AN EVALUATION OF SPEAKING ACTIVITIES IN THE TEXTBOOK TIẾNG ANH 10 FOR THE 10th GRADE STUDENTS AT GIA lộc HIGH SCHOOL IN LIGHT OF CLT

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN HOÀNG ĐÔ


AN EVALUATION OF SPEAKING ACTIVITIES IN THE
TEXTBOOK TIẾNG ANH 10 FOR THE 10th GRADE STUDENTS
AT GIA LỘC HIGH SCHOOL IN LIGHT OF CLT
Đánh giá các hoạt động nói trong sách giáo khoa tiếng Anh 10
cho học sinh trường THPT Gia Lộc theo đường hướng giao tiếp
M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS
Field : English Teaching Methodology
Code : 60140111
HANOI, 2015
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN HOÀNG ĐÔ


AN EVALUATION OF SPEAKING ACTIVITIES
IN THE TEXTBOOK “TIẾNG ANH 10” FOR THE 10th GRADE
STUDENTS AT GIA LỘC HIGH SCHOOL IN LIGHT OF CLT
Đánh giá các hoạt động nói trong sách giáo khoa tiếng Anh 10
cho học sinh trường THPT Gia Lộc theo đường hướng giao tiếp
M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS
Field : EnglishTeaching Methodology
Code : 60140111

Supervisor : Assoc. Prof. Dr. Lâm Quang Đông
HANOI, 2015
CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY
I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report
entitled an Evaluation of Speaking Activities in the Textbook “ Tiếng Anh 10” for
the 10th Grade Students at Gia Lộc High School in the Light of CLT submitted in
partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MA in English Teaching
Methodology.
Except where the reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been
used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis.
Hanoi, 2015
Nguyễn Hoàng Đô
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This thesis could not have been completed without the help and support from
a number of people.
First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Assoc.
Prof. Dr. Lâm Quang Đông , my supervisor, who has patiently and constantly
supported me through the stages of the study, and whose stimulating ideas,
expertise, and suggestions have inspired me greatly through my growth as an
academic researcher.
A special word of thanks goes to my friends, Luong Thi Minh Phuong and
Ta Thi Mai Phuong for their support and encouragement. I wish to express my
acknowledgment to other individuals who have indirectly contributed to the
completion of this thesis.
Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my wife, Ho Thi Hang, for her
patience and support throughout the study.
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ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the speaking activities in the

speaking lessons of the English Language textbook Tiếng Anh 10 currently used at
Gia Loc high school, Hai Duong. It attempts to find out if the speaking activities in
this book have fulfilled the principles of Communicative Language Teaching. The
study also seeks to evaluate the suitability of these activities for grade 10 students in
this school and to make some suggestions for adaptation. For this purpose, a content
analysis is employed to analyze the speaking lessons with criteria developed on
the basis of CLT principles. In addition, a 10- item questionnaire was prepared by
the writer to examine the suitability of the speaking lessons for students at Gia Loc
high school. 227 grade 10 students were asked to reflect on the questions by
checking one of the five options included and three teachers of English were
interviewed for in depth information. The results of the research revealed that the
speaking lessons are relatively communicative in the light of CLT principles and
that they are suitable for students at Gia Loc high school to some extent. However,
they have some drawbacks in some areas. On the basis of the findings, the
researcher made some suggestions and recommendations for improvement of the
textbook that has been being used in this particular learning environment.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
LISTS OF TABLES, CHARTS
TABLES
CHARTS
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PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Background and Rationale of the Study
Nowadays everyone knows the importance of English language in today's
world. English is the most widely spoken language in the world and used in various
areas such as technology, science, and business. In Vietnam, English language has
been taught and learnt widely for a long time in Vietnam. However, most of the
students cannot use English naturally and frequently and they have not achieved the
highly communicative effect in English Many students only wanted to be good at

grammar and gain as much vocabulary as possible so that they could read,
understand and even write in English. This hindered students’ development of
communicative competence.
In the field of English teaching, Vietnam has experienced a gradual shift
from the old tradition way of teaching to more up-to-date ones. Therefore,
Communicative Language Teaching is in the list of new ways of teaching (Khoa
Anh Việt, 2008, p.167). The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has been
trying to implement CLT approach in Vietnam over the last years through teacher
training and textbook writing projects. In addition, there have been many projects to
train teachers in the communicative approaches and methods. This pervasive
teaching approach uses syllabus and textbooks designed with a focus on
communication as opposed to linguistic form. In brief, “A textbook is an important
means of satisfying the range of needs that emerge from the classroom,” and
textbooks are a universal element in English language teaching (Hutchinson &
Torres, 1994, p. 327).
In terms of textbooks, according to Hoang Van Van, from 1982 to 2002, the
textbooks used in VN were mainly grammar-based, taking the view that grammar can
be taught systematically as a set of rules to be mastered and transferred by the learner
into proficient language use. In 2002, the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and
Training (MOET) organized the design of the new curriculum and the writing of new
textbooks for all school subjects. This national project finished in early 2008 when the
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new textbooks of all school subjects were put into use across the whole general
educational system of Vietnam. Now one set of English textbooks for lower secondary
school and two sets for upper secondary school are be in use across Vietnam. The two
sets of English textbooks in upper secondary schools are called the standard set and the
advanced set. Each unit of the textbooks consists of five parts: reading, speaking,
listening, writing and language focus. These textbooks are taught in both private
and public schools and all the teachers follow the same syllabus.
The new English textbooks claim that students will be able to communicate

in English after seven years of study in secondary school. These claims assume that
communication-oriented speaking activities can help students acquire English-
speaking competence. The goal of the textbooks is to engage students in
communication-based activities of real-life situations in which students can
immerse themselves in integrative language use. Their language ability can be
developed through activities. Within this communicative ability, speaking occupies
a very important role. In fact, speaking sections are emphasized in the textbooks.
From this background, the question “Are speaking activities designed in the
new textbooks communicative in the light of CLT?” has come to my mind. If the
textbooks claiming to be in line with CLT principles are actually not, the
development of students’ ability to communicate will be greatly influenced. To the
researchers’ best knowledge, no study has been done to evaluate these textbooks or
some part of them in line with CLT in the Vietnamese contexts. In light of the literature
available in the field , my interest lies solely in evaluating speaking activities
designed in the textbooks in the light of communicative language teaching (CLT).
This has given me the desire to conduct “An Evaluation of Speaking
Activities in the Textbook “ Tiếng Anh 10” for the 10th Grade Students at Gia Lộc
High School in the light of CLT”
2. Objectives of the study
This study aimed to
1. Examine the extent to which the speaking activities in the textbook Tiếng
Anh 10 are communicative in the light of CLT principles.
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2. Examine the suitability of these activities in Gia Loc High School context.
3. Make some suggestions for adaptation to enhance the effectiveness of
these activities within a case of Gia Lộc High School
3. Research questions
The above aims can be realized through the following research questions:
1. To which extent are speaking activities included in the textbook Tiếng
Anh 10 communicative in the light of CLT?

2. How far are the speaking activities suitable for the teachers and students at
Gia Loc High School?
3. How can some speaking activities in the textbooks be adapted to suit Gia
Loc High School context?
4. Scope of the study
There are many different features related to evaluating textbooks. The
researcher has chosen to focus on evaluating speaking activities in speaking lessons
of textbook Tieng Anh 10 in the light of CLT principles. The study also examines
the suitability to grade 10 students at Gia Lộc High School during the school year
2012-2013. In addition, some recommendations for the teachers of English to adapt
the part of the textbook are also proposed.
Regarding participants of the study, five 10th classes with 227 students and
three teachers of English from Gia Loc High School took part in the study.
5. Significance of the Study
It is hoped that the current study will benefit teachers of English because the
study is aimed to evaluate how communicative the activities are and to what degree
it helps the students. We can identify the weaknesses and strengths of the speaking
lessons designed in textbook and thus we will be in a position to suggest changes to
make the book more effective. The writer also hopes that the study will benefit
textbook writers and curricula designers because the study would give them a
feedback about the speaking lesson sections in the units of the textbooks and how
they can be developed.
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6. Structure of the Thesis
The thesis consists of 5 chapters:
Chapter I presents the background and rationale of the study, the aims, the
research questions, the scope, the significance, the limitations and the structure of
the thesis.
Chapter II reviews the current English teaching and English textbooks in
Vietnam, the overview of CLT, the design of speaking activities based on CLT,

textbook evaluation and adaptation, and theoretical frameworks.
Chapter III - Research methodology: The research design of the study, the
context of the study and the introduction of textbook Tieng Anh are presented in
this chapter. In addition, research methods and data collection procedures are
described in detail in this chapter.
Chapter IV - Results, discussions and suggestions. In this chapter, the
content analysis of the speaking lessons is analyzed and the results of the
questionnaire survey are described, analyzed and discussed. Also, some suggestions
for the adaptation of the speaking activities are done in this chapter.
Chapter V summarizes all the key issues of the study. The limitations of the
study and some suggestions for further studies are also mentioned in this chapter.
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PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1 - THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
1.1. The Current English Teaching and English Textbooks in Vietnam
Since the economic reform known as doi moi in 1987, awareness of the need
to increase the quality of English language education has been widespread in
Vietnam. Party and State realize its significant role in modernization and
industrialization. English was officially regarded as the first foreign language to be
taught in schools (Khoa Anh Viet, 2008, p. 169). From 1982 to 2002, English was
introduced nationally as a compulsory subject at upper secondary level and as an
elective subject at lower secondary level. According to Hoang Van Van, PhD, the
English textbooks, although differing in orientation, are mainly grammar-based,
taking the view that grammar can be taught systematically as a set of rules to be
mastered and transferred by the learner into proficient language use. In the early
1990s, Vietnamese government and communist party officials began to realize the
need for educational reform to prepare managers for a global economy (Van Kopp,
1992). At the beginning of 2002, the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and
Training (MOET) organized the design of the new curriculum and the writing of
new textbooks for all school subjects. In the new general curriculum, English is a

compulsory subject at both lower and upper secondary levels and an elective subject
at primary level. The curriculum is promulgated by the Ministry of Education and
Training, and is prescribed for all grades and school types nation-wide from Grade
6 through to Grade 12, with a weekly class time of 135 minutes, split into three
lessons of 45 minutes each (Le Van Canh & Barnard, R. 2009). The textbooks were
locally written and effectively constituted the national English curriculum. The
general aims of general English education are as follows:
- To use English as a means of communication at a certain level of
proficiency in four macro skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing; and to be
able to read materials at the same level of their textbooks, using a dictionary;
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- To have mastered basic English phonetics and grammar; to have acquired
the minimum of around 2500 vocabulary items of English; and
- To attain a certain level of understanding of English and American cultures;
to become aware of cross-cultural differences in order to be better overall
communicators, to better inform the world of the Vietnamese people, their history
and culture, and to take pride in Vietnam, its language and culture.
(MOET, 2006a, cited in Hoang Van Van, 2011, p. 11)
According to Prof. Dr. Hoang Van Van, the new textbooks in Vietnamese
high schools are designed in the light of CLT. “Communicative skills are the goal
of the teaching of English at the secondary school while formal knowledge of the
language serves as the means to the end” (MOET, 2006, p. 6). The textbook is
theme-based and skill-based, with the adoption of the ‘two currently popular
teaching approaches, i.e. the learner-centered approach and the communicative
approach. In other words, under the guidelines, students are expected to attain the
ability to communicate with others effectively and appropriately in order to achieve
their communicative purposes. This new curriculum was officially approved in
2006 and was implemented national-wide from grades 6 to 12. It appears to be the
most comprehensive and elaborate curriculum to date. It adopts a communicative
view to ELT, highlighting the importance of meaningful communication for

learning English more effectively.
1.2. An overview of Communicative Language Teaching
1.2.1. Definitions of Communicative Language Teaching
According to Wikipedia, Communicative language teaching (CLT) is an
approach to the teaching of second and foreign languages that emphasizes
interaction as both the means and the ultimate goal of learning a language. It is also
referred to as “communicative approach to the teaching of foreign languages” or
simply the “communicative approach”.
Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching & Applied Linguistics defines
the Communicative Approach or Communicative Language Teaching as “an
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APPROACH to foreign or second language teaching which emphasizes that the
goal of language learning is COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE.” (Richards et al
1992:65) According to the same dictionary, the approach which has been developed
by British applied linguists as a reaction away from grammar-based approaches
a) teaches the language needed to express and understand different kinds of
functions
b) is based on a NOTIONAL SYLLABUS or some other communicatively
organized syllabus
c) emphasizes the process of communication, such as using language
appropriately in different types of situations; using language to perform different
kinds of tasks, e.g. to solve puzzles, to get information , etc.; using language for
social interaction with other people.
1.2.2. Major Principles of CLT
The principles of CLT have been stated in different ways by Richards and
Rodgers (2001), Finocchario& Brumfit, Berns (1990, 104), Nunan (1991a), Brown
(2001: 43), etc. D. Nunan (1991:279) “Language Teaching Methodology “
said that
Communicative Language Teaching or Communicative Approach differs from
other traditional Methods in language teaching. He presented the most important

features as the following: -:
1. Give the learners opportunities to focus on to the language and on the
learning process.
2. Try to link between classroom language learning and language activities
outside the classroom.
3. The authentic text related into learning situation.
4. Support of learner’s own experience, which is an important elements to
classroom learning.
5. Focus on learning of the target language to communicate.
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According to Richards and Rodgers (2001), three main principles can be
inferred from CLT practices:
1. The communication principle: Learning is promoted by activities
involving real communication.
2. The task principle: Learning is also enhanced through the use of activities
in which language is employed for carrying out meaningful tasks.
3. The meaningfulness principle: The learning process is supported by
language that is meaningful to the student. Activities should consequently be
selected according to how well they involve the learner in authentic and meaningful
language use.
Finocchario and Brumfit summarize the principles as follows:
(1) Teaching is learner-centered and responsive to the students’ need and
interests.
(2) The target language is acquired through interactive communicative use
that encourages the negotiations of meaning.
(3) Genuinely meaningful language use is emphasized, along with risk-
taking, unpredictability, and choice making.
(4) The formal properties of language are never treated in isolation from use.
Language forms are always addressed within a communicative context.
(5) There is exposure to examples of authentic language from the target

language community.
(6) The students are encouraged to discover the forms and structures of
language for themselves.
(7) There is a whole-language approach in which the four traditional
language skills (speaking, listening, reading, and writing) are integrated.
Berns (1990, 104) provides a useful summary of eight principles of CLT:
1. Language teaching is based on a view of language as communication. That is,
language is seen as a social tool that speakers use to make meaning speakers
communicate about something to someone for some purpose, either orally or in writing.
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2. Diversity is recognized and accepted as part of language development and
used in second language learners and users, as it is with first language users.
3. A learner’s competence is considered in relative, not in absolute, terms.
4. More than one variety of a language is recognized as a viable model for
learning and teaching.
5. Culture is recognized as instrumental in shaping speakers’ communicative
competence, in both their first and subsequent languages.
6. No single methodology or fixed set of techniques is prescribed.
7. Language use is recognized as serving ideational, interpersonal, and
textual functions and is related to the development of learners’ competence in each.
8. It is essential that learners be engaged in doing things with language—that
is, that they use language for a variety of purposes in all phases of learning.
Brown (2001: 43), in assessing the various interpretations, offers a concise
summary of key tenets as follows:
1. Classroom goals are focused on all of the components (grammatical,
discourse, functional, sociolinguistic, and strategic) of communicative
competence. Goals therefore must intertwine the organizational aspects of
language with the pragmatic.
2. Language techniques are designed to engage learners in the pragmatic,
authentic, functional use of language for meaningful purposes. Organizational

language forms are not the central focus, but rather aspects of language that enable
the learner to accomplish those purposes.
3. Fluency and accuracy are seen as complementary principles underlying
communicative techniques. At times fluency may have to take on more importance
than accuracy in order to keep learners meaningfully engaged in language use.
4. Students in a communicative class ultimately have to use the language,
productively and receptively, in unrehearsed contexts outside the classroom.
Classroom tasks must therefore equip students with the skills necessary for
communication in those contexts.
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5. Students are given opportunities to focus on their own learning process
through an understanding of their own styles of learning and through the
development of appropriate strategies for autonomous learning.
6. The role of the teacher is that of facilitator and guide, not an all-knowing
bestower of knowledge. Students are therefore encouraged to construct meaning
through genuine linguistic interaction with others.
1.3. Designing speaking activities based on CLT
According to Jack C. Richards and Richard Schmidt (2002:90), CLT,
which is also called Communicative Approach, is an approach to foreign or
second language teaching which emphasizes that the goal of language learning
is communicative competence and which seeks to make meaningful
communication and language use a focus of all classroom activities.
Communicative Language Teaching has major principles in language teaching
worldwide. Those are Integrating language skills, focusing on accuracy and
fluency, practicing the language, processing creative construction and involves
trial and error, and creating authentic and meaningful communication.
There are some activities that can be used to design tasks for the
Communicative classroom. Nunan (1989: 68) proposed some activities in CLT
such as questions and answer, dialogue, role play, matching activities,
communicative strategies, pictures and picture stories, puzzles, problem solving,

and discussion.
In turn, activities are, in Richards and Rodgers’ view (2001), of three major
types: text-based (e.g. textbooks), task-based (relying on jigsaw or information-gap
principles), and realia (here, we are referring to authentic materials, taken from “real
life” and brought into the classroom, such as signs, magazines, newspapers, maps,
pictures, graphs, charts, or even objects).
In conclusion, Communicative Language Teaching is no doubt an excellent tool
for increasing fluency. Overcoming its limitations and implementing with different
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methodology; teacher can become more creative while learners become more
competent. One of the prime supports for CLT is the practicability use of language.
1.4. Textbook evaluation and adaptation
According to Nunan (1999, p. 98), he states “a textbook is the main
component of any instructional program and it is difficult to imagine a class without
it ” Richards (2007, p. 251) believes that materials “provide the students with the
main information and the type of the language practice that occurs in the
classroom”. However, as Tomlinson (2006) states, no textbook is perfect, since it
can be used by different students in different circumstances. Therefore, textbooks
need to be evaluated to find their weaknesses and improve them. Additionally,
Hutchinson and Waters (1989, p. 96) state that evaluation of materials should be
performed for giving an opinion about our materials’ suitability to our “particular
purpose”. Since there is no ideal textbook for every teaching learning situation, ELT
material evaluation has taken place in research to explore the extent to which it can
be modified (Cunningsworth 1995: 136).
In terms of material textbook adaptation, materials adaptation should be based
on the results of materials evaluation. Of course different materials have different
potential areas for adaptation. It is very important for us to adapt textbooks to meet
our teaching and students’ needs in order to maximize learning potentials. For a long
time the textbook was the ‘bible’ and the teaching manual which gave in minute
details of what to teach. However, with the advent of CLT, textbooks have become

too restrictive. Teachers need to select and design tasks to practices interactive ability
that simulates real-life language. Merely following a textbook is unlikely to simulate
small-group interaction. Specific tasks of the kind are rarely found in textbooks. They
need to be redesigned for this purpose. A textbook is just a simple tool in the hands of
teachers. Adaptation is, therefore, a natural step to take following textbook evaluation
as it is necessary to make up for the limitations of the textbook.
Grant (1987) has listed the following principles for materials adaptation:
1) Making dialogues communicative
2) Making learning activities relevant and purposeful
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3) Meet your learners’ needs, both external and psychological
4) Use models of real, authentic language
Additionally, Graves (2003) points out, any “course book must be adapted
to your particular group of learners.” He suggests ways of considering how to
modify one’s own course book:
• Select from the textbook the writing activities you want your students to do.
• Reject the other writing activities as not being useful for the purpose of
your lesson (you may of course use them some other time with the students.)
• supplement the textbook by finding some extra speaking activities which
could work for your students
• If necessary, adapt the extra activities to be suitable for your lesson and for
your students’ needs.
Using the first letter of each of the words in the list, the acronym SARS are
made. He also suggests the incorporation of SARS into lesson planning.
1.5. Theoretical frameworks
A number of theoretical evaluative frameworks have since been published
(e.g. in Williams, 1983; Breen & Candlin, 1987; Sheldon, 1988; McDonough &
Shaw, 2003; Cunningsworth, 1995; and McGrath, 2002). They have proposed the
use of checklist or checklist like evaluation forms to see how textbook materials can
match up with student needs. Harmer (1991) suggested that the use of evaluation

forms would be useful to see whether it is appropriate for students. Following a
quick impressionistic evaluation, detailed checklists can be constructed to perform
in-depth evaluation on a textbook, to enable examination of the appropriateness of
the textbook in serving demands of the syllabus and educational needs of the
students (Cunningsworth, 1995).These have mostly been checklist-based, usually in
the form of questions to be answered to determine the extent to which the materials
fulfill a set of criteria.
Teaching and learning situations are unique and evaluation frameworks need
to be edited and adapted to each situation. As priorities in language teaching have
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evolved, so have the teacher and learner needs, and classroom materials. Williams
(1983, p.251) calls it a “question of relevance.” Using someone else’s checklist
without adapting it means we accept another’s view for our own situation. In this
present study, the researcher will use some of the criteria for evaluating speaking
activities and exercises in textbooks proposed by Gloria Luque Agulló (2007) and
design some criteria to evaluate a textbook based on based on Nunan (1989), Ellis
(1998), Cunningsworth (1995) and Savignon (2002).
1.6. Summary
The sections discussed in this chapter will help to work as the basis for
evaluation of the speaking activities designed in the textbook Tieng Anh 10 for
grade 10 students at Gia Loc high school, Hai Duong . They will be used in
constructing the researcher's own checklists to analyze the content of the speaking
lessons and to design the students’ questionnaire.
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CHARPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This chapter consists of five sections. The first section delineates the overall
research design. Section two describes the context of the study, and section three
depicts the textbook Tiếng Anh 10. Section four gives an insight into the research
methodology that was followed to conduct the research. It contains the description
of a content analysis with the researcher own checklist, and the description of a

survey with its participants and instruments. Finally, section five outlines the data
collection procedure.
2.1. Research Design
The study aims to respond to the research questions of qualitative and
quantitative nature, data collection and analysis techniques from both
methodologies, thus mixed-method approach was chosen as the methodology of this
research. To evaluate the speaking lessons in the textbook Tieng Anh 10, a content
analysis was employed. Additionally, a survey was used to examine the suitability
of these speaking lessons for grade 10 students at Gia Loc high school in Hai
Duong.
2.2. The context of the study
The data for this study was collected in an upper secondary school in Gia
Loc, Hai Duong over a period of seven months. This high school is a state school
with a student body of 1516 students. The total classes are thirty six and each class
is about 40 – 45 students. There are twelve 10th grades with 541students. There are
eighty one teachers and most of them are well-trained. They are considered the most
hard-working and enthusiastic teachers of all in the province. There are eight
English Language teachers at the school. Their teaching experience ranged from 5
to 27 years with an average of 11 years. Six of them held a B.A. degree and 1 was
M.A. in teaching methodology. All the teachers involved to the study had taken a
training course organized by Hai Duong department of education and training on
using and the new textbook Tiếng Anh 10 and the approach to teaching. The
researcher is one of the full-time staff of this school and has been teaching English
for more than twelve years.
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All the students at Gia Loc high school live in rural areas. In order to enter and
study in the school, the students have to pass the high school Entrance Examination
with high marks each year. The subjects in this exam include Mathematics, Literature
and one of the other subjects. However, in the recent years, English hasn’t chosen in
the high school entrance exam in Hai Duong. Therefore, the students do not focus

much on learning English in lower secondary schools and most of them have very
low English proficiency when they start to attend Gia Loc high school. As a result,
they often have a great anxiety in English classrooms. However, when they become
high school students, most of them pay much more concerns about English as a core
subject and hope that their English level will be improved by their great efforts.
2.3. The textbook Tiếng Anh 10
The textbook Tiếng Anh 10 has 16 units with topics. Every unit consists of 5
lessons: Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing, and a Language Focus one. This
book was designed with various learning tasks, the purpose of which is to set up
communicative situations for students to practice English language. Furthermore,
the book focuses on learners’ communicative competence without ignoring
learners’ linguistic competence. It is also accompanied with a great number of team
work and group work activities to develop students’ communicative competence.
And students have chances to listen to both native and non-native English speakers
from the tapes/ CDs accompanied with the books. The activities in the textbook are
designed based on specific tasks (both pedagogical and real-life), each of which is
clearly instructed. The method of task-based language teaching has many
advantages. First, it provides situations where students use language. Second, it
lowers the methodological burden on the teacher […]: the teacher does not have to
be concerned about how to design activities for teaching as usually seen when using
the traditional set of textbooks (MOET, 2006b, p. 54, ).
As for the general objectives of skills of the textbook Tiếng Anh 10, after
finishing the textbook, students will be able to:
Table 2.1: General objectives of skills for Tiếng Anh 10 ( standard)
(MOET, 2006a, adapted from Minh, 2007, p. 17 )
Listening Understand the main ideas and details of monologues/dialogues of 120-
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150 words on the 6 topics covered. Understand texts that are delivered
at a slow speed.
Speaking

Ask and answer about the topics covered. Perform some basic language
functions such as giving instructions, expressing opinions, asking
direction, asking and giving information, etc.
Reading
Understand the main ideas and details of the texts of 190-230 words on
the topics covered. Develop vocabulary strategies: using words in
contexts, dictionary skills, etc.
Writing
Write texts of 100-200 words on familiar topics based on models or
prompts for personal or basic communicative purposes.
In terms of speaking lessons, each consists of three or four tasks, sequenced from
more controlled to freer types in terms of language which students are
required to produce. The initial tasks usually provide some language input in
the form of examples for students to work in pairs or groups to practice
language functions followed by somewhat freer activities in which learners are
supposed to produce language on their own. Objectives of the speaking sections
in the textbook Tiếng Anh 10 are listed as follows:
Table 2.2: Objectives of speaking lessons in the textbook Tiếng Anh 10
(adapted from the book map of the textbook)
Unit Objectives
1. A day in the life of - Talk about daily activities by using given
information and pictures.
2. School talks - Start, continue and close a conversation.
3. People’s background - Talk about people’s background.
4. Special education - Talk about school life.
5. Technology and you
- Talk about new technology in daily life and uses of
modern inventions.
6. An excursion - Talking about a boat trip abroad.
7. The Mass Media

- Talk about different types of the mass media.
- Talk about advantages and disadvantages of the mass
media.
8. The story of my village
- Talk about plans to improve life of a village and their
possible results.
9. Undersea world - Offer solutions to sea problems using
should/shouldn't.
- Talk about causes and consequences of sea
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problems.
- Report on discussion results.
10. Conservation
- Ask for someone's opinions, and show their
agreement or disagreement about the new kind of zoo.
- Talk about national parks and nature conservation
11. National parks
- Use conditional sentences type 3 to express regrets
- Talk about an excursion.
12. Music
- Ask and answer questions about music.
- Talk about favorite kinds of music.
13. Films and cinema
- Ask and answer questions about the plot of a film
based on prompts.
- Tell what kinds of film they like and dislike.
- Express their opinions about a film, using attitudinal
adjectives.
14. The world cup
- Use some football vocabulary to ask and answer

about the World Cup and to talk about the World
Cup winners.
15. Cities
- Describe a city, using the vocabulary and structures
that they have learned in the lesson.
- Compare different cities, using the comparative
structures that they have learned in the lesson.
- State their preferences and explain the reasons.
16. Historical places
- Ask and answer questions about a historical place,
based on the vocabulary and structures that they have
learned in the lesson.
- Talk about a historical place based on the given
information.
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2.4 Research methods
2.4.1. Content analysis
In order to answer the first research question, content analysis was used to
examine to what extent the speaking activities in the textbook are communicative
in the light of CLT. Specifically, the purpose of using content analysis is to know
whether the speaking activities meet CLT criteria. The criteria used in the study
consisted of 6 of the criteria for evaluating speaking activities proposed by Gloria
Luque Agulló (2007). These criteria are listed as following:
1. Does it provide natural, authentic conversations?
2. Does it provide effective speaking strategies for facilitating communication?
3 Are the contents of the topics familiar and interesting?
4 Are accuracy and fluency taken into account?
5. Is group and pair work sufficiently used?
6. Is visual support provided?
2.4.2. The survey

In this survey, A close ended structured questionnaire was developed for
the 227 grade 10 students in Gia Loc high school. The unstructured interviews were
administered to the three teachers of English in an attempt to gain in-depth
information for the research question. The data were obtained by quantitative
(questionnaire)and qualitative methods (interviews). The use of mixed method
approach – a combination of both quantitative and qualitative approaches is the
major strength of this research design.
2.4.2.1. The participants
The participants of this study consisted of 227 students and 3 teachers of English at
Gia Loc High school, Hai Duong. The students were not randomly chosen but the
researcher selected 5 from 12 10th grades randomly for the study from 10 A, 10C,
10 E, 10H and 10P. In each class, there were maximum 45 students. Each class had
both males and females. The three English language teachers selected used the
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textbook Tieng Anh 10 in their classes in school year 2012 -2013. They were
female with their teaching experiences of 5, 8 and 15 years.
2.4.2.2. Instruments
The first data collection tool used in this research included a questionnaire ( see
Appendix 1). A four point Likert-type scale, ranging from 1 to 5, was used to show the
participants’ levels of agreement with a list of statements. The facet of the items was
only focused on suitability of the speaking lessons the textbook Tiếng Anh 10 to the
students at Gia Loc high school. The time required to complete the questionnaire was
approximately 20 minutes. The questionnaire comprises 10 questions developed in
consideration to some questions used in previous studies. The participants were
instructed to circle the most appropriate answer for each item. The options are
sequenced from strongly disagree, disagree, not sure, agree and strongly agree. Before
delivering the questionnaire, the researcher had explained each item carefully in
Vietnamese and asked participants to respond to each item before going to the next
one. Furthermore, the researcher asked respondents to go over each item again after
completing the questionnaires in order not to miss or misunderstand anything. It was

administered to 227 respondents. The researcher received 216 correctly answered
sheets. The second data collection tool used in this research was an interview guide
comprising the 10 questions related to ten criteria mentioned above was prepared by
the researcher to gain in-depth information for the research question ( see appendix
3). The interviews took approximately 30 minutes individually and they were
recorded by the researcher.
2.4.2.3. Evaluation criteria
The criteria for the survey were developed based on Ellis (1996),
Cunningsworth (1995), Savignon (2002), especially based on the seven principles
for task-based language teaching in Nunan (1989). The study was based on 10
criteria that are as follows:
1. The speaking lessons in the book motivate the students.
2. The speaking lessons are related to the previous knowledge of the students.
3. The speaking lessons are according to the interest of the students.
4. The speaking lessons are according to the students’ level ability.
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