of students
within the framework of the English program ..........................................................33

3.4. Suggestions for material adaptation ...................................................................34
3.5. Summary ............................................................................................................35
PART C: CONCLUSION .........................................................................................36
1. Conclusions ........................................................................................................36
2. Limitations and suggestions for further study ....................................................36


viii

REFERENCES ..........................................................................................................37
APPENDICES......................................................................................................................I

Appendix 1: HUTCHINSON AND WATERS’S CRITERIA CHECKLIST FOR
MATERIALS EVALUATION (1987: 99-104)..........................................................I
Appendix 2: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS...............................................VI
Appendix 3: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS...............................................XI
Appendix 4: PROPOSED QUESTIONS FOR INTERVIEWS………………….XVI


1

PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rational for the study
English is an international language and as a mean of communication between
nations, cultures and international organizations. In the trend of globalization today,
English has become a prerequisite for success and national integration into the world
family. With the strong development of the English language in modern society in
Vietnam, National Foreign Language 2020 has been made and implemented with goals “...
by 2020 most Vietnamese students graduating from secondary, vocational schools,
colleges and universities will be able to use a foreign language confidently in their daily

communication, their study and work in an integrated, multi-cultural and multi- lingual
environment, making foreign languages a comparative advantage of development for
Vietnamese people in the cause of industrialization and modernization for the country”.
Therefore, the teaching and learning of English has become one of the very pressing needs.
And it is necessary for students to be educated in the appropriate skills with the appropriate
tools. This is the first reason for me to carry out an evaluation of the material New
Headway_ Elementary.
Materials play an important role in most language programs. It is one of the most
important factors in English class, functioning as the teaching and learning tool, the tutor
and guidebook. It is, therefore, necessary to choose the one that suits the desired and
attainable goals of the course as well as students. Furthermore, Cunningsworth (1995) and
Ellis (1997) suggest that textbook evaluation helps

teachers

move

beyond

impressionistic assessments and it helps them to acquire useful, accurate, systematic,
and contextual insights into the overall nature of textbook material. This is another
reason for me to execute the research.
At TNCET, New Headway_ Elementary has been used for 10 years but no
evaluation has been conducted to assess how the material is. Moreover, under the
requirement for language skills of National Foreign Language 2020 Project, the
researcher’s college requires students to achieve A2 level as a condition of graduation.
Hence, it is very important to have a suitable textbook that helps students achieve goals.
And, it is really necessary to carry out the material evaluation to see how it matches the
needs of students within the framework of the English program at this college.

2

From above reasons, the researcher decided to evaluate the material New
Headway_ Elementary to discover the suitability of the material to the needs of students
within the framework of English program at TNCET in terms of objective, content, and
methodology and then having suggestions for material adaptation to improve the quality of
English teaching and learning.
2. Aims of the study
This study is carried out to evaluate the material New Headway _Elementary is
suitable for the students’ needs within the framework of the English program. From that,
teachers can make suggestions for material adaptation to have more appropriate material.
These can help to improve the quality of teaching and learning English at TNCET.
3. Research questions
- To what extent does New Headway_Elementary suit the needs of students at
TNCET in terms of objective, content and methodology?
- What suggestions for material adaptation should be given to meet the needs of
students at TNCET?
4. Methods of the study
In this thesis, survey research was employed with survey questionnaires and
informal interviews for data collection.
Survey questionnaires were designed for the English teachers and the first-year
students at TNCET, who have experienced using the book.
Informal interviews were applied to get more information from selected
participants.
5. Scope of the study
Although the researcher mentioned the Common European Framework of
Reference, she did not analyze it; she just relied on it to assist in the evaluation of the
material. Thus, the most important task of this research is focusing on evaluating the
material New Headway_ Elementary from the opinions of the English teachers and the

first-year students at college in terms of Objective, Content and Methodology basing on
material evaluation model and criteria proposed by Hutchinson and Waters (1987).
6. Design of the study
This study consists of three parts:


3

- Part A: Introduction presents the rational, aims, research questions, methods,
scope, and design of the study.
- Part B: Development includes three chapters:
+ Chapter 1: Literature review provides a theoretical basic for issues relating to
Material, Material evaluation and Material adaptation. Material part concludes definition of
material, types of material, and roles of material in language teaching and learning.
Material evaluation part consists of definition, types, purposes, material evaluators,
models, methods, and criteria of material evaluation. Material adaptation part mentions
about reasons for material adaptation and adapting techniques.
+ Chapter 2: Methodology focuses on the methodology employed in this thesis
including an overview of current English teaching and learning situation at TNCET,
research methodology, data collection procedures, and data analysis procedures.
+ Chapter 3: Results and Discussion analyze and discuss the findings of the study,
and give suggestions for material adaptation.
- Part C: Conclusion summarizes the study, reveals the limitations remaining in the
study, and offers some suggestions for further study.


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PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1.

Materials in language teaching and learning

1.1.1. Material and types of materials
There are several concepts of material from different authors.
Tomlinson (1998, p.66) defines: “Materials are 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 whiteboard: anything which presents or informs about the language being
learned”.
According to Richards (2001, p.251), “Materials can be instructional, experiential,
elicitative, and exploratory, in that they can inform learners about language, they can
provide experience of the language in use, they can stimulate language use or they can help
learners to make discoveries about the language for themselves”.
Material is a crucial component in language teaching and learning. It is very
necessary to choose the material which should be used in particular circumstance.
As mentioned in the definition, materials exist in many different forms. However,
McGrath (2002) studied and classified into four main types:
- Published materials: This type of material can be books and reference material as
dictionaries, grammars, advice on language learning, test practice materials, tapes
accompanying course books, or supplementary books.
- Authentic materials: Taken from real life, these consist of newspapers, magazines,
user manuals, leaflets and brochures, foreign mission information, letters, faxes, emails,
videos, and songs.
- Adapting and supplementing published materials: These are ones that have been
adapted or supplemented in some ways. These cut-up materials can be self-standing or
deliberately designed to supplement the course books.
- Specially-prepared materials: For self-access activities, this type of material
proves to be useful as there is always a need for material that is more precisely tailored to

the needs of students working on their own.
Basing on features of types of the material, it is easy to realize the material New
Headway_ Elementary is published material. In addition, these features provide teachers


5

understanding of each types of material. Thus, they can be successful in choosing the
material that suits the specific circumstances and needs of learners.
1.1.2. What are roles of material in language teaching and learning?
In the process of English language teaching and learning, there are many important
components which can affect the quality of teaching and learning but the most essential
one is the material. It is very difficult for teachers to teach systematically without a
material. Indeed, the material plays a crucial role in providing the foundation of knowledge
for both teachers and learners. And the role of materials is a subject which is discussed by
many authors. The following reasons prove how materials are very important in language
teaching and learning process.
According to Richard (2001), materials provide a basic for the content of the
lesson, the appropriate proportion of skills taught, and the type of language practice
students take part in. Furthermore, useful teaching materials provide great assistance to
inexperienced teachers or poorly trained teachers. In this case, materials may also serve as
a form of teacher training. It means that they provide ideas on how to plan and teach lesson
form materials.
Cunningsworth (1984, p.6) states that no material is totally suited with a particular
teaching situation. However, the role of the material is to be the service of teachers and
learners but not to be their master. So the relationship between teacher and the material is a
partnership which shares common goals to which each side brings its special contribution.
Besides, the aims of the material should seek to meet the needs of the learner to the highest
degree. To get these aims, it is necessary to conduct materials evaluation so that teachers
can choose suitable materials in a particular situation.

1.2. Material evaluation
1.2.1. What is material evaluation?
There are some ways of defining material evaluation from different researchers.
According to Hutchinson and Waters (1987, p.96), “evaluation is a matter of
judging the fitness of something for a particular purpose”.
With regards to this issue, Tomlinson defines material evaluation as a procedure
that involves measuring the value (or potential value) of a set of learning materials. It
involves making judgments about the effect of the materials on the people using them
(Tomlinson, 2003, p.15).


6

In the other words, Dudley (1998. p.128) claims “evaluation is a whole process
which begins with determining what information to gather and ends with bringing about
the change in current activities or influencing future ones”.
In conclusion, the researchers give a general identification that material evaluation
is a process of deciding whether the materials is suitable to the teaching and learning
objectives based on collected data and suggesting actions to make changes in the process
of language teaching and learning.
1.2.2. Different types of material evaluation
Educators have classified evaluation according to its purpose. And different
researchers have different divisions in classifying material evaluation. Robinson (1991,
p.59) divides materials evaluation into three types: preliminary, summative and formative
while McGrath (2002, p.181-203) classifies materials evaluation into three stages: pre-use,
in -use and post-use evaluation. In all classifications from different authors, Mc Grath’s
classification seems to be most widely accepted.
- Pre- use evaluation is often carried out before the course starts to select the most
appropriate materials for the particular group of learners and for the aims of the course.
Besides, this evaluation is to identify which aspects of the published material needed

adapting to suit the purposes of the evaluators.
- In-use evaluation often takes place during the learning process. This process
evaluates suitability, involving, matching the material against a specific requirement
including the learner’s objective, the learner’s background, and the resources available.
- Post- use evaluation is carried out when the course is finished to identify strengths
and weaknesses and the findings of this evaluation is very helpful to decide whether to
repeat or use the materials again or not.
In short, each type of material evaluation has the advantages as well as
disadvantage. Therefore, in order to evaluate material effectively, the researchers should
determine which type of material evaluation will be suitable for research purposes and
their real context. Among three types of material evaluation mentioned above, only Postuse evaluation is carried out after finishing the course. At that time students have
approached all the lessons or parts in the material, it is more objective to give evaluators
personal opinions about material. Therefore, evaluator can get the most useful results in
material evaluation process and these results will support English program in the next


7

school year to adjust some program contents to meet the quality of teaching and learning
English. This is the reason why the author decides to use post-use evaluation in this study.
1.2.3. What are purposes of material evaluation?
Material evaluation is a very important activity of teachers in language teaching
process. It is becoming more and more important in sorting out the most appropriate
material among the masses of books available in the market.
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.
Robinson (1991) states that evaluation can be used as part of quality control.
Through evaluation, we can know about the advantages and disadvantages as well
as the effectiveness of the being used materials.

Alderson (1992) set out a list of purposes of material evaluation as follows:
- To decide whether materials have had the intended effect
- To identify what effect materials have had
- To vindicate a decision
- To justify future courses of action
- To compare approaches/methodologies
- To identify areas for improvement in future use
- To show the positive achievements of teachers and students
- To motivate teachers
- To allay suspicions among parents or sponsors
At TNCET, New Headway_ Elementary has been used for 10 years. The material
itself has revealed many strengths as well as weaknesses in the teaching and learning
environment. However, no evaluation has been conducted to determine that. Therefore, the
author decided to carry out this research in order to have a more appropriate set of material.
1.2.4. Who are material evaluators?
A number of researchers including Robinson (1991), Tomlinson (1998), DudleyEvan & St. John (1998) and Richards (2001) indicate that materials evaluators can be both
outsiders and insiders. Depending on the role of evaluators in the language teaching
program, their name can be changed either outsider or insider.


8

Outsiders are those who have not been involved in the program such as consultants,
inspectors and administrators. Accordingly, they may not fully understand the teaching and
learning situation in which the evaluation is being carried out. In addition, it may take them
more time to be aware of the local situation such as learners’ needs, facilities and time
constraints so it may be difficult for them to make truly judgments and recommendations
of the program.
In contrast to the outsiders, the insiders are those who have been directly involved
in the language-teaching program such as teachers, students, course and materials

designers. Therefore, they can provide the most valid information in the evaluation
process. Also, their understanding of cultural and political factors of the institution in
which the evaluation takes place would enhance the reliability of judgments and
recommendations. To stress the role of the insiders as evaluators, Richard (2001, p.296)
states that the involvement of the insiders plays an important part in the success of
evaluation because “as a consequence, they will have greater degree of commitment to
acting on its result”. He also adds that the teachers can watch out for when the materials
are being used. Consequently, they can know exactly the extent that the materials work for
their purposes and they can make modifications to improve the effectiveness of the
materials. However, there are also disadvantages to insiders when they are “too close and
involved” (Dudley- Evan and St. John, 1998, p.131) so the evaluation may be influenced
by their subjective points of view and their teaching experience.
The author of this research is a teacher, so she plays the role of insider evaluator
while conducting the study.
1.2.5. Models for material evaluation
In the material evaluation process, evaluation model plays an important role for
evaluators to follow. Many authors have studied about it and have given different models
for material evaluation. However, the most popular models are the ones suggested by
Hutchinson & Waters (1993), Ellis (1997), and McDonough & Shaw (1993).
The first model of evaluation by Hutchinson & Waters is called Marco Evaluation.
In this model, they divided the material evaluation process into four main steps presented
in the following diagram:


9

DEFINE CRITERIA
On what bases will you judge materials?
Which criteria will be more important?

SUBJECTIVE ANALYSIS

OBJECTIVE ANALYSIS

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

How does the material being
evaluated realize the criteria?

MATCHING
How far does the material match your
needs?

Figure 1: The materials evaluation process (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987, p. 98)
The second model is Micro Evaluation which is developed by Ellis (1997).
According to him, this is the evaluation of one particular teaching task which the evaluator
has a special interest in. The model consists of the following steps:
- Choosing a task to follow.
- Describing the task with specification of input, procedures, language activities,
and outcomes.
- Planning the evaluation with reference to the dimensions above.
- Collecting information before, while and after the task was used, and what and
how the task was performed.
- Analyzing the information collected.


10

- Reaching conclusions relating to what has been discovered, and making

recommendations for the future teaching.
- Writing the report.
The third model is a combination of macro- and micro- evaluation which is
developed by McDonough & Shaw (1993). In this model, the authors suggest a three-stage
evaluation model called: external evaluation, internal evaluation, and overall evaluation.
The external stage (macro- evaluation) is used to identify whether the material is
potentially appropriate, then the internal stage starts and if the findings show that the
material is inappropriate, the evaluation will be finished at the external stage.
The internal stage (micro- evaluation) requires an in-depth investigation into the
materials so we need to examine at least two or more units of the book to examine the
extent to which the factor in the external evaluation stage actually match the internal
consistency and organization of the materials staged by the author/ publisher.
The final step is the overall evaluation. It helps to determine the suitability of the
materials for specified groups or individuals by considering a number of the factors such as
the usability, the generalizability, the adaptability, and the flexibility.
In short, Hutchinson and Waters (1987) suggest a logical model for materials
evaluation. It seems to be the most appropriate model to follow because it can help the
evaluators know exactly what must be done to analyze the material. Firstly, the author set
out both subjective analysis and objective analysis. Then the findings of the two analyses
are compared to find out whether they match to each other and if not, to what extents they
do not match up. Based on the research results, good aspects as well as problematic parts
of the material can be identified, which may serve as a reliable ground for further
suggestions on material improvements. These are the reasons why the author has chosen
the evaluation framework by Hutchinson and Waters (1987) to check whether the existing
material is suitable for the needs of students.
1.2.6. Different methods of evaluation
In general, there are three basic methods of material evaluation. McGrath (2002)
refers them to the impressionistic method, the checklist method, and the in-depth method.
The impressionistic method is concerned to obtain a general impression of
the material. This is wide-ranging but relative superficial (Cunningworth, 1995, p.1). The