A Systematic Evaluation Of English Textbook

The English Curriculum Standard for Senior High School (draft) issued by the Ministry of Education of China in April,2003 has pointed out a clear direction for English teaching in senior high schools. In September,2005, Advance with English by Yilin Press and Group of Phoenix Publication Medium was officially used as English textbooks for senior high schools in Jiangsu Province. The frequent shift of textbooks poses great pressure both on schools and teachers.The evaluation of textbook is a job of great challenge. In the evaluation, not only the objective of teaching but also the users'requirement should be considered. This study is supposed to make a systematic evaluation of Advance with English. First, this study makes an internal evaluation of Advance with English based on theories on language learning, syllabus, textbook design and evaluation. Then referring to Professor He Anping's Assessment of English Material in Senior High Schools, the author designs two sets of questionnaires for teachers and students respectively. In this way, this study makes an external evaluation of Advance with English from the users'perspective. It also offers some suggestions on how teachers make use of this textbook and cope with the development of textbook. This study selected both qualitative approach and quantitative approach. The data collected from the questionnaires was analyzed by computer software SPSS. The data collected from the subjective questions was analyzed qualitatively by observing, synthesizing, induction and description.The results of this study indicate Advance with English is a set of textbooks that basically accord with the requirement of the new English Curriculum Standard for Senior High School (draft) and the requirement of teachers and students. Its strengths include:it is compiled based on the learner-centered idea; task-based language teaching is promoted; formation of good learning habit and effective learning strategies is emphasized; paying attention to the cultural differences, etc. However, the weakness of this textbook can not be neglected:the input is too much and the vocabulary is too large. Besides, the arrangement of grammar is not very systematic. Thus some pedagogical suggestions are made to the teachers.