Comparison Of Two Sets Of The Comprehensive English Textbooks

In recent years, the role of textbooks in the English Language teaching (ELT) has been more and more important, with the promulgation and operation of new syllabus. Textbooks are best seen as a resource in achieving aims and objectives that have already been set in terms of learner needs. It is generally accepted that the role of the textbook is to be at the service of teachers and learners but not to be their master. The relationship between teachers and textbook is an important consideration and is at its best when it is a partnership which shares common goals to which each side brings its special contribution.Nowadays, there are a lot of English textbooks for the learners majored in English in the college of China. The author choose two of them—A New English Course and An Integrated English Course to do the research, both of which are published by Shanghai Foreign Language Press. A New English Course has been used for almost twenty years and it is quite influential in the field of universities. It adopts functional approach to language learning. An Integrated English Course has been printed in the year of 2004. It features an integrated method approach and the task-based approach to language learning within a framework of learner-centered themes. Today teachers have different opinions when they are using these two textbooks. But the relative research of these two textbooks in writing is sparse and needs to be developed.There are four chapters in this thesis. The first chapter summarizes the research of the textbooks and it outlines the basic principle of the textbooks, and the introduction of the recent research on the editing and the evaluation of the textbooks in the world. The second chapter introduces the types of syllabuses which influenced the primary and secondary English Teaching in China for years from the viewpoints of the curriculum, language and the language learning. It outlines the structure syllabus, structure-function syllabus and the comprehensive syllabus which is topic and task based. In the third chapter, I evaluate the two textbooks. I make a complete comparison and analysis in the aspect of syllabus. These contents are topics, language contents, skills and so on. The language contents contain the comparison of grammar and vocabulary. And the language skills include the comparison of listening, speaking, reading, writing and translating. Through questionnaire and interview research, the fourth chapter raises the further thought of the comparison. I make some suggestions on how the teachers use the textbooks and how to improve the arrangement of the textbooks.I hope this thesis will gibe suggestions for the editing and teaching of the textbook. I also hope to explore the approach of textbook using to improve English language teaching.