An investigation into the esp reading materials at information technology department at south east vocational college (sevc) in dong nai province

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY
UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE

------

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE ESP READING
MATERIALS AT INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
DEPARTMENT AT SOUTH-EAST VOCATIONAL
COLLEGE (SEVC) IN DONG NAI PROVINCE

Submitted to the
Department of English Linguistics and Literature
in partial fulfillment of the Master's degree in TESOL
By
TRẦN THỊ THANH MAI

Supervised by
LÊ THỊ ANH PHƯƠNG, Ed. D.

Ho Chi Minh City, 2011

1


i

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled AN
INVESTIGATION

INFORMATION

INTO

THE

TECHNOLOGY

ESP

READING

DEPARTMENT

MATERIALS
AT

AT

SOUTH-EAST

VOCATIONAL COLLEGE (SEVC) IN DONG NAI PROVINCE in terms of the
statement of Requirements of theses in Master's Program issued by the Higher
Degree Committee.

Ho Chi Minh City, October 2011

TRẦN THỊ THANH MAI

ii

RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS

I hereby state that I, TRẦN THỊ THANH MAI, being the candidate for the
degree of Master of TESOL, accept the requirements of the University relating to
the retention and use of Master's Theses deposited in the Library.

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original copy of my thesis
deposited in the Library should be accessible for purposes of study and research in
accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for the care, loan
and reproduction of theses.

Ho Chi Minh City, October 2011

TRẦN THỊ THANH MAI


iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my thesis supervisor, Dr. Lê Thị
Anh Phương for her treasured and invaluable support over the course of this study.
With her insightful guidance and encouraging spirit, it is my supervisor who
helped me a lot to finish the thesis. She was always available for reading and
commenting on my work. Thanks to her constant guidance and valuable
comments, the thesis has become a complete piece of work.

I would also like to thank all the English teachers in the University of Social

Sciences and Humanities for their valuable instructions during the course, as well
as other staff at this university for their necessary support during my studies.

Last but not least, I am deeply thankful to my family for their care and support,
and to my college authorities, my colleagues as well as my students at South-East
Vocational College (SEVC) – Đồng Nai province for their cooperation. At the
same time, special thanks are granted to SEVC graduates and their employers for
spending time answering my questionnaires and interviews for this study.


iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

1. B.A

:

Bachelor of Arts

2. EFL

:

English as a Foreign Language

3. EGP

:

General Purposes English

4. ELT

:

English Language Teaching

5. ESP

:

English for Specific Purposes

6. IT

:

Information Technology

7. L1

:

The first Language

8. SEVC

:

South – East Vocational College

9. TOEFL

:

Test of English as a Foreign Language

10. USB

:

Universal Serial Bus


v

ABSTRACT

This study was aimed to evaluate the suitability of the coursebook ''English for
Information Technology'' adapted from "English for Computer Science" (Brown &
Mullen, 1992) currently used to teach English to Information Technology (IT)
learners at South-East Vocational College (SEVC) in Đồng Nai province.
Specifically, the study was designed to find out the students' and teachers'
perceptions about the book as the English teaching material for IT learners. On the
basis of their evaluation, the strengths and the weaknesses of this textbook could
be identified to make adequate improvements for the book to meet the needs and
the ability of the students and to enhance their English competence as required by
the college and the society.

Data for the study were collected from (1) questionnaires distributed to 85
current IT students and eight ESP teachers, 28 former IT students and 10 of their
employers, and (2) interviews with the two college authorities and the eight ESP
teachers. The findings showed that the ESP teaching materials currently used for
IT students at SEVC was generally considered suitable to IT learners at the college
because it was relevant to the aims set by the college and to the social needs,
which was mainly to understand, and sometimes to translate, the basic IT materials
written in English. In addition, the textbook was perceived to be largely
appropriate to the students' levels, needs and interests. However, three key aspects
of the book, i.e. the content, the exercises and visual illustrations, needed further
improvement. Specific recommendations were provided to increase the quality of
the material to respond better to the English requirements for IT students, the
current IT development, as well as the learners' expectations.


vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page No
Certificate of originality ...................................................................................... i
Retention and use of the thesis ........................................................................... ii
Acknowledgements ........................................................................................... iii
List of abbreviations.......................................................................................... iv
Abstract .............................................................................................................. v
Table of contents ............................................................................................... vi
List of illustrations ............................................................................................ ix
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1.

Background of the study .......................................................................... 1

1.1.1. IT department at SEVC ........................................................................... 1
1.1.2. The teaching and learning of English at IT department ............................. 2
1.1.3. ESP materials used at IT department ....................................................... 3
1.2. Rationale for evaluating the ESP textbook…………………… .................... 5
1.3. Statement of purposes.................................................................................. 6
1.4. Significance of the study ............................................................................. 7
1.5. Scope of the study ....................................................................................... 8
1.6. Research questions ...................................................................................... 8
1.7. Organization of the study............................................................................. 8
1.8. Summary ..................................................................................................... 9
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. The roles of materials in language teaching ............................................... 10
2.2. Characteristics of ESP materials ................................................................ 12
2.3. Purposes of material evaluation ................................................................. 13
2.4. Criteria for material evaluation .................................................................. 15
2.4.1. Appearance............................................................................................. 21
2.4.2. Language content or authenticity ............................................................ 22
2.4.3. Topics about subject matter .................................................................... 25
2.4.4. Aims....................................................................................................... 26


vii

2.4.5. Design and organization ......................................................................... 26
2.4.6. Appropriacy............................................................................................ 28
2.5. Material adaptation .................................................................................... 31
2.6. Summary ................................................................................................... 34
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

3.1. Research questions .................................................................................... 35
3.2. Research methodology .............................................................................. 35
3.2.1. Subjects .................................................................................................. 37
3.2.1.1. Teachers and college authorities .......................................................... 37
3.2.1.2. Students ............................................................................................... 38
3.2.1.3. Employers ........................................................................................... 40
3.2.2. Research instruments .............................................................................. 42
3.2.2.1. Questionnaires ..................................................................................... 42
3.2.2.2. Interviews ............................................................................................ 47
3.3. Data collection and analysis procedures..................................................... 48
3.3.1. Questionnaires to ESP teachers............................................................... 49
3.3.2. Questionnaires to current students .......................................................... 49
3.3.3. Questionnaires to former students ........................................................... 49
3.3.4. Questionnaires to employers of former IT students ................................. 50
3.3.5. Interviews with ESP teachers and college authorities.............................. 50
3.4. Summary ................................................................................................... 51
CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS
4.1. Data analysis and discussions .................................................................... 52
4.1.1. Relevance to the course aims and objectives ........................................... 53
4.1.2. Users' evaluation of the textbook ............................................................ 54
4.1.2.1. IT content ............................................................................................ 55
4.1.2.2. Textbook organization ......................................................................... 56
4.1.2.3. Textbook relevance.............................................................................. 57
4.1.2.3.1. Relevance to learners' levels ............................................................. 57
4.1.2.3.2. Relevance to learners' needs.............................................................. 59
4.1.2.3.3. Relevance to learners' interests ......................................................... 61


viii

4.1.2.3.4. Relevance of exercises types to learners' interests ............................. 63
4.1.3. Users' recommendations ......................................................................... 64
4.2. Findings .................................................................................................... 66
4.2.1. Summary of main findings ..................................................................... 66
4.2.1.1. Aims and objectives............................................................................. 66
4.2.1.2. The IT content ..................................................................................... 66
4.2.1.3. Textbook organization ......................................................................... 67
4.2.1.4. Textbook relevance.............................................................................. 68
4.2.1.4.1. Relevance to learners' levels ............................................................. 68
4.2.1.4.2. Relevance to learners' needs.............................................................. 68
4.2.1.4.3. Relevance to learners' interests ......................................................... 69
4.2.2. Strengths and weaknesses of the textbook............................................... 70
4.2.2.1. Strengths.............................................................................................. 71
4.2.2.2. Weaknesses ......................................................................................... 72
4.3. Summary ................................................................................................... 74
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1. Conclusions ............................................................................................... 75
5.2. Recommendations ..................................................................................... 76
5.3. Implications............................................................................................... 78
5.3.1. Implications for practice ......................................................................... 78
5.3.2. Implications for research ........................................................................ 80
REFERENCES ............................................................................................... 82
APPENDICES
APPENDIX 1: Questionnaire for ESP teachers ............................................... 85
APPENDIX 2: Questionnaire for current students ........................................... 88
APPENDIX 3: Questionnaire for former students ........................................... 91
APPENDIX 4: Questionnaire for the former students' employers .................... 93
APPENDIX 5: Specification of ESP subject at IT department......................... 95
APPENDIX 6: Types of exercises in the textbook........................................... 96
APPENDIX 7: Extract visual pictures from Unit 2 .......................................... 99

APPENDIX 8: Extract visual pictures from Unit 3 ........................................ 101


ix

APPENDIX 9: Extract pictures from unit 2 and unit 8 ................................. 103
APPENDIX 10: Sample readings .................................................................. 104
APPENDIX 11: Sample language focus ........................................................ 111
APPENDIX 12: Sample exercises ................................................................. 113


x

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Page

TABLES

1.1. IT students' grades for ESP in 2009-2010 .................................................... 3
1.2. The changes between the original textbook and the current one ................... 4
2.1. Guidelines for material evaluation ............................................................. 30
3.1. Study design .............................................................................................. 36
3.2. Description of current students .................................................................. 38
3.3. Description of former students................................................................... 39
3.4. Former students' employers' position in the workplace .............................. 41
4.1. Students' and teachers' overall evaluation on the textbook ......................... 55
4.2. Perceptions on the usefulness of IT content ............................................... 56
4.3. Perceptions on textbook organization ........................................................ 56
4.4. Perceptions on the textbook relevance to learners' levels ........................... 57
4.5. Perceptions on the textbook relevance to learners' needs ........................... 59

4.6. Perceptions on the textbook relevance to learners' interests ....................... 61
4.7. Perceptions on the types of exercises to learners' interests ......................... 64
4.8. The company needs of English in the next three years ............................... 65
4.9. The employers' recommendations to their future IT staff ........................... 66
5.1. Pictures need replacing .............................................................................. 77

FIGURES

2.1. A model of the lesson ................................................................................ 10
2.2. Jigsaw of needs analysis ............................................................................ 16
2.3. Hutchinson and Water's material evaluation process.................................. 20
2.4. Whether to adapt an exercise or other activities? ....................................... 33


1

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents the situation of teaching and learning of English at
Information Technology (IT) Department at South-East Vocational College
(SEVC) in Đồng Nai province, with special attention given to the coursebook
being used to teach English for Special Purposes (ESP) for IT students. It also
highlights the necessity of evaluating this ESP coursebook for the improvement of
ESP teaching and learning at this college.

1.1

Background of the study

1.1.1 IT department at SEVC

The South-East Vocational College (SEVC) located in Biên Hòa city of Đồng
Nai province currently trains technicians in pharmacy, mechanics, sewing industry,
electronics, motive power mechanics, accounting and computer. The Information
Technology (IT) department provides various vocational orientations such as
computer programming, computer repair, network management and web design.
Although belonging to different branches of IT, students at the department spend
the same syllabus for basic subjects such as general English, English for Specific
Purposes and philosophy. Of note, for the department's convenience, there has
been only computer programming orientation left since 2009.

Established in 2007, each year the IT department enrolls at least two IT classes
of 35 students each. A large number of these students, aged from 18 to 29, are
part-time or full-time workers in various industrial zones and Internet shops in
Đồng Nai province. They participate in part-time three-year courses (either in the
morning, afternoon or evening with 4 teaching periods per day and 5 days a week)
at SEVC to be qualified for promotion and higher salaries in their jobs.


2

Noticeably, the college entry requirement for these students is a high school
education certificate without any entrance examinations required. Therefore, the
students' levels are generally lower than those of many other college students are.

1.1.2

The teaching and learning of English at IT department

There is no doubt that ESP in particular is widely used in most of social fields
and make a great contribute to enhance vocational training quality as well as
develop the workforce in the era of integration. For those important roles of
English in teaching and learning, English teaching at IT department at SEVC is
taken over by Faculty of Foreign Languages. Teaching materials in general and
teaching ESP textbook in particular is developed based on a preset curriculum and
syllabus. As a compulsory subject to IT students, English is taught in two stages
by English teachers at the Faculty of Foreign Languages. In Stage I, first-year
students take a General English course of 120 periods with Lifelines – Elementary
(Hutchinson, 2000). Stage II happens in the first or second semester of the second
year, when students participate in an ESP course of 60 periods. Specifically, the
ESP syllabus for the IT students consisted of twelve reading texts and a number of
special terms within the total a-month-and-a-half workload. These texts, which are
about six-hundred words long each, are adopted from the coursebook "English for
Computer Science" (Brown & Mullen, 1992). In fact, the topics belong to one of
three main parts, i.e. introduction and description, computer components as well as
data processing. Apart from unit 8 and unit 9 allotted 8 teaching periods to deal
with, the others last only 4 periods each. In addition, each lesson consists of three
core sections, particularly reading, glossary of vocabulary and three types of
exercises. The aims of this second stage are to provide IT students with "technical
terms for specialized knowledge of Information Technology" and "to equip
students with essential IT vocabulary to comprehend relevant IT documents"
(document of IT department issued on September 16, 2010).


3

In the school year 2010-2011, at least one third of our IT students had never
learnt English before they entered SEVC but they have been required to study

English at the same class with those who have learnt at least three years of English
in high school. This practice has led to mixed ability English classes where many
students often have very limited English and low motivation for English. Their
scores in the English final exams in 2009-2010 showed that 30.6% of 111 students
got an average mark (5 to 6) and 14.4% of them got a good mark (8 to 9) and up to
30.6% of them failed the exam.

Table 1.1. IT STUDENTS' GRADES FOR ESP IN 2009-2010

Mark

Number of students

Percentage

<5

34/111

30.6%

5

15/111

13.5%

6

19 /111

17.1%

7

27/111

24.3%

8

12/111

10.8%

9

4/111

3.6%

10

0/111

0%

1.1.3 ESP materials used at IT department

The English textbook for IT students at SEVC called "English for IT" was

adapted from "English for Computer Science" (Brown & Mullen, 1992) by one of
our English teachers in 2007. The textbook consisted of twelve units including
knowledge about computers' definition, characteristics, capabilities, limitations,
components and data processing. Of all the contents, IT contents, especially those
which focused on fundamental knowledge about computers, were mainly
prominent in the textbook.


4

In addition, some readings and exercises were added or deleted to make the
book more suitable to our IT students and the time allotment of the ESP course at
SEVC. Particularly, the topic about disk and disk driver were replaced by printer
and terminal topics. In fact, this textbook of English for IT was later adapted
another two times with the involvement of all the English teachers in the college
who added more exercises and illustrated pictures, as well as deleting redundant
readings. Specifically, the original textbook only included ten units and two kinds
of exercises, i.e. main idea and understanding the passage compared to the current
one with twelve units and three kinds of exercises ranging from main idea,
understanding the passage to locating the information. In fact, the teaching staff
suggested adding locating the information as extra activities for learners to
consolidate what they had already learnt. Of note, illustrated pictures for personal
computer (unit 1), hardware (unit 4), the central processing unit and compact disk
(unit 5), random access memory (unit 6), core memory, chip and bubble memory
(unit 7) as well as those in unit 8 and 9 were supplemented to help learners feel
interested in the lessons. The changes between the original textbook and the
current one were summarized as follows

Table 1.2. The changes between the original textbook and the current one

The original textbook
Unit
1. What is computer?

Exercises
1. Main idea

The current textbook
Unit

Exercises

1. What is a computer?

1. Main idea
2. Understanding the
passage
3. Locating the
information
1. Main idea
2. Understanding the
passage
3. Locating the
information
1. Main idea
2. Understanding the
passage
3. Locating the
information
1. Main idea

2. Understanding the
passage

2. Understanding
the passage
2. Characteristics

1. Main idea

2. Characteristics of

2. Understanding

computers

the passage
3. Hardware and
software

1. Main idea
2. Understanding

3. Computer
capabilities and
limitations

the passage
4. The central
processing unit

1. Main idea
2. Understanding

4. Hardware and
software


5
the passage
5. Primary and
secondary memory

1. Main idea
2. Understanding

5. The central
processing unit

the passage
6. Program and
programming
languages
7. Computer
capabilities and
limitations
8. Types of memory

1. Main idea
2. Understanding

6. Primary and
secondary memory

the passage
1. Main idea

7. Types of memory

2. Understanding
the passage
1. Main idea

8. Printers

2. Understanding
the passage
9. Disk and disk
drivers

1. Main idea

9. Printers

2. Understanding
the passage

10. Steps in problem
solving

1. Main idea

2. Understanding

10. Steps in problem
solving

the passage
11. Program and
programming
languages

12. Computer viruses

1.2

3. Locating the
information
1. Main idea
2. Understanding the
passage
3. Locating the
information
1. Main idea
2. Understanding the
passage
3. Locating the
information
1. Main idea
2. Understanding the
passage
3. Locating the

information
1. Main idea
2. Understanding the
passage
3. Locating the
information
1. Main idea
2. Understanding the
passage
3. Locating the
information
1. Main idea
2. Understanding the
passage
3. Locating the
information
1. Main idea
2. Understanding the
passage
3. Locating the
information
1. Main idea
2. Understanding the
passage
3. Locating the
information

Rationale for evaluating the ESP textbook

The aims of evaluation are to find some best possible fit, together with

potential for adapting the material where it is unsuitable so that it can serve best
teaching and learning process. Obviously, coursebook analysis and evaluation is
necessary for teacher self-development and teacher training. There is no doubt that
no textbooks designed for a general market will be absolutely ideal for a particular
group of learners. Therefore, coursebook analysis and evaluation is helpful for


6

teachers to acknowledge some good and useful insights into the nature of the
materials (Cunningsworth, 1995:14).

Despite the adaptations, the contents and the language of our ESP textbook are
relatively similar to those being used in other vocational schools (i.e. Lilama
Vocational College, Đồng Nai Vocational College, or Telecommunication Institute
(Ho Chi Minh city) as they are all based on "English for Computer Science"
(Mullen & Brown, 1992) and "English for Computer Science" (translated into
Vietnamese by Statistics publisher, 1999). This similarity can make our
coursebook "English for IT" not very suitable to our students at SEVC because
they greatly differ from those in other institutes in terms of educational and
personal backgrounds.

In deed, the contents and the language of our ESP textbook did not seem to
respond well to the expectations of the students and the teachers who made various
complaints about the usefulness of reading contents and the exercises in the book.
Specifically, the reading contents failed to be up-to-date in relation to
technological development. In addition, the exercises were negative to both
teachers' and learners' perceptions for its monotonous types. Therefore, it was
considered a good idea to get an overall evaluation about the suitability of the
adapted book "English for Information Technology".

1.3

Statement of purposes

The main purpose of the research was to find out the relevance of the book, i.e.
relevance to learners' levels, needs as well interests in the context of SEVC as
perceived by the students and teachers who had used this book. It was also
designed to find out the strengths and weaknesses of this book in responding to the
aims and the requirements of the college and the prospective employers, as well as
the students' needs, abilities and interests. The strengths would be reinforced
whereas the weaknesses would be strengthened. Due to the findings from the


7

research, there came some suggestions and recommendations on how to adapt the
current textbook to tailor it to the teaching and learning ESP at IT department at
SEVC.

1.4

Significance of the study

In the context of the coursebook being approved by the officials in advance,
there is still a need to conduct an investigation into the coursebook to identify its
strengths and weaknesses corresponding to particular teaching situations.
Obviously, there exist no perfect textbooks in the market as Grant remarks (1987).
Of note, the aims of evaluation are to find out which ones will fit and be
appropriate to particular learner groups. That is why the progress of material

evaluation involving both teachers and learners who directly dealt with the
textbook is necessary. Actually, the teachers' and learners' perceptions on the
advantages and disadvantages of the textbook are valuable. After all, they are the
primary users of the textbook so they enable to be aware of which contents appeal
to their preferences and interests and vice versa.

Despite the fact that textbooks are an essential element in most ESL
classrooms, there has been surprisingly little investigation done in terms of how
and why materials are selected by teachers. Regardless of how great an emphasis is
placed on the use of authentic materials, teachers frequently do not have the time,
or the administrative support, to collect and adapt all the necessary materials for
their classes. Therefore, the findings of this study could be used as the basis for the
recommendations for ESP materials for IT students at SEVC. In addition, the study
was expected to highlight the importance of evaluation of other ESP teaching
materials for other disciplines at SEVC.

Furthermore, the study also aimed to provide a practical survey of how teachers
could best evaluate the textbook in question. Actually, this evaluation would
benefit not only teachers and students, who were the primary users of the textbook,


8

but also textbook designers and publishers and, ultimately, decision makers. The
gains would come in the form of advice to classroom instructors on areas where a
textbook could achieve its goals and on what parts would they need supplementary
materials. For textbook designers and decision makers, the study would give them
a feedback about the textbook and how it could be developed.

1.5

Scope of the study

Due to the scope and nature of the study, the findings would be most relevant
to the situations of teaching ESP to IT students at SEVC. Implications of the
research were also expected to be shared by other colleges, especially vocational
ones with the same teaching and learning situation.

1.6

Research questions

The research was conducted to answer the question, "To what extent is the
English textbook for IT students suitable to the teaching and learning of ESP at
SEVC?" with three specific questions.

1. To what extent can the ESP textbook for IT students meet the goals and the
requirements set by the college?
2. How is this ESP textbook evaluated by English teachers and IT students at
SEVC?
3. What are the recommendations for ESP materials for IT students at SEVC?

1.7

Organization of the study

The thesis consists of five chapters, with their own aims and contents. Chapter
1, Introduction, provides the background of the study. It describes the situation of
teaching and learning of English at IT department at SEVC, presents the rationale

9

for the evaluation of the ESP textbook for IT students and establishes the research
questions of the study.

Chapter 2, Literature review, presents relevant and fundamental literature to
the study. In this chapter, apart from the importance of materials in language
teaching, key principles and viewpoints in material evaluation, especially ESP, are
discussed.

Chapter 3, Methodology, deals with the design and methodology of the
investigation in which two main data collection instruments were employed. The
first one was questionnaires for IT students, former students, the former students'
employers and the teachers of English and the second one was interviews the
teaching staff and college authorities.

Chapter 4 is about Data analysis and findings. It presents the data analysis
and discussions as well as the findings about the students' and teachers' perceptions
of the IT textbook currently used at SEVC. The data from the different sources, i.e.
questionnaires and interviews were presented, analyzed, compared and discussed.

Chapter 5, Conclusions and Recommendation, summarizes the main findings
about the teachers' and students' evaluations of the current ESP material and
provides some recommendations for ESP materials for IT students at SEVC.

1.8

Summary

This chapter presents the background of the study and shows the rationale for
the evaluation of the ESP textbook used for IT students on the basis of which the
research question was established.


10

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter discusses (2.1) the roles of materials in language teaching and
(2.2) takes the characteristics of ESP materials into consideration. Importantly,
purposes of material evaluation are made explicit (2.3) with a specific checklist for
material evaluation used in the thesis (2.4). After that, material adaptation is
mentioned (2.5) before a summary for the whole chapter (2.6).

2.1

The roles of materials in language teaching

Regarding the role of ELT textbooks in the situation of language teaching and
learning, most of the scholars share similar opinions about the usefulness of ELT
textbooks in classes. Materials, as Allright (1981) suggests, are only part of the cooperative management of language learning. Allright also adds a further dimension
to the role of the textbook by characterizing the lesson as an interaction between
the three elements of teachers, learners and materials. In his opinions, this
interaction enhances the opportunities to learn.

Figure 2.1: A model of the lesson (adapted from Allwright 1981)

11

Similarly, Cunningsworth (1995) considers the coursebook a useful factor in
teaching and learning as it can serve as a syllabus for teaching and a guide for
students' self-study. According to him, textbooks play a prominent role in the
teaching/learning process and they are the primary agents of conveying the
knowledge to learners. One more thing, textbooks' function is to make knowledge
available and apparent to its learners in a selected, easy and organized way.

Hutchinson (1994) and Richards (2001) state that textbooks are a key
component in most language teaching situations because learners consider
textbooks the backbones of language input, with a balance of skills taught and of
language practice while teachers, especially inexperienced ones, may find
textbooks a form of guidance to plan and teach lessons.

According to Hutchinson and Torres (1994) and Tomlinson (1998), textbooks
become a universal element and a key part of ELT teaching for the fact that they
provide a structure and cohesion to the learning process.

Empirical findings (Torres, 1982) also report that the students consider the
textbook a "framework" or "guide" which help them to learn better and faster.
Also, teachers find it useful as it can save their time, give direction to their lessons
and provide homework for their students.

Together with the impact of new technologies, there is no doubt that textbooks
remain essential in language teaching and serve as ''a framework'' for both teachers
and learners. In fact, the role of the textbook in the language classroom is a
difficult one to define perfectly and exactly.

Using only textbooks, from cover to cover, without any supplemental materials
is not the most effective method in language teaching. Nevertheless, there is
always a need to have a framework for both teachers and students to rely on. A
textbook is a cheap way of providing learning materials in terms of ready-made


12

teaching texts and learning tasks. As a matter of fact, textbooks alone cannot
provide students with all the knowledge they require, but they are a major tool in
helping learners to make progress.

2.2

Characteristics of ESP materials

Unlike materials for general English which contain common vocabulary and
beautiful pictures, ESP materials are filled with many technical terms,
grammatically complicated structures in addition to diagrams, pictures or tables as
remarked by Beier (1980).

Sharing with Beier's ideas, Cunningsworth (1995) points out ESP materials are
different from those for general English for the fact that there is an imbalance in
ESP materials as compared to the one in general English coursebooks. In some
cases, ESP materials tend to emphasize reading skills at the expense of speaking
skills and sometimes they focus on very specific skills such as note-taking or
presentation skills (Cunningsworth, 1995:134). In fact, ESP materials can focus on
specialized content which may pose some challenges to English teachers.

Strevens (1988) differentiates absolute and variable characteristics of ESP

materials as follows
I.
Absolute characteristics
ESP consists of English language teaching which is
 Designed to meet specified needs of the learner;
 Related in content (i.e. in its themes and topics) to particular disciplines,
occupations and activities;
 Centered on the language appropriate to those activities in syntax, lexis,
discourse, semantics, etc., and analysis of this discourse;
 In contrast with General English.
II.
Variable characteristics
ESP may be, but is not necessarily
 Restricted as to the language skills to be learned (e.g. reading only);
 Not taught according to any pre-ordained methodology (pp. 1-2).

(Cited in the Internet TESOL Journal)


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According to the author, the absolute characteristics of ESP materials are
related to their aims in meeting specified needs of the learners, i.e. a focus on
particular disciplines, occupations and activities in their contents. The variable
characteristics of ESP materials, however, are reflected in the restriction of certain
language skills to be learned (e.g. reading skills focus).

2.3

Purposes of material evaluation

Evaluation has become an intrinsic part of teaching and learning because it is
beneficial to plan the language course and to manage the learning tasks and
students (Rea-Dickins & Germaine, 1992). Undoubtedly, there are a wide range of
reasons for material evaluation, namely future direction of classroom practice,
planning of courses as well as management of learning tasks and students.

The reasons for material evaluation, as mentioned in Cunningsworth (1995:14),
are not only to adopt new coursebook but also to identify the strengths and
weaknesses of the textbook for adaptation or even to change the coursebook. As no
textbooks designed for a general market will be absolutely ideal for a particular
group of learners, coursebook evaluation is helpful for teachers to gain useful
insights into the nature of the material (Cunningsworth, 1995:14).

Cunningsworth (1995) also makes a distinction between evaluating for
potentials and evaluating for suitability. While the former is concerned what it
might be good for possible contexts without any actual use, the latter involves
matching the coursebook against a specific requirement including the learners'
objectives, backgrounds, or available resources and so on.

Coursebook evaluation, as remarked by Hutchinson (1987), not only serves the
immediate practical aim of selecting teaching materials but also plays an essential
role in developing teachers' awareness about the nature of language. In other
words, material evaluation is of vital importance because it leads to a better


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understanding of the nature of a particular teaching-learning situation (Hutchinson,
1987:41).

Textbook evaluation, as expressed by Sheldon (1988), is aimed to make
important administrative and educational decision in which there is considerable
professional, financial, or even political investment. Sheldon also emphasizes the
role of helping the educators identify particular strengths and weaknesses in the
coursebook already in use. This would go a long way in ultimately assisting
teachers with making optimum use of a book' strong points and recognizing the
shortcomings of certain exercises, tasks, and entire texts as well.

In summary, the reasons why people have been conducting the evaluation on
materials are various in which the intention to adopt new course books is a major
and frequent reason. Not surprisingly, one important purpose of coursebook
evaluation is to test effectiveness of coursebook, i.e. to see whether the coursebook
evaluated can achieve the learning objectives that have already been determined by
administrative authority as well as to see whether the coursebook can help students
to achieve their own learning objectives. The evaluation of this type can help
teachers to identify particular strengths and weaknesses of in-use coursebooks so
that optimum use can be made of their strong points, whilst their weaker areas can
be strengthened through adaptation.

In other cases, teachers need to evaluate materials in order to choose the ones
they consider to be most appropriate to their specific teaching contexts. Under
such circumstances, ''evaluation is a matter of judging the fitness of something for
a particular purpose'' (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987:96). In addition, ''even though
teachers will not evaluate to adopt materials, they may well be interested in
evaluation as a useful process in its own right, giving insight into the
organizational principles of the materials and helping them to keep up with
developments in the field'' (McDonough & Shaw, 1993:65).