Re-development Of Biblical Idioms In English In Unit 4, Module 9, Advance With English

This study is concerned with the re-development of the reading text Biblical Idioms in English in Unit 4, Module 9, Advance with English, published by Yilin Press. The theoretical foundations of this study are constructivism learning theory and Input Hypothesis. This study is significant in three aspects:it optimizes the teaching material; it improves the teaching and learning effect; and it promotes teachers’ professional development.Before the implementation of the re-development of Biblical Idioms in English, its major elements are analyzed, including the learners, the New English Curriculum Standard for Senior High schools, the selected text, and the objectives of the re-development. Learners in this study are art students in Grade Three at High School Affiliated to Yangzhou University, a top high school in Yangzhou. Generally speaking, they have a more solid English foundation than students at ordinary high schools. In addition, they have strong motivations for improving English skills. On the one hand, they want to achieve high scores in the coming college entrance examination. On the other hand, they want to use English for communication, especially for those students who intend to study or travel abroad.Students of different grades are required to reach different levels according to the New English Curriculum Standard for Senior High schools. Learners in this study are required to reach Level 8, and if possible, Level 9. Their comprehensive language competence, consisting of language skills, language knowledge, attitudes to learning, learning strategies and cultural awareness, should reach a relatively high level. The New English Curriculum Standard for Senior High schools also raises requirements for teachers and teaching materials. Teachers should develop into facilitators of students’ learning, researchers of education theories and creators of courses. And teaching materials should conform to the requirements of the times and the needs of students.As for the analysis of the selected text Biblical Idioms in English, it is analyzed from the linguistic perspective, the literary perspective, and the cultural perspective respectively. Based on the text analysis, the author identifies some shortcomings of the text and makes clear the objectives of re-developing Biblical Idioms in English:to improve the richness, coherence and accuracy of the language in the text; to stimulate students’interest and provoke their thoughts; to raise students’ cultural awareness.The re-development practice of the selected text is conducted from three perspectives according to the text analysis. Firstly, from the linguistic perspective, the re-development aims to improve the richness, coherence and accuracy of the language by addition, combination and replacement; secondly, from the literary perspective, it intends to stimulate students’interest by adding the provenances of the idioms, and provoke students’thoughts by adding the reflections on the idioms; thirdly, from the cultural perspective, it is meant to raise students’ cultural awareness by adding the exploration of western culture at the micro and macro levels. The exploration of western culture at the micro level is achieved by making a one-to-one correspondence between each biblical idiom and the western culture it represents, while at the macro level it is conducted by perceiving the theme of western culture from all the biblical idioms mentioned in the text.This study has its advantages and disadvantages. It optimizes the selected text and it is a combination of the theory and practice. However, it is a re-development of a specific text. Therefore it cannot be widely applied to other related studies. And students are not involved in the process of the re-development practice. Thus the re-development is not objective enough. Moreover, this study also lacks the evaluation of the re-development practice. Without the evaluation, the re-development of the selected text is incomplete. Based on the reflections, this study provides suggestions for teachers to re-develop teaching materials. Teachers should analyze learners thoroughly to meet their needs; understand the New English Curriculum Standard correctly to meet its requirements; develop ideas uniquely to guide the re-development practice; adopt methods flexibly to improve teaching materials. Besides, some suggestions for future studies on the re-development of teaching materials are provided in this study:future studies should strike balances between teachers’role and students’role, between the implementation and evaluation, and between the theory and practice.