Compilation And Application Of Accounting English Textbook For Secondary Vocational School

The central government of China calls for a higher development of secondary vocational education. Such a development implies a significant improvement both in quantity and in quality so as to help the secondary vocational school attain its ultimate goal of cultivating qualified workers—skilled professionals and qualified workers who can meet the needs of our four-modernization. Different from general education, vocational education has its own characteristics which are manifest in all of its textbooks, including related English textbooks. These textbooks play a very important role in the vocational education and therefore should be attached great importance to.English for Accounting in vocational schools is a variety of English for Specific Purpose (ESP), a variety of English related to a specific occupation or subject. ESP aims to meet various learners' needs and must be practical in use. And the same thing is true of the English textbook for Accounting in the secondary vocational school.Accounting is a traditional specialized subject in Secondary Vocational Schools and now hoped to keep step with the development of society where there is a growing demand for people with profound accounting knowledge in general and with the English ability to handle accounting problems in particular. Therefore, English for Accounting has become a required course for the students at the secondary vocational schools when they have laid a good foundation in their specialized field of study and general English. As a variety of ESP, English for Accounting is of immediate practical use in nature, the good conduction of which is closely related to a good textbook. Therefore, the quality of a textbook on accounting should not be overlooked in our teaching work. Evaluating the English Textbook for Accounting used over the past years, we have found that it is quite out of date in terms of its content and form and a new one is badly needed. Prompted by this demand, we started compiling a new textbook, which has been finished and put into use.During the process of compiling the new course book—English for Accounting, we followed the teaching theories of ESP and tried to make the new textbook both comply with the changing situation and meet the needs of the students. The reason why we did so is that we firmly believed that a good textbook can play a very important role in our teaching work, for it can not only affect the teacher's behavior and instruction but also influence the result of learning. This paper, based on Hutchinson & Waters' theories and principles of needs analysis and material design for ESP, attempts to analyze the problems of the old Textbook of Accounting English, discuss the question of pressing necessity of and principles for compiling a new Textbook of Accounting English. To us, the new Textbook of Accounting English should comply with the principle of the student-centeredness and meet the students' job hunting needs. Such views should also be put into our teaching practice when we use the new textbook. Meanwhile, the thesis, with the help of questioners, interviews and class observation, made a survey of the use of the new textbook, pointing out its strengths as well as weaknesses and offering suggestions for further improvement of the new textbook with the hope of making this new textbook better and practical in a more satisfactory way.In addition, this thesis also makes some recommendations for the use of the new textbook, holding that the teacher should encourage the students to use authentic English for accounting to analyze accounting cases for the purpose of cultivating qualified personnel capable of doing the work of accounting and meeting the needs of our society.