An Analysis And Evaluation Of Senior English For Schools By Chongqing University Press

Due to the lack of English learning environment in China, textbooks serve as very important language input for students. Hence the compilation quality of English textbooks can affect students’English learning directly to a large extent. A good English textbook can help students learn how to learn, cultivate students’overall language ability, and stimulate their all-round development. However, the inappropriate use of textbook in reality may lead to a huge reduction of its implementation effect. In order to better achieve the functions of textbooks and help teachers and students to use textbooks better, it is particularly important to evaluate textbooks. In the meanwhile, with the deepening of English curriculum reform and the implementation of "one syllabus, multiple sets of textbooks" policy, more and more English textbooks spring up in the market. The variety of textbooks has challenged the supreme status of textbooks in English language teaching (ELT). Textbooks are no longer treated as English learning bible by teachers and students. Furthermore, local educational administrative departments and schools gain more freedom in choosing English textbooks for their students. In addition, the National English Curriculum Standards (NECS) also propose that no textbook is perfect and it is necessary to evaluate textbooks from learners’needs. Therefore, the analysis and evaluation of textbooks become urgent. On the one hand, textbook evaluation can give a clearer picture on the features and drawbacks of a specific textbook, thus teachers can adapt it more scientifically and reasonably to better suit their students’ learning needs while students can use it more efficiently and effectively according to the evaluation results; on the other hand, textbooks evaluation can provide reliable reference for textbook adoption and revision.Senior English for Schools (SEFS), published by Chongqing University Press, is one of the three widely adopted English textbooks in Chongqing. By far, no evaluation of its suitability for Chongqing has been done. The present thesis tries to do an evaluation of SEFS both internally and externally so as to know how far SEFS can meet the requirements of the NECS, find out its strong points and weaknesses, provide some pedagogical suggestions for teachers in terms of how to maximize its teaching effect, give some suggestions for compilers to revise it in the future, and offer some suggestions for students to better use it. The thesis begins with an introduction of the research background and the significance of the present study. Afterwards a working model is proposed through the review of textbook compilation theories and related studies on textbook evaluations. Firstly, internal evaluation is carried out through text analysis to see how far SEFS can meet the requirements in the NECS. This stage is further divided into macroscopic evaluation, which examines the compilation guidelines, teaching aims, teaching approaches, organization of teaching materials in SEFS; and microscopic evaluation, including language knowledge, language skills, affect and attitudes, learning strategies and cultural awareness required in the NECS. Then external evaluation, mainly through questionnaire and interview is implemented in order to know the practical using conditions of SEFS in Chongqing. Later, data and information collected from questionnaires and interviews are analyzed by excel.Through both internal and external evaluation, it is found that SEFS adopts a synthetic viewpoint concerning views on language, views on language learning and language teaching, emphasizes the cultivation of students’overall language ability, and advocates the flexible adoption of teaching approaches by teachers according to real teaching situations and their students’ learning needs, which are quite in accordance with the NECS. Besides, SEFS pays attention to the cultivation and development of students’learning strategies, chooses rich topics, introduces both western culture and traditional Chinese culture in the textbook, presents authentic language use and proposes the whole person education. Nevertheless, teachers and students investigated also reflect SEFS is a little bit challenging for them. Vocabulary size is considered too big for the students and the listening speed is too fast. Additionally, they think SEFS should consider more to better satisfy students’ examination needs.In the end, suggestions for teachers, compilers and students are given. No textbook can suit all the complex teaching situations in reality. Teachers should change their teaching ideology, pay more attention to the humanity feature of English, adapt the textbook so as to satisfy their students’ learning needs, etc. Plus, teachers should attach more importance to their professional development and try to be the developer of textbooks. Moreover, teachers are encouraged to do action research when they encounter teaching problems. As for compilers, they need to lower the difficulty of the textbook, reduce some teaching contents in it, balance simple integration and complex integration of language skills, and consider more about students’ examination needs. Lastly, students should take their initiative in learning SEFS, understanding the significance of Looking Ahead, Margin Notes and Tips so that their learning strategies can be cultivated and their learner autonomy can be enhanced.The present thesis has some limitations as well, mainly because of the finite investigation subjects and the lack of variety in research instruments. Therefore, a wider range of subjects and a richer selection of research instruments are suggested for further study.