| English textbook is an important component of the implementation of English class. Selection and use of the suitable textbook is a vital factor of realizing the teaching objectives and plays an indispensable role in English teaching. CET-4 is a national standard criteria-referenced English test held by the National Education Bureau, the purpose of which is to push the implementation of the teaching curriculum and have an all-rounded evaluation of college students’ comprehensive English using ability. Textbook and test are two core factors influencing the teaching effect, both of which are written based on CECR, so theoretically speaking, the skills they required should be consistent. And in this study, we are supposed to make an investigation on the reading skills, the most important skills cultivated in NHCE and checked in CET-4, from the perspective of empirical study.In this study, we refer to the "Matching method" proposed by Hutchinson & Waters (1987), which is an evaluation method matching the subjective needs with the objective subjects. In addition, we also adopt the task framework proposed by Bachman & Palmer(1996), select the text input and expected response, and then construct the framework of this paper by combining that with the CECR’s requirements on reading. We make a comparative study of the reading skills required in NHCE and the syllabus of CET-4 from the choice of materials (text genre, topic, length and readability) and reading skills, by combining and comparing the results of the text analysis of NHCE and the syllabus of CET-4, and external evaluation from the questionnaire survey and interview of students and teachers who are the direct users of this book and participants of the test. According to the results, we will make some suggestions on the compilation of the teaching material and the syllabus of CET-4.The results show:in overall, what NHCE wants to cultivate is also what CET-4 focuses on checking, however, there is still some room for improvement in the specific choice of reading materials and the design of exercises. Similarly, the reading comprehension part of CET-4 should endeavor to strike a balance on the choice and focus of question types.Our suggestions include:(1) in the perspective of text genre, NHCE is flooded with narratives, which goes against the requirements of "be varied in genre", so it should add some argumentations and expositions and so on; the topics are over centered on human science and social science and in order to enable students to acquire more global knowledge, it should include some topics of natural science; in the part of readability, the four books of reading and writing should increase the degree of difficulty, and the distinction of each book should be more clear and obvious; there are so many exercises that most teachers and students do not make full use of them, so textbook writers should work hard to make them more typical and useful.(2) The revised syllabus of CET-4 emphasizes the cultivation of students’ comprehensive language using ability, so the textbooks used should also be guided by the communicative teaching methodology together with more communicative activities instead of mere grammar-translation approach.(3) The requirements on the genre and topic of the reading part in the syllabus of CET-4 are expressed in two words "being varied", but in the real test papers, argumentation and exposition are the most frequently chosen genres, the major genre in NHCE -- narrative is quite rare. Just like NHCE, topics in CET-4 also focus on human science and social science, so in order to show the equality of the test, it should add more topics of natural science. As for the question types, most of them deal with the understanding of details and the check of inferring ability has been ignored. All in all, by analyzing the texts and collecting the suggestion of students and teachers, this study hopes to be useful in the revision of NHCE and the syllabus of CET-4. |
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