Principles of designing British literature material for English major students Các nguyên tắc thiết kế tư liệu văn học Anh cho sinh viên chuyên Tiếng Anh tại tr.PDF

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii
ABSTRACT iii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv
LIST OF FIGURES, TABLES AND CHARTS v
TABLES OF CONTENTS vi
PART A: INTRODUCTION 1
1.Rationale 1
2.Aims of the study 2
3.Method of research 2
4.Scope of the study 3
5.Design of the study 3
PART B: DEVELOPMENT 5
CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 5
1.1.Material Design 5
1.1.1. An overview of materials 5
1.1.2. Categories of materials 5
1.1.2.1 Published materials 5
1.1.2.2. Authentic materials 5
1.1.2.3. Specially-prepared materials 6
1.1.3. Characteristics of good materials 6
1.1.4. The process of materials designing 7
1.1.5. Principles for designing materials 8
1.1.6. Designing materials for British literature 10
1.1.6.1. The concept of literature 10
1.1.6.2. Models of teaching literature in ESL classroom 11
1.1.6.3. Criteria for the literary text selection 12

1.2. Need analysis 14
1.2.1. The concept of language needs 14
1.2.2. Purposes of needs analysis in language teaching 15
1.3. Summary of chapter 1 15
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CHAPTER II: NEEDS ANALYSIS AT BA RIA VUNG TAU UNIVERSITY 16
2.1. Situational analysis 16
2.1.1. Training Institution 16
2.1.2. Teaching staff 16
2.1.3. Facilities 16
2.1.4. The current syllabus and materials in use 17
2.1.4.1. Syllabus for British Literature 17
2.1.4.2. Materials for British Literature 17
2.1.5. Students 18
2.2. The analysis of participants’ opinions 19
2.2.1. Subjects of the study 19
a. The student population 19
b. The teacher population 19
2.2.2. Procedures 19
2.2.3. Data analysis, findings and discussions 20
2.3. Summary of chapter 2 33
CHAPTER III: SOME PRINCIPLES OF DESIGNING BRITISH LITERATURE
MATERIALS FOR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT BVU 35
3.1. The compatibility with the syllabus 35
3.2. The learners’ interests 35
3.3. Paying attention to students’ linguistic proficiency and literary background 36
3.4. Counting culture and other mother tongue-related elements in students’ first language 37
3.5. Selecting the literary texts 38
3.6. Taking notice of the teaching duration 38

3.7. Taking teachers’ and students’ difficulties into account 39
3.8. Samples of the British materials for students at BVU 41
PART C: CONCLUSION 43
1. Recapitulation 43
2. Limitation of the study and suggestions for further research 43
REFERENCE
APPENDICES


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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
BVU: Ba Ria Vung Tau University
FLD: Foreign Language Department
ESL: English as second language
ESP: English for Specific Purposes
BL: British literature

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LIST OF FIGURES, TABLES AND CHARTS

List of figures page
Fig.1. A Process of materials writing 7
Fig.2. A teacher’s path through the production of new or adapted materials 8
Fig.3. Checklist for choosing literary texts 14
List of tables
Table 1. Students’ motivation in learning British literature 20
Table 2. Teachers’ responses on the teaching material 22
Table 3. Teachers’ preparation of teaching material 23
Table 4.1. Teacher’s handling of the teaching content inside the material perceived by
students 24
Table 4.2. Teachers’ choice of teaching the content in the syllabus 25
Table 5. Teachers’ selection of literary texts 27
Table 6. Teachers’ provision of questions after the texts 28
Table 7.1. Students’ preferred items in the learning of BL 29
Table 7.2. Teachers’ choice of content areas 29
Table 8.1. Students’ difficulties in learning British literature 30
Table 8.2. Difficulties perceived by teachers in teaching 31
Table 9.1. Types of tasks favored by students 32
Table 9.2 Task types often held by teachers at class time 33
List of charts
Chart 1. Students’ opinions on the official teaching material 21
Chart 2. Students’ comments on teachers’ preparation of material 22
Chart 3. Difficulty of literary texts 25
Chart 4. The length of the literary works 26

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PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
The teaching and learning of a foreign language is always associated with the learning of
culture. Culture here is understood as a set of behaviors, attitudes, perceptions that people
in a nation share and follow. As a field with the reflection function of life, literature is
regarded as a core part of culture. Moreover, the learning of literature is an effective way to
explore the use of language and its beauty presented in the field through an interesting
experience. Thanks to the learning of literature, we are more aware of the variety, multi-
layer and multi-colors of the kind of language used in the field of literature and then know
more about the history process and social life reflected in literature. Therefore, literature is
always included as an obligatory subject in every foreign language training program.
Together with many compulsory subjects in the training program for English major
students such as semantics, phonology, syntax, British culture, etc. at Ba Ria Vung Tau
University, British literature (BL) has been put into teaching for the first time and for the
first training course since 2009. However, the current program is showing off its
shortcomings in terms of syllabus design and material development. In fact, the syllabus is
designed with only 45 periods of teaching which is not enough time for students to have an
adequate input of the knowledge of British literature. From this fact, it is difficult for the
Foreign Language Department (FLD) to design an official material. As a result, the
University currently does not have an official material for British literature and it is the
teachers who take on teaching the subject choose and prepare the materials for teaching
and learning based on the requirements in the syllabus. Those teachers often combine

many sources of materials from different universities without permission and from the
Internet such as British materials of Ho Chi Minh University of Social Sciences and
Humanities and the University of Languages and International Studies (ULIS). In addition,
problems arise with the material contents that teachers apply are unavoidable: the material
is made according to the subjective decision of the teachers which means that different
teachers apply different teaching materials so the contents may not be suitable enough with
the syllabus and with the class time. Consequently, the teaching and learning outcomes are
not effective. From all the above reasons, an official British literature material is vitally
important.
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Furthermore, the teaching material is not something fixed but changeable together with
time and curriculum. When time goes on, the change of teaching material is possible to
occur, but for any time, the design of material could not avoid following its own principles.
Therefore, in this thesis, I do not intend to design a complete material for British literature
but only expect to generalize some important principles used for any material design for
the subject to gain as good as possible results in teaching and learning of British literature.
2. Aims of the study
The study primarily aims at finding out important principles for designing British literature
material for the major English students at BVU. To obtain this aim, the following
objectives are set up:
(i) Firstly, to get overview of the basic theories of material design and needs analysis.
(ii) Secondly, to make an investigation into the current use of syllabus and material for
British literature at BVU based on students and teachers’ ideas.
(iii) Thirdly, to find out students’ needs, wants, desires, interests, challenges and
expectation in learning British literature.
(iv) Fourthly, to look for teachers’ opinions on the material preparation for British
literature, difficulties and expectations.

(v) Finally, to suggest a sample of material design for British literature
3. Method of research
The fulfillment of the thesis is done firstly based on the literature review in the area of
material development to build up a theoretical background for the research.
The study is mainly carried out with quantitative methodology. Survey questionnaire is
used as data collection instrument. The survey which consists of 9 multiple choice
questions is done on 125 post-course English major students at Ba Ria Vung Tau
University to investigate their evaluations on teachers’ material preparation, challenges in
learning, and their demands, desires, interests and expectations. Another set of
questionnaire including 8 multiple choice and one open-ended questions is also delivered
to 4 teachers to collect their ideas on issues such as material preparation, teaching
difficulties and expectations in teaching British literature at BVU. This will help to draw
some principles in designing materials which leads to the birth of an official textbook for
teaching and learning British literature at BVU later.
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Moreover, the observation and formal discussion methods are also applied into the
teaching and learning situation in order to get initial information for the conduction of the
study.
4. Scope of the study
Concerning material design for British literature, there are several issues to study such as
designing British material for teaching and learning, designing supplementary literary
reading materials, etc. However, within the scope of a minor thesis, this study just focuses
on finding out some important principles of designing British literature material for
English major students at BVU based on the syllabus requirements and needs analysis with
a reference to the review of the related materials.
5. Design of the study
The thesis consists of three main parts:

Part A: Introduction presents rationale, aims, method, scope and design of the study.
Part B: Development comprises of four chapters:
Chapter 1- Literature Review- includes two parts: materials design and needs analysis.
The first part provides an overview of materials, types of materials, characteristics of good
materials, process of material designing, principles for designing materials and some
theory of designing materials for British literature including the concept of literature,
models of teaching literature in ESL classroom and the criteria for literary text selection.
Part two deals with the theory of needs analysis in language teaching which includes the
concept of language needs and the purposes of needs analysis in language teaching. These
two parts of chapter one play an important role in the formation of theoretical background
for the study.
Chapter 2- firstly is an overview of the current syllabus and material in use for British
literature at BVU. Secondly it deals with the needs analysis of the students of English
major and teachers at BVU which involves a process of carrying out and collecting a set of
questionnaire and the analysis of the result in order to draw the main principles of
designing materials for British literature for English major students at BVU.
Chapter 3- is the main part of the study in which some important principles for designing
materials for British literature for English major students at BVU are drawn.
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Part C: Conclusion: presents the general conclusions drawn from the results of the study
after a summary of what has been done and states the limitation of the study and
suggestions for further study.

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PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1. Material Design
1.1.1. An overview of materials
Material in language teaching has been in the center of attention of not only language
teachers but also educational practitioners. The essence of material refers to all forms of
materials employed to help to teach language learners. Both McGrath (2002:7) and
Tomlinson (1998:11) agree on the point that materials can be anything which is
deliberately used to increase the learner’s knowledge and/or experience of the language.

Thus, materials can be anything that can be used in learning setting: cassettes, tapes, CD-
ROMs, videos, dictionaries, books (course book, exercise book, reference books and such
things), newspapers and magazines, photographs, handouts, pens and pencils, even bags or
desks and others in the classroom setting. The term “materials”, therefore, does not limit in
the conventional boundary, but is various and can take all types which are used to facilitate
the learning of a language. It can be taken from the authentic source such as newspapers,
magazines, internet, etc. or it can be non-authentic, that is, the material has been specially
selected and exploited for teaching purposes. However, whatever forms it may have, the
final and the end of the material are for instructing the language learners.
1.1.2. Categories of materials
In language teaching, materials are classified into many types but commonly, scholars put
them into three main types: Published materials, authentic materials and specially-prepared
materials.
1.1.2.1. Published materials
Published materials can be course books including students’ book, teacher’s book,
workbook, books and reference materials such as dictionaries, test practice materials.
In Vietnam, published materials can serve as the core textbook which are used as the only
input for students in a course. Some publishers produce materials specifically intended for
use by learners working independently whereas, in some other cases, according to Gardner
and Miller (1999), those materials can be simply classroom teaching materials with an
answer key.
1.1.2.2. Authentic materials
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Authentic materials are those which are taken from the real life and there are different
viewpoints on what authentic material is. In terms of categories, scholars seem to agree
that there are two types of authentic materials: simulated and unmodified. According to
Rogers & Medley (1988), simulated authentic material is the language produced for

pedagogical purpose. This type of material exhibits features with high possibility of
occurring in actual acts of communication such as the naturalness of form, and
appropriateness of context as in the language of native speakers. On the other hand,
unmodified authentic material is oral or written language which is originally written or
spoken for a non-pedagogical purpose, and which is created by native speakers and for
native speakers of the language for a genuine of communication aiming to convey
information or to entertain (Brian, 1998; Bacon, 1992; Rogers & Medley, 1988).
1.1.2.3. Specially-prepared materials
Apart from published and authentic materials, there is always a needs for material that is
precisely tailored to the needs of students. This type of material can be either teacher-
generated or student-generated and in many cases normally is used to supplement the
course books in use within the institution (MacGrath, 2002).
1.1.3. Characteristics of good materials
Methold (1972) states that good materials will have the following characteristics:
- They will set out to teach a predetermined body of knowledge, e.g., what is contained in
the syllabus.
- They will be divided into teachable segments (i.e. take into account of both time
constraints and the quality of material that can be included in a particular lesson).
- They will take into account such principles as variety, weighting, the content validity of
exercises and the need for recycling.
- They will take into account local conditions (the classroom environment, conventional
teaching and learning practices, and teachers’ linguistic and methodological
competence).
It is understood from the above characteristics that good materials should meet the
standards of knowledge, time, teaching condition, adequacy of content, etc. Therefore, it
is not easy for a specific material to match all the teaching and learning features of all
universities and hence, the finding out of principles for designing material is of
significant importance and necessity.
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1.1.4. The process of materials designing
Jolly and Bolitho cited in Tomlinson (1998) suggests fives steps of material writing
process which will be demonstrated as follow:















USE in the classroom
Fig.1: A Process of materials writing
These scholars stated that most materials writers move in this direction, and use some or all
of these steps. They proposed, however, the simple sequence in the above figure fails to
illustrate the extent to which materials writing can be a dynamic and self-adjusting process
(1998: 97). In the first place, by ending with use in the classroom, there is a lack of the
stage of material evaluations which in theory, turns the process into a dynamic one since it
forces the teacher/ writer to examine whether s/he has not met objectives. Secondly, the
human mind does not work in the linear fashion suggested above when attempting to find
solutions to problems. Thus, in addition to evaluation as an essential component of writing

materials, we must also imagine a variety of optional pathways and feedback loops which
make the whole process both dynamic and self-regulating. Jolly and Bolitho (1998:98)
demonstrates a teacher’s path through the production of new or adapted materials as
follows:
IDENTIFICATION: by teacher or learner(s) of a need to fulfill or a
problem to solve by the creation of materials
EXPLORATION of the area of need/ problem in terms of what language,
what meanings, what functions, what skills etc.?
CONTEXTUAL REALISATION of the proposed new materials by the
finding of suitable ideas, contexts or texts with which to work
PEDAGOGICAL REALISATION of the materials by the finding of
appropriate exercises and activities AND the writing of appropriate
instructions for use
PHYSICAL PRODUCTION of materials, involving consideration of
layout, type size, visuals, reproduction, tape length etc.
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Fig. 2: A teacher’s path through the production of new or adapted materials
(Jolly and Bolitho 1998:98)
Notes:
a) Even in the creation of entirely new materials, it may be the case that some of the
steps envisaged have already been done for the writer.
b) Materials may be produced and evaluated without students use, e.g. by a colleague
or professional. Most publishers work this way. This does not reduce the need for
evaluation after use by specific groups of students.
1.1.5. Principles for designing materials
According to Nunan (1988b:1), when designing materials, attention should be paid to a set
of principles:

(i) Materials should be clearly linked to the curriculum they serve.
(ii) Materials should be authentic in terms of text and task.
(iii) Materials should stimulate interaction.
(iv) Materials should allow learners to focus on formal aspects of the language.
(v) Materials should encourage learners to develop learning skills, and skills in
learning.
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(vi) Materials should encourage learners to apply their developing language skills to
the world beyond the classroom.
In order to design good materials, Tomlinson (1998) has proposed an extensive set of
principles which are said to be really valuable in the development of materials. The most
noticeable are listed as follows:
(i) Materials should achieve impact through: novelty, variety, attractive
presentation and appealing content.
(ii) Materials should help learners to feel at ease to stimulate learner’s studying
spirit.
(iii) Materials should help learners to develop confidence.
(iv) What is being taught should be perceived by learners as relevant and useful.
(v) Materials should expose the learners to language in authentic use.
(vi) The learners’ attention should be drawn to linguistic features of the input.
(vii) Materials should provide the learners with opportunities to use the target
language to achieve communicative purposes.
(viii) Materials should take into account that the positive effects of instruction are
usually delayed.
(ix) Materials should take into account that learners differ in learning style.
(x) Materials should permit a silent period at the beginning of instruction.
(xi) Materials should maximize learning potential by encouraging intellectual,

aesthetic and emotional involvement which stimulates both right and left brain
activities.
(xii) Materials should not rely too much on controlled practice.
These two scholars have one thing in common, that is, they both take learners into account
when discussing principles for designing materials. Nunan emphasizes on learners in terms
of the interaction, development of formal aspects of language, learning skills and language
skills. Tomlinson also mentions communication and linguistic features of the input but he
focuses more on other issues related to learners such as studying spirit, confidence,
relevance and usefulness to learners, learning styles and learning potential. Furthermore, in
discussing the principles in term of materials, they both mention the authenticity of
material and task. On the other hand, Nunan has extended the principles with other
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elements such as curriculum and other features of materials such as presentation in
addition to the content.
In a nutshell, from the viewpoints of the two scholars, some important principles that
material developers should pay well attention to are: materials should be contextualized,
realistic and authentic; materials should be designed with variety of activities for learners
to study; materials should be flexible enough to be suitable with individual differences.
1.1.6. Designing materials for British literature
1.1.6.1. The concept of literature
First of all, any method or approach towards using literature in the classroom must take as
a starting point the question: What is literature? The Macmillan English Dictionary gives
the following definition:
literature / noun
stories, poems, and plays, especially those that are considered to have value as art and not
just entertainment
( Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 2003)

[cited in Lindsay Clandfield. Teaching materials: using literature in the EFL/ ESL
classroom. Macmillan (2000-2001)].
Many authors, critics and linguists have puzzled over what literature is. One broader
explanation of literature says that literary texts are products that reflect different aspects of
society. They are cultural documents which offer a deeper understanding of a country or
countries (Basnet & Mounfold 1993).
Moody (1983: 19) defines literature as “ constructions or artifacts, in language, which may
be designed for any of the whole range of human communication needs, private or public,
oral or written, for which language is used”. To make this statement clearer, Moody and
Walson (1983) explain literary works as being cultural artifacts in the forms of poetry,
drama, prose, tragedy, comedy, farce, folktales, religious myths, short fiction, and novels.
Finally, by referring to literature in ESL teaching or literary studies, Widdowson
(1984:85) means “the study of communicative potential of the language concerned and
the manner in which this is realized in literary and conventional discourse”.
1.1.6.2. Models of teaching literature in ESL classroom
Carter and Long (1991: 2,3) point out three main models of teaching literature in an ESL
classroom. Each embraces a particular set of learning objectives for the students of
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literature. These are: the cultural model, the language model and the personal growth
model.
First, the cultural model which enables the learners to understand and appreciate the
different cultures and ideologies portrayed in the literary texts. Carter and Long (1991)
point out that the cultural model contributes to the teaching of humanity in many parts of
the world. Tradition of thought, feeling and artistic form are to be perceived by the
learners. As there is not much individual works and the texts are the product from which
students learn to acquire information, it is more a teacher - centred mode.
Second, the language model which exposes the learners to the subtle and varied creative

uses of the language. Carter states that the main point is to help the learners find ways into
a text in a methodical way and for themselves. Since literature is made from language, it is
thought that language-based approach is suitable as it pays attention to the way language is
used. This can help the learners to interpret the relations between linguistic forms and
literary meanings. However, Carter argues that by using literature as an instrument to teach
specific vocabulary or structures, the learners will not have any pleasure in reading the
literary text due to the use of mechanistic and demotivating teaching practises which
focuses on language activities.
Third, the personal growth model which helps the learners to achieve an engagement with
the reading of literary texts. It encourages the learners to enjoy and love literature beyond
the classroom as mentioned by Carter. Personal growth is stimulated by understanding our
society, culture and ourselves, the individual relationships with people and institutions. The
appreciation and evaluation of the complex cultural artifacts also contribute to the personal
growth of the learners. It is student-centred as texts selected to stimulate the learners to
respond and participate imaginatively. The use of themes and topics to depict personal
experience motivates the learners to read and helps them to evaluate and distinguish great
literature from less successful examples.
1.1.6.3. Criteria for the literary text selection
Most scholars agreed that the good teaching is always associated with good materials and
this remains completely true to materials for teaching British literature. The selection of
British literature materials determines a large part in students’ perceptions of literature and
the teaching and learning outcomes. Therefore, criteria for the literary text selection are put
into considerations:
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According to Gillian (1993:53), it is probably fairly self-evident what is meant by criteria
such as the age of students, their emotional and intellectual maturity and their interests and
hobbies. The only difficulty when applying these categories to a whole class is that

individual students within a group may vary considerably in their maturity and interests.
Obviously, when selecting materials, it is necessary to find texts that are suitable for the
majority of students in the class. It may be also found that developing for self-access is one
way of personalizing learning so that you can cater for the range of student development
and interests within a group. However, he proposed that the consideration of criteria
involving the students’ cultural background, linguistic proficiency and literary background
is more complicated.
Firstly, when considering the students’ cultural background, it is important to think about
how far the students’ cultural background and their social and political expectations will
help or hinder their understanding of a text. It would be difficult, for example, for most
readers to make sense of Jane Austen’s novels without having some knowledge of the class
system and the values of the society they describe. It is essential to consider how much
background you will need to provide students so that they have at least a basic
understanding of the text. On the other hand, it is also true that texts which may appear to
be very remote in time and place from the world today may still have an appeal for
students in different countries around the world. This is either because they touch on
themes (such as industrialization of life in the city) which are relevant to the students, or
they deal with human relationships and feelings (such as conflicts between parents and
children) which strike a chord in the students’ own lives. In addition, many students may
have a strong sense of curiosity about another culture and enjoy studying its literature
because they believe it reveals key insights about that society.
Second, the students’ linguistic proficiency is an area of some complexity. Students who
can communicate with ease in an English-speaking environment might not be able to cope
with the language of the text because it departs strikingly from the usual norms of language
use, it includes a great many archaisms, rhetorical devices and metaphors; or it make use of
the dialect or register of a highly specialized field (such as law). Therefore, he suggests it is
necessary to ask yourself questions like these when deciding whether or not to use the text:
Are students sufficiently familiar with the usual norms of language use to recognize when
these are subverted?
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How much of the language in the text will students be able to infer?
Will students find it useful and enjoyable to study the text, or will they feel demotivated by
the difficulties of the language?
Even if the language of the text is extremely difficult, will students be motivated by other
factors to study the text (e.g. students often enjoy studying a difficult short story if there is
a film based on it which they also enjoyed).
Finally, you may well ask yourself whether the text is too specialized in its language to be
relevant to the type of language the students require to learn on the course.
Third, when considering the students’ literary background factor, Gillian (1993:54)
proposes an interesting relationship between the literary background, since the two do not
necessarily go together. When choosing texts to use with students, therefore, we should
look not only at the grading of the language in the text, but at its specific literary qualities
and whether our students can navigate their own way through these.
Furthermore, he also points out other factors to consider when selecting literary texts such
as the availability of texts, length of text, exploitability and fit with syllabus.
Then he summarizes these criteria for choosing literary texts into a checklist:
Checklist for choosing literary texts

TYPE OF COURSE
Level of students
Students’ reasons for learning English
Kind of English required
Length/ intensity of course
TYPE OF STUDENTS
Age
Intellectual maturity
Emotional understanding

Interest/ hobbies
Cultural background
Linguistic proficiency
Literary background
OTHER TEXT-RELATED FACTORS
Availability of texts
Length of text
Exploitability
Fit with syllabus
Fig.3: Checklist for choosing literary texts
[ Gillian (1993: 56)]
1.2. Needs analysis
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Brown (1995:36) states that the phrase need analysis is synonymous with needs assessment
and both refer to the systematic collection and analysis of all subjective and objective
information necessary to define and validate defensible curriculum purposes that satisfy
the language learning requirements of students within the context of particular institutions
that influence the learning and teaching situation.
Brown (1995:35) also states that needs analysis “serves as the basis for developing tests,
materials, teaching activities, and evaluation strategies, as well as for reevaluating the
precision accuracy of the original needs assessment”. It is obvious that in materials design,
needs analysis plays an important role as he suggests that it “will serve as the basis for
developing a particular group of students”.
In order to understand more about needs analysis, it is necessary to make a discussion
about the concept of language needs and the specific purposes of needs analysis in
language teaching in general and in teaching British literature to ESL students in particular.
1.2.1. The concept of language needs

Different scholars suggest different definitions of language needs. Richterich (1972:39)
holds the view that language needs are “the requirements which arise from the use of a
language in the multitude of situations which may arise in the social lives of individuals
and groups”. According to Widdowson (1981:2), needs can be defined as “what the
learners need to do to actually acquire the language”. Brindley (1984:28) stands on the
view which involves only learners: needs sometimes refer to wants, desires, demands,
expectation, motivations, lacks, constraints and requirements. In addition, Mountford
(1981:27) mentions needs as “what the user-institution or society at large regards as
necessary or desirable to be learnt from a program of language instruction”. Here, in this
definition, the two elements society and institutions are taken into consideration.
1.2.2. Purposes of needs analysis in language teaching
According to Richards (2001:52), the purposes of needs analysis are demonstrated as
follows:
- To find out what language skills a learner needs in order to perform a particular role,
such as sales manager, tour guide, or university students.
- To help determine if an existing course adequately addresses the needs of potential
students.
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- To determine which students from a group are most in need of training in particular
language skills.
- To identify a change of direction that people in a reference group feel is important.
- To identify a gap between what students are able to do and what they need to be able to
do.
- To collect information about a particular problem learners are experiencing.
1.3. Summary of chapter 1
In this chapter, the author has dealt with necessary information concerning material design
such as an overview of materials, categories of materials, characteristics of good materials,

process of material writing and principles for designing materials. Next, some theories of
designing material for British literature are taken into account including the concept of
literature, models of teaching literature and criteria for literary text selection. Also, needs
analysis concerning concept of language needs and purpose of needs analysis in language
teaching is provided to reach the aims of the thesis.
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CHAPTER II: NEEDS ANALYSIS AT BA RIA VUNG TAU UNIVERSITY
In order to find out some principles for designing BL material at BVU, it is essential to do
the needs analysis for data collection and analysis. To achieve this purpose, this chapter
will present information about situational analysis and teachers and students’ opinions
analysis on different aspects of using current materials for the teaching and learning. It is
believed that needs including wants, desires, demand, expectation, lacks, constraints and
requirements will arise through the analysis of the current situation at BVU.
2.1. Situational analysis
2.1.1. Training Institution
Ba Ria Vung Tau University (BVU) was established on 27
th
January 2006 according to the
decision No. 27/2006/QDD-TTg promulgated by the Prime Minister. This is the province
of Ba Ria Vung Tau’s first university and up to now has developed for five years. Being a
private and newly-founded university, however, BVU offers various forms of training with
departments such as information technology, foreign languages, economics, chemistry and
food industry, construction, etc. At BVU, English is taught for all the faculties in the
university and for English major students at FLD. At FLD, British literature has been put
into teaching for 4
th
year English major students of university level for two years.

However, due to the lack of an official textbook for teaching this subject, the teaching and
learning outcomes has been not as good as expected.
2.1.2. Teaching staff
There are totally 15 official teachers in the English group at FLD, BVU and many other
visiting teachers who are responsible for teaching English including GE (General English,
ESP (English for Specific Purposes) for English major and non-English major students.
The teaching of English at BVU has also been taken on by some volunteer teachers from
English speaking countries such as England, the USA and Australia every year. Among the
official teachers, 8 out of 15 have owned a Master degree, 5 other teachers are studying
post-graduate courses in Vietnam and overseas. For the visiting teachers, one has Doctor of
Philosophy degree, two have Master degree and many others have got Bachelor of Arts
from some universities in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Most of the teachers are at the age
of from 26 to 35 which are young and enthusiastic in teaching.
2.1.3. Facilities
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In spite of being a newly- established university, BVU seems to meet the demands of
facilities in teaching and learning. Projectors and cassette players are always ready for all
the classrooms. All the English teachers have their own laptops to serve the teaching.
There is one small library for teachers and learners to borrow and read materials. An e-
library is also available for teachers and students to study.
However, teachers and students also cope with some difficulties related to facilities:
several rooms are hot to sit in, many projectors are old and in bad condition which hinders
the teaching and learning. Moreover, the textbooks for some subjects and reference books
are not available even in the library. In that condition, teachers and students at BVU have
tried their best to teach and study for the sake of students’ future.
2.1.4. The current syllabus and materials in use
2.1.4.1. Syllabus for British Literature

* Course description:
- The course duration is 45 periods of teaching carried out in 9 weeks (5 periods per week)
at the last semester of the four-year training program.
- The course will provide students with basic knowledge about periods of British literature
including historical background, literary features, major authors and some (extracted)
works.
* Course objectives: By the end of the course, students are able to have a thorough
understanding of the history of British literature, knowledge about some authors, some
typical works through interesting and useful exercises and activities.
* Course Content: (See in Appendix A)
As can been seen from the layout demonstrated in Appendix A, the syllabus covers all six
main periods of British literature with clear requirements about contents and the teaching
duration for each. However, the syllabus just suggests some materials for references
without giving a list of official/ required textbooks for the teaching.
2.1.4.2. Materials for British Literature
In our observation, despite the fact that Ba Ria Vung Tau University has finished training
two academic courses for English major students ( 2006-2010 and 2007-2011), a material
for British literature is not officially developed. Teachers who are responsible for the
teaching of this subject often base on the syllabus requirement to choose what to teach.
Therefore, the contents of knowledge that they teach are different by each teacher. For
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example, in teaching a certain literary work by a writer, different subject teachers may
select different literary extracts to teach. Sometimes, due to the lack of an official
textbook, they may not follow the duration for each chapter as required. They may go
quickly with some parts and spend more time with others.
The lack of an official material for British literature causes the difficulty in teaching and
learning at BVU. If a subject teacher has time to prepare the material in advance then ask

students to have its photocopies, learners will know what to study first and what to study
next and they can have something to read at home. However, if a teacher just takes
randomly a textbook of another university and sends it to students and s(he) just selects
some parts which are suitable with some points required in the syllabus and supplements
some of other parts from another book or source, then students may feel confused in
learning because they see too much knowledge and do not know what to study first and
next. This may result in demotivating students and then make the learning outcomes go
down. Through our observation and informal discussion with teachers, it is realized that
because of the inexistence of an official teaching textbook, some teachers may even not
follow the syllabus to create the teaching material themselves. On the contrary, they
randomly select what they like to teach and hence the activities for each lesson do not go
with the literary texts, but due to the teachers’ decision. This may make students not have
guidelines and tasks to do after reading a text but to wait for teachers to assign tasks.
The situation requires an urgent material design by the group of teachers in the Faculty of
Foreign Languages. However, before trying to develop the required materials for teaching
and learning, the author of this thesis would like to draw some principles in designing
material for British literature. This will pave the way for the birth of effective and suitable
British literature materials for the following courses.
At the first observation of the materials currently used in teaching British literature, there
does not exist an official material for the teaching. This problem will be put into more
investigation and discussion in order to work out some principles in designing materials for
the subject in the next chapter.
2.1.5. Students
The English major students in FLD come from many provinces both in the North and the
South of Viet Nam. Many of them are from the Central Highlands. Since English is one of
three obligatory subjects in the university entrance examination, so they have some
19

command of English when becoming students at FLD, BVU. However, because their
entrance marks are not high enough, students meet so many difficulties to do the course at
BVU.
Before studying British literature, students have gone through several courses on language
development with four English skills including speaking, reading, writing and listening;
other subjects such as grammar, semantics, British and American cultures, phonetics and
phonology, English syntax, etc. These subjects provide students with basic knowledge
background and good language skills necessary for them to study British literature.
2.2. The analysis of participants’ opinions
2.2.1. Subjects of the study
a. The student population
Participants of the study were 125 4
th
year English major students at BVU, among them, 47
students graduated in 2010 and the rest of 78 students have just finished the graduation
examination in 2011. Since students of academic course 2006-2010 have graduated for one
year, despite great effort has been made to contact with them, only 47 students could take
part in the survey questionnaire. However, the contact was easier with the newly graduated
students.
Post-course students were chosen for the study because they could well evaluate their
course and the information gained in the study will be used as principles from which the
FLD can base to create an official British literature textbook suitable to the teaching and
learning situation of the university.
b. The teacher population
There are totally four teachers taking part in the survey questionnaire. They are working at
the FLD, BVU. Three of them have got a master degree and one teacher is doing the
course for master degree. Most of them do not get any training in teaching British literature
to the ESL learners. However, they are passionate in teaching and they really love
literature.
2.2.2. Procedures

In order to collect enough information for the study, a set of survey questionnaire for both
teachers and students are conducted together with classroom observation and informal
discussion with teachers and students.
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The survey questionnaire was done at the end of the year 2010-2011. Although the author
met a lot of difficulties in making contact with ex- students, finally a set of nine questions
was successfully delivered to 125 English major students. When being asked to complete
the questionnaire, they were willing to finish them in about 30 minutes.
Also, a set of questionnaire including nine questions (8 multiple questions and 1 open-
ended question) were delivered to four teachers in the survey. The multiple choice
questions provided necessary data for the study because it is easy to complete. The open-
ended question was made to get more information about teachers’ expectations and wants
in teaching the subject. The process of gathering the questionnaire did not meet any
difficulties. The following is the analysis and illustration of two sets of the questionnaire.
2.2.3. Data analysis, findings and discussions
As stated earlier in this chapter, in doing needs analysis through the two sets of
questionnaire, the author focuses on analyzing the present conditions and situations of
learning and teaching BL perceived both by students and teachers.
The questionnaires will be analyzed with a combination between questions for both
students and teachers and will be divided into three groups: (a) students’ motivation in
learning BL; (b) lacks and constraints in teaching and learning BL; (c) students’ wants,
desires, demand, expectation and requirements.
a) Group 1: students’ motivation in learning BL
The first question aims to investigate the students’ motivation in learning British literature.
Options
Number of
students

Percentage
(%)
a. Enriching your English language knowledge
98
78.4
b. Widening your vocabulary
75
60
c. Improving your understanding of the target language
47
37.6
d. Improving your analysis skill of literary work
72
57.6
e. Enriching your love of literature
24
19.2
Table 1. Students’ motivation in learning BL
It can be concluded from the table that most students thought of British literature as a
source to enrich their foreign language knowledge (78.4%). The subject also helped to
widen students’ vocabulary (60%). Importantly, the students’ analyzing skills could be
improved through the learning of this subject as well (57.6%). The items which held the
21



least interest from students were “improve the understanding of the target language”
(37.6%) and “enrich the love of literature” (19.2%). It seemed that they learn the subject
mainly because it is obligatory.
b) Group 2: Lacks and constraints in teaching and learning BL

Questions 2,3,5,7,8 in students’ questionnaire and similarly questions 1,2,4,5,6 in teachers’
questionnaire deeply analyze and show the lacks in the BL teaching and learning
conditions. It is these lacks that leads to the constraints towards the teaching and learning
of this subject at BVU.
Questions 2 and 3 in students’ questionnaire and questions 1 and 2 in teachers’
questionnaire provide us information about the preparation of material for British
Literature.
Question 2 for students and question 1 for teachers ask whether they have an official
textbook or material for teaching and learning British literature. The percentage is shown
in the following chart and table.
60
40
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
yes
no

Chart 1. Students’ opinions on the official teaching material
From the chart 1, it is clear that there were 75 students accounting for 60% said that they
had a textbook or material to serve their learning of British literature. However, the rest of
students (50 students taking up 40%) affirmed that they did not have official material to
follow in learning the subject. Through informal discussion, the reasons were displayed for
the above percentage. Some students said that their teachers compiled the material on their
own, some students were delivered with textbooks written by other universities, not by the
FLD, BVU and as a result some of them assumed that they have textbook to learn. Other

students insisted that they were provided different types of materials to read.