School-based Textbook Development In Secondary Vocational School

With the rapid development of urban railway transit in our city,students majoring in Urban Railway Transit Operation and Service are greatly in need.International professional talents are in great demand as our city is gaining more popular internationally.Meanwhile,Curriculum Reform for Secondary Vocational School in Zhejiang Province and the reform of English College Entrance Examination promotes the adjustment of English course in secondary vocational school.Urban railway transit English has been established under this background.We find that the currently-used textbook has some problems,e.g.,contents do not reflect the characteristics of local urban railway transit,and some topics are out of date.Therefore,the committee of school-based textbook development of urban railway transit has been formed to develop a school-based textbook.This study explores the ways of developing the school-based textbook of urban railway transit English.First,questionnaires and interviews are adopted to analyze the needs of students,teachers,employees and the job market.The results of the questionnaires and interviews show that it is necessary to develop an appropriate and practical school-based textbook with characteristics of school and localization.Based on needs analysis and general textbook requirements,the intended school-based textbook is designed and developed.The organization,criteria,objectives,contents,teaching methods,and assessments of the school-based textbook are discussed and settled.Then,Module 2 Giving Directions of the textbook is taken as an example and implemented among 130 students in Senior 2 majoring in Urban Railway Transit Operation and Service.After implementation,data from students and teachers’ evaluation of the contents are collected in the form of questionnaire and interview for further modification and development.This study presents the following major findings:1)Being practical and localized is the general requirement of the students,teachers,graduates and the metro company for the urban railway transit English textbook.2)Specific objectives,contents,teaching modes and assessment methods should be set before the development of the school-based textbook.3)The students are generally satisfied with the sample module and are willing to learn urban railway transit English.The teachers give some suggestions on the choice of material and designing of exercises.The study proves the significance of school-based textbook development,and has some implications for textbook development of other courses.