A Survey On The Use Of Advance With English In Xiangxi

As an exemplification of curriculum philosophy, teaching materials directlyinfluence teaching and learning processes. Teaching materials is so important thatrelated researchers’ attention has long been attracted to materials evaluation at homeand abroad. In China, the new round of basic education curriculum reform adheres tothe human-oriented ideology and advocates “one syllabus, diverse materials” system,thus senior English materials have become diversified. In this case, materials usershave many choices. This conferred right brings challenge to educationadministrators’ and materials users’ materials evaluation capacity. Since2007,Advance With English by Yilin Press has been adopted as the uniform core teachingmaterials for nearly four years at high schools throughout Hunan. Different voiceson this kit have come from its users. Therefore, the investigation into the use ofAdvance With English is of great significance.Advance With English is produced based on the cultivation goals, basicideologies, and compiling principles of New Senior English Curriculum Standard, soit upholds learner-centeredness, encourages teachers to use materials in a flexibleway, and advocates such non-traditional teaching methods as task-based teachingmethods, cooperative learning, etc. All of these advocated teaching methods arehotspots in current related research field. Obviously, this is a big challenge toteachers and students who have been adapted to the traditional teaching model.It is known that the educational levels of various regions in Hunan are uneven,that is, core cities are rich in teaching resources, teachers’ teaching ideologies areupdated quickly, and students there lead a life in the diversified surroundings, whilethe educational context in remote Xiangxi is still behind with that in central cities,though the teaching hardware and software have both greatly improved in recentyears. In view of this, there is reason to doubt: How well does Advance With Englishwork in Xiangxi?On the basis of the retrieval of researches on materials evaluation at home andabroad, the author analyzes the content and structure of this kit, and then contrastedthis analysis with the basic ideologies and compiling principles of new curriculumstandard for a good understanding of the materials. This is the process of internalevaluation. On this premise, the author selectively referenced the modified materialschecklists by Cunningsworth(1995:3-4), Hutchinson&Waters(1987:98-104) and Grant(1987:124-126) for the questionnaire design. This is an external evaluation ofAdvance With English through the evaluation of the use of this kit in Xiangxi.In this study, three research methods were used. They were classroomobservation, questionnaire and interview. Students’ and teachers’ perceptions ofAdvance With English were the two research angles, and five major researchquestions were answered. The research attempted to explore the use of this kit inXiangxi, especially the problems existing in the process of teaching and learning.Quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis of the data were done together to servethe targeted suggestions on materials producers, materials users, teacher trainingpersonnel, educational authorities, and the reform of English education speciality.