| English textbooks, as both teachers’teaching and students’learning tools and resources, play a very significant role in the process of learning and teaching. English (Yilin Edition) is a set of new textbooks which were put into use in 2012 and revised on the basis of Fun with English. As an important part of English, the task section can most reflect the principles of Task-Based Language Teaching and provide learners with different tasks to practise their English in order to improve their comprehensive ability in using language. Therefore, this thesis attempts to provide a detailed analysis and evaluation of the task section in English.This thesis pays attention to the task section in English (Yilin Edition) and puts forward two research questions:1. How well does the task section meet the requirements of basic principles of task design under Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT)?2. How well does the task section meet the requirements of students’ learning needs?The first question is analyzed and evaluated from the perspective of theory. It is divided into three aspects which include the content, design and objectives of the task section. And it aims to find out the extent to which the task section can meet the requirements of the six TBLT principles which contain interest, authenticity, operability, coherence, practicality and form/function through the questionnaires and interviews of students and teachers.The second question is analyzed and evaluated from the perspective of practice. And it is divided into five aspects which include language knowledge, language skills, culture awareness, leaning strategies, and exams. It aims at finding out the extent to which the task section can meet the requirements of students’ learning needs in terms of these five aspects through the questionnaires and interviews of students and teachers.This thesis adopts a systematic method which combines a quantitative and a qualitative research. The instruments contain questionnaires and interviews. The two research questions are analyzed with the data collected from the questionnaires of 82 Grade 3 students and 10 teachers in Changzhou Tianjiabing Middle School. In addition, in order to obtain a more comprehensive and systematic analysis and evaluation of this section,10 students and 3 experienced English teachers are chosen to take part in the interviews to get more detailed information.After the analysis and evaluation through the combination of theory and practice, the author draws the following conclusions:Firstly, in terms of the content, the materials of the task section are selected from real life and close to students’ life experience but are not very attractive to students. Therefore, this section can greatly meet the requirements of authentic principle but still needs improving in the aspect of interesting principle.Secondly, in terms of the design, the difficulty level of this section is acceptable and the tasks in this section transit from simple ones to complex ones. In addition, it is helpful for students’preview and review and it can also help teachers save time in preparing for class. Therefore, it can greatly meet the requirements of operational principle and coherent principle.Thirdly, in terms of the objectives, this section is beneficial to improve students’English applying ability but it does not do very well in helping students have a clear understanding of the relationship between language form and language function. Therefore, it can greatly meet the requirements of practical principle but still needs improving in the aspect of form/function principle.Fourthly, in terms of learning strategies and cultural awareness, through learning the task section, students can gain a good deal of enlightenment to form their own learning strategies. Furthermore, most students can understand the cultural differences between east and west. Therefore, it can greatly meet the requirements of students’learning needs in these two aspects.Fifthly, in terms of language knowledge, the task section does not pay enough attention to the reappearance frequency of important language points. Therefore, it can basically meet the requirements of students’learning needs in this aspect.Finally, in terms of language skills and exams, the task section focuses more on the skill of writing and reading but neglects the skill of listening and speaking and the exercises in this section are not very enough. Therefore, it cannot greatly meet the requirements of students’ learning needs in these two aspects.Based on the analysis and evaluation of this section, the author proposes some implications for textbook compilers on how to improve compiling this section and give some advice for English teachers on how to make full use of this section to improve students’English comprehensive ability. |
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