MASARYK UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF EDUCATION

Department of English Language and Literature

The Evaluation of an English Coursebook

(Project 4, Fourth Edition) with a Focus on

Language Skills

Bachelor Thesis

Brno 2021

Supervisor: Author:

PhDr. Alena Dobrovolná, Ph.D. Dagmar Tvrdíková

Acknowledgements

I would like to express my gratitude to both of my supervisors: Mgr. Ivana Hrozková,

Ph.D., who patiently helped me to think of the topic of this thesis and led me through the

beginning of creating a project for this thesis, and also, mainly, to PhDr. Alena

Dobrovolná, Ph.D., who kindly became my new supervisor and managed to – with even

more patience – help me to enter the world of academic writing.

Prohlášení

Prohlašuji, že jsem závěrečnou bakalářskou práci vypracovala samostatně, s využitím

pouze citovaných pramenů, dalších informací a zdrojů v souladu s disciplinárním řádem

pro studenty Pedagogické fakulty Masarykovy univerzity a se zákonem č. 121/2000 Sb.,

o právu autorském, o právech souvisejících s právem autorským a o změně některých

zákonů (autorský zákon), ve znění pozdějších předpisů.

Declaration

I hereby declare that I worked on the bachelor thesis independently, utilizing sources

included in the bibliography.

Benešov nad Ploučnicí, April 19, 2021 ……………..……

Dagmar Tvrdíková

Abstract

The bachelor thesis called ‘The Evaluation of an English Coursebook (Project 4, Fourth

Edition) with a Focus on Language Skills’ deals with the four language skills of listening,

writing, reading and speaking, and their representation and balance in the coursebook

Project 4 (Fourth Edition) by Tom Hutchinson.

The thesis is divided into two parts: firstly, a theoretical part, in which are together with

a coursebook and its roles the four language skills introduced, also including the purposes

of these language skills and opinions of certain authors on how these skills should be

taught. Secondly, it contains a practical part, there can be found an analysis of the whole

coursebook and a more detailed analysis of its exercises in units 2 and 3, and also a

questionnaire which includes the opinions of the teachers who use this coursebook on the

quality of the exercises practising the four language skills and on the balance between the

four language skills in the coursebook.

Key Words

Coursebook, language skills, listening, speaking, writing, reading, Project 4 (Fourth

Edition), English language

Anotace

Bakalářská práce zvaná ‘Hodnocení anglické učebnice (Project 4, 4. vydání) se

zaměřením na jazykové dovednosti’ se zabývá čtyřmi jazykovými dovednostmi poslechu,

psaní, čtení a mluvení, a jejich representací a rovnováhou v učebnici Project 4 (4. vydání)

od Toma Hutchinsona.

Tato práce je rozdělena do dvou částí: zaprvé, do části teoretické, ve které jsou společně

s učebnicí a jejími rolemi představeny čtyři jazykové dovednosti, zahrnující také účely

těchto jazykových dovedností a názory jistých autorů na to, jak by tyto dovednosti měly

být učeny. Zadruhé, do části praktické, ve které mohou být nalezeny analýza celé

učebnice a více detailovaná analýza jejích cvičení z 2. a 3. lekce, a také dotazník, jenž

zahrnuje názory učitelů používajících tuto učebnici na kvalitu cvičení, jež procvičují čtyři

jazykové dovednosti, a na rovnováhu mezi čtyřmi jazykovými dovednostmi v učebnici.

Klíčová slova

Učebnice, jazykové dovednosti, poslech, mluvení, psaní, čtení, Project 4 (4. vydání),

anglický jazyk

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 8

THEORETICAL PART 9

1 Coursebook and Its Roles 9

2 The Four Language Skills 9

2.1 Listening 10

2.1.1 Purpose of Listening 11

2.1.2 Teaching Listening 12

2.2 Reading 14

2.2.1 Purpose of Reading 15

2.2.2 Teaching Reading 16

2.3 Writing 19

2.3.1 Purpose of Writing 20

2.3.2 Teaching Writing 21

2.4 Speaking 23

2.4.1 Purpose of Speaking 24

2.4.2 Teaching Speaking 24

PRACTICAL PART 27

3 Research Design 27

3.1 Research Aims 27

3.2 Research Methods 27

3.2.1 The Analysis 27

3.2.2 The Questionnaire 28

4 Researching the Coursebook 29

4.1 The Balance between the Four Language Skills 29

4.1.1 Analysing the Balance between the Four Language Skills 29

4.1.2 The Results of the Questionnaire on the Balance between

the Four Language Skills 30

4.2 The Four Language Skills 33

4.2.1 Analysing Reading 33

4.2.1.1 Evaluating Reading 36

4.2.1.2 Teachers’ Opinions on Reading 38

4.2.2 Analysing Listening 38

4.2.2.1 Evaluating Listening 41

4.2.2.2 Teachers’ Opinions on Listening 42

4.2.3 Analysing Speaking 42

4.2.3.1 Evaluating Speaking 43

4.2.3.2 Teachers’ Opinions on Speaking 44

4.2.4 Analysing Writing 44

4.2.4.1 Evaluating Writing 45

4.2.4.2 Teachers’ Opinions on Writing 46

5 Discussion 46

CONCLUSION 48

LIST OF REFERENCES 52

LIST OF APPENDICES 54

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INTRODUCTION

A coursebook has usually a great role in any class and the ones in which the English

language is taught are not different. Certainly, it is not the most important thing in a class,

as the most essential roles are taken by teachers and learners, but still, the usual

importance of a coursebook should not be disregarded. Through this importance,

therefore, it should not also be disregarded which coursebook a teacher chooses to use in

his or her lessons.

This bachelor thesis does not compare coursebooks, as it concentrates only on one of

them – Project 4 (Fourth Edition) by Tom Hutchinson. However, it introduces some of

the criteria based on which a language coursebook could be chosen – the criteria of how

the language skills are in the coursebook represented and whether they are balanced.

The aim of this thesis is to analyse and evaluate the coursebook Project 4 (Fourth Edition)

by Tom Hutchinson based on the above-mentioned criteria. Thus, the research questions

of this thesis are whether the four language skills are in the coursebook Project 4 (Fourth

Edition) well balanced, and how these language skills are represented in the coursebook.

Additionally, this thesis also includes a research question what the teachers who use the

coursebook think about the quality of the exercises in which the four language skills are

practised. The aim is therefore also to find out how the quality of the exercises practising

these four skills is perceived by the teachers using the coursebook.

What inspired me to write this thesis, was, quite ironically, the absence of a coursebook

through my first 8 years of learning the English language. I believe that this thesis and its

findings can help the teachers who use and rely mainly on the coursebook Project 4

(Fourth Edition) to consider, whether there are not any supplementary materials needed,

as the teachers would like to, for example, focus more on the speaking or writing skill in

their lessons. This thesis can, I hope, also inspire the teachers who are not so satisfied

with the current coursebook they use and introduce a way based on which they could

choose a new one.

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THEORETICAL PART

1 Coursebook and Its Roles

According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, a coursebook is a book for studying

from, used regularly on a particular course of study. A coursebook has roles, which it

should fulfil to be a good material for studying from, – mainly, it should function as a

source and as a support. According to Průcha (1998, p.19), a student masters in a

coursebook certain knowledge together with other elements of education, such as for

example attitude, values and skills, while for a teacher a coursebook is a source, with

whose use he or she can plan the content of curriculum, the direct presentation of the

content in the class and also the evaluation of the students’ results.

Cunningsworh (1995, p.7) then concentrates on the multiple roles of a coursebook in

English Language Teaching. Its roles range from a resource for presentation material to

a support for less experienced teacher. He mentions that a coursebook functions itself as

a syllabus, which students can use to reflect the knowledge that is already awaited to be

achieved by them. A main role of a coursebook is also being a source of stimulation and

ideas for classroom language activities, of activities for learner practise and

communicative interaction, and a reference source for learners on their knowledge.

Connected to these roles is then also the last role Cunningsworth mentions – a resource

for self-directed learning or self-access work. Through the sources which are usually

meaningfully organized in a certain coursebook, a student then can achieve his or her own

studying autonomy.

Mention worthy is also a statement by Cunningsworth (1995, p.7), that a coursebook

should be a book that helps a teacher and students, but it should not control them, because

a coursebook is not the only aspect which defines the taught subject.

2 The Four Language Skills

The four language skills can be divided into two pairs – two productive (speaking and

writing) and two receptive (listening and reading) skills. According to Cunningsworth

(1995, p. 85), it is an important component of every coursebook. What is, according to

him, important, is not only the representation of the skills themselves in the coursebook,

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but rather the balance between them reflecting the aims of the course, and that the given

coursebook provides these skills in an appropriate way.

2.1 Listening

Listening is one of the two receptive skills. Underwood (1989, p. 1) defines it as the

activity of paying attention to and trying to get meaning from something heard.

Underwood (1989, p. 2) also emphasizes the importance of recognising the difference

between hearing and listening, claiming that, while hearing is an inactive, passive

condition, listening is an active process, in which learners are engaged in the activity of

constructing a message.

The process of listening, or the aural process, has three stages in the reception of an

utterance (Underwood, 1989, p. 2). According to Underwood, the first stage is receiving

the sounds and organising them into meaningful units, which are corresponding with the

knowledge of the language the listener already has. At the second stage, listeners process

the information by the short-term memory, checking and comparing words or groups of

words with the information already placed in their long-term memory, and they also

extract meaning from these words or groups of words. Lastly, at the third stage, listeners,

once having constructed an either intended or unintended meaning from the utterance,

can transfer the information to the long-term memory for later use.

Ur (1984, pp. 11 – 13) emphasizes that, to ease the processing of the heard information,

listeners need to achieve familiarity with the common phonemes of the target language,

and with its intonation, stress and rhythm. During listening, listeners also need to cope

with redundancy and disturbance in the form of ‘noise’ which causes some parts of the

utterance to be hard to recognise, often causing a problem which usually encounter

learners of a language – a problem of discouragement, when the compulsion to understand

everything cannot be fulfilled (Ur, 1984, pp. 13 – 15). Ur (1984, pp. 16 – 17) also

mentions other things good listeners need, such as the ability to approximately predict

what is going to be said next or understanding colloquial vocabulary.

According to Lewis & Hill (1992, p. 62) the skill of listening can be then divided into

subskills, such as an ability to understand the general information of what the learners

heard, but also an ability to search for and understand specific details, an ability to

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compare a specific piece of pre-knowledge against what is said, next, an ability is to

understand the intention and, finally, the attitude of the speaker. Richards & Burns (2012,

p. 19) also mention subskills of listening, to which, according to them, belong skills such

as processing speech at normal speech rate, processing different speech styles,

recognising core vocabulary and grammatical patterns, and also recognising reduced

forms in the spoken language, the communicative function of utterances, and patterns of

stress, rhythm and intonation and how they signal meaning.

2.1.1 Purpose of Listening

Richards & Burns (2012, p. 5) connect each purpose with a certain type of listening, as

for example listening to a casual conversation has a completely different purpose than

listening to a lecture. Richards & Burns therefore mention various purposes such as

exchanging social and personal information for the listening type of casual conversations,

or exchanging information, taking a message and obtaining goods and services for

telephone conversations, expanding knowledge, learning about various topics, and

interacting with others for lectures and class lessons, being entertained and gaining

pleasure for movies, dramas and songs, gaining and acting on information for listening to

announcements, and, finally, carrying out a task for listening to instructions. This

connection between the purpose and the type is also mentioned by Ur (1984, p. 3), who

emphasizes the importance of expectations of a listener.

The connection between the purpose and the situation is also confirmed by Underwood

(1989, pp. 4 – 7), who, apart from above mentioned listening to announcements,

instructions, films, songs, lessons, lectures, or conversation on the telephone, names other

listening situations and their purposes, such as listening to someone giving a public

address, in which listening fulfils the purpose of understanding the points made by the

public speaker and also listening to his or her tone of speech, or watching the news and

the weather forecast, in which it is needed to listen for particular information.

Harmer (2007, p. 133), then, from a general point of view, claims that listening is useful

for the learners’ understanding of what is being told to them, and also very beneficial for

their pronunciation, since the more learners hear and understand English being spoken,

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the more they gain the correct pitch, intonation, stress, and the sounds of the spoken

language.

In my opinion, since learners come during listening into contact with a target language,

they process the language, listening not only to its pronunciation and intonation, but also

to various vocabulary items and grammatical structures. Generally said, listening,

therefore, as any of the four skills, helps learners to develop and learn the language, this

way equipping them with a necessary skill for any communication – the skill to listen.

2.1.2 Teaching Listening

When teaching listening, many learners encounter the above-mentioned problem of

feeling discouraged when not being capable of understanding every single item in the

listened text. This is often closely connected to another problem – learners tend to analyse

the words of the listened text in isolation and do not connect them with the context of the

utterance (Ur, 1984, p. 20). To solve this particular issue, which is often a cause of the

first problem mentioned in this chapter, Ur (1984, p. 21) rather than drawing the attention

of learners to the presence and importance of the context, or, how she calls it,

environmental clues, recommends a holistic approach. Because while, according to the

author, drawing the attention to environmental clues can often lead only to more

overwhelming of learners, leaving them even more discouraged and frustrated, a holistic

approach, on the other hand, encourages learners to do the listening activity in a more

relaxed way, concentrating on the information they can readily decode. Through this

approach, learners are also encouraged to understand the whole by using their common

sense in combination with the discourse skills they have from their native language.

According to Richards & Burns (2012, pp. 15 – 16), good listening activities should

include variety of situations – they should illustrate the situations such as for example

monologues, dialogues, and also include both the interactive and the noninteractive

listening –, be relevant to learners’ needs – that is, they should reflect what learners will

encounter outside of the classroom and address learners’ listening difficulties –, be of an

appropriate linguistic level – that is, listening activities should have a suitable length and

the level of vocabulary and grammar –, and they should also involve learners – providing

them with self-assessment procedures –, provide them with feedback on their progress

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and include interesting topics for which learners have relevant background knowledge

needed to understand the listening text.

Lewis & Hill (1992, p. 63) name some of the above-mentioned guidelines for good

listening as well. The authors mention the length of the listened material, claiming that,

if the listening is in the form of a pre-recorded material, it should not last for a longer

period of time, since learners can concentrate for only two or three minutes maximum,

and for many learners at a lower level the concentration span does not last longer than 20

seconds. Lewis & Hill (1992, p. 63), too, claim that the listening activities should vary,

as learners should practise through them different kinds of the listening subskills. And,

apart from information, learners can also for example listen for a particular grammar

feature or words connected with a particular theme.

Further, what should not be omitted in any listening activity is, from my point of view,

the context of the listened situation. The importance of it can be shown in the chapter

2.1.1, ‘Purpose of Listening’, in which three authors who connect the purpose of listening

with particular situations and expectations of the listener are mentioned, and there is

certainly a difference between listening to an announcement and listening to a

conversation in which the listener does not take part. Therefore, to provide learners with

a possibility to better understand what they are about to listen to, the context of the

listened material should be given to them first – either in the form of an instruction

including a short introduction of what learners are about to hear, or in the form of

questions connected to the topic or the type of it.

Providing learners with the context of the listened situation is also recommended by

Lewis & Hill (1992, p. 62), who claim that before every listening activity some

preparation of learners should take place. This preparation should always involve two

elements – firstly a general, thematic introduction, which tells the learners, what the

listening activity is approximately about, and secondly some kind of guidance on the

structure of the listened text, possibly in the form of a small number of questions.

Of course, listening is certainly not only about the activities that are taking place before

it, but also about the ones which learners do during and after it. Underwood (1989, p. 46)

claims that the while-listening activities “should be interesting, so that learners feel they

want to listen and carry out the activities”, which, in my opinion, is quite a general claim,

since listening as a whole should be interesting and engaging. Underwood (1989, pp. 49

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– 65) offers many forms in which the while-listening activities can be, such as marking

items in pictures, choosing a picture relevant to the listened text, putting pictures in order,

arranging items in patterns, completing grids and charts, true or false statements,

multiple-choice questions, or gap-filling.

After the listening with while-listening activities, the post-listening activities should

follow. According to Underwood (1989, p. 78), these activities can last for a longer period

of time than the while-listening activities, as learners have more time to process the

information, time to think about it, to discuss, or to write. Therefore, the post-listening

activities can be for example identifying relationships between speakers, using

information from the listened text for problem-solving and decision-making activities,

summarising, extending notes into written responses, chart completion, or role-play

(Underwood, 1989, pp. 81 – 90). To engage learners even more, Lewis & Hill (1992, p.

64) recommend also using activities with the questions awaiting imaginative responses –

such as imagining the appearance of the speakers or imagining the continuation of the

listened dialogue.

2.2 Reading

Reading is one of the two receptive skills and can be defined as a process of

communication which does not need the other person to be present, as it communicates

through script, which can be understood by readers, who can then connect this script with

a meaning created by them (Hudson, 2007, p. 7). According to Hudson (2007, pp. 7 – 8),

this process starts with individuals, or readers, being able to interpret letters and words,

and later on also being able to interpret the meaning of these words in different sentences,

which requires an ability to be flexible in the interpretation of what particular

combinations of words mean.

Reading is therefore quite heavily connected to vocabulary knowledge readers have,

which provides readers with multiple meanings of particular words, but it is also

connected to the active involvement of readers in the process, which is mainly based on

their prior knowledge (Hudson, 2007, p. 8). This prior knowledge, Hudson (2007, p. 8)

claims, is what the reader brings to the text, allowing him or her to know what the possible

events for any particular text type are. The prior knowledge can consist for example of

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the readers’ previous experience or the background knowledge of a certain object or

event, and as the process of reading develops, this knowledge helps reader to stay actively

involved and, therefore, supply, update and reform meaning of the proceeding read text

in real time (Hudson, 2007, p. 8).

Reading as a skill does not, though, include only the readers’ prior or vocabulary

knowledge, or even understanding. It also comprises strategies which readers need to use

in encounter with a text they cannot so well understand, for example due to their temporal

lack of attention to the read text. Through the usage of these various strategies, readers

can then monitor their reading process and achieve a smooth and efficient reading activity

(Hudson, 2007, pp. 8 – 9).

According to Hudson (2007, p. 9), during the reading process, apart from processing the

text, and applying strategies and prior knowledge, readers are also involved in real world

in a meaning-based activity which is driven by purpose and comprehension. The author

also adds that most comprehension is linked to purpose and, therefore, it is necessary for

reading to be considered within the context of the given purpose.

Hudson (2007, p. 10) claims that reading is a multidimensional skill, because to use this

skill, learners need to understand three dimensions of a written language, which are:

firstly linguistic aspects, including for example lexicon and syntax, secondly cognitive

aspects, that is, for example, which processes readers go through in an encounter with a

text, and finally sociocultural aspects, comprising for example how literacy is defined

through social practise.

2.2.1 Purpose of Reading

Nuttall (1982, p. 19) begins her chapter about purpose of reading with a statement that

the most typical purpose of reading in a language classroom is to teach language itself.

As with any other of the four skills, reading helps learners to process, and therefore learn

the language. During reading, learners come into contact with language, and they practise

old and acquire new items from vocabulary and grammar. This is also confirmed by

Cunningsworth (1995, p. 73), who mentions the purpose of reading as of a way to present

or recycle grammar items, and to extend vocabulary. Harmer (2007, p. 99) also adds that

reading is useful for learners’ language acquisition in general, and that it also has a

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positive effect on their vocabulary knowledge, on their spelling and also on their writing.

As it provides good models for English writing, learners are through reading encouraged

to focus on vocabulary, grammar, or punctuation, or even see a demonstration of the way

sentences, paragraphs and whole texts are constructed.

Still, Nuttall (1982, p. 19) emphasizes that the above-mentioned purpose is not authentic,

because in the real world, outside the language classroom, most reading is neither done

with nor written for this purpose. She (Nuttall, 1982, p. 20) thus marks this purpose rather

as a “natural by-product of reading”. She summarizes (Nuttall, 1982, p. 21) the real

purpose of reading that it “enables learners to read without help unfamiliar authentic texts,

at appropriate speed, silently and with adequate understanding”.

Thus, the purpose of reading in the language classroom could be not only to learn the

given language – and reading certainly should not be customised for this purpose only –,

but also to develop the learners’ reading skills and strategies, which is mentioned by

Cunningsworth (1995, p. 73) as well, so that when learners have an encounter with an

authentic text they are unfamiliar with, they can still use their skills to reach the

understanding of it. Cunningsworth (1995, p. 73) also names two more purposes of

reading which do not fall into the category of language processing, and those are giving

information of interest of learners, and stimulating oral work.

2.2.2 Teaching Reading

When teaching reading, it is necessary to distinguish between the extensive and the

intensive reading (Nuttall, 1982, p. 23). According to Nuttall (1982, p. 23), the intensive

reading is an approach trying to achieve accuracy and it lets learners to work with the

given text only under a certain type of guidance, either of a teacher or of a task which

forces them to focus on the text. During the intensive reading, learners should attain

profound and detailed understanding of the text in terms of not only the meaning of the

text itself, but also how this meaning is produced, since it is through this approach that

learners should practise and be trained in their reading strategies (Nuttall, 1982, p. 23).

The author further emphasizes that, even though there is a tendency to use the intensive

reading for a shorter text, a longer text is much more than a summary of sentences,

paragraphs, chapters, or words – in it, there are also the reading strategies which usually

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cannot be practised in the shorter ones, such as skimming, scanning, the use of contents

list, or the ability to differentiate relationships between the various parts of a text. On the

contrary, the extensive reading focuses mainly on fluency and with it on learners’

understanding of a text as a whole, not forcing them to understand every particular item

of it and not giving any specific task.

Nuttall (1982, p. 25) states three main points of view for choosing the text to be read in

the language classroom and those are: readability, suitability of content, and

exploitability. Readability, as Nuttall (1982, pp. 25 – 26) claims, is a linguistic difficulty

of the text, and includes not only learners’ language level, but also how difficult it should

be in terms of new vocabulary and structure. In the question of the new vocabulary, Lewis

& Hill (1992, p. 116) recommend that a text should not comprise more than 6 new words

per 100 words in the text, as any larger number of words unknown to a learner can lead

to struggling of a learner, and possible demotivation. Nuttall (1982, p. 26), on the other

hand, argues that it depends on the purpose of reading, eventually whether the text is read

intensively or extensively. In the author’s opinion, for the intensive reading it is

acceptable to incorporate in two or three percent of the text the new vocabulary items,

which do not contain only words as such, but also idioms and compound phrases; and for

the extensive reading then only about one percent, as it provides learners with necessary

ease for reading longer texts, without distracting them and slowing the process down.

Structurally, then, difficulties can be caused by new grammatical forms, sentence length

and complexity, as it can lead to relationships between the various parts of the text being

difficult for a learner to sort out (Nuttall, 1982, p. 26).

Second main point of view, according to which a text should be chosen, is suitability of

content. Content of a text should be appealing to learners (Nuttall, 1982, p. 29), which is

confirmed also by Cunningsworth (1995, p. 73), who claims that reading activities in

coursebooks should engage the interest of learners. Engagement of learners, naturally,

leads to their motivation and enjoyment of language classes, which then leads to them

eager to learn more. Harmer (2007, p. 99), in contrast, draws a conclusion that good

reading texts cannot only introduce interesting topics, but also stimulate discussion, excite

imaginative responses, and provide the springboard for well-rounded, fascinating lessons.

This leaves us to the third point of view, exploitability.

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By exploitation, according to Nuttall (1982, p. 31), is meant ‘facilitation of learning’, that

is, using the text as a way to develop learners’ competence as readers. This can be done

for example, as Cunnigsworth (1995, p. 73) puts it, through the text accompanied by

purposeful activities which help the reading process. Although, these activities reach

quite a wide variety.

First of these activities should be an introduction, in which the content of the given text

is briefly introduced, together with a possible recapitulation of previous part, in case that

the text is a continuous story, or with learners being asked what they think the text is

going to be about, or if they know anything about the topic (Lewis & Hill, 1992, p. 108).

For these reading activities, illustrations, photographs, or even headlines can be very

helpful. Together with an introduction, before the text should take place also a small

number (usually two or three) of pre-questions (Lewis & Hill, 1992, p. 108). These pre-

questions function as comprehension questions, focusing learners’ attention on key words

and ideas, indicating the basic structure of the text, and helping learners’ anticipation

(Lewis & Hill, 1992, p. 108).

After the given text was read, other activities, such as a definition, a correction, or

conversational questions, can follow. Definition questions, according to Lewis & Hill

(1992, pp. 111 – 112), check learners’ understanding, and they are much more effective

than the often-used question ‘What does … mean?’, since they do not in any way await

the translation of the new word. Lewis & Hill (1992, pp. 111 – 112) emphasize that,

although the definition questions work with meanings of new words in the given text as

well, they, in opposite to the ‘What does … mean?’ questions, offer the definition, the

meaning, in their wording, to which learners then attach the new word. This way of

checking learners’ understanding is concerned to be better also for the reason, that

learners are in through this activity the ones who work with and use the new word.

Next kind of questions, which can, according to Lewis & Hill (1992, p. 113) follow the

text, are ‘Correction questions’. These questions, rather than those expecting a simple

yes-no answer, await a negative answer in combination with a correct statement. They

consist of a wrong statement which learners should correct in the answer, and, possibly,

a question tag. These questions also work as external questions, that is, for their answer

it is necessary that the learners understand how the content, the words of the read text

relate to something outside of it (Lewis & Hill, 1992, p. 114).

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Lastly, there are above-mentioned conversational questions. These questions, according

to Lewis & Hill (1992, p. 115), enrich the reading session for learners’ individualities,

and also build a connection with comprehension.

2.3 Writing

Writing is one of the two productive skills. Byrne (1999, p. 1) defines writing as ‘the act

of forming graphic symbols’, but also places emphasis on the fact that writing is much

more than the production of these symbols, just as speech is more than the simple

production of sounds. Writing is much more than the production of the graphic symbols,

as the final product of writing depends not only on the production of these symbols, but

also on their arrangement. This arrangement corresponds with certain conventions and

forms words, which are once again arranged to form sentences, which, usually, are then

a part of a sequence of sentences, which creates a coherent whole – the text.

Writing as an activity requires conscious mental effort, because to create its final product,

the text, it is necessary to consider the combination and arrangement of the particular

sentences (Byrne, 1988, p. 1). And, even though it is not much known about the individual

methods of composing a text, it is certain that in the process some rereading for

stimulation for further writing, making notes, drafting, and revising is quite common,

before the final, satisfactory result is produced (Byrne, 1988, p. 1).

This final result of the writing activity should be satisfactory not only for the author, but

also for his or her readers, as every piece of writing is written for a reader (Byrne, 1988,

p. 1). Therefore, writing requires some kind of encoding on the side of the author, who

has to translate his or her thoughts into language, and some kind of decoding or

interpretation on the side of the reader. The decoding and interpretation do not take part

in the process in the case of texts, which wrote the author for his or her own use, for

example notes or a shopping list (Byrne, 1988, pp. 1 – 2).

Apart from the mentioned exceptions in which author writes the text for himself or

herself, Byrne (1988, p. 2) highlights that the reader of the text is not present during its

production, and it is thus needed for any author of any text to ensure that it will be

understood even without his or her presence. This understanding is the proof of successful

communication with readers through the medium of writing.

20

2.3.1 Purpose of Writing

According to Byrne (1988, p. 6), the majority of learners of a foreign language will have,

in comparison to the other language skills, of the skill of writing the least use, which is

not very different from the situation in their mother tongue. He claims that the skill of

writing is limited in value and difficult to acquire, and, therefore, it is important to be

clear about the purpose of teaching writing.

Raimes (1983, p. 3) affords purposes, which writing can have in term of foreign language

teaching. Apart from the common use, that is, the use of writing as of a communication

channel with sometimes at the moment absent persons, it is also, generally said,

functioning as a way to help learners to learn the language, as it reinforces the

grammatical structures, idioms, and vocabulary that have been taught to them, and also,

as Raimes puts it, lets learners to be more ‘adventurous with the language’ because, while

learning to write or while writing, they have the opportunity to go beyond the knowledge

they have so far mastered. Lastly, Raimes (1983, p. 3) mentions that, while writing, it is

for learners unavoidable to become more involved with the language, as learners not only

use their brains in an effort to express their ideas, but also use their hands to write the

ideas down (which is very profitable for kinaesthetic learners), and their eyes to read the

text they have just created (something that visual learners can profit from).

The idea of writing as of a suitable activity of learning a language for different learning

styles and needs is also supported by Byrne (1988, p. 6), who claims that writing can be

an aid for learners, especially those who cannot learn only through oral practise, letting

them feel more secure. Byrne (1988, pp. 6 – 7) mentions other purposes of writing as

well. Firstly, written work provides learners with a proof of their progress made in a

language, fulfilling their psychological need for progress. Secondly, writing provides

variety in classroom activities, letting learners to take a rest from oral activities, and also

offers a possibility to work with a language intensively even outside the class, increasing

the amount of contact with language. And thirdly, writing can be used for formal and

unformal testing.

The purpose of writing as of help for learners to learn a language, mentioned above, is

also supported by Harmer (2007, p. 112), who introduces writing as an opportunity for

learners’ language processing, that is, to think more about their usage of the taught

language.

21

2.3.2 Teaching Writing

Byrne (1988, pp. 21 – 22) mentions several approaches to teaching writing. Among them

is focus on accuracy, or also ‘control-to-free approach’, in which, in order for learners not

to make mistakes in their writing, they are being controlled, and only later, as they

progress, gain more freedom over their work. Secondly, he mentions focus on fluency,

which, in opposite to focus on accuracy, lets learners write as much and as quick as

possible without them worrying about their mistakes. Thirdly, there is focus on text,

which places emphasis on the importance of the paragraph as the basic unit of written

expression, and, therefore, mainly teaches learners how to construct and organise

paragraphs. Lastly, focus on purpose is mentioned. This focus replicates writing in real

life, that is, learners are given a reason for their writing and know to or for whom they are

writing. In practice, teachers and textbook writers usually use more than just one

approach, only rarely do they rely on only one of them.

Two types of writing are then distinguished by Harmer (2007, p. 112): ‘writing-for-

writing’ and ‘writing-for-learning’. ‘Writing-for-learning’, according to Harmer (2007,

p. 112), is rather a tool used for learners’ practise of the language they have been studying,

that is, for example, using in the writing activity the new learned vocabulary, or new

mastered tense. ‘Writing-for-writing’, on the contrary, is directed at developing the skill

of writing itself, which means that it looks at the created text as a whole, with emphasis

not only on appropriate language use, but also text structure, layout, style and

effectiveness. If learners are expected to do a ‘writing-for-writing’, it is necessary to

involve them in the process of writing (Harmer, 2007, p. 113). The process of writing

includes stages of planning (that is, learners think about what they would like to write and

how the final piece of writing should look like), drafting (making an attempt of creating

the final piece of writing), reviewing and editing, which do not need to be happening

linearly and often repeat itself, before the final product of writing is produced (Harmer,

2007, p. 113; Harmer, 2012, pp. 128 – 129).

When teaching writing, one of the main questions is, how much the process of writing

should be guided. It is necessary that the difference between controlling and guiding is

known, as, while guiding can help learners to develop their skills and knowledge of a

language, controlling and correcting every mistake creates uncertainty between learners,

letting them even afraid of expressing themselves (Byrne, 1988, pp. 25 – 26). Byrne

22

(1988, p. 25), offers one way to provide learners with guidance, while also helping them

to develop their ability to write a text, by using the text as a basic format for practice, that

is, not separating units as sentences or words, which, as Byrne claims, go naturally

together. According to him, writing activities which include the text as its basic format,

are much more meaningful for learners, and, therefore, increase their motivation to write

well. Additionally, when having the text as a basic format, learners are provided with a

setting within which they can practise and see not only the reason for their writing, but

also write accordingly with the communicative goal of the text. Instead of being asked to

write ‘simply for the sake of writing’ writing tasks are made more realistic, as the writing

practice is related to a specific purpose, often setting them in connection with a certain

situation, in which the other language skills can be also used.

With writing activities, variety should not be omitted – a whole range of techniques is

needed, each being appropriate to specific goals and needs (Byrne, 1988, p. 26). As

examples of variety, Byrne (1988, p. 26) mentions usage of visual materials, which can

provide a more open-ended framework for writing activities, or, with particular types of

visual materials, such as diagrams or tables, can help learners to develop their

organisational skills. Although, even the usage of a text can be beneficial, as it functions

as a model for what learners are expected to write. This is also acknowledged by Harmer

(2004, p. 28), according to whom learners cannot understand different genre constructions

or text cohesion devices without an example.

The text, serving as a model or an example, does not need to be used only at upper levels,

as it can be used, for example in the form of parallel writing, even for lower levels

(Harmer, 2004, p. 29). The text can, as mentioned above, be also help for learners to

analyse, understand, and even create different genres. Still, Harmer (2004, p. 29) stresses

the danger of a ‘genre trap’ – with too much imitation of others, the effect on learners

may be prescriptive (that is, to learners it may mean that the piece of writing should be

done precisely like in the example), rather than coveted descriptive (serving as the

possible inspiration). And also adds how it can be avoided: simply by ensuring that

learners understand that the examples are truly only examples, supposed to serve as a

demonstration to help them, or adding more examples, which show learners that there are

many possibilities of the final products of writing.

23

2.4 Speaking

Speaking is one of the two productive skills. According to Hughes (2011, p. 6), it overlaps

with a considerable number of other areas and disciplines, which may be also confirmed

by Bygate (2003, p. 3), who claims that to speak in a foreign language, learners need to

hold a certain knowledge of grammar and vocabulary. This way, it is necessary to

distinguish between speaking as knowledge about the language and speaking as a skill in

using it.

Speaking is a process, which, according to Thornbury (2005, p. 2) takes place in real time

and, as phrases follow coherently and cohesively other phrases, the process is thus linear

and spontaneous. Still, this spontaneity is not supposed to mean that the speeches are

unplanned, rather than the time for their planning is very limited. Thornbury (2005, pp. 3

– 5) claims that the process of planning of a speech should include at least three stages.

Firstly, conceptualization, a stage which should contain the discourse type of the spoken

content, its topic, and its purpose. Secondly, formulation, a stage which should be

focusing on discourse, including strategic decisions which structure, syntax, vocabulary,

or pronunciation to use. And thirdly, the final stage of articulation, which consists of

sharing, articulating with the use of the organs of speech what has been formulated and

conceptualized. During these three stages, learners are also engaged in another process –

self-monitoring (Thornbury, 2005, pp. 5 – 6). A process which is running concurrently

with the three stages, letting learners to monitor and eventually repair what they

conceptualize, formulate or articulate (Thornbury, 2005, pp. 5 – 6). In order to achieve

some kind of fluency in speaking, Thornbury (2005, p. 6) marks as essential automaticity

of above mentioned three stages, which then allows learners to concentrate on the aspect

of the speaking task immediately requiring so.

For the skill of speaking, it is not needed only to achieve fluency in speech, but also to

manage talking. Even if speaking is not happening in its most typical form of face-to-face

dialogue, such as any monologue, it still involves interaction, because a response from

their audience, their listeners, is awaited (Thornbury, 2005, p. 8). According to Thornbury

(2005, p. 8 – 10) interaction is achieved though consideration of the effect speaker has on

his or her audience, and consideration of contribution of other speakers, both linguistic

and paralinguistic.

24

2.4.1 Purpose of Speaking

Apart from the main purpose of speaking, that is, the capability to interact in language,

express the ideas of a speaker and understand the spoken thoughts belonging to his or her

speaking partner, there are other reasons for teaching speaking as well.

Harmer (2007, p. 123) determines three main reasons for teaching learners to speak in the

classroom. According to him, the first of the reasons is that speaking activities provide

learners with rehearsal opportunities, which offer them a possibility to practise real-life

speaking in the safety of a classroom. Secondly, especially if learners use during speaking

activities any or all the language they know, it provides them, as well as their teacher,

with a valuable feedback. The importance of this feedback can be proved by Byrne (1993,

p. 6), who describes it as a proof of progress which learners made in a language, fulfilling

their psychological need for it. The last reason Harmer mentions is that, during speaking

activities, learners are offered more opportunities to activate the various elements of

language, through which their usage of these elements becomes more certain, leading

them towards becoming autonomous language users.

In my opinion, apart from above mentioned purposes, speaking in a language classroom

is also very beneficial for learners’ development of ability to cooperate with others. As

speaking tasks often take place in the form of pair work or teamwork, learners during

them need to ask for and listen to ideas and opinions of their partners, to which is also

connected the purpose of speaking as of a way for learners to learn how to express their

own ideas and opinions, how to express their ideas and opinions and support them with

arguments, and how to accept the opinions and ideas of other people.

2.4.2 Teaching Speaking

As with writing mentioned above, even speaking can be according to Harmer (2007, p.

124) separated into two types – firstly, speaking for linguistic purposes, in which learners,

just like in ‘writing-for-learning’, practise a specific construction of language, and

secondly, ‘speaking-for-skill’, which can be compared to ‘writing-for-writing’, having as

a goal to give opportunities to learners to achieve better speaking skills.

According to Thornbury (2005, pp. 112 – 113) teaching speaking is heavily connected to

learners’ needs. Thornbury (2005, p. 115) also focuses on one of the main questions of

25

teaching speaking – whether more emphasis should be placed on accuracy of speech or

on its fluency, and, eventually, in which order they should be taught. The form-focused

approach, in which accuracy preceded fluency, used to be very common in ‘teaching

speaking’, allowing learners to manipulate orally only with those grammar structures that

they have been recently taught (Thornbury, 2005, p. 115). Later on, learners were allowed

to use recently learned grammar structures and combine them with those they had

previously acquired, which led to practising in somehow free production, still very

controlled, as the emphasis on accuracy could not be omitted – learners were supposed to

make, and therefore learn from, as few mistakes as possible (Thornbury, 2005, p. 115).

Another approach which ought not to be omitted is the communicative approach, reacting

to the imbalance between accuracy and fluency (Thornbury, 2005, p. 115). According to

Thornbury (2005, p. 116), this approach was aware of the importance of learners making,

and therefore learning from, mistakes, and, being more fluency-oriented, it proposed a

model of instruction which started out from learners’ attempts to communicate, rather

than, as with traditional, above mentioned approach, a model of instruction ending with

these attempts.

One of the manifestations of the communicative approach is also task-based learning,

which recognises speaking not only as an activity to prove accurate mastery of grammar,

but also as an activity for its own sake, increasing incorporation of fluency activities into

the classroom (Thornbury, 2005, p. 116). Thornbury (2005, p. 119) claims further that in

task-based approach, a model of instruction is, as well as with any communicative

approach, based on the learners’ attempts to communicate with use of resources available

to them, and describes task cycles of this approach as those following ‘perform – observe

– re-form’ pattern, in which once again can be seen the importance of learners making

and learning from mistakes. Thornbury (2005, p. 119) then gives examples of task types

which could be used in task-based learning – surveys, design, research, and imaginative

tasks – and mentions that any tasks given in the task-based approach should reflect the

kind of language learners would meet in the real world, or at least cover a representative

spread of task types and topics. These topics can, as Thornbury (2005, p. 120) puts it,

‘radiate out from the immediate world of the learner, through their local world, to national

and global concerns’. Connected to this approach is also the rise of using multi-layered

syllabuses which, apart from grammar and vocabulary, also focuses on the skills learners

should be taught, such as ‘how to start a conversation with a stranger’, or ‘how to keep a

26

conversation going’ (Thornbury, 2005, pp. 116 – 117). Thornbury (2005, pp. 117 – 118)

also mentions other possibilities of this speaking syllabus, which may include: spoken

grammar, pronunciation features, communication strategies, conversational routines,

conversational rules and structure, speech acts, registers, scripts, genres, situations, and

cultural factors.

Another approach mentioned by Thornbury (2005, p. 121) is the genre-based approach.

This approach was developed as a reaction to and as a critique of the task-based approach,

criticising its prioritisation of the process of using language over a focus on the products

that learners will need to produce (Thornbury, 2005, p. 121). While task-based approach

starts with a sequence of learners attempting to communicate with usage of the language

they know, genre-based approach starts with a genre-oriented sequence of instruction,

which establishes the social purpose and cultural context of the given spoken genre in

question (Thornbury, 2005, p. 121). This instruction is then followed by the presentation

and analysis of a typical example and only after that can learners attempt to produce their

own examples (Thornbury, 2005, p. 121). Still, as in the chapter ‘Teaching Writing’

above, it is necessary to mention Harmer (2004, p. 29) and his emphasis on the danger of

a ‘genre trap’, into which learners can easily fall when they are shown too little examples

– in that case, when there is an example shown to them, it can, rather than set an example

and inspire learners, often function prescriptively. Once again, it may be avoided by

adding more examples of the genre.

Cunningsworth (1995, p. 69) mentions that, in coursebooks, the skill of speaking often

does not tend to be treated as a separate skill as writing, reading, or listening. Which may

be confirmed also by Hughes (2011, p. 6), who claims that teaching speaking in general,

not only in coursebooks, is not easily separated from other objectives. This leads to

another approach mentioned by Thornbury (2005, p. 118), the integrated skills approach,

which finds it necessary that speaking is practised together with other skills, as it can well

reflect real-life tasks.

27

PRACTICAL PART

3 Research Design

3.1 Research Aims

The aim of this bachelor thesis is to analyse and evaluate an English coursebook, Project

4 (Fourth Edition) by Tom Hutchinson (see App. A), in the field of the four language

skills – listening, writing, speaking, and reading –, concerning the balance between them,

how these four language skills are taught and how the quality of the exercises practising

these four skills is perceived by the teachers using the coursebook. The research questions

to be answered therefore are:

– Are the four language skills in the coursebook Project 4 (Fourth Edition) well balanced,

or is there a noticeable imbalance?

– How are the four language skills in the coursebook Project 4 (Fourth Edition)

represented?

– What do the teachers who use the coursebook Project 4 (Fourth Edition) think about the

quality of the exercises in which the four language skills are practised?

3.2 Research Methods

The coursebook chosen for this research is Project 4 (Fourth Edition) by Tom Hutchinson,

as it is one of the most commonly used coursebooks in English lessons in Czech schools.

Even though their parts are in the chapters of this thesis combined to provide the reader

with more context, the research is originally divided into two parts: an analysis and a

questionnaire.

3.2.1 The Analysis

The analysis of the coursebook is done by the author of this thesis. Firstly, it includes a

general analysis of the balance of the four language skills. This analysis of the balance,

partially answering the research question ‘Are the four language skills in the coursebook

Project 4 (Fourth Edition) well balanced, or is there a noticeable imbalance?’, is done

28

through counting of the exercises in the coursebook and assigning them to a certain

language skill.

However, the analysis of the coursebook also comprises of an analysis of the four

language skills – speaking, listening, reading, and writing. The way the exercises

connected to the four language skills are analysed and evaluated corresponds with the

theoretical part of this thesis – they are compared to what has been stated by the authors

in the chapters of the theoretical part of this thesis.

For a deeper analysis, only two out of six units were analysed this way, because otherwise

the analysis could be too general, not concerning the details necessary for the

understanding of the exercises practising the four language skills. Chosen for this analysis

were units 2 and 3, as they contain a large number of new information for learners to

process.

Through this analysis, the answer to the research question ‘How are the four language

skills in the coursebook Project 4 (Fourth Edition) represented?’ should be found.

3.2.2 The Questionnaire

The answer to the research question ‘Are the four language skills in the coursebook

Project 4 (Fourth Edition) well balanced, or is there a noticeable imbalance?’ can be

partially found in the second part of the research as well. This part consists of a

questionnaire (see App. C) meant for the teachers who use Project 4 (Fourth Edition) in

their English classes. The questionnaire is partially quantitative and partially qualitative

and includes altogether 9 questions. Among these questions, approximately half of the

answers is opened for teachers to fill in, and the other half is with closed answers, in

which only one answer is possible. For the language of the questionnaire is chosen Czech,

so that the possible misunderstandings were avoided.

The number of respondents is 40, all of them being teachers of English who use or used

the coursebook Project 4 (Fourth Edition) in their classes. Still, before it is used on a

broader sample of respondents, it is piloted by two teachers of English language.

The results of this questionnaire are, if they have a qualitative value, connected to the

chapters of analysing the four language skills, as they enrich this analysis for the teachers’

29

opinions on the quality of the exercises focused on the four language skills. The results

of the part of the questionnaire in which there were closed answers concerning the balance

between the four skills, are mentioned in a separate chapter.

4 Researching the Coursebook

4.1 The Balance between the Four Language Skills

4.1.1 Analysing the Balance between the Four Language Skills

All four language skills are in Project 4 (Fourth Edition) present, but they do not seem to

be completely balanced. To analyse the balance, the total number of exercises was

counted and then the percentage of each skill was compared. The total number of

exercises was counted with the condition that even the parts of exercises (such as 3b or

4c) were counted separately.

It is necessary to mention that every exercise was counted only once, even if it fitted more

than one skill-category. Every exercise was therefore assigned to the skill that seemed to

be the one in the major focus (for example, if the exercise primarily developed reading

and contains a small listening part, it was classified as a reading exercise). The category

of ‘Other’ represents grammar or vocabulary-focused exercises, or exercises giving

advice how should learners learn themselves.

Table 1

Exercises and Percentages of the Language Skills in Project 4 (Fourth Edition)

Listening Reading Speaking Writing Other Sum

Number of exercises 115 122 89 56 163 545

Percentage 21% 22% 16% 10% 30%

As it can be seen in Table 1, the total number of exercises was 545, with Reading being

the most common language skill in the coursebook. Reading had 122 out of 545 exercises,

taking 22 % of the whole. Very close to this number was the second most common

30

language skill – listening. Listening had 115 exercises, that is, 21 % of the coursebook.

Next followed the speaking skill with 16 % (89 exercises) and the very least represented

was the skill of writing, having 10 % and 56 exercises.

From the table, a certain sign of a preference of the two receptive skills – listening and

reading – can be seen. Interestingly enough, these two skills find themselves at a very

close level of percentages, even when many of the listening exercises were not counted

because of the above-mentioned necessity to classify each exercise into one category

only, as their major focus was reading.

The least prioritized is, according to the table, the writing skill. This may have as a main

cause the fact that, while technically being counted only as one exercise, some of the

writing activities in the coursebook are more complex, taking eventually also more time

for learners to finish, which leads to another important statement.

The results of the research in the table cannot be considered final or decisive, since the

quantity of the exercises does not speak for their quality. The exercises and the balance

of the four language skills will be further analysed from the perspective of teachers using

the coursebook in the next chapter.

4.1.2 The Results of the Questionnaire on the Balance between the Four Language

Skills

In the questionnaire (see appendix C), the 40 teachers who use the coursebook Project 4

(Fourth Edition) were asked about the balance of the four language skills in the

coursebook. Firstly, they compared the amount of each skill in comparison to the other

language skills, and secondly, they answered a general question, whether the coursebook

is balanced.

31

Figure 1

The Results of the Questionnaire on the Comparison of the Four Language Skills – in

Numbers

Figure 2

The Results of the Questionnaire on the Comparison of the Four Language Skills – in

Percent

From the figures, it can be seen that the majority of teachers is of the opinion that every

language skill, in comparison to the other language skills, is represented by the exercises

0 0

9

1

12

1

13

4

21

27

17

21

5

9

1

11

2

3

0

3

L I S T E N I N G S P E A K I N G R E A D I N G W R I T I N G

Too many exercises Many exercises Just enough exercises

Not enough exercises Too few exercises

0%

0%

23

%

3%

30

%

3%

33

%

10

%

53

%

68

%

43

%

53

%

13

%

23

%

3%

28

%

5% 8

%

0%

8%

L I S T E N I N G S P E A K I N G R E A D I N G W R I T I N G

Too many exercises Many exercises Just enough exercises

Not enough exercises Too few exercises

32

just enough. Still, from the answers which are not so satisfied with the balance between

the language skills, certain trends can be seen. From the answers teachers of English gave,

it can be speculated that reading and listening tend to be the skills which are more often

represented in the exercises. On the other hand, speaking and listening tend to have rather

negative results. Therefore, the way the representation of the four language skills in the

coursebook could be sorted is as follows: according to the respondents of the

questionnaire, the most common skill represented in the coursebook Project 4 (Fourth

Edition) is reading – with 56 % of respondents of the opinion that in the coursebook, more

of the exercises are connected to this skill than to the other skills –, followed by listening

– 30 % of respondents claiming that there are more of the exercises focused on this skill

than on the other skills –, then speaking – 31 % of respondents claiming that, on the

contrary, there are not enough or too few exercises in comparison to the other skills – and

lastly, writing – with 36 % of respondents claiming that there are not enough or too few

exercises.

Figure 3

The Results of the Questionnaire on the General Balance of the Four Language Skills in

the Coursebook

Note. The answers on the question ‘Do you, concerning the four language skills, consider

the coursebook to be balanced?’

13

110

13

3

Yes Mostly yes I am not certain Mostly no No

33

Even though some of the language skills may be, according to the respondents, in the

coursebook Project 4 (Fourth Edition) represented more commonly than the others, still,

most of the asked teachers – 60 % – consider the coursebook to be balanced or mostly

balanced. The rest – 40 % – consider the coursebook to be somehow imbalanced.

4.2 The Four Language Skills

4.2.1 Analysing Reading

Reading is the most common skill represented in Project 4 (Fourth Edition), having 122

exercises (see App. D) in which this skill is in the main focus. Still, there are also other

exercises in which the work with a certain text should not be in the main focus of the

learner, but it is rather a way, or a tool, how to explain various structures of the language,

such as grammar or used expressions. Both varieties of the exercises containing the

reading skill were analysed, concerning two representative units from the coursebook –

Units 2 and 3.

When analysing reading, it is certainly essential to analyse the used texts for this activity.

Below, a table containing the texts used for reading activities in units 2 and 3 of the

coursebook can be seen.

Table 2

Texts for Reading Activities in Project 4 (Fourth Edition), Units 2 and 3

Unit Name of the text

Length

(words)

2 Stunt Doubles 306

2 Smart Alec Closes the Door 255

2 Fame 374

2 Andy’s in trouble 306

2 Teenagers’ Reading Habits 253

2 Computers 199

3 You and Your Body 230

3 6a, page 33 77

34

3 Sweet Sue Has the Last Laugh 225

3 Are You a Healthy Eater? 229

3 The Tickets 250

3 Sports Events 239

3 Vitamins and Minerals 333

An average length: 252

From the table, it is certain that the texts which were used for reading activities in units 2

and 3 of Project 4 (Fourth Edition) very often had their length reaching around 252 words,

which is the average number of words of these units’ texts. Nevertheless, the table also

contains both extremes: firstly, the texts which did not contain so many words – such as

exercise 6a on page 33 with 77 words –, and secondly, the texts which contained too many

words – such as ‘Fame’ in unit 2, reaching the length of 374 words.

Overall, the texts used for reading activities in units 2 and 3 of the coursebook did not

include any larger number of vocabulary items unknown to the learner. Usually, if the

texts included any new vocabulary, it was only a few items of vocabulary which was

connected to the general topic of the unit’s part. However, it is necessary to emphasize

that the linguistic difficulty of the text is not caused only by vocabulary items, but also

by new structures of the language and the length and the complexity of sentences. These

new structures were within the texts in Project 4 (Fourth Edition) used quite frequently,

because they were often connected to an explanation of the new grammatical structures.

Therefore, in units 2 and 3 of the coursebook could be found texts for reading activities,

which included structures which were new or relatively new to learners, such as present

perfect – which could be firstly seen in ‘Stunt Doubles’ and ‘Smart Alec Closes the Door’

– relative pronouns – in ‘You and Your Body’ –, or should and might – which could be

found in ‘Sweet Sue Has the Last Laugh’. The sentences used in the texts, then, were very

often simple and short.

The texts used for reading activities in units 2 and 3 were of various topics. There were

texts connected to the topic of movies – ‘Stunt Doubles’ –, to the topic of TV shows –

‘Fame’ –, of reading – ‘Teenagers’ Reading Habits’ –, of computers – the text

‘Computers’ –, to the topic of health – ‘You and Your Body’, ‘Are You a Healthy Eater?’

and ‘Vitamins and Minerals’ – or to the topic of sports – ‘Sports Events’. Nevertheless,

35

in the units 2 and 3 could be found also the texts which were not of a specific topic. These

texts were all connected to a longer, continuous story, either about two comic characters

Sweet Sue and Smart Alec who solve situations more connected to the life of adults – the

texts ‘Smart Alec Closes the Door’ in unit 2 and ‘Sweet Sue Has the Last Laugh’ in unit

3 –, or about a group of friends (‘Kids’) who are probably of the same age as the learners

– the texts ‘Andy’s Trouble’ in unit 2 and ‘The Tickets’ in unit 3.

The exploitability of the texts meant for reading activities was seen throughout the units,

as the texts were always connected to some kind of an activity. These exercises could be

found in various forms, such as answering questions based on the information learned

from the text – exercise 2a on page 20, exercise 1 on page 22, exercise 1a on page 24,

exercises 1b and 2 on page 26, exercise 1 on page 34, exercise 1a on page 36, exercise 2b

on page 40 –, searching for a particular information in the text – exercise 2b on page 20

–, deciding whether the statements are true or not – exercise 2 on page 25 and exercise 2

on page 41 –, matching headings to paragraphs – exercise 1 on page 28 –, matching photos

to paragraphs – exercise 1a on page 40 –, completing a chart – exercise 2 on page 28,

exercise 2a on page 40 and exercise 3 on page 41 –, completing the text with given words

– exercise 2a on page 29 –, completing sentences with the words used in the text – exercise

5 on page 41 –, checking items which were mentioned in the text – exercise 2a on page

32 –, correcting the statements – exercise 2 on page 38 –, answering questions connected

to the learners – exercise 1b on page 24, exercise 3a on page 28, exercise 3 on page 29,

exercise 2b on page 32, exercises 1b and 2 on page 36, exercise 4 on page 40, exercises

1a and 4 on pages 41 –, or even having a discussion with the class or a conversation with

a partner about the answers on the questions which were focused on the learners – exercise

3b on page 28, exercise 3d on page 36.

In the case of the above-mentioned continuous story about the group of friends, a question

connected to some kind of a recapitulation of the previous part of the story was always

the first reading activity – exercise 1a on page 26 and exercise 1a on page 38. Both of

them also had an activity in the form of answering an imaginative question – exercise 3a

on page 27 and exercise 3a on page 39 – in which the learners were asked what they think

happens next. On the contrary, with the second continuous story, this recapitulation of

what previously happened and an imagination of what according to the learners happens

next was omitted.

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4.2.1.1 Evaluating Reading

Concerning the length of the texts used for reading activities, the authors mentioned in

the theoretical part of this thesis do not offer any particular guidance, mentioning only

that a longer text may be good for teaching reading as well, as it can help learners to

practise many reading strategies (Nuttall, 1982, p. 23). In the analysis, apart from the

average, two extremes were found. In my opinion, the first extreme – that is, having not

so many words in comparison with the average text in the units – is not necessary a

disadvantage, as this short text still can in limited ways support learners’ reading skill,

even if only on the level of understanding information from a number of sentences. On

the contrary, the second extreme – a text containing too many words in comparison with

the average – even though it certainly can help develop learners’ reading strategies, may

be found as unsuitable for a coursebook, or at least for an in-class activity with the

coursebook, because there is a threat of danger that the activity for an English lesson, in

which the text would be used, would be too time-consuming, leading to learners

perceiving the lesson as monotonous. Notwithstanding, exactly through this possible

monotony or an unusual length the longer text can also endow learners with an

opportunity to confront one of the most common difficulties while reading – the partial

or complete loss of attention devoted to the text. The types of activities which are

connected to these longer texts help learners to gain their attention back and, often,

motivate them to keep on reading.

The texts were not linguistically difficult for the learners, as the texts did not contain too

much of new vocabulary – Lewis & Hill (1992, p. 116) recommend only 6 new words

per 100 words in the text, and according to Nuttall (1982, p. 26), the new vocabulary

should reach maximally two or three percent of the text – and they did contain not too

complex and relatively short sentences only. On the other hand, in some texts, the

linguistic difficulty could be increased by the presence of new grammatical structures.

The topics chosen for the texts of reading activities were truly various even in the two

representative units. From my point of view, these topics can be also described as relevant

and interesting for the learners, as they handle situations and things which are usually

very close to the life of learners. Therefore, these texts fulfil the claims by the authors in

the theoretical part of this thesis – they are engaging (Cunningsworth, 1995, p. 73) and

appealing (Nuttall, 1982, p. 29) to the learners.

37

Special attention connected to the engagement of learners deserve the continuous stories

about Sweet Sue and Smart Alec, or about the ‘Kids’. Certainly, the continuous story

about the ‘Kids’ can be for learners very relevant, because the main characters are of the

same age as them and often, these characters try to solve the situations through which

even the reading learner could go. This, though, cannot be claimed about the second

continuous story, Sweet Sue and Smart Alec, in which the main characters are adult and

go through for learners quite unrelatable situations. As already mentioned in the above

analysis, the continuous story about the ‘Kids’ is always connected to the same activities

– firstly, a question in which the learners are asked what was in the previous part of the

story, and secondly, after they read the text, an imaginative question about what they think

happens next. The first part, the recapitulation, is according to Lewis & Hill (1992, p.

108) very important for any continuous story. This, though, cannot be seen in the stories

about Sweet Sue and Smart Alec. The absence of the recapitulation may be caused by the

fact that the stories are not continuous enough, therefore it is not necessary. On the

contrary, if the stories are not truly continuous, there is maybe no necessity to use the

particular characters of Sweet Sue and Smart Alec, if they are not so appealing to learners.

Within the variety of tasks used with the reading activities, there can be found examples

which are with their purpose very similar to the idea of Lewis’ & Hill’s (1992, pp. 111 –

113) definition, correction, and conversational questions. The purpose of correction

questions can be fulfilled by the activities such as correcting statements or deciding

whether the statements are true or false. The purpose of the definition questions, which

could be simply practising the meaning of vocabulary items used in the text, can be found

in exercises such as completing the text with given words and completing sentences with

the words used in the text. The purpose of the conversational questions, then is according

to Lewis & Hill (1992, p. 115) enrich the reading session for learners’ individualities, and

also build a connection with comprehension. Therefore, the exercises in which are

questions connected to the learner, or where after this activity follows a discussion with

the class or a conversation with a partner about the answers on the questions which were

focused on the learners, fulfil this purpose.

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4.2.1.2 Teachers’ Opinions on Reading

Most of the teachers asked in the questionnaire describe themselves as more or less

satisfied with the quality of the exercises focusing on reading. Still, some of the teachers

mention that some of the texts are too long and therefore very time-consuming to be used

in the class.

4.2.2 Analysing Listening

The mainly listening-focused exercises (see App. E) are the second most common in the

coursebook. There is also a great number of activities, which are also focused on listening,

but as their major focus was reading, they were not counted for the statistics. Last category

of listening-based exercises is the type in which listening is used as a form of checking

other tasks – such as imaginative ones in which learners should predict what will happen

next –, and it is counted in the major listening-focused exercises. In the table below, all

listening-connected exercises are listed.

Table 3

Listening Exercises in Project 4 (Fourth Edition), Units 2 and 3

Unit Page Exercise Length

2 20 2a 2:55

2 21 8a, 8b 2:16

2 22 1 3:15

2 23 8 1:12

2 24 1a 3:03

2 25 5a, 5b 1:26

2 25 6a 2:18

2 25 7 1:22

2 26 1b 2:39

2 27 3b, 3c 1:54

2 28 1, 2 2:33

2 29 1b 1:11

2 29 2a, 2b 1:40

2 30 1b 1:15

2 30 3a 1:17

2 31 2b 0:50

3 32 1b 1:40

3 32 1c 1:25

3 33 5 1:22

39

3 34 1 2:31

3 36 1a 2:17

3 36 3a, 3c 2:43

3 37 4a 1:31

3 37 6a, 6b 1:59

3 38 1b 2:09

3 39 3b, 3c 1:34

3 39 8 0:52

3 40 1b, 1c 2:14

3 40 3 2:19

3 41 1b 3:14

3 42 5a, 5b 0:46

The recordings of listening activities which can be found in units 2 and 3 of Project 4

(Fourth Edition) are in the range between 50 seconds and 3 minutes and 14 seconds. It is

necessary to mention that the vast majority of the recordings usually reach under 2

minutes. The recordings which long for more than 2 and a half minutes are then often

connected to a text meant mainly for the skill of reading, where these recordings help

learners with the pronunciation of the text. Therefore, it is possible to come to a

conclusion that all of the recordings which are meant primarily for practising listening

are short enough for learners not to be demotivated by their length.

All of the above-listed listening exercises use recordings, which means that learners do

not obtain any form of visual clues, making it harder for them to understand the

environment of the listened text, unless the exercise offers the context of the given

listening in other form, usually in the form of an introduction. Even apart from the

recordings which are connected to reading activities, still most of the listening activities

miss a proper introduction and therefore a context of the listened situation. An

introduction can be seen in instructions of the exercise 8 on page 21, exercise 1 on page

31, exercise 6 on page 37, exercise 3 on page 40, exercise 5 on page 42 and exercise 1 on

page 43 – all of them have stated, what the learner is about to hear, such as a conversation,

a dialogue, or a song, and therefore offer the general structure of the listening exercise.

Through units 2 and 3, four of the listening exercises – exercises 5, 6 and 7 on page 25

and exercise 3 on page 36 – have a closer introduction, which does not include only

instructions, but also pre-listening activities.

These pre-listening activities introduce in all above-mentioned cases learners to the topic

of the listened recordings, which are in case of exercises 5, 6, and 7 on page 25 TV game

40

shows, and in case of exercise 3 on page 36 diets. In exercises 5, 6, and 7 on page 25 the

introduction is done simply through connection with speaking pre-listening activities –

learners are firstly asked, what their favourite game show on TV is and how it works, and

secondly, they are shown a picture of a TV game show, about which they then speak, and,

later on, also hear. In exercise 3 on page 36, the listening activity is connected to the topic

of diets, which is firstly introduced by a reading and speaking activity.

While-listening activities, then, are in units 2 and 3 well represented. They can be found

in various forms, such as: filling in a chart – exercises 8a and b on page 21 –, choosing

correct meanings – exercise 8 on page 23 –, deciding, whether statements are true or false

– exercise 3c on page 27 –, agreeing or disagreeing with statements – exercise 8 on page

39 –, completing gaps of a text – exercise 2a on page 29 –, choosing the correct answer –

exercise 3a on page 30 –, matching words with a picture – exercise 1b on page 32 –,

guessing a word – exercise 5 on page 33 –, checking heard items or pictures – exercise

3a on page 36 and exercise 4a on page 37 –, or simply answering questions – exercises

5a and 6a on page 25, exercise 3c on page 36. All of the while-listening activities are not

very time-consuming, which allows learners to manage them during listening to the

recording.

Some listening exercises then carry with them also post-listening activities, either in the

form of writing – exercise 3b on page 30, exercise 5c on page 47, exercise 6a and b on

page 49 –, speaking – exercise 6b on page 25, exercise 3d on page 36, exercise 9 on page

39 –, or both – exercise 9 on page 21. There are certainly not as many exercises as of

those with while-listening activities, which can be simply explained by the fact that while-

listening activity is usually the core of any listening-focused exercise.

Overall, the exercises are not only in various forms, but also offer to learners to listen to

various situations as well, to listen to dialogues – such as exercise 8 on page 21 and

exercise 8 on page 23 – and monologues – for example exercise 1b on page 32 – with

various topics, such as listening to a nutrition expert – page 36, exercise 3a –, listening to

a conversation at the doctor’s – page 37, exercise 6 –, or listening to a TV game show –

exercises 5,6 and 7 on page 25. The recordings are all in native English accents and some

of them include also noise.

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4.2.2.1 Evaluating Listening

The analysed listening recordings in the units 2 and 3 are of a length from 50 seconds to

3 minutes and 14 seconds, but the majority of them reaches under 2 minutes. This length

corresponds with the opinion of Lewis & Hill (1992, p. 63), who claim that the pre-

recorded material should not last for a longer period of time than 2 or 3 minutes, as this

time is the borderline for learners’ loss of attention and concentration on the recording.

What seems to be partially omitted in the units 2 and 3 is the context of the listening

activities. Only a very small number has some kind of a general, thematic introduction,

which is recommended by Lewis & Hill (1992, p. 62). From this small number, only a

minority has also pre-listening activities attached.

The other two kinds of listening exercises mentioned by Underwood (1989), while-

listening and post-listening activities, are in the two units more common and reach a wider

variety. This fulfils the claim of Lewis & Hill (1992, p. 63) that listening activities should

vary, as learners should through them practise different kinds of listening subskills. The

post-listening activities do often last for a longer period of time, which is then marked as

possible by Underwood (1989, p. 78), who claims that learners have during these

activities more time to process the listening.

Apart from this variety of exercises, another variety can be seen in the listening-focused

exercises in units 2 and 3 of Project 4 (Fourth Edition) – the variety of situations. The

variety of situations is, according to Richards & Burns (2012, pp. 15 – 16), necessary for

any good listening activity, as this way the exercises reflect what the learners will

encounter outside of classroom.

The native speakers in the recordings make the exercises more realistic and authentic as

well. To the authenticity of the exercises also contributes the fact that some of them

contain noise, which makes it a bit harder for learners to understand the recording, and

therefore lets them, while listening, face difficulties the learners would have while

communicating with an authentic source (Richards & Burns, 2012, pp. 15 – 16).

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4.2.2.2 Teachers’ Opinions on Listening

In the questionnaire, most of the asked teachers was overall satisfied with the quality of

the listening exercises. Most of them mentioned no problems they see in the quality, but

a very small number of cases stated that they are not satisfied with the noise of the

recordings, as it is, according to them, too disturbing for the learners.

4.2.3 Analysing Speaking

In Project 4 (Fourth Edition), there are 89 exercises which are mainly focused on

speaking. The exercises connected to speaking (see App. F) can be divided into two main

categories: firstly, the ones in which learners speak simply to practise the skill, and

secondly, the exercises in which speaking is used rather as a tool to practise grammatical

structures. The first type is heavily more common in the coursebook, but it is necessary

to emphasise that still, the skill of speaking as such in the second and third unit of the

coursebook integrates with the other three language skills, as the exercises concerning

speaking are always a part of a mainly reading – exercise 1b on page 24, exercises 3a and

b on page 28 –, listening – exercises 4a, 4b and 6b on page 25 –, or writing – exercise 8b

on page 35 – sequence.

The variety of the speaking exercises – without any further concern about the purpose of

the exercise – is not as wide as with the two previous language skills of reading and

listening, as in the units 2 and 3 the vast majority of speaking activities include questions

learners should answer, which can be seen for example in the exercise 1b on page 24, or

in the exercise 3a on page 27. There is also one case in which the speaking exercise in the

form of an answering a question is enriched with a picture – exercise 4b on page 25. Other

varieties of the speaking exercises, which do not appear in the units so often, are

comparing work with a partner or a group – exercise 5b on page 21, exercise 7b on page

33, exercise 8b on page 35 –, work in pairs, in which is given what should be done (such

as that learners should ask and answer question using a certain grammatical structure) –

exercise 4b on page 21, exercise 9b on page 27, exercise 4b on page 30, exercise 9 on

page 39 –, finding someone who does something given in the exercise – exercise 3 on

page 29 –, roleplay – exercises 7b on page 37 and 6 on page 42, in which one of the

43

learners is the doctor and the other one is a patient with one of health problems depicted

by pictures – and giving advice – exercise 3d on page 36.

The topics of the speaking exercises very often at general level correlate with the learners,

concerning their opinions – exercise 3a on page 27 –, habits – exercise 3a on page 28 –,

or experience and knowledge – exercise 5 on page 37, exercise 1a on page 41. Next, the

topics are also often connected to the learner’s classmates, as it concentrates for example

on the things they have done, on their reading habits, or, generally said, on them – exercise

9b on page 21, exercise 9b on page 27, exercise 3b on page 28. Apart from that, some of

the exercises – usually the activities which do not serve for the linguistic purpose – are

still thematically connected to the topic of the part of the unit, such as TV shows – exercise

1b on page 24, exercises 4a and b on page 25 –, reading – exercises 3a and b on page 28

–, computers – exercise 3 on page 29 –, health – exercise 3b on page 32, exercises 1b, 2

and 3d on page 36, exercise 5 on page 37, exercises 1a and 4 on page 41.

4.2.3.1 Evaluating Speaking

The speaking activities in the units 2 and 3 of the coursebook Project 4 (Fourth Edition)

can be divided the same way Harmer (2007, p. 124) distinguishes them: the speaking

exercises are meant either for linguistic purposes – the exercises practising grammatical

structures in the units 2 and 3 – or for practising the skill itself. The position of the

speaking activities meant primarily for practising speaking in the units 2 and 3 of the

coursebook – that is, the way they are connected to other language skills – corresponds

with the integrated skills approach mentioned by Thornbury (2005, p. 118). This approach

claims that it is necessary that the practise of the speaking skill is done together with the

other skills, because it reflects well real-life tasks.

The variety of the speaking exercises is truly not so wide as with the two above-mentioned

language skills. Nevertheless, there can be seen exercises connected to the

communicative approach, having as a main goal the fluency of speaking, not its accuracy.

A part of the exercises could be then even more specifically marked as an exercise of a

task-based approach – for example imaginative tasks, which can be the roleplay

mentioned above.

44

The exercises connected to the task-based approach, according to Thornbury (2005, p.

119), should reflect the kind of language learners would meet in the real world, or at least

cover a representative spread of task types and topics, which, in my opinion, is in the units

two and three fulfilled. Apart from that, the topics used for the units of Project 4 (Fourth

Edition) also fulfil another Thornbury’s (2005, p. 120) claim, as they “radiate out from

the immediate world of the learner, through their local world, to national and global

concerns”.

4.2.3.2 Teachers’ Opinions on Speaking

The teachers asked in the questionnaire, whether they are satisfied with the quality of the

exercises concerning speaking, were mostly satisfied with the quality of the exercises.

Still, some of them did emphasize that they are not satisfied with the amount of the

exercises, because they are of the opinion that the coursebook does not offer enough of

them.

4.2.4 Analysing Writing

Writing-focused exercises (see App. G) are the least common in the coursebook, having

only 56 exercises which could be marked as having the skill of writing in a major focus

in the whole coursebook. Even in the units 2 and 3 of Project 4 (Fourth Edition) most of

the exercises rather than being focused on writing only use this skill as a way to practise

grammatical structures.

Overall, the writing exercises in units 2 and 3 of the coursebook usually let learners

operate only at the level of making sentences. Most of them serve as a way to practise

grammar, for example to practise the usage of present perfect – exercises 5a and 9a on

page 21 – or to practise the usage of relative clauses – exercise 6b on page 33. In these

exercises, learners are given very specific instructions what to use in their sentences, so

they are focused on accuracy, not fluency.

Fluency is then practised at the end of both of the units. It is there that the writing exercises

expect learners to write a longer text which should include paragraphs. Before the main

writing task is given to them, learners are introduced to a certain phenomenon which may

45

help them with the cohesion of their written text, such as time expressions in unit 2 – on

page 31 – and giving examples in unit 3 – on page 43. Then, in the main task aimed at the

development of their writing skill, learners are given instructions in detail, such as some

kind of ‘checkpoints’ of what learners should precisely include in their text – task on page

43 –, or, even more closely, what should be included in every paragraph – task on page

31. Even though learners are given this closer instruction on the structure of the text, an

example, which could inspire them, is missing. The topics of these writing tasks are

always very closely related to the topic of the unit and they are very close to the learners

as well. The writing task in unit 2 has as a topic Fame, as learners should write a biography

of a certain celebrity, and the task in unit 3 is then connected to the topic of health, as

learners should in it make a leaflet on teenage health.

4.2.4.1 Evaluating Writing

The way the writing exercises are mainly focused on the writing skill or on another

purpose, such as practising grammatical structures, corresponds with the way Harmer

(2007, p. 112) distinguishes ‘writing-for-writing’, in which the skill of writing itself

should be developed, and ‘writing-for-learning’, in which writing serves rather as a tool

to achieve a usually linguistic goal.

The level of sentences, at which the writing exercises tend to operate, might not be

sufficient enough for learners to truly develop their writing skill. It is after every unit that

they are given the task to write a longer text, including paragraphs. It is good that these

tasks are accompanied by the exercises which help learners to learn something about and

practise cohesion of the text, but, in my opinion, if the learners had had more opportunities

to practise the cohesion during the units, they would have been much more secure about

their usage of it. This way, as a longer text is expected from them only once for every unit

– and there is only 6 of them in Project 4 (Fourth Edition) –, the task may seem much

more challenging, because the learners do not encounter it so often.

The instructions accompanying these tasks are very precise on what should be included

in each paragraph. Still, there is a phenomenon they completely miss – they do not offer

the learners any example or model of what the final product could look like. The

importance of giving an example or a model is stressed by Harmer (2004, p. 28), who

46

claims that an example or a model can help learners to understand the genre which is

expected from them, or to understand cohesion devices.

4.2.4.2 Teachers’ Opinions on Writing

Most of the teachers asked in the questionnaire about their satisfaction with the quality of

the exercises focused on writing claim to be overall mostly satisfied. Still, about quarter

of the respondents mentioned their partial unsatisfaction and emphasised the lack of

examples for learners. A minority of teachers asked in the questionnaire also mentioned

that they would like to see more authentic exercises in the coursebook.

5 Discussion

Before the final conclusion is made, it is necessary to discuss the way the research was

done. It needs to be emphasized that the exercises focused on the language skills were

taken and analysed only from two out of six units, units 2 and 3. As mentioned above, for

a more detailed look at the exercises it was found necessary not to analyse every unit this

way. Through the limitation of this analysis, it is possible that in other units could be

found another type of an exercise, which would enrich the variety of the exercises

representing the skill. Nevertheless, for most of the phenomena – such as the length of

the texts used for reading or the length of the recordings for listening – mentioned in the

analysis of the exercises, the representative units were believed to be sufficient, as every

unit should include exercises connected to appropriately long texts for listening and

reading, or exercises with topics interesting and engaging for learners.

With the analysis of the exercises, it is also important to mention that these exercises were

very often evaluated in connection with the statements made by many authors mentioned

in the theoretical part of this thesis. Thus, it is needed to emphasize that some of the

authors’ opinions were, even though they were very important for teaching the given

language skill, inapplicable on the exercises and the coursebook. This is, I believe, mainly

connected to the skill of writing, where during the stages of planning, drafting, and editing

a continuous feedback is a necessity for learners to achieve certainty in their writing. The

learners cannot be provided with a feedback by any coursebook, and it is therefore a

47

teacher’s responsibility. Nevertheless, it does not mean that it is impossible for the

coursebook to introduce the importance of these stages.

For the results of the questionnaire, it is important to mention that this research method

was piloted by two teachers of English. To try to fully avoid any misunderstandings, the

questionnaire was in Czech language. The only limitation of the questionnaire therefore

should be only the number of participants, which can always be higher to reflect the

opinions of teachers who use Project 4 (Fourth Edition) better.

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CONCLUSION

The bachelor thesis called ‘The Evaluation of an English Coursebook (Project 4, Fourth

Edition) with a Focus on Language Skills’ was supposed to introduce the four language

skills – listening, speaking, writing and reading –, their purposes and also the way they

should be, according to certain authors, taught. The aim of this thesis was to use the

knowledge about language skills gained in the theoretical part and based on it analyse and

evaluate an English coursebook used very commonly in the Czech Republic, Project 4

(Fourth Edition) by Tom Hutchinson.

The aim of this thesis was to analyse the balance between the language skills in the

coursebook and how these four language skills are represented. The opinions of teachers

who use this coursebook were part of the aim as well, that is, the aim was to find out what

the teachers think about the quality of the exercises in which the four language skills, and

their opinions were also used for researching the balance between the four language skills

in the coursebook.

The aim of this thesis was fulfilled through an analysis of two units of the coursebook –

units 2 and 3 –, through a general analysis of the exercises in the coursebook, and also

through a questionnaire with 40 respondents. At first, the only research method chosen

for this thesis was the analysis, but it did not seem complete without the opinions of those

who use the coursebook. Thus, the method of questionnaire was used to enrich the thesis

for more points of views of those who use the coursebook in their praxis.

The first research question to be answered was whether the language skills in Project 4

(Fourth Edition) are well balanced, or whether there is a noticeable imbalance. For most

of the asked teachers who use this coursebook – 60 % –, the answer was that the

coursebook is in the question of the four language skills more or less balanced. According

to most of the respondents, three out of four language skills – listening, writing and

speaking – were in the coursebook equally represented. However, the general analysis of

the coursebook found out that there is an imbalance. In Project 4 (Fourth Edition), the

exercises which were mainly focused on the reading skill or the listening skill were more

commonly present than the rest of the language skills, having 21 and 20 % of the exercises

in the coursebook. The least commonly represented in the coursebook was the writing

skill, having only 10 %. The imbalance between the language skills in the coursebook

was then also noticed by some of the teachers in the questionnaire: 36 % of them answered

49

that there are not enough or too few exercises focused on the writing skill in comparison

to the other skills, 31 % answered the same about the speaking skill, 30 % claimed that

there are many or too many exercises focused on the listening skill in comparison to the

other skills and, finally, 56 % claimed that there are many or too many reading exercises.

The reading skill was the only one by which the majority of the respondents pointed out

the imbalance.

The second research question of this thesis was how the four language skills are

represented in the coursebook. Certainly, the analysis of the two representative units

proved a wide variety of the exercises focused on reading and listening. The recordings

of the exercises practising the listening skill were of an appropriate length, reaching

usually under 2 minutes, and the recordings also included background noise and native

speakers, which led to learners listening to a more authentic material. The recordings were

always accompanied by while-listening activities, which were of a wide variety. The

exercises sometimes also consisted of a pre-listening activity, which provided learners

with an introduction of what they are about to listen to, or a post-listening activity, which

was either in the form of a writing or speaking exercise.

With the reading skill, it was important to also analyse the texts used with the exercises

practising reading. The analysis of the two representative units showed that the texts

which were connected to the exercises practising the reading skill were also very often of

an appropriate length, which would not endanger the learners’ span of attention. However,

rarely some of the texts were quite longer. Overall, the texts were not linguistically

difficult, as they did not include too many new vocabulary items, but some of them were

used to introduce a new grammatical structure. Their topics were engaging and appealing

to learners, and, in the case of one of the continuous stories, it included characters which

were relatable to learners. However, there was one more continuous story, which included

characters not so relatable, going through situations not so close to the learners’

experience. The texts were always accompanied, as above-mentioned, by a wide variety

of activities, the first mentioned continuous story also contained at the beginning an

introduction in which what happened in the previous part was repeated, and, at the end,

an imaginative question what according to learners happens next. By the second

continuous story, a question arises, whether it was necessary to choose for the purpose of

practice of the reading skill this particular form.

50

Through the two representative units, the speaking skill was represented either in the

exercises serving mainly for linguistic purposes, or in the exercises which were mainly

focused on the skill itself. The speaking skill was always integrated with the other three

language skills, which was supposed to reflect the real-life tasks the learners may

encounter. The exercises focusing on the speaking skill itself were fluency-oriented, and

most of them could be assigned to a communicative approach, or, more concretely, to the

task-based approach.

In the two analysed units, the writing skill was mostly common in the form of the

exercises serving for linguistic purposes, focusing mainly on accuracy. In these exercises,

the learners operated only at the level of sentences. It was only at the end of every unit

that they could practise above the level of sentences. In these exercises focused on

fluency, the learners firstly had an opportunity to practise the cohesive devices before the

final writing task was given to them. The final writing task included detailed instructions

of what should each paragraph contain, but, on the contrary, an example or a model of

the final written product was omitted.

The exercises practising the language skills therefore represented the language skills

appropriately and very often creatively. However, this cannot be completely claimed

about the representation of the writing skill, which was not so appropriate, as it omitted

examples which have a great role in the process of writing and the exercises very often

operated only at the limited level of sentences.

The third and the last research question was what the teachers who use the coursebook

think about the quality of the exercises in which the four language skills are practised.

Overall, the asked teachers described themselves as satisfied with the quality of the

exercises. Still, some of them mentioned that they are not satisfied with the noise they

find disturbing in the listening recordings, or with the length of some texts meant for

reading. One quarter of the respondents also claimed that they are not satisfied with the

exercises practising writing, as there are no examples.

I believe that both the theoretical and the practical part of this thesis can find its use in the

field of teaching English language. Primarily, it can help the teachers who use and rely

mainly on the coursebook Project 4 (Fourth Edition) to decide, whether they should not

enrich their lessons for more supplementary materials, for example in case that they

would like to focus more on the speaking or the writing skill. However, this thesis can

51

also inspire the teachers who are not so satisfied with the current coursebook they use and

either gives them an opportunity to consider whether Project 4 (Fourth Edition) could be

the coursebook they would like to use in the future or show them one of the ways based

on which they could choose a new coursebook.

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LIST OF REFERENCES

Bygate, M. (2003). Speaking. Oxford University Press

Byrne, D. (1988). Teaching Writing Skills. Longman

Cunningsworth, A. (1995). Choosing Your Coursebook. Macmillan Heinemann English

language teaching

Harmer, J. (2004). How to Teach Writing. Pearson Education Limited: Longman

Harmer, J. (2007). How to Teach English: new edition. Pearson Education Limited:

Longman

Harmer, J. (2012). Essential Teacher Knowledge. Pearson Education Limited

Hudson, T. (2007). Teaching Second Language Reading. Oxford University Press

Hughes, R. (2011). Teaching and Researching Speaking. Pearson Education Limited:

Longman

Hutchinson, T. (2014). Project 4: Fourth Edition. Oxford University Press

Lea, D., Bradbery, J. (2020). Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (10th edition).

Oxford University Press

Lewis, M., Hill, J. (1992). Practical Techniques for Language Teaching. Language

Teaching Publications

Nuttall, C. (1982). Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language. Heinemann

Průcha, J. (1998). Učebnice: Teorie a analýzy edukačního média. Paido

Raimes, A. (1983). Techniques in Teaching Writing. Oxford University Press

Richards, J., Burns, A. (2012). Tips for Teaching Listening: A Practical Approach.

Pearson

Thornbury, S. (2005). How to Teach Speaking. Pearson Education Limited: Longman

Underwood, M. (1989). Teaching Listening. Longman

Ur, P. (1984). Teaching Listening Comprehension. Cambridge University Press

Ur, P. (1996). A Course in English Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press

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Watkins, P. (2017) Teaching and Developing Reading Skills. Cambridge University Press

54

LIST OF APPENDICES

Appendix A – The cover page of the coursebook Project 4 (Fourth Edition)

Appendix B – The acknowledgments of the coursebook Project 4 (Fourth Edition)

Appendix C – The questionnaire for the teachers who use Project 4 (Fourth Edition)

Appendix D – An example of a reading exercise from Project 4 (Fourth Edition)

Appendix E – An example of a listening exercise from Project 4 (Fourth Edition)

Appendix F – An example of a speaking exercise from Project 4 (Fourth Edition)

Appendix G – An example of a writing exercise from Project 4 (Fourth Edition)

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Appendix A – The cover page of the coursebook Project 4 (Fourth Edition)

56

Appendix B – The acknowledgments of the coursebook Project 4 (Fourth Edition)

57

Appendix C – The questionnaire for the teachers who use Project 4 (Fourth Edition)

Jazykové dovednosti v učebnici Project 4 (4. vydání) – Dotazník pro učitele

Dobrý den,

jmenuji se Dagmar Tvrdíková a v rámci své bakalářské práce, ve které zkoumám jazykové

dovednosti v učebnici Project 4 (4. vydání), bych Vás ráda poprosila o vyplnění tohoto

krátkého dotazníku, který se jimi zabývá.

Předem Vám děkuji za spolupráci.

1) Kolik je v učebnici cvičení zabývajících se poslechem v porovnání se

zastoupením ostatních dovedností?

Vyberte jednu odpověď.

□ Příliš mnoho

□ Mnoho

□ Akorát

□ Málo

□ Příliš málo

2) Kolik je v učebnici cvičení zabývajících se mluvením v porovnání se

zastoupením ostatních dovedností?

Vyberte jednu odpověď.

□ Příliš mnoho

□ Mnoho

□ Akorát

□ Málo

□ Příliš málo

3) Kolik je v učebnici cvičení zabývajících se čtením v porovnání se zastoupením

ostatních dovedností?

Vyberte jednu odpověď.

□ Příliš mnoho

□ Mnoho

□ Akorát

□ Málo

□ Příliš málo

4) Kolik je v učebnici cvičení zabývajících se psaním v porovnání se zastoupením

ostatních dovedností?

Vyberte jednu odpověď.

□ Příliš mnoho

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□ Mnoho

□ Akorát

□ Málo

□ Příliš málo

5) Považujete učebnici za vyváženou, co se jazykových dovedností týče?

Vyberte jednu odpověď.

□ Ano

□ Spíše ano

□ Nevím

□ Spíše ne

□ Ne

6) Jste spokojen(a) s kvalitou poslechových cvičení? Pokud ne, proč?

7) Jste spokojen(a) s kvalitou cvičení zabývajících se mluvením? Pokud ne, proč?

8) Jste spokojen(a) s kvalitou cvičení zabývajících se čtením? Pokud ne, proč?

9) Jste spokojen(a) s kvalitou cvičení zabývajících se psaním? Pokud ne, proč?

59

Appendix D – An example of a reading exercise from Project 4 (Fourth Edition)

Appendix E – An example of a listening exercise from Project 4 (Fourth Edition)

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Appendix F – An example of a speaking exercise from Project 4 (Fourth Edition)

Appendix G – An example of a writing exercise from Project 4 (Fourth Edition)