Abstract:
The main purposes of this study were as follows: 1. to investigate how much the program serves the needs of the society, the faculties and the learners, 2. to investigate how much the program is relevant to new trends in language teaching/learning theories and to the learners' English background, 3. to evaluate the relevancy among the course objectives, goals, aims, content, teaching/learning activities and modes of achievement assessment, 4. to evaluate the appropriateness of the content, content organization and its teaching/learning process, and 5. to evaluate the outcomes of the program in terms of students achievement and motivation. Procedure: Samples: Of 3,300 first-year students, 1418 from all 15 faculties were randomly selected to answer a set of questionnaires. Of 73 teachers teaching Foundation English I or II, 26 were asked to answer a different set of questionnaires. Some other 1044 students and 136 top-level administrators from all faculties from related studies conducted in 1984 were also used and assumed as the samples of this study. Instruments: Two sets of questionnaires were used as main instruments of the study. Further more, 2 other sets of questionnaires which were used in the related studies a year earlier were also used. Many more sources of information needed for the study were utilized; for example, many text books at secondary schools, teachers' and students' comments from informal talks and an interview, text books and their manuals, etc. Evaluation Design: The study was done by following a mixture of CIPP and Stake's Models and Puissance Technique, a so-called CIPP/SP Model. The CIPP Model was used as a major framework of the evaluation. The objectives were subdivided into many evaluation questions covering all the aspects of the study. Particular information needed for certain questions were expected to obtain and its sources were decided. A set of criteria were set in advance scientifically and then obtained information and the criteria were compared statistically. The Stake's Model was used to evaluate the congruence and contingency of different aspects in the major framework; for example, its context, inputs, process and outputs. Finally, the Puissance Technique was mainly used to evaluate the quality of the course content elements. Data Analysis: The data were mainly analyzed by SPSSX programs by means of t-test-, X[square] simple correlations and rank correlations. The teachers' and the evaluators' judgements were also applied when needed. Findings: 1. The program could appropriate serve the needs of the society, the faculties and learners. The society, the faculties and the learners moderately needed English mainly for reading and writing purposes which all were the main aims of the program. 2. The program was appropriately relevant to new trends in language teaching/learning theories and highly fit the learners' English background. The program was heavily activity-bases for communicative teaching/learning purposes. The majority of the students had learnt about 65 percent of the vocabulary items, 50 percent of the grammatical structures and 36 percent of the vocabulary forms in the program while studying in their upper secondary schools. 3. The course objectives, goals, aims, content, teaching/learning activities and modes of achievement assessments were highly relevant to each other. 4. The quality and appropriateness of the course content were moderate. The content organization was unsystematic and the teaching/learning activities of the teachers and the students were not appropriate for a program aiming mainly at communicative level. 5. The outcomes of the program in terms of students' achievement and motivation were moderately satisfied. Suggestions: 1. More teaching/learning activities that can facilitate the students to achieve more writing skills should be added to the program. 2. The content organization of the program should be revised and improved. 3. In-service trainings and workshops on communicative teaching approach for the researchers should be provided to make them understand more about the approach and have more self-confidence.