An Analysis And Evaluation Of English(Yi Lin Edition)

The teaching material is an important component of the practice of Englishcurriculum. Choosing and using the suitable teaching material is an importantprerequisite for the completion of the learning task and the achievement of the learningobjective. Guided by English Curriculum Standard (2011), teaching material hasdiversified editions. Various teaching materials make the evaluation of teachingmaterials very important.Many scholars have studied on materials evaluation since1980s. The researchersabroad have designed a great number of criteria and checklists or at least somecheckpoints based on their evaluation thoughts. However, we cannot use these theoriesindiscriminately to evaluate English materials for Chinese users. To construct thematerials evaluation framework, one should take referenced theories, current Englishcurriculum standard and the needs of the users into consideration. In recent years,domestic study of materials evaluation is always carried out from the view of the needsof users. There is few materials evaluation studied according to cognitive learningtheory and constructive learning theory. Therefore, it is well worth conducting a studycombining theory and practice in this field.Based on theoretical foundation and statistical analysis, this thesis focuses onEnglish (Yi Lin Edition) for junior high schools. They are written in the concept ofEnglish Curriculum Standard (2011), which has been used for one or two years. Nonekind of teaching materials can be perfect. This set of teaching materials is no exception.There may be some problems in the actual teaching process.In the light of text analysis and questionnaires, this study analyzes and evaluatesEnglish (Yi Lin Edition) for junior high schools from the following aspects. First,guided by cognitive learning theory and constructive learning theory, the author usestext analysis to evaluate whether it pays attention to the students’ original cognitive structure, whether it is connected with the students’ social life, whether it approaches tothe student’s “Zone of Proximal Development”, and whether it provides theopportunities of discovery learning for the students. Second, through the interpretationof English Curriculum Standard (2011), this study evaluates the teaching materials fromthe aspect of material selection and arrangement. At the same time, evaluate them in thelight of the four principles (ideological, scientific, interesting and flexible) forcompiling textbooks. Finally, this study conducts a survey on the actual use of theteaching materials through questionnaires finished by experienced English teachers andjunior high school students, so as to find its advantages and disadvantages.The whole evaluation process in this study mainly involves the following threeresearch questions:1) Does English (Yi Lin Edition) embody the thoughts of cognitive learning theoryand constructive learning theory?2) Does English (Yi Lin Edition) meet the principles of compiling textbooksstipulated by English Curriculum Standard (2011)?3) Does English (Yi Lin Edition) meet the actual needs of teaching and learning?Questionnaire is the main research instrument in this study. The questionnaires areaccording to Grant’s Questionnaire (Grant1987) and the junior high school Englishtextbook evaluation criteria created by He Anping (2001). The questionnaires have beenmade some adjustments on the basis of the actual requirements. The survey wasconducted in late October,2014, Lianyungang City, Jiangsu Province. The participantsare340students and30English teachers, who are from Grade7to Grade8of a keyjunior high school and an ordinary junior high school in Lianyungang. The researcherpersonally handed out the teacher questionnaires to English teachers during the break ofthe class and the student questionnaires in their self-study class. Thirty teacherquestionnaires were handed out and thirty questionnaires were retrieved. Three hundredand forty student questionnaires were handed out and three hundred and twentyquestionnaires were retrieved. At last, there are thirty valid teacher questionnaires andthree hundred valid student questionnaires. The author analyzes the data by SPSS17.0 data processing software through calculating each part of the options to choose effectivepercentage ratio to compare and analyze quantitatively. The author uses the charts toshow the results of the survey and discusses the results below each table.To be concluded, the major findings of this thesis are clarified below:Firstly, English (Yi Lin Edition) basically embody the thoughts of cognitivelearning theory and constructive learning theory. The content of the textbook attachgreat importance to the students’ original cognitive structure and are connected withstudents’“Zone of Proximal Development”. The knowledge is the extension based onprimary school learning, and the topics of each unit are those which students arefamiliar with and are connected with the students’ social life. The whole materialsprovide opportunities for students’ discovery learning.Secondly, English (Yi Lin Edition) basically meet the four principles (ideological,scientific, interesting and flexible) of English Curriculum Standard (2011) for compilingtextbooks. However, the contents lack of ideology and flexibility. Not every unit reflectsideological. The materials take no account for the differences between urban and ruralareas.Thirdly, English (Yi Lin Edition) basically meet the actual needs of teachers’teaching and students’ leaning for junior high school. The majority of teachers andstudents think that the materials with rich topics have a well-arranged languageknowledge, in which vocabulary, phonetics and grammar are all involved in. Theexercises about listening, speaking, reading and writing included are in balance. This setof materials is good for the students to cultivate good affects. There are a lot of contentsfor introducing Chinese and western culture, which can help students learn aboutChinese and western knowledge and cultivate their culture awareness. However, abouthalf of the students are not interested in the topics of writing. Some learning strategiesinvolved in the materials do some help for students’ English learning. But comparedwith other parts, the design of this part is not very good. Most of the students think itdoes little help for their formation of good study habits.Based on the above findings, some theoretical and practical implications are elaborated. Meanwhile some limitations of the study and suggestions for future researchare proposed.