An Evaluation of the coursebook “English for Information Technology I” for second–year students of University of Information and Communication Technology under Thai Nguyen University

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

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

TRẦN MINH THÀ NH

AN EVALUATION OF THE COURSEBOOK “ENGLISH FOR
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY I” FOR SECOND–YEAR
STUDENTS OF UNIVERSITY OF INFORMATION AND
COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY UNDER
THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY
(Đánh giá giáo trình “Tiếng Anh chuyên ngành Công nghệ thông tin I”
dùng cho sinh viên năm thứ hai Trƣờng Đại học Công nghệ Thông tin và
Truyền thông thuộc Đại học Thái Nguyên.)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60.140.111

Hanoi, 2014


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

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

TRẦN MINH THÀ NH

AN EVALUATION OF THE COURSEBOOK “ENGLISH FOR
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY I” FOR SECOND–YEAR
STUDENTS OF UNIVERSITY OF INFORMATION AND
COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY UNDER
THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY
(Đánh giá giáo trình “Tiếng Anh chuyên ngành Công nghệ thông tin I”
dùng cho sinh viên năm thứ hai Trƣờng Đại học Công nghệ Thông tin và
Truyền thông thuộc Đại học Thái Nguyên.)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60.140.111
Supervisor: Prof. Nguyen Hoa

Hanoi, 2014


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

Signature

Tran Minh Thanh

i


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My deepest gratitude goes to Professor. Nguyen Hoa, my supervisor, for his valuable
instructions, comments and criticisms as well as his kind encouragement during the
development of this thesis.
I am deeply indebted to the teachers and students at ICTU for their generous
cooperation and enthusiasm from which I have benefited a lot during my study.
Finally, I wish to express my sincerely thanks to my wife for her understanding and
supports for me throughout the preparation and development of the thesis.

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

that the coursebook is rather relevant to the needs of learners.

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

English for IT I

English for Information Technology I

ESL/EFL

English as a Second Language/ English as a Foreign Language

ESP

English for Specific Purposes

ICTU

University of Information and Communication Technology

IT

Information Technology

iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION ...............................................................................................i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...................................................................................ii
ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................iii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................... iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS ....................................................................................... v
PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale of the study ........................................................................................... 1
2. Aims of the study .................................................................................................. 2
3. Research question ................................................................................................. 2
4. Methods of the study ............................................................................................. 2
5. Scope of the study ................................................................................................. 3
6. Significance of the study....................................................................................... 3
7. Design of the study ............................................................................................... 4
PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1. Materials in language teaching and learning ..................................................... 5
1.1.1. Concepts of materials ............................................................................... 5
1.1.2. Types of materials .................................................................................... 6
1.2. English for specific purposes ............................................................................. 8
1.3. Materials evaluation ........................................................................................... 9
1.3.1. Definition of materials evaluation ............................................................ 9
1.3.2. Purposes of materials evaluation ............................................................ 10
1.3.3. Types of materials evaluation ................................................................ 11
1.3.4. Methods of materials evaluation ............................................................ 12
1.3.5. Criteria for materials evaluation ............................................................. 13
1.3.6. Materials evaluation models................................................................... 14
v

1.4. Needs analysis .................................................................................................. 16
CHAPTER II: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
2.1. An overview of current ESP teaching and learning at ICTU .......................... 17
2.1.1. Context ................................................................................................... 17
2.1.2. The objectives of the ESP course ―English for IT I‖ ............................. 17
2.1.3. The coursebook description ................................................................... 18
2.2. Research methods ............................................................................................ 19
2.2.1. Research question ................................................................................... 19
2.2.2. Participants ............................................................................................. 19
2.2.3. Data collection instruments .................................................................... 20
2.2.4. Data collection procedure....................................................................... 21
CHAPTER III: MAJOR FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
3.1. About learners .................................................................................................. 23
3.1.1. Learners‘ background of learning English ............................................. 23
3.1.2. Learners‘ levels of English ..................................................................... 23
3.1.3. Learners‘ purposes and expectations of learning the ESP course ―English
for IT I‖ .................................................................................................... 24
3.1.4. Learners‘ needs of learning the ESP course ―English for IT I‖ ............. 25
3.2. Learners‘ and teachers‘ evaluation of the coursebook ―English for IT I‖ ....... 27
3.2.1. The evaluation of the content ................................................................. 27
3.2.2. The evaluation of the format .................................................................. 32
3.2.3. The evaluation of the methodology........................................................ 34
PART C: CONCLUSION
1. Summary of the study ......................................................................................... 38
3. Some conclusions................................................................................................ 38
3. Limitations of the study ...................................................................................... 39
4. Suggestions for further study .............................................................................. 40
Reference ............................................................................................................... 41
Appendices:
vi

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

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PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale of the study
In accordance with the innovation in education and training, English is considered an
important subject taught at both schools and universities in Vietnam. In universities
English courses are usually divided into General English (GE) course and English for
Specific Purposes (ESP) course. University of Information and Communication
Technology (ICTU) under Thai Nguyen university is not an exception.
In the curriculum for ICTU students, English courses account for 10 credits, which
are distributed into two phases: General English (GE) and English for Specific
Purposes (ESP). General English consisting of two courses (a total of six credits) aim
to train students in four general skills of English. The two courses of General English
explore a variety of topics related to real life situations. ESP including two courses
with four credits in total is designed to teach students English language for specific
purposes, such as English for Electronics and Telecommunications, English for
Automation Technology and English for Information Technology. The role of an ESP
course is to bring to the learners what they desperately need in real life. Students of
Faculty of Information Technology are introduced with ESP courses in the second
academic year. These ESP courses are divided into two modules using two
coursebooks ―English for Information Technology I‖ and ―English for Information

Technology II‖.
In ICTU, coursebooks are mostly used as teaching and learning materials for both
teachers and learners. They not only provide a framework for teachers in obtaining
the objectives of the course but also play an important role as a guide to the teacher
in conducting lessons. From the perspective of learners, a coursebook truly affects
their attitudes and performance on lessons throughout the course. It is true that when
learners like their coursebook, they like the course as well, and become active
participants to the lessons. Therefore, the appropriate choice of a coursebook is an
issue of great concern and is paid much attention to by both administrators and
lecturers of English here. However, most of the textbooks in the market are written
by native speakers or other lecturers coming from other universities rather than from
1


ICTU. These textbooks are not fully suitable with the particular needs of students of
ICTU whose the knowledge of expertise is designed by IT lecturers of ICTU. In
other words, the textbooks do not go together with the IT knowledge students
learned. Being aware of this, the administrators and lecturers of English of ICTU
decided to design their own textbooks to employ in the ESP courses for students.
Since the approved version of the coursebook “English for IT I” was put into use in
2009 for the second-year students, there has been no official evaluation of
researchers or lecturers conducted to evaluate or review the fitness of the coursebook
to ESP learning context of ICTU. In addition, some students still complain about the
problems when they use the coursebook. They say that they are not really interested
in some parts of the coursebook, especially writing section. Besides, some lecturers
still question the relevance of the coursebook to students‘ needs. Thus, a study to
evaluate the coursebook “English for IT I” is urgently needed.
2. Aims of the study
The study is carried out to evaluate the coursebook “English for IT I” which is used
as teaching materials for second-year students at ICTU to see how the coursebook is

relevant to the learners‘ needs. The findings of the study will help teachers to adjust
the exploitation of the coursebook so that they can optimize the strong points and
adapt or substitute weak points from other IT materials to meet the learners‘ needs.
Furthermore, it is expected that the results of research, to some extent, could become
the reference material for those interested in the field of coursebook evaluation.
3. Research question
This study aims to find out the answer to the following research question:
1. Is the coursebook “English for Information Technology I” relevant to the
learners’ needs in terms of content, format and methodology?
4. Methods of the study
To conduct this study, two main instruments were used to collect data:
- Survey questionnaires - were designed for both second-year students of Faculty of
Information Technology and four involved teachers of English at ICTU.

2


- Semi-structured interviews - were conducted to look for both teachers and students‘
further opinions on the coursebook based on their experience in using it or to clarify
any misunderstanding.
5. Scope of the study
The coursebook “English for IT I” has been used as the official teaching materials
in the ESP course ―English for IT I‖ for second-year students for five years. In
material evaluation, there have been a number of criteria that should be taken into
consideration, such as the content, the methodology, the layout, the culture bias, the
authenticity, and so on. It will be highly precious to conduct a comprehensive
evaluation of the coursebook. However, within the scope of a minor thesis, the
criteria for evaluation were based on Hutchinson and Waters‘s (1987) with focus on
three criteria: Content, Format, and Methodology to see how the coursebook is
relevant to learners‘ needs.

6. Significance of the study
In the first place, this thesis will cater for the methods to evaluate materials
effectively. A sound theoretical background will help teachers move beyond
impressionistic assessments and acquire useful, accurate, systematic, and contextual
insights into the overall nature of materials.
Secondly, the paper examines how far the materials used in IT classrooms provide
the necessary tools in preparing learners for the language skills they need for their
future occupations. At the same time, it would assist the educators in identifying the
particular strengths and weaknesses in the coursebook. This would go a long way in
ultimately assisting the teachers with making optimum use of the coursebook‘s
strong points and recognizing the shortcomings of certain tasks, and entire texts.
The evaluation when completed will serve as the foundation for the design of a new
coursebook or improve the current one that promises to be more up-to-date and
motivating for the students. I find it important to develop this project because our
teachers of English will have the opportunities to offer students suitable materials
according to their specific needs.

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7. Design of the study
The study consists of three parts:
Part A: Introduction – presents the rationale, aims, scope, methodology and
significance of the study.
Part B: Development – includes three chapters:
Chapter I: Literature review – provides theoretical basis for the study. Firstly, some
most important notions related to teaching materials, such as concepts of materials,
types of materials and ESP are discussed. Secondly, this chapter reviews materials
evaluation. Readers are provided with concise understandings of the approaches,
types, purposes, criteria, methods, and models of evaluation.

Chapter II: Research methodology – describes the methods employed in this thesis.
Chapter III: Major findings and discussion - is devoted to the analysis of the survey
questionnaire and interview of the coursebook evaluation carried out at ICTU in
which description, data collection, and analysis are demonstrated in detail. This
chapter also reports main findings of the thesis to address the research questions.
Part C: Conclusion – summarizes the content of the thesis with regard to the
relevance of the coursebook in terms of three evaluated aspects, and points out some
limitations of the study.

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PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter presents a theoretical base to develop an operational framework for the
evaluation of the coursebook “English for IT I” used for second-year students of IT
major at ICTU. The first section in this chapter concerns with materials in language
teaching and learning with regards to their concepts, types of materials. Next, the
study reviews the concepts of ESP. The third one presents an overview of materials
evaluation. At last, the chapter will end up with theoretical discussion about needs
analysis.
1.1.

Materials in language teaching and learning

1.1.1. Concepts of materials
Teaching materials are one of the key components in most language programmes. A
number of researchers have expressed their own points of view towards the
definition of materials, textbook and coursebook.
McGrath (2002) argued that materials in a broad sense could include ‗realia‘ (real

object such as a pencil, a chair or a bag) and presentations (such as a drawing or a
photograph of a person, a house or a scene). Text materials include those that have
been either designed for language learning and teaching, such as textbooks,
worksheets and computer software or authentic materials like off-air recordings and
newspaper articles; teacher-written materials and learner-generated materials. From
his point of view, the term ―coursebook‖ is used to refer to a textbook on which a
course is based.
According to Tomlinson (1998), coursebook is a textbook which provides the core
materials for a course. It aims to provide as much as possible in one book and is
designed so that it could be serve as the only book which the learners necessarily use
during a course. Such a textbook usually includes work on grammar, vocabulary,
functions and the skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking.
Ur (1996) has stated a less complex, but very useful definition which is easy to
understand (p. 18). This definition is quoted as follows:
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The term “coursebook” means, a textbook of which the teacher and each
student has a copy and which is in principle to be followed systematically as
the basis for a language course. Therefore, from the above definition one can
get that a coursebook must have at least been available in the hand of students
and teachers, and used systematically in a course of study, and a course of
study in this article refers to an English course of study.
The term ―coursebook‘‘ is sometimes associated with text materials as it has been
specifically selected and exploited for teaching purposes by the classroom teacher
particularly in the local setting. Therefore, within this master thesis the terms
‗textbook‘, ‗text,‘ ‗coursebook,‘ and ‗materials‘ are used interchangeably.
In summary, it can be agreed that materials include anything which can be used to
facilitate and promote the learning of a language. They can be instructional,
experiential, or exploratory, in that they can inform learners about the language, they

can provide experience of the language use, they can stimulate language use or they
can help learners to make discoveries about the language for themselves. They are
best seen as a resource in achieving aims and objectives that have already been set
concerning learners' needs.
1.1.2. Types of materials
So far, it can be agreed that selecting a textbook for a particular course of particular
learners is a crucial issue for those involved like teachers, learners and
administrators. The choice of the suitable textbook frequently put those people into a
dilemma. They may either choose the published materials or develop their own
materials. Despite any choice, its ultimate goal is to provoke the learning process of
the learners. In this section, I discuss the two types of materials: published materials
and home-made materials, their advantages and limitations.
Published materials
Published materials refer to any kind of materials which is commercially offered in
the market. There are several advantages for basing the curriculum on a series of
ESL textbooks. First, the textbooks have a clearly identified set of achievement
6


objectives which include what the learners are expected to be able to do and what to
expect next. Second, there is a consistency in the topics and genres in the four skills
area (listening, speaking, reading, and writing). This allows for greater autonomy in
the learning process. Finally, ESL course books are the cheapest and most
convenient ways of providing learning materials to each student. All of these reasons
make using these textbooks a very popular choice in the English learning curriculum.
The most obvious advantage of these materials is its availability for use.
However, these published materials do have some limitations. First, most textbooks
contain a lot of activities where students do ―questions and answers‖. After a few
lessons, many students may find the learning process boring and uninteresting. The
second issue that teachers should consider is student motivation. Most college

students expect their English courses to be something different from their high
school English classes. So when we give them textbooks that are similarly designed
as their past learning materials, the students may quickly lose their interest and
motivation to study. Finally, although most ESL textbooks are well organized with
many different kinds of activities, however, they do not provide enough details in
other aspects of language study.
Home-made materials
Home-made materials refer to those materials developed by teachers or practitioners
for their own students in their teaching context. There are also arguments for and
against the use of home-made materials. Firstly, Block (1991) argued that an
important advantage of home-made materials is contextualization. Home-made
materials are likely to be more specific and appropriate than published ones and to
have greater face validity in terms of the language deal with and the context it is
presented in. Secondly, home-made materials may be more flexible. In designing
their own materials teachers can also make decisions about the most appropriate
organizing principle or focus for the materials and activities. And this can be
changed over the course of the programme if necessary. A further advantage of
home-made materials is timeliness (Block, 1991). Teachers designing their own
materials can respond to local and international events with up-to-date, relevant and
high interest topics and tasks. In conclusion, the advantages of home-made materials
7


can be summed up in the idea that they avoid the ‗one-size-fits-all‘ approach of most
commercial materials.
Despite the above mentioned advantages, home-made materials have some
limitations. Firstly, there are potential pitfalls for teachers who would be materials
designers like organization. Home-made materials may lack overall coherence and a
clear progression. Without some overall organizing principle, materials may be
piecemeal and can result in poorly focused activities lacking clear direction.

Secondly, the most common criticism against home-made materials is to do with
their quality. At the surface level, home-made materials may seem ragged and
unprofessional next to those produced by professionals. Finally, the key factor
inhibiting many teachers from producing their own teaching materials is time. It
must be take a lot of time for the teachers to design suitable materials for their
learners in their particular teaching and learning context because all the involved
elements of the textbooks, such as linguistic content, culture values, and authenticity
should be taken into consideration.
1.2.

English for Specific Purposes (ESP)

Since its emergence, much effort has been made to give an exact definition of ESP.
There are almost as many definitions of ESP as the number of scholars who have
attempted to define it. Many researchers have tried to define ESP in terms of what it
is not rather than in terms of what it really is. However, the concept of ESP has been
basically agreed by numerous researchers to be a kind of language learning which
has its focus on all aspects of language pertaining to a particular field of human
activities while taking into account the time constraint imposed by learners.
According to Hutchinson and Waters (1997), ESP is one important branch of
EFL/ESL (English as a Foreign/Second Language) system that functions as the main
branch of English language teaching (ELT). Therefore, ESP is not a particular kind
of language or methodology, but rather an approach to language learning whereby
the content and methods are based on the learner‘s particular needs to learn the language.
Mackay and Mountford (1978) defined ESP as the teaching of English for clearly
8


utilitarian purposes (p. 2). The purposes they refer to are defined by the needs of the
learners, which could be academic, occupational, or scientific. These needs in turns

determine the content of ESP curriculum to be taught and learned. Mackay and
Mountford also added that ESP as a special language that is taught in specific
settings by certain participants. They stated that those participants are usually adults.
They focused on adults because adults are usually highly conscious of the reasons to
attain English proficiency in a determined field of specialization, and because adults
make real use of special language in the special settings in which they work.
Robinson (1980) defined ESP courses as the ones in which participants have specific
goals and purposes (again, academic, occupational, and scientific). She cited
Strevens (1977) to emphasize that the purposes language learners have for using
language are of paramount importance. She stated that those purposes must be
understood as the driving force of the curriculum in a way that would help teachers
and learners to not let irrelevant materials be introduced into the course. She also
placed the learners in the role of curriculum designers in order to make the
curriculum more learner-centered. Strevens also argued that ESP courses are those
that are almost strictly based on the analysis of the participants‘ needs - a key and
crucial element - in order to tailor the curriculum to meet its true purposes.
From the above definitions, it can be seen that ESP can but is not necessarily
concerned with a specific discipline (subject), nor does it have to be aimed at a
certain age group or ability range or in other words ESP can be applied to any subject
and any learner. ESP should be seen simple as an ‗approach‘ to teaching, or what
Dudley-Evans describes as an ‗attitude of mind‘. This is a similar conclusion to that
made by Hutchinson et al. (1987, p. 19) who states, ―ESP is an approach to language
teaching in which all decisions as to contents and method are based on the learner‘s
reason for learning‖.
1.3.
1.3.1.

Materials evaluation
Definition of materials evaluation

A numbers of researchers have expressed their own points of view towards the
definitions of materials evaluation.
9


According to Dudley (1998), ―Evaluation is a whole process which begins with
determining what information to gather and end with bringing about the change in
the current activities or influencing future ones.‖
In his opinions, Tomlinson (1998, p. 3) claims that ―this term refers to attempts to
measure the value of materials‖. In many cases, this is done impressionistically and
consists of attempts to predict whether or not the material will work, in the sense that
the learners will be able to use them without too much difficulty and will enjoy the
experience of doing so.
Hutchinson and Waters (1987, p. 96) point out that evaluation is matching process
designed to establish the degree of match between the needs and available solutions.
It refers to the attempts to measure the value of materials and is aimed at assessing
the fitness.
In summary, although each researcher has his/her own way of evaluation, they still
come to the agreement that materials evaluation is a process of collecting data,
giving judgments based on collected data, and the most importantly, evaluation must
include actions.
1.3.2.

Purposes of materials evaluation

Materials evaluation plays an important part in the improvement of a language
course as it helps to identify particular strengths and weaknesses of the materials in
use. After being used for the language course in a certain time, teaching materials
need evaluating to see if they have worked well to meet the expectation of students.
Regarding the purposes of materials evaluation, Sheldon (1998) has offered several

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

10


According to Cunningsworth (1995), through evaluation, we can assess whether the
coursebook is the most appropriate for the target learners at various levels and in
various teaching settings.
Anderson (1992) sets out a list of purposes of materials evaluation as follow:
o
o

To identify what affect materials have had.

o

To vindicate a decision.

o

To justify the future course of action.

o

To compare approaches/methodologies.

o

To identify the areas for improvement in the future use.

o

To show the positive achievements of teachers and students.

o

To motivate teachers.

o
1.3.3.

To decide whether the materials have had the intended effect.

To allay suspicions among parents and sponsors.

Types of materials evaluation

There are many different types of materials evaluation offered by a number of
researchers. According to Cunningsworth (1995, p. 76) and McGrath (2002, pp. 1415), there are three types of material evaluation: pre-use, in use and post use
evaluation. This classification is similar to Ellis (1997) with different names:
Preliminary, Formative, and Summative Evaluation respectively. In spite of different
terms used to refer types of materials evaluation, these terms are basically similar
and discussed as containing three types.
Pre-use evaluation: According to Tomlinson (2003, p. 23) often takes place before
the materials are used to predict the potential values of materials for their users to
select a coursebook for use with a particular class. It seems that pre-use evaluation

tends to be the most difficult type as there is no actual experience of using the
materials.
In-use evaluation: it is a kind of evaluation of suitability, involving ―matching the
course book against a specific requirement including the learner‘s objectives, the
learners‘ background, the resources available, etc‖. (Cunningsworth, 1995, p. 14)

11


Post-use evaluation: Post-use evaluation refers to an assessment of a textbook‘s
fitness over a period of continual use. According to Tomlinson (2003, p. 25),
evaluation of this kind can be ‗‗the most valuable as it can measure the actual effect
of the material on the users‖. Based on the data measured, evaluators can make
reliable decisions about the use, adaptation or replacement of the materials.
However, this type of material is normally time-consuming.
Generally, each type of materials has its certain strengths and weaknesses, so it is
necessary for the evaluators to determine what type of materials evaluation will be
the most suitable for specific context. Based on the current context of University of
Information and Communication Technology, I decided to choose the post-use
evaluation to measure the relevance of the coursebook to the learners‘ needs.
1.3.4. Methods of materials evaluation
1.3.4.1. The impressionistic method
According to Cunningsworth (1995, p. 2), the impressionistic method is designed to
be able to gain an impression of a book by looking rather more carefully at
representative features, such as the organization, topics, layout, visuals and the
design of a unit or lesson or more specific features, such as the treatment of
particular language elements. Therefore, this method is wide ranging but relatively
superficial due to the fact that ―techniques of impressionistic evaluation cover the
wide spectrum‖.
1.3.4.2. The checklist method

McGrath (2002) states that ―a checklist is likely to need tailoring to suit a particular
context, and this can involve a good deal more than simply deleting checklist items
which are in applicable. Moreover, William (1993, cited in McGrath, 2002, p. 27)
points out that ―checklist cannot be a static phenomenon‖. This means that the items
in all materials evaluation checklist reflect the time at which they are conceived.
1.3.4.3. The in-depth method
In-depth method consists of a focus on specific features (Cunningsworth, 1995),
close analysis of one or more extracts (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987), or throughout
examination of two units using predetermined questions (McGrath, 2002). McGrath
12


also argued that besides its advantages, this evaluation method has certain
disadvantages. Firstly, samples selected for analysis may not be representative of the
book as a whole. Secondly, only a particular section of the material is focused.
Moreover, this method takes time and requires expert knowledge (McGrath, 2002, p. 28).
1.3.5. Criteria for materials evaluation
Criteria for materials evaluation is one of the most difficult problems for materials
evaluator during the process of materials evaluation. William (1983) suggests seven
criteria: General criteria, Speech criteria, Grammar criteria, Vocabulary criteria
Reading criteria, Writing criteria, and Technique criteria. It can be seen that the
criteria proposed by William seem to be too general and cannot really be applicable
to all teaching and learning context.
Ur (1996) provides the following criteria to evaluate a material:
- Objectives explicitly laid out in an introduction, and implemented in the
materials
- Approach educationally and socially acceptable to target community
- Clear attractive layout; print easy to read
- Appropriate visual materials available
- Interesting topics and tasks

- Varied topics and tasks, so as to provide for different learner levels, learning
styles, interest and so on
- Clear instructions
- Systematic coverage of syllabus
- Content clearly organized and graded (sequenced by difficulty)
- Periodic review and test sections
- Plenty of authentic language
- Good pronunciation explanation and practice
- Good vocabulary explanation and practice
- Frequency practice in four skills
- Encourage learners to develop own learning strategies and to become
independent in their learning.
- Adequate guidance for the teacher, not too heavy presentation load
13


- Audio cassettes
- Readily available locally
The criteria suggested by Ur seem to be too much detailed but the framework for
evaluation of a coursebook is not given so that so it may make difficult for the
evaluator to begin the evaluation. With the more comprehensive and more brief
content, the evaluating criteria proposed by Hutchinson and Waters seems to be more
helpful tools to language materials evaluators.
Hutchinson and Waters (1987, p. 99) present their own checklist of criteria for
objective and subjective analysis, which is not an exhaustive list, and is based on the
following four aspects: audience, aim, content, and methodology.
The audience of the materials: The evaluator should obtain information about and
from the learners to find out whether the materials are suitable to students‘ age,
knowledge of English, interest and so on.
Aims of the materials: The evaluator has to check if the materials match the aims and

objectives of the course.
Content of the materials: The evaluator has to check if the materials‘ language
points, macro-skills/micro-skills, and topic suit the learners‘ needs.
Methodology of the materials: The evaluator must find out if the techniques,
guidance, aids provided in the materials satisfy learners and teachers of the course.
Comparing the above sets of criteria, I find that Hutchinson and Waters‘ (1987)
criteria are more practical and helpful for the evaluator as they provide the clear way
to conduct a study on materials evaluation. In addition to that, underpinned by
learner-centered approach, these criteria seem to be suitable with the scopes of this
study. As the result, I chose the criteria suggested by Hutchinson and Water to
evaluate the coursebook ―English for IT I‖ to see how much it is relevant to learners‘
needs in terms of content, format and methodology.
1.3.6. Materials evaluation models
There are several suggestions on developing a reliable framework for materials
evaluation. The popular frameworks are the ones proposed by Hutchinson and
Waters (1987), Littlejohn (1998), Mc Donough and Shaw (1993), Cunningsworth
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(1984) and Ellis (1997). However, for the purposes of this evaluation, I followed the
model provided by Hutchinson Waters (1987) applying pertinent criteria to the
coursebook used in my working context, model‘s procedural format and flexibility
allowed me to fully assess the strengths weaknesses of the coursebook under
evaluation. Based on the research results, good aspect as well the problematic parts
of the materials can be identified, which may be reliable ground for further
suggestions for coursebook improvement.
Evaluation by Hutchinson and Waters (1987) is a macro-evaluation model. It consists
of four steps of materials evaluation which is illustrated as the following figure:
DEFINE CRITERIA
On what bases will you judge materials?

Which criteria will be more important?

OBJECTIVE ANALYSIS
How does the material being
evaluated realize the materials?

SUBJECTIVE ANALYSIS
What realizations of the criteria do
you want in your course?

MATCHING
How far does the
material match
your needs?

Figure 1: The materials evaluation process

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1.4.

Needs analysis

Materials should also be contextualized to the experiences, realities, needs and first
languages of the learners. Modern teaching methodology increasingly emphasizes
the importance of identifying and teaching to the individual needs of learners. Thus
teachers must ensure they know their learners well. English language classrooms are
diverse in terms not only of where they are situated, but also of the individual
learners. The starting point of any materials design should be a needs analysis,

which, in addition to revealing students‘ learning needs with regard to English
language skills, should also aim to determine the students‘ life and educational
experiences, their first language and levels of literacy in it, their interests, their
aspirations, and their purposes for learning English.
Hutchinson & Waters (1987) classifying needs as necessities, lacks and wants cover
a range of interpretations. Necessities can be described as what the learner has to
know to function effectively in the target situation, and are seen by Richterich (1973,
p. 32) as objective needs. Lacks are analysed in what is called a deficiency analysis
(Allwright & Allwright, 1977) where what a learner already knows is set against
necessities. Wants then are what learners feel they need in order to operate in a target
situation and are also called subjective needs. Hutchinson and Waters (1987) expand
on the idea of needs by classifying them into target needs (what the learner needs to
do in the target situation) and learning needs (1987, p. 58). Some researchers also
make reference to what they call objective and subjective needs (Richterch, 1980).
Berwick (1989) provides three categories of needs, which he termed the language
proficiency view of needs, the psychological view and the specific purposes view. In
this thesis, I adapted the checklist suggested by Hutchinson & Waters (1987) to
explore and analyze the learners‘ needs (Appendix III) due to it is suitable with the
scope as well as the aims of the thesis.

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