Task Evaluation Of Advance With English

ELT textbooks are produced according to the demands of the educational institutions.They are crucial to English language teaching.This thesis begins with a probe into students' learning needs.Students from different geographical areas learn English with different goals,motivations and styles.It is obvious that there is little chance to effectively carry out a successful English instruction and achieve proposed teaching aims if students' learning needs aren't initially studied(Su Dingfang 2004:19).Cunningsworth(1995:1-2)holds that there are two steps to go while evaluating a textbook:impressionistic evaluation and in-depth evaluation.Teachers should above all form a whole and impressionistic picture of the textbook to know the compiler's blurbs,its special characteristics,and some using tips.Faced with different teaching contexts and students,teachers are supposed to make an in-depth evaluation to get an idea of how to best use the textbook so that their students' needs might be satisfied. However,it might be argued that such an evaluation does not accord with realities teachers have.It is impossible for them to explore all the parts of the textbook.So an impressionistic evaluation of the currently widely-used senior English textbook Advance With English is conducted,followed by an in-depth task evaluation in the thesis.The in-depth evaluation focuses on the tasks in the textbook,which is believed to be the core of the Task-based Language Teaching,strongly recommended in classroom teaching in English Curriculum Standards(2001).Based on the data,the thesis has got three major findings:firstly,Advance With English meets the requirements of English Curriculum Standards in general.Adopting TBLT,it cultivates students' abilities of using English to fulfill something.It aims at developing students' integrative language skills.Secondly,it is suitable for those students in what is called key senior schools while it is a little beyond the abilities of students in schools at and below the medium level.Thirdly,the task part is well-received among the students as long as the task difficulty level is within their reach.There are some solutions to the problem:on the one hand,it is the duty for the textbook producers to make a clear distinction between what is primary and what is secondary.They also need to provide some leeway for both students and teachers.The backwash effects of the exams on what is going on in the classroom need to be considered.On the other hand,the teachers' modifying of Advance With English should be advocated so as to minister to their special teaching contexts.For example, they can have the task difficulty level under their own control.Or they can design a supplementary textbook while focusing on the administratively prescribed textbook, according to their own teaching contexts and students' needs.Teachers should also actively embrace the advanced educational theories.It is hoped that teacher-analysts can reap some insights into the evaluations of ELT textbooks not only to use them creatively and critically but also to empower themselves with professional development and teaching efficiency.