A Comparative Study Of Senior High School English Textbooks Based On English Subject Core Competences

Teaching materials are essential sources and means of achieving the goals of English curriculum.English Curriculum Standards for Senior High School(2017 Version 2020Revised)points out that the textbooks should stick to ideological principles,implement the fundamental task of moral education,and cultivate students’ English Subject Core Competences.Under the guidance of the new curriculum standards,Yilin Press compiled and published English,a series of textbooks for senior high school which were put into use in September 2020.However,the former series of textbooks named Advance with English and compiled on the basis of the old curriculum standards have had a profound impact on the majority of teachers with the concept of compilation,teaching content and teaching methods,resulting in many uncertainties and even difficulties when teachers use the new textbooks.Therefore,it is necessary to analyze and compare the new and old versions in order to find out the changes in the reading materials of the new textbooks,and moreover,to put forward feasible suggestions to help teachers understand the new textbooks better and make good use of them.This thesis analyzes the reading materials in Book 1 and Book 2 of the new and old Yilin senior high school English textbooks by applying the internal and external evaluation methods proposed by Cheng Xiaotang.The internal evaluation is carried out based on the four dimensions of English Subject Core Competences,namely,language competence,cultural consciousness,thinking quality,and learning capacity.It mainly compares and analyzes the similarities and differences between the reading materials of the two versions in language knowledge,language skills,cultural types,cultural knowledge,thinking levels,and cognitive strategies.Besides,the external evaluation is made based on the interviews to know about the use conditions and evaluation information from the teachers and students,thus put forward feasible suggestions.It can be seen from the internal evaluation of the reading materials that,in terms of language knowledge,the reading passages in the two versions are of moderate length.The old textbooks set up a separate Word Power section to teach vocabulary,which is more targeted.The new version integrates vocabulary teaching into the reading section,which is more systematic and more regulated.The grammar teaching of the new version is a more gradual process.The discourse knowledge in the new version is more comprehensive and abundant,and the genres are more diverse.As for language skills,the new version pays more attention to the cultivation of comprehensive skills in reading,viewing and writing.As to cultural consciousness,the reading passages of the two versions involve many common cultures.The source culture in the old version accounts more than the target culture.For the first time,comparative culture appears in the new version.Regarding thinking quality,both versions focus more on cultivating students’ lower-order thinking competence;less activities concerning higher-order thinking competence are involved.As for learning capacity,the new version of the reading materials pays more attention to cultivating students’ ability to use cognitive strategies.It can be seen from the external evaluation that in terms of language knowledge,the reading materials of the new version are more comprehensive,more difficult and in-depth.Regarding language skills,the new version pays more attention to comprehensive training of skills and guidance on ways to improve skills.For cultural consciousness,one of the highlights of the new textbooks is to compare Western culture with Chinese culture,making students build cultural confidence while understanding different cultures.The new version pays more attention to the purpose of learning cultural knowledge,requiring internalization in the heart and externalization in the action.In terms of thinking quality,the problems of the old textbooks are relatively simple,and students can easily solve them.Some tasks and exercises in the reading materials of the new textbook are of certain difficulty and depth,thus students need to think based on their own experience.As to learning capacity,both versions focus on cultivating students’ learning capacity,but because the new textbooks are more difficult and in-depth,relatively speaking,the new textbooks are more challenging and set higher requirements for cultivating students’ learning capacity.