The Development Of College English Coursebooks In China

College English teaching enjoys a prominent position in college education in China as it involves almost all college students all over the country and lasts as long as two years. College English coursebooks, which teachers and students have to fall back upon, play a crucial role in the teaching process.As far as the compilation of college English coursebooks is concerned, it is widely agreed that the development of linguistics, language learning theories and pedagogical theories are greatly influential. In addition, foreign language coursebooks have to be in accordance with syllabus requirements. The process where coursebooks are compiled has to obey some principles and follow some steps, and there are also essential guidelines for coursebook evaluation. Based on the elaboration of these theories, this thesis traces the history of college English coursebooks in China along the development of college English teaching syllabuses formulated in successive periods, and divides the process of advancement into five phases.The description and analysis of typical coursebooks in each phase paves the way for a comparison among them. It can be found out that major differences lie in the needs of teachers and students, the content, the design, and the educational technology used as supplementary to paper books. These differences can be attributed to many factors, especially needs from many aspects, syllabus requirements, and compilers' theoretical level, teaching experience, collection and selection of materials and application of modern educational technology. This thesis also draws attention to some problems with contemporary college English coursebooks, such as the exam-orientation, lack of classics, lack of culture-specific articles, unsatisfactory educational technology application, and the chaotic competition in the coursebook market.Finally, it reaches the conclusion that to solve the existent problems, college English coursebooks in China will take up changes in the orientation, objective, content, form, and the professional level of compilers, etc in the future.