MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY - VO QUOC DAI TEXTBOOK EVALUATION: AN INVESTIGATION INTO VECTORY 01 Submitted to the Faculty of English Language in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in English Language Course code: 60220201 HO CHI MINH CITY, March /2018 CERTIFICATION OF THESIS DEFENSE THE THESIS WAS WRITTEN AT HOCHIMINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY Academic supervisor’s name : Dr Nguyễn Thanh Bình The thesis defense session was conducted at Hochiminh City University of Technology (HUTECH) on April 6th, 2018 The Board of Examiners for the Master’s Thesis Defense TT NAME FUNCTION Dr Nguyễn Thị Kiều Thu Chair Dr Phạm Nguyễn Huy Hoàng Reader Dr Lê Văn Tuyên Reader Dr Nguyễn Đăng Nguyên Member Dr Lê Thị Thanh Secretary Member On behalf of the Board of Examiners Chair Nguyễn Thị Kiều Thu, Ph.D HCMC UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY HCMC, May 2, 2018 POSTGRADUATE INSTITUTE MASTER’S THESIS TASK REPORT Student name: Võ Quốc Đại Date of birth: December 11th 1985 Major: English Language Sex : Male Place of birth: Ho Chi Minh city Student code: 1641900005 I- Thesis title: Textbook Evaluation: An Investigation into ‘Vectory 01’ II- Task description and contents: This research study evaluates Vectory 01, an official textbook used for students in an English Center in Hochiminh City, Vietnam The empirical evaluation was conducted based on data collected from 50 teachers and 104 students at Vectory English Center in the form of questionnaires and semi-structured interviews The purpose of the study is to find out the users’ views on the textbook, its impact on users and the users’ recommendations for improvement III- Starting date: August 1st, 2017 IV- Completing date: April 6th , 2018 V- Academic supervisor: Dr Nguyễn Thanh Bình SUPERVISOR Nguyễn Thanh Bình, Ph.D FACULTY DEAN Nguyễn Thị Kiều Thu, Ph.D CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I certify my authorship of the Master’s Thesis submitted today entitled: TEXTBOOK EVALUATION: AN INVESTIGATION INTO VECTORY 01 In terms of the statement of requirements for Theses in Master’s programs issued by the Higher Degree Committee of Faculty of English Language, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology Ho Chi Minh City, March 2018 VO QUOC DAI i RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that I, VO QUOC DAI, being a candidate for the degree of Master of Arts (English Language) accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master‟ s Theses deposited in the Library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my Master’s Thesis deposited in the Library should be accessible for purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Librarian for the care, loan, and reproduction for theses Ho Chi Minh City, March 2018 Signature VO QUOC DAI ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am deeply indebted to a number of people and organizations in the process of conducting this study I would first like to express my deepest gratitude to Dr Nguyen Thanh Binh, my supervisor, for his patience, guidance, insightful advice, and constant encouragement through the whole research process Without his support, excellent feedback and guidance, this thesis would never have been completed I also greatly thank Dr Nguyen Thi Kieu Thu for her continuous support and guidance whenever I need any advice I am grateful to Mr Le Quang Minh, manager of Vectory English Center (Trung tam Anh Ngu Toan Tam) for permission and great support to conduct the research at the center And finally, I would like to sincerely show my gratitude to all the participants who directly or contributed much data to this study iii ABSTRACT This research study evaluates Vectory 01, an official textbook used for students in an English Center in Hochiminh City, Vietnam The empirical evaluation was conducted based on data collected from 50 teachers and 104 students at Vectory English Center in the form of questionnaires, semi-structured interviews The purpose of the study is to find out the users’ views on the textbook, its impact on users and the users’ recommendations for improvement The results of the evaluation show that the textbook is suitable to the teaching and learning context and culture; it offers much help to both teachers and students; it also receives positive feedbacks from teachers and pupils Apart from these merits, Vectory 01 needs to be improved in varying types of activities, providing free practice activities after the controlled ones, supplementing the textbook with language material from different resources such as picture stories, comic strips, etc and providing the supporting resources The findings also indicate that textbook writers should carry out learner needs analysis before writing new textbooks to make sure they meet learners’ needs Key words: ELT; Textbook; Textbook evaluation iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Certificate of originality i Retention and use of the thesis ii Acknowledgements iii Abstract iv Table of contents v Appendices ix List of tables x List of abbreviations x CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background to the study 1.1.1.The importance of English in Vietnam 1.1.2.Governmental Policies towards EFL in Vietnam 1.1.3.ELT at English Centers in Vietnam 1.2 Problem statement 1.3 Research questions 1.4 Purpose of the study 1.5 Scope of the study 1.6 Significance of the study 1.7 Organization of the thesis CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Definition of Textbooks in EFL 2.3 Arguments about the roles of Textbooks in EFL 2.3.1 Advantages of Textbooks 2.3.2 Disadvantages of Textbooks 2.4 Textbook design 2.5 Textbook evaluation 13 2.5.1 Definition of Textbook Evaluation 13 v 2.5.2 Roles of Textbook Evaluation 13 2.5.3 Approaches and Criteria for Textbook Evaluation 14 2.6 Previous Research Studies on Textbook Evaluation 18 2.6.1 On International Textbooks 18 2.6.2 On Textbooks compiled by Vietnamese 22 2.7 Summary 25 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 3.1 Introduction 26 3.2 Research Design 26 3.3 Research site 26 3.4 The textbook ‘Vectory 01’ 27 3.5 Sample and sampling procedures 27 3.5.1 Teachers 27 3.5.2 Students 28 3.6 Research instruments 28 3.6.1.Questionnaire 28 3.6.2.Semi-structured interview 30 3.7 Data collection procedures 31 3.7.1.Questionnaire 31 3.7.2.Semi-structured interview 32 3.8 Data analysis procedures 32 3.8.1 Questionnaire 32 3.8.2.Semi-structured interview 33 3.9 Summary 33 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 4.1 Introduction 34 4.2 Findings 34 4.2.1 Questionnaires 34 vi 4.2.1.1 Teachers 34 4.2.1.1.1 Overall evaluation 34 4.2.1.1.2 Organization and Structure 37 4.2.1.1.3 Activities and Tasks 37 4.2.1.1.4 Language, Vocabulary, Pronunciation, Grammar 40 4.2.1.1.5 Supporting resources 41 4.2.1.1.6 Physical appearance and other features 43 4.2.1.1.7 Summary overview of teachers’ responses 45 4.2.1.2 Students 45 4.2.1.2.1 Overall evaluation 45 4.2.1.2.2 Organization and Structure 47 4.2.1.2.3 Activities and Tasks 48 4.2.1.2.4 Language, Vocabulary, Pronunciation, Grammar 50 4.2.1.2.5 Physical appearance and other features 52 4.2.1.2.6 Summary overview of students’ responses 54 4.2.1.3 Summary of questionnaire findings 54 4.2.2 Semi-structured interviews 55 4.2.2.1 Teachers 55 4.2.2.1.1 Overall evaluation 55 4.2.2.1.2 Organization and Structure 57 4.2.2.1.3 Activities and Tasks 58 4.2.2.1.4 Language, Vocabulary, Pronunciation, Grammar 59 4.2.2.1.5 Supporting resources 60 4.2.2.1.6 Physical appearance and other features 61 4.2.2.1.6 Summary overview of teachers’ interviews 62 4.2.2.2 Students 63 4.2.2.2.1 Overall evaluation 63 4.2.2.2.2 Organization and Structure 64 4.2.2.2.3 Activities and Tasks 65 4.2.2.2.4 Language, Vocabulary, Pronunciation, Grammar 66 4.2.2.2.5 Physical appearance and other features 67 vii Appendix J Sample Scanned Questionnaire (Students) Appendix K Sample Scanned Questionnaire (Teachers) Appendix L List of teacher participants with codes Teacher (coded) Gender Age Years of teaching experience Interview T1 Female 27 Yes T2 Female 34 10 Yes T3 Female 34 Yes T4 Male 37 14 Yes T5 Male 40 15 Yes T6 Male 32 10 Yes T7 Female 29 Yes T8 Male 34 10 Yes T9 Female 37 13 Yes T10 Male 26 Yes T11 Male 36 12 Yes T12 Male 29 Yes T13 Male 25 Yes T14 Male 23 Yes T15 Male 22 months Yes T16 Female 28 Yes T17 Female 26 Yes T18 Male 28 Yes T19 Female 32 10 Yes T20 Male 25 No T21 Male 40 17 No T22 Female 21 months No T23 Male 35 13 No T24 Female 27 No T25 Male 32 10 No T26 Female 25 No T27 Female 33 10 No T28 Male 36 13 No T29 Male 25 No T30 Female 29 No T31 Male 28 No T32 Female 40 18 No T33 Female 26 No T34 Male 38 16 No T35 Male 27 No T36 Female 24 No T37 Male 22 months No T38 Female 24 No T39 Male 29 No T40 Female 30 No T41 Male 25 No T42 Female 24 No T43 Female 34 12 No T44 Male 29 No T45 Male 35 12 No T46 Female 22 months No T47 Male 28 No T48 Female 26 No T49 Male 27 No T50 Male 37 15 No Appendix M A sample lesson from ‘Vectory 01’ LESSON GREETINGS A DIALOG: A: Hi, I’m Dave What’s your name? B: Hi, I’m Mary A: Hello, my name’s Dana Webb This is John Amy B: Nice to meet you I’m Phillip Parker C: Nice to meet you A: Hi, my name is Jason I’m your teacher B PRACTICE  - Good morning - Good afternoon - Good evening - Good bye C GRAMMAR: - What’s your name? - My name is / I’m _ - This is - I’m your student SUBJECT PRONOUNS AND “TO BE” AFFIRMATIVE CONTRACTION SINGULAR I am You are He is She is It is I’m You’re He’s She’s It’s PLURAL We are You are They are We’re You’re They’re D VOCABULARY: Brazil COUNTRIES Canada Italy China Japan A: Where are you from? B: I’m from Vietnam Germany the U.S.A Korea Laos Cambodia E AMERICAN PRONUNCIATION /ə/ TEACHER JASON CANADA JAPAN STUDENT AFTERNOON ITALY GERMANY DANA BRAZIL CHINA KOREA F REVIEW ... approach to textbook evaluation: external evaluation, internal evaluation and overall evaluation 18 They implied that evaluation is continuous and never static since evaluation criteria can be altered... continuous support and guidance whenever I need any advice I am grateful to Mr Le Quang Minh, manager of Vectory English Center (Trung tam Anh Ngu Toan Tam) for permission and great support to... Definition of Textbook Evaluation 13 v 2.5.2 Roles of Textbook Evaluation 13 2.5.3 Approaches and Criteria for Textbook Evaluation 14 2.6 Previous Research Studies on Textbook Evaluation