A Contrastive Study Of Strategy Instruction Design In The Experimental Senior English Textbooks For Beijing

Currently,two sets of English textbooks are being experimented with in the senior secondary language classrooms in Beijing.Both these two sets,namely,New Senior English for China and Senior High English emerge as the new English Curriculum Standards require. Consequently,the goals for English teaching have been broadened from the transmission of the "double-basics" to include the cultivation of positive affects,effective strategies,and cross-cultural competence,among which the development of autonomous and strategic learners is given supreme attention in the textbooks.Now that the design of the instructional materials are claimed to exert deciding influences on the way the actual learning and teaching are carried out, detailed analysis of the texts and tasks are done in this paper,which is nevertheless lacking in all the previous studies.This paper is consisted of five chapters.Chapter One briefs the recent textbook reform and the significance of the present study.Chapter Two reviews related theories on foreign language learning strategies and their instructions,and the requirements for strategy acquisition in the English Curriculum Standards.Chapter Three describes the research questions,the texts for analysis as well as the major instruments employed.Chapter Four presents the research findings in relation to the questions proposed in the preceding section,followed by in-depth discussions to each.Chapter Five concludes the whole thesis by summing up the major findings listed before. While acknowledging its own limitations,this paper also puts forward a number of possible suggestions for the incumbent teachers and the future researchers.It is the sincere hope of the author that this paper will be of help to the use and adaptations of the strategy training materials in the days to come.