A Study Of English Textbook In Rural Schools

The textbook is one of the important factors which directly affects classroom teaching effectiveness and efficiency. The criteria on textbook evaluation are variable, and one of them is whether the textbook satisfies students'needs. Many papers published so far have studied the junior English textbook Go for it! from a theoretical point of view; other researches focus on the appropriateness of Go for it!, and a few people research from the perspective of local students'needs. Here the author goes a step further to study the English textbook appropriateness in rural schools and to survey the use of Go for it! in Yongnian County.Based on the theories of needs'analysis, textbook evaluation, and Krashen's Input Hypothesis, the author chooses three different schools in Yongnian County—No. 3 Middle School, No. 9 Middle School, and Zhengxi Middle School for experimental studies. The participants are 200 students and 20 teachers from these schools. The research questions can be stated as follows:1. What are the local students'needs for English textbooks?2. What is the local teachers'feedback on Go for it! ?3. What is the internal evaluation on Go for it!?4. To what degree do the textbooks meet local students'needs?5. In the perspectives of adapting Go for it! and improving teachers'teaching skill, what are the implications for the local teachers?The author studies the former three questions from the perspectives of English Curriculum Standard, Macro-analysis, and Micro-analysis. The curriculum standard includes the teaching requirement of the Ministry of Education; the macro views on Go for it! contain the guiding thought and theoretical foundation of the textbook; the micro views on Go for it! contain five aspects which are language knowledge, language skills, emotional attitude, learning strategy and cultural awareness. The data collected are then analyzed by using SPSS 18.0, with the results listed under the following headings:1. The needs of local students and local teachers;2. A wide gap between Go for it! and local students'needs;3. Implications for local teachers.The results show that junior English textbook Go for it! is not appropriate for ELT in Yongnian County. For example, the tasks in each unit are too many for the students to complete; vocabulary is too large and difficult for local students; there is a lack of tasks in pronunciation knowledge; the contents of Go for it! may not be suitable for the students, and illustrations become inauthentic for the local students.The paper supplies the implications for local teachers and their teaching:1.How to adapt Go for it! so as to satisfy local students'needs?2.How to improve local teachers'teaching skills and beliefs so as to improve teaching effectiveness and efficiency?...