The Development of English Grammar for Teachers Coursebook

rEFLections Vol 29, No 3, September - December 2022 The Development of English Grammar for Teachers Coursebook EKAMORN IAMSIRIRAK Faculty of Education, Ramkhamhaeng University, Thailand Author email: drekamorn@rumail.ru.ac.th Article information Abstract Article history: Received: 10 Feb 2022 Accepted: 29 Aug 2022 Available online: 2 Sep 2022 Coursebooks exist all over in the world of education. They are generally used as one of the major course materials. To write a coursebook for a particular course is challenging. This study was purposively conducted to develop an English grammar coursebook for teachers to meet the needs of teacher students in English education programs. The study was based on research and development (R&D) with three phases conducted Keywords: through mix-methods research. In Phase 1, 60 experienced teachers and Coursebook Development Teaching English Grammar 226 current teacher students responded to questionnaires that were Needs of English Grammar used to investigate the needs for English grammar topics. 16 grammar Knowledge of English Grammar topics that were important to Thai teacher students of English were discovered. In Phase 2, 31 participants volunteered themselves in a 16week data collection process. The coursebook was finally developed and composed of 14 chapters including grammar content knowledge, and a variety of exercises including preferable book layouts evaluated by teacher students’ needs. In the final phase, Phase 3, three experts contributed by offering their suggestions and recommendations when editing the complete version of the coursebook. The study also found that the coursebook could facilitate learners of all proficiency levels: beginner, intermediate, and advanced, helping them improve their grammar proficiency by a step higher. Ultimately, the study helped illustrate some alternative ways for teachers, lecturers, and authors to compose a coursebook by using a research-based coursebook development process. INTRODUCTION There is a type of university in Thailand that exists between closed and open universities. Its instructional process is arranged into two tracks based on with-or-without class attendance and class participation, depending on students’ preference. Non-class attendance and nonclass participation plans provide students with independent opportunities to select their own study methods such as reading books at their own homes and studying through online media. This means course instructional materials play an important role for both study plans. In general, there are two types of books used in a classroom – textbook and coursebook. Textbooks and coursebooks are usually selected by teachers or curriculum administrators, and can be used as rich resources and references for class instruction. Meanwhile, coursebooks usually come tailored with a specific use for one course. 503 rEFLections Vol 29, No 3, September - December 2022 Izzet (2020) claimed that coursebooks are basic materials used in educational environments, and language teachers moderately depend on using coursebooks regardless of gender, the type of school, the level of education and years of experience. Coursebooks can support both students’ learning and teachers’ teaching, and are generally used as a primary medium of learning and teaching in English language classes (Nourmohammd-Nouri et al.; 2015, Zohrabi, 2011), and also in English as a foreign language (EFL) class (Azizifar et al., 2010). These claims are also relevant to Jafarigohar (2013), Purwanti (2019), and Andarab (2019) and show a similar idea that coursebooks are crucial materials in the teaching-learning process, facilitating both teachers and students. That is, coursebooks or textbooks have become one of the inevitable instructional materials used to support class instruction towards its goal. As mentioned previously, it is interesting to investigate what topics will serve students’ needs for their development of knowledge and skills, ensuring at the same time that it is comprised of sufficient resources to pursue their preferences and to be used as their learning tools while studying, preparing for an exam, and in self-learning opportunities while working. The needs for a coursebook is relatively inevitable for any type of instructional system. Indeed, most teachers compose coursebooks from their experiences, but they also should first investigate students’ needs and adapt its content in order to support students’ academic knowledge and provide a solid reference in lesson plan designs for teachers. To select a coursebook for one course, a coursebook has to cover the target course description, content knowledge, and learning objectives. Masuhara (2006); and Zohrabi (2011) congruently commented that writing and publishing a coursebook is not only challenging, but it also requires teachers’ expertise, experiences, and effort to complete a coursebook for a particular course. Nevertheless, it is worthwhile to develop a coursebook for these following reasons. First, a course can be specifically designed based on students’ needs of knowledge for one course. And second, if there are no relevant coursebooks for a specific course, one should be developed and used for that course. The major purpose of this study is to develop a coursebook of English grammar for Englishmajor teacher students in order to satisfy their needs of knowledge and use the coursebook as a primary learning material for both in-class teaching and self-study. Moreover, the scope of this study is to focus on grammar knowledge which is widely considered an important component in the mastery of the English language, touching on essential skills such as phonetics, vocabulary, grammar and syntactic structures. Thereby, an integration of communicative skills (of four major skills – listening, speaking, reading, and writing) is not included in the course – English grammar for teachers, seeing that the four major skills are not in the course goal. LITERATURE REVIEW To conduct this study, some conceptual knowledge and past studies are reviewed involving English grammar needs for teachers; frameworks for coursebook design; the teacher’s belief in language teaching, and other related or previous studies about coursebook development and grammar knowledge for non-native English speakers (NNESs) as follows. 504 rEFLections Vol 29, No 3, September - December 2022 Firstly, needs analysis is used to investigate English grammar topics for teacher students currently enrolled in the English education program. The needs may reflect the target grammar topics that are crucial for their studies. English grammar for teachers is one of the compulsory courses in their curriculum; furthermore, the students had previously studied some English fundamental courses, that is, English grammar for teachers should fill in their learning gaps that were previously unfulfilled or incomplete, and propagate their learning with advanced content knowledge. According to Iamsirirak (2021), there are sixteen English grammar topics that can support and complete the needs of knowledge for English-major teacher students, and they are comprised of 1) parts of speech, 2) verbs, 3) voices, 4) articles, 5) tenses, 6) subject and verb agreement, 7) direct and indirect speech, 8) conditional sentences, 9) comparison, 10) question tag, 11) phrases, 12) clauses, 13) sentences patterns, 14) sentence types, 15) word formation (only affixation), and 16) parallelism. Next, in developing the coursebook, not only should the content knowledge be focused, but the components of the coursebook such as book and page layout, font size, content arrangement and organization should also be considered. According to Nourmohammd-Nouri et al. (2015), students should be allowed to express their needs in the textbook or coursebook they used because their perception is inherently valuable for coursebook creation and even the revision of a coursebook. In other words, this idea demonstrates that a teacher’s creativity in developing teaching and learning materials should be targeted at their primary users – students of a particular course. The mentioned study illustrated seven categories with 25 items for textbook or coursebook design as follows: 1) Practical consideration: price and accessibility of the textbook 2) Layout and design: layout, design and organization of the textbook 3) Textbook activities: balanced and sufficient activities, an incorporation of individual, pair and group work, grammar and vocabulary in realistic contexts, the promotion of creative, original and independent responses 4) Related skills: focus skills to practice with balance of four skills and subskills such as listening for gist, note-taking, skimming for information 5) Language type: authenticity, right level of students’ proficiency, an appropriateness of grammar point and vocabulary, grammar showed with comprehensible examples 6) Subject and content: relevant to students’ needs, realistic, interesting challenging and motivating materials, sufficient variety of subject and content, not culturally biased subject and content 7) Overall consensus: raising students’ interests in further language study, urging students to study by using the textbook again The categories mentioned above are indeed useful and have largely been considered or applied in this study’s development of a coursebook for ‘English Grammar for Teachers’. In addition, to develop a coursebook to be used in a particular course, the teacher’s belief is also crucial for outlining the coursebook (McDonough & Shaw, 2003). The teacher’s belief is also known as the lecturer’s belief, and since the coursebook is designed for undergraduate students, the following section will sometimes refer to the teacher’s belief as the latter. There 505 rEFLections Vol 29, No 3, September - December 2022 are three beliefs discussed in this study: belief about language, belief about the social and context of language, and belief about learning and learners, and they are elaborated in the following paragraphs. Belief about Language: According to the course description and the purpose of the course, it is believed that languages are rule-governed and students should learn grammar and its structural rules to command a language. In accordance with the limitations of the course (time constraints, class size, and content load), there are 12 classes (two hours each) in each semester with an approximate of 100 students; therefore, lecture-based instruction seems to play an important role in this course. However, that does not mean that the teacher should ignore meaning-based instruction since both grammar and structure are constructed in tandem with meaning. That is to say, students should learn and comprehend the meaning behind the grammar and structures they study. Belief about the Social Context of Language: In terms of teaching grammar for NNESs or Thai EFL learners, social backgrounds and different responses contrasting Thai and English native speakers should also be brought into the course’s teaching and learning objectives because grammar rules, meaning, and context fundamentally cannot be separated. Students should learn how to use English grammar with the correct rules together with the intended meaning in context. For instance, consider the difference in responses to questions in English and Thai in the following example. Question: Response: Don’t you eat beef? Yes, I eat beef. (Native English speaker’s response) No, I eat beef. (Thai response) Phongsirikul (2017) stated culture awareness often affected Thai NNESs’ learning because of a variety of sociolinguistic and cultural backgrounds. Social context and the differences of thoughts and responses between native English speakers (NESs) and Thai EFL learners of English should be remarked in the coursebook. Belief about Learning and Learners: Although, majority of teachers believe in deductive learning, it is not sustainable to only provide students with lecture-based instruction. However, due on the course’s limiting factors (limited time and large classes), it may seem inevitable that this is the case. However, students should also be supplemented with pre-reading activities, Q&A sessions to promote their analytical and synthetical thinking skills and practice exercises in each chapter of the coursebook for their own self-practice. Students should also be encouraged to study the coursebook by themselves to promote independent learning and by extension, lifelong learning. Through self-practice, students may foster independence and self-confidence in their learning skills without relying too heavily on assistance from the lecturer. Belief about Teaching: The average lecturer believes in sharing experience among students in class. Sometimes, both the lecturer and students may discuss their learning progress and problems in learning English grammar, and work on solving them together. This can lead to students learning and being inspired to obtain and share more personal learning experiences. 506 rEFLections Vol 29, No 3, September - December 2022 Furthermore, they will also have chances to present, discuss and recognize their grammar proficiencies and improvements. Also, the lecturer may carry forward these topics and adjust instructional materials and techniques for the following classes to better suit student needs. Hence, these three beliefs will be reflected in and act as pillars governing the coursebook. The conceptual knowledge derived above and related studies depicted this study also helped design the research methodology for this study, which will be described in the next section. METHODOLOGY The methodology of this study uses a mixed-methods research administered through the concept of research and development (R&D) and includes three phases, each with its own objective and where results of the previous phase determine the next phase of data collection. Research procedure The research procedure of this study was conducted in three consecutive phases. Phase 1 was the triangulation research design to obtain the expected topics of English grammar knowledge for teachers corresponding to the teacher students’ needs; Phase 2 was to investigate the teacher students’ needs towards the proposed content in the coursebook and to confirm the effectiveness of the lessons provided by using pre-tests, post-tests, questionnaires, and reflective journals; and Phase 3 was the verification of the coursebook by three experts who later made comments and suggestions for the coursebook’s revision. For a clear picture of this framework in mind, Figure 1 below illustrates the process in its three phases. Phase 1: Triangulation research design to obtain the expected lessons of English grammar for teachers corresponding to students’ needs Phase 2: Pre-tests & post-tests for volunteer students (n = 31) to investigate their needs and confirm the effectiveness of the lessons provided 507 rEFLections Vol 29, No 3, September - December 2022 Phase 3: Complete version of the coursebook, derived from Phase 2, validated by three experts Figure 1 Research procedure As shown in Figure 1, the research procedure was divided into three phases. Phase 1 was conducted to investigate the students’ needs towards crucial grammar topics which will facilitate and improve their grammar proficiency. The results derived from Phase 1 will be analyzed and categorized into individual chapters in the coursebook, in turn, influencing the lessons that will later be provided to the teacher students in Phase 2. In Phase 2, Test of English Grammar for Teachers (T-EGT) by Iamsirirak (2021) was used to examine the participants’ English grammar proficiencies. This T-EGT test was delivered to two groups of participants. The first group was the baseline group (acting as a controlled group) and the second group comprised of 31 volunteers (acting as the experimental group in this phrase). Additionally, individual chapters were provided to 31 participants in the form of weekly lessons consisting of content knowledge, examples and exercises, plus pre-tests and post-tests to examine the participants’ comprehension towards each chapter provided. The results from Phase 2 were then gathered and used as guidelines to revise, edit, and improve the content knowledge and layout and organization in the coursebook. Finally, in Phase 3, the first draft of the coursebook was delivered to three experts to verify, comment, and provide suggestions for the coursebook’s revision. After being thoroughly examined by the three experts, the ‘English Grammar for Teachers’ coursebook was revised and edited, and eventually published, ready for retail and use in classrooms. Participants The study was conducted with multiple phases in order to first obtain required information and later use that information to conduct the following steps. Hence, there were participants for every phase. For clarity purposes, the participants of this study will be reported based on the roles they played in each phase. Phase 1: This aim of this phase was to obtain potential English grammar learning topics from 28 English high-school grammar books for high school students, who are one of the target groups that teacher students will teach in their career path. The findings from the documentary study was also correlated to findings from the questionnaires collected from 60 experienced teachers throughout secondary education levels and 220 undergraduates who were currently studying in the program (as a Bachelor of Education in English major). Phase 2: This phase involved collecting the data of pre-tests and post-tests. Firstly, the T-EGT test was used to assess the controlled group (baseline group) of 20 teacher students and an experimental group of 31 volunteer teacher students in order to find out their needs and confirm the effectiveness of the lessons provided in the coursebook. Then, 31 volunteers were included in a 16-week data collection process to do individual chapter pre- and post-tests, questionnaires, and reflective journal entries. 508 rEFLections Vol 29, No 3, September - December 2022 Phase 3: In this phase, three experts in English language teaching and applied linguistics for language teaching validated the appropriateness of the coursebook – its content knowledge, chapter exercises, organization of chapters, and book layout and organization – and made crucial suggestions to edit and improve the coursebook, eventually resulting in the version that has now become published. Research instruments Similar to the participants, the research instruments in this study will be described relative to each phase of the research procedure. Phase 1: 28 textbooks, and questionnaires on English grammar needs analysis In Phase 1, a triangulation method combining documentary research with quantitative research was conducted in order to investigate the needs of English grammar knowledge for teachers. The questionnaire consisted of two parts: personal information and the needs of 16 crucial grammar knowledge topics derived from 28 books based on documentary research. Phase 2: Pre-tests and post-tests, questionnaires, and reflective journals on English coursebook satisfaction Phase 2 focuses on the investigation of research participants’ proficiency, needs of knowledge, and English grammar proficiency. T-EGT was used twice as pre-test and post-test to examine participants’ English grammar proficiency in both the baseline group and the experimental group. Then, pre-tests and post-tests for individual chapters were used to examine participants’ understanding towards individual weekly chapters, provided along with a 16-week data collection period. Fifteen weekly lessons were presented in 14 chapters for the participants – two lessons were separately presented due to the length and portion of the pre-tests and post-tests i.e., Chapter 13 – Articles, and Chapter 13 – Quantifiers. During the 16 weeks, all chapters were checked for their clarity and readability by using a satisfaction questionnaire by PNImodified for individual chapters together with individual reflective journal entries from all participants. Finally, all chapters provided were compiled into one coursebook. The whole coursebook was later validated through satisfaction questionnaires by PNImodified and reflective journals to complete Phase 2. Phase 3: A questionnaire on expert verification together with comments and suggestions In Phase 3, there were three research instruments applied in the coursebook verification from the three experts. The first was an obligatory form from the university which was required for all coursebooks to have their quality checked and approved before publishing. Next, the satisfaction questionnaire by PNImodified was delivered to all experts, this time appended with an open-ended space prepared for comments and suggestions from the experts. 509 rEFLections Vol 29, No 3, September - December 2022 Data collection and analysis The collected data in each phase of this study were analyzed as described below. Phase 1: There were two major processes of data analysis in this phase. - 28 English grammar textbooks were manually analyzed and synthesized by using a synthesis table. It started from collecting all grammar topics by focusing on the contents of each selected book. Next, the obtained data pieces were categorized by the similarity of their grammar topics; for example, adjective phrases, participial phrases, modifying phrases, reduced adjective clauses were counted in the table of Phrases; A, An, The, A number of, The number of, this, that, these, those belonged to the table of Determiners. - The ‘Needs of English Grammar Topics’ questionnaires for teacher students and experienced teachers were analyzed using a statistical analysis software to find the max, min, mean, Standard Deviation (S.D.), and percentages. Answers derived from open-ended questions of each topic were also collected, analyzed, and categorized into a coded table. Phase 2: There were four major processes of data analysis in this phase. - T-EGT test was used in Week 1 and Week 16 as an English grammar proficiency test before and after receiving the research intervention – weekly lessons (Chapter 1-14). The results of T-EGT (as pretest and posttest) were analyzed and shown in max, min, mean, and S.D. Furthermore, T-EGT helped divide levels of proficiency into three levels: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. - 15-individual-chapter pre-tests and post-tests were used and analyzed by their max, min, mean, and S.D. The results reflected the participants’ learning progress after receiving each research intervention. These pre-tests and post-tests were delivered every week from Week 2 to Week 15. - The satisfaction questionnaires by PNImodified were delivered from Week 2 to 15 to collect the satisfaction rates of each lesson, and in the last week (Week 16), the questionnaire was also delivered to collect from the participants, their thoughts and satisfaction for the whole coursebook. The data was analyzed by a specific formula of PNImodified which will be displayed in the ‘Results’ section. PNImodified was applied in research instruments and data analysis tools in order to investigate needs during the coursebook development. In the questionnaire, there were two major scales to be rated: the first referred to the current situation in checking participants’ satisfaction on individual chapters provided and then the whole coursebook after obtaining all chapters, while the second referred to the expected situation in checking participants’ thoughts on content knowledge, exercises, and layout that they were expecting to see in individual chapters and consequently, the whole book. Both scales were used to explore the gap between each other, conveying the topics that should be prioritized for editing, adjustments, revisions, and 510 rEFLections Vol 29, No 3, September - December 2022 improvements to meet the participants’ satisfaction rates. For example, if one topic, such as page layout, is rated at 1 while the expected rate is 5, this means that the page layout needs to be improved. On the contrary, if one topic, such as chapter exercises, is rated at 5 while the expected rate is 1, this means that chapter exercises are appropriate or overestimated compared to expectation; therefore, chapter exercises need not be improved. - 15 reflective journals of individual lessons and a whole coursebook were collected and analyzed through synthesis and by table-gathering similar comments and suggestions from the participants from their individual and whole-coursebook questionnaires to set the direction for the coursebook’s revision. - Finally, the whole coursebook was revised and edited before being sent to three experts in Phase 3. Phase 3: There were two major processes of data analysis in this phase. - The obligatory questionnaire of the university and the satisfaction questionnaires by PNImodified plus open-ended questions were delivered to three experts. The obtained data was analyzed using a statistical analysis software to find the mean and S.D. of each category. The comments and suggestions from three experts were also analyzed and synthesized based on coursebook satisfaction categories, and the comments and suggestions on content knowledge were thus used in revising, editing, and adjusting the coursebook, resulting in its now completed version. RESULTS As again, the results of this study will be reported according to each phase of the study. Phase 1 Results: The needs of English grammar topics for teachers This is an initial stage of the study focusing on an investigation of English grammar knowledge that suits the students’ needs. According to Iamsirirak (2021), the results reported 16 English grammar topics (as previously mentioned in Literature Review). These 16 topics were presented in 14 chapters consisting of 15 lessons delivered to 31 participants in Phase 2. Phase 2 Results: The development of English grammar coursebook In this phase, two groups of participants had participated in the data collection period. T-EGT test was firstly used for these two groups as the pre-test and post-test of this study. The former was a controlled group consisting of 20 participants and the latter was an experimental group consisting of 31 participants volunteering themselves in a 16-week data collection process. Table 1 and 4 show the results derived from the T-EGT tests between the two groups of participants as shown below. 511 rEFLections Vol 29, No 3, September - December 2022 Table 1 T-EGT results of 20 participants as a controlled group Table 2 Overall T-EGT results of 20 participants as a controlled group As shown in Table 1, each participant was coded from C1 – C24. During the whole semester, there were 20 participants in this controlled group. This might be due to the limitation of a uncontrollable situation since the participants did appear themselves in the final weeks in the semester. According to the results in Table 2, the pre-test was conducted with the controlled group at the beginning of semester. The results of their English grammar proficiency tests from T-EGT revealed that the maximum and minimum received scores among 20 participants were 96 and 36 out of 110 respectively while the average score was 66.40. The results signified that 11 (55%), 5 (25%), and 4 (20%) participants were considered to be in the beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels of English grammar proficiency, respectively. During the semester, all 20 participants had studied English grammar of their own volition – they sometimes came to study in class, and sometimes did self-study. At the end of the final 512 rEFLections Vol 29, No 3, September - December 2022 weeks of the semester, the post-test was conducted. In Table 1, the results showed that 8 (40%), 8 (40%), and 4 (20%) participants were in the beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels of English grammar proficiency, respectively. The maximum and minimum received scores among 20 participants of the post-test were 100 and 27 out of 110, respectively while the average score was 67.50. According to the results of the post-tests in Table 1, there were only three of them – C21, C12, and C20 who had improved their English grammar proficiencies (from Beginner to Intermediate) after the semester had ended. Unexpectedly, none of the intermediate participants could improve their grammar proficiencies. That is, 5 of them remained at the intermediate proficiency level. With regards to the 4 advanced participants, all of them remained at the advanced level even though most of them did show slightly lower cumulative scores compared to the pre-test. Noticeably, the maximum improved scores were for beginner participants, C21 and C12, who were able to improve their scores with 17 and 14, respectively. On the whole in Table 2, the average scores of the controlled groups displayed that only the intermediate proficiency group could perform better, from 71.60 in pre-test to 74.13 in post-test. Meanwhile, the beginner proficiency group had dropped their scores from 54.81 in pre-test to 49 in post-test, in which the decline of average score was -5.81. In the advanced proficiency group, they also performed slightly worse, with a lower average score from 91.75 in pre-test to 91.25 in post-test. However, the average score of this controlled group was slightly higher, from 66.40 to 67.5. Table 3 T-EGT results of 31 participants as an experimental group 513 rEFLections Vol 29, No 3, September - December 2022 Table 4 Overall T-EGT results of 31 participants as an experimental group In line with Table 3 and 4, the pre-test results of the English grammar proficiency tests from T-EGT showed that the maximum and minimum received scores were 100 and 51 out of 110 amid 31 participants (experimental group) respectively, while the average score was 80.48. The results also revealed that 6 (19.36%), 9 (29.03%), and 16 (51.61%) participants were at the beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels of English grammar proficiency, respectively. Having been provided with weekly chapters, all 31 participants could improve their English grammar proficiencies with higher received scores when comparing the results of their pre-tests and post-tests. The post-test results also show that 2 (6.45%), 9 (19.36%), and 23 (74.19%) participants were now at the beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels of English grammar proficiency, a significant rise compared to before. The maximum and minimum received scores among 31 participants of this post-test were also higher, at 64 and 104 out of 110 respectively, while the average score rose to 90.16. Moreover, the results indicated that 4 of 6 students at the beginner level had improved their grammar proficiencies to the intermediate level while two of them remained at the same level. Among the intermediate proficiency participants, 7 of 9 at the intermediate level were able to improve their grammar proficiencies to the advanced level while two of them remained the same. Besides that, 16 participants who were already at the advanced level maintained their proficiency levels and even scored higher in the post-test than they did in the pre-test. Remarkably, the most significant improved scores were for beginner participants, P28 and P27, who improved their scores with differences +22 and +20, respectively. Not only was T-EGT used for examining the experimental group’s grammar proficiency level, but individual-chapter pre-tests and post-tests were also used to examine their understanding after receiving weekly chapters. Pre-tests and post-tests of individual chapters helped the researcher verify 31 participants’ understanding towards the lessons given. 514 rEFLections Vol 29, No 3, September - December 2022 Table 5 Paired samples statistics of individual chapter pretests and posttests In Table 5, the results between pre-tests and post-tests of individual chapters, including 15 pairs of tests which showed all average scores by comparing pre-tests and post-tests, are reflected in a positive way because post-test scores were higher than pre-test scores. This means all of the lessons were able to help improve the participants’ understanding. Table 6 Paired differences between posttests and pretests of individual chapters 515 rEFLections Vol 29, No 3, September - December 2022 Table 6 displays the mean differences of each pair between the post-test and pre-test results of individual chapters. The highest different mean score was 16.903 as found in Chapter 12. On the contrary, the lowest different mean score was 1.097 in Chapter 1. Additionally, the average mean score, in overall, was 6.411. The results of PNImodified were calculated from two questionnaires. The first questionnaire was the Satisfaction Questionnaire by PNImodified for Whole Coursebook (QNPNIWB). And the second questionnaire was the Satisfaction Questionnaire by PNImodified for Individual Chapters (QNPNICH) consisting of 14 chapters (QNPNICH1 to QNPNICH14). Topics in both questionnaires were the same; they were composed of 6 major topics with 19 items to be evaluated, which will be shown in the qualitative findings in Table 7. The results of all test types in this study were clarified first. Then, the results derived from the satisfaction questionnaires by PNImodified of individual chapters and a whole coursebook were presented in Table 7. Table 7 Results of PNImodified derived from QNPNIWB and QNPNICH1-15 516 rEFLections Vol 29, No 3, September - December 2022 In accordance with the results of PNImodified in Table 7, the negative value of cumulative PNImodified which was lower than the 90% expected satisfaction rate was in Item 2.4 in Chapter 1 (C1) Parts of Speech of the coursebook. However, other negative items were satisfied since the results were over the 90% expected rate. Consequently, Item 2.4 was then revised and edited after receiving comments and suggestions from the experts, and then sent back once more to the participants for their approval. Additionally, the coursebook development also included voices from the participants that were analyzed and synthesized from their reflective journals and then summarized below. 1) Layout and page design 1.1) Layout and page design is appropriate and readable. The participants informed that the layout and page design were well-organized and easy to follow throughout the chapters. The font size was acceptable, and especially, the bold and italic letters highlighted significantly helped facilitate them to focus on the important parts in the lesson. There were, however, a few misspelling of words that were identified and later corrected. 1.2) Layout of content is well-organized with readable sequences. The participants gave their positive feedback on the organization of the content. The coursebook provided them with readable, richly filled content knowledge at every proficiency level. However, there were still some comments that requested more examples for each content that were then taken into consideration and improved upon before delivering the coursebook to the experts. 2) Chapter’s title, topics in chapter, and content 2.1) Chapter and grammar topics’ name are relevant to teacher needs of grammar knowledge. The comments illustrated that the chapters’ titles, topics and contents in each chapter were all connected. When participants were looking at a chapter title, they could possibly foretell what grammar topics might appear in the chapter. Moreover, the grammar topics could support their needs for English grammar knowledge. 2.2) Grammar topic’s name and its content are relevant to teacher needs of grammar knowledge. The topic’s name was clear and easy to discern what content might be present in that topic. Some topics provided alternative names to well-established topics. For instance, Adjective Phrase and Adverbial Phrase could also be called Modifying Phrases, while Continuous could also be known as Progressive. These were useful for getting to know the various terminologies that exist for English language teachers. 517 rEFLections Vol 29, No 3, September - December 2022 2.3) Grammar topic’s name and its content can deliver precise definition and meaning regarding grammar knowledge mentioned. The topics and definitions were clear with comprehensible examples. They were useful and rightfully reflect the topics’ descriptions which made them suitable for preparing English grammar lessons. 2.4) Each content of topics provides readers with sufficient grammar knowledge. Topics, content knowledge, and examples were sufficient for the participants to study in tandem with the lessons provided. The content knowledge was also arranged in an ascending difficulty order, from basic to advanced, that also encouraged them to be mindful and diligent in class. 3) Language use 3.1) The language in the lesson is authentically used in daily life and in language teaching. Most of participants agreed that the lessons provided were authentic and related to uses in daily life, further supporting their English grammar learning and teaching. 3.2) The level of language is proper for reading proficiency of readers. The participants stated that the explanations given were readable, comprehensible, and well-arranged. The vocabulary used in lessons was also neither too easy nor too difficult to understand. For Items 3.3, 3.4 and 3.5, the participants generally expressed similar sentiments. These items were of the following: 3.3) The difficulty of grammar topics and language use for describing the content is apposite; 3.4) The difficulty of examples towards the content is relevant to grammar knowledge with acceptable vocabulary; and 3.5) The explanation along with examples given is applicable to grammar teaching. On these three items, the participants gave positive feedback and agreed that the lessons were presented with clear explanations. 4) Grammar skill development 4.1) The chapter includes the content that exclusively develops grammar skill of English teacher students. The participants found the content knowledge useful and applicable for authentic use, making it suitable for self-study and classroom teaching. 4.2) The chapter promotes comprehension and analytical thinking towards structure and functions of English grammar. The participants expressed that these lessons helped them better understand English grammar knowledge and also encouraged them in applying the lessons learned in their daily lives and continuing their self-study. 5) Activities and exercises 5.1) A number of activities and exercises are sufficient to learn and practice. The activities and exercises provided in each chapter were appropriate for their needs to practice. 5.2) Chapter exercises promote both self-study and collaborative learning. The participants mentioned that the exercises in the coursebook supported self-study and also motivated them to do a group study, promoting collaborative learning among themselves. 518 rEFLections Vol 29, No 3, September - December 2022 5.3) Chapter exercises promote analytical thinking on English grammar in order to apply for designing classroom activities. The participants confirmed that exercises in each lesson motivated their analytical thinking skills and assisted them in applying and implementing it in their own classroom language teaching. 5.4) Chapter exercises help declare levels of comprehension, errors, and points of improvement. The participants informed that the exercises helped them to estimate their prior knowledge, especially during the pretests. Moreover, the exercises managed to help them reveal misunderstood points, encourage them to improve upon their own knowledge, and master more advanced segments of English grammar. 6) Overall 6.1) The lessons given help teachers promote their intentions of further learning in English grammar. The participants commented that the coursebook supported its readers with enthusiasm. The complete version of this coursebook will certainly occupy their book shelves as a teaching manual for reviewing grammar knowledge and preparing grammar lessons. 6.2) The lessons can be garnered as a useful grammar manual for teachers. Overall, the participants stated that all lessons in this coursebook make for an essential resource book for Thai English language teachers. With regards to the obtained reflective journals, the researchers had coded the participants’ needs and opinions on the coursebook. Then, the findings were used to edit and revise the coursebook, resulting in its first revision. Phase 3: Editing and improving the coursebook by the experts’ comments In the final phase, the edited version derived from participants’ needs was delivered to three experts. There were three questionnaires used in Phase 3. The first was an obligatory questionnaire from the university which was required for publishing purposes. The second was a PNImodified questionnaire, the same one used in Phase 2 but now with an open-ended section for collecting comments, suggestions, and recommendations for the final version of the coursebook. Having been evaluated by three experts, the coursebook was revised and edited, resulting in a complete version ripe for publication. Table 8 and 9 show the quantitative results derived from the three experts, illustrated and reported as follows. 519 rEFLections Vol 29, No 3, September - December 2022 Table 8 Results from the obligatory evaluation form, validated by three experts The evaluation criteria in this questionnaire are rated using a 5-point scale. Surprisingly, the results were unanimously reported to be “very good”, thus qualifying the coursebook for publication. On the other hand, the PNImodified questionnaire had more differing results as shown in Table 9 below. Table 9 The result of PNImodified questionnaire validated by three experts The criterion used in PNImodified questionnaire was the same as for 31 participants. The results showed that the negative values of PNImodified results lower than the 90% expected satisfaction rate were in Items 1.2, 2.1, 2.2, 3.4, and 5.1. However, others negative items were over the 90% expected rate. Hence, the five items were revised, edited, and improved based on comments and suggestions from the experts, justified through their reflection papers as follows. Item 1.2: Layout of content is well-organized with readable sequences. The layout of content was an obligatory template of a coursebook from the university. Therefore, the template could be adjusted in certain parts such as tab spacing of main topics and subtopics, font size, bold font, and item number of topics. Layout of contents was adjusted and topics were marked with numbers for extra readability. Moreover, certain parts were rearranged based on the suggestions from the experts to make them easier to follow and find expected topics. 520 rEFLections Vol 29, No 3, September - December 2022 Item 2.1: Chapter and grammar topics’ name are relevant to teacher needs of grammar knowledge. Chapters and grammar topics’ names were adjusted following the comments of the experts to follow Thai terminology in accordance with the 15-field Thai terminology from the Office of Royal Society via the website: https://coined-word.orst.go.th – a well-known and trustworthy resource of corpus-based terminology in Thailand. Regardless of some terminology in the Office of Royal Society, the suggestions from the experts were accepted and included in this study. Such examples include the “collation” being made to refer to “คำปรากฏร่วม” in Thai, and “lexical bundles” to refer to “กลุ่่่มคำที่่�ใช้้ร่วมกัน” in Thai. Moreover, some topics were easily recognized by their English terms (such as direct and indirect speech, primary and secondary auxiliary verbs, absolute construction, inversion structure, and elliptical construction), and so remained as English terms. The selection of Thai or English terminology was based on: 1) if a terminology existed in Thai, it was to be used in Thai followed by English in parentheses, at least in a main topic or in their first mention to define the term, 2) if there was no terminology in Thai, then it need not be used in Thai (i.e. if the participants did not comment on or require a Thai term, the English term would be used), 3) if any terminology was well recognized by its English counterpart, then the English term will be used and shown in the content description. Item 2.2: Grammar topic’s name and its content are relevant to teacher needs of grammar knowledge. Overall, the topic’s name and its content were relevant to the teacher students’ needs based on the results in Phase 1. A notable comment from the experts was to slightly adjust certain terms and definitions to reflect their topics and examples more accurately. Item 3.4: The difficulty of examples towards the content is relevant to grammar knowledge with acceptable vocabulary. Some examples in the first version of the coursebook were suggested to be edited and revised by the three experts. Their comments and suggestions are shown as follows. Chapter 1 - Under the topic “Personal pronouns as an object”, the first version presented to the experts was shown as having the following description. Personal pronouns as an object Verb + Objective pronoun • Tony loves you. A suggestion from an expert was to change the objective pronoun “you” to “her” in order to make the pronoun form more empirical and comprehensible. In the revised version, the example now appears as “Tony loves her.” Chapter 3 - Under the topic “Secondary auxiliary verbs”, the first version presented to the experts was shown as having the following description. “be used to/get used to + Gerund/Noun” means familiar with something so that it seems normal or usual • I get used to living alone. 521 rEFLections Vol 29, No 3, September - December 2022 A comment from an expert was to change “get used to” to “be used to” in this example. The reason is “get used to” points the starting point of familiarity while “be used to” can better show the existence of something that previously existed or repeatedly happened in the past but does not exist or happen now. Therefore, the example was revised and is now presented as “I am used to living alone.” Item 5.1: A number of activities and exercises are sufficient to learn and practice. In this part, the experts commented on the sufficient number of activities but remarked that exercises were not as sufficient. Their comments and suggestions mostly focused on exercise instruction which will be described later. In line with the 5 items previously mentioned, there were also some comments and suggestions from experts on aspects such as content knowledge, writing organization, misspelled words, and exercise instruction. In the course of developing this coursebook, many beneficial comments and suggestions were gathered and collected to edit and revise the coursebook as best as possible. Content knowledge in the coursebook, written in Thai, was also revised in order to make it more readable and comprehensible. The revision in each chapter had been done page by page with regards to the use of narrative language, the precision of examples in each topic, and the organization of topics in each chapter. Importantly, the experts also suggested that the researcher reorder the chapters in the coursebook. After gathering all regarding about the sequence of chapters in the coursebook, the chapters were finally rearranged from Chapter 1 to Chapter 14, starting with 1) Parts of Speech, 2) Verbs, 3) Auxiliary Verbs, 4) Phrases, 5) Clauses, 6) Sentences, 7), Sentence Patterns, 8) Tenses, 9) Passive Voice, 10) Conditional Sentence, 11) Subject-verb Agreement, 12) Direct and Indirect Speech, 13) Parallel Structure, and then ending with 14) Determiners. To improve exercise instruction, comments and suggestions from experts were applied in order to facilitate students in practicing the exercises with a clear sense of direction. The comments and suggestions from experts on the exercise instruction are shown below. Exercise 1.1 on Chapter 1 Parts of Speech First version: Read the sentences given carefully. Identify whether the underlined noun is a subject noun, a predicate noun, a possessive noun, or an object noun. Then write the specific identification on the line of each item given. Revised version: Read the following sentences carefully. Then, decide whether the underlined portion of each sentence is a subject noun, a predicate noun, a possessive noun, or an object noun. Write your answer in the space provided. Exercise 1.7 on Chapter 1 Parts of Speech First version: Write the correct adjective or adverb for each sentence by using the hint word given in the parentheses. 522 rEFLections Vol 29, No 3, September - December 2022 Revised version: Fill in the blank with the correct form of the adjective or adverb provided in the parentheses. Exercise 2.1 on Chapter 2 Verbs First version: Identify the finite verb of each sentence given. Tell whether the main verb is transitive, intransitive, or linking verb. And, explain how you know it. Revised version: In each of the following sentences, identify the finite verb and state with explanation whether it is a transitive, intransitive, or linking verb. Moreover, there are multiple-choice exercises in this coursebook. An expert then suggested a revision that could also be applied to similar types of exercises such as the ones shown below. First version: Use these following choices to answer 1-5. Revised version: Choose from the following respond to questions 1-5. Revised version: Choose from a. to e. to complete each sentence. Ultimately, the revision of the coursebook was done completely in unison with the experts’ comments and suggestions. The output (as a product) of this study was delivered in the form of the ‘English Grammar for Teachers’ coursebook. All phases were purposively designed to investigate the need for English grammar knowledge from the target users, both current students and experienced teachers in English language teaching, and then examine the quality of the lessons delivered in accordance with the coursebook to better support teacher students’ English grammar learning and improve their English grammar proficiency. DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS According to the results in Phase 1, tenses, and verbs are the most necessary grammar topics for English teachers in secondary education. Evidently, verbs are remarkably important when it comes to learning English grammar since learning tenses in English requires the knowledge of verb forms in English. Furthermore, learning English tenses naturally causes difficulties for Thai learners of English because the tense system is not present in Thai does as it is in English (Watcharapunyawong & Usaha, 2013; Arakkitsakul, 2019). Next, the overall results derived from T-EGT pre-test and post-test for participants’ grammar knowledge through the received lessons in the coursebook showed some interesting points as in Table 10. 523 rEFLections Vol 29, No 3, September - December 2022 Table 10 Overall results of the T-EGT in participants’ groups In Table 10, the result implies that the coursebook has the potential of improving learners at the beginner level slightly better than learners at the intermediate level, with a score of 12.17 compared to 11.33, respectively. The coursebook does help advanced learners maintain their high proficiency with bare improvements; however, the improved score of 8.07 was found to be relatively lower than in the other groups. Table 11 Number of participants with improved proficiency levels In Table 11, the number of participants at each proficiency level is illustrated. It can be seen that there is no participant declining from their proficiency level. Twelve participants could manage to rise to a higher proficiency level as a result, with four from beginner to intermediate, and eight from intermediate to advanced. Moreover, all 16 participants at the advanced level could maintain their high proficiency level. According to Table 3 previously shown, none of the participants could improve themselves so drastically that they skip a level, i.e. from beginner to advanced. However, if anything, the results show that in order to improve English grammar proficiency, beginner and intermediate learners should approach language learning as a step-by-step process – any gradual and continual development is a sign of improvement. This one-step improvement is akin to the process of a child’s developing grammar in line with Krashen’s (1981: 126) i + 1 theory where i refers to the learner’s current level of language proficiency and + 1 refers to a state of progress one level above, challenging learners to improve their proficiency. In conclusion, designing and developing a coursebook is a challenging and demanding task for teachers or course designers. However, it is worth attempting to develop a coursebook for the sake of provide the content knowledge directly tailored and suited to students’ needs. This study has also helped the researcher delve into and explore productivity-based research and one such reward of that type of research is this very coursebook that has become a real-world product, as a result of this empirical study. 524 rEFLections Vol 29, No 3, September - December 2022 THE AUTHOR Ekamorn Iamsirirak, Ph.D., is a lecturer of English language teaching at the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, the Faculty of Education, Ramkhamhaeng University, Bangkok, Thailand. 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