Evaluating Advance With English (Jiangsu Edition)

With the development of foreign language teaching, more and more foreign language teaching materials have come into the market. Teaching material evaluation becomes very important and necessary because it can not only offer reference for the education administration in selecting teaching materials but also provide advice for the compilers to make appropriate adjustments. What's more, it can help the teachers to make full use of the teaching materials so as to more beneficially help the students in their study.In September, 2005, Advance with English by Yilin Press and Group of Phoenix Medium replaced SEFC 2003 (Senior English for China) and has been officially used in senior high schools in Jiangsu Province since then. The frequent change of textbooks poses great pressure both on schools and teachers. Up to now, Advance with English has already been used for 6 years. However, many teachers find it really difficult to adapt their teaching to the new textbook. Some of them even feel confused. Thus, evaluating its quality and value is of great significance.Based on the theories of the material evaluation at home and abroad, this thesis first evaluates Advance with English against New Curriculum Standard. It further supplements the evaluation by means of questionnaire, interview, investigating 20 teachers and 60 students from Suzhou Senior High School. The thesis also suggests how teachers should make use of this material and transform their role in teaching to cope with the development of materials.By comparing Advance with English with the criteria of the material evaluation, the thesis draws the conclusion that Advance with English has some advantages and disadvantages. The advantages are: 1) It applies advanced teaching methods and embodies the latest theories of linguistics, language teaching and language learning. 2) The compilers not only emphasize the teaching of skills and knowledge of language, but attach importance to training students'learning strategies, cultural awareness and emotional attitudes. 3) It pays attention to autonomous and cooperative learning, and highlights the dominant position of students in the study.3) It is in accordance with the ideas and requirements of the New Curriculum Standard and has many advantages in other aspects.The disadvantages are: 1) The matching material needs further improvement. 2) It lacks classic readings with refined language and literary flavor for students to recite and imitate. 3) A large proportion of exercises can't meet the test requirement.Questionnaire and interview data also reveal a number of advantages and disadvantages of Advance with English. The advantages are: 1) It uses task-based language activities, which could give students real language situation. 2) It is student- oriented and learner- centered. 3) The language in the textbook is idiomatic. 4) Exercise integrates with various language skills. 4) It provides the real situation for communication and thus develop student's ability in practice. 5) It pays attention to cultural differences and communication between Chinese and western cultures. 6) It cultivates student's affective attitude.The disadvantages are: 1) There is too much input, which is not in accordance with the current length of classes in senior high school. 2) The vocabulary is too large. 3) The arrangement of grammar throughout the material is not very systematic. 4) The texts are mainly popular reading, the topics of which are all closely related with students'life. There is a lack of classic readings with refined language and literary flavor, which is not good for the cultivation of students'language sense and ability.This thesis also provides advice for the teachers on how to study of New Curriculum Standard carefully, systematize the teaching of grammar and rationalize the teaching of vocabulary.