| Course book analysis and evaluation refers to analyzing and evaluating teaching materials with reference to certain criteria. It helps to find out the strengths and weaknesses of teaching materials, to see whether it meets the needs of learners, and furthermore to help learners and educators to select teaching materials and make better use of the course book. In this paper, the author analyzes and evaluates Go for it, one of junior English textbooks in China, from sociolinguistic perspective.First of all, the author makes a brief introduction to the evaluation of teaching materials, communicative competence of which sociolinguistic competence is an important part, linguistic variation, and then shortly points out Go for it (one of junior high English course-books) in China. After that, the author points out the ultimate goal of ELT (English language Teaching) is to cultivate learners'communicative competence i.e. the cultivation of the competence so that language learners can communicate in the target language effectively and appropriately. Course book, of course, plays an important role in achieving this goal.Secondly, the author carries out the investigation on Go for it and then finds out that the goal of Go for it is to cultivate learners'communicative competence which is in tune with the ultimate goal of ELTHymes (2000) states communicative competence is a term directly derived from sociolinguistics. As one of the important components of communicative competence, sociolinguistic competence throws more light on appropriateness, that is, language learners are able to use the target language to achieve their communicative goals in a socially acceptable way. Therefore, the author establishes a sociolinguistic framework, with special reference to the relevant theories and studies on sociolinguistics and course-book analysis and evaluation, and uses it as a guideline to analyze Go for it to see whether sociolinguistic factors in the course-book Go for it are appropriately applied to improve learners'communicative competence. These relevant studies are grouped around regional variety, register and style.After the analysis, the author finds that Go for it compilers take into consideration American English and British English and accounts for the reasons why American English is preferred to British English in the course-book Go for it. At the same time, most of situations presented in the course book are those the learners are familiar with. Styles in such situations are easy for learners to understand and associate them with their real-life circumstances. In this respect, Go for it satisfies the learners'needs. As a result, learners can communicate in the target language to attain their goals effectively and appropriately.Apart from advantages above, the author also notices some of the disadvantages. For instance, American English and British English are taken into consideration, but other regional varieties of English, such as Canadian English variety, Australian English variety, etc, are left untreated. Most of the situations in the course-book Go for it are 'inside/outside the classroom','at home', and'in the school'. Most of the role-relationships in the conversation are friends, family members and classmates. Consequently, learners will be at a loss when encountering some situations and role-relationships that they are unfamiliar with.In the end, the author concludes that sociolinguistic factors in the course-book—Go for it are obviously presented and play an important role in enhancing learners' communicative competence. However, these sociolinguistic factors are given uneven treatments. Some are adequate and sufficient, others are scarcely touched upon and still others are left untreated. Therefore, when using Go for it, teachers are supposed to exert the strengths of the course book to the full. On the other hand, they should pay more attention to the weak points of the course book by making improvements or correction if necessary.
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