A Study On The Evaluation Of Oxford High School English Grammar System

Advance with English has been designated as the unified teaching material in Jiangsu Province since September,2005, and its third edition was published in 2010. So far, Advance with English (2010) has been used for quite a while, and it has embraced various comments from users. Among these comments, opinions differ greatly with regard to the grammatical modules, the teaching of which plays an important role in English teaching in high school. Therefore, an evaluation of grammatical modules of this set of textbooks is in need at present. Through the evaluative study of grammatical modules, this thesis aims to disclose the characteristics of grammar part in Advance with English (2010), help both teachers and students better utilize this set of textbooks, and ultimately push forward materials development.On the basis of the in-depth evaluation method put forward by Cunningsworth, this thesis takes English Curriculum Standards for Students in Ordinary Senior Middle Schools (Experimental) (2003) (ECS) as criteria for evaluation and assesses grammatical modules in Advance with English (2010) in terms of the layout of grammar items, presentation of grammar points and design of grammar practice. An interview with He Feng, one of the chief editors of Advance with English (2010), is conducted after the evaluation in order to extract perceptions about textbook design in grammatical modules.A conclusion has been reached after a detailed discussion of research results. It has been found that Advance with English (2010) has some merits in the design of grammatical modules as follows. (1) The design of grammar part generally satisfies and reflects the fundamental principles as well as curriculum objectives in ECS; (2) The layout of grammar items and presentation of grammar points and grammar practice feature a topic-centered design, which fosters students’ cultural awareness and attitudes; (3) The design of grammar practice is conducive to an integrated ability to use English. However, demerits of Advance with English (2010) are also revealed during the study. First and foremost, the topic-oriented sequencing makes grammar items devoid of progression of complexity. Secondly, the presentation of grammar points mainly adopts the deductive method, which does no good to the cultivation of learning autonomy. Last but not least, form is prioritized over use in the presentation of grammar points, which may harm the development of an integrated ability to use English.According to research findings, advice for materials development in grammatical modules and recommendations for further studies are proposed in the last part of this thesis.