Analysis And Evaluation On Textbook Of English Correspondence For International Trade:Based On ESP Theory

Business English Correspondence is a course that stresses on developing students'communicative abilities and skills for international trade in English letters,which is considered as a bridge and link in international trade.Given the importance,most colleges and universities offer their students the course of Business English.At the same time,various textbooks for the course flood into the market.It is of practical significance to study whether these textbooks really meet the needs of teaching and learning,Based on the theory of Hutchinson&Waters' ESP materials evaluation and Cheng Xiaotang's English materials evaluation,this study is to evaluate English Correspondence for International Trade(Zheng Shuyuan et al)used at present by Talent International College Guangxi,and to provide some practical suggestions in selecting and revising the textbooks of this kind.The evaluation is carried out from two angles by integrating Hutchinson&Waters' and Cheng Xiaotang's evaluation checklists,The first is the internal evaluation of the books,involving contents and structure,language,exercises,ect.The second is from an external angle,by questionnaires and interviews,evaluating the degree of satisfaction of students and teachers with the textbook.Related software,SPSS is applied to collect and analyze data from the questionnaires.The results of the internal evaluation show that the textbook is compiled according to the working process.The contents and structure,language,exercises basically meet the requirements presented in the course syllabus,but there is a distance between English Correspondence for International Trade and the syllabus in terms of the diversity of exercises.In the external evaluation,students and teachers commonly share the opinion that some expressions and the subjected commodities in the sample letters in the textbook are out of date,even though it is published in 2014.The teachers generally hold that the exercises are beyond some students in terms of difficulty level in practical use.There is no teachers' book provided.In teaching process,students' competence is needed to be taken into account and some adjustments should be made on developing the textbooks.As to the suggestions on revision,teachers give their ideas.As far as they are concerned,the sample letters should be updated;exercises should be more diverse,ect.