A Comparative Study Of New Senior English For China And New Standard English For Senior High School

Textbooks, as the teachers’ teaching tools and students’ learning resources, areimportant materials and means to achieve English Curriculum Goals. With furtherdevelopment of curriculum reform in our country, various versions of Englishtextbooks appear on the market. Faced with so many versions, it becomes veryimportant for us to know clearly how to evaluate and analyze the textbooks reasonablyand scientifically. Among a bunch of different versions of high school textbooks, theauthor selects NSEC (short for New Senior English for China, published by People’sEducation Press) and NSE (short for New Standard English, published by ForeignLanguage Teaching and Research Press) for analysis and research due to theirpopularity and wide use. Firstly, this paper analyzes NSEC and NSE from the aspectsof surface-layer structure and deep-layer structure by using comparative method anddocumentary method and summarizes the advantages and disadvantages. Secondly,this paper analyzes and compares NSEC and NSE according to Liu Daoyi’s evaluationtheory of a good textbook and gives some suggestions for the editors.The research questions in this study are listed as follows:(1) What are the similarities and differences between NSEC and NSE from theaspect of the analysis of surface-layer structures?(2) What are the similarities and differences between NSEC and NSE from theaspect of the analysis of deep-layer structures?(3) Do NSEC and NSE meet the requirements of Liu Daoyi’s evaluation theory of agood textbook?The research findings show that from the aspect of the surface-structure of NSEC,it’s organization system accords with the logical sequence of subject knowledge andthe range of topics of content selection is wide and the topics are closely related to thestudents’ daily life. But compared with NSE, NSEC lacks diversity of the content selection. In terms of deep-layer structure of NSEC, it relatively emphasizes thelearning of western culture from the aspect of culture consciousness factors andignores the learning of traditional Chinese culture. In comparison, on the surface-layerstructure of NSE, its column design is characterized by diversity and its illustrationsare suitable for the senior high school students’ physical and mental characteristics. Butit lacks systematicness in terms of content selection. In terms of deep-layer structure,NSEC has focused on both the western culture and Chinese culture from the aspect ofculture consciousness factors. NSE has specifically designed a section “Pronunciation”in each module, which can help the students to better improve their pronunciation andintonation. However, the number of vocabulary of both NSEC and NSE is relativelylarge and the repetition rate of key words is low. What’s more, the research indicatesthat both the two sets of English textbooks basically meet the requirements of LiuDaoyi’s evaluation theory of a good textbook such as meeting the criteria for thenational curriculum, meeting the needs of students’ development, complying with theactual situation of the educational reform in the locality.Generally speaking, this paper includes five parts. They are as follows:The first part is introduction which includes the background of the study, purposesand significance of the study and the methods and problems of the study. The secondpart is the literature review which mainly deals with the definition of the textbook andthe studies on the teaching structure and the textbook evaluation. In the third part, itcompared and analyzed the surface-layer structures of these two sets of Englishtextbooks statically. The surface-layer structures include organization system, contentselection, column designing and illustration. In the fourth part, it compared andanalyzed these two sets of English textbooks statically. The deep-layer structuresinclude emotional and attitudinal factors, culture consciousness factors, languagefactors, and language skill factors. At last, this paper summarizes the advantages anddisadvantages of NSEC and NSE and proposes some suggestions for the editors abouthow to edit textbooks，textbook choosers how to choose textbooks and users how touse textbooks according to the comparison and analysis.