A Sociocultural Approach Towards Examining College EFL Materials Users’ Perceptions Of Good Materials

Materials,as the core part of any curriculum,can provide information sources of knowledge,ideas,and methods for teaching practice,serve as the general framework followed by teachers in the classroom,and promote standardization in the instructional settings.Materials development is a field that studies the design,use,and evaluation of materials.Materials evaluation,as a crucial component of materials development,is significant in helping users determine the adequacy of materials or making adjustments to existing materials.EFL Materials evaluation received less attention from academics than EFL materials design,according to an examination of the literature,particularly in China.Among the materials evaluation researches,the studies on developing materials evaluation criteria need further exploration.Since the 1990s,domestic material evaluation research has placed a focus on commenting on and using international materials evaluation criteria.The Chinese scholars’ earlier criteria were based on the researchers’ cognition,the foreign checklists,or interdisciplinary theories.Previous researches have admittedly overlooked the teachers and students’ perceptions of good materials in developing materials evaluation criteria,and the factors that influence the subjects’ perceptions need further exploration.To bridge the research gap,the present study employed a qualitative approach to investigate how materials evaluation subjects,the users,in particular,recognize good materials,and the mediating factors of the perceptions.Sociocultural theory was chosen as the best theory of mind for explaining the development of higher mental function.To guarantee the diversity of participants,the research invited 43 EFL teachers and 46 EFL students of different majors from different universities across the seven geographical regions in China.The research found that first,users evaluated the textbook largely when it was being used,for example,the would evaluate the contents and supporting materials.The criteria’themes selection’,’texts selection’,’activities and exercises design’,and ’organization of contents’ were all included in the criterion ’content’.In addition,the criteria ’resources’ and’e-platforms’ were included in the criterion ’supporting materials’.The users also paid attention to the post-use effects,which included both short-term and long-term learning outcomes.The users would also look at the textbooks’ predictive values,which refer to the value in the pre-use evaluation stage,namely the educational beliefs in the textbooks,such as cultivation beliefs and second language acquisition beliefs,as well as their implementation.The physical make-up of the textbook,as well as the reputation of the publishers,writers,and editors,though was the criteria that the users would apply in materials evaluation,was mentioned less frequently comparing to other criteria mentioned above.Second,in the materials evaluation activity,the teachers’ and students’ perception were mediated by subjects,mediational means,and rules.Teachers,as the subjects of materials evaluation,would be mediated by their experience of teaching the textbook,their educational background,and experience of participating in academic activities.Also,the teachers’cognition would be mediated by different mediational means,such as others（students,colleagues,scholars）,cultural artifacts（academic books or articles relevant to materials evaluation,tests,different textbooks）,and cultural concept（the concept of Political and Ideological Education）.In addition,rules,including the policies and decision-making on textbook selection,curriculum and syllabus,and class hours would mediate teachers’perceptions of good materials.In contrast,as the subjects of materials evaluation,the students would be mediated by their experience of using the textbook and their experience of attending contests.Also,the students would be mediated by mediational means,including others（teachers,classmates,scholars）,cultural artifacts（extra-curriculum reading materials,tests,different textbooks）.Rules,including the curriculum and syllabus,and class hours would mediated students’ perceptions as well.The theoretical and practical implications of the present study were as follows:First,the present study explored the users’ cognition on good materials and then developed the materials evaluation criteria based on the results,which made up for the lack of subjects in previous studies.Second,the present study applied sociocultural theory,which contributed to the establishment of theoretical frameworks in the field of material evaluation.Third,because materials evaluation is an integral part of materials development,studies on materials evaluation can help advance research on materials design and use.Fourth,the materials evaluation criteria put forward in the present study could help the users evaluate the quality of the textbooks and select the most appropriate textbook for the current teaching situation.