An Analysis Of New Horizon College English

College English coursebooks, as a vehicle, play an important role in the instruction of College English in the institutions of higher learning in our country. In recent years, a large assortment of such books is available in bookstores everywhere. However, each series of textbooks has its merits and demerits. As it is, how to find the one best suitable for the students has become a problem that the administrative offices in charge of studies and the College English teachers are confronted with. This situation has also inspired the motivation of this research.The Ministry of Education of the State Council has recommended several teaching materials for the instruction of College English and one of them is New Horizon College English, which is beyond any doubts a good textbook in the eyes of the experts. This textbook is what can be called the mainstay teaching materials used in classroom teaching in our university for over two years. This dissertation is intended for a thorough study of the textbook New Horizon College English so as to find out some comments on it for reference. As a research paper, it is oriented to the analysis and evaluation of the textbook to satisfy the urgent need of how to utilize it to the best advantage. This dissertation is divided into five chapters and the main gist o f each chapter reads as follows:Chapter one is the introduction of the thesis. First it talks about the background of the research, and then introduces the significance and the criterions of the textbook evaluation. Two evaluation models are being introduced in chapter one. The introduction makes a preparation for the whole thesis.Chapter two talks about some language learning theories which relates to the textbook evaluation. It includes the relationship between linguistic theories and textbook &the relationship between teaching syllabus and textbook.Chapter three begins to make an analysis on New Horizon College English. Firstly, the author analyzes the components, content selections and arrangement from an objective point of view, and then assesses the textbook's merits and shortcomings subjectively. Also the thesis talks about the reflection of four skills: reading, writing, listening, and speaking in this textbook.Chapter four is an important part of the thesis. Besides the analysis and evaluation from objective and subjective point of view, the users'idea is the key point to evaluate the textbook. The author designs a questionnaire to test whether the users are satisfied to the textbook. According to the result, the author summarizes the most popular parts of the textbook and some issues which are not admitted by the students.Chapter five is conclusion. Once again the thesis summarizes the merits and shortcomings of New horizon college English. First, it pays too much attention on reading while other three skills are neglected relatively. Since communication is the main purpose of learning English, the textbook writer should emphasize on speaking skill training but not only on information provision. Second, the provision of CD and online course are not in the real usage. Third, there is no systematic introduction of grammar rules and translation skills in the textbook, which will cause the students'failure in the examination to some degree. Some suggestions are made to make the usage of New horizon college English more effectively.