Analysis And Evaluation Of College English Listening Textbooks In Use

Listening is the primary channel for language input and acquisition (Peterson, 2001). Though in EFL it has drawn more and more attention in recent years, much work remains to be done in both theory and practice. Meanwhile, materials are an important element within the curriculum. However, for all their importance, research into materials, or simply textbooks, has not fully developed in China.Given the great importance of both listening abilities and teaching materials, it is worthwhile for us to evaluate some of the existing College English listening textbooks in China. This thesis thereby aims at investigating the extent to which currently used College English listening textbooks conform to the target needs and learning needs of Chinese college non-English major students in general.In order to find out the result, on the one hand, this thesis makes needs analysis by examining listening specified in College English Curriculum Requirements (For Trial Implementation) (Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education, 2004) and by eliciting teachers' and students' target needs and learning needs through NAQs. On the other hand, the thesis makes an internal evaluation and an external evaluation of three chosen sets of College English listening textbooks, namely, NCE: VLS, NHCE: VLS, and CEN: LS, which are currently and widely used by Chinese college non-English majors, by means of TEQs for both teachers and students.After matching the findings from needs analysis and listening textbook evaluations, the thesis, at last, draws a conclusion that the three sets of listening textbooks generally satisfy teachers' and learners' needs although there do exist certain discrepancies between each textbook and the concrete needs of the students.