A Study Of English Textbook Appropriateness In Rural Schools

In recent years, in order to adapt to the requirements of the new curriculum reform, the English vers ions of textbooks have been more and more diverse and updated frequently; contents of the English textbooks have been made more abundant and kept a closer pace with the trends. However, the unbalanced development of education has always been an issue in China which becomes a remarkable characteristic in the course of carrying forward the new curriculum reform in some under-developed regions, especially in the middle schools in rural areas. As an important factor in English teaching, textbooks are not only a basis for the teachers to organize teaching activities, but also the main contents for students to learn. New Standard English is a kind of junior textbooks published by Foreign Language and Research Press which is based on the requirements of the 2011 vers ion of Compulsory Education English Curriculum Standard. The set of textbooks is adopted for the purpose of students? comprehensive ability of using English, focusing on language knowledge and language skills, paying attention to the cultivation of students? learning strategies, emotional attitude and cultural awareness.The junior high schools in Wuchuan County with villages and towns have used the same textbook New Standard English as those schools in the city of Hohhot for three years. In practice, the textbooks with such a high starting point are inevitably immersed in a city-oriented tendency both in content and form, which is in disagreement with the conditions of the countryside. On this background, it is necessary to make a scientific analys is and an objective evaluation of English teaching materials, to see whether New Standard English is suitable for rural students and to identify its problems and thus offer feasible improvement advice.There are variable criteria on textbooks evaluation, and one of them is whether the textbook meets students? needs. Therefore, the author chooses three junior high schools in Wuchuan County to make a study of English textbook appropriateness based on the theories of needs analys is and textbook evaluation.This paper analyzes questionnaires for local students? and teachers? feedback of New Standard English by using statistic software SPSS 17.0, combined with interviews and the internal evaluation of New Standard English and made the following conclusion. Bas ically, the local students and teachers hold affirmative attitude towards New Standard English, but New Standard English emphasizes language communication and performances which are above the rural student?s level; some contents and scenarios described in the textbooks are far away from the local students? life; the city-oriented textbooks are the main factors that caused the dilemma of rural students? learning, bringing them a sense of failure and frustration etc.