Evaluation Of English For Secondary Vocational School (Basic Editions)

As we all know, teaching materials play a critical role in language teaching. However, the development of teaching materials in secondary vocational English teaching is still at its initial stage. The major problems of this kind include the arbitrary choices of teaching materials and definite lag in the evaluation criteria. In some cases, teachers choose materials by their conjecture of students' needs or by their own experience and intuition. In order to solve these problems, this paper generalizes Hutchinson and Waters' needs analysis theory, investigates students' target needs and learning needs, briefs material evaluation criteria by McDonough and Shaw et al., and then makes a survey about students' needs towards materials. Grounded on the theoretical basis above, the author proposes a set of evaluation criteria for secondary vocational English textbooks and conducts an evaluation of English for Secondary Vocational School (ESVS) Basic Editions. The conduction consists of three stages—the external evaluation, the internal evaluation and the overall evaluation. Then the author presents some findings of evaluation through the ways of scoring and generalization, and concludes that ESVS are generally suitable for most secondary vocational school students. In addition, the paper gives some suggestions on the development of the textbooks and how to use the textbooks effectively. The author admits that the limitation in this study is insufficient feedback of material application from secondary vocational school teachers and students; but thinks that this study provides some authentic data for material development and adaptation and it is of great significance for English language teaching in secondary vocational schools.