Research On The College English Textbook Use Based On Activity Theory

English is one of the most widely spoken languages,and popularizing English and improving the English level of citizens is not only the need of China’s national conditions,but also the requirement of national development and international cooperation.At present,systematic English education is mainly conducted through English courses offered by schools at different levels.As the core teaching materials used uniformly in the classroom of non-English majors in colleges and universities,college English teaching,as an important part of higher education,plays an indispensable role in the cultivation of high-level talents for their English proficiency.Furthermore,the use of English textbooks is a process by which learning activities occur,and in which students will be affected by quite a few factors in this process.In this sense,the use of textbook is an activity belonging to the category of social and cultural activities.As a branch of socio-cultural theory,Activity Theory(AT)takes "activity" as the basic unit to anatomize human practical activities.In particular,the third generation of AT proposed by Engestr?m puts activities in social contexts.And based on this theory,he builds the Activity Triangle Model,making AT an interdisciplinary framework for studying and analyzing different forms of human activities.Accordingly,it is appropriate to apply AT to the exploration of the using effect of College English textbooks(CET).However,seen from research both at home and abroad,AT has been applied mainly to the study of business,management and the construction of learning environments.What’s more,related studies on textbooks have focused on textbook compilation,assessment and evaluation.At the same time,in regard to the study of textbook users,related researches put its focus on teachers rather than students.Therefore,this thesis conducts research on the use of college English textbooks based on Activity Theory and Activity Triangle Model by taking students as research subjects.In this paper,a series of College textbooks,namely,New College English Integrated Course 3 and Integrated Course 4 are selected.In addition,questionnaires are conducted among freshmen and sophomores from a university of project 985,and two C-level classes of freshmen are chosen as subjects of classroom observation.The research questions are as follows: 1.What is the current status and existing problems of College Students’ English textbooks use? 2.How do the elements of Activity Theory affect college students’ use of English textbooks?To begin with,this article combines the six elements of Activity Theory in setting up two questionnaires.Therefore,the question setting of both questionnaires is divided into six dimensions.Among them,the first questionnaire mainly investigates the current situation of college students’ use of English textbooks,with a total of 12 items.With a total of 20 items,questionnaire two investigates the impact of the six elements of Activity Theory on college English textbook use.Next,SPSS 26.0 and Excel are used as research tools to conduct statistical analysis of the collected data from the questionnaires for exploring the current situation of CET use and the influencing factors in textbook use from the perspective of AT.Among them,the reliability of questionnaire one is 0.828,the validity is 0.766,and the reliability of questionnaire two is 0.852,the validity is 0.783.According to the reliability and validity standard table,both questionnaires are feasible.At the same time,classroom observation,as a qualitative research method,is also used to record and analyze textbook use in detail,and then the obtained data is presented in the form of charts and tables.Finally,combined with the questionnaire data and classroom observation results,the performance of the six elements of Activity Theory in the use of teaching materials is discussed in depth.Finally,based on the information obtained from questionnaires and classroom observation,this paper explores the performance and effectiveness of the six elements in textbook use from the perspective of Activity Theory respectively.The major findings are as follows: 1.From the perspective of the main components of Activity Theory,personal motivation among subjects has the greatest impact on students’ textbook use,which accounts for 44.6%.And it is found that students have low autonomy in using textbooks and motivation to actively use textbooks with an average score of-0.2 according to classroom observation.2.The difficulty of textbooks matters most in textbook use and it accounts for 40.1% of object.3.At the community level,cooperative learning in groups has the maximum influence on the effectiveness of textbook use,which accounts for 41.6%.Questioning among peers occurs less frequently during group cooperative learning,with an average score of-0.4.4.From the perspective of the secondary component of AT,students often use learning strategies as intermediary tools to use textbooks and it accounts for 33.7%.5.Besides,considering the element of rules,teacher questioning and classroom test take the largest proportion of 47%,and the average score of rules in the classroom observation table is only 0.8.Thus,the effectiveness of achieving curriculum teaching objectives has not been fully tested.6.In aspect of division of labor,the dominant role in the classroom takes the highest percentage of 44.6%.Based on classroom observation,the division of roles between teachers and students in the classroom is relatively well performed.However,the average score of teachers as organizers in students’ textbook use is 0.8.To sum up,in order to maximize the role of the six elements of AT(subject,object,community,tools,rules and division of labor)in students’ textbook use,enhance its effectiveness,this thesis explores the influence of the six elements on the CET use from the perspective of students by way of questionnaire and classroom observation.In addition,the following inspirations are drawn.From the perspective of students: 1.Students should recognize and admit themselves as one of the significant subjects in the use of textbooks.They ought to explore the charm of English textbooks actively by means of preparing and reviewing textbooks well,and become familiar with textbooks in order to make good use of them at last.2.In the course of using textbooks,it is noteworthy to participate in group discussions or seek help from teachers in a timely manner when come across difficulties,and make full use of the textbook usage community.Viewing angle from teachers: 1.It is a requisite to attach importance and improve the subjective status of students in the use of textbooks.2.Classroom tests should be conducted in a timely manner to encourage students in achieving teaching objectives and tasks specified in textbooks.3.Teachers should exert a leading part in the community between teachers and students.Besides,teachers ought to adopt diverse teaching methods,and play a mediating role to form a textbook usage model of "student centered,teacher guided".In summary,the six elements of AT affect CET use in various degrees.Therefore,the characteristics of each element should be fully exploited to improve the effectiveness of textbooks.