Textbook evaluation: The case of English textbooks

Textbook evaluation: The case of English textbooks currently in use in Vietnam’s uppersecondary schools

Nguyen Thi Thuy Minh, Ph.D College of Foreign Languages Vietnam National University Hanoi

SEAMEO REGIONAL LANGUAGE CENTRE 2007

Abstract The textbook is a key component in most language programs. In an English as a foreign language context, it may even constitute the main and perhaps only source of language input that learners receive and the basis for language practice that occurs both inside and outside the classroom. However, research has suggested that despite their important role, textbooks are not always professionally designed and do not always fit the curriculum and closely correspond with the aims of the teaching program and the needs of the students. Thus, textbooks should be carefully evaluated and selected before being used for a language program. Textbook evaluation helps the managerial and teaching staff select the most appropriate materials available for a particular course. It also helps to identify the strengths and weaknesses of a particular textbook that is already in use. This is to inform teachers in the process of textbook adaptation and decision-making for the next course. It is in this view that the present study seeks to evaluate a new series of English textbooks currently developed for use at the upper secondary school level in Vietnam. Specifically, it seeks to examine the communicative nature of the textbooks and the ease of their use with a view to proposing practical implications for both textbook authors and teachers who have been and will be using the books.

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Acknowledgements My research project has been completed with the support of a great number of people. First of all, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to the Board of Directors of SEAMEO RELC for having sponsored my project. Their generous support is highly appreciated. I would also like to thank Mr. Nguyen Van Loi, Rector of College of Foreign Languages, Vietnam National University Hanoi, and Dr. To Thi Thu Huong, Head of English Department for having granted me one month research leave so that I can complete this study. I am greatly indebted to my supervisor at RELC, Dr. Willy Renandya for his excellent insights and thoughtful comments throughout the project. My appreciation is also extended to all the staff of RELC - Dr. Gloria Poedjosoedarmo, Ms. Indra Sellapah, Ms. Fionna Muhalib, and Mr. Mohammad Yusri bin Osman for the administration work and arrangements for my stay in Singapore. I would like to especially thank Dr. Graem Cane, Dr. Hayo Reinders, Dr. Lim Beng Soon, Dr. Chan Yue Weng and Dr. Christopher Ward for their constructive feedback on my study. I owe a great debt of gratitude to the anonymous participants who contributed data to this study.

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My sincere thanks also go to my bosses and colleagues at VNUH – Dr. Nguyen Hoa, Ms. Hoang Thi Xuan Hoa, Dr. Do Tuan Minh, Mr. Le Van Canh, Ms. Luong Quynh Trang, Ms. Vu Mai Trang, Ms. Nguyen Thu Ha and my friends Ms. Nguyen Thuy Anh, Mr. Jason Sparks and Dr. Pham Hoa Hiep for their constant support while I have been on leave completing my project. And last but by no means least, my heartfelt thanks are due to my loving parents and brother for their unconditional love, understanding, encouragement and support over time and distance.

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Table of contents

ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................................... 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................................. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS ..................................................................................................................... 5 1.1. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................ 6 1.2. RATIONALE FOR THE PROJECT ............................................................................................ 10 1.3. AIMS AND SCOPE OF THE PROJECT ...................................................................................... 14 1.4. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROJECT........................................................................................... 15 1.5. METHODS OF THE PROJECT .................................................................................................. 16 CHAPTER 2: THE NEW TEXTBOOKS - AN ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION ............. 18 2.1. OVERVIEW OF THE NATIONAL CURRICULUM AND SYLLABUS FOR ELT ........................... 18 2.2. OVERVIEW OF THE TEXTBOOKS ........................................................................................... 18 2.3. THE TEACHING OF LANGUAGE SKILLS................................................................................. 23 2.3.1. READING SKILLS .................................................................................................................. 23 2.3.2. SPEAKING SKILLS ................................................................................................................. 28 2.3.3. LISTENING SKILLS ................................................................................................................ 41 2.3.4. WRITING SKILLS .................................................................................................................. 43 2.4. THE TEACHING OF LANGUAGE ELEMENTS .......................................................................... 47 2.4.1. GRAMMAR ........................................................................................................................... 47 2.4.2. PRONUNCIATION .................................................................................................................. 48 2.4.3. VOCABULARY ...................................................................................................................... 49 2.5. TEACHERS’ BELIEFS ABOUT THE NEW TEXTBOOKS ............................................................ 51 2.5.1. STRENGTHS OF THE NEW TEXTBOOKS ................................................................................. 51 2.5.2. WEAKNESSES OF THE NEW TEXTBOOKS .............................................................................. 52 CHAPTER 3: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS .......................................................... 56 3.1. SUMMARY OF FINDINGS ........................................................................................................ 56 3.2. IMPLICATIONS ....................................................................................................................... 57 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................................ 59 APPENDICES.................................................................................................................................. 62

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Chapter 1: The textbook evaluation project 1.1. Introduction The textbook is “the visible heart of any ELT (English Language Teaching) program” (Sheldon 1988: .237). In an English as a foreign language (EFL) context it may even constitute the main and perhaps only source of language input that learners receive and the basis for language practice that occurs both inside and outside the classroom (Richards 2005). Researchers have suggested several advantages of using textbooks. For example, textbooks help to standardize instruction and assessment. That is, by giving students in different classes the same textbook, teachers can teach and test them in the same way (Richards 2005). Textbooks also provide syllabus for a program, thus supporting novice teachers, training them in methodology and saving their time and effort for more worthwhile pursuits than material production (Cunningsworth 1995). What is more, since textbooks are always carefully tested before being brought into the market, students tend to give them more credibility than teacher-generated or ‘inhouse’ materials. Students also often expect to use a textbook in their learning program (Sheldon 1988). Without textbooks, they may think their learning is not taken seriously; thus, textbooks are psychologically essential for students. Finally, textbooks may constitute an effective resource for learning in the classroom and self-

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directed learning (Cunningsworth 1995). A learner without a textbook might be out of focus and teacher-dependent. In spite of the aforementioned positive view of textbook use, however, there have also been certain reservations about this use. One of the most cited concerns is that textbooks are often implicitly prescriptive and thus might control the methods, processes, and procedures of classroom practice and ‘deskill’ teachers (Allwright 1982). Another concern is that since textbooks are often written for global markets, they might not suit all classrooms and might require adaptation to better meet students’ true needs (Richards 2005). More importantly, recent criticisms have been targeted at the quality of textbooks. It has been repeatedly shown that many English textbooks represent biased views of gender and stereotyping (Clarke and Clarke 1990; Carrell and Korwitz 1994; Renner 1997). For example, Hartman and Judd (1978) found that women suffered low visibility in textbooks due to the use of sexist language. They also found that women were often stereotypically related to such social roles as housework and childcare in many textbooks for young and mature learners. The consequence, as the argument went, is learners might absorb these personal biases and develop undesirable prejudices (Gilbert and Rowe 1989). Other researchers such as Prodromou (1988) and Alptekin (1993) pointed out that textbooks are often cultural artifacts because it is impossible to teach a language without embedding it in its cultural base. However, in many instances this might

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alienate learners if they are forced to express themselves within a culture they have hardly had any experience with and been prepared for. Besides, recent appraisals of commercially produced textbooks have also suggested that many textbooks tend to offer classroom learners little opportunity for learning how to properly communicate intentions such as requesting, inviting, disagreeing, complaining, and so on in the second language (L2) (Bardovi-Harlig 2001; Vellenga 2004). This is firstly because many textbooks either do not present or they present communicative functions (i.e. speech acts) unrealistically. Boxer and Pickering (1995), for example, found that textbooks generally do not contain indirect complaints (i.e. complaining about oneself or someone/ something that is not present in the conversation) as a solidarity-establishing strategy. Bouton (1996) pointed out that the textbook that he investigated taught invitations that rarely occur in published native speaker (NS) corpora. The reason for the unrealistic description of communicative functions in many textbooks is textbooks are often based largely on NS intuition about how communicative functions are linguistically expressed instead of making use of authentic speech (Boxer and Pickering 1985). As research has shown, in contrast to intuition about language forms or grammar, NS intuition about language use is generally unreliable (Wolfson 1988) and therefore cannot adequately inform instructional materials (Boxer and Pickering 1995). Secondly, what also adds to the difficulty in learning how to communicate intentions via textbooks is many textbooks seem unhelpful in teaching appropriate rules of

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using different communicative functions. In order to use a communicative function appropriately, learners need to know not only linguistic resources to express it but also the rules of use.

However, previous research has indicated that textbooks

generally provide insufficient information regarding when and for what purpose it is appropriate to make use of a communicative function and which expressions would be appropriate in a particular situation (i.e. meta-pragmatic information) (Crandall and Basturkmen 2004). Teacher’s manuals, unfortunately, rarely supplement this information (Vellenga 2004). Similarly, proponents of authentic classroom language models such as Brazil, Coulthard, and Johns (1980), Levis (1999), Cathcart (1989), Bardovi-Harlig et al (1991), and Yule, Matthis and Hopkins (1992) have also pointed out that many scripted textbook language models and dialogues are unnatural and present an oversimplification of language. Thus they tend to inadequately prepare students for the types of pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar and discourse that are used in real world communication. While authentic materials do not automatically bring about effective learning and definitely should not be considered more important than their relevance to learners’ needs and experience (Day 2003), an unrealistic and oversimplified presentation of language use can be more inhibiting than helpful in developing learners’ language proficiency and communicative competence. It is owing to these potential problems that textbooks should be carefully evaluated and selected before being used for a language program. Textbook evaluation helps

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the managerial and teaching staff select the most appropriate materials available for a particular course (i.e. predictive evaluation). It also helps to identify the strengths and weaknesses of a particular textbook that is already in use (i.e. in-use and retrospective evaluation). This is to inform teachers in the process of textbook adaptation and decision-making for the next course (Ellis 1997).

1.2. Rationale for the project Given that textbook evaluation is an essential component in any language program, this project is conducted to analyze and evaluate a new series of textbooks developed by the Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam (MOET) for upper secondary school students across the country. Before the project is discussed further, it would be helpful to provide some background to the situation of ELT in Vietnam in general and English textbook development projects in particular. Foreign language education in Vietnam has undergone major changes since the country was unified in 1975. The late 1970s saw the rise of Russian as a predominant foreign language in both the North and the South of Vietnam (Do 1999). This was both due to the government’s policy to promote the teaching and learning of Russian and the former Soviet Union’s substantial aid in education (Do 1999). English, on the other hand, though deep-rooted in many social strata in the South before the war, lost its status during those years, mainly due to the country’s weakened ties with the West (Do 1999).

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Since the Sixth National Congress of the Vietnamese Communist Party, however, the situation has changed dramatically. The government’s “Đổi mới” (i.e. renovation) policy introduced in 1986 has definitely marked a new era for economic and sociopolitical cooperation with the West. As a result, the decades that followed have witnessed a remarkable revival of English in the country. English language education began to experience explosive growth in the early 1990s and later on even replaced the teaching of Russian in most schools after the collapse of the former Soviet Union (Denham 1992). A MOET survey conducted in 2003 revealed that today up to 98.5% of Vietnamese secondary school students studied English as a foreign language (Hoang, Nguyen and Hoang 2006). This figure is a plain indicator of the renewed status of English as the most important foreign language for a majority of Vietnamese students. Today English is taught to school children from Grade 6 (aged 11) through to Grade 12 (aged 18). In some primary schools in large cities, English is even taught from Grade 3 (aged 8). However, before 2003 foreign language teaching began only in Grade 10 (aged 16) in many schools in rural and remote areas. As a result, before MOET launched the new, uniform textbook project in 2002, there existed at least two different sets of English textbooks for upper secondary school students. The first set of textbooks, unofficially called “Sách Tiếng Anh hệ ba năm” (i.e. the three book series) were intended for students who began to learn English in Grade 10. It consisted of English 10, English 11 and English 12. The second set of textbooks,

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unofficially called “Sách Tiếng Anh hệ bảy năm” (i.e. the seven book series) were intended for students who began to learn English in Grade 6. It consisted of English 6 through to English 12. Both sets were produced by Vietnamese authors with funding from MOET. The first set was completed in the early 1980s and the second set was completed in the early 1990s. They both followed a traditional approach to foreign language teaching and drew heavily on structural syllabi. The difference between them is while the first set placed more emphasis on oral skills development, the second set attached more importance to grammar and reading skills development (Hoang et al 2006). Needless to say, the two sets gradually fell out of favor as the influence of the communicative approach became more powerful in Vietnam in the late 1990s. During this period, the need for a uniform and communicative set of textbooks grew stronger and a new set of materials called English for Vietnam was produced with funding from an American education organization called the Business Alliance for Vietnamese Education (BAVE) (Nguyen and Crabbe 1999).

The BAVE series

consisted of seven books for Grade 6 through to Grade 12. The series was tested out in a number of selected schools throughout the country but unfortunately, was never officially approved for classroom used by MOET. In 2002, therefore, MOET announced a new textbook project. The new textbooks were expected to incorporate the latest methodology in second language teaching and replace the two existing series of textbooks once completed (Hoang et al 2006). The

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new textbooks for upper secondary school level comprised two sets. Set 1, unofficially called “Sách chuẩn” (i.e. ‘standard textbooks’), was intended for students pursuing Ban cơ bản (i.e. the non-specialization program) and Ban tự nhiên (i.e. specialization in sciences). Set 2, unofficially called “Sách nâng cao” (i.e. ‘advanced textbooks’), was intended for Ban xã hội (i.e. specialization in humanities). Each set comprised of three books, from English 10 to English 12, accompanied by respective student’s workbooks and teacher’s manuals. The first drafts of this new series were completed in 2004 and began to be piloted in some selected schools across Vietnam in the same year. English 10 and English 11 were approved and officially introduced into schools by MOET in the academic years 2006-2007 and 2007-2008, respectively. English 12 is being revised and will be implemented nationwide from the next academic year 2008-2009. As a teacher trainer and mentor to senior B.A TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) students in their school-based teaching practicum, I have worked quite closely with the new textbooks. I have noticed that although the books have shown a great deal of improvement as compared with the old series of grammar-based textbooks, they also bear several limitations. These limitations may cause considerable difficulty for teachers who wish to teach in a communicative way. Firstly, the limitations lie in the seeming predominance of mechanical and meaningful practice and a corresponding inadequacy of communicative practice. They also lie in the unrealistic presentation and simplification of language use and the elimination of 13

many elements of genuine communication such as unpredictability and the need for use of communicative strategies. Especially, the introduction and practice of discrete grammatical points which do not serve the language functions taught in the units could have made the books more structurally oriented than their authors would have expected. The limitations of the new textbooks have motivated me to conduct this study. Based on the findings, I hope to propose some practical implications for both teachers and textbook authors in the process of adaptation and revision of the books.

1.3. Aims and scope of the project This study seeks to evaluate the new English textbook series in terms of their methodology and practicality. Specifically, it seeks to examine the communicative nature of the textbooks and the ease of their use. That is, it seeks to answer such questions as how the four language skills and language elements are taught and practiced, whether all components of the communicative competence are catered for, and how much guidance students and teachers are provided with in using the books. As this is only a medium-sized scale study, a number of issues, though intriguing, would be beyond the scope of inquiry and would be best dealt with in a further study, for example, how language contents are sequenced and recycled from English 10 to English 12 textbooks, whether the books are suitable to the different teaching and learning contexts of different localities within Vietnam, and so on. Also, I will only look at Set 1 because a recent MOET survey has shown that more than 80% of Vietnamese upper secondary school students have been and will be using this set of

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textbooks. In the sections to follow, this set of textbooks will be referred to as ‘the new textbooks’ or ‘the standard textbooks’.

1.4. Significance of the project This project can be significant in a number of ways. First, as discussed earlier, the textbook is a key component in most language programs. In an EFL context like Vietnam, it may even constitute the main source of language input that learners receive and the basis for language practice that occurs both inside and outside the classroom. For many Vietnamese senior high school learners, textbooks may even help to supplement teachers’ instruction, which is constrained by less than three class hours a week. In order to serve their purposes most effectively, textbooks need to be professionally designed, fit the curriculum and closely correspond with the aims of the teaching program and the needs of the students. However, a close look at the MOET funded new textbooks has indicated that there might be several problems with them. Thus, teachers and learners working with the new textbooks might experience considerable difficulty in achieving the ultimate goal of their teaching and learning program, which is developing students’ communicative competence. The current project helps to identify the problems and suggests ways of improving them. This contribution would be of practical value to textbook authors, teachers and teacher trainers in Vietnam. Besides, the project focuses on a teaching context that is largely unheard of and under-represented in the world’s TESOL (Teaching English to 15

Speakers of Other Languages) scholarship. Therefore, for the scholars outside Vietnam, the project report would be a rich source of information for their use and reference.

1.5. Methods of the project The major methods employed in this project included textbook analysis, teacher survey and textbook author’s interview. For the purpose of textbook analysis, an in-depth evaluation of the three books English 10, English 11, and English 12 and their accompanying workbooks and teacher’s manuals was conducted using the checklists provided by Cunningsworth (1995) with some modifications. Cunningsworth (ibid)’s checklists were adopted among the various available for practical purposes. They seem to be more manageable within the time constraints of the project while still covering the most important evaluation criteria (see Appendix 1 for the modified version). Teacher survey (Appendix 2), on the other hand, enabled to collect teachers’ opinions about the quality as well as practicality of the new textbooks. In designing the survey I was more interested in the diversified opinions and comments from the teachers than being able to quantify the data. Therefore, I used open-ended questions rather than closed questions to allow for as much information to be provided as possible. The survey was written in Vietnamese and included two parts. The first part gathered demographic information about the respondents but carefully allowed for anonymity. The second part consisted of five questions asking the respondents to comment on 16

the strengths and weaknesses of the new textbooks as well as the difficulties they might have experienced in using the books. The respondents of the survey were 250 upper secondary school teachers and teacher trainers working in various provinces and cities throughout the country. Data collection took place during July 2007 at the two annual teacher training workshops organized by MOET in Ho Chi Minh city and Nghe An province. Finally, I also conducted a telephone interview with one of the textbook authors. My purpose in conducting the interview was to understand the author’s underlying philosophy about language teaching and materials development. This information would help to explain my findings in a more objective manner. The interview lasted approximately 30 minutes and I used note-taking techniques to record the information. In what follows, I will present and discuss the major findings (Chapter 2), draw conclusion and propose recommendations for teachers and textbook authors (Chapter 3).

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Chapter 2: The new textbooks - An analysis and evaluation 2.1. Overview of the national curriculum and syllabus for ELT Before an analysis and evaluation of the new series of textbooks is offered, it would be helpful to provide an overview of the national curriculum for ELT in secondary school education and the syllabus for each grade. In 2006 MOET issued a new curriculum which defines English as a compulsory subject, which is “instrumental to the access of world science and technology as well as world cultures” (MOET, 2006: 5). It describes the aims for ELT at secondary school level as enabling students to: 1. “Use English as a means for basic communication both in spoken and written channels. 2. Master basic and relatively systematic knowledge of English suited to their levels of proficiency and ages. 3. Acquire some general understanding of the people and cultures of some English-speaking countries and develop a positive attitude towards the people, cultures and language of these countries; cultivate the pride in, love for and respect to the Vietnamese culture and language”.

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(MOET 2006: 5) In other words, ELT should train students in communicative competence so that they can perform basic language functions receptively and productively, using correct language forms and structures. Besides, it should also “educate students into both good national and international citizens who are knowledgeable about the target culture as well as their own national culture” (Le, 2007:4). Methodologically, the new curriculum is claimed to adopt the communicative approach to language teaching as its guiding principles and specifies that 1. Communication skills be the goal of the teaching and learning process; linguistic knowledge be the means by which communication skills are formed and developed. 2. Students play an active role in the teaching and learning process and teachers be only organizers and guides. 3. Teaching contents be selected and organized according to themes to guarantee a high level of communicativeness while catering to the accuracy of the modern language system. 4. Textbook writing, management of teaching and learning, testing, assessment and evaluation follow the curriculum guidelines. (MOET 2006: 6)

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The curriculum also specifies the teaching contents and class time allocation for each grade. As mentioned earlier, the teaching contents are organized according to themes in order to provide contexts for language skills, language elements and socio-cultural knowledge to be taught and developed in an integrated manner. These themes are all drawn from the contexts of students’ daily life such as home and school, health, recreation, community and the world. The themes are recycled from grade to grade in a cumulative and spiral manner, which means they are repeated at each higher grade with increasing levels of difficulty to suit students’ intellectual and cognitive maturity levels. Table 1 illustrates how the themes are introduced into Grade 6 through to Grade 12. Table 2 describes the general objectives to achieve in each of these grades (the detailed syllabus for each grade can be found in Appendix 3). The curriculum guidelines specifies the following principles for the selection and sequencing of topics, skills, language elements, instructional units, exercises and tasks in ELT syllabuses:  Contextualizing language via realistic communicative situations.  Using materials that are authentic and applicable in real world communication.  Ensuring an integration between the four language skills and integration between language skills and language elements.  Recycling language sufficiently and in a spiral manner.

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 Tailoring teaching contents to suit learners’ ages, levels of general knowledge, needs and preferences.  Using materials and tasks that are stimulating and at students’ levels of proficiency while still challenging enough. (MOET 2006: 17) Table 1: Themes covered in the new English curriculum Themes 1. You and me/ Personal Information 2. Education 3.Community 4. Health 5. Recreation 6. The world around us (I) 7. The world around Nature and us (II) Environment People and places

6 x x x x x x

7 x x x x x x

8 x x x x x x

9 x x x x x x

10 x x x x x

11 x x x x x

12 x x x x x

x

x

x

x

x

x

The total number of class hours for English education is illustrated in Table 3. In upper secondary school the time allocation is 315 for the standard textbooks and 420 for the advanced ones (see Table 3). Each class hour is 45 minutes in length, called “a period”. The curriculum guidelines specify two forms of assessment: continuous and regular. These include oral tests, fifteen-minute tests, 45-minute tests, end-of-semester tests and end-of-year tests. The guidelines also emphasize that assessment should cover all four language skills and language knowledge with weighting given equally to each.

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Table 2: General objectives to achieve in Grade 6-Grade 9

L

S

R

Grade 6 Understand simple classroom instructions and language. Understand simple questions and answers or sentences of 40-60 words in length about basic personal information, family and school. Ask and answer about basic personal information, family and school. Perform some basic communicative functions and notions such as greeting, ordering and following order, talking about the position of objects, asking and answering about time, describing people and weather. Understand simple dialogues or monologues of 50-70 words in length about the topics covered.

Grade 7 Understand the main ideas of simple monologues or dialogues about the topics covered. Understand the main ideas of monologues or dialogues of 40-60 words in length, delivered at a low speed. Ask and answer about basic personal information, studies, recreation activities and daily activities. Perform some basic communicative functions such as expressing intentions, inviting, advising, giving feedback, arranging appointments, asking and giving direction and so on.

Grade 8 Understand the main ideas and specific details of monologues or dialogues about the topics covered. Understand monologues or dialogues of 80-100 words in length, delivered at a relatively low speed. Ask and answer about, describe, and explain personal information, studies, and recreation activities. Perform some basic communicative functions such as informing, presenting, requesting, accepting or refusing requests, promising and so on.

Understand simple dialogues or Understand the main ideas and monologues of 80-100 words about specific details of texts of 110-140 the topics covered. words in length about the topics covered.

W Write simple sentences of 40- Write passages of 50-60 words 50 words about the topics about the topics covered or letters covered. of invitation and acceptance. Rewrite what has been orally produced.

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Grade 9 Understand the main ideas and specific details of monologues or dialogues about the topics covered. Understand monologues or dialogues of 100-120 words in length, delivered at a relatively low speed. Ask and answer about, describe, explain, and present personal opinions about the topics covered. Perform some basic communicative functions such as suggesting, persuading and so on.

Understand the main ideas and specific details of texts of 150-180 words about the topics covered. Understand basic punctuation and cohesive devices. Write passages of 60-80 words Write passages of 60-80 words about the topics covered based about the topics covered based on prompts or thank-you letters on prompts or fill forms, write or letters of invitation and so on. messages, invitation letters or personal letters.

Table 2 (continued): General objectives to achieve in Grade 10-Grade 12 Grade 10

Grade 11

Understand the main ideas and details of monologues/ dialogues of 150-180 words on the 6 topics covered. Understand texts that are delivered at a relatively near-natural speed. Ask and answer about the topics covered. Perform some basic language functions such as expressing likes and dislikes, agreement and disagreement, distinguishing facts and opinions. Understand the main ideas and details of texts of 240-270 words on the topics covered. Develop vocabulary strategies: using words in contexts, dictionary skills, etc. Recognize grammatical elements and discourse markers. Write texts of 100-120 words on familiar Write texts of 120-130 words on familiar topics based on models or prompts for topics based on models or prompts for personal or basic communicative personal or basic communicative purposes purposes.

Grade 12

Listening Understand the main ideas and details of monologues/ dialogues of 120-150 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 instruction, expressing opinions, asking direction, asking and giving information, etc. Reading Understand the main ideas and details of texts of 190-230 words on the topics covered. Develop vocabulary strategies: using words in contexts, dictionary skills, etc.

Understand the main ideas and details of monologues/ dialogues of 180-200 words on the 6 topics covered. Understand texts that are delivered at a near-natural speed.

Writing

Write texts of 130-150 words on familiar topics based on models or prompts for personal or basic communicative purposes.

Ask and answer about the topics covered. Perform some basic language functions such as expressing opinions & viewpoints, talking about needs and likes, explaining. Understand the main ideas and details of texts of 280-320 words on the topics covered. Distinguish main ideas and supporting ideas. Use main ideas to summarize texts.

(MOET 2006: 19-25)

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Table 3: Time allocation for ELT in Lower and Upper Secondary school Lower Secondary Upper Secondary Grade Grade Grade Grade Grade 10 Grade 11 Grade 12 6 7 8 9 Set 1 Set 2 Set 1 Set 2 Set 1 Set 2 Periods/ 3 3 3 2 3 4 3 4 3 4 Week Weeks/ 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 Year Periods/ 105 105 105 70 105 140 105 140 105 140 Year

2.2. Overview of the textbooks The three textbooks English 10, English 11, and English 12 were developed based on the new national curriculum, which was in the draft form at the time they were written. As mentioned earlier, the books are claimed to adopt a theme-based syllabus. However, this syllabus may be more appropriately described as a ‘multi-strand’ one since there is almost everything in it: topics, tasks, functions, notions, skills, grammar, vocabulary and sounds. The methodologies the books are claimed to follow are the “learner-centered approach and the communicative approach with task-based teaching being the central teaching method” (English 10, Teacher’s Manual: 12). The teaching contents for each unit are summarized in a book map which is provided on the first page of each book. Each of the textbooks is accompanied with cassette tapes, student’s workbook and teacher’s manual. There are 16 teaching units and six review units in each book. Each teaching unit covers a topic (see Table 4) and is structured into five sections: Reading, Speaking,

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Listening, Writing and Language Focus. Each section is supposed to be taught in one period of 45 minutes. According to the textbook author that I interviewed, Reading skills are dealt with first and foremost in a unit because the authors expect to use the reading text to provide language input and ideas for practice of other language skills. There is a glossary at the end of each textbook. The glossary contains both phonetic transcription and Vietnamese translation for each entry. The phonetic transcription is based on the system of transcription symbols found in Oxford Advanced Learner Dictionary (7th edition) (English 10: 4; English 11: 4). The Reading section is structured according to the conventional stages of a reading lesson. It begins with one or two Before you read activities, the aim of which is to introduce students to the topic, activate their background knowledge of the topic, motivate them to read and elicit new vocabulary. It then presents a short text followed by 2-3 While you read activities, the aim of which is to develop reading skills and strategies such as scanning, skimming and guessing meaning in context. The section ends with one or two After you read activities to offer students some further practice, e.g. oral or written language production. The Speaking section consists of 3-4 activities, termed “tasks” by the textbook authors (however, my analysis suggests that not all of these ‘tasks’ correspond to the concept of tasks as used by Willis 1996, Skehan 1996, Long 2001, and Ellis 2003. See 2.3.2 for more detail.). The first and second activities provide language input and develop specific language functions such as expressing opinions, agreements and

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disagreements. The remaining activities involve short talks on a specific topic possibly with or without prompts. Table 4: Topics in English 10, English 11 and English 12 Unit

English 10

English 11

English 12

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Friendship Personal experiences A party Volunteer work Illiteracy Competitions World population Celebrations

Home life Cultural diversity Ways of socializing School education system Higher education Future jobs Economic reforms Life in the future

9 10 11 12 13 14

A day in the life of … School talks People’s background Special education Technology and you An excursion The mass media The history of my village Undersea world Conservation National parks Music Films and cinema The world cup

The post office Nature in danger Sources of energy The Asian Games Hobbies Recreation

15 16

Cities Historical places

Space conquest The wonder of the world

Deserts Endangered species Books Water sports The 22nd SEAGAMES International organizations Women in society The association of South East Asia nations

Like the Reading section, the Listening section is also structured into three stages. Before you listen activities aim to motivate students to listen, activate their background knowledge and provide vocabulary. While you listen activities develop such micro-skills as listening for general understanding, listening for specific or detailed information and take the form of matching exercises, True-False questions, multiple choice questions, or open-ended questions. After you listen activities often involve text

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summary or reproduction in oral or written forms, and/or further discussion of the topic. The Writing section may begin with a model, followed by activities that guide students through the writing process such as model analysis, language work, and guided writing. The text types students are required to produce vary from personal and formal letters to narratives, chart, graph and table description and expository essays. The Language Focus section comprises two parts, Pronunciation and Grammar and Vocabulary. The Pronunciation component focuses on practice of sounds (vowels, consonants, and clusters) that might present difficulty to students, basic stress patterns, rhythm and intonation. These features are firstly practiced as discrete forms and then repeated in sentences. The Grammar and Vocabulary component aims to consolidate the target forms covered in the unit. Despite the claim made in the preface of the books that the forms are to be practiced both in exercises and communicative situations, this practice, however, is de-contextualized and noncommunicative (see 2.4.1 for more detail). The six review units, called “Test Yourself”, aim to help students assess their own progress and serve as sample tests for teachers when designing 45 minute tests for their classes. Each review has four main components: Listening, Reading, Writing and Language Focus. No speaking practice is included.

21

As mentioned earlier, the three textbooks are accompanied by student’s workbooks and teacher’s manuals. Like the student’s textbooks, each workbook consists of 16 units structured into four sections: Reading, Language Focus, Speaking and Writing. The workbooks are constructed based on the same topics as the textbooks. Each teacher’s manual comprises three main parts: introduction to the English syllabus, overview of the textbook, and lesson plan guidelines with keys to exercises. In general, a brief glance at the new textbooks seems to suggest that they have a clear organizational structure, which can be very helpful for teachers in conducting their lessons and students in managing self-study. There is an adequate number of review units, which means students have the opportunity for regular revision and selfassessment. More importantly, the books seem to cover all four language skills adequately and allow for an integration of skills at the pre and post stages. Thus, they seem to look more communicative than the old series which focus almost on reading and grammar. However, as many tasks are poorly designed and many language forms are taught and practiced out of context, the book may not actually be as communicative as they are intended to be. In the following sections, I will analyze and evaluate the teaching of language skills and language elements to examine the communicative nature of the textbooks in greater depth.

22

2.3. The teaching of language skills 2.3.1. Reading skills Table 5 indicates that on average, there are 1.3 texts per unit, which seems to be an appropriate amount of workload for both teachers and students. A comparison of the textbooks and workbooks shows that the former contains fewer texts than the latter. For example, the number of texts per unit is 1.1 for English 10 textbook and 1.0 for English 11 and English 12. In contrast, this figure is 1.6 for English 10 workbook and 1.7 for English 11 and English 12. This is justifiable because the limited class time does not allow for too much reading to be covered but at home students may have more time for this. Looking at the text length, the workbooks also seem to present longer texts. English 10 workbook, for example, contains texts of 200-300 words whereas the word limit for a text in English 10 textbook is only between 180 and 220. English 11 workbook presents texts of 250-350 words and English 11 textbook 240-270 words. Similarly, the word limit ranges between 250-350 for English 12 workbook and over 300 words for English 12 textbook. These lengths suggest that the type of reading required for students is more of intensive rather than extensive nature. A close investigation of the Reading sections indicates that the reading texts are not necessarily stylistically various (see Table 5). The texts are claimed to be adapted from different sources: stories, essays, small talks, letters, TV programs, and leaflet information. However, essays tend to predominate (113 out of 148 texts) and the 23

other types tend to be under-represented. This is especially the case of English 11 and English 12.

The lack of variety of text types may cause boredom to students,

especially if they are not highly motivated readers. Apparently, while we certainly do not want to overload students with too much stylistic variety at too early a stage, some degree of diversity may help to both increase students’ enjoyment and familiarize them with a wider range of genres, thus better preparing them for real world reading. Table 5: Distribution of text types per unit English 10 SB WB Essays 14 20 Stories 4 5 Small talks 3 1 Letters 1 0 TV programs 1 0 Leaflet information 1 0 Total number of texts 24 26 Total number of units 22 16 Mean number of texts 1.1 1.6 per unit

English 11 SB WB 16 20 5 5 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 22 27 22 16 1.0 1.7

English 12 SB WB 21 22 1 3 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 22 27 22 16 1.0 1.7

Total 113 23 8 1 1 2 148 114 1.3

As mentioned earlier, following each reading text there are 3-4 activities to help students develop reading skills and strategies and reflect on the topic. The While you read activities normally take the form of multiple-choice questions, open-ended questions, gap-fill, True or False questions, and matching headings with paragraphs. The After you read activities often require students to retell the story or summarize the

24

text in either oral or written form, and/ or discuss the topic further, relating it to their own experience. A close look at the types of micro-skills and strategies developed through whilereading activities reveals that the three textbooks and their workbooks mostly focus on reading for specific information (68/257 activities) and detailed understanding (117/257 activities) (see Table 6). Reading for gist and guessing meaning in context, though explicitly spelled out both in the syllabus and the book map of each book, are not appropriately dealt with. Table 6 shows that only 16 out of 257 activities provide a chance for practice in reading for gist. Even fewer activities (9/257) offer a chance for practicing guessing meaning of unfamiliar words. In fact, many activities are claimed to develop guessing skills but they hardly help to do so. This is mostly because the activities are not properly designed. In some activities, there are insufficient contextual clues for the guess work to be possible. In others, all what students are requited to do is to translate the words into their mother tongue, which could be simply done with the help of a dictionary. Consider these two examples: Example 1: Task 1: The words in the box all appear in the passage. Fill each blank with a suitable word. mysterious ramp tomb chamber spiral wonder 1. Last week we paid a visit to the ………………. of an unknown mandarin. 2. The movie was about a …………………… of the world. 25

3. A …………………… is needed at the exit and the entrance for wheelchairs users. 4. The Queen’s private …………………… is not opened to public. 5. It’s not known why Beson disappeared in ……………………. circumstances. 6. A snail’s shell is …………………… in form. (English 11: 180) Example 2 Task 1: give the Vietnamese equivalents to the following words and phrases: human civilization …………… child-bearing ………………… involvement………………. … Age of Enlightenment…………

deep-seated cultural beliefs………… homemaking…. ..………………….. intellectual ability …..……………… equal work opportunity ...………….. (English 12: 151)

In Example 1, the six words mysterious, chamber, ramp, spiral, tomb, and wonder all occur in the reading text but not all of them are guessable in the provided context. The words ramp and spiral, for instance, occurring in a paragraph about the construction of the Pyramids, would require some certain specialist knowledge to understand: “Although it is not known how the blocks were put in place, several theories have been proposed. One theory involves the construction of a straight or spiral ramp that was raised as the construction proceeded. A second theory suggests that the blocks were lifted and placed using thousands of huge weight arms’ (ibid: 179). In order to enable students to guess these words, the exercise therefore should have incorporated more contextual clues. In Example 2, students are not encouraged to go back to the text, locate the instances of the words and try to understand their meaning. On the contrary, they are only

26

asked to translate the words; thus they might just look the words up in a dictionary for convenience. Table 6 also shows that important micro-skills such as making inferences, understanding references, understanding discourse markers, understanding text organization, recognizing author’s purposes and attitudes, and summarizing are rather under-represented in the books. For example, making inferences is dealt with in only 12 out of 257 activities, understanding references in three activities, understanding text organization in one activity, recognizing author’s purposes and attitudes in two activities and understanding discourse markers, though spelled out in the syllabus, is not catered to at all. Summarizing skills are most often practiced at the post-stage. The chance to practice these skills occurs only once in the while-stage. Indeed, a close examination of the comprehension questions shows that most of them are rather ‘straightforward’ and factual in nature, therefore requiring just literal or surface understanding of the text. As a result, in extreme cases, many can be answered by coping out the sentences in the text without any real language reproduction. Very few questions actually require processing of the text at a deeper level, for example, bringing different pieces of information together to give a complete answer (i.e. summarizing), or reading between the lines (inferring, understanding author’s attitudes and so on). This poses a serious limitation because real world reading involves more than just literal understanding of factual, straightforward information (Cunningsworth 1995).

27

Table 6: Micro-skills developed through while-reading exercises and tasks

Reading for gist Reading for specific information Reading for detailed understanding Guessing meaning in context Understanding references Making inferences Understanding discourse markers Understanding text organization Recognizing author’s purposes and attitudes Summarizing Number of activities Number of units

English 10 SB WB 3 0 8 12

English 11 SB WB 6 3 9 16

English 12 SB WB 3 1 12 11

Total 16 68

22

14

23

15

24

19

117

1 0 1 0

5 0 5 0

0 1 2 0

2 0 0 0

0 1 0 0

1 1 4 0

9 3 12 0

0

1

0

0

0

0

1

1

1

0

0

0

0

2

0 48 22

1 34 16

0 50 22

0 37 16

0 51 22

0 37 16

1 257 114

2.3.2. Speaking skills Table 7 demonstrates the distribution of speaking activities in the three textbooks and students’ workbooks. Overall, the textbooks contain nearly twice as many activities as the workbooks. For example, English 10 textbook presents an average of 3 activities per unit but English 10 workbook presents only half this number. Similarly, the average number of activities per unit is 3.1 for English 11 and English 12 textbooks but only 1.7 and 1.6 for the respective workbooks. The figures seem to suggest that there is not much emphasis on speaking skills in the workbooks.

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Table 7: Distribution of speaking activities

No. of units No. of activities No. of activities per unit No. of informationgap activities No. of information gap activities per unit

English 10 SB WB 16 16 48 25 3.0 1.5

English 11 SB WB 16 16 50 27 3.1 1.7

English 12 SB WB 16 16 49 26 3.1 1.6

Total

29

4

24

5

23

3

68

1.8

0.2

1.5

0.8

1.4

0.2

0.7

96 225 2.3

Among the 225 speaking activities taught in three textbooks and workbooks, only 68 are information-gap activities (the term “information-gap” is used in this paper to refer to all types of communicative activities that are based on the information-gap principle such as opinion-sharing, reasoning-gap, information- gathering activities and so on). That is, on average, there is less than one information-gap activity per unit. The remaining activities might be described as quasi-communicative because they do not involve an exchange of real information or expression of real feelings, opinions and so on. Thus, they do not tend to present elements of genuine communication such as unpredictability and cooperation between speakers in communicative interaction. Nor do they tend to reflect interactional authenticity because there is hardly any opportunity for negotiation of meaning and use of communicative strategies. Consider the following examples:

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Task 2: Work in groups. Take turns to talk about the sports results of the Vietnamese athletes at 14th Asian Games, using the information from the table below. Medal standing (Vietnam) 14th Asian Games held in 2002 in Busan, Korea Sport Bodybuilding Billiards Karatedo Shooting Wushu

Number of medals 1 gold, 1 bronze 1 gold, 1 silver 2 gold, 1 bronze 1 Bronze 1 bronze, 1 silver

Example: In bodybuilding, the Vietnamese athletes won one gold medal and one bronze medal. (English 11: 140) Task 2: Complete the following conversation with suitable words, phrases or sentences in the box and then practice it with a partner. What’s matter with you awful/ tired/ sick/ cold a headache/ a cold/ backache/ toothache You should/ You’d better go home and have a rest A: Hello, Hoa. You don’t look very happy. ……………………….. ? B: Hi, Nam. I feel ………………….. . I’ve got …………………… A: Sorry to hear that. ………………………………………………. B: Yes. That’s a great idea. Goodbye, Nam. A: See you later. (English 10: 25)

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Task 2: A foreign visitor has taken some notes about President Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum. Ask and answer questions with a partner, using his notes. Example: A: Where is President Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum situated? B: It is situated in Ba Dinh District in Hanoi. A: When did the construction of the Mausoleum start? B: It started in September 1973. PRESIDENT HO CHI MINH’S MAUSOLEUM ● Place: Ba Dinh District, Hanoi ● Built in September 1973, completed in August 1975 ● 1st floor: a stand for important meetings organized at Ba Dinh Square, 2nd floor: where the late president is lying, 3rd floor: the roof ● Visiting hours: 7:30 – 10:30 a.m. in summer and 8:00 – 11:00 a.m. in winter. Every day except Monday and Friday. ● Usually closed September 5 – December 10 for maintenance ● No photography allowed inside (English 10: 169) Clearly, none of the above activities provide a chance for genuine exchange of information or opinions. In the first activity, students listen to one another talking about things they already know. In the second activity, they even do not need to speak but only fill the dialogue with given phrases and read it aloud in pairs. In the final activity, students possess the same information and thus there is no reason for asking the questions. Activities of this type seem to reflect more of classroom use of 31

language than the natural use of language and do not involve students in realistic communication. While it is absolutely appropriate to include activities that engage students in developing accuracy like above, what textbooks also need to seek is a good balance of both accuracy-focused and fluency-focused activities. Unfortunately, however, accuracy-focused activities tend to predominate in these books (157 out of 225). The use of information-gap activities in second language classrooms is crucial because it gets learners to use the language they are learning to interact in realistic and meaningful ways (Richards 2005). An information gap activity focuses on two aspects - attention to information (but not to language forms) and the necessity of communicative interaction to reach the objective. It reflects real world communication in which people communicate to get the information they do not process. Furthermore, one of the goals of communicative language teaching (CLT) is to develop fluency in language use (Richards 2005). Information-gap activities help to develop fluency by engaging students in meaningful, comprehensible and ongoing communication in which they should negotiate meaning, use communicative strategies, correct misunderstanding and work to avoid communication breakdown. Thus, the under-representation of activities of this type in the three textbooks and workbooks seems to pose a serious threat to their communicativeness. Explaining for this limitation, the textbook author that I interviewed said that he and his team were aware of the notion of information gap in CLT; however, since they

32

were also aware of the low levels of proficiency of the target student population, they decided to aim low, which was to get students to start speaking English even in a tightly controlled manner. This seemed to contradict the claimed methodology of the books, which is “communicative” and “task-based” (English 10 Teacher’s Manual: 15). Another close look at the speaking activities also suggests that they do not seem to reflect the nature of communicative interaction in respect of structure of discourse in interactions. Most model dialogues suffer a serious lack of elements of authentic discourse such as openers, confirmation checkers, pre-closers, back-channeling and fillers (hmm, ah, oh, well). What is more, insertion sequences, though prevalent in natural conversations, do not occur once in the textbook dialogues. For example, this dialogue represents a simple sequence of questions and answers, which do rarely take place in reality even for the most straightforward conversations (Cunningsworth 1995): A: I think married women should not go to work. B: I quite agree. I think if they stay at home, they have time to look after their children and husbands. C: I don’t agree. It’s too boring to be housewives all their lives. (English 12: 154) Although such conversations are useful building blocks for learning conversation skills (Cunningsworth, ibid.), they do not necessarily reflect natural conversations. In

33

real-life conversations people tend to interrupt their interlocutors more often, for example: A: Where did you get this wine from? B: Do you like it? A: I expect it was expensive. B: Not at all! A: Yes it’s good. B: Well, it was only from the supermarket on the corner. (Cunningsworth, ibid: 128) At pre-intermediate level and above, students should have little difficulty in handling insertion sequences because these also occur in their mother tongues. Thus, such an oversimplification of language use might be more inhibiting than being helpful in preparing students for real life interaction. Discourse is dynamic and certainly not “a pre-determined series of (…) sentences” as textbooks tend to present them (Cunningsworth, ibid: 129). Looking at the teaching of communicative functions, it was found that the three books tended to give adequate emphasis on this aspect of CLT. Table 8 shows a total number of 27 functions that are taught and practiced. These range from quite basic ones such as opening a conversation, closing a conversation and exclaiming to more challenging ones such as agreeing, disagreeing, requesting, apologizing and so on. Among the three books, English 10 presents more functions (20/27) than both English

34

11 (15/27) and English 12 (8/27). On average, 1.3 functions are taught in a unit in English 10 whereas the corresponding figures are only 0.9 and 0.5 for English 11 and English 12, respectively. While these figures might not be very high, the mean frequency of recurrence of a function in tasks is, however, quite high for all three books. For example, one function might recur 3.2 times in English 10, 3.8 in English 11 and 3.9 in English 12 (Table 9). This seems to suggest an adequate representation of communicative functions in the three textbooks. Table 8: Range of communicative functions English 10 SB WB 1. Agreeing 2. Disagreeing 3. Asking opinions 4. Giving opinions 5. Opening a conversation 6. Closing a conversation 7. Suggesting 8. Accepting suggestions 9. Complaining 10. Apologizing 11. Expressing regrets 12. Responding to bad news 13. Comforting 14. Inviting 15. Accepting invitations 16. Declining invitations/ offer 17. Requesting 18. Responding to requests 19. Persuading 20. Predicting 21. Thanking

x x x x x x x

x x x x x x x x

English 11 SB WB x x x x

x

English 12 SB WB x x

x x x

x

x x x

x x x x x x

x x

x

x x x

x

x x

35

x

Table 8: continued English 10 SB WB 22. Responding to thanks 23. Complimenting 24. Responding to compliments 25. Asking for advice 26. Advising 27. Exclaiming Total number of CFs

English 11 SB WB

English 12 SB WB x

x

x x

x x x 20

15

8

Table 9: Distribution of communicative functions

Total number of units Total number of CFs Number of CFs per unit Total frequencies of recurrence in tasks Mean frequency of recurrence

English 10 16 20 1.3 64

English 11 16 15 0.9 58

English 12 16 8 0.5 31

3.2

3.8

3.9

When looking at the contextual and linguistic presentation of the different communicative functions, however, the findings seem to suggest an inadequate treatment. Firstly, the 27 functions, either presented in dialogues or taught as lists of useful expressions, tend to be taught and practiced out of context (Table 10). That is, there is no information about the relationship between the speakers, e.g. how close they feel to one another and how likely one can impose wants on the others. Nor is there a description of the contextual variables that might help to judge the degree of imposition of the communicative functions involved, i.e. how ‘threatening’ the performed communicative functions might be perceived to be within a particular

36

culture. For example, in this activity students are required to act out as villagers discussing the plan to improve their village. The functions that taught and practiced in the activity include asking and giving opinions, agreeing and disagreeing. However, the activity does not include any specific information about the degree of familiarity and solidarity as well as the relative power between the ‘villagers’: Task 2: The villagers are discussing their plans. Read and practice the conversation in groups of three. A: I know what we should do first. We should widen the roads. B: That’s a good idea. If the roads are widened, cars and lorries can get to our village. C: Yes. And if lorries can get to the village, we won’t have to cart heavy loads of farming products to the city. A: And we should also resurface and raise the roads. B: Yes. If we resurface and raise the roads, they won’t be flooded and muddy when it rains. C: And the villagers will be able to get around more easily, too. (English 10: 85) Table 10: Contextual presentation of communicative functions

Not presented Presented in dialogues/ short exchanges Presented as (a list of) separate expressions Explicit description of Own roles contexts Role play

English 10 1/20 18/20

English 11 1/15 14/15

English 12 0/8 7/8

4/20

2/15

4/8

0/3 0/20

0/3 0/14

0/4 0/5

37

According to Brown and Levinson (1978, 1987), there are at least three factors that help one decide how to go about achieving politeness in using communicative functions. These include the relative social power (P) and social distance (D) between the speakers and the ranking of imposition of the functions involved (R). The absence of this information would make it unlikely for speakers to perform a communicative function successfully. In some cases, the relationship between the speakers can be inferred from their roles (e.g. customer and salesperson, father and son, patient and doctor). However, the textbooks seem to offer little attempt, either explicit or implicit, to draw students’ attention to this variable and its effects on the use of communicative functions. Unfortunately, the teacher’s manuals also do not provide guidance on how to present the dialogues more communicatively. An analysis of the linguistic presentation of the communicative functions in the books tends to indicate that this presentation might not necessarily be always realistic. Firstly, most dialogues in which different communicative functions are presented tend to be short exchanges (between two and four turns). In real-life interaction, the performance of face-damaging functions might involve extensive negotiation and turn-taking and be normally prefaced with supportive moves such as positive remarks or disarmers in order to reduce the potential face-threat to the hearer (Nguyen 2005). Furthermore, many functions are also not presented in the way native speakers might

38

use them. For example, English 12 teaches a quite high level of directness in expressing one’s agreements and disagreements: Task 1: Study the expressions and practice saying them aloud.

Giving your opinion

I think, I believe, In my opinion, From my point of view, As I see it …

Strongly agreeing

I quite agree, I agree with you completely, Absolutely, That’s right!

Partly agreeing

Well, I see your point but …, I don’t quite agree, To a certain extent, yes, but …

Disagreeing

I don’t agree, I’m afraid I disagree. That’s wrong, That’s not true!

Strongly disagreeing

What nonsense! What rubbish! I completely disagree! (English 12: 153)

None the less, these expressions tend to rarely occur in a native speaker corpus that I collected (Nguyen 2005). In this corpus, most disagreements are normally prefaced with a token agreement, followed by the conjunction “but” to signal contrastive ideas and then the speaker’s own opinion. E.g.: Yes, but … But … I think … Well, maybe but … Well, my feeling is … The question of whether communicative functions should be taught based on NS models and what NS variety this instruction should follow is intriguing, especially in

39

the case of World Englishes. Researchers such as Ellis (1994), Hinkel (1996), Siegal (1996) and Kasper (1997) have pointed out that non-native speakers (NNS) do not always desire to totally converge with NS pragmatic behavior (i.e. how to perform communicative functions). On the contrary, they may only attempt at becoming competent L2 users while maintaining their own cultural identity. In fact, Giles, Coupland, and Coupland’s (1991) cited in Kasper (ibid.) have made a valid claim that in many situations successful communication means optimal rather than total convergence. On these grounds, therefore, it seems that L2 teaching needs to allow for students’ subjectivity and social claims. However, this does not necessarily imply that instructional materials should not provide students with realistic language use. On the contrary, students still need this information in order to make informed choices that both fit their systems of values and beliefs and do not break communication. In the case of English, the fact that a number of NS varieties exist might complexify the decision of which variety to introduce into teaching materials. Furthermore, the status of English as a global language today seems to invalidate the extreme NS-NNS distinction and the assumption of NS ownership of the language. This new development in the role of English has brought about a number of implications for textbook writers. In the case of ELT in Asian context, for example, we may think of Asian English varieties which textbook writers might also draw on besides the other varieties (Cane, personal communication).

40

Finally, the findings seem to suggest an inadequate amount of meta-pragmatic information which is included for each communicative function. Meta-pragmatic information is about when it is appropriate to perform a particular function and what expression would be appropriate in a particular situation. Indeed, out of 27 functions that are taught, meta-pragmatic information is available only for agreements and disagreements. However, this information is not provided until students study English 12. Also, the information is only concerning the degree of agreements and disagreements. No explanation is given regarding when and to whom different expressions can be used. Other important and potentially face-damaging functions such as ‘advising’, ‘suggesting’, ‘complaining’, ‘requesting’, ‘declining an invitation’ (Brown & Levinson, 1978, 1987) are not presented with essential meta-pragmatic information. Nevertheless, informal talks with teachers revealed they rarely supplemented this information.

2.3.3. Listening skills

Like the reading skills, the listening skills are taught and practiced in these books using both top-down and bottom-up processes. The Listening section begins with a few Before you listen activities that encourage students to draw on their schematic and contextual knowledge to make good predictions and focus their attention on the topic. The activities also aim to pre-teach students new vocabulary that occurs in the

41

listening materials. The While you listen activities provide practice in such micro-skills as listening for gist, listening for specific information, listening for detailed understanding, note-taking, and inferring meaning from context. Table 11: Distribution of while-listening activities and micro-skills they develop

General understanding Specific information Detailed understanding Making inferences Note-taking No. of units No. of activities

English 10 5

English 11 0

English 12 0

Total 5

10

11

8

29

28

28

35

91

0

0

2

2

3 22 42

2 22 38

3 22 39

8 66 119

Table 11 indicates that among the micro-skills that are developed, listening for detailed understanding is given greatest emphasis, being practiced in 91/119 activities. Listening for specific information ranks the second, being practiced in 29/119 activities. Listening for gist, though spelled out in the syllabus requirements, seems under-represented, being taught only in English 10 via 5/119 activities. Important micro-skills such as deducing/ inferring meaning from context, note-taking while listening, recognizing function and discourse patterns/ markers are almost absent in the books. A close inspection of the questions that are asked in while-listening activities suggests that like the reading questions discussed in 2.3.1, most listening questions also tend to

42

be rather factual, straightforward and do not tend to require processing of the information at a deep level. Listening in the real life would be more challenging than just extracting factual information. Thus, in order to prepare students for real world listening, the comprehension questions might need to be made more challenging to allow for practice in important skills such as deducing meaning.

2.3.4. Writing skills Table 12: Distribution of writing activities

Preparation work Controlled writing Guided writing Free writing No. of activities No. of units

English 10 SB WB 20 1

English 11 SB WB 9 2

English 12 SB WB 16 0

Total

7

13

1

8

2

12

43

7 13 47 22

2 4 20 16

7 15 32 22

3 9 22 16

3 18 39 22

4 7 23 16

26 66 183 114

48

The types of texts that students are taught and made to practice in the three books are quite varied, ranging from forms, postcards, letters, and announcements to minibiographies, narratives, table descriptions, and expository essays. The writing approach adopted in the books seems to be product-oriented in nature as emphasis seems to be placed on the end-result of writing rather than the process of writing itself. A brief look at the Writing section shows that it normally begins with some preparation work in which students are required to analyze task requirements, work on models, or generate ideas. It may then proceed with one or two controlled or/ and

43

guided writing activities and end with a freer writing activity. In this way, students are engaged in imitating, copying and transforming models of correct language texts to the new writing task. There seems to be no explicit emphasis on the process of planning, drafting, revision, and editing. Table 12 illustrates the distribution of different types of writing activities in the books. Among the 183 writing activities included in 114 units, 66 are for free writing practice, accounting for 36%. That is, there is an average of only 0.5 free writing activity per unit. Given that the goal of teaching writing in CLT is to enable learners to become independent and effective writers, the textbooks would have been expected to offer more chance for free writing practice than they do at present. A qualitative investigation into the writing activities suggests that not all provide adequate and effective scaffolding for students. For example, in Unit 7 English 10 students learn how to write paragraphs about the advantages and disadvantages of mass media. They are scaffolded through three activities. In the first activity, they read a set of sentences about the advantages and disadvantages of television. The purpose is to gather ideas and learn vocabulary and structures. In the second activity they work in pairs to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the different mass media including radio, newspaper and the Internet. The purpose is to generate ideas for the free writing task which comes afterward where they write a paragraph about the advantages and disadvantages of one of the mass media discussed earlier. It should be noted that paragraph writing is a new task type for most students since it is

44

taught only from Grade 10 and Unit 7 is the first unit in which this genre is taught. However, neither of the prewriting activities teaches the structure of the paragraph (topic sentence, supporting ideas, cohesive devices and coherence). Nor do they teach the process of organizing ideas into a good piece of writing. Apparently, writing involves more than putting ideas into sentences and without adequate prior preparation (e.g. instruction about paragraph writing, working on models, controlled and guided practice, and so on), this writing task would probably be too challenging and perhaps even beyond students’ ability. Writing Task 1: Read about the advantages and disadvantages of television below.

    

Advantages Television helps us to learn more about the world and to know and see many new things Television can make things memorable because it presents information in an effective way. It entertains us. Watching it is an enjoyable way to relax. It increases the popularity of sports and games. It makes us aware of our global responsibility.

    

45

Disadvantages Television can make us passive. We don’t have to think so our brains become lazy. It encourages us to buy things that we don’t need. It takes time away from activities such as reading and games. Some television programs may make people violent. Television interferes with family life and communication.

Task 2: Work in pairs. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the mass media, and write them down in the column below. Advantages

Disadvantages

Radio Newspapers The Internet Task 3: Write a paragraph about the advantages and disadvantages of one of the mass media discussed in Task 2. (English 10: 78-79) Finally, looking at the communicative nature of the writing activities, it is found that many of them do not specify the readership and the purpose for writing. In real life, writing is done with a readership and purpose in mind and writers need to know who they write for so that they can choose the appropriate register. They also need to decide how much knowledge of the topic their readers might have so that they will not patronize or confuse their readers (Cunningsworth 1995). Unfortunately, this aspect of writing has been somewhat overlooked in the books, making many writing tasks rather unrealistic.

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2.4. The teaching of language elements 2.4.1. Grammar The teaching of grammar is perhaps the most problematic part in the books given consideration. Despite the claim about the communicative and task-based approaches underlying the books, however, grammar seems to be taught and practiced out of context in most units. Ellis (2003) distinguishes ‘task-based teaching’ and ‘task-supported’ teaching. The former represents a strong version of CLT while the latter represents a weak version. In task-based teaching, attention to form occurs within the context of performing the tasks. In contrast, in task-supported teaching, forms may be pre-taught and then practiced further in communicative tasks. In both types of instruction, grammar needs to be practiced via communicative tasks which focus primarily on meaning. However, a careful analysis of the books tends to demonstrate that this is not necessarily the case for all target forms. Of 80 structures that are taught, only 47 occur in the reading or listening materials, or practiced in speaking or writing tasks. Not few of them occur in the reading or listening materials for only one time and are not reproduced in speaking or writing activities. The remaining 33 structures are just taught in the grammar section in which they are practiced in exercises such as sentence completion, sentence writing, change of verb forms, word formation and so on. That is, there is no communicative practice of these structures.

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What can make the situation worse is among these 33 structures, many are crammed into one single unit which is taught in a period of 45 minute, together with other language contents such as pronunciation and vocabulary. Thus, even if teachers want to bring in some communicative practice to compensate for the books, they can hardly find enough time to do so with all the structures. In many cases, the grammar lesson is therefore just about de-contextualized presentation and practice of rules, bringing the classroom back to the heydays of the traditional methods such as grammar-translation and audio-lingualism. Thus, overall, the books tend to give an impression that they emphasize a systematic presentation of rules rather than teaching rules that arise out of communicative needs.

2.4.2. Pronunciation The three books seem to cover almost all aspects of phonology, for example the articulation of individual sounds, weak forms and strong forms, word stress, sentence stress, rhythm and intonation. However, like in the case of grammar, the books also seem to teach phonology non-communicatively. This is because they tend to teach and practice sounds, stress patterns and intonation as discrete points rather than in connected speech. Consider these exercises in which the two sounds short /i/ and long /i:/are practiced.  Listen and repeat

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/i/ Hit Bit Little

/i:/ Kick Click Interest

Heat Beat Meat

Repeat Read Eaten

 Practice these sentences 1. Is he coming to the cinema? 2. We’ll miss the beginning of the film. 3. Is it an interesting film, Jim? 4. The beans and the meat were quite cheap. 5. He’s going to leave here for the Green Mountains. 6. Would you like to have meat, peas and cheese? (English 10: 19) What we can see is the two sounds are taught and practiced almost mechanically via repetition drilling. There are no communicative tasks for students to practice them in connected, natural discourse. Unfortunately, this kind of practice is the only kind available for phonology study in all units in the books given consideration.

2.4.3. Vocabulary In the present books, vocabulary is taught and practiced via both materials for language skills development and in its own right in the Language focus section. Thus, vocabulary is both taught in meaningful contexts and further consolidated in formfocused exercises. In the Reading section, vocabulary is taught through activities such as matching definitions with words, gap-fill, finding antonyms and synonyms, and translation. In the Language focus section, vocabulary is practiced most frequently via gap-fill and word formation exercises. Among the different aspects of vocabulary 49

teaching, emphasis seems to be placed on denotational meaning rather than connotational meaning, and word building rather than collocations. The books also seem to give due attention to teaching vocabulary strategies via activities which focus on developing skills in dealing with unknown words and using dictionaries. Unfortunately, however, as mentioned in 2.3.1, many of these activities are not properly designed; thus they are unlikely to achieve their purposes. For example, as spelled out in the book map, the following exercise aims to teach students how to use a dictionary for independent vocabulary learning. Yet, it only instructs students to find the meaning of the new vocabulary items in the dictionary. Presumably, dictionary skills involve more than just opening a dictionary and looking up for a word. Students need to be taught at least what aspects (i.e. spelling, pronunciation, meaning, use, collocation and so on) to look for and how, so that they can develop their own vocabulary independently of the teacher. Task 1: Find what the following words mean in the text. Use a dictionary when necessary. 1. grand: ………………………

2. agrarian: ……………………..

3. banner: ……………................

4. pray: …………………………

5. sugared apples: ……………..

6. excitement: ………………….. (English 11: 92)

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2.5. Teachers’ beliefs about the new textbooks This section reports teachers’ opinions about the quality of the new textbooks. As mentioned earlier, teachers’ opinions were collected via a survey questionnaire which consisted of five open-ended questions concerning the strengths and weaknesses of the books. The 250 teachers surveyed in this study were the key staff in various schools and education services throughout Vietnam. Among them 173 were female and 77 were males. Their ages ranged between 25 and 55. Most of them had been teaching English for at least ten years. Concerning their experience with the new textbooks, 210 teachers had been using the book for one year, which means they had been using English 10. Twenty two had been using the books for more than two years, which means they had been using all the three books. Eighteen of them had not yet taught the new books but familiarized themselves with the books in a number of teacher-training workshops. Thus, the teachers’ opinions discussed below were mainly concerning English 10.

2.5.1. Strengths of the new textbooks The teachers identified the following as the strengths of the new books:  Clear objectives.  Balanced coverage of language skills and language elements.  Provision of systematic knowledge of language.  Communicative and learner-centered.

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 Varied, realistic, relevant, interesting and update topics and texts.  Clear, helpful layout and beautiful visual illustrations.  Allowing regular revision and self-study.  Training teachers in teaching methods and procedures.  Helpful glossary. In general, they all agreed that the new textbooks possessed several advantages over the old series. The most important advantage, according to them, was the books had brought about positive changes in the way English was taught at secondary school, making it significantly more communicative and effective.

2.5.2. Weaknesses of the new textbooks On the other hand, the teachers also found a number of problems with the new books, for example:  Challenging for students in rural and remote areas.  Challenging for teachers if they do not continue to improve their language knowledge, skills and teaching methods.  Teaching grammar non-communicatively.  Teaching too many grammar structures in one unit.  Difficult and long reading texts.  Difficult listening materials.  Inadequate number of communicative speaking activities.  Deskilling teachers because there is no room for creativity

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 More workload for teachers because the contents are more difficult and teachers take more time to prepare their lessons.  Inauthentic language.  Unhelpful teacher’s manuals and no reference books for teachers. The teachers also identified several difficulties they had experienced with the books. Most of these difficulties, however, were not caused by the books themselves but were more related to contextual constraints. For example, the most frequently cited difficulty was insufficient time allocation for the English subject. Most teachers reported that they were not able to complete one section in one period of 45 minutes and believed more class hours would have been necessary. Secondly, the teachers also believed that the books were perhaps too challenging for students in rural and remote areas. Students in large urban areas normally have more access to different learning resources, for example libraries, the internet, books, cassette tapes and so on. Their parents may also be able to afford to send them to private language centers for extra English classes. Thus, their English language proficiency levels are generally higher than those of rural students. As a result, they may not have as much difficulty as rural students who are not offered all these favorable conditions when studying the new books. Thus, the teachers requested that MOET “allow for textbook adaptation and localization”, empowering teachers to use textbooks in the way that is most suited to their students.

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However, MOET in fact holds no policies against textbook adaptation and customization. On the contrary, it is clearly specified in the teacher’s manuals of each book that teachers should use the books flexibly and adapt them to suit their particular classrooms. Nevertheless, what might have discouraged teachers from doing so is the fact that the high-stake, external examinations such as end-of-year tests, graduation or university entrance exams are not yet localized. There is only one common test for students throughout the whole country. Thus, teachers are under pressure to cover as much as possible in the books so as to most effectively prepare their students for these exams and they hesitate to adapt the books. On the top of that, many education managers in provincial education services tend to hold a view against textbook adaptation and explicitly request that teachers strictly follow the textbooks. Furthermore, the teachers also mentioned some unfavorable conditions for adopting CLT in their schools such as large class size, passive students, lack of a real need for communication in English and grammar-based tests which had adversely impacted on the teaching and learning. Finally, they also addressed some other issues, for example schools lacking in technology and facilities and teachers lacking in good knowledge of the history, geography, culture and people of English speaking countries. Teacher’s manuals, unfortunately, did not supplement this information. Concerning the discussion of the limitations of these books, it would seem unfair to blame all on the textbook writers, however. Very often, textbook writers work within

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certain constraints. There are parameters set by sponsors or/ and publishers that they have to adhere to. The finished product, therefore, is often a sort of compromise of these competing demands from different stakeholders (Renandya, personal communication). In the case of MOET new books, the writers in fact have been caught between a rock and a hard place. They have to adhere to the curriculum guidelines which set quite high goals to achieve on the one hand, and cater to the varied proficiency levels of the target student population, on the other.

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Chapter 3: Conclusion and implications 3.1. Summary of findings This project aims to analyze and evaluate the new series of English textbooks currently developed and approved by MOET for use in Vietnam’s upper secondary schools. It specifically looks at the methodologies and contents of the books with a view to proposing implications for textbook authors and teachers who have been and will be using the books. To start with, findings show that the books generally present substantial improvements over the old ones in a great number of aspects. First and foremost, they are more communicative in the sense that they cater for all four language skills development. The old textbooks, in contrast, focus mostly on reading skills and language contents. What is more, although there is a separate section for practicing each language skill, the books also manage to integrate these skills without overlooking important language contents such as grammar, vocabulary and phonology study. They also manage to cover a wide range of communicative functions and notions, which seems neglected in the old books. Besides, they seem to give due attention to learning strategies development and offer sufficient, regular review and revision which proves useful for students’ independent learning. Finally, the books look more attractive with beautiful visual illustrations and are organized in a clear and helpful manner for both teachers and learners. With all these advantages,

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the books therefore have received favorable considerations and positive comments from teachers who have been using them. Despites the strengths, however, the books also show several limitations. For example, many of their speaking activities are found non-communicative, failing to elicit negotiation of meaning and presenting unrealistic and unnatural discourse. Also, guidance is not always available for students to complete tasks and socio-cultural information is not included for learning the rules of speaking in the target language. Writing tasks sometimes do not specify readership and text types, thus confusing students and teachers. In receptive skills practice, emphasis tends to be placed more on literal processing than deep processing of information, thus unrealistically reflecting real world communication. Finally, the teaching of language contents does not correspond with current theories of second language acquisition. In most instances, forms are taught mechanically but not via tasks and consciousness-raising activities, making it hard for rule internalization. Unfortunately, these shortcomings might have made the books less communicative than they would have been expected and intended to be. Other limitations as reported by teachers, for example, overloaded contents for the student population in disadvantaged areas and unhelpful teacher’s manuals, also tend to impact on the effective application of the books.

3.2. Implications In conclusion, the findings of this study tend to suggest that despite a number of shortcomings, the new series of textbooks can still make effective instructional 57

materials for Vietnamese upper secondary school teachers and learners in the current situation. The problematic aspects of the books, however, can be modified, adapted, replaced or/ and supplemented so that the books correspond more closely with the aims of the teaching and learning program and the true needs of different classrooms. Looking at the implications that it contributes to ELT in general, this study has made another case for material evaluation and adaptation. As Cunningsworth (1984: 89) has pointed out: “no coursebook will be totally suited to a particular teaching situation. The teacher will have to find his own way of using it and adapting it if necessary. So we should not be looking for the perfect coursebook which meets all our requirement, but rather for the best possible fit between what the coursebook offers and what we as teachers and students need.” Therefore, textbook beneficiaries including both teachers and education managers need to develop proper attitudes towards textbook use. Textbooks should not be seen as the Bible but only guidelines for teachers. They should not be viewed as an absolute authority which teachers need to completely depend on. On the contrary, they should be used in a way that empowers teachers and enriches their professional experience. Until then, they might hardly bring out the most effective outcomes for the teaching and learning process.

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References Allwright, R. (1982). 'What Do We Want Teaching Materials For?' ELT Journal (36) 1, 8-12. Bardovi-Harlig, K. (2001). Evaluating the empirical evidence: Grounds for instruction in pragmatics? In K. Rose & G. Kasper (Eds.). Pragmatics in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Bardovi-Harlig, K., Hartford, B., Mahan-Taylor, R., Morgan, M., & Reynolds, D. (1991). Developing pragmatic awareness: Closing the conversation. ELT Journal 45 (1), 4-15. Bouton, L. F. (1996). Pragmatics and Language Learning. University of Illinois, UrbanaChampaign: Division of English as an International Language. Boxer, D., & Pickering, L. (1995). Problems in the presentation of speech acts in ELT materials: the case of complaints. ELT Journal 49 (1), 44-58. Brazil, D., Coulthart, M. and John, C. (1980). Discourse Intonation and Language Teaching. Longman. Brown, P., & Levinson, S. (1978). Universals in language usage: Politeness phenomena. In E. Goody (Ed), Questions and Politeness: Strategies in Social Interaction. Cambridge: CUP. Brown, P., & Levinson, S. (1987). Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: CUP. Carrell, D. and J. Korwitz. (1994). Using Concordancing Techniques to Study Gender Stereotyping in ELT Textbooks in J. Sunderland (ed.). Exploring Gender: Questions and Implications for English Language Education. Prentice Hall International. Cathcart, R. (1989). Authentic Discourse and the Survival English Curriculum. TESOL Quarterly 23(1): 105-126 Clarke, J. and M. Clarke. (1990). Stereotyping in TESOL Materials. In B. Harrison (Ed.). Culture and the Language Classroom. ELT Documents 132. Modern English Publications/British Council. Crandall, E. & Basturkmen, H. (2004). Evaluating pragmatics-focused materials. ELT Journal 58 (1), 38-49. Cunningsworth, A. (1995). Choosing your coursebook. Oxford: Heinemann. Day, R. (2003). Authentic Materials: A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing. Guidelines: A Magazine for Language Teachers 25 (2), 21-24. RELC publication. Denham P. (1992). English in Vietnam. World Englishes 11 (1), 61-69.

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Do H. T. (1999). Foreign Language Education Policy in Vietnam: the emergence of English and its impact on higher education. Paper presented at Fourth International Conference on Language and Development, Hanoi Oct 1999. Ellis, R. (1994). The Study of Second Language Acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Ellis, R. 1997. The Empirical Evaluation of Language Teaching Materials. ELT Journal (51) 1, 36-42. Ellis, R. (2003). Task-based Language Teaching and Learning. Oxford: OUP. Gilbert, P. and Rowe, K. (1989). Gender Literacy and the Classroom. Victoria: Australia Reading Association. Hartman, P.L. and Judd, E.L. (1978). Sexism and TESOL Materials. TESOL Quarterly 12, 383-393. Hinkel, E. (1996). When in Rome: Evaluations of L2 pragmalinguistic behaviour. Journal of Pragmatics 26 (1), 51-70. Hoang V.V., Nguyen, T.C., Hoang, X.H. (2006). Innovating ELT Methodology in Vietnam’s Upper secondary school. Hanoi: Education Publisher. Kasper, G. (1997). Can Pragmatic Competence be Taught? (NFLRC Net Work #6) [HTML Document]. Honolulu: University of Hawaii. Second Language Teaching and Curriculum Centre. Retrieved September 21, 2002, from the World Wide Web: http://www.nflrc.hawaii.edu/NetWorks/NW06/ Le V.C. (2007). Teachers’ Beliefs about Curricular Innovation in Vietnam: A Preliminary Study. Featured presentation at 5th Asia TEFL Annual Conference, June 7-8, 2007, Malaysia. Levis, J. (1999). Intonation in Theories and Practice Revisited. TESOL Quarterly 33 (1), 37-63. Long, M. H. (2000). Focus on form in task-based language teaching. In R. D. Lambert and E. Shohamy (Eds.), Language policy and pedagogy: Essays in honor of A. Ronald Walton. Philadephia: John Benjamins. Ministry of Education and Training. 2006. The English curriculum for the secondary school. Hanoi: Education Publisher. Nguyen, B. & Crabbe, D. (1999). The design and use of English language textbooks in Vietnamese secondary schools. Paper presented at Fourth International Conference on Language and Development, Hanoi Oct 1999. Nguyen, M. (2005). Criticizing and responding to criticism in a foreign language: A study of Vietnamese learners of English. Unpublished doctoral thesis. Auckland: University of Auckland. Prodromou, L. (1988). English as Cultural Action. ELT Journal 42 (2), 73-83.

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Alptekin, C. (1993). Target Language Culture in EFL Materials. ELT Journal 47 (2), 136-143. Renner, C. (1997). Women are busy, tall and beautiful: Looking at sexism in the EFL Materials. Paper presented at Annual Meeting of the Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. Orlando FL, March 11-15. Richards, J. (2005). The Role of Textbooks in a Language Program. Retrieved from the WWW Nov 2007 at http://www.professorjackrichards.com/work.htm. Siegal, M. (1996). The role of learner subjectivity in second language sociolinguistic Sheldon, L.E. (1988). Evaluating ELT Textbooks and Materials. ELT Journal 42 (4). Skehan, P. (1996). A framework for the implementation of task-based instruction. Applied Linguistics, 17, 38-62. Vellenga, H. (2004). Learning Pragmatics from ESL & EFL Textbooks: How Likely? TESL-EJ 8 (2). Retrieved June 27, 2004, at http://www-writing.berkeley.edu/TESLEJ/ej30/a3.html. Wolfson, N. (1988). Perspectives: Sociolinguistics and TESOL. Cambridge, MA: Newbury House. Yule, G., Matthis, T. and Hopkins, M. (1992). On reporting what was said. ELT Journal 46 (3). Willis, J. (1996). A Flexible Framework for Task-based Learning. In Willis, D. and Willis, J. (eds). Challenge and Change in Language Teaching. Oxford: Heinemann.

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Appendices Appendix 1: Textbook evaluation checklists Quick-reference checklist Aims, approaches and principles 1. Do the aims of the book correspond closely with the aims of the teaching program and with the needs of the learners? 2. What approach/ approaches to language learning are taken by the book? Is this appropriate to the learning/ teaching situation? 3. Does the book make its guiding principles clear? Design and organization 4. What components make up the total course package (e.g. students’ books, teachers’ books, workbooks, cassettes, etc.)? 5. How is the content organized (e.g. according to structures, functions, topics, skills, etc.)? 6. How is the content sequenced (e.g. on the basis of complexity, ‘learnability’, usefulness, etc.)? 7. Is there adequate revision? Is some of the material suitable for individual study? 8. Is it easy to find your way around the book? Is the layout clear? Topic 9. Is there enough variety and range of topic? 10. Are the topics sophisticated enough in content, yet within the learners’ language level? 11. Will your students be able to relate to the social and cultural contexts presented in the book? Skills and language contents 12. Are all four skills adequately covered, bearing in mind your course aims and syllabus requirements? 13. Is there material for integrated skills work? 14. Does the book include material for language work (grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation)?

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Teachers’ books 15. Is there adequate guidance for the teachers who will be using the book and its supporting materials? E.g. do teachers’ books adequately cover teaching techniques, language items such as grammar rules and culture-specific information? 16. Do the writers set out and justify the basic premises and principles underlying the material? 17. Are keys to exercises given? Checklist for communicativeness General evaluation 1. Does the book claim to be communicative in its aims and objectives? 2. Is the syllabus of the book primarily communicative (e.g. by using communicative activities, functions etc. as its primary units)? 3. Is there reference to communicative methodology? 4. Is there evidence that the design of the book is influenced by communicative considerations (e.g. emphasis given to communicative activities, use of authentic materials and realistic tasks?) The teaching of listening skills 5. What kind of listening material is contained in the course? 6. Is the listening material set in a meaningful context? 7. Are there pre-listening tasks, questions, etc? The teaching of speaking skills 8. What kind of material for speaking is contained in the course? This may include oral presentation and practice of language items, dialogues, role plays, communication activities (information gap)? 9. What elements of genuine communication are present (unpredictability; opportunities to express real information, feelings, opinions, etc.; opportunities for learners to structure their own discourse; need to formulate and use communicative strategies; emphasis on co-operation between speakers in communicative interaction)? 10. At the appropriate level, does the book include material that reflects the nature of communicative interaction in respect of structure of discourse in interactions (including openers, confirmation checkers, pre-closers, etc.); complexity of structure; range of appropriate lexis; features such as fillers and incomplete sentences; roles of speakers in interaction? 11. Does the material help learners in the skill of turn taking in conversations? 63

12. Is any other help given with the organization and structuring of conversations or other spoken interactions? The teaching of reading skills 13. Is the reading text used for introducing new language items (grammar and vocabulary), consolidating language work, etc.? 14. Is there a focus on the reading development of reading skills and strategies? 15. Is the reading material linked to other skills work? 16. How long are texts? Do they encourage intensive/ extensive reading? 17. How authentic are texts? 18. What text types are used? Are they appropriate? 19. Does the material help comprehension by, for example, setting the scene, providing background information, giving pre-reading questions? 20. What kinds of comprehension questions are asked? Literal (surface) questions? Discourse-processing questions? Inference questions? The teaching of writing skills 21. How does the material handle controlled writing, guided writing, and free or semi-free writing? 22. Is there appropriate progression and variety of tasks? 23. Are the conventions of different sorts of writing taught? If so, which ones and how are they presented? 24. How much emphasis is there on accuracy? Is attention given to the language resources specific to the written form, such as punctuation, spelling, layout etc.? 25. Are learners encouraged to review and edit their written work? 26. Is readership identified for writing activities? The teaching of grammar 27. How are new grammar items presented and practiced? 28. Is there an emphasis on language form? 29. Is there an emphasis on language use (meaning)? 30. How balanced is the treatment of form and use? 31. Are newly introduced items related to and contrasted with items already familiar to the learners? 32. Where one grammatical form has more than one meaning (e.g. the present continuous), are all relevant meanings taught (not necessarily together)?

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The teaching of vocabulary 33. Is vocabulary-learning material included in its own right? If so, how prominent is it? Is it central to the course or peripheral? 34. How much vocabulary is taught? How much new vocabulary is presented in each unit, text, etc.? 35. Is there any principled basis for selection of vocabulary? 36. How is new vocabulary presented (e.g. in word lists, in a text, with visuals)? Is vocabulary presented in a structured, purposeful way? 37. Does the material enable students to expand their own vocabularies independently by helping them to develop their own learning strategies? 38. Is new vocabulary recycled adequately? The teaching of phonology 39. How thoroughly and systematically are each of the following aspects of the phonological system covered: articulation of individual sounds, words in contact (e.g. assimilation), word stress, weak forms, sentence stress, intonation? 40. Where phonology is taught selectively, is the emphasis on areas of pronunciation that are important to meet learners’ needs and help avoid misunderstanding? 41. Is the pronunciation work built on to other types of work, such as listening, dialogue practice etc. or does it stand separately? 42. How much terminology is used? Is it comprehensible to the learners? 43. Is the phonemic alphabet used? If so, are students given any training in learning it? 44. Does the material use a diagrammatic system to show stress and intonation? 45. Are there cassettes for pronunciation practice? If so, do they provide good models for learners?

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Appendix 2: Teachers’ survey Phiếu điều tra Phiếu điều tra sau đây giúp chúng tôi thu thập ý kiến giáo viên và chuyên viên về Sách giáo khoa (SGK) mới bộ chuẩn (dùng cho Ban A và đại trà). Đề nghị Ông/ Bà cho ý kiến trung thực để điều tra của chúng tôi đạt kết quả chính xác nhất có thể. Để đảm bảo tính khách quan và bảo mật thông tin, chúng tôi không yêu cầu Ông/Bà tiết lộ danh tính trả lời câu hỏi. Xin chân thành cảm ơn Ông/ Bà Phần thông tin cá nhân Giới tính (khoanh tròn): Nam

Nữ

Tuổi (ghi rõ): ........................

Nghề nghiệp (khoanh tròn):

Giáo viên

Chuyên viên Sở/ Phòng GD

Ông/ Bà tốt nghiệp (đánh dấu x):
ĐH chính quy tiếng Anh
ĐH tại chức tiếng Anh
Chuyên ngành 2 tiếng Anh
Lựa chọn khác (xin nêu rõ ..........................................................................................) Ông/ Bà đã dạy học được .................. năm, trong đó số năm dạy tiếng Anh là ........................ (ghi rõ) Ông/ Bà đã dùng Sách giáo khoa tiếng Anh mới bộ chuẩn được ........................... năm (ghi rõ) Phần đánh giá sách giáo khoa Theo Ông/ Bà SGK mới bộ chuẩn (Quyển 10, 11, 12) có những ưu điểm gì so với bộ SGK cũ (hệ 3 và 10 năm)?

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Theo Ông/ Bà SGK mới bộ chuẩn (Quyển 10, 11, 12) có nhược điểm gì so với bộ SGK cũ (hệ 3 và 10 năm)?

Ông/ Bà gặp những khó khăn gì khi sử dụng SGK mới bộ chuẩn?

Đề nghị Ông/ Bà cho biết ít nhất 3 điểm mà Ông/ Bà hài lòng nhất về SGK mới bộ chuẩn

Đề nghị Ông/ Bà cho biết ít nhất 3 điểm mà Ông/ Bà không hài lòng nhất về SGK mới bộ chuẩn

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