Evaluation Of The Applicability Of New Senior English For China To The Poor Counties In Bashang Region, Zhangjiakou

Although China has made great achievements in the field of ELT, the current situation of ELT still cannot satisfy the demands of social development. To narrow the gap between the demands of the times and reality, a new round of English Curriculum Reform has commenced. The National English Curriculum Standards (NECS) for senior high school issued by Ministry of Education of China in 2003 proposes new concepts and new demands. The NECS also makes a statement about textbooks compilation. To realize the objectives claimed in the NECS, textbooks emerge in large numbers in the market and choosing a good textbook is of great significance for teaching and learning. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate it scientifically and objectively, providing valuable advice for the education administrators and teachers there.New Senior English for China (NSEFC) was published in 2004 by People’s Education Press and began to be used by senior middle schools in Bashang region, Zhangjiakou in the autumn of 2011. The economy and education of Bashang region lag far behind other places in Hebei province. Although the NSEFC is widely used, whether it is applicable to Bashang region still remains a doubt. Thus, it is quite necessary to make an evaluation. In recent years, most domestic empirical studies on English materials evaluation are based on the model of Cheng Xiaotang, which involves internal evaluation based on the analysis of textbooks and external evaluation based on the use of one school. Although the needs of the students and teachers are considered, they are not given much emphasis in actual research. The research on senior English materials’ applicability in a certain area can rarely be found.The present thesis tries to conduct an evaluation from three aspects:How the NSEFC textbooks are applicable to the concepts and contents of the English curriculum; How the NSEFC textbooks are applicable to the students’ learning interests, learning needs and target needs; How the NSEFC textbooks are applicable to the teachers teaching philosophy, teaching method and teaching needs. Students and teachers in two representative schools, Zhangbei No.1 Middle School and Shangyi No.1 Middle School, were chosen as subjects. To begin with, the questionnaires were randomly distributed to the students and the teachers and a quantitative analysis was conducted based on the results of questionnaires. To get more data about the NSEFC’s applicability to the poor counties in Bashang region, Zhangjiakou, some students and teachers were interviewed and 5 students were asked to write reflective journals through e-mails based on the analysis of the results of questionnaires.Through evaluation, it is found that the NSEFC textbooks accord with the NECS’ concepts and contents on a general basis. The textbooks focus on improving students’ overall ability of language use. The contents of this set of textbooks meet the requirements claimed in the NECS. For example, the presentation of grammar is in accordance with the principle of learning a language from simple to complex. Besides, the listening materials are not difficult for students to understand as a result of the proper length and speed. In terms of learning strategies, affect and cultural awareness, this set of textbooks handles well in these aspects.However, students think some words and expressions are rarely used and topics of listening, speaking, reading and writing activities are not close to students’ life, which leads to students’ not being interested in English classes. Besides, some activities and tasks are too difficult, not conforming to the students’ level. Lastly, they don’t think they have developed learning strategies from the textbooks. The teachers don’t think the textbooks can save their lesson preparation time. Only a small number of teachers think their teaching ideology and teaching method accord with those advocated in the textbooks.In the end, suggestions for compilers and teachers are given. For example, the compilers should choose language materials of high quality to ensure the authenticity of language and do as many researches as possible to know about the teaching and study conditions in both urban and rural areas in details. For teachers, not any set of textbooks is applicable to all the complex teaching situations in reality. Therefore, they are supposed to make changes of English textbooks according to the NECS and the students’level.