Textural Analysis And Assessment Of ESP Reading Coursebook

After the Second World War, English for specific purpose (ESP) emerged withthe gradual expansion of international communication in science, technology,economics, and culture, and the incoming social need for talents excelling in boththeir expertise and a foreign language. In the process of the development of ESPcourse, some problems became prominent such as the deficiency of both ESPtextbooks and the evaluating methods.Based on the Xi’an International Studies University Teaching Reform Project,the thesis, taking the reading textbook of ESP curriculum Literary Theory ofEducational Selected Readings as its research object, is to discuss the problems in theprocess of curriculum development and present strategies by means of textual analysisand evaluation.The research investigation demonstrates that Literary Theory of EducationalSelected Readings, the ESP textbook of English education major’s, has severalobvious characteristics: definite educational objective, innovative design, extensivesubject, logical structure, and the learner-focused principle. Besides, on the basis ofthe combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis, the author also finds theprincipal problems in the ESP textbook. In the first place, some educational objectivesare not completely accomplished such as the improvement of students’ academic andlearning skills. In the second place, the topics in textbook are not the most fascinatingones to students. In the third place, the academic vocabulary and the content is notsufficient, and the texts are relatively difficult. Lastly, the author presents relevantstrategies for the improvement of the textbook. In the aspect of educational objective,the students’ academic skill needs enhancing. In the aspect of the subject of the text,the students’ interest should be taken into consideration, and the most acceptablereading topics are current debatable problem and narrative educational stories.Furthermore, students unanimously hold the idea that the language in the textbook isrelatively difficult. In the aspect of academic language, the academic terms and style need improving. In the aspect of teaching mode, most students choose case study anddiscussion as their favorite teaching method.