An Evaluation On Topic Content In Junior High School English Textbook Of People’s Education Edition Based On Students’ Interest

Textbooks contain the basic content of teaching and are an important carrier of basic knowledge of science and culture.It is not only the main basis for teachers to organize teaching activities,but also the major content of students’ learning.The rationality and interest of the topic selected in the textbook are related to the effect of teachers’ teaching and students’ learning.It is an important basis to evaluate textbooks and test whether they meet the needs of teaching.This study takes the junior middle school English textbook of people’s education edition as an example,mainly discusses the following three questions:(1)What are the characteristics of the selected topics in junior middle school English textbooks of People’s Education Press(PEP)?(2)What are the interest characteristics of junior middle school students in topic selection?(3)Are there significant differences in topic interest among junior middle school English learners of different language proficiency and genders?In this study,combined with the classification of topics in the Compulsory Education Curriculum Standards,the author firstly lists the topics in five English textbooks of the PEP by using the method of text analysis,and then classifies them to analyze their distribution characteristics.Secondly,taking the students in four classes of Xi’an Gaoxin No.1 middle school as the research participants,the questionnaire survey method is used to investigate their interest in the topics in the textbooks.Finally,this study further investigated the differences in topic interest of students of different genders and different language proficiency.Based on research results,this study puts forward some practical suggestions on the selection and arrangement of topics in textbooks,and also wants to provide help for middle school English teachers to make full use of textbooks,make trade-offs and additions of contents,and arrange teaching activities.The research shows that in terms of the topic characteristics of the textbook,the topics of junior middle school English textbook of PEP are rich and diverse,covering the content of daily life comprehensively.However,the number of topics in the context of Human and Nature is less than that in other contexts.As far as learners’ topic interest is concerned,most of the topics that learners are least interested in are not close to daily life,abstract and difficult to understand.Most of the topics that learners are interested in are related to their daily life,with a more relaxing and pleasant atmosphere.In terms of the tendency of topic interest of learners of different genders and different language proficiency,there are significant differences in topic interest between them.There were31 topics with significant differences between male students and male students,accounting for 56% of the total topics.Male students are more interested in 34 topics than female students,while female students are more interested in the remaining 21 topics.in term of different language proficiency.The number of topics with significant difference between high language proficiency learners and low language proficiency learners is 16,accounting for 29% of the total topics.High language proficiency learners are more interested in 53 topics than low language proficiency learners,while low language proficiency learners are more interested in the remaining two topics.