A Study On The Alignment Between The "Reading" Materials Of General High School English Textbooks And The Senior High English Curriculum Standards (2017 Edition) Based On SEC Model

The General Senior High School English Curriculum Standards(2017 Edition)(hereinafter referred to as the New Curriculum Standards)sets out the objectives and content of English teaching and gives clear guidance on the development of teaching materials.It proposes the core competencies achieved through the English subject that includes English reading skills as part of English language ability.In 2019,textbooks of the Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press of the General High School Textbook-English(hereinafter referred to as the NSE textbooks)and the Beijing Normal University Publishing Group of the General High School Textbook-English(hereinafter referred to as the BNU textbooks),which were approved by the education administrative department of the State Council,are representative and frequently used textbooks at the basic education level in the south and north of China respectively.Their level of alignment with the New Curriculum Standards reflects to a certain extent the implementation of China’s curriculum reform and is related to the improvement of the quality of English teaching and the development of students’ English language ability.However,fewer studies have been conducted using the alignment paradigm on multiple versions of compulsory general high school English textbooks and the New Curriculum Standards,and few studies have been conducted on the extent to which the reading modules of different textbooks reflect the requirements of the New Curriculum Standards.The study took the reading modules in the two versions of the compulsory general high school English textbooks and the New Curriculum Standards as the research objects,and used the SEC alignment analysis model as the research tool to statistically compare and analyze the level of alignment between the textbooks and the New Curriculum Standards.The study consists of two specific steps:(1)Constructing a coding framework for analyzing the alignment of the two versions of the textbooks with the New Curriculum Standards.(2)Analyzing the alignment distribution characteristics of the two versions of the textbooks with the New Curriculum Standards in two dimensions: content theme and cognitive level,and makes comparisons between the textbooks.In order to explore the current situation of alignment between different versions of textbooks and the New Curriculum Standards in the development of reading ability,and to provide strategies for the writing of textbooks and the teaching of the teachers.This paper puts forward the following questions about the alignments between the NSE textbooks and the BNU textbooks and the New Curriculum Standards:(1)What are the overall alignments between the compulsory textbooks of the NSE textbooks and the BNU textbooks and the New Curriculum Standards respectively? What are the overall distributions?(2)In terms of content theme,what are the alignments of the NSE textbooks and the BNU textbooks with the New Curriculum Standards respectively ? What are the characteristics of the distributions ?(3)In terms of cognitive level,what are the alignments of the NSE textbooks and the BNU textbooks with the New Curriculum Standards respectively ? What are the characteristics of the distributions ?The results of the study showed that:(1)In terms of overall alignment,the alignment coefficient between the NSE textbooks and the New Curriculum Standards is slightly higher than that of the BNU textbooks.Neither versions of the textbooks reached statistically significant alignment with the New Curriculum Standards,but the level of alignment between the two versions of the textbooks and the New Curriculum Standards are relatively high with reference to the results of related studies.(2)In terms of content theme,if the study compares the degree of alignment by the cumulative magnitude of the absolute value of the difference,the relationship between the two versions of the textbooks and the New Curriculum Standards is: The NSE textbooks >The BNU textbooks.(3)In terms of cognitive level,the absolute value of the difference between the two versions of the textbooks and the New Curriculum Standards is equal.The difference value between the NSE textbooks and the New Curriculum Standards is greater than 0,which means that the NSE textbooks is slightly higher than the requirements of the New Curriculum Standards in terms of cognitive level.The difference value between the BNU textbooks and the New Curriculum Standards is less than 0,which means that the BNU textbooks is slightly lower than the requirements of the New Curriculum Standards in terms of cognitive level.The expression of the New Curriculum Standards and the selection of textbook contents will affect the alignment between the NSE textbooks and the BNU textbooks and the New Curriculum Standards.Therefore,the research suggests that the alignment between textbooks and the New Curriculum Standards should be improved,students’ reading ability should be developed,and the implementation of the New Curriculum Standards should be promoted from: compilation of textbooks.