An Evaluation On Senior English For China Published By People’s Education Press

In recent years, more attention has been paid to foreign language materialsevaluation while less attention to senior English materials evaluation. However, thesenior English education accounts for a large part in foreign language education.Therefore, a senior English material evaluation framework was constructed according toBreen and Candlin’s guideline, McDonough and Shaw’s scheme, Cuningsworth’schecklists, Ellis’ two stages of evaluation process and Cheng Xiaotang’s internal andexternal evaluation process after reviewing the materials evaluation theories and criteriaproposed by foreign and national researchers. The New Senior English for China wasevaluated and analyzed based on the newly constructed framework, aiming toinvestigate its features and demerits, check whether it is consistent with thecharacteristics of modern ELT materials, explore the ideal textbook in the mind ofsenior English learners in rural districts and check whether the teachers and learnershere are satisfied with this coursebook.The present study focused on the New Senior English for China published byPeople’s Education Press in2007.36senior English teachers and281senior Englishlearners from rural districts were involved in the survey. Of which,36teachers finishedthe teachers’ feedback questionnaire,139learners finished the learners’ feedbackquestionnaire, and other142learners completed the needs analysis questionnaire.Among them,3teachers and6learners were invited to take the interview. The datacollected from the above three types of questionnaires was inputted into the StatisticsPacket for Social Sciences18.0for multi-faceted analysis and then triangulated with theresults achieved from interview and predictive evaluation of the textbook.The results indicate that this study can address all the research questions andpresent a comprehensive and in-depth picture of the New Senior English for China.Moreover, it confirms that the materials evaluation criteria should be customized inspecific materials evaluation which is stated by Tomlinson, Sheldon and Cunningsworth.Through the present study, we can find out that the New Senior English for China isbasically consistent with the characteristics of modern ELT materials and meets theneeds of teachers and learners from rural districts. Lastly, it provides material compilersand senior English teachers with several suggestions on the compilation and adaptationof senior English materials according to the research results.