i I certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled: “An evaluation of the material English in Medicine for the third-year students at Hai Phong Medical University” in terms of Statement for thesis and Field Study Reports in Masters’ Programs Issued by the Higher Degree Committee Vu Thi Hanh June, 2009 ii First and foremost, I would like to express my profound gratitude to Ms Pham Minh Tam - my supervisor, who during the preparation of this thesis has been most willing and ready to give me valuable advice, inspiration and supervision I also acknowledge my sincere thanks to Mr Le Van Canh for his interesting lessons and suggestions My appreciation and gratitude are also extended to my students at Hai Phong Medical University for their enthusiastic help in the data collection procedures; my colleagues for their encouragement and support I am grateful to the authors of the reference materials whose ideas have inspired me throughout the writing process Finally, I would like to convey my thanks to my family and my friends without whom the completion of this thesis had been impossible iii While ESP materials have played an increasingly important role at Vietnamese universities, the process of ESP material design and evaluation has not become any easier for most teachers and administrators This thesis describes the evaluation that was undertaken at Hai Phong Medical University for its ESP material “English in Medicine” which has been used for the third-year students since 1996 The purpose of this study was to evaluate the material English in Medicine in terms of Objectives, Layout, Content and Methodology from both students’ and teachers’ perspectives The thesis employed the survey approach with two research methods, i.e survey questionnaire and informal interview The survey results indicated that English in Medicine had such great strengths as it met the course objectives; its subject areas covered interesting and fundamental topics which were of students’ interest However, the findings also revealed a lot of weaknesses of the material In terms of Objectives, it failed to meet students’ needs due to the lack of listening and speaking skills With regard to Layout, it not only had an unfavourable format but also lacked a table of content, references… Its Methodology was another weakness of the material due to an unbalance of the skills and inadequacy of exercises and activities After identifying strengths and weaknesses of the material, the thesis suggests some improvements of the material basing on the findings of the research, such as reediting the format, adding listening and speaking skills, providing more exercises, adapting the activities…These improvements are expected to make consideration contributions to the future use of the material as well as the ESP course at Hai Phong Medical University iv Certificate of originality of the thesis ……………………………………………………….i Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………………ii Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………….iii Table of contents………………………………………………………………………… iv Abbreviations…………………………………………………………………………… vii List of figures…………………………………………………………………………… viii !" 1.1 Rationale for the study 1.2 Aims of the study 1.3 Significance of the study 1.4 Scope of the study 1.5 Methodology 1.6 Organization of the study # $ " % & 2.1 Introduction 2.1 An overview of English for Specific Purposes 2.1.1 Definitions of ESP 2.1.2 Characteristics of ESP courses .6 2.1.3 English for Medical Purposes (EMP) .7 2.2 Material evaluation 2.2.1 Definitions of materials 2.2.2 Definitions of material evaluation 2.2.3 Types of material evaluation 2.2.4 Purposes of material evaluation .9 2.2.5 Models for material evaluation .10 v 2.2.6 Methods of material evaluation 12 2.2.7 Criteria for material evaluation .13 2.3 Material adaptation .15 2.3.1 Purposes of adaptation 15 2.3.2 Areas for adaptation .15 2.3.3 Techniques for adaptation 16 ' ( ! $ )* 18 3.1 Introduction 18 3.2 The current ESP teaching and learning situation at HPMU 18 3.2.1 The context 18 3.2.2 The course objectives 18 3.2.3 The material description 19 3.3 Research question 20 3.4 Research approach 20 3.5 Participants 21 3.5.1 Population .21 3.5.2 Sampling 21 3.5.3 Description 21 3.6 Instruments 22 3.6.1 Questionnaires 22 3.6.2 Informal interviews 22 3.7 Data collection procedure 23 3.8 Data analysis procedure 23 3.9 Conclusive remark .23 vi + ,"$ , ! ! , ",, 24 4.1 Objectives 24 4.2 Layout 24 4.3 Content .25 4.4 Methodology 26 - 29 $", 5.1 Summary of major findings 29 5.2 Recommendations 29 5.2.1 Objectives adjustments 29 5.2.2 Layout improvements 30 5.2.3 Content improvements 30 5.3.4 Methodology improvements 31 5.3 Limitations of the study .33 , 34 ! , I !/ , "! I ,0 ," % * 1" , ! / # 1" , , IV ! / ' , "! !, $*, , ,"$ , VIII ! / + , "! ,0 / % $" $*, , IX ! /- ,0 / % $" $*, , X vii HPMU Hai Phong Medical University ESP English for Specific Purpose EMP English for Medical Purposes viii $ Figure 1……………………………………………………………………………………16 Figure 2……………………………………………………………………………………27 Figure 3……………………………………………………………………………………27 !" 1.1 Rationale for the study The dilemma of choosing appropriate English for Special Purposes (ESP) materials for Vietnamese university students is an ongoing one According to Tran (2008) in the report of English teaching in universities non-major in English, “82.1% ESP textbooks used in non-major in English universities are collected and edited, which needs assessment and evaluation” (p.10) This is the case for Hai Phong Medical University (HPMU) The material English in Medicine for the third-year students at HPMU is also an edited collection from various sources It has been used at HPMU for 13 years but no evaluation or consultation has been conducted by the university either prior to the introduction of the material or ongoing to determine its strengths and weaknesses and to see how well it suited the desired and attainable goals of the course Evaluating it helps the teachers to gain good and useful insights into the nature of the material The teachers can also respond to the students’ needs and maximize their learning opportunities This is the first reason for me to carry out an evaluation of the material English in Medicine Furthermore, Cunningsworth (1995) and Ellis (1997) suggest that textbook evaluation helps teachers move beyond impressionistic assessments and it helps them to acquire useful, accurate, systematic, and contextual insights into the overall nature of textbook material Textbook evaluation, therefore, can potentially be a particularly worthwhile means of conducting research as well as a form of professional empowerment and improvement This is another reason for me to execute the research Conducting this study is a great opportunity for me to discover the teachers and students’ perceptions about the material and gain some experience in evaluating materials 1.2 Aims of the study This study aims to evaluate the material English in Medicine in terms of its Objectives, Layout, Content and Methodology from both the teachers’ and the students’ perspectives The findings will help the teachers to adjust the exploitation of the material as well as their teaching method so that they can make optimum use of strong points and adapt or substitute weaker points from other medical materials 1.3 Significance of the study The study is hoped to be beneficial to both the teachers and the students at HPMU in several ways First, it increases the knowledge and understanding of individual English teachers regarding the aims and purposes of the course and the coursebook Second, it helps the teachers understand the students’ opinion, get their feedback, therefore, can either adjust their ways of teaching or adapt the material to provide their students opportunities to learn From the perspective of methodology, it is an effective way of helping teachers to understand and apply theories of language learning - and to achieve personal and professional development (Tomlinson, 2001, p 67) From a research perspective, it highlights the necessity of doing further research on teachers' materials adaptation to be more appropriate Finally, this study implies a need of institutional support to teachers in materials development An awareness needs to be developed among administrators of HPMU to encourage and empower teachers of English to adapt the material Provision of resources and facilities would be necessary 1.4 Scope of the study As a minor thesis, this study limits itself to evaluating only four aspects of the material, namely Objectives, Layout, Content and Methodology among a great number of book evaluation criteria Besides, the evaluation on the material objectives is done by only the teachers, not the students as they are believed to be not qualified enough to that or the potential findings are of poor validity 1.5 Methodology This thesis employs survey research with two methods, including survey questionnaires and informal interviews These methods are described in detailed in chapter 32 have the benefit of practicing all the language skills in an integrated, natural, communicative way, even if reading skill still remains the main focus of the course Then, it is advisable to add a wider range and larger quantity of activities including pair and group work to drill the skills as well as to promote social interaction Nevertheless, creating these activities must be very careful, as Jacobs and Ball (1996) have pointed out, not all group work promotes learning "In some ELT [text]books, group activities appear to have been created merely by putting the words 'in groups' or 'in pairs' in front of what were formerly individual activities, without making any changes to encourage learners to cooperate with one another Such instructions may suffice in some situations, but for effective interactions to take place students will generally need more guidance and encouragement." (p.99) In the case of English in Medicine and in such large classes, creating meaningful pair and group work would present the teachers with practical, logistical, and organizational difficulties among which types of activities are the most challenging ones due to the text types The possible solution would be adding or replacing some texts with dialogues on the same topic (taken from the book “Focus on Medical English” (1997) or other sources) These dialogues can be used for role-play or discussion, for example, taking a history or making a diagnosis etc Through these activities, the students would also involve in the writing process (i.e note-taking) Finally, more activities for reading should be added to make the reading skills the main focus of the course in conformity with the course objectives The activities could be of various types as followed: • Scanning to locate specifically required information (e.g What the following numbers refer to?) • Surveying the text (e.g Which of the following are included in the text: symptoms, indication, treatment?) • Using the title (e.g Look at the title of the following text, ask questions that you hope the text will answer Read the texts and try to answer your questions) • Word meanings from context (e.g What does “thrombosis” mean?) 33 • Contributing to the main idea (e.g Underline the sentence that does not contribute to the main idea) 5.3 Limitations of the study It should be acknowledged that there are some limitations of this research There may be some problems with the use of the questionnaires although they were not used as the only source of information The credibility of the information generated from the questionnaires is questionable, as it relies, like all instruments of this kind, on the truthfulness and proper understanding of the respondents In addition, this research investigated the evaluation of the teachers who are also the material developers as well as course designers, thus their opinions might be subjective and conservative Hence, the course objectives are doubted to be developed after the material selection What’s more, the interviews with the students may not have expressed the precise results due to the relationship between teacher and students It would have been more reliable if the interviewer had not been their teacher Last but not least, the convenience sampling only chooses the students in the author’s classes, it does not represent the entire population so it is considered bias However, in spite of the above limitations, the research provides a basis for investigating further which aspects teachers feel most difficult and need help in adapting the material A more detailed and deep research is made possible with this research as a useful starting point 34 Alderson, J C & Beretta, A (1992) Evaluating Second Language Education.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Almagro, A., Luisa, M (2005) A authenticity in the teaching of ESP: An evaluation proposal Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses, 15, 7-21 Alptekin, C (1993) Target-Language Culture in EFL Materials ELT Journal 47(2) Apple, M., Jungck, S (1990) You don’t have to be a teacher to teach this unit Teaching, technology, and gender in the classroom American Educational Research Journal, 27 (2), 227-51 Brown, J D (1995) The elements of language curriculum: A systematic approach to program development New York: Heinle & Heinle Publishers Bruning, R H., Schraw, G J., & Ronning, R R (1999) Cognitive Psychology and Instruction Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall Cunningsworth, A (1984) Evaluating and Selecting EFL Teaching Materials London: Heinemann Cunningsworth, A (1995), Choosing your coursebook London: Macmillan Dudley-Evans, T., (1998) Developments in ESP: A multi-disciplinary approach Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Ellis, R (1992) Second language adquisition and language pedagogy Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ellis, R (1997) The Empirical Evaluation of Language Teaching Materials ELT Journal 51 (1) Eric, H G, Beverly A H (1987) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Gillham, B (2000) Developing A Questionnaire London: Continuum Harmer, J (2007) The Practice of English Language Teaching (4th ed.) Harlow: Longman Hull, M (2004) Changing The Paradigm For Medical English Language Teaching International Symposium of English for Medical Purposes in Beijing, China 35 Hutchinson, T & Waters A (1984) How communicative is ESP? ELT Journal, 38(2), 108- 113 Hutchinson, T & Waters, A (1987) English for specific purposes: A learning-centred approach Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Hutchinson, T (1987) What’s underneath? An interactive of materials evaluation In L E Sheldon (Ed.) Johns, Ann M & Dudley-Evans, T (1991) English for Specific Purposes: International in Scope, Specific in Purpose TESOL Quarterly 25 (2), 297-314 Littljohn, A (1998) The Analysis of Language Teaching Materials inside the Trojan Horse in Tomlison, B (eds.) Materials Developments in Language Teaching Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Litz, D.R.A (2005) Textbook evaluation and ELT management In ELT Journal 37(3) Low, G (1987) The need for a multi-perspective approach to the evaluation of foreign language teaching materials Evaluation and Research in Education, 1(1), 19-29 Mathews, A (1985) Choosing the best available textbook, in A Matthews, M Spratt & L Dangerfield (eds.) At the Chalkfnce : Practical Techniques in Language Teaching, London : Edward Arnold Nunan, D (1989) Designing tasks for the communicative classroom Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Nunan, D (1991) Language teaching methodology London: Prentice Hall International Rossner, R., Bolitho R (eds.) (1990) Currents of Change in English Language Teaching Oxford: Oxford University Press Shannon, P (1987) Commercial reading materials, a technological ideology, and the deskilling of teachers The Elementary School Journal, 87 (3), 307-29 Sheldon, L (1988) Evaluating ELT textbooks and materials ELTJ, 42(4), 237-46 Swales, J (1980) ESP: The textbook problem ESP Journal, 1(1), 11-23 Tr n Th Hà (2008) Báo cáo v tình hình d y h c ti ng Anh tr không chuyên ng Hà N i: B Giáo d c t o ng ih c 36 Tomlinson, B (1998) Materials development in language teaching Cambridge CUP Tomlinson, B (2001) Connecting the mind: a multi-dimensional approach to teaching language through literature The English Teacher 4(2), 105-115 Tr n c (1997) Ch i m ti ng Anh ngành y Hanoi: Publish house of Medicine Ur P (1991) A course in language teaching: Practice and theory Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (51)1 Williams, D (1983) Developing Criteria for Textbook Evaluation In ELT Journal 37(3), 251-255 I 66 66 , 5 85 B n câu h i nh m l y ý ki n sinh viên t i tr ng i h c Y H i Phòng v tài li u ti ng Anh ang s d ng: English in Medicine Mong b n vui lòng tr l i câu h i d i ây d a tình hình th c t c a b n t i tr y ng Nh ng ý ki n óng góp c a b n s r t có giá tr q trình nghiên c u ánh giá giáo trình c ng nh vi c s a i giáo trình Xin chân thành c m n tr l i câu h i d i ây, b n ánh d u vào tr ng thích h!p và/ho"c i n vào ch# tr ng Nhu c u h c ti ng Anh chun ngành B n có thích h c ti ng Anh chuyên ngành? T i sao? Có, b$i Khơng, b$i B n có cho r ng s s d ng ti ng Anh cơng vi c sau khơng? Có Khơng Hãy ánh s th t t% (quan tr ng nh t) n (không quan tr ng) cho k& n ng sau ây: c vi t nghe nói Theo b n, ph n tr m th i l !ng gi h c nên s d ng cho m#i k& n ng? c……% vi t……% B n mong mu n h c nghe ……% nói ……% !c nh ng khố h c ti ng Anh chuyên ngành này? B n thích h c/làm c l'p hay theo c"p ho"c nhóm? B n có thích dùng giáo trình h c khơng? T i sao? II Nh n xét v giáo trình 1/ Hình th c trình bày !c in s ch (p rõ ràng Giáo trình úng Sai Giáo trình có hình minh ho , s , bi u úng Sai Giáo trình nêu rõ m c tiêu h c t'p úng Sai Giáo trình có ph n m c l c nêu n i dung, c u trúc ng pháp t% v ng c a t%ng úng M#i Sai u có tiêu h ng d)n c th , d h c úng Giáo trình có Sai t'p, ơn t'p ki m tra úng Sai Giáo trình có ph n t% v ng y phiên âm, d ch ngh*a, t% lo i úng Sai 2/ N i dung Ch c a giáo trình phù h!p v i nhu c u h c ti ng Anh chuyên ngành c a b n úng Ch Sai c a giáo trình th c t h u ích cho công vi c c a b n sau úng 10 Ch Sai c a giáo trình thú v , khó nh ng h p d)n úng 11 Ch Sai c a giáo trình a d ng, phong phú úng 12 Giáo trình có Sai b n k& n ng nghe, nói, úng 13 Giáo trình tr ng c, vi t Sai n k& n ng nh , ch+ng h n c k& tìm thơng tin úng Sai c nhanh tìm ý chính, III 14 B n có cho có nhi u t% m i m#i khơng? Có Khơng !c s,p x p theo th t t% d 15 Các n khó úng Sai 16 Giáo trình nh th so v i trình Khó 3/ Ph ti ng Anh c a b n? D Phù h!p ng pháp 17 Giáo trình t'p trung vào k& n ng d c 18 Giáo trình có nghe y vi t lo i ho t nói Sai ng bao g m c làm vi c c l'p, làm vi c theo c"p nhóm úng 20 Ng pháp t% v ng ánh d u nhi u ô) ng úng 19 Các ho t i ây? (Có th Sai !c a vào ng c nh th c t úng Sai ng khuy n khích s sáng t o c l'p úng Sai 21 Các ho t 22 Giáo trình t'p trung vào k& n ng mà c n luy n t'p úng Sai 4/ ánh giá chung 23 Giáo trình làm t ng h ng thú h c ti ng Anh chuyên ngành c a b n úng 24 N u Sai !c l a ch n, b n có ch n h c cu n sách khơng? Có, b$i vì……………………………………………………………………… Khơng, b$i vì………………………………………………………………… 25 B n có ki n ngh v giáo trình này? ………………… ……………………………………………………………………… Xin chân thành c m n! IV 66 # 15 This questionnaire is designed to collect ideas of teachers of English teaching at English Department at Hai Phong Medical University on the currently-used material English in Medicine Please answer the following questions carefully Your opinions would be valuable to the evaluation research and the improvement of the material Your cooperation is highly appreciated Thank you very much To answer the survey questions below, please tick the box (es) appropriate and/or fill in the blanks 1/Objectives Which of the following objectives does the material contain? • name the organs in human body • describe these organs in terms of structures, location, functions and properties • describe a number of diseases, their causes, indications and treatment • give and follow instructions • acquire reading skills to read easy medical documents • understand diagrams and common medical abbreviations • define the medical terms and abbreviations presented by memory Which of the following objectives can your students achieve after learning this material? • name the organs in human body • describe these organs in terms of structures, location, functions and properties • describe a number of diseases, their causes, indications and treatment • give and follow instructions • acquire reading skills to read easy medical documents • understand diagrams and common medical abbreviations V • define the medical terms and abbreviations presented by memory Do you think that the material objectives truly reflect the course objectives? Yes No 2/ Layout Does the material include a detailed overview of the functions, structures and vocabulary that will be taught in each unit? Yes No Is the Layout appropriate and clear? Yes No Is the material organized effectively? Yes No Is an adequate vocabulary list or glossary included? Yes No Are adequate review sections and exercises included? Yes No Is an adequate set of evaluation quizzes or testing suggestions included? Yes No 10 Are the material objectives apparent to both the teacher and student? Yes No 3/ Content 11 Is the Content of the material relevant to my (students') needs as an English language learner(s)? Yes No 12 Is the Content of the textbook generally realistic? Yes No 13 Is the Content of the textbook interesting, challenging and motivating? Yes No 14 Is the language used in the textbook authentic - i.e like real-life English? Yes No 15 Is the language used at the right level for my students' current English ability? VI Yes No 16 Is the progression of grammar points and vocabulary items appropriate? Yes No 17 Are the grammar points presented with brief and easy examples and explanations? Yes No 18 Do the language functions exemplify English that I/my students will be likely to use? Yes No 19 Does the materials provide an appropriate balance of the four language skills? Yes No 20 Does the textbook pay attention to sub-skills - i.e scanning, skimming…? Yes No 21 Is the practice of individual skills integrated into the practice of other skills? Yes No 4/ Methodology 22 What approach to teaching methodology does the material follow? Communicative Grammar-Translation Task-based Other:……… 23 Does the textbook provide a balance of activities? (Ex There is an even distribution of free vs controlled exercises and tasks that focus on both fluent and accurate production) Yes No 24 Do the activities encourage sufficient communicative and meaningful practice? Yes No 25 Do the activities incorporate individual, pair and group work.? Yes No 26 Are the grammar points and vocabulary items introduced in motivating and realistic contexts? Yes No 27 Do the activities promote creative, original and independent responses? VII Yes No 28 Can the textbook's activities be modified or supplemented easily? Yes No 29 Does the material include and focus on the skills that my students need to practice? Yes No 30 Does the textbook highlight and practice natural pronunciation? (i.e.- stress and intonation) Yes No 5/ Conclusion 31 The textbook is suitable for large, homogeneous, classes of university students Yes No 32 Would you choose to teach this material again? Yes, because………………………………………………………… …………… No, because ……………………………………………………………………… 33 What adjustment should be done to the material? ………………… …………………………………………………………………… ………………… …………………………………………………………………… ………………… …………………………………………………………………… Thank you very much for your time and cooperation! VIII 66 ' , "! !, $*, , ,"$ , Question Yes (%) No (%) No response (%) 75.7 24.3 81.8 18.2 85.1 13.5 1.35 Figure Skills Importance Ranking ! $ $ " # Figure Skills vs Class-Time Distribution IX % & '() '() *+* , + - +- *+ +* , + + , +, + '() + 4+3 - +- - + ,+ * *,+ +* , * + -+ -*+ + - +- + +* *,+ + -+ 14 86.2 33.8 15 52.3 47.7 *+2 + * + * +* , + **+ ,+ +* *+* + 4-+ + , + ,+ *-+ +* 10.2 X 66 7- ,0 / & % '() % $" '() * * - - * - , * * - - - * , , , - - - * , 8 $*, , ... u h c ti ng Anh chun ngành B n có thích h c ti ng Anh chuyên ngành? T i sao? Có, b$i Khơng, b$i B n có cho r ng s s d ng ti ng Anh cơng vi c sau khơng? Có Khơng Hãy... a b n s r t có giá tr q trình nghiên c u ánh giá giáo trình c ng nh vi c s a i giáo trình Xin chân thành c m n tr l i câu h i d i ây, b n ánh d u vào tr ng thích h!p và/ ho"c i n vào ch# tr ng... trình có Sai b n k& n ng nghe, nói, úng 13 Giáo trình tr ng c, vi t Sai n k& n ng nh , ch+ng h n c k& tìm thơng tin úng Sai c nhanh tìm ý chính, III 14 B n có cho có nhi u t% m i m#i khơng? Có